Wildhammers establish Aerie Peak and bond with gryphons

Full History

The Wildhammer dwarves established Aerie Peak in the Hinterlands and forged a strong bond with the region's gryphons. Their new homeland followed the loss of Grim Batol, which had been cursed during the Dark Iron assault. The settlement became the lasting center of a people whose identity increasingly differed from the stone