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ShadowWalking18

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  2. ShadowWalking18
    After the Fall, the Ironclaws frankly just in no small words, vanished. All the deals, holdings and influences just fell apart and vanished into the wind as the clan and family was left to stalk in the shadows, struggling to hold itself together in an ever changing world and culture. For a clan that once stood among the greatest of clans, near equals to kings, it was an anti climatic fall and end.
    But while the rest of the world forgot the Ironclaws, they did not forget. In fact, the Fall had sparked a sort of inner emotion of clan pride and nationalism. They worked to keep their clans history alive amongst themselves, each succeeding generation growing up on the tales of old and the dream that one day the Ironclaws would gain back what was rightfully theirs so long ago.
    It would not be till in thirty five years ago that the Ironclaws would once more rise back to stand in the light of other high ranking griffons and families. It began in first in the military, with the rising of an Ironclaw griffon named after the founder of the clan. This Ironclaw rose into the highest military rank for years of dedicated service and action, becoming one of the most decorated of generals to Aquilla.
    With this new rise and rank, the Ironclaws began to see a turn in their fortunes. With the prestige came new open doors for them to reestablish themselves as an influential family. Investments were made into the rise of the industrial works, and this new industry, along side trade deals and other economic handlings, soon saw a return of a semblance of wealth to the clan; and through it all the General Ironclaw worked tirelessly to return his family to their historic place at the top.
    As the years went by into the current year and day, the Ironclaws made a complete about face in their fortunes, soon owning a wide spread and profitable ironworks, and airship art factories. It all led up, after both a heavy round of bargaining on price and the finding of old documents detailing their ownership of the land, that the Ironclaws at last could return to Castle Iron, their ancient home once thought lost to them.
    And now after so long the Ironclaws stand back, at least partly, in the prestige and influence they once had. Though it is still not enough. Perhaps they are merely a bit more greedy then most griffons today, but the Ironclaws still feel they have much left to do before they are done and back in their proper place. Many griffons and ponies and beyond barely can recall who their clan and family once was, and while they are certainly wealthy they do not have the once great wealth of kings they were said to have so long ago.
    But all of this is but a prelude. The Ironclaws know that they will reach those heights of power in time, and even beyond it. Their new patron, General Ironclaw, works tirelessly with both allies and family members, and that same desire and clan pride grows in every young Ironclaw. It might seem an odd desire in this modern age, but for the Ironclaws it is all a matter of pride, and while they are certain they can't get all they had back, they can certainly try to get all that the current era has to offer and they will do it with the same unbending iron will that their ancestors used so long ago to do it.
  3. ShadowWalking18
    In the days of since taking a position in the Republic of Aquilla, after the fall of Griffonstone, the Ironclaw clan rose to a position of high power within the new republic, and even had several members stand in the council. Wealth, power and prestige were at their highest for the clan in those early days, but it was eventually that all this would end.
    It was during the reign of Lord Ospery Ironclaw the 34th that the clan began to...fall apart. Lord Ospery was considered, and proven to be insane. He was prone to fits of rage and frothing at the beak, flying into fits where he would spasm on the ground and claw at the ground or attack anything near him with his claws. On more then two occasions he had seriously hurt or insulted important griffons due to his madness.
    Lord Ospery was also notoriously plotting, always claiming it was his clans right to rule the Republic, an idea that his own sons and clan didn't agree with. They prided themselves on being loyal, and they were loyal to the republic. Luckily Ospery's madness made any plans he had backfire. Sadly his plans always ended up with him wasting money, eating away at the clans coffers.
    It wasn't long before Ospery soon alienated himself from his whole clan during a heated argument with his two sons. In a fit of madness, Ospery took his cane to his eldest son, causing a deep wound upon his eldest sons temple. The younger one watched in horror as his brother fell unconscious, and Ospery after his attack had a moment of clarity and rushed to his son, cradling his unconscious body as he moaned and screamed, "My son! I have killed my own son!" It was in the last few moments before passing that the eldest son regained consciousness and muttered only a few words, "I die as a devoted son and most humble servant." Not soon after the eldest of Ospery's sons has passed away and the passing of his heir threw Ospery into a deep depression where he lashed out at anything, even his own family.
    Ospery in his grief banished all his family from their home in the mountains near Rockwington. He drove them all out with hired mercenaries, and then used those mercs to keep any griffons away from Castle Iron. After that, nothing else is known and it is speculated that Ospery drowned himself in luxuries and mad ravings, squandering his families wealth till it was all but gone. Though never fully confirmed, it was said he passed away in the castle not a few years after the passing of his eldest son.
    For the rest of the Ironclaws, things were only to grow worse. Banished from their ancestral home, and their patron leaving them with huge debts that took all their family wealth and more to pay off, the Ironclaws fell into a near destitution, living in the barest area of Talonopolis and beyond. Worse yet, the clan saw a mishap of its members passing away without warning. By the time it was all done, the clan had gone from twelve hundred members, to barely eighty five.
