On Broadsides & Broadsheets

    This piece was an awful lot of fun to work on, mostly because it meant referring to lore content which was released well before I started playing Warmachine or even knew about it. The league fiction was great to look through as it was presented in a way which hasn't really be done since MkI days.

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    Welcome to Immoren - On Broadsides & Broadsheets, uploaded 30th September 2020

    Original script link - (Google doc)

    Newspapers and journals in the Iron Kingdoms find their origins in the post Orgoth Occupation technological boom that, in due course, replaced the age-old local, low circulation, handwritten newsletters, firstly with block printed news-sheets, and then with what became locally known as the “broadside” a large, single-sheet poster covered with pieces of news of varying reliability and delay. Its name was taken from the eponymous broadside of a warship, each article’s headline being analogous to a cannon or gunport. These would, over time, evolve into publications more suitable to convenient consumption, when the term broadside became interchangeable with broadsheet, as the news would continue to be tacked to advertising boards or whatever flat surface could be found along busy roads, as well as carried and read in hand. The broadsides first appeared in Cygnar in the 572, published by The Weekly Newes, who became, and remain, the most widely syndicated provider of news and gossip, their output available from local merchants or travelling postboys for a farthing, or whatever is the equivalent of a copper piece in the local denomination. Wide reach of these broadside publications, this particular medium being the main source of news from outside the local area for most folk, made them the ideal platform for promoters to advertise their wares and services. This advertising revenue became a substantial source of income for publishers, alongside healthy sales, and private or corporate sponsors in many cases.

    For the longest time, The Weekly Newes held a near monopoly on news publication in Cygnar, and even a few areas that bordered Cygnar, with an edition in most major cities. But competitors would pop up every so often to offer their own manner of providing news to the masses. For the most part, these competitors struggled to maintain regular publication schedules or long print runs for increased numbers of issues that could keep them in business. However, as the technology spread and diplomatic relations deteriorated among the Iron Kingdoms, local news-sheets gave rise to broadsides with near national distribution that originated in publishers who sought to and eventually managed to rival The Weekly Newes’ reach, whether within Cygnar or without. What follows is a brief review of some of the more well-known periodicals that are known to cover national and international news with at least a modicum of reliability.

    Starting with The Weekly Newes, as the longest running newspaper in Cygnar and the Iron Kingdoms, with state backing no less, it is almost a crown institution, but unfortunately comports itself to be of greater importance and impact than it really is. Prone to stodgy narrative in its reportage, the Weekly Newes has become complacent in collating information, instead displaying a tendency to focus on the minutiae of particular incidents, often dry or melodramatic storytelling with little in between and a perception of disproportionate publishing of the supposed and alleged as opposed to the actual. While they are careful to present their pieces in such a way as to be as accurate as possible, incidences of couched language that indicate lack of confirmation are too common. And such is the opinion the Weekly Newes has of itself, reporters working for them have a tendency to praise their own reputation and denigrate other newspapers by broad strokes.

    Elsewhere among publishers in Cygnar, one can find the Mercir Messenger, otherwise known as the mouthpiece for the Mercarian League, the largest trading conglomerate in the kingdom and continent. As a result, they concentrate very strongly on any events that impact on international trade, in particular shipping routes. Unsurprisingly, they also display a virulent hatred for pirates to the point of offering bounties as part of the publication and report on any cooperation between the League, the Cygnaran Navy and any joint interests. In terms of following the more mundane of activities of the Mercarian League, the Mercir Messenger is one of the only newspapers to be able to report, first hand, events concerning the Zu, including the first encounters with them in 596.

    Another well-known Cygnaran paper, if more local and of more ill-repute, is the Corvis Chronicle, shortened from the Corvis Chronicle Weekly Dispatch. A sensationalist rag that is known more for stirring conspiracy theories than reporting events, the Corvis Chronicle presents its news in as dramatic a fashion as it can to shock its readers and set their tongues wagging. Said news is often tangential at best to current affairs or obviously make-believe at worst. While this particular broadside is published by a nominally independent organisation and funded by certain corners of the Corvis Merchant’s Guild, its content can be easily explained by noting that one of their biggest backers is the Gertens Family. To clarify, that’s the Gertens Gang, which is how most would recognise that name. They would publish anything if it helped knock their rivals the Griffons down a notch or two, Cygnaran diplomatic affairs be damned.

    Away from Cygnar, the most widely distributed broadsides published in both Khador and the Protectorate of Menoth are nationalistic to the point of theatricality, if in different ways and for different reasons, but they are all, needless to say, thoroughly self-serving and self-aggrandising. The Korsk Korrespondent is a prime example. Indeed, they are all prime examples, but no matter. In recent years, the Korsk Korrespondent has done all it can to justify the imperialistic ambitions of the Khadoran ruling establishments, in particular its administration of Occupied Llael, while taking every opportunity to insult or decry Cygnar and Free Llael in any way it can, going about it with all the apparent subtlety of a mounted Iron Fang Uhlan trying to discretely tail a Cygnaran Reconnaissance Service agent. It appears as though the main purpose of the Korsk Korrespondent is to offer continual acclaim to the Khadoran Army. In this endeavour, it is… obviously successful, which is curious given its supposedly official position, which denies any affiliation or association with High Kommand and Stasikov Palace. Instead the paper deflects any connections, noting that Gevernorsk Press, the publisher, is simply staffed by proud Khadorans.

