What are the fictional differences between the original Iron Kingdoms and Requiem?

Question

I played and really enjoyed the Iron Kingdoms campaign setting for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Now they’ve returned to Dungeons & Dragons with Iron Kingdoms: Requiem for the fifth edition.

I’ve seen (and liked) a bit about what they’ve done rules-wise, but I’ve also heard they’ve changed the lore of the world of the Iron Kingdoms again. What are the major differences in the world and setting between the original and Requiem versions?

I’m aware of the separate Iron Kingdoms RPG which Privateer Press produced in between, but I’m not very familiar with it, so I’m mostly interested in the differences between the versions for 3E and 5E D&D. If the mechanics of the editions have a bearing on the fiction (as I suspect they do), then I’m interested in that too.

Answer 1

The biggest thing that changed in the lore is The Claiming which is when the Infernals came back to collect on the bargain that Thamar made with them in order to get the magic that was used to fight off the Orgoth early on in the timeline.

When the Infernals came back there was a huge war which killed about 2/3rds of the population of the Iron Kingdoms and caused some major shifts in the geopolitical powers of the setting. Most notably:

• The Protectorate of Menoth is mostly deserted at this point
• Khador lost a lot of it's strength
• Cygnar gained a lot and is leading most of the Iron Kingdoms in rebuilding after they fought off the infernals
• Rhul did fairly well in the war and is more of a political power now.
• The Order of Illumination got a lots of other organizations to work with it to hunt down Infernalists to try and prevent them coming back.

There's a lot of other smaller things that have happened as well between editions as well

• There's a whole lot that happened to the Iosian elves
• Ton's of fighting over Laell
• There's mechanika sky ships and a lot of other tech progress (mostly Cygnar refining electricity)

They mostly added to the lore that was present in the 3.5 stuff by covering what happened as time progressed in the Iron Kingdoms, I think there were a few RetCons, but no major ones come to mind.