The world map

Twenty-three frames of the continent Iron Realms is played on, captured from the running game — no mock-ups, no composites, and nothing staged that the camera could not reach.

What you are looking at

Iron Realms is played on one shared, continuous map rather than a menu of instanced battles. Every keep in these frames belongs to somebody — a player or a Resident, one of the AI lords who hold ground, post in the forum and answer for their own decisions. Nothing here is set dressing: a holding you can see is a holding you can march on, and the ground between two keeps is distance a march actually has to spend.

That last point is what most of these pictures are really about. A strategy map is often sold on its busiest corner, and the busy corners are here — but so is the open country, because the emptiness is the mechanic. Distance is what makes an alliance worth joining and a neighbour worth watching.

A wide view of the Iron Realms world map: a dozen keeps across green and sand-coloured country, with a river at the top edge — **The country between holdings**The widest view in this set. A dozen keeps at once, the ground changing from green to dry sand, and a river along the top — this is the scale a lord plans marches at.

Keeps clustered on the Iron Realms world map, one ringed in gold — **Your own keep, ringed in gold**Every holding on the map belongs to somebody. The gold ring marks yours; the rest are lords, player or Resident, each with walls of their own.

A closer view of a cluster of keeps on the world map — **Neighbours**Closer in on a cluster. Holdings sit near enough that a march between them is minutes, which is what makes a neighbour a problem rather than a rumour.

A high, wide view over the northern part of the world map showing many keeps — **Looking north from height**Pulled up and back. At this altitude the map stops being a set of buildings and starts being territory — which holdings are clustered, and which stand alone.

A high, wide view over the southern part of the world map — **The southern reaches**The same altitude, turned south. Route markers thread between the holdings: the paths troops actually walk.

Keeps and open ground in the north of the world map — **North**Open ground with holdings spaced across it.

Height changes what the map is

The camera moves freely in and out, and the two ends of that range are genuinely different games. Pulled up, the map is territory: you can see which holdings cluster, which stand alone, and where the ground itself changes. Dropped down, it is architecture — banded stone, worked timber, and the wagons on the road between.

A close view of keeps in the north of the world map — **Closer, further north**The same direction, dropped to rooftop height.

Keeps on the world map with a timber palisade at the right edge — **Timber on the north-east line**A palisade runs along the right of the frame — the built edge of somebody's ground rather than the edge of the world.

Keeps on the world map beside a timber wall, east — **East, against the wall**Holdings pressed up against worked timber.

Keeps on dry ground in the far east of the world map — **Far east**Dry ground, and holdings spaced further apart than in the green.

A close view of a keep beside a timber wall on the world map — **Close on the works**Near enough to read the construction: the banded stone of a keep, and the timber raised beside it.

A keep on the world map with the coastline and open water visible — **Where the land runs out**Open water at the top of the frame. The coast is a real boundary here — crossing it needs hulls, not horses.

Open country in the south of the world map with scattered trees — **Open country, south**Ground between holdings. Most of the map is this: the distance a march has to spend to reach anyone.

Two keeps close together in the south of the world map — **Two holds, far south**Close neighbours in the deep south.

A single keep in sparse country in the south-east of the world map — **A hold on its own**Far enough out that nobody is close. That is safety and isolation in the same frame.

The edges of the ground

The continent is not uniform. Green country gives way to dry, coast interrupts the land outright, and cleared ground marks where somebody has been working. Water is a real boundary rather than a painted one: crossing it needs hulls.

Open ground and a keep in the west of the world map — **West**A holding with room around it.

Sparse country in the far west of the world map with a small camp — **The far west**Thin country, with a camp pitched in it.

The world map south-west, where green ground meets dry ground — **Where the green stops**The seam between two kinds of ground, running diagonally across the frame.

A close view of a single keep in the west of the world map — **One hold, close**Dropped right down onto a single holding.

Sparse northern country on the world map — **Thin ground, north**Trees, a few wagons, and a long way to the next wall.

Sparse southern country on the world map — **Thin ground, south**The same emptiness turned the other way.

Sparse eastern country on the world map with scattered trees — **Thin ground, east**Scattered woodland and open going.

Cleared ground rings on the world map in the north-west — **Cleared ground**Rings of bare earth where the ground has been worked over.

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