In The Lore Explainer, we take a deep look at the lore behind our favorite games, movies, and books, and talk about the story behind them and sum up what you need to know and how you can find out more. Today we’re heading into the world of Trench Crusade with the Iron Sultanate.
The Iron Sultanate are the first and most fearsome line of defence against the forces of hell. While Pilgrims and Warriors flock to combat from all over Western Europe and Beyond, The Sultanate sits within sight of the very heart of the corruption the Crusaders unleashed. Not content to sit safe behind their mighty walls, the Sultanate creates weapons, art, monsters and heroes to defend the faithful and reclaim the holy places. With the conflict against hell opening into a new and more deadly phase, it’s time for us to dive into the real-world inspirations behind the Great Sultanate of the Invincible Iron Wall of the Two Horns that Pierce the Sky and dig into why historical grounding gives it such an interesting place in the world of Trench Crusade.
This article is Part one, covering basics of Islamic history related to the lore of Trench Crusade and some of the core concepts – Sultanates, the Iron Wall, and the House of Wisdom. Part two will look further into Alamut and go through the units in the Sultanate roster. The lore of Trench Crusade is a work in progress – this article was written in June 2025 based on the then-current background released by the Trench Crusade team.
Note: I am by no means a scholar of Islamic history or religion! I’ve done a lot of reading in the area but am no expert – I’ll do my best here, but please, please get in touch if there’s something wrong. I’ll use BCE/CE dates throughout for ease of reading.
What Did the Islamic World Look Like in 1099?
The inciting incident of the Trench Crusade world is the seizure of Jerusalem during the First Crusade in 1099. Shortly after the city fell, the Knights Templar committed the “act of ultimate heresy,” opening the mouth of Hell in Jerusalem. Within two years, the armies of Hell have conquered the Levant, save for a few brave and determined holdouts. The armies of Christianity and Islam fight a losing battle to contain heretics and demons, driven back step by step out of the Holy Land. For eight long and bloody years, the forces of Islam are scattered as hell surges forth, before the Creator intervenes to save the faithful.
The divergence point between the world of Trench Crusade and ours is a point of debate. The Trench Crusade timeline begins in 1099 when the First Crusade storms Jerusalem (and murders nearly all the inhabitants in a phenomenally vicious act of wanton slaughter) and the Knights Templar open the gate to Hell. The Templars, in our world, formed in 1118 to police the pilgrim routes to Jerusalem – perhaps the Trench Crusade world started a little bit differently?
In terms of Islamic history, and the people of the Iron Sultanate, the lead up to 1099 can be functionally said to be the same in both worlds, and so it’s worth having a very (very) quick recap of the context of the Levant in the late 11th century to understand some of the elements of Iron Sultanate lore.
Islam “begins” in 610 when the Prophet Muhammad receives his first vision. The life and history of Muhammad is fascinating (and far beyond my skills to write about) – I’d recommend Muhammad: A Biography of a Prophet by Karen Armstrong if you’d like to know more, or read the Quran, which is a very accessible religious text. Muhammad dies in 632, and the succeeding Rashidun Caliphate (the first Caliphs – “successors” of the Prophet) expands the political and religious reach of Islam into the Levant, North Africa, Caucasus and far into the Iranian Plateau. By 1099, the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates had expanded across a huge empire spanning from Spain to India. This was not an empire of tight central control – nominally all paid homage to the Caliph as leader of the faithful – but permeable borders, warring states, warlords and roaming tribes made for a complex web of alliances, dependencies and regional control.
In 1099, the Islamic world of the Middle East is roughly split between major centres of political and religious power – Baghdad (and/or Isfahan), held by the Sunni Seljuk Empire, and Cairo, held by the Shi’a Fatmid Caliphate. Science, art, metallurgy, philosophy and theology flourishes in both, with a remarkably high level of religious and social tolerance by the standards of then contemporary Europe. Between these twin poles was the Levant – today’s Palestine, Lebanon and Israel – a fractured and relatively unimportant, lightly defended buffer between two powerful and not particularly friendly states. The complex and fragile balance was irrevocably smashed by a horde of fanatical, unwashed madmen bringing an impossibly strong army across the seas and mountains – the Crusaders.
