Chapter 1: History & Timeline

This is obviously about the history of human civilization in Western Immoren. This was the first 50 pages of a 400 page book. I'm not going to go into all of the information contained in those first 50 pages, instead I'm just going to say that by page 17 I found myself saying "Holy (CENSORED)!" as I read through it. After I had read through the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide, the Witchfire Trilogy, Warmachine Prime, and Escalation, reading the information in that first section was amazing. It's like somebody handing you a box full of circuitry and parts that all look really neat and make your computer run much better... And then a month later handing you instructions on what each part is and how they fit together to make a working replicator. Cool little things I knew about the Iron Kingdoms suddenly fit together with other cool little things I knew about the Iron Kingdoms, some were explained in more detail, others were shown to be different than I thought they were..

And the best part is, I'd just scratched the surface. There are 90-some pages on the institutions of the IK, like trade, railroads, unions, and so on. Khador and Cygnar each get around 50 pages, the Llael and Ord each get around 30, the Protectorate gets around 18 or so, Rhul, Ios, Cryx, and 'other places of interest' pick up the remaining 60 or so. There are several pages of index at the back, so it isn't quite 400 pages of pure detail on the world, but its pretty close.

Chapter 2: Industries, Institutions, & Society

It's kind of hard to describe this section. The history chapter provided a map to everything that's gone on so far, giving a context and framework to understand things. Chapter two is akin to someone dropping a 90-page stack of two-column, single-spaced, size 10 font pages in your lap and saying "Here are a few roleplaying ideas."

The chapter starts out with a detailed, comprehensive overview of trade in the Iron Kingdoms, explaining how merchant caravans have affected the present and the past. It gives information on how the recent war has changed the way these merchants operate, and what merchants usually have to deal with on the road- everything from where you'll find paved roads to what to expect as far as tolls. There's information on dangerous routes, how rail travel has affected trade, and how to handle haggling and deal-making in your games. Each nation gets personalized attention, explaining what their major goods are and what's limited or banned. It goes into the major trading companies and how they work. Information on currencies, exchange rates, industrialization, and mechanization are all addressed in detail. There's even detail on common methods of counterfeiting and banking.

From here you get a quick and easy detail about various trades and crafts, offering a wide variety of options- 101 in fact, plus more that are roughly the same as the listed ones. No more towns of just a blacksmith, merchant, tavern, and inn- you could populate a city with one shop of each.

Moving right along, because it's just getting started, we get a more in-depth detail about the means of travel available in Western Immoren. Lots of information about railways, when they were built, where they go, how they're expanding, who's making them, as well as detail on the trains themselves- Khador has the biggest gun and biggest engine, Cygnar can claim the fastest land speed, and Rhul just took the idea of trains and went one better on what the humans were trying. The section on ships is equally informative, offering a wealth of detail on the various types of ships used in the Iron Kingdoms and how they've evolved, as where they're going over time. The seafaring traditions of the various kingdoms are examined, as well as some of the more interesting details on how the war has affected them. There's even some detail on whaling operations.

From here things take a turn more into the cities, looking over education, laws, and entertainment. The overview of education gives a good idea of both what we think of as 'traditional' education, detailing tutors and each of the universities in Western Immoren, as well as going to apprenticeships and the way that wizardly training is handled. It's worth noting there is also space given to describing military training- the academics and trades aren't the only education you can find in the Iron Kingdoms. A small section is also reserved for detailing 'continuing education' of a sort- the ability to devote gold and downtime to extra tutoring in excess of the skill points gained each level. This is reserved for crafts, knowledge, and social skills, which makes it a great little thing for those who find themselves with far too few skill points to have a 'cultured' PC. At the same time there's an upper limit, preventing PCs from buying their way to expertise.

The section on laws and punishment is a real revelation; the Iron Kingdoms are not a fun place to be caught red-handed. While some places you'd expect this (a remarkably broad range of crimes are punished by burning to death in the Protectorate), some of the punishments described as used elsewhere are remarkably horrific. This is especially the case combined with the fact that every nation has a 'guilty until proven innocent' stance. Fortunately for those salivating over the Second Story Man prestige class, thievery is not a particularly terrible crime, unless you happen to be a trollkin (whose punishments are unusual thanks to their regeneration ability).

