The iron dominion

Shadow world where crime thrives and justice is an illusion

In the shattered world of The Iron Dominion, power does not belong to kings, presidents, or elected rulers. It belongs to the Syndicates — vast criminal empires that control entire cities through steam, steel, and fear. The continent itself is a twisted industrial landmass called Vesperra, a place scarred by endless expansion, mechanical warfare, and black smoke that permanently clouds the skies. Gigantic brass cities rise from the wastelands like mechanical fortresses, connected by armored rail lines, smuggler tunnels, and skyship routes patrolled by mercenary fleets. The oceans boil with oil slicks and ironclad pirate vessels, while the countryside is filled with forgotten factories, outlaw towns, and machine graveyards haunted by rogue automatons. At the center of civilization stands Grimbarrow, the largest city in the Dominion — a vertical nightmare of steel towers, smoke stacks, neon gas lamps, and endless crime. Beneath its streets lies an underground kingdom of speakeasies, illegal laboratories, black-market weapon forges, and hidden rail systems controlled by rival mob families. The most feared criminal organizations include: * The Brass Covenant — theatrical crime lords who treat every heist like a performance. Masters of sabotage, extortion, and political manipulation. * The Iron Vultures — brutal enforcers ruling the western badlands with armored trains and mechanical cavalry. * The Velvet Coil — spies, assassins, and information brokers operating from floating casinos and luxury skyships. * The Furnace Saints — fanatical industrial priests who worship machinery as divine beings. * The Coalblood Union — factory gangs and labor armies capable of shutting entire cities down through riots and sabotage. Technology in the Dominion runs on unstable substances known as Aether Coal and Black Steam, fuels capable of powering impossible machines but corrupting those exposed to them for too long. Wealthy elites replace limbs with gilded mechanical enhancements, while poorer districts are filled with half-machine workers barely surviving toxic factory conditions. The world is filled with: * Massive walking factories called Titan Crawlers * Steam-powered revolvers and electrified tommy guns * Mechanical bounty hunters * Underground fighting pits * Airship smuggling fleets * Corrupt noble houses * Clockwork monstrosities * Forbidden laboratories creating human-machine hybrids Every city is a battlefield between syndicates, corporations, revolutionaries, and inventors trying to survive in a world where loyalty is temporary and betrayal is currency. In the Iron Dominion, legends are not born through honor. They are forged in smoke, blood, and brass