The demons fell into Aegwynn’s trap. As a blizzard tore over the terrain, the Guardian and her winged allies overwhelmed the Legion’s minions. Yet neither Aegwynn nor the dragons expected what came next.
The skies of Northrend churned and darkened. A monstrous demonic form emerged upon the battlefield: Sargeras, ruler of the Burning Legion. This was only an avatar of the demon lord, a tiny portion of Sargeras’s vast cosmic power. Yet he nonetheless radiated great strength and fury. He unleashed his terrible might on Aegwynn, intending to destroy the Guardian who had thwarted his agents for so long.
Aegwynn did not hesitate to fight back. She summoned her powers and brought them to bear against Sargeras. The battle that followed was the most difficult Aegwynn had ever fought. In the shadow of Galakrond’s gargantuan remains, Sargeras and the Guardian called down the fury of the heavens. Their attacks tore the darkened skies asunder and scarred the icy crust of Northrend. A storm of magic engulfed the region and held even the mighty dragons at bay. With a final relentless flurry of spellwork, Aegwynn defeated her foe. Though drained from the effort, she was victorious.
Or so it seemed.
When Aegwynn had struck Sargeras down, he had transferred his spirit into her weakened body. There, a sliver of Sargeras’s undying malevolence would remain, lurking within the depths of her soul.
Unaware of the dark presence hidden deep within her, Aegwynn gathered Sargeras’s colossal, broken form to seal it away where it could harm no one else. She considered many locations to serve as the demon lord’s final resting place. In the end she chose the ancient night elven city of Suramar, some of which had been blasted to the bottom of the sea during the Sundering.
During the War of the Ancients, the Legion had attempted to open a gateway within Suramar itself. This plan was foiled by a sect of Highborne led by Grand Magistrix Elisande. These powerful sorcerers created a series of enchanted seals to close the demons’ portal and also negate nearby fel energies. When the Sundering later tore through the world, the part of Suramar containing the Legion’s failed gateway was sucked beneath the waves.
It was these lost ruins that drew Aegwynn’s attention. Knowing that the Highborne’s seals would nullify whatever evil still lingered in Sargeras’s avatar, she buried the demon lord’s broken body within the sunken portion of Suramar. Aegwynn hoped Sargeras’s remains would lie undisturbed there until the end of time.
While Guardian Aegwynn kept watch over the world of Azeroth, the lonely pandaren continued their isolated existence. Life on their homeland of Pandaria progressed in relative peace, save for the mantid’s periodic assaults against the Serpent’s Spine. As a people, the pandaren were content to live out their days behind the thick mists that shrouded their domain. They all believed that the rest of Azeroth had been annihilated in the terrible Sundering.
But a young pandaren, Liu Lang, did not share this belief. He had been raised on a small ranch in the tranquil Valley of the Four Winds. He often wandered the cliffs that overlooked the sea, wondering if anything existed beyond the horizon. His curiosity led him to make a bold proclamation: he would embark on a great sea voyage and discover, once and for all, what had become of the outside world.
Ignoring the warnings and ridicule of his fellow pandaren, Liu Lang gathered a few meager supplies and began his journey. Atop a small turtle named Shen-zin Su, he sailed through the cloaking mists. Time passed without word from Liu Lang, and the other pandaren believed he must have died on his foolhardy venture.
Then, five years later, Liu Lang returned. He told incredible tales of mysterious lands and peoples on the other side of the sea. After gathering more supplies, Liu Lang set out once again.
This time, he would not endure his journey alone. Shen-zin Su had grown larger over the years, and Liu Lang’s stories had inspired one pandaren to join him on the next leg of his voyage. Her name was Shinizi, and she later became Liu Lang’s wife.
Every five years, Liu Lang returned. Each time, Shen-zin Su had become larger, and more pandaren decided to join the eccentric explorer for a life of adventure. This tradition continued for decades until the Great Turtle had grown to the size of a giant island. Misty mountains and lakes formed atop the turtle’s shell. In time, villages sprang up across the landscape. These became home to a thriving community of pandaren who would eventually name their unique refuge the Wandering Isle.
