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"Ironborn is a term for self-found cooler way to say "Self Found." It refers to items or characters or a play style that uses only items a player finds themselves. There are many different gradients of being Ironborn, and different players are more or less "purist" in their approach. Some players who do not will use the [[Auction House]]only items, gold materials, etc that their character finds personally. There Other players allow sharing of items and gold across an account (this is no such official designation, and nothing hard *not* to keep any player from using do in Diablo 3 with the Auction House at any timestash and shared Artisans and gold), while others will trade or sell items out, but many players who feel the desire for a greater challenge or a purer experience eschew the Auction House as much as possiblewill only use gear they find themselves.
Ironborn grew in popularity during Diablo 3, as many players felt the [[Auction House]] was corrupting and an impure way to play, since it made buying and selling of gear too easy. Ironically, [[D3v2]] and then especially Reaper of Souls came along and turned everyone Ironborn, with the extensive [[item binding]] in RoS locking every legendary, enchanted item, gem, material, gold, and more to the account that found it. These game changes essentially killed the Ironborn movement, even bringing an end to [http://diablo.incgamers.com/columns/the-ironborn-columns Waterfiend's popular ''Ironborn'' column] on Diablo.IncGamers.com. Once everyone was Ironborn by default, there wasn't anything to write about as a special purist play style choice. ==Ironborn Mode== Before Reaper of Souls came and enforced self-finding as a play type, many players were hopeful that Blizzard would offer some support for the Ironborn play style. Such as by giving players a way to designate themselves as Ironborn, locking them out of using the Auction House or trading gear. Obviously anyone could do that on their own, but the point was to create a community of players following the same rules. The larger theory is was that the game could actually include an Ironborn mode which would function much like [[Hardcore]] does. Players would designate their characters as Ironborn upon creation, (they could be Hardcore as well if they wished) and Ironborn characters could never use the Auction House and could only play games with other Ironborn characters. That's essential, as the whole point is to create a "clean" economy and a level playing field.
The Ironborn concept is a reaction against the great ease with which high quality gear can be obtained via the Auction House and the lack of a single player mode in Diablo III which would let players stay entirely self-contained, or play only with their circle of friends via LAN or TCP/IP.
==Backgroundof the Term==
The term was coined and popularized by [[Flux]], webmaster of [[Diablo.IncGamers.com]], in late 2012. It's inspired by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironborn#The_Iron_Islands the Iron Islanders] in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. In Martin's series, the Ironborn are fierce warriors who feel all jewels and finery must be taken by force, "paying the iron price" rather than bought "paying the gold price," as the softer men of the mainland do.
