Blackrock factions vie for power

Full History

The mountain that rose from Thaurissan's disastrous summoning had been a symbol of division among dwarves since the War of the Three Hammers. When the Dark Iron ruler called upon elemental power, Ragnaros erupted into the world and devastated the surrounding land. The Firelord's presence remained bound to the history of Blackrock Mountain, and Dark Iron settlements developed under his domination. The landscape itself testified to the cost of Thaurissan's desperate magic.

Centuries later, orcish forces came to occupy parts of the mountain during the wars with the human kingdoms. Defeat of the old Horde did not erase every remnant of its army. Rend Blackhand and the orcs associated with the Dark Horde remained distinct from the New Horde Thrall would establish in Kalimdor. Their survival brought the conflicts of the First and Second Wars into the same region already haunted by an elemental catastrophe.

Another threat emerged from the black dragonflight. Nefarian, moving among mortal affairs as Victor Nefarius, held interests within Blackrock's contested strongholds. His presence connected the mountain's present struggles with the betrayal of Neltharion and the long hostility between the black dragons and their former allies. The mountain's factions did not become a single army merely because they shared a dangerous home; their rivalries were part of the threat.

By the original game's opening, Ragnaros, the Dark Iron, the Dark Horde, and Nefarian all belonged to the continuing condition of Blackrock Mountain. The stronghold was not an already pacified dungeon, but a place where different strands of Azeroth's history had converged without resolving one another.