Entertainment offers a wide variety of possibilities, including some that you might not suspect (such as the accordion being considered a high quality instrument). While it isn't as in-depth as other parts of the book, the details on entertainment and what forms it takes for the different social classes is definitely as useful as one would expect for providing ideas as to what one can find going on in the city between adventures- or even as part of adventures.

Oh yes- one thing I nearly forgot. One thing that is mentioned in the industrialization section is the fact there are newspapers in the Iron Kingdoms, most of them being run out of business or driven underground by The Weekly Newes, which seems to provide information somewhere between that of a reputable paper and the things you can pick up in the check-out aisle of the local grocery store. Of particular note among its competition is a paper known for its fair, impartial, and in-depth reporting of events in Khador- and hunted viciously by Queen Vanar.

The final part of the chapter is given over to various organizations in Western Immoren that aren't associated with any of the previous topics- namely, mercenaries and covert organizations. This covers a fairly good range of both, including a couple associated with Cygnar and the Morrowan Church. Anyone interested in running a game as part of a mercenary company or independent covert agent will find a lot of good examples, as well as information on how such organizations are created and run, as well as what rules they operate under.

To be honest, it's an incredible amount of information to process, even over a period of several days. I'm sure that I've managed to overlook something that I'll later kick myself for, and without question I'll want to go back and reread information about a particular topic before PCs visit a bank, travel across the rail system, or decide to become privateers and raid the Mercarian League's ships. As I said at the beginning of this, it's like someone handed me 92 pages of adventure hooks, and yet it’s even more than that. This comprises less than a full fourth of the book, but without question it's the fourth that every DM will read and reread while taking notes and adding bookmarks to check up on later for that next adventure, town, or campaign.

Chapter 3: Cygnar

At this point, thanks to a steady deluge of schoolwork (including a teacher announcing that three weeks' worth of material would have to be covered by us at home) I have barely managed to get deeper into the IKWG. I have started to dig my way through the chapter on Cygnar, and from what I have seen of the later chapters I think I can fairly well extrapolate about how they are all set up. That said, I reserve the right to be proven wrong.

The biggest thing going for the Iron Kingdoms at this point is the fact that it is a rich, in-depth world unlike anything that's out there at the moment. Even those worlds which try to incorporate steam technology and various sorts of robotics or mecha fail to capture the same flavor and feel as the Iron Kingdoms. Because of this same rich detail and uniqueness it's extremely to do a comprehensive write-up in a single book- even a four-hundred page book. My understanding was that even after they had cut the 700 pages of the Iron Kingdoms Campaign Guide in half by splitting it into two books, the half that was to become the World Guide expanded not to 400 pages but to 500. Even assuming that the books split evenly into 350 pages apiece, that's still almost half again the original text. Obviously things had to be trimmed down to fit into what was already destined to be a very large volume.

The cover pages for the sections on each nation are perhaps the only thing I would critique in the entire book. Each one features an in-depth map of the nation. The problem stems from just how in-depth those maps are, and the problem that comes with trying to cram a very large amount of information into a small, grayscale place. It's difficult to differentiate the provincial boundaries from their internal boundaries, as they use very similar lines. To add to the confusion the railways, divided into three separate types or sizes, use the same type of line as the provincial borders- which mean it can be difficult to tell if you're looking at a railway or a border- or both. Scattered about are also the names, which often end up covering the aforementioned borders or railways. Obviously we need names, but here they can make it difficult. On top of this there's a wide variety of icons to denote resources, natural and otherwise. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they mean you can find something in a nearby city or if it's directly under the icon- or perhaps in a nearby terrain feature they didn't want to cover up? These maps would have benefited greatly from being in color. Ideally we'll see some sort of map pack in the future, with each map being a plain one listing names and showing terrain features with a series of transparent overlays that can be used to locate other information. I'm rather tempted to try and make such a thing myself.