On his final voyage from Pandaria, the elderly Liu Lang fell into a deep sleep from which he never awoke. In death, his spirit merged with the sea turtle himself. Liu Lang’s tradition of bold exploration and daring to dream beyond the known did not die with him. The pandaren of the Wandering Isle would carry on his values for many centuries to come.
After their battle in Northrend, Sargeras began twisting Aegwynn’s thoughts. He pushed her to isolate herself from the Council of Tirisfal, drawing on concerns that she had always harbored about the order. Chief among these concerns was something Aegwynn had recently discovered: the Council of Tirisfal’s members were interfering in the politics of human nations. The magi argued that what they were doing was necessary—their order had stayed in the shadows for too long. With their knowledge and wisdom, they had the power to prevent war and suffering in the mortal world.
Aegwynn, however, viewed the council’s shadowy activities with skepticism and unease. She feared that if she stepped down, they would choose a weaker Guardian, someone they could use to pursue their political agendas. Thus Aegwynn decided to stay on as Guardian past her first century of service. She used her powers to extend her own life for decades longer than what would have been otherwise possible. Though some members of the council were displeased with Aegwynn’s choice, they accepted her decision. After all, she had performed incredible feats during her time as the Guardian.
Over the next hundred years, Aegwynn’s relationship with the council became more and more strained. Sargeras’s subtle influence made her ever more paranoid about her fellow magi. Her growing unease led her to construct a refuge far from the eyes of the council. Within the barren and remote Deadwind Pass, she forged the grand tower known as Karazhan. Its whereabouts would remain a secret from the council for many years.
Aegwynn would often retreat to Karazhan to work in peace and quiet. Yet the tower also served another vital purpose. It acted as a conduit for the potent ley lines in the surrounding region, through which Aegwynn could siphon power when needed.
In time, the aging members of the council began passing away, their powers still held in Aegwynn’s grasp. New sorcerers arose to join the order. They continued the council’s practice of interfering with the nations of the Eastern Kingdoms. Many of these new members also pushed for a more hard-line approach to deal with the wayward Guardian and force her to relinquish her powers.
During one of Aegwynn’s rare visits to Dalaran, the council demanded that she step down as Guardian or face immediate consequences. Aegwynn balked at their threat. Her distrust of the council had now shifted to outright hostility. She told the magi that putting the fate of Azeroth in their hands was tantamount to dooming the world.
Furious with Aegwynn’s behavior, the council members agreed among themselves to take action. If the Guardian would not give up her powers voluntarily, they would force her to do so. The council long debated how best to accomplish this. Some members proposed empowering a new Guardian, but this idea presented too many dangerous possibilities. If Aegwynn and another Guardian were to do battle, the results could be disastrous for the world. Of even greater concern was that such a conflict would call public attention to their clandestine order.
Ultimately, the council agreed on a more subtle course of action. They formed the Tirisgarde, an order of magi girded with relics and armaments that could diminish the Guardian’s incredible powers. After years of training, these resourceful and gifted hunters set out to find Aegwynn and bring her back to Dalaran.
The Guardian eluded many of the Tirisgarde with ease. However, the hunters did succeed in finding
Karazhan and reporting its location back to the council.
With Karazhan no longer safe, Aegwynn magically sealed off the tower from outsiders. She then set out to locate a new refuge—one that neither the council nor the Tirisgarde would ever find. After much consideration, she decided to build this stronghold in the ruins of ancient Suramar, deep beneath the sea. Her dwelling, the Guardian Sanctum, would stay hidden from the Tirisgarde for centuries.
Far from the hidden Guardian Sanctum, High King Modimus Anvilmar and his dwarves thrived in their mountain home of Ironforge. Over the centuries, trade partnerships with the human city-states had filled Ironforge’s coffers with riches. Great architectural feats, such as the Stonewrought Dam, attracted curious visitors from as far away as the elven kingdom of Quel’Thalas.
Yet beneath the façade of prosperity, tensions simmered between Ironforge’s three powerful clans: the Bronzebeards, the Wildhammers, and the Dark Irons.
Thane Madoran Bronzebeard was the head of the Bronzebeard clan, the largest of the three factions. The clan, which formed the bulk of Ironforge’s military and mercantile classes, considered itself the backbone of the kingdom and claimed to share distant blood relations with High King Modimus.
The Wildhammers lived among the craggy hills and icy slopes outside Ironforge. Led by Thane Khardros Wildhammer, they gained notoriety as adept and incredibly resilient mountaineers. Considered uncouth by the Bronzebeard clan, the Wildhammers struggled to gain more sway with High King Modimus and to solidify their place among the ruling elite of Ironforge.
Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan ruled the Dark Irons, who inhabited the deepest and darkest corners of the subterranean city. Their long-standing practice of dabbling in sorcery, along with a penchant for secrecy and political scheming, drew the ire of Ironforge’s other inhabitants. Thaurissan held firm control over the kingdom’s richest gem and mineral deposits, using his wealth as leverage to protect his people and secure a place in Ironforge’s increasingly volatile political arena.
High King Modimus strived to treat each clan with fairness and respect, but his inability to ease tensions between the factions ultimately led to disaster. The high king passed away from old age, and before his eldest son could be crowned, the simmering cauldron of Ironforge boiled over.
No one knows exactly who struck the first blow. War ignited between the three clans as each vied for dominion of the mountain. Bloody battles raged in every corner of the kingdom for many long and terrible years. In the end, the Bronzebeard clan used its martial expertise to drive the Wildhammers and Dark Irons from the mountain and claim total victory.
Khardros conceded defeat and led his clan north. The Wildhammers eventually settled in a nearby region of marshlands. They carved out a great subterranean city named Grim Batol, one that soon rivaled even Ironforge in scope and prestige. The earlier defeat weighed heavy on Khardros’s shoulders, but in time, he and his kin accepted their lot and prospered in their new home.
The Dark Irons ventured south to the tranquil Redridge Mountains. There, they founded the new kingdom of Thaurissan, named after their leader. Although his people prospered, Thaurissan himself wallowed in humiliation. He dreamed of one day exacting retribution upon his cousins in the north and claiming all of Khaz Modan as his own.
After years of secretly forging a new army, Thaurissan launched a brazen two-pronged assault against the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer clans. The sorcerer-thane himself led the attack on Ironforge. He had bolstered his formidable Dark Iron warriors with legions of immense war golems and siege engines. The invaders reached the very heart of the city before the Bronzebeards finally rallied and pushed the Dark Irons all the way back to Redridge.
Thaurissan’s wife, the sorceress Modgud, led the second army against Grim Batol. The Dark Irons besieged the mighty fortress and called upon their dark magics to break the Wildhammers’ will. They brought the shadows of Grim Batol to life, transforming the bustling city into a realm of nightmare and terror. Khardros led his Wildhammers in a daring counterattack and vanquished Modgud. With her death, the Dark Irons retreated south, only to find themselves face to face with the armies of Ironforge. Madoran had caught wind of the attack and brought his forces north. The Bronzebeard and Wildhammer armies crushed the Dark Irons from both sides, utterly annihilating them.
In the Dark Irons, Madoran and Khardros found a common enemy and a new purpose. They put aside their old rivalries and marched their mighty host southward, pledging they would not stop until they had purged Thaurissan and his treacherous Dark Irons from the face of the world.
As the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer armies drew near, Thaurissan scrambled for a way to defeat his enemies. He decided to draw the fiery power from deep within the world and use it as a weapon. Thus Thaurissan wove a great spell to save his kingdom. Yet amid his conjuration, his mind turned to the death of his wife and his recent defeats. Anger roiled through Thaurissan’s heart. His rage grew so absolute that his spellwork breached the Elemental Plane and tapped into Ragnaros the Firelord.
Unwittingly, Thaurissan ripped Ragnaros from the Elemental Plane and summoned him to the surface of Azeroth. The earth buckled and wrenched apart. The Firelord’s violent rebirth sparked a series of apocalyptic explosions that instantly killed the sorcerer-thane and shattered the surrounding mountains.
From afar, Madoran and Khardros watched in horror as the world was torn asunder and firestorms engulfed the area. They knew in that instant that Thaurissan had doomed himself and his people. Frightened for their own safety, the Wildhammers and Bronzebeards turned north and fled.
THAURISSAN SUMMONS RAGNAROS THE FIRELORD INTO THE WORLD
In 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 con
tinue nursing their hatred of the Wildhammers and the Bronzebeards.
REIGN OF THE ANVILMAR LINE
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
After 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.
World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 Page 17