While in our world the Crusaders unleashed localised hells on cities they conquered, they were fairly quickly enmeshed in the manoeuvring of the wider political context and slowly squeezed into non-existence over the next two hundred years. In Trench Crusade, they unleash far worse.
The History of the Sultanate
After the Templars open the Gates of Hell, the forces of Darkness surge over the Islamic world. The Christians wrought hell on earth in the heart of the Islamic Golden Age, cutting short two hundred years of technological, spiritual and intellectual development. The world of the Fatmid Caliphate in North Africa and the Levant is wiped out, with stronghold after stronghold of the Islamic world subsumed by the forces of Hell. After eight years, the Iron Wall of Dhu al-Qarnayn emerges to protect the faithful, running from Tehran along the mountains of the Iranian plateau, across the Syrian plain and down (an as yet unseen length) to the Persian Gulf. The emergence of the wall leads to a call to the faithful, a great decades long pilgrimage of the people of Islam to the last bastion of the faith, who journey from north, south, east and west to take sanctuary within the Iron Wall.
Millions perished on the road and at sea, for the Heretics and their Shaytan lords swarmed them as locusts… but once all those who survived the journey had come, the mighty gates of al-Qarnayn were closed
Trench Crusade Lore Primer
These pilgrims, and the (presumably!) Seljuk people of the lands inside the wall form the Great Sultanate of the Invincible Iron Wall of the Two Horns that Pierce the Sky – The Iron Sultanate.
Our World
The great call to the Faithful to journey to the Sultanate is rooted in Islamic practice. Not only is it a literal call to prayer, but it takes the form of a long and dangerous pilgrimage. Pilgrimage – Hajj – is one of the five Pillars of Islam, probably the one that is most widely known outside of the faith. The Hajj itself is mandatory, while Umrah – the pilgrimage to Mecca outside of the Hajj dates – is a lesser, but still important, ritual.
While the Iron Sultanate is based very loosely on the geographic area of the real-world Sultanate of Rum (in our timeline a fair bit further West), it covers a similar area to the Turco-Persian states carved out of the decaying Byzantine Empire. Outside of the Iranian plateau, we don’t know a huge amount about what happened to the widespread Islamic world. Wisely, the writers of Trench Crusade have preserved Mecca and Medina – protected from the forces of Hell by the intervention of the creator. The remains of the Almoravid dynasty might still hold what is now Morocco – we’ll have to wait and see for more map info there!
The Iron Sultanate is exactly that – a Sultanate. Not a Caliphate. This is an important distinction in our world, with the Caliphates being the (variably) accepted and acknowledged successors empires of Muhammad, or, at least the steward of Islam in the world – a religious leader as well as a political one. A Sultanate is a kingdom, a country governed by a Sultan. The world of Trench Crusade lacks a Caliph at present, with the Iron Sultanate refusing to claim that title until Mecca and Medina are recovered.
The Iron Wall
The Sultanate lies protected behind the Iron Wall, running from the Taurus to the Zagros, an invincible and ever-renewed bulwark of the faithful against the forces of Hell. Iron, steel, bronze and magma make up layers upon layers of impenetrable armour, with guard posts, towers, fortresses and artillery platforms making it both a defensive wonder and a living weapon. Permanently besieged, often struck, but never broken, the Iron Wall is the last and finest line of defence for Those Who Believe.
Four mighty gates stud the wall – North, South, East and West. Each allows what trade can survive the passage across the lands of hell inside the wall, bringing knowledge, armaments, allies and resources to the foundries and laboratories of the Sultanate. Defended by armies and the mightiest takwin creations, the portals in the wall are – just possibly – the only weak points in an otherwise divine structure.
Our World
The wall around Hell is a mix of concepts in Islamic history, myth and religion. As a literal barrier between the Faithful in Paradise and the realm of Jahannam, this wall – Al-A’raf – is mentioned in the Quran (Sura Al-A’raf, 46):
There will be a barrier between Paradise and Hell. And on the heights will be people who will recognize both by their appearance.
