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Story 02 · Alliance

Dwarf

Descendants of the earthen, shaped from stone by the Titans. They work iron in the heart of the mountain and dig for the past they lost.

Into the story
DwarfRacials, Race Notes & StatsClassesPlayable Classes & Skills
Homeland
Dun Morogh · Khaz Modan
Capital
Ironforge
Rule
Council of Three Hammers
Clans
Bronzebeard · Wildhammer · Dark Iron
Mount
Ram
Closest ally
The gnomes of Gnomeregan

Chapter I · Origin

From Stone to Flesh (Curse of Flesh)

The first dwarves were made of stone. The Titans created stone-bodied workers called earthen to shape the depths of the world.

The Curse of Flesh, spread by the Old Gods, turned those stone bodies into flesh and bone. The earthen slept in Titan vaults such as Uldaman, and when they woke they called themselves dwarves. They drove off the ice trolls, named the land Khaz Modan and carved Ironforge beneath the mountain.

The earthen were the Titans’ workers of the deep, built of stone and metal to run the Titan works beneath the mountains. The Old Gods’ curse did not simply change them; the peoples it created include the troggs, the gnomes and the dwarves. That is why dwarves count gnomes and troggs as distant kin.

The awakened earthen first clashed with the ice trolls of Khaz Modan’s snowy peaks. After their victory they built their city at the heart of the mountain, around the Great Forge. Mining, smithing and stonework have been the core of dwarven identity ever since.

  1. Titan

    Architects of the world

  2. Earthen

    Stone bodies, workers of the deep

  3. Curse of Flesh

    The Old Gods’ curse turns stone to flesh

  4. Dwarf

    A body of flesh, a smith’s soul

Curse of FleshWhat was the curse, and which peoples did it change?

Chapter II · Three Hammers

The War of the Three Hammers

About 230 years before the Dark Portal opened, High King Modimus Anvilmar died of old age. With the throne empty, Ironforge’s three great clans turned on each other.

Dwarven society was sharply divided. The Bronzebeards were the clan of cities and armies, the Wildhammers of mountains and open sky, the Dark Irons of sorcery and mining. Anvilmar’s death broke that balance: no one was left to decide who should rule after the king.

Each clan claimed the throne as its right. In the halls of Ironforge it began with arguments, then threats, and finally swords. Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan used his magic and wealth to gather power in the city, while the large Bronzebeard army and the Wildhammer warriors stood against him.

It was more than a fight over a throne. A people of one blood split three ways, and the wound would be felt in Ironforge politics for centuries: the distrust between Wildhammer and Bronzebeard, and the anger at the Dark Irons, both date from these years.

WildhammerBronzebeardDark Iron
As you scroll, the three hammers drift apart.

Bronzebeard

Thane Madoran Bronzebeard

The largest and most martial clan. Most of Ironforge’s army and merchants were Bronzebeards.

Wildhammer

Thane Khardros Wildhammer

A free-spirited mountain clan the Bronzebeards thought uncouth.

Dark Iron

Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan

Practised sorcery, held the richest veins of ore and gems, and was trusted by no one.

  1. Ironforge

    One throne, three clans

    Thaurissan tries to seize control of the city; Bronzebeard and Wildhammer warriors beat the coup back. Peace does not follow: a civil war that will last for years begins in the streets, on the walls and in the mines.

    Civil war

  2. The split

    The Bronzebeards win

    Madoran’s Bronzebeards keep Ironforge. The Wildhammers go their own way and settle Grim Batol in the Wetlands to the east. The Dark Irons are driven out of the city; Thaurissan makes his own stronghold in the Redridge Mountains to the south.

    Exile

  3. Thaurissan’s War

    A two-pronged attack

    Thaurissan strikes Ironforge while his wife Modgud strikes Grim Batol. Madoran holds the city; Khardros fights Modgud and kills her. Leaderless, the Dark Iron army falls back and is trapped in the south.

    Victory

  4. Ragnaros

    The Firelord wakes

    Facing defeat, Thaurissan plays his last card: he breaches the Elemental Plane and summons the Firelord Ragnaros. Ragnaros had not come to take orders; his arrival kills Thaurissan, shatters the mountains and raises Blackrock Mountain in their place. The next chapter has the details.

    Cataclysm

  5. Thandol Span

    A new alliance

    Leaving Grim Batol, cursed by Modgud’s death, the Wildhammers found Aerie Peak in the Hinterlands. Wanting to leave the war’s hostility behind, the Bronzebeards and Wildhammers build the Thandol Span as a sign of their friendship.

    Alliance
IronforgeOne throne, three clans
One throne, three clansWildhammerDark IronThaurissanMadoranModgud †ThaurissanSEARING GORGEBURNING STEPPESBlackrock MountainAerie PeakThandol SpanIronforgeGrim Batol

Chapter III · Fire

Beneath Blackrock

Ragnaros’s arrival shattered the Redridge peaks. Searing Gorge formed north of the new volcano, Blackrock Mountain, and the Burning Steppes to its south; an ashen waste was left behind.

Thaurissan’s ritual was a door opened onto the fire side of the Elemental Plane. Where it opened, the crust cracked: lava, ash and poisonous gas burst out, and the mountains were pushed upward by the pressure into Blackrock Mountain.

The steppes and valleys around it burned first, then lay buried in ash. Dwarven settlements, the mines and most of the Dark Iron army were lost in the first wave; the survivors became Ragnaros’s captives.

That is why the Blackrock region still looks like two separate wounds: Searing Gorge to the north and the Burning Steppes to the south.

When the war began

230years

The civil war that began about 230 years before the Dark Portal left one clan enslaved to the Firelord.

