Lilia: “A century ago, it was one little sailboat that came ashore at Cape Sunrise…But their population multiplied faster than you can blink, until they started outnumbering the fae who live here.”
When Sebek asks if everything easy of Briarland’s “Howling Canyon” is ironclad territory Baul explains, “It is not their territory. This whole continent rightfully belongs to the fae! They simply moved in and started expanding their area of influence!”
We are never told why it is that ironclads appeared in Briarland, where they came from or what they were hoping to accomplish.
Soldiers (translated by Sebek): “”They come from a foreign land and cut down our forests, lay waste to our mountains, and plunder our resources. With the mountains stripped bare, the direbeasts deprived of their habitats go into villages and cause mayhem.”
We see this in the game, with towns-fae begging Liia’s solders for help as direbeasts tear through their food, chased from their homes in Howling Canyon by ironclads.
Solider: “”The fae have suffered immeasurable damage because of them.”
Lilia: “If they respected animals and nature and lived modestly, we could leave them be…But we cannot let them tear up any more of our mountains and forests.”
Also seen in the game, a fairy begs Lilia to punish the ironclads for what they’ve done: “My fields are ruined. And right after we tilled them. My family wasn’t enough? They had to trample all over my memories as well? Please, you have to punish the ironclads! My family and fields are all gone because of them…”
A river polluted by ironclads to the point that it is uninhabitable for water fairies is also shown.
The ironclads say that they “tried many a time to negotiate with Briarland in good faith” and the fae made a mockery of their efforts, but Lilia says they only visited the castle once, and presented a list of demands. The fae princess Maleanor did not speak with them (Sebek: “He dared to bring demands when his men are the ones repeatedly damaging Briarland?! The audacity!”)
The ironclads besiege Maleanor’s castle, demanding that she give up her home and her magestone to them.
The fae side is supported by various fae of Briarland who live there, healing the soldiers’ wounds and ask Lilia to save the princess.
They also meet children who say they, too, want to protect their home, families, friends and the princess, and fae-blacksmiths who offer every support that they can.
The ironclad side is supported by people from other lands who also covet Briarland’s resources, and/or hired mercenaries, including mages.
The ironclads challenge Maleanor to a duel, saying, “Not that either choice will end in anything but our victory,” so she has no choice, but then declaring that it is actually Maleanor who has given them no choice but to fight.
The princess dies protecting her unborn child, and the ironclads win, ending the “great nation” of Briarland and reducing it to Briar Valley, and taking over what was once fae territory for themselves.
Lilia says he fears that the fae “will become relics of the past… We’ll be forgotten and regarded as creatures from storybooks,” and in present day even speakers of the fae languages have become “somewhat rare.”
But it seems the ironclad victory was short-lived: Lilia explains that, after the ironclads took over Maleanor’s castle (changing its name to Bladevale), “an endless series of wars broke out over resources and land,” and they lost to others the same castle that they’d killed Maleanor to take for themselves.
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 