Its purpose is to divide Jahannam and Jannah, keeping the theological realms apart, but also to provide a path whereby the righteous can visit Jahannam and those caught between the two can, through the grace of God, be brought into heaven. Interpretations vary on exactly what it is – either an area with analogues to the Catholic concept of Purgatory, a range of hills or a physical barrier laid on the path between Jahannam and Jannah. Either way, as in Trench Crusade, it is created by God – sprung from the ground to defend the faithful.
The fact that it’s an Iron wall in Trench Crusade pulls from both the Quran and pre-Islamic legends of Alexander the Great. Dhu al-Qarnayn, a commander identified in the Quran and occasionally thought to be Alexander, constructed a wall to defend his people from the pan-Eurasian folk villains Gog and Magog. The wall stretches through, or around, the lands of Dhu al-Qarnayn, and is comprised of sheets of copper and iron. Within the wall are people – outside, beyond, across, the wall are Giants, spirits and demons. The nature of the wall is discussed in the Quran – Sura Al-Kahf – and Trench Crusade has lifted this pretty wholesale (including a direct quote):
He replied, “The power that my Lord has granted me is better. Help me with your man-power and I shall construct a barrier between you and Gog and Magog.
Bring me blocks of iron to fill up the passage between the two mountains.” He told them to ply their bellows until the iron became hot as fire. Then he told them to pour on it molten brass.
Neither Gog nor Magog were able to climb nor were they able to dig a tunnel through the iron and brass barrier.
Quran, Sura Al-Khaf (95-97)
The Iron Wall of Alexander crops up in a fair bit of classical, post-classic and Islamic mythology, with several accounts either mentioning that the author – or someone the author knows – has actually seen it or been there. The best account of visiting the Iron Wall comes second hand from trader and explorer Ibn Khurradadhbih relating a tale told by professional translator Sallam in 844 (by the Christian calendar). It takes a year to travel to the wall from Medina, and descriptions seem to match the Great Wall of China (so scholars say). Sallam’s account definitely sounds like the wall of the Iron Sultanate – forty meters high, crowned with crenellations with iron horns, striped layers of black iron and bright brass, tested constantly by the forces of darkness and held by Muslims. Sallam (and the Caliph Wathiq who funded his expedition) were pleased – though not surprised – to find communities of Uyghur Muslims near to the wall.
The medieval world was far, far more connected than people tend to think – the message that “there was a ruler who built a giant wall” filtered right across the Old World and became a fairly important part of Islamic eschatology and Christian mythmaking. I think it might surprise people who know more of the Frank side of Crusader history to know that the Iron Wall was believed to be very, very real by everyone involved in the crusades.
The House of Wisdom
The House of Wisdom is the intellectual centre of the Iron Sultanate, providing the scientific, artistic and cultural driving force of the Iron Sultanate. It is through the House of Wisdom and the guidance of the Sultan that the earthly paradise beyond the wall is maintained and defended in the face of otherwise overwhelming devilry. All sciences and arts are practiced here, and the Sultanate treasures the Libraries, Gardens and Hospitals of the House of Wisdom to the same extent as its armouries, forges and alchemical workshops. The House of Wisdom preserves, extends and utilises arts and sciences for the benefit of the Sultanate as a whole, with members drawn from across the Sultanate and beyond. It is semi-independent, serving the Sultan with knowledge, expertise, alchemy and weapons and in return retaining the freedom to operate (and innovate) on their own projects – most commonly venturing beyond the wall to recover knowledge and monitor the holy places.
Our World
The technological and cultural advances of the Iron Sultanate, in addition to the peace and prosperity within the wall, derives directly from the first Islamic Golden Age, the period roughly 800-1258 where the Islamic world prospered, expanded and developed quickly. Theology, ethics, science, literature and art all flowered under successive rulers and caliphates, initially developing from a mass translation and dissemination effort of Greek works in the ninth century and developing into a home-grown, decidedly Islamic renaissance in the tenth and eleventh. When the Golden Age ends is very much up to interpretation – there’s a popular cutoff when the Mongol Empire sacks Baghdad in 1258 – or you can look earlier into theories of general decline, or roll it into a much longer Golden Age with the rise of new Islamic states in the 14th and 15th centuries. Either way, the world of Trench Crusade begins at a high point in Islamic culture, science and art.