    And though it is a much smaller institution than its on-land counterpart, the Khadoran Navy also has a propaganda piece albeit an official one, called the Vladovar Broadsheet, named for the Navy’s home port and published by Gnezdo Press, whose output mirrors the Korsk Korrespondent in its patriotic verve, opening every issue with an obsequious dedication to the navy’s personnel followed by a by now repetitive cry of “All Hail Empress Ayn Vanar! Strength to the Motherland!” and so on and so forth. Content is typically related to the navy’s dealings against Khador’s southern neighbours, spinning the mundane into magnificent for High Kommand’s needs or squeezing glory out of unprovoked and one-sided skirmishes. Neither the Vladovar Broadsheet nor the Korsk Korrespondent particularly care who they offend, provided it is all in service to the Motherland.

    However, Khador is not immune to more subversive competition when it comes to newspapers. A short-lived periodical headquartered in lately conquered Llaedry was circulated by and among Umbrean secessionists prior to the movement’s quashing. Called the Internal New Umbrean Revolutionary Organisation, firebrand separatists angry with the invasion of Llael and the continued imposition of Khadoran rule, both military and cultural, over Umbrey sought to stoke unrest in that volozk. It reported, amongst other things, the successes of its agents in disrupting the actions of the Khadoran army and even negotiating with Protectorate leaders, though its efforts would ultimately come to nothing.

    Speaking of the Protectorate, their biggest publication is probably the Imer Proclamation. Without a doubt, just as blinkered as the Korsk Korrespondent, the Imer Proclamation does a good job of twisting events to the Synod of Visgoths’ preferences for public consumption. To cite a notorious example, both the aforementioned broadsides published articles pertaining to a Khadoran Menite priest, one Vasko Kohanovich, who was dispatched as a diplomat. As these headlines would suggest, someone clearly made free with the truth. Even through this, the two broadsides are similar in representing their nations’ armies as heroes one and all. The Imer Proclamation, somewhat predictably, does tend towards more religious terminology when either insulting anything that gets in the way of the Protectorates’ Crusades or offering praise to the faithful. This is continually instanced by its oft-seen precis, which turns the newspaper into an overblown declaration for tests of faith and piety.

    The Voice of Sul, not so much a competitor but a companion piece to the Imer Proclamation, is hardly any better. Prone to purple prose and gleeful mockery of the Protectorate’s enemies with minimal provocation, the Voice of Sul is petty vindictiveness in newspaper form. Unfortunately for the put upon Llaelese, the Voice expanded its portfolio after conquests of the Northern Crusade, with a new edition called the Voice of Leryn, which continues the Voice of Sul’s tradition of disdaining the unbelievers and worshipping the dirt on the Hierarch’s boots.

    Running counter to the publications of both the Protectorate and Khador, at least where Llael is concerned, is the Rhydden Beacon. Stoutly anti-Khadoran, but also fairly anti-Protectorate, the Rhydden Beacon is a more or less counter-propaganda news-sheet that hopes to restore Llaelese territorial integrity at the very least. It follows the actions of patriotic Llaelese in their struggles against foreign rule no matter which one that may be, as well as developments by said foreign powers against what remains of Free Llael. Funded in majority by East Forest Lumber and the Delryv Family, the Rhydden Beacon is in effect the official Resistance broadside, given how, for an important period in the Modern Era, Free Llael’s Resistance Council was led by Gregore Delryv IV.

    Finally, Ord also has its share of news serials, and, perhaps more than their counterparts across the Iron Kingdoms, they display a distinctly measured character, a reflection of their nation’s status on the international stage, being a local power, but generally averse to confrontation with their neighbours if they can at all help it. As a naval power continually menaced by Cryxian raiders and Khadoran… ‘accidents’, the Ordic people can read related events in the Shipman’s Tower, which is the Ordic equivalent to the Cygnaran Mercir Messenger, concentrating on the trade and shipping news relevant to Ord and her economy, and by association her navy’s exploits. While not as rabid towards them as their Cygnaran counterpart, the Shipman’s Tower still displays a certain disapproval of piracy, whether local or general. Nevertheless, they provide credit where it is due, and acknowledge not only the status of pirates as a lesser enemy when compared to Cryx but also that the Mercarian League, of Cygnar, one should hasten to add, rarely has Ord’s best interests in mind.

    And last of all on this quickfire review is the Ordic Observer, or Ordic Observer Weekly Dispatch in full. This newspaper is perhaps the most neutral of every major periodical published in the Iron Kingdoms. Published by Oaken Press out of Midfast, the Ordic Observer covers mainly regional news but they have a reputation for accurate reporting of news from further abroad. Though the loyalty of its contributors is obvious, they nonetheless report events in a balanced and pragmatic manner, without judgement (except against Cryx!), without drama and without censure in one way or another, even if they should express concern at such things as Khadoran encroachment in Ordic territories, for that is only natural. Like the Weekly Newes, they take care to note instances when their information is incomplete or unverified, but do not make them a preponderance. The result is that the Ordic Observer is arguably both the easiest to interpret from a factfinding perspective and the most reliable source of news for its readership, making its disclaimer, which details its lack of political and financial affiliations, actually believable.