    It was such a great upheaval for a clan that had once stood as a powerful force, and as the years went by, the Ironclaws and all their history and public knowledge slowly faded away. To the majority of griffonkind and beyond, the name Ironclaw was soon forgotten all together. Any knowledge of the family during the times after what it called The Fall is not written.
    It would not be till modern times that the Ironclaws would emerge again as a public force.
  4. ShadowWalking18
    When King Grover, and the Idol of Boreas arose, the Ironclaws were unsure of how to react to this upstart griffon who sought to make himself as king of all griffons. But the patron of the Ironclaw clan, Warlord Gyr Ironclaw, intended to find out and he took along three hundred of his strongest warriors with him to meet this so called king.
    Gyr was known to be a vicious warrior, said to be cursed with the Blood Craze that was said to infect his clan. When he arrived to Grover's court, many warriors feared what the outcome would be. But the meeting went differently then most griffons had expected, even the Ironclaw warriors.
    The warriors had expected for Gyr to take the Idol for himself, as was their nature as griffons, and proclaim himself king. In fact, many warriors and even some allied clans had made mention that Gyr should. But Gyr ignored these and instead spoke with King Grover alone, in the room where the Idol stood.
    No one knows what the two griffons spoke of in those halls, for none had been allow privy to the knowledge. But when Gyr, and Grover to the surprise of his warriors emerged, they could see a look of pride and even contentment upon the patron of Ironclaw that had not been seen before. It was even more shocking, before all those standing in the castle, that Gyr Ironclaw, bent talon to King Grover and swore unending fealty to the king. If the warriors of Ironclaw were surprised, they were more so when Gyr demanded that every warrior and later every clan member swear fealty to the king. For the first time in their history, the Ironclaws had allowed themselves to bend to another griffon not of their own, and willingly.
    In the years to follow, the Ironclaws would rise to become one of the most loyal of clans to the king, and the Kingdom of Griffonstone. It was grandson of Gyr, Lord Peregrine, who became one of the first leading generals of the united griffon military of griffonstone, with the Ironclaws at the forefront of the army. Their warriors even acted as bodyguards for the king, and the clan even had daughters and sons married with the royal family; though nothing that could give them any sort of claim to the throne in those days.
    It was in those golden days that the clan grew powerful in the nobility, becoming one of the Great Clans of Griffon kind. But the golden days were not to last, as is the case with all golden ages.
    It was during the reign of King Guto, that Griffonstone fell. When the monster Armimaspi came to take the idol, and in the fight to drive off the thieving monster that the current patron of the Ironclaw clan, Lord General Kestrel, fell. The loss of both the Idol, and their patron, was a severe blow to the moral of the Ironclaws. Like all the griffons and clans of the kingdom, the Ironclaws fell into a state of shattered hope and left Griffonstone, taking all their wealth and belongings and returning to their ancestral holdings near the mountains in the south.
    It was in this time that the Ironclaws had seen just how much had changed in those days, for the holdings of King Guto had slowly began to lessen on the griffons in the south, and the rise of a new power had began. The Republic of Aquilla.
    Needing something to fight for, now that the Idol was lost and their king broken, the newest patron of the Ironclaw clan, Lord Amur, began making work to ally his clan with the powers of the new republic. It took long work, but the history of their clan and the fact that the Ironclaws had, even while still serving the king in Griffonstone, had kept some of their clan in the south in their ancestral home, the Ironclaws soon found themselves in a role that was familiar to them, serving predominately in the military of the Republic of Aquilla.
    Though they had found new power and position, the Ironclaws still held a great deal of loss over the Idol of Boreas, something that still bothers them today in the modern times. They feel as if they had failed their king and the empire of Griffonstone, and this feeling of failure pushed them to greater heights to prove themselves and to never fail again. But just as the golden age of griffons ended in Griffonstone, so too was the golden days of the clan Ironclaw to end one day.
    But it would not be by an outside force. No, never to a clan that prided itself on the iron it claimed was in its blood. No their fall would come from within, from one of their own patrons. It was during the Reign of Ospery Ironclaw the 34th, otherwise known to Ironclaws as Ospery the Mad or the Insane Ironclaw
  5. ShadowWalking18
    With the recent appearance of the new clan of Ironclaw, many other griffons, both rival clans and lone agents, all saw merely a new comer that was sure to be weak and easily beaten and their wealth and other land taken. It would be a mistake no griffon in those days would forget.
    The first major conflict the Ironclaws found themselves in was against the Silverbeak clan, who sought to take the Ironclaws lands for the mountains the newly created clan called home was said to be rich with gems and precious metals. Not to mention the spoils of the warlord that Ironclaw and his warriors liberated and took as their own were a prize any griffon would want for their horde.