The House of Wisdom is just straight-up real – a term for the massive library, madrassa, university and intellectual hub in Baghdad under the Abbasids. There’s debate over whether it was a single thing – “A” House of Wisdom in the same way as we may understand a University today – or a gathering term for “Baghdad is where all the intellectuals work”, but in either case the Trench Crusade version is very much rooted in history. Whatever the House of Wisdom was, Baghdad was an intellectual centre of translation, astronomy, alchemy, mathematics and invention – many of it’s scholars producing vital works that would (slowly!) disseminate across the world.
Takwin
Takwin lore is the most dangerous and productive of the arts of the House of Wisdom. The Alchemists of the Sultanate labour in their laboratories to create monsters to guard those who believe – the Lions of Jabir, the Homonculi, the Brazen Bulls and the Buraq. Unlike the flesh-smiths of the Pilgrims, the Alchemists master creation itself to bring forth artificial life – horribly tormented, often in agony, twisted mockeries of the human form – but life nonetheless, life put to to the service of the Iron Sultanate. These creatures are intelligent, aware and, tragically, beyond the salvation of God – instead created by man for specific purposes, lacking the divine spark.
Our World
Jabirean Alchemy and the Takwin are, again, pretty much wholesale lifted from Islamic history. Jabir Ibn Hayyan (died in the early 9th century) was either a single visionary alchemist and scientist, or a pseudonym for an alchemical school working in Iraq and Iran. Like many alchemists, Jabir straddles the entirely fake line between chemistry, theology, and biology, a polymath writer on chemical compositions of materials, spiritual and alchemical forces that create metals, the transmutation of substances into others, medicine, and Shiite theology. The Jabirean Corpus, the body of works that are thought to have been authored by Jabir (or his school), are hugely wide ranging, usually discussing alchemy and chemistry. His work was hugely influential on Islamic and Christian alchemy, one of many authors who were brought into the Christian canon (as “Geber”).
In Trench Crusade, the most important work of the Jabirean Alchemist is “takwin”, the creation of artificial life and the source of a lot of the grimdarkness of the Iron Sultanate Faction. Takwin crops up in Jabir’s work, one of the several endless quests of the medieval alchemist – to create life from unlife. Whether or not Jabir meant this literally, or created an intellectual dead end to test faith, or meant it as a metaphor for occult and spiritual practices, I have absolutely no idea. I did read a fascinating dissertation on it though in order to write this article – Kathleen O’Connor’s 1994 work “The Alchemical Creation of Life” – which, if you’re really into this, I suggest you check out if you have access to a University library.
Takwin creations have been given a little more depth and colour than “giant horrible creations of flesh and alchemy” might suggest, and that’s largely through their connection to Islamic and Persian mythology. Takwin creations are horribly sentient, at least partially through the existential pain of knowing that they were created by man and therefore have no propsect of salvation (an issue supposedly explored by Jabir). Lions of Jabir are clearly named along the lines of Asadullah, one of Muhammad’s companions (his uncle) and fircest fighter, who became known as the Lion of God. The Trench Crusade lions were not made by God (unlike Asadullah), and, therefore – Lions of Jabir.
The Buraq that guard the gates of the Iron Wall are made in the form of the Buraq that carried Muhammad on his night journey – and, as in a lot of Persian and Mesopotamian mythology – are highly, shockingly intelligent, made in pairs to keep themselves from madness and loneliness. The Brazen Bull is one I can’t work out – a classical and possibly entirely fictional torture device in our world, and pulling straight from long-extinct Nimrud aesthetically.
This is the kind of thing I like about Trench Crusade – pull a thread of real history until it ends up in an unsettling and fantastical place. It’s a good pull, too, allowing for some real model-and-lore-weirdness in an otherwise high tech human faction.
That’s all for Part One – join us next time for a trip to the Old Man of the Mountains and to dive into the Iron Sultanate roster.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
