>>3920750
The Metal men seem surprisingly civilized for a race whose family structure most resembles apes and their society is structured and rigid with a distinct class of high and low borns just as hingashi society has. They are very receptive to the Queen, doing their best to respect the customs and practices that the Hingashi partake in and have established on their small diplomatic vessel, not only that but they speak just as the Hingashi do, though with a slight accent but in a manner entirely understandable. They offer the Queen many gifts which support their boasting about their fine metalworking (this is due to their ability to bend metal as the Hingashi can bend force and gravity which leads to them having metal which even on a peasant level matches or exceeds all but the finest smithing of the Hingashi, and that does not even mention the strong and fine metals and alloys which they have invented which put Hingashi alloys to shame)
 
They gift the Hingashi maps of the entire known continent, which sadly is very much already colonized by a variety of humanoid races (this is very sad as it shows that the hingashi are that much more alone as they are the only race, besides arguably the totu who use the hive system of government and young rearing) except in the far, far western and north western reaches which are to far to colonize. They also reveal the possible locations of a few islands south of the Hingashi continent which although infertile and cold compared to the homeland is offered as uncontested hingashi lands after the Iron Men have completed their current work.
 
They have offered the Hingashi two islands (along with the much more important local fishing rights, hingashi colors represent full fishing rights and contested colors represent joint hingashi-iron men fishing rights) of the coast of their nation which were recently conquered and are essentially fresh and ready for hingashi colonization.
 
The Iron Men are currently embroiled in a potentially devastating war and they believe that if equipped with metal men tempered steel the mighty hives of the hingashi could be pulled from in order to raise a massive invasion force in order to quell the annoying electric goat people of the far north. They plan on keeping the hingashi a state secret until the volters have sent a firm force into the nation, then the hingashi who would at that point be fairly fully equipped would be sent north to go conquer and expel the goats from their southern desert so that they will be forced to accept defeat, at the point they would also be forced to expand into an eastern island they have yet to take which would be colonized by hingashi. In that region also exists a now hidden race of worker creatures who have the ability to restore land (though they themselves are toxic) and most usefully perhaps old and ruined trinkets as well, for they have an entire ruin complex full of otherwise useless goods and they assume that the hingashi might also have some of these goods as well, and if the Radic complex could be taken perhaps the two races could eat well of the fruits of the fallen instead of being restricted by some scared little goats. 
>>3920766
The Iron Empire offers to send some of its finest in order to add in continental tech into the arsenal of the Hingashi.
>>3920789
With the loosened up labor the formerly fairly expensive grav-platforms and grav-hives so sought after by the upper classes become much more viable (cheap), as repetitive tasks are always something the highest love to put upon the lowest, and the lowest are probably getting a little bit more receptive to such work this time around... 
 
>>3920782
Without the threat of the onis or taurs to the degree they were dangerous before menial laborers from behind the frontlines are finally able to work safely - and thus efficiently - on the fortifications.
 
Several minor land and sea gains are made against the pirates. 
>>3920783
While word of abundant food in tarnish lands may one day bite the tarn in the bottom several minor taur lords, especially those around the newly reconquered areas send word to the tarn pledging their allegiance if the oni are able to supply them and give them more tauric allies to the north in opposition to the King of Black Metal.
 
The minotaur king refuses to ally with the tarn and already has sent envoys away from the south to go and convince relatively neutral lords of how it would be better to stay true to the oni rather than ally with these so called "fish faces".
 
The southern army targets the contested city of shio, they claim that the city will soon fall back into the hands of the tarn very soon.
 
A new invasion of oni has broken through the fortifications, although they have been slowed significantly and thus a well thought out tarnish response is indeed possible. 
 
>>3923320
In combination with leather and wooden straps alongside similar buckles the sonarii can finally produce soldiers who are light and durable enough to fight the metal men without being thrown around, though the immense problem of what kind of materials the sonarii can hope to use in melee against the metal men has yet to be fully revealed. For now the sonarii are relegated to using weapons tipped in metal which are capable of penetrating standard metal men armor, although battle testing has shown that alloys containing high levels of tin, zinc, lead, mercury or bismuth seem more resistant to be metal bent while overrefined (high carbon) steel also seems to be very resistant to being bent as well. Another problem has arisen as it seems that the sonarii are having a very hard time cracking the tough metal vehicles which the metal men have invented, these vehicles are fully surrounded in a tough metal shell and have hatches and weapons which are not easily broken into, their weapons and defenses have served many times as unbreakable rally points and weapons platforms for the metal men time and time again. 
 
