Story
The air in Deepwound Mine was a choking mix of smoke and iron dust. Chains rattled as a line of slaves stumbled forward, hauling carts heavy with ore. A whip cracked, and a boy too small for his load fell to his knees. The overseer did not pause, simply lashed him until the boy rose again, blood streaking down his back.
From deeper in the shaft came a dull groan, then a sharp crack like a bone breaking. The slaves froze. Everyone in Grimdelve knew that sound. The overseer shouted for them to keep moving, but the walls began to tremble, dust sifting down from the black ceiling above.
Suddenly, the shaft gave way. A scream, a rush of rock, and the far end of the tunnel vanished in a spray of stone and bodies. The slaves fled, carts abandoned, dragging their chains as the ground shook. One ogre, its back a lattice of scars, braced its shoulders against the falling beams, holding them just long enough for a few to scramble past before it was buried.
Hours later, East's soldiers arrived, blaming West saboteurs for the collapse. They dragged out the survivors and forced them back into the shafts, ignoring the groans of the dying still buried below. The overseer barked that iron could not wait, that the forges were silent, and silence cost gold.
That night, far above in East, Lord Varcan Deyr drank wine by torchlight. News of the collapse had already reached him. He smiled thinly, raising his cup to his captains. “If West thinks they can break us,” he said, “then let them choke on their own dust. We will dig deeper. Always deeper.”
In the valley below, the smoke of funeral pyres rose, carrying the stench of burning flesh. No one said whether the bodies on the flames were slaves or soldiers. In Twin Cities, it hardly mattered.

Description

On a small strip of forest and jagged coastline wedged between the Khardic Peaks in the west and the Veyrath Mountains in the east lie the nation Twin Cities. Though much smaller than a single province of the Great Empire, Twin Cities supplies nearly half of the world’s usable iron. From nails to weapons, chains to armor, most of the known world bears the mark of Twin Cities ore.

A traveler once wrote: "Twin Cities is not a nation, but a wound. Its lords bleed the world with iron, its slaves bleed in the dark below, and its coasts bleed with the fires of piracy. Yet no king or emperor dares close it, for to lose its iron would be to starve every forge."

The Twin Cities

There are only two settlements of any size, and they loathe each other.

East lies against the Veyrath range. It is ruled by Lord Varcan Deyr, a gaunt and calculating man who prides himself on cunning above brute force. East's smelters burn day and night, belching black smoke that stains the eastern sky. Varcan maintains spies and assassins in both towns, and is said to fund pirate captains in secret.

West, at the feet of the Khardic Peaks, is held by Lady Serrana Volkar, a proud and ruthless woman whose strength lies in her warriors. Her warbands are infamous for sneak into mining camps, killing overseers, and hauling away slaves before East patrols can respond. Serrana publicly despises piracy, but more than one captured pirate has sworn under torture that she takes her cut.

The two towns glare at each other across the Ashen Vale, a deep, forested valley that is both no-man’s land and battlefield for sabotage, ambushes, and the secret disposal of bodies.

The Mines

The mines, with names like Chokepit and Deepwound, are infamous throughout the world. The mines used to have other, official, names, but these are the names that stuck. Slaves are packed into the shafts with little food, air thick with stone dust and smoke from torches. Collapses are common, sometimes caused by sabotage, sometimes simply from the endless drive for deeper ore. Ogres, chained and broken, are forced to haul ore carts like beasts of burden. The rulers and the overseers don't care, they throw every slave they can find into the mines, men, women, children, elderly, sick. If they can get a month of work out of them, they consider it worth it.

Origins

Twin Cities was founded two centuries ago by two pirate captains, Ronan Deyr and Kael Volkar, who stumbled upon the iron veins after a raid gone wrong forced them inland. They began as brothers-in-arms and built a harbor, but their greed soon turned them against each other, and split the settlement in two. The feud between the Deyrs of East and the Volkars of West has lasted ever since, each side blaming the other for betrayals real or imagined.

Trade and Piracy

Iron leaves Twin Cities in massive shipments from the harbors of East and West. Convoys of heavily armed ships, often hired from foreign mercenary fleets, sail under banners that promise riches but invite attack. Pirates haunt the Bloodwake Coast, where wrecks litter the reefs. When a convoy is lost, the price of iron everywhere leaps overnight.

No nation dares a direct invasion, but all nations maintain spies and secret envoys in both towns. If someone where to try an invasion, the other nations would intervene to secure their own supply.

Internal Strife

Neither side can afford full war, yet neither can allow the other to dominate. Every caravan risks ambush. Every mine is a target for sabotage. Overseers are bribed or poisoned. Ships burn in the harbor at night. The situation is further complicated by the cities sharing a single harbor, as the rocky coast only has one good place for a large harbor. It's not a war, but it's darn close to one.

Outwards, though, they are one nation, which may be confusing to someone negotiating with one city and expecting the deal to hold in the other. If faced with an outside threat, they might agree on a temporary truce until the threat is handled, a truce which, in practice, would just mean "reduced sabotage".

It's a nation of crooks, bandits and cutthroats, and they act as such.

Religion

When it comes to religion, everything goes. The Twin Cities are a melting pot of people from all over the world, and the only thing they have in common is gold and iron. You'll find every major religion practiced openly here, and many minor religions.

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