Ragnaros enslaved the surviving Dark Irons. Under the mountain they built Shadowforge City and carried their hatred of the other clans for centuries.

The coming of Ragnaros

Why did the mountain break?

Ragnaros was an Elemental Lord who lived not on the surface of Azeroth but in the Firelands, on the fire side of the Elemental Plane; to reach the surface he had to tear the fabric of the world. Thaurissan’s ritual did exactly that: it thinned the veil between the two worlds and pulled Ragnaros through.

The trouble was that the mountains of Redridge could not take that much heat and pressure. When Ragnaros emerged, the rock beneath him melted, the ranges above collapsed and folded into each other, and what was left was a single huge volcano that is still burning. The dwarves named it Blackrock Mountain.

Thaurissan had summoned Ragnaros as a servant, but the Firelord bowed to no one. With the Dark Iron leader dead, the ritual was out of control; Ragnaros took the surviving Dark Irons captive and bound them to the mountain. Shadowforge City was the city that enslaved people built beneath it.

Searing Gorge

North

Searing Gorge

The valley just north of the volcano: the blast rained hot ash and lava on it and scorched it. The ground hardened and the plants died; today it is a smoking canyon of red stone.

Blackrock Mountain

Centre

Blackrock Mountain

The volcano Ragnaros raised; Shadowforge City and the Molten Core lie beneath it.

Burning Steppes

South

Burning Steppes

The steppe to the south: the fire rain and volcanic ash from Ragnaros’s arrival burned it first and buried it after. That is why its soil is red and its horizon never stops smoking.

Chapter IV · Wars

The mountain held

In the Second War the Horde overran Khaz Modan from end to end. Ironforge was besieged, but the city never fell.

The Horde’s greatest force in Khaz Modan was the Dragonmaw and Blackrock clans. They made Grim Batol, abandoned by the Wildhammers, their stronghold and held the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza captive there, using her dragons as war machines.

Ironforge’s defence came from the city’s shape: a fortress carved into the mountain and ringed by narrow passes. The orcs’ siege engines were useless in tight tunnels, and Bronzebeards and Wildhammers fought side by side.

SiegeGryphon riders1Ironforge2Dun Algaz3Grim Batol4Thandol Span5Aerie Peak6Blackrock Mountain
Khaz Modan in the Second War.Horde advanceWildhammer gryphons
  1. 1IronforgeBesieged, never taken
  2. 2Dun AlgazThe mountain pass to the Wetlands
  3. 3Grim BatolWhere the Horde held Alexstrasza
  4. 4Thandol SpanThe bridge of the two clans’ friendship
  5. 5Aerie PeakThe Wildhammer home in the Hinterlands
  6. 6Blackrock MountainRagnaros’s volcano

The siege of Ironforge

The Horde besieges the city but cannot get in. King Magni Bronzebeard leads the defence; Orgrim Doomhammer finally leaves the city behind and marches on.

Held

Wildhammer gryphons

Kurdran Wildhammer’s gryphon riders strike the Horde from the sky with their stormhammers.

Joined the Alliance

Grim Batol

The Horde takes the fortress the Wildhammers abandoned and holds the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza captive there.

Lost fortress

Muradin and the Ashbringer

Magni’s brother Muradin goes to Northrend with Arthas and is believed dead at Frostmourne. In his grief, Magni forges the Ashbringer.

Mourning

Chapter V · Today

The Council of Three Hammers

Ironforge no longer has a single king. During the Cataclysm Magni Bronzebeard performed a ritual in Old Ironforge to save Khaz Modan and was turned to diamond; years later he awoke as the voice of Azeroth, the Speaker.

With Magni gone, his daughter Moira Thaurissan briefly seized the throne. Old anger at the Dark Irons flared again; with King Varian Wrynn’s help, the rule of Ironforge was divided among the three clans.

So the three clans that began the War of the Three Hammers sat, centuries later, in the same hall at the same table.

Council

In the Council of Three Hammers each clan has a representative.

Bronzebeard

Muradin Bronzebeard

The brother who came back from Northrend; speaks for the Bronzebeards.

Wildhammer

Falstad Wildhammer

Leader of Aerie Peak; speaks for the Wildhammers.

Dark Iron

Moira Thaurissan

Magni’s daughter; speaks for the Dark Irons. Her son Dagran Thaurissan II is heir to both thrones.

Explorers’ League

Dwarven footprints from Uldaman to Ulduar

1Ironforge2Uldaman3Aerie PeakDark Portal
Dwarven footprints on Azeroth. Positions are approximate.Expeditions
  1. 1IronforgeThe Hall of Explorers, home of the Explorers’ League
  2. 2UldamanTitan vault in the Badlands, dug by the Explorers’ League
  3. 3Aerie PeakThe Wildhammer home in the Hinterlands

The dwarves’ curiosity about the past did not stop at Khaz Modan. The Explorers’ League digs the vaults of Uldaman in search of Titan remains; in Northrend it found Ulduar and the friendship of the Frostborn dwarves of the Storm Peaks.

The Wildhammers still hold to the sky: besides Aerie Peak in the Hinterlands they built a base in Outland, in Shadowmoon Valley. The journeys to Northrend and Outland fall outside this map.

Epilogue

Solid as stone

A people split, burned and besieged who never bent the knee. The fire of the Great Forge still burns.

See this story’s events on the timeline

Note

The drawings are schematic illustrations made for this page; the markers on the game maps are placed approximately.

Images

Ironforge screenshot, Blackrock illustration and maps from WoW Forever. The Burning Steppes painting is by Peter Lee; the Ragnaros image belongs to Blizzard Entertainment. The earthen illustration (Jon Neilson) and the Bronzebeard image belong to Blizzard Entertainment.