Urcaen: A mysterious cosmological realm that is the spiritual counterpart of Caen. Most of the gods reside here, and this is also where most souls spend the afterlife. Urcaen is divided between protected divine domains and the hellish wilds stalked by the Devourer Wurm.
Vanquisher: A variant of the Protectorate’s Crusader warjack that is armed with a flail known as a blazing star and a flame belcher cannon that fires cannonballs filled with Menoth’s Fury. Entered service in 598 AR.
Venators: Members of the skorne warrior caste, but of lower standing than Praetorians or Cataphracts, since they kill at a distance using reivers, a tactic that goes against the Hoksune code.
Void: This term is used both for the emptiness between Caen and Urcaen from which undead banes are thought to arise and for the unknown place where skorne souls are doomed to go to after death if not preserved in sacral stones. These two cosmological locations are not thought to be the same.
volozk/volozkya: The primary political and geographical division of Khador, similar to the provinces or duchies of other kingdoms. Volozkya is the plural. Each volozk is governed by a great prince and is divided into counties governed by counts.
vyatka: A strong liquor usually distilled from potatoes that is common in Khador and exported across the Iron Kingdoms.
warjack: A highly advanced and well-armed steamjack created or modified for war. Some warjacks use power sources other than steam and are not technically steamjacks but are still referred to as such as a matter of custom.
white mane: Elder warriors among the Tharn, revered for their combat prowess. Given the violent lives led by the Tharn it is a mark of distinction when one of their number reaches this age, and each white mane is looked to by their people with both fear and respect.
Winter Guard: The largest group of soldiers within the Khadoran Army representing the rank-and-file infantry. Unless they serve in some other capacity, nearly all male and many female Khadoran citizens are conscripted into the Winter Guard for a single compulsory tour of service. Guardsmen undergo brief but intensive military training and most are equipped with relatively simple and inexpensive gear.
Wurm: See Devourer Wurm.
zealot: A volunteer force of the Protectorate of Menoth’s military composed of untrained citizen combatants eager to combat the enemies of the Sul-Menite faith. Before entering battle they are often armed with incendiary devices and simple hand weapons.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Larry Correia
Larry Correia is the New York Times bestselling author of the Monster Hunter International series, the Grimnoir Chronicles trilogy, and the military thrillers Dead Six and Swords of Exodus. He has been a finalist for the Campbell award and the Julia Verlanger award and won an Audie Award for Hard Magic. He is published by Baen Books. A former accountant, military contractor, firearms instructor, and machine gun dealer, Larry now lives with his wife and children in the mountains of northern Utah, where he has moose in his yard.
Erik Scott de Bie
Erik Scott de Bie is a speculative fiction writer and game designer, probably best known for his work in the Forgotten Realms setting, including his signature Shadowbane series. He is the author of the Shadow of the Winter King, first in the epic World of Ruin fantasy series from Dragon Moon Press. Erik lives in Seattle where he is married with pets. Find him at erikscottdebie.com, facebook.com/erik.s.debie, and twitter.com/erikscottdebie.
Orrin Grey
Orrin Grey is a writer, editor, and monster expert who was born on the night before Halloween. He’s the author of Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings and the co-editor (with Silvia Moreno-Garcia) of Fungi, an anthology of weird fungus-themed stories. He plays Gatormen whenever he can, and his website is at orringrey.com.
Darla Kennerud
Darla Kennerud is the Editorial Manager for Privateer Press. Her epic poem The Kalmieri appeared in No Quarter, and she has written fiction included in several successful games as well as WARMACHINE and HORDES. Along with her husband, in her free time Darla enjoys teaching her two children to embrace the ways of geekery, be it through playing games that don’t include rules on the box lid, turning normal conversations into mock operettas, or creating reference charts of monster abilities.
Aeryn Rudel
Aeryn Rudel is the Publications Manager for Privateer Press. When not wrangling Skull Island eXpeditions projects, he contributes fiction to the Iron Kingdoms setting and writes WARMACHINE, HORDES, and RPG articles for No Quarter magazine. He is also a notorious dinosaur nerd (ALL theropod dinosaurs had feathers!), a rare polearm expert (the bec de corbin is clearly superior to the lucerne hammer), and has mastered the art of fighting with sword-shaped objects (but not actual swords). Aeryn lives in Seattle with his wife, Melissa, who has demonstrated near superhuman tolerance to her husband’s nerdery.
