The morning sun crept through the clear glass windows of the War Room in Castle Iron Hearth, its golden rays refracting off the polished metal surfaces. The light danced upon the holographic display of the Tactical Digital Map V.2—the latest breakthrough from the collaboration between Rianor and Hektor. It projected a highly detailed topographical layout of the Northreach region, peppered with ominous red dots marking the Iron Empire's troop movements in the fallen city of Northveil.
The atmosphere within the chamber was suffocating, the very oxygen seemingly compressed by the presence of two titanic entities. On one side, Duke Lucian Sudrath sat with a spine of iron, radiating the calm but lethal aura of an "Old Lion." Opposite him sat General Zoldrak in his human guise, his copper-scaled armor glinting beneath the mana-electric chandeliers that remained lit despite the daylight.
