Ironskarn Warhorde Gallery and Lore (Patreon)

Every month Battle Yak Miniatures will release a new Battle Pack, featuring 3D printable miniature files! The January Battle Pack is the Ironskarn Warhorde, an army of merciless conquerors who have mastered unparalleled warcraft powered by elemental flame!

Become a Patron now and gain access to the Ironskarn Warhorde here!

Enjoy this gallery of the Ironskarn Warhorde miniatures and a glimpse into the story behind the faction!

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"This world exists to conquer us. Since the first brothers walked under the angry sun, the world has turned against us, a grinding wheel of pain. All that would stay our hand, from our most ancient enemy, to the gods themselves, to our own pity, is the grinding of the wheel. If we let it break us down, then we will be worse than dead - we will be lost. To truly survive, we must make ourselves become the grinding of the wheel, the march of war, the thought of killing, the pain of iron and ember, and the death. Only thus may we endure. Only thus may we conquer."

Gorokk Forge-Fist, Mastersmith of the Black Hammer Clan

The howling wind rolls across the steppes, carrying the smog of a thousand forges and foundries with it. Ash and soot and embers rain from the sky. The earth trembles underfoot, and the darkened horizon glows with fire. The grinding of iron on iron, the bellow of furious voices, the roaring of blazing flames. All of it heralds the arrival of the Ironskarn Warhorde, come to conquer, as is their brutal destiny. 

The race known as the krog is a savage and cunning one, theirs an ancient heritage of war and bloodshed that reaches back to the dawn of history. They are a race all others have learned to fear and respect. They are tall, broadly muscled, jutting jaws filled with sharp teeth and tusks. Adaptable to a the harshest of environments, monstrously strong, tireless. But above all else, their most notable quality is their boundless capacity for violence, their energy and aggression forever directed at absolutely anything and everything.

The Ironskarn Warhorde represents a great alliance of many krog tribes, united by a common heritage and a shared drive to conquer. The krog have mastered the art of forging instruments of war, and further enhance them by infusing magical elemental flame into their creations. Weapons forever blaze red-hot, the heaviest armor becomes light and serves to augment their strength, and the eternally burning elemental fire that surrounds them resonates with the emotions in their hearts, keeping their tempers running hot even by krog standards.

The mightiest of the Ironskarn are the Gor'kron Warforged. Their grey-black skin seared by flame, clad in hulking armored plate that glows from the elemental fire worked into it, the Warforged are each one a burning engine of destruction. Alone, a single Warforged can cut down many foes with a single sweep of their weapon, charred corpses piling unheeded around them as they march. In a great charging horde, the Warforged leave only trampled ashes in their wake.

Krog with a capacity to utilize mystical forces are drawn to the ranks of the shaman-engineers, called Forge'gar by their brethren. Furnace-Stokers are one such breed of warrior mystic, whose affinity for elemental flame gives them unparalleled command over the entities of living fire that the Ironskarn summon and bind to their will. Such entities are infused into armor and weapons to make their bearers even more deadly, and a Furnace-Stoker's blade will erupt with barely constrained elemental fire in battle, searing limbs from bodies in an instant with great sweeping strikes. The sheer presence of a Furnace-Stoker also affects the krog around her, resonating with the elemental flame bound to their armaments, her own fury augmenting theirs, fueling their passion for war and violence to ever greater heights. 

The long-lived magnai remember a time scant centuries ago when the krog race nearly swamped all the realms of Jerra in great hordes, only to over-extend themselves and be decimated by an alliance of their many enemies. Surviving krog formed nomadic tribes that came to wander the Veskarn Steppes, scratching out a meager living from the cold and rugged hills, where only wiry scrub-grass thrives. The generations that followed knew little of the history that had brought them to this harsh existence, and cared even less. They experienced a world that rejected and marginalized them, feeding on tales of ancient glories and conquests and the transgressions of their enemies, and with every passing season their anger and resentment only grew.

Finally, a crisis point was reached. The entire world was against them, and for the krog to stand tall and thrive, the world had to be crushed. The shaman of the Veskarn tribes gathered and called out to the souls of their ancestors, to the spirits of the ancestors, to the heavens and the earth... to anything that would help them reignite their furious ambitions. From somewhere deep below the earth, in the world's burning heart, an ancient power heard their call. A spirit of flame, Khargantantulus, awoke, and his anger resonated with the rage of the Veskarn krog.

Reaching out, Khargantantulus bestowed the knowledge and power of elemental flame to the krog shaman, filling their minds with the secrets of forging, smelting, metalworking, and combustion, and how the living magic of Jerra could be bent towards mastering these arts. In turn, the shaman shared the knowledge with their people, with their builders and blacksmiths and warriors. The shaman called forth the children of Khargantantulus, binding creatures of living elemental fire into their constructs and weapons to empower them. Slowly, the society of the Veskarn tribes began to change.

Where once, all the elements of nature had been honored equally, veneration of the flame took precedence. Where once the natural order had been respected, the krog now plundered the earth of ore and oil, raising up foundries and factories on every hill and mine-pit. The once open skies are now black with smoke, while howling winds blow flickering embers across the steppes.

Industry now devours the Veskarn Steppes... the industry of war. Forged in fire and metal, the krog tribes now have a new name - Ironskarn. And in the molten core of Jerra, Khargantantulus dreams of his ambition fulfilled - a world burning, eternally.

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