Michael G. Ryan
Michael G. Ryan is the editor-in-chief of No Quarter at Privateer Press. He has worked in the gaming industry for nearly 20 years and has published short fiction for a number of different settings, most recently the Iron Kingdoms. In the last year, he has pursued a personal rediscovery of short stories, returning to the classic works taught in junior high, high school, and college. After rereading nearly 300 stories, he has determined that O. Henry didn’t get enough credit and Henry James was a verbally bloated windbag. His wife, Janell, and his son, Harrison, agree—mostly to avoid discussing it for the sixteenth time.
Douglas Seacat
Douglas Seacat is the Writing and Continuity Manager at Privateer Press, where he has oversight over narrative fiction and continuity for the Iron Kingdoms. He started freelance writing for Privateer Press in 2001 after an unlikely series of events best left in the mists of the past (and now covered by a detailed non-disclosure agreement). Doug spends most of his work and free time living vicariously in the Iron Kingdoms through fiction and games. His spare time is occupied reading all manner of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction, playing computer games, and participating in weekly pen-and-paper RPG sessions. Occasionally the Seacat Signal is lit by those discussing Iron Kingdoms content and he is called upon to shed light on topics as varied as the existence of rum in the Iron Kingdoms and whether gobbers and trollkin are mammals.
William Shick
William Shick is the Director of Business Development for Privateer Press, who, in addition to his regular job responsibilities, has the good fortune to contribute fiction the world of the Iron Kingdoms. Married with two young sons, he spends his time at home with aliens, monsters, police officers, robots, and more, all converging on the living room floor in high adventures befitting the most epic of summer blockbusters never able to be told.
When not writing about the characters, warjacks, and dangers of the Iron Kingdoms or saving the world from the living room floor, William spends his free time routinely adding to his ever-growing collection of WARMACHINE and HORDES miniatures, playing board games, and enjoying a nice dirty martini in the company of his loving wife.
Howard Tayler
Howard Tayler writes and illustrates Schlock Mercenary (schlockmercenary.com), co-hosts the Hugo Award winning Writing Excuses podcast with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Mary Robinette Kowal (writingexcuses.com), and writes fantasy, horror, and science fiction in such free time as remains. He lives with his wife (and business partner and fellow writer) Sandra and their four children in Orem, Utah. He plays Trollbloods, Circle Orboros, Minions, Mercenaries, and Cygnar, but not nearly so often as he would like.
Iron Kingdoms Excursions: Season One Collection
Copyright © 2014 Privateer Press
This book is printed under the copyright laws of the United States of America and retains all of the protections thereof. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks herein including Privateer Press®, Iron Kingdoms®, The Witchfire Trilogy, Monsternomicon, Five Fingers: Port of Deceit, Full Metal Fantasy, Immo
ren, WARMACHINE®, Forces of WARMACHINE, WARMACHINE High Command, Steam-Powered Miniatures Combat, Convergence of Cyriss, Convergence, Cryx, Cygnar, Khador, Protectorate of Menoth, Protectorate, Retribution of Scyrah, Retribution, warcaster, warjack, HORDES, Forces of HORDES, HORDES High Command, Monstrous Miniatures Combat, Circle Orboros, Circle, Legion of Everblight, Legion, Skorne, Trollbloods, Trollblood, warbeast, War Room, Lock & Load, Steamroller, Hardcore, Iron Gauntlet, No Quarter, Formula P3, Formula P3 Hobby Series, Bodgers, Heap, Infernal Contraption, Infernal Contraption 2: Sabotage!, Scrappers, Grind, Skull Island eXpeditions, SIX, Dogs of War, Exiles in Arms, Iron Kingdoms Excursions, The Warlock Sagas, The Warcaster Chronicles, and all associated logos and slogans are property of Privateer Press, Inc. This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental. No part of this publication may be stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form without written permission from Privateer Press. Duplicating any portion of the materials herein, unless specifically addressed within the work or by written permission from Privateer Press, is strictly prohibited. In the event that permissions are granted, such duplications shall be intended solely for personal, noncommercial use and must maintain all copyrights, trademarks, or other notices contained therein or preserve all marks associated thereof.
First electronic printing: September 12th, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-939480-73-6
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Iron Kingdoms Excursions: Season One Collection Page 11
