Olden Era Fan Codex / Factions
Stone keeps its word.
Rampart in Olden Era is the dwarven mountain civilization of central Jadame, with its smaller human and gnomish dependencies clustered around the foothill towns that handle external trade. The faction's culture is craftsman-conservative: contracts are taken seriously, debts are remembered for generations, and the standard unit of political legitimacy is the holdfast — a chartered settlement, usually built into a mountain, with the right to mint, levy, and treaty in its own name.
The dwarves of this period are not yet the unified federation that later ages remember. There are six major holdfasts and perhaps two dozen minor ones, and they argue about almost everything except their shared distaste for surface politics. What unifies them in practice is the steady downward pressure of the Hive, whose galleries are now contesting the same stone the dwarves consider ancestral, and which has finally given the holdfasts something to coordinate around.
Rampart's magic is elemental and runic. Where Sylvan's druids speak with growing things and Temple's priests negotiate with cosmic obligations, Rampart's runesmiths inscribe — they bind effects into prepared metal and stone, and those bindings hold until consumed. The result is a faction whose magic feels less like spellcasting and more like the deployment of pre-built equipment.
For players, Rampart is the durable midrange faction. Heavy armor, strong tier-five and tier-six anchors, and a logistical economy that scales beautifully if given two undisturbed months.
A foothill town that is mostly facade — the real settlement is below, carved into the mountain over centuries. The visible portion includes the trade-hall, the assayer's office, the surface barracks, and the great Gate, an engineered structure two stories tall faced with worked basalt. Below the Gate the holdfast proper extends downward through galleries, each level dedicated to a specific craft: forging, brewing, runesmithing, archive. The dwarven aesthetic is geometric and load-bearing — every visible decoration is also doing structural work. The skyline above is low and stout; the skyline below is what actually matters.
| Tier | Name | HP | Att | Def | Damage | Speed | Growth | Special | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stone Trooper(Stone Warden) | 6 | 4 | 6 | 1–3 | 4 | 16 | Stoneform; 10% chance to negate incoming melee damage. | Speculated |
| 2 | Mountain Dwarf(Forge Dwarf) | 25 | 7 | 9 | 2–4 | 4 | 9 | Magic Resistance 25%; rune-banded shield. | Speculated |
| 3 | Crossbowman(Arbalester) | 16 | 9 | 5 | 4–6 | 5 | 7 | Ranged; Pierce ignores 30% of target defense. | Speculated |
| 4 | Axeman(Berserker) | 35 | 12 | 8 | 7–11 | 6 | 5 | Berserk Frenzy; attack rises as the stack loses health. | Speculated |
| 5 | War Ram(Siege Engine) | 70 | 14 | 11 | 11–15 | 5 | 3 | Wall Breaker; doubled damage to castle gates and siege walls. | Speculated |
| 6 | Iron Golem(Titan-Golem) | 130 | 16 | 18 | 16–24 | 5 | 2 | Halves incoming spell damage; immune to mind effects. | Tradition |
| 7 | Mountain Giant(Forge Titan) | 280 | 24 | 24 | 35–60 | 7 | 1 | Ranged hurled boulders; Lightning Strike on melee impact. | Speculated |
Mountain King
Borin came down from the High Karak only after his elder brother fell at the Iron Doors, and he came down in full plate because he never expected to go back up. He keeps the family hammer on his back even when he sleeps. The lowland lords find him stubborn; his dwarves find him slow to anger and slower to forget.
Runemaster
Haldra braids a fresh rune into her hair for every campaign she survives, and the braid has grown long enough to require its own carrying-strap. She apprenticed in three holds before her own master would sign off on her, and she is reputedly the most patient teacher in the southern karaks. Her rune-iron rings when she walks.
Forgemaster
Orgrin lost the use of his off-hand in a quench-vat accident and rebuilt it himself, three fingers at a time, in articulated bronze. He says the new hand is better and refuses to elaborate. He is plain-spoken with apprentices, sarcastic with quartermasters, and silent in the presence of his own work.
Warden of the Hold
Thaegir served his first thirty years as a gate-warden of an unimportant pass that became, in the end, very important indeed. He is famous for refusing reinforcements that would have arrived after the deciding hour. The High Karak now consults him before quartering its garrisons, which is the closest thing to a promotion he will accept.
Rampart wins by not losing. Its army is slow on the strategic map but extraordinarily hard to dislodge tactically. Tier-three through tier-five units have above-average defense and HP for their cost, and the runesmith school lets the faction pre-load enchantments before the fight starts — meaning Rampart often opens combat already buffed while the opponent is still casting. The faction's weakness is mobility: Hive teleport-burrowers and Dungeon shadow-step units can punish Rampart's slow line if it gets caught out of formation. Best matchup is anyone who wants a long attritional fight; Rampart is built for those.
Temple. Trade allies of long standing — Rampart arms Temple chapters and accepts payment in script.
Sylvan. Mostly amicable — friction is restricted to timber and prospecting rights in the foothills.
Necropolis. Watchful neutrality — Rampart holdfasts are not worth a campaign yet, and both sides know it.
Hive. The active war — Rampart's deep galleries and Hive expansion occupy the same strata, and skirmishes are weekly.
Dungeon. Mutual professional dislike — both factions are excellent at undermining each other, in the literal sense.