Iron Haven

The last true bastion of civilisation. Held, not won.

Recorded history

The Settlers built Iron Haven out of the bones of the past: old stone fortified, steel reinforced, a well that ran and a door that locked. It was never only a base to them. It was the proof of their argument: that somewhere in this region there was a place a stranger could walk into and not have to fight.

It is the only such place the region ever produced, and it is the reason the war happened.

That is one account. Another the archive holds describes an enormous pre-Fall logistics and industrial hub, converted as things fell apart into a fortified settlement, its walls thrown around warehouses that were already full. In that version the Settlers did not raise Iron Haven. They gathered at something that was already standing.

That much the archive cannot test. The same account also puts the Remnants inside the walls from the beginning, and that part is simply wrong. They moved in when the city changed hands, which a great many people watched happen.

The archive cannot choose between them and has not invented a sequence in which both are true. It notes that the second account also has the permits, the taxes and the recorded weapons dating from the founding rather than from the occupation. If that is right, the city has been asking for papers at the gate since the day it opened, and the change of hands altered only who read them.

The change of hands

The Settlers won the war. Iron Haven passed to the Remnants regardless.

Not stormed, in any account the archive can corroborate. The faction that held it had spent everything winning and had nothing left to garrison the result. The last true bastion of civilisation changed hands almost administratively.

Something else happened during that fighting, and the archive records it here because here is where it happened. The sickness that had been in the region for some time began changing people, in numbers and in the open. Those who were in it call them the mutants.

A cure was produced in the field before the engagement ended, by Dr. Borschtovsky, and the changing stopped. The city changed hands and the sickness was answered inside the same few days, by different people, neither of whom appears to have been paying the other much attention.

Under occupation

The stonework the Settlers reinforced is still reinforced. The water they protected still runs, through checkpoints, and is taxed.

Entry is regulated: long guns slung, pistols holstered, papers ready, inspection mandatory. Movement permits are issued by the occupation administration and must name the holder, their affiliation and their valid zones. Non-compliance is answered with confiscation, detention, denial of entry or further taxation, in that published order.

Who actually commands the city is not established. The chain of orders runs upward into it and stops being documentable, and several people who went looking for the end of it are among the region's missing.

Archive notes

• Founded and fortified by the Settlers; the site outlived the faction.
• A second account has it converted from a pre-Fall industrial hub, not built. Both are retained; neither can be corroborated against the other.
• The mutants appeared during the engagement in which the city changed hands. A cure was made in the field before it ended.
• The only walled settlement in the region, and the only one that never fell to assault.
• Checkpoint, permit and taxation regime operated by the Remnants.
• Command unestablished. See the Remnants record.