Sign inBlackrock Clan
The Blackrock clan is one of the oldest and most powerful orc clans, the disciplined war machine at the core of the original Horde. It gave the Horde two of its warchiefs, Blackhand and Orgrim Doomhammer, and after the Second War its remnants refused to follow Thrall. In Classic the clan, now called the Dark Horde, holds Blackrock Spire under Warchief Rend Blackhand and raids the human lands of Redridge Mountains and the Burning Steppes.
History
On Draenor and in the First War
On Draenor, the Blackrock clan was known for its discipline and its skill at smithing. Its chieftain, Blackhand, was chosen by the warlock Gul'dan and the Shadow Council to be the first Warchief of the Horde. He led the orcs through the Dark Portal and into the First War against Stormwind, but he was largely a puppet of the warlocks.
Blackhand's lieutenant, Orgrim Doomhammer, also came from the Blackrock clan. Doomhammer saw through the Shadow Council's schemes, killed Blackhand in single combat and took command of the Horde himself. Under Doomhammer the Horde destroyed Stormwind.
The Second War and the Dark Horde
Blackhand's sons, Rend and Maim, kept their place among the Blackrock leaders during the Second War, but they never forgave Doomhammer for their father's death. After the Horde's defeat, most orcs were captured and held in internment camps. The brothers escaped capture, gathered surviving Blackrock warriors and others loyal to them, and seized the upper half of Blackrock Mountain. They named their army the Dark Horde.
When Thrall freed the interned orcs and founded a new Horde in Kalimdor, Rend refused to recognize him. Instead the Dark Horde allied with Nefarian, the son of Deathwing, who appears as Lord Victor Nefarius and uses the orcs as soldiers in his own war against the Dark Iron Dwarves of the depths below.
In World of Warcraft
Redridge Mountains
Alliance players meet the Blackrock clan in their late teens and early twenties in Redridge Mountains, where the orcs have overrun Stonewatch Keep and set up camps around Render's Valley. The town of Lakeshire is full of quests against them:
- Marshal Marris asks for ten [Battleworn Axe] in Blackrock Menace, then for orbs from the clan's shadowcasters in Shadow Magic, and finally for the head of Tharil'zun in Tharil'zun.
- Guard Howe pays for every Blackrock Champion killed in Blackrock Bounty.
- Magistrate Solomon posts a bounty on Gath'Ilzogg, the clan's warlord in Redridge, in Wanted: Gath'Ilzogg.
Burning Steppes
In Burning Steppes, the clan holds Blackrock Stronghold at the foot of Blackrock Mountain. Level 55 to 58 orcs such as Blackrock Slayer, Blackrock Warlock and Blackrock Battlemaster guard it.
Blackrock Spire
Blackrock Spire is the Dark Horde's fortress inside Blackrock Mountain, split into two dungeons for level 55 to 60 players.
Lower Blackrock Spire holds the clan's allies and generals: the ogre Highlord Omokk, the trolls War Master Voone and Shadow Hunter Vosh'gajin, and Overlord Wyrmthalak of the Bloodaxe legion. Horde players are sent after them in Warlord's Command from Kargath. The three generals also carry the gemstones needed for Seal of Ascension, the key to the upper spire.
Upper Blackrock Spire is where the clan's leaders live. Warchief Rend Blackhand watches from a balcony above his arena, then rides into battle on his black dragon Gyth. He drops [Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge] and [Dal'Rend's Tribal Guardian], and his head is the goal of For The Horde!, which Thrall gives after Eitrigg's Wisdom. Turning in [Head of Rend Blackhand] in Orgrimmar casts Warchief's Blessing on every Horde player in the city. Beyond Rend, General Drakkisath commands the black dragonkin, and Blackhand's Command leads through him to Blackwing Lair.
Eitrigg and Thrall
Rend's story is personal for Thrall's Horde. The veteran Eitrigg was himself a Blackrock warrior. According to Eitrigg's Wisdom, he and his two sons followed Rend to Blackrock Mountain, where both sons died fighting the Dark Irons. Eitrigg now serves Thrall in Orgrimmar, and when players bring proof that Rend is alive, his knowledge of the clan helps convince Thrall to strike. He is also the orc whose life Tirion Fordring once spared, at the cost of his own knighthood.
Later history
In Warlords of Draenor, players visited the Blackrock clan in an alternate Draenor and fought Blackhand in the Blackrock Foundry raid. On Azeroth, the clan's survivors served the Twilight's Hammer in Cataclysm's Blackrock Caverns. By Dragonflight, Eitrigg had become chieftain of a Blackrock clan that once again fights for the Horde.
Sources
Categories: Lore
Comments (0)
No comments yet.