The new fortress is raised from the tough and dense stone of the stony wastes near larnet, the engineers responsible make sure to integrate as little metal as possible into its design.
 
The Iron Empire concedes the Hilly strip (about 3 hexes in size) to the sonarii but are continuing fighting outside of this zone, caravans of refugees are quickly found to have been expelled purposefully by the Iron men as opposed to the initial wave which was a force of pure fleeing from the army of the iron guide. The Iron men have erected several large camps near major sonarii centers of industry near to their border which they claim they will only use in the event of full scale war. They claim that they will stop respecting volter border rights the moment a major electric force is seen near the border. 
 
>>3923812
Word of the nature of morse code (though not the code itself) is quietly spread around the nations east of the western mountains, it is thought that soon the other airborn nations may officially adopt their own codes especially if these techniques are found to be especially useful over the current system of volter sent messages.
 
The layers of cards the oni have up their collective sleeves grows, although these new familiars are held back from being used on the stagnate frontline of the war in fear of the tarn adapting before such things can be properly exploited on the battlefield. This changes with the launching of the new invasion.  
>>3923813
While not fully completed the tarnish fortifications make capturing new ground all that much more difficult thus slowing down the advanced, the eastern fortifications have already been broken through although this is behind schedule as the oni were supposed to be at the city already. Tarnish tricks take down many oni regiments.
>>3923821
The Minotaur King sends word of tarnish attempts to persuade him away from the oni along with the near possibility of large tarnish supported insurrections ruining his offensive capabilities. For now he needs to clean up his own holdings but if the tarn can be expelled from the mountains he is fully open to launching a new invasion of the tarn.
 
With the possible escalation of the Metal war at hand the necrotics are reluctant to support any new regiments being hired by the oni especially after how long it took the last force they sent to get back in any notable numbers last time. A good few necrotics are hired on but their active battlefield role is going to be very diminished. 
 
On the battlefield it seems a new kind of race has appeared... they are said to be like the burned men, but much brighter is their flame... the significance of this new force has yet to be seen as they don't seem particularly powerful, though that might be due to the presence of oni
 
>>3924391
It is hoped that the relatively small size of the totu and the possibility of dressing them up as old totu servants (the sonarii themselves are said to not be particularly bright when it comes to telling totu and tizta apart anyways once you get past the dirt shell) that the totu may find a decent amount of spying capabilities even when compared to the legendary oni spies.
 
Inalla has now been ascended to the position of Queen, a full write up on the changes the totu race have undergone will be produced soon by the most prestigious scholars of Nacre.
 
A few documents which were smuggled by some of the last totu to leave the continent help to make the airships at least a little bit on par with what should be the older designs which the sonarii and volters employed.
 
The administrators are careful to not mix up shipments of mercenaries going through drichbad and to yato.
 
>>3924891
Several beachheads are taken, soon the army will reach balora proper, although the blizzards above it are making navigating the wastes difficult. The battle outside of kazval rages.
 
Halfway to haze the army finds the tracks sabotaged, this leads to them being forced to lay down new tracks wherever they are to go, ranged bombardments and tank attacks harass the army.
 
>>3927465
The new boots have their problems and will certainly need to be improved in the future but for now they work fine. 
 
The new troops will soon see battle on the front lines of the icey war and in the plains of haze. 
 
The invasion is launched and the first major battle between bolt and metal begins. Reports of how the volters fair when up against the metal men are soon to be transmitted.
 
>>3931841
The colonists come into conflict with the race called the minotaurs as it seems that the ogres have seemingly disappeared, their land being quickly taken by minotaurs. The explorers of the ruins seem to have been trapped as the ruins have begun to emit a huge glow, it is hopped that they will return once the glow subsides. In the west a border with the burned men has been established.