    The Silverbeaks attacked quickly with all their warriors, expecting overwhelm the fledgling clan quickly and take their riches for their own. But where the Silverbeaks had expected to overwhelm and break the Ironclaws with their superior numbers, the invading griffons found a very different reception. The warriors of Ironclaw would not so easily bend and loss the freedom and power they had so recently gained.
    With quick savagery, Ironclaw led his warriors to do battle against the invading clan. Their IronClaws, the name now given to their weapon attached to the stump of their removed talon, was said to give the invaders a shivering pause, as did the savagery that gleamed in their eyes as they fought. Though heavily out numbered, each warrior of the Ironclaw clan was a champion of arena battles. Each had one hundred victories to their name, each one more vicious then the last. As well, they had not escaped the darkness of their cell to be crushed by invaders, and their desire to keep their independence drove them to a fury that few griffons had seen.
    The fighting lasted weeks, with both sides taking heavy hits, but it was said that for every Ironclaw slain, he took six Silverbeaks with him or her. And in every battle the clan patron, now calling himself Warlord Ironclaw, was at the front of the battle, his presence driving his warriors to greater heights of battle fury. It wasn't long that the invaders were on the retreat.
    With their territory safe, other leaders and clans might have held back and rested. Regained their numbers and grow strong, but Ironclaw had never learned of the concept of rest. His life, and those of his warriors, had always been battle after battle, and to never stop. And so, gathering all the warriors he could, leaving only a token force to protect their home, the Ironclaws turned the tables on their enemies and invaded the Silverbeak clan holdings.
    No true record remains that gives specific details of that invasion. With their army having been beaten though, the Silverbeak clan was helpless against the onslaught of the battle crazed Ironclaws. By the end of the invasion, the entire holdings of the clan now lay in the Ironclaws talons. And for the Silverbeaks, none can say. Some say that the clan was utterly destroyed to the last, and scattering any survivors to the four corners, as a show of might to the other clans who might see the Ironclaws as an easy target. Others say that Warlord Ironclaw showed something of mercy, taking in the fledglings and kittens of the clan as his own, as well as any male or female who swore fealty to the clan. Whatever the final outcome, the Ironclaws now stood stronger then ever, their iron never bending, never breaking, and forged even stronger with land, and most importantly tons of stolen and acquired wealth.
    But the Ironclaws would not stop there. Over the following years, both Warlord Ironclaw, and his successors, would wage many battles with other clans for control of resources and to capture and steal wealth for their clans ever growing hoard. And this ever growing wealth brought other invaders, both from other clans, but also Diamond Dogs and even the occasional dragon.
    It was not until the emergence of the Idol of Boreas and the rise of King Grover that the Ironclaws would rise to anything other then a powerful clan of battle crazed warriors.
  6. ShadowWalking18
    The Ironclaw Clan was founded by Ironclaw the First. But in these days, Ironclaw had no clan. No family. He was a lone griffon, born and raised in servitude to a cruel and powerful Griffon warlord in the days when griffons fought amongst each other for gold and territory. Raised to fight for the pleasure of his masters, he sought a way out the only way he knew how.
    The Arena.
    One hundred battles. That would be the price for freedom.
    And so Ironclaw fought. He fought like a griffon possessed, his eyes seeming to glow red with each fallen enemy he bested and the greater his injuries became. Despite it all he did not let up, and he was unstoppable till the day his finally fight had come.
    One last fight. And it would all be over. But this fight would be the most grueling, as the champion he fought was a savage griffon, two times his size and a veteran of many fights.
    But Ironclaw was cunning as he was strong, and with this he struck down his finally enemy. One hundred battles, and he had at last earned his reward. Like every champion before him.
    Buried beneath the arena, the promise of freedom. A lie. Many would have given up hope, but Ironclaw's will was like iron and he would be free...
    ...no matter the cost.
    Ironclaw...would be chained no longer. And with a stone he managed to reach for in his dark tomb, he made the ultimate sacrifice to earn his freedom, by removing his chained talon.
    With this sacrifice, Ironclaw was freed from his chains...and with this action he drew the eyes of other chained champions who were locked beneath the earth with him. All gazed at him, as he looked at the stump of where his talon once was, the rock in his remaining talon.
    Ironclaw was freed, and now....he would take revenge. But he could not do it alone. And so it looked to the other imprisoned champions, and cast to them the same rock that freed him and spoke only a few words.
    "Take...your vengeance."
    With his followers, Ironclaw and the other champions broke free from their cell, and with weapons they took from guards and the warlords armory, attacked the warlord within his hold and brought low all who stood in their way, their removed talon now replaced with weapons tied over the stump.
    It was on this day, bound by sacrifice that a new clan emerged among Griffon kind, with Ironclaw at the head. And never again would they be chained. Never again would they be bent. They were now Ironclaws, and any who stood against them would feel their wrath.
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