Iron Gold

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

Throughout Iron Gold, colors are a motif that plays an important role in the text, both defining societal hierarchies and highlighting their injustices. The novel takes place in a fictional universe where the Rising, the rebel movement started by Darrow of Lykos, is at war with the last remnants of the Society. The Society is a strictly hierarchical system in which humans are categorized into 14 different main Colors, some with minor subcategories. Each Color represents a social or professional class with specific, genetically engineered traits and abilities, which is why characters are often referred to by their particular Color: Golds, Silvers, Coppers, Blues, Yellows, Greens, Violets, Oranges, Grays, Browns, Obsidians, Pinks, and Reds. The Colors are a clear representation of class systems and the inherent oppression they rely on but taken to a futuristic, genetically enhanced extreme.

The Society was formerly ruled by the Golds, who are extremely tall, strong, and treated as living gods by the lower castes. They include the titular “Iron Golds,” a name reserved for their most heroic and remarkable members, and the Peerless Scarred, their most ruthless warriors. Lysander, for instance, is a Gold.