The World
An alternate medieval Regnum Italiae — not the Italy of the modern map, but a kingdom beneath the shadow of the Sacrum Imperium.
The world of Of Iron & Thorns is broken by Papal wrath, noble ambition, holy terror and the aftershocks of the Night of Screams. It is a land where every city is both a political body and a wound in history.
Aemilia, the First Scenario
Aemilia is the First Scenario: the first land where Of Iron & Thorns turns local history into playable myth. Its cities, canals, castles, saints, factions and cursed bloodlines are the first theatre of play, but not the last boundary of the world.
Regnum Italiae
The Regnum Italiae is the Italian appendage of the Sacrum Imperium: a land of communes, bishops, marches, feudal claims and ancient roads where the war between the Crown of Thorns and the Iron Crown has never truly ended.
The War of the Italies
The great division between Guelfs and Ghibellines is more than politics. It is a wound in the world itself — a fault line between papal authority and imperial power, between the sanctity of the Church and the iron of the Imperium. Every city chooses a side. Every noble house bleeds for it.
Cities
The cities of the Regnum are not mere locations. They are factions, organisms, wounds and sanctuaries. Each has its bishop, its tower families, its patron saint, its heretical underground, its ancient peoples and its buried secrets. The gazetteers of Of Iron & Thorns will map them one by one.
Noble Houses
The noble houses of Of Iron & Thorns are not feudal archetypes. They are cursed bloodlines, mercenary ambitions, inherited dooms and dynastic sins. Their seals are promises written in blood. Their history is the history of the world.
Ancient Peoples
There are no ordinary fantasy demihumans in Of Iron & Thorns. There are older peoples — broken lineages, pagan remnants, heretical bloodlines and civilisations altered by divine judgement, infernal corruption or powers older than empire. They are not monsters, but they are not safe.