Ironspine is the great metal city of the orcs, carved into the face of the Southern Crags. Powered by immense steam engines and furnaces, it is a place of fire, smoke, and iron — the industrial heart of orc-kind. Built across three vast tiers, Ironspine embodies the orc creed of strength through steel, scorning magic as weakness. The city’s forges churn day and night, sustained by goblin-mined ore and ogre slave-labor.
### 1. The Boiler Warrens
- Role: Lowest tier, where colossal steam boilers burn endlessly, fed by ogre slaves.
- Appearance: A choking labyrinth of pipes, chimneys, and communal ogre barracks. The stench of waste and smoke hangs heavy.
- Notes: Ogres live and labor here in squalor, their brute strength stoking the city’s fire. A separate gate allows orcs to drive them outside when their labor is needed.
### 2. The Great Forges
- Role: Middle tier, the heart of Ironspine’s industry. Here goblin ore flows into orc forges, birthing weapons of war.
- Appearance: Endless foundries, workshops, and steam-driven machines clanging at all hours. Great lifts connect this level to the swamp below, bypassing the ogre warrens.
- Notes: The entrance to Gloomreach, last goblin city, lies here. Goblins toil under watchful orc overseers, their ore and bodies alike feeding the fires.
### 3. The High Spires
- Role: Upper tier, seat of orc chieftains and ruling clans.
- Appearance: Towering halls of iron and stone, adorned with banners of clan conquest. Steam-powered lifts link it to the forges below.
- Notes: Only the strongest orcs walk here, ruling over the forges and slave-pits with brutal authority.
- The Black Gates: Immense steel doors sealing the city’s front approach.
- The Spillways: Vast channels dumping ash and slag into the Great Swamp.
- Clan Barracks: Massive communal halls where warrior-clans dwell, constantly vying for dominance.
- The Warfoundries: Workshops where master-smiths forge orc steel, second only to the mythic craft of giants.
- Industrial Power: Ironspine fuels orc dominion, producing weapons of unmatched quality.
- Alliance of Necessity: Goblins sustain the forges in exchange for their dead burned in plague-fire, preventing another Corpse Plague.
- Anti-Magic Bastion: Orcs sneer at humans and elves alike, scorning rune and sorcery for steel, smoke, and blood.
- Steam Age Masters: Ironspine is the most technologically advanced city in the known world, proving the orcs’ mastery of metal and machinery.