The write-up of Cygnar as a whole gives a good feel for the mood of the country, outlining that this is a nation under siege from all directions. With Rhul cut off and Llael overrun by Khador, they're suddenly bereft of two of their most potent allies who provided them with some of the most important supplies for the war they're facing. On top of that the events of Escalation have left their military, already stretched thin, at the breaking point. Enemies from all sides, some well known and others almost a complete mystery, test their defenses daily. They are low on manpower, low on supplies, low on funds, and the recent drought has only compounded the problem.

Beyond this you have a solid write-up of the way that the country is organized, with information on provinces and the rulers of each, the hierarchy of noble ranks, and positions of power. A game that involves the ruling powers at some level will find this information quite useful, but at the same time rather succinct.

Each city is written up the same way- there's a small block of information about the city, followed by detailed text to give a feel to the place. From here persons and locations of note are highlighted so you have some idea of the big movers and shakers, with the locations often helping refine the mood of the inhabitants by their description. This is usually accompanied by a small callout that gives an adventure hook or inspiration for the DM to run with. It doesn't sound like a lot... and to be honest, I was hoping we'd have far, far more. But honestly that was as much fan-created hype as anything else- impossible expectations, as is so often the case. Once you sit down and move past the fact you don't have a house-by-house description of Caspia (impossible to do with it's million citizens!) you start to realize that this is a lot more valuable to a DM. PCs aren't going want to sit through hours of description of the random houses and businesses they pass- telling them the city's buildings seem to grow taller as they move northward, with the sun gleaming off copper-tiled roofs, broken up only by the occasional jutting cathedral spire or iron-walled estate is far more effective for setting the mood. You can detail individual merchants and buildings to your own specifications, allowing you to adjust things to fit your campaign, while the big things that anyone would notice are already there for the grabbing. It is, perhaps, the only effective and useful way to cram Western Immoren into a single book.

There's more than just cities written up, and more than just the nations- each section on a particular country includes write-ups of places of note, including ruins, natural landmarks, and historical locales outside the boundaries of city walls. After this you have a write-up of the wilds, such as Scarsfell Forest or the Sand Narrows. Military fortifications get their own write-ups, though like the section on the wilds and places of note, these are less detailed than the cities- each receives a couple paragraphs at the most, with no separate time taken up with individuals to be found there or landmarks (instead being merged into the description of the place). Past the nations the Bloodstone Marches, the Sharde Islands (outside of Cryx), and other locations that have no real national affiliation all get attention too. I've yet to get through even the Cygnar section so I can't really say much on these, but I do intend to try and read up more as soon as I have the opportunity- maybe this weekend if I can manage it.

One thing that is worth making a separate note of is the artwork of the various cities in the Iron Kingdoms. A while back there was a thread on the forums asking about the architectural styles of the different nations, and how that plays out on both in cities as a whole and as individual buildings. The artwork for the various cities help with this tremendously, as well as offering the DM a chance to hold up the book and say, "THIS is Point Bourne" and make all his players ooh and ahh over it. As always Privateer's given some excellent artwork, that while it may not be what we expected (I somehow pictured Queen Ayn Vanar of Khador being a rather large, uptight woman rather than.. well, like Sorscha- or a mid-20's, raven-haired Russian model for those of you not familiar with Sorscha) the artwork is still able to inspire awe and creativity.

Overall, as I’m sure you can tell, the book is absolutely stuffed full of information. There’s no real way to absorb it all in one sitting- which Privateer warns you of in the preface. I’ve found myself reading a section and then having to go back and read it again because there’s just so much information in it that I couldn’t retain it all. I’ve found myself wondering if I should be taking notes as I read, which is something I haven’t done in all the years that I was (and am) a student- much to my teachers’ annoyance. This is not a book you will read once and set aside. There isn’t a section you’ll read and not turn back to. You’ll find yourself returning to it over and over again both to research and to enjoy the Iron Kingdoms, much like some of the great novels that grace bookshelves across the world. Having sat down and read even as much as I have, without a chance to go through everything that I wish I could, I would easily have paid twice as much for the book. The wait has certainly been worth it.