Technically Axilor’s formal name is Axilor Delgrotto or Axilor Davilion
The Iron Empire, being the focus of most of the campaigns occurring in Nod, deserves a little love.
The Iron Kingdom was founded roughly 6,000 years ago by Daxor Davilion, as a feudal collection of nobles seized from the collapsed Ceysian Empire. Most of the stories from this era are legends; the government has collapsed and reformed so many times that much of the history is lost (a bit like China). He formed a council of twelve thrones, with himself presiding. When there was a revolt against him, he used a Wish to cause the ceiling to fall perfectly as if sliced like cheese, killing everyone who disagreed with his rule.
Realistically, it would be nearly impossible for a kingdom to stay coherent over such a period- 6000 years is longer than most of recorded history. This is entirely due to the Bottle Botana- a genie-bottle like item wielded by Daxor. Within it lives the spirit of Ellana Feyfire, an unstable archmage who can trade bits of her mind and sanity to grant wishes. After casting hundreds of wishes over thousands of years, there were three notable developments.
1. Only Daxor’s line (direct descendants) can use the Bottle.
2. There’s so many invisible curses, bonds, effects, and compulsions existing that the kingdom has developed an advanced level of superstition to avoid it. When stepping forward with a left foot on a full moon causes measles but only if you aren’t sworn to obey the king (many of the kings went mad as well), invading or insurrection becomes difficult- even if it still happened pretty frequently.
3. Ellana- the nigh-godlike immortal fey spirit- has gone completely insane.
The twelve thrones have varied in membership over the years, but a surprising (and still attributed to the multitude of wishes cast) number of the original blood lines survive.
All of this is relevant as background for the Imperial Thrones, the parliament called into existence by Axilor following the conquests of: The Cortillion Empire, The Eerie Hobbits, Deluge, Iago, The Franklands, The Muskegee Men, and Rupertsland (Most of their direct neighbors either hate them with a passion or are considering joining the empire; its worth noting about half joined “voluntarily”).
The Imperial Thrones is essentially every major land-holding noble involved in the direct administration of their territory. Axilor formed it partially to further his goal of centralization, partially to boost legitimacy, and because (while he’s pretty good at administration and crisis management) he really hates passing general law.
What most interesting in the council is that every person in it is playing an entirely different game with drastically different win conditions (after all, Farmer McGee from Sticksburg probably isn’t scheming to become the Emperor- his goal is to have the best farm, which means he’s at the court for tax breaks on fertilizer or whatever farmers do in courts). Some are definitely more ambitious than others, which means that a few personalities tend to dominate at court.
And of course, one must mentioned the Kings. In Nod, Kings have certain quirks; the belief of their people rests on them like a mantle. A King in his throne room is similar to a dragon in its lair. It is why kings must behave in a stately manner- once the belief is broken, he has no power. Propaganda is always a sword, but it can literally affect the abilities of one’s liege. Lesser nobles can be affected by it as well; but never to the same extent.
With that being said, these are the kings who sit on the Imperial Thrones.
Axilor
Eisenvahr of the Iron Empire, High King of the Iron Kingdom, the Prophet Ursine, Supreme Commander of the Iron Army, or simply the Iron King- Axilor is relatively grounded and surprisingly uneducated owing to his childhood spent as a gladiator-slave. Obsessed with his empire, Axilor spends almost as much time fighting “the corrosive evils of decadence” as he does fighting the enemies of the kingdom. His reputation is strange; while he allows no dissent on who is in command, his iron fist is relatively lax, and generally as concerned with societal or economic development as military expansion.
Game? Axilor is playing civilization. Ellana is playing whatever game she wants.
Gorf
Ruler of the Dwarven Kingdom by Right and the Southern Dwarves by marriage, King Gorf proclaims to be the true ruler of all dwarves in every nation, and sovereign of all that is underground.
It’s probably not surprising that most dwarven realms hate the Iron Dwarves pretty passionately. They respect Gorf- his heroics are hard to dismiss- but most foreign dwarves look at the Iron Dwarves as arrogant sods who are literally under the human boot. For his sake, Gorf now stands as Chancellor of the Empire and one of Axilor’s oldest friends.
Game? Dwarf Fortress. Dwarves don’t really care about what goes on up top, diggy diggy hole
Tsar Karoff and the Caspirian Block
The Cortillion Empire was defeated partially by its own size. It was based around a centralized core which expanded to hold numerous rebellious provinces through military might and dark magic. After core was seized, the outskirts took up arms in total rebellion, and Tsar Karoff was the most successful of the warlords. An adventurer and the son of a former prince of the Caspirian Kingdom (itself annexed by the Cortillions), he had wide number of contacts and connections to rely upon when starting his rebellion. Aided by two of his companions- Kline and Tzurk, Karoff set about consolidating his holdings (and setting up both Kline and Tzurk with their own independent realms) before voluntarily joining the empire in exchange for keeping the territories they controlled.
Game? Karoff is playing a game of thrones, and he’s playing it well. Within a year of taking control, he essentially controls three seats on the Imperial Thrones, retains the title of king, and is rapidly rebuilding.
King Jaxsom
King Jaxsom- former emperor of the Cortillions. Now, a broken king. First deposed by his daughters, then enslaved with magic, then killed and returned to life in the subsequent chaos. He is a slave-master, a former demon-consorter, almost certainly a murderer and perhaps worse. He is unliked by the other nobility, brought into the fold only as a result of his unconditional surrender and the fact that the Iron Empire executed every other possible heir to the Cortillion Throne, and were unable to annex it directly. His realm is in tatters; first invaded by men, then demons, then wizards. Undead and demons haunt the wastes, starvation has killed literal millions, cities have been burned, the treasury entirely confiscated, and pride gone.
Game? The floor is lava; Jaxsom is just trying to keep his head above water.
Von Goth
For centuries the Von Goths were the bastion of stability within the empire. “Where the wind blows, we stand rooted”. As such, most of the lower nobility- baronets, knights, etc.- within the traditional Iron Kingdom was made up of their relatives. All the other realms either centralized it away or lost it in the Great Disturbance or Goblin Wars. Now, Baron Von Goth has been given leave to forge a kingdom in the fringes of the former Cortillion Territory; a task he has taken to with full force.
Game? CK2- marry into every family for maximum claims.
There are of course a multitude of other members in the Thrones, but most are focused more with regional issues than global or even national politics.