- History
- Creation to War
- War to Chaos
- Chaos to Now - Nations
- Irgar
- Jurica
- Lasinia
- Vegdarbarra
HORIZON IS OVER!
The webpage remains up as a permanent archive of game material, mainly for the benefit of nostalgic players - although if you'd like to run a Horizon-inspired game for your friends, that's wonderful too. Horizon will be succeeded by Legacyin Trinity term of 2006.If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.
Irgar
Before the Empire
Irgar (pronouned Ear-Ghar) is a rough and ruddy land to the south of Horizon. It was one of the first areas to be conquered by the new Empire, being filled with the Irgarim (Ear-Ghar-Eem), dangerous and psychopathic tribes of stocky, bearded, axe-wielding barbarians who had been locked since time began in a vicious and bloodthirsty war with their mortal enemies, the Irgarim. Irgar is a long way from the Wall, and while the Land is particularly strong there it has few human followers there. Apart from a few Land-shamans, Irgar is by and large a wholly unmagical country.During the Empire
The Empire brought peace to Irgar, and later it brought steam, too. The tough, brawny Irgarim, who had never before developed technology more sophisticated than that which was needed to make axes and stockades, turned out to be remarkably adept in the world of levers, valves, vents and pistons. Uthelm (Oot-Helm), formerly the fortress of the most powerful Irgarim tribe, soon became the Empire's chief exporter of steamwork. The city is situated in the cleft of a mountain at the top of a great, crashing waterfall; the power of the fall powers a great number of mills through a complex arrangement of reciprocating rods and flywheels.When the Empire started to decline, it quickly became apparent that no matter how subservient the Irgarim may have appeared, they were still Irgarim at heart. Worse, they now had a common enemy. On Chalrimas [Cal-Rim-Mass] Day, a well-loved Irgar holiday that had long been suppressed by the Empire, something happened which had never happened before in Irgar history: the Irgarim co-operated and drove the occupying Empire troops out of their land. Even more remarkable, the Irgarim lord who had united them in the rebellion, Count Wolfson III, managed to keep control of the tribes and stop them from degenerating into infighting after the Empire were vanquished. By now a few of the tribes had gotten used to a more peaceful life, and many of them had come to appreciate the joys of steamworking. Wolfson allowed the Irgarim tribes sufficient independence to remind them of the good old days, while keeping a tight enough rein over the skeleton of bureaucracy left by the Empire to stop a free-for-all from breaking out.
After the Empire
To this day the Irgarim are still deeply factionalised. The wrong accent or a slight change in mannerism are more than enough to get you beaten up in the wrong bar. But while the tribes are always quick to bicker amongst themselves, they're even quicker to all unite with a cry of "Remember Chalrimas Day!" against any meddling foreigners who threaten an Irgar tribe. In a way, the situation is a microcosm of the four nations under Empire rule: unite against any serious danger, and infight when one isn't available.Unfortunately for the Irgarim, after the Year of Chaos there was a distinct lack of serious danger for far too long. As a result, the Irgarim are currently caught up in a deep and bloody civil war - this time over drugs.
The Tribe of the Broken Jaw have been accused by the staunchly anti-narcotic King Olaf Wolfson of being the clients of Jurican drug trade barons, and in particular of being the suppliers of "Irgarim Tea" (an infusion allowing the user to concentrate intensely on the task at hand despite pain and distraction, so-called because of its illicit use in the Irgar steam factories) to the country. King Olaf has argued that using the drug rather than relying on one's own grit and determination encourages weakness, and has declared the Broken Jaw corrupters, traitors to the Irgarim ideal, and kha-irgarim ("Not-Irgarim") - a term normally reserved for the especially wicked such as cultists, cannibals and the like.
To say that the Broken Jaw, and a few allied tribes, are at war with the royalist forces would be misleading: it is more the case that the Broken Jaw and its allies are at war with King Olaf's tribe, the Deep Stone, and a few of its allies, and the entire rest of the country is taking the opportunity to fight whoever is nearest at the time.
What is quickly becoming apparent, though, is that this isn't the kind of war that the Irgarim are used to. The tribal infighting before Empire rule had a harmlessness to it that could be likened to children scuffling in the playground; people did die, but honourably and on the field of battle surrounded by their friends. If that is the case, the current conflict is more like a knife-fight in a bar. This time villages are being massacred, land being burned, and automatic guns (the brutal effects of which the Irgarim largely avoided during the Last War) have come out on both sides.
At the back of their minds, it is quite likely that a lot of the tribes now involved in the war are aware that they've gotten too big to fight like this and would welcome a way to get out of it, if one could be found that did not result in them breaking thousands of years of tradition.
Major Developments of 4021 HR
Footing in the Irgar civil war swayed back and forth between the Broken Jaw and the royalist Deep Stone repeatedly; first as Horizon began exporting Steam Cannon to both sides, then as the previously neutral Raging Sky tribe joined the war on the side of the Broken Jaw, but finally and decisively as the Grey Order unveiled their new weapon, the Grey Gun, by arming the royalist Deep Stone forces with the new line. This was a development which the Broken Jaw were unable to counter, and the rebel provinces were finally put down.Rumours about the Irgarim
I heard that the Grey Order have done an under-the-table deal to get King Wolfson's protection in exchange for the secret of Grey Magic.Ever wondered what makes the Irgarim so tough? It's 'cos they're protected by the Land. But if you lift them up high, they're weak as a kitten.
It's a mark of honour in Irgarim society to be able to work in the worst possible conditions. They wear the scars from industrial accidents like trophies.
All the bickering and brawling is just for show. When there aren't foreigners watching, the Irgarim get along like brother and sister. Well, not my brother and sister, obviously...