The Iron Bitch
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| Flag of The Iron Bitch | |
| Motto: "Live By Her Will" | |
| No Map Available | |
| Region | Delta Zeta IV |
|---|---|
| Capital | Eisenherz |
| Official Language(s) | English, German |
| Leader | Emperor Mephet'ran |
| Population | 165 Million (/12) |
| Currency | Iron Crown |
| NS Sunset XML | |
Brief
The Iron Bitch is a lost human colony on the world Delta Zeta IV. Located 29 light years from Sol the planet is hidden from casual observation behind a nebula which also blocked any attempts at radio contact. The planet is a jungle hellworld filled with animal and plant predators of all kinds. The colonists survived due to the iron fisted direction of the colony leader Fredrick Eisenherz (Fredrick the First). Until recently the planet has been ruled by the Eisenherz family through a line of Emperor's and Empress's until the most recent, Katrina Eisenherz the First, caught the eye of Emperor Mephet'ran, ruler of the C'tan. In a swift and decisive war the Emperor crushed the military in a brutal battle inside the city walls. The nation is now ruled as a direct province by the Emperor Mephet'ran and Katrina has not been seen since.
People
The colonists who landed on DZ4 were all of a germanic stock though where they came from has been the subject of speculation and research. Government records as to their Terran origins are murky and seem to have been deliberately obscured. There is some evidence to suggest that the colony ship itself was of Territory design but this is not conclusive. It has also been suggested that the colonists were not volunteers but rather penal subjects for whom the risks of long term spaceflight and primitive hybernation were not an issue. This idea is due to the primitive level of some of the surviving hybernation units as well as other artifacts.
Before the conquest of Eisenherz by the C'tan the people were invisibly though completely divided into three distinct societal classed. The nobility consisted of the royal family, heirs to the throne both near and distant, as well as various mistresses and lovers allowed to participate in their decadent lifestyles. The nobility also controlled the business and financial life of the nation. Outside commentators have compared their business methods to those of the robber-barons of the 18th and 19th century United States. Most of their business deals were designed to hurt another member of the nobility without raising the ire of the Emperor or Empress.
Below the nobility was the military with their dual role of protecting the nation from the creatures of the nightmare jungle and the nobility from the commoners. The common soldier was pulled from the ranks of the commoners quite literally. Nobles would be directed by the Emperor to raise a certain number of soldiers and the most common method was to secure an Order of Conscription. Usually these were granted in areas where that noble already exercised a large measure of personal control but, if one was savvy, they could obtain the order in an area under the control of another noble. These areas were then swept for men of fighting age who were then drafted into service. These sweeps were sometimes hurried, in which case they left the area only minorly worse off, but other times they were carefully scripted efforts that left whole districts bereft of skilled labor.
The military also served as an outlet for those minor members of the nobility who had too much time and not enough money on their hands. Nearly every officer of Colonel or higher was either directly related to the noble house or sought to be. While this ensured the loyalty of the military it also created a massive chain of incompetence that easily broke when the C'tan invaded.
The commoners were the last and largest level of society. Families were large, poor, and generally uneducated. Restrictive business laws as well as the possibility of conscription encouraged most commoners towards simple businesses and labors. While the large businesses owned by the nobility fed off the work done by these small families it was a predatory system.
Location
In part to increase their chances of survival and in part to increase his own power base Fredrick the First consolidated all of the colonists into a single settlement he then named after himself. Eisenherz City started as a small walled city of ten thousand and has since grown into a multi-walled and layered city of nearly 120 million. The city started on a low hill which has been completely mined out and leveled to create the buildings and massive walls that surround the city.
Creatures
The jungles of Delta Zeta IV are home to a plethoria of aggressive and dangerous flora and fauna with the distinction between the two being very hazy at times. While much of it is your 'garden variety' medium to large predators it is also notable for being home to a very large number of super-predators from gigantic to huge.
Iron Reaper
The most well known and common of the predators is the Iron Reaper. This scaled quadraped is capable of quick bursts of speed and even quicker bursts of damage thanks to it's two scythe-shaped forearm blades and mildly articulated split fingers. It typically hunts in packs and attacks with long leaps followed by frantic slashes. While the scaled carapace along it's back and upper limbs is capable of deflecting small arms fire it's underbelly is quite soft. Unfortunately this requires an attacker to be facing it and thus exposing itself to a leaping attack.
While the common Reaper pack is small, three to ten individuals, there seems to be a cyclic event which triggers all of the local population to gather into a single mega-pack of thirty to fourty thousand individuals. Some scientists have speculated that these are due to the appearance of a nearby super-predator but others believe this is a 'thinning' event that results in massive mating and the deaths of the weaker pack leaders.
Spider Pond
Most of the water on DZ4 is brackish swamp and sluggish streams that empty into medium lakes that are in turn choked with plant life. Woe be to the animal that finds a still clean pond for these are usually traps set by the massive Spider Pond. When aroused these creatures much resemble a massive spider with legs as thick as tree trunks. Spider Ponds are ambush hunters though, and hunt by digging into the ground upside down with their legs splayed out to surround a pool of still water they construct. The unwary are either killed by the neurotoxins in the water if they are small enough, or if they are larger they are speared by the massive legs before being dropped into the pod to be digested by the mouth at the bottom.
