Cairne Bloodhoof

Cairne Bloodhoof is the High Chieftain of the tauren and the leader of Thunder Bluff. An old warrior who had led his people through years of war with the centaur, he allied the tauren with Thrall's Horde and gave the scattered tribes a permanent home in Mulgore. In Classic he is the tauren faction leader, found on the High Rise of Thunder Bluff.

Biography

Before the Horde came to Kalimdor, the tauren were nomads. They followed the herds across the plains and kept to the old ways of the Earth Mother, but they were few, and the centaur clans of the Barrens hunted them without mercy. Cairne, chieftain of the Bloodhoof tribe, spent years trying to hold his people together while the centaur drove them from one camp to the next.

During the Third War, newly arrived orcs under Thrall helped the Bloodhoof tauren fight their way through the centaur to the grasslands of Mulgore. Cairne repaid the debt with friendship and advice. He told Thrall that the Oracle the orcs were seeking lay within Stonetalon Peak, and the two went there together. The Oracle turned out to be Medivh, and the meeting there set the orcs and humans on the road to their alliance. The tauren fought beside the Horde in the battle against Archimonde, and Cairne became one of Thrall's closest friends and counselors.

With Horde help, Cairne secured Mulgore for all the tauren and built their first city on the mesas of Thunder Bluff. One by one the scattered tribes came to live under his rule. Not all of them agreed with his direction, and the most open opponent was Magatha Grimtotem, the Elder Crone, who believed she should lead the tauren and wanted no part of the Horde.

In World of Warcraft

Cairne stands in the great tent on the High Rise of Thunder Bluff. He is a level 63 boss, one of the racial leaders that Alliance raids target for honor. His son Baine Bloodhoof lives in Bloodhoof Village in the lowlands of Mulgore, and Magatha Grimtotem keeps her own lodge on the Elder Rise of his city, a reminder that Cairne keeps his rivals close.

Quests

Cairne appears at the end of the tauren starting story. In Journey into Thunder Bluff, an ancestral spirit sends young tauren up to the city to meet him. The next step is Rites of the Earthmother, where Cairne asks the player to hunt the great kodo Arra'chea in Mulgore and bring back its horn. The reward is a pair of [Kodo Hunter's Leggings].

Elsewhere, tauren NPCs speak of him often. In A Vengeful Fate, Auld Stonespire in Thunder Bluff praises Cairne for uniting the tribes but cannot forgive the quilboar who drove his people out of the southern Barrens. Cairne also sent Primalist Thurloga to help the Frostwolf clan in Alterac Valley, which sets up the quest Lokholar the Ice Lord.

During Children's Week, an orcish orphan asks the player to fetch Cairne's hoofprint in Cairne's Hoofprint. Cairne obliges, and the orphan gets the toy [Cairne's Hoofprint].

Later history

• After Thrall stepped down in Cataclysm, Cairne grew angry with Garrosh Hellscream's leadership and challenged him to a mak'gora, a ritual duel. Magatha Grimtotem secretly poisoned Garrosh's axe, and Cairne died from the first wound. Magatha's Grimtotem then seized Thunder Bluff.
• Baine Bloodhoof retook the city with help from Jaina Proudmoore and Hamuul Runetotem, and became High Chieftain in his father's place.

Trivia

• Cairne carried the Bloodhoof Runespear, a sacred weapon of his tribe's chieftains. It shattered in his final duel.
• Cairne first appeared in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) as a hero unit in the orc campaign.
• His death was told in the novel The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm by Christie Golden.
• Cairne was made "a little more talkative" in patch 1.4, and racial leaders were made stronger in patch 1.7.

Sources

• Cairne Bloodhoof - Warcraft Wiki
• Rites of the Earthmother - Warcraft Wiki