World of Warcraft
Talking about dwarves and gnomes was a blast for me because yes, I like the two races due to various reasons. But I also learned some new things about them that I hadn’t known before. One of those would be how they share the same origin point, and their separation, only to be reunited (by chance) again on the snowy mountains of Khaz Modan. This journey includes forces bigger than them, which we (and the two races) would also know not much of at the time Vanilla WoW takes place in, but we’ll still tackle what we know and can see in-game, since we have knowledge about the place they were created in. As so, this article will be about Uldaman and what the dwarves and gnomes were like when created, and the reason we can see them above ground.
Titan-Forged, Uldaman, Troggs
Located just between the lands of Loch Modan and Badlands, its entrance is inside the latter zone, but most of it is buried underground in the former. We can see this too, in the west side of Loch Modan with the ruins of a section of it being investigated by dwarves, albeit slowly due to troggs having a presence there. In fact, this is the place where troggs were first awakened after their creation, to later then be a nuisance to the denizens of Dun Morogh, and many other places.
The origin of this place, is that it’s a huge vault that was created by the titan keeper Ironaya to be an underground stasis chamber for the failed experiment resulting in the creation of troggs. This experiment came to be, because they wanted to create new titan-forged beings, by using the Forge of Wills located in the Halls of Stone section of Ulduar in Northrend. These troggs had stone for skin and were too brutal, but the keepers couldn’t get themselves to destroy what is essentially their creation, so they were locked in sleep inside Uldaman. Some portion of the troggs however have escaped by some way and started wandering the world, and some time later on, the rest would be awakened by the disturbances to the vault of Uldaman caused by the dwarven explorers looking for artifacts and history.
Earthen and Mechagnomes
The Earthen were, by all accounts an improvement over the troggs, and could theoretically be considered brothers (maybe). Created in Ulduar, they also had stone skin, but were kinder than their previous iterations and would be considered a success. They would be given the task of carving out deep corners of the world and creating mountains around, which would explain the later dwarves’ obsession with stone and any material under the surface of the world. The first king of the Earthen, Urel Stoneheart, would later be given, the titan created Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings. This hammer would carry with it the responsibility to create and give life to more Earthen, and was used as such after the departure of the titans. In fact, they were so unconcerned with what was going on above the surface, that they could not be bothered with what other races were doing and only ever wanted to go deeper inside the earth.
With the corruption of the Forge of Wills in Ulduar, and by extension many of the creations hailing from it including the Keeper Loken, after some time the titan-keepers Tyr, Archaedas and Ironaya stole the Discs of Norgannon and fled Ulduar with most of the Earthen, Mechagnomes and a large group of afflicted Vrykul. With the Vrykul later on separating from the group and residing in Tirisfal Glades where Tyr sacrificed himself fighting a monstrosity, Archaedas and Ironaya, along with the surviving two races has gone to Uldaman, where they expanded the vault to help occupy its new inhabitants.
The Mechagnomes, created to have not stone skin, but an entire body of metal and clockwork, would have a similar nature to their Earthen cousins, and would have the purpose of acting as caretakers of Ulduar. Their creator Watcher Mimiron, a titan-keeper, would later be killed by Loken, and his mechagnomes follower would save his spirit, locking it inside a mechagnome body just like theirs. This would however take away from his mental state, and he has not been sane since that time. A fun fact would be that, while Mimiron was experimenting with a new mineral called Kaja’mite, he would test it on many creatures roaming the lands. One of these was a small primitive race, which after the influence of the mineral were transformed into the highly intelligent race known as goblins.
The Awakening and What Happened Later On
Years after their relocation to the vaults of Uldaman, some Earthen started to show signs of the Curse of Flesh, and were later placed in hibernation until a cure could be found. Other remaining Earthen however, have decided to stay awake alongside the mechagnomes and tend to Uldaman and its machineries. Following the years after this, the titan-keepers Archaedas and Ironaya, hard at work on trying to fix up a cure for the curse, would also enter hibernation.
With the Great Sundering taking effect and tearing the world apart, the Earthen that were awake decided to dig deep inside Uldaman and enter hibernation, along with their already sleeping brethren. This would leave mechagnomes to themselves, but they would later on succumb to the curse of flesh, which would transform them into the race we know them today as gnomes. They would leave Uldaman to a few remaining mechagnomes and go outside the vault. These remaining mechagnomes would, in time, die out until one unknown mechagnome remained alone, and she would also transform into a gnome, making her grow older. With her dying breath, she would wake the hibernating Earthen, however they would find themselves changed into the flesh from their previous stone skin, and would now be called as the dwarves. They would then also leave Uldaman, and head towards the nearby Khaz Modan mountains.
Personal Thoughts on Uldaman, Earthen and Mechagnomes
Both the dwarves and gnomes go hand in hand in many happenings in the history of the game, and we can understand this by seeing how they were together even before we knew them as how they are today. Created to take care of ancient halls and machinations, to then later on be the victims of a corrupt titan-keeper, having to leave their home and even then, the curse that they fled from still managed to keep up with them, and finally changing to the flesh versions they are currently represented as. Even then, they would not dwell on the negative sides of these and keep moving. Dwarves continue to keep digging around and uncovering parts of history, along with their own, and gnomes deciding to leave it all behind and instead focus on the future and their inventions.
