Blackrock Depths

Blackrock Depths is the deepest part of Blackrock Mountain, the volcano between the Searing Gorge and the Burning Steppes, and it was once the capital of the Dark Iron dwarves. During the War of the Three Hammers, the Bronzebeard clan drove the Dark Irons out of Ironforge, and Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan led his people south to found a city in the Redridge Mountains. He and his wife, the sorceress Modgud, later attacked Ironforge and the Wildhammer seat of Grim Batol at the same time, and both assaults failed.

As the armies of Ironforge and Grim Batol marched south, Thaurissan called on the powers beneath the world for a servant to win the war and instead freed Ragnaros the Firelord, ruler of the fire elementals. Ragnaros's arrival tore apart the Redridge Mountains and pushed up the volcano now called Blackrock Mountain. Thaurissan died by the power he had unleashed, and Ragnaros and his elementals enslaved the surviving Dark Irons. Franclorn Forgewright, the architect who planned their new city, watched the Firelord's influence drive his once honorable people to madness and evil.

The depths now serve as Ragnaros's seat of power, and Emperor Dagran Thaurissan rules the Dark Irons from Shadowforge City, calling himself the Firelord's most powerful servant. Ragnaros has learned to give life to stone, and the Dark Irons under Golem Lord Argelmach build golems for his war to take the whole mountain from Nefarian and his black dragons. General Angerforge commands the Anvilrage soldiers, and fire elementals such as Lord Incendius, who guards the Black Anvil, serve beside them. Princess Moira Bronzebeard, daughter of King Magni of Ironforge, sits at the emperor's side after Dark Irons ambushed her escort in the Burning Steppes, and her captured escort leader, Kharan Mighthammer, believes a spell of Thaurissan's holds her.

King Magni sends Alliance adventurers to find Kharan in the prison, then to kill Thaurissan, since only the emperor's death will break the spell. Horde adventurers learn of the kidnapping from Commander Gor'shak, an orc agent who let himself be captured, and Thrall orders the same rescue, hoping to strengthen the Horde's ties in the Eastern Kingdoms. Marshal Maxwell of Morgan's Vigil sends adventurers after the imprisoned Marshal Windsor, whose seized notes General Angerforge and Golem Lord Argelmach are decoding. The ghost of Franclorn Forgewright offers the Shadowforge Key for returning his hammer Ironfel to his statue, and Lothos Riftwaker asks for a Core Fragment from the gate of the Molten Core, Ragnaros's lair.

The rescue ends badly for Ironforge. With Thaurissan dead, Moira mourns him, praises him as a great and honorable dwarf, and declares that the child she carries, a Dark Iron, will be heir to the throne of Ironforge. Magni concludes that Thaurissan has won even in death, and Thrall, hearing the same news from Horde champions, sees a new threat as Magni's years run out.