¶ Iron Hills
The Iron Hills is a nation located on the continent of Azul
¶ History
The Iron Hills is a legendary nation that began at the dawn of the world, which against all odds has been able to endure the test of time during recent times, and is recognized as the major power of the continent of Azul.
The early history of this nation, however, is hard to come by as stories and tales have been lost. Yet, due to the return and growth of the realm it has become of greater significance and thus some accounts concerning the Iron Hills have been made. Although, being predominantly acknowledged as a nation known for its citizen’s skill in combat now, it as all countries have, began with a humble beginning. Established upon what is recognized as the Tales of Phytor, the land was first observed being led by two individuals, and to the very present by Symbiotesupreme and Smileyfacearctic. Nonetheless, over time through various hardships and labour, with people being recruited it became a respected nation with compelling stories of political drama and conflicts. For from their capital of the Iron Fortress, as their numbers grew, the neighbouring lands of the Iron Hills felt threatened by their ever increasing strength, of which led to one, acknowledged as the land of Solonia to spread rumours that the Iron Hills sought control over all of Azul.
Nevertheless, this caused their once friendly neighbour of the land of Houndaris to terminate their alliance with the Iron Hills, in addition, to another major power of the realm of Kartek to come close to declaring war. The only nation at the time that did not fall for the false accusations aganist the Iron Hills at the time were that of the Kingdom of Eyrndell. Although, before hostilities could boil over, during an astonishing short period of what almost seemed like the conflict would be inevitable, the Iron Hills resolved everything. Through clearing up what miscommunication there was with those around them, the Iron Hills were able to manufacture positive relations of back with their neighbours who later became their closest allies. Even so, Houndaris split when their leaders had conflicting interests over the future of their nation where many members of Houndaris joined Iron Hills, boosting their influence in Azul greatly. However, once more, this led to reigniting of growing tension between those of had been left in Houndaris, led by the one known as Hound, who believed that the Iron Hills planned to take the rest of his citizens of the nation he now controlled, therefore, allowing the Iron Hills to take over Azul once and for all. Even so, this was a lie as for a period nothing happened until Houndaris decided to make a move that would change Azul for a long time.
As time went by, the Iron Hills and their allies became stagnant with peace seemingly creating a sense of lack of activity in the area. Consequently, Hound, who saw this as an opportunity to grow his nation’s influence and remove the Iron Hills threat, declared war on what could be seen as an empty realm. However, this enraged a sleeping giant from the Iron Hills as the more it seems that Hound trumpeted his plans, the more the Iron Hills began to return. Hence, when Hound and his army came to attack the Iron Hills, this triggered them to rise up and defend their and causing Hound to fearfully retreat. So after this encounter, Hound recognized nothing he could do, and backed down and a non-aggression pact was made for peace to return to Azul.
Yet, it was during this time that a kind of short interlude occurred for the Iron Hills as the fateful Second Great War of Athel was happening, and thus began what would change the Iron Hills to its modern form to a Mercenary Nation. As many of their quality warriors were hired by the Wardens of Wispwood to assist defeat the Matrix and were in the end successful.
Nonetheless, returning back to their homeland of the Iron Hills it would seem that Hound would not stop his constant insults against them. Therefore, the Iron Hills made the decisive act of declaring war on Hound and his nation of Houndaris, pushing past the consequences of breaking their earlier agreement where Hound could do nothing but watch his country fall into the hands of his adversaries, marking the definite beginning of the dominance of the Iron Hills. As the following chapter of the Iron Hills saw them annex their allies peacefully, and besiege their long-time rival of Solonia by seizing their land. Nevertheless, this did ironically culminate into a continental conquest of Azul by the Iron Hills despite not initially wishing to be hostile or take the whole region for themselves.