World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 (35 page)

I
n the years that followed the War of the Three Hammers, Madoran and his people rebuilt Ironforge. Khardros and the
Wildhammers, however, chose to abandon Grim Batol. Modgud had cursed the great city upon her death, leaving it uninhabitable. The Bronzebeards offered the Wildhammers a place in Ironforge, but it was a conciliatory gesture at best. Madoran knew in his heart that Khardros was too proud to accept such an offer. As expected, the Wildhammer ruler set out to forge a new future for his clan.

Some of the Wildhammers settled in a region called
Northeron. Yet Khardros led most of his clan even farther north, into the wooded Hinterlands. The memories of Grim Batol still haunted the Wildhammers, and so they decided to eschew the subterranean dwellings of the past. Upon reaching the Hinterlands, Khardros and his people built a majestic city,
Aerie Peak, high in the mountains. The Wildhammers fostered their traditional ties with the natural world. They practiced shamanism and befriended the intelligent half-lion, half-eagle gryphons—creatures that called the nooks and crannies of the mountains home. The gryphons became emblematic of the Wildhammers, an inseparable part of their culture.

Madoran and Khardros established diplomatic ties between their two healing nations. The great arches of the
Thandol Span were constructed as both an economic and a symbolic bridge between the dwarven territories. Although rivalries and ideological differences would persist, the two leaders vowed never to take up arms against each other again.

When Khardros and Madoran passed away, their sons commissioned masons to forge two great statues of the leaders. The craftsmen erected these at the entrance to the southlands, beyond which lay the Dark Iron territories. There, the statues would maintain a tireless vigil, their stony eyes ever watching over the broken domain of their nemeses.

Ragnaros’s rebirth had decimated much of the Redridge Mountains. A raging volcano known as
Blackrock Mountain now towered over the ruined Dark Iron kingdom. The smoldering wasteland south of the volcano was called the Burning Steppes. The yawning chasm to the north was dubbed the Searing Gorge.

Ragnaros himself retreated deep within the blistering heart of Blackrock Mountain. From his lair, the
Molten Core, he enslaved the surviving Dark Irons. The
dwarves obeyed their elemental master’s every beck and call. They carved out a new fortress under the mountain and named it
Shadowforge City. Within their fiery home, they would continue nursing their hatred of the Wildhammers and the Bronzebeards.

R
EIGN OF THE
A
NVILMAR
L
INE

The
Anvilmar family’s control of Ironforge came to an end with the costly War of the Three Hammers. Madoran Bronzebeard assumed leadership of the dwarf nation, but he did not wish to make an enemy of its former rulers. Thus, Madoran offered the now-deposed prince of the Anvilmar family and his descendants a permanent seat on Ironforge’s senate
.

MAP OF DWARF AND GNOME TERRITORIES IN THE EASTERN KINGDOMS

A
fter the
Sundering, the Zandalari set out to explore the numerous islands that dotted the newly formed sea between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. It was during these voyages that the
trolls discovered
Kezan, an isle inhabited by
goblins. These small green-skinned beings were clever but crude.

At first, the two races kept their distance from each other. The Zandalari had come to Kezan in search of a strange mineral called
kaja’mite. The consumption of vaporized kaja’mite caused a range of effects, such as heightened senses, hallucinations, and increased intelligence. The trolls greatly valued the mineral and saw it as a sacred component in their rituals and ceremonies. For centuries they mined from the numerous kaja’mite veins running close to the surface of the island. Occasionally they employed goblins to work for them, paying with shiny but cheap trinkets that the small creatures prized.

The arrangement changed once the trolls discovered an unimaginable deposit of kaja’mite buried deep underground—more than the Zandalari would ever need. Rather than dig for it themselves, they enslaved the goblins and forced them to mine under abysmal conditions. For thousands of years, the goblins suffered under the yoke of troll oppression, too weak to resist.

In the end, it was the kaja’mite itself that led to the goblins’ salvation.

A cloud of kaja’mite dust always blanketed the mines. Over time, breathing it in awakened the goblins’ intelligence … and craftiness. Secretly, they plotted the overthrow of their slave masters, using what materials they could find to fashion traps, explosives, and other ingenious weaponry.

The troll overseers were caught off guard when the goblin masses stormed from the mines, armed with technology beyond even what the Zandalari possessed. The revolution shattered the trolls’ hold over Kezan, laying waste to their mining operation and leaving behind untold destruction.

The surviving Zandalari fled, and the goblins celebrated their new liberation by turning on each other in a mad scramble to fill the void of power. Amid the chaos, countless factions and allegiances formed. The most powerful of these groups were known as cartels. When no clear winner emerged from the fighting, these cartels brokered an uneasy truce.

Conflict would never really end between the various goblin factions, but for decades, they waged most of their battles in the economic arena. The cartels ultimately turned to trade to sustain themselves and used their profits to amass ever more wealth and power.

A
NCIENT
G
OBLINS

In ancient times, Keeper
Mimiron had discovered kaja’mite and used it to experiment on various races, greatly enhancing their intellect. Some of these test subjects were members of a small, primitive race that roamed the forestlands near
Ulduar. Consuming kaja’mite transformed the creatures into a highly intelligent, industrious breed known thereafter as goblins
.

   
The destruction caused by the Sundering cut off the goblins’ supply of kaja’mite. In just a few generations, their heightened intelligence vanished. Those goblins who had found refuge on the Isle of Kezan had already forgotten the role kaja’mite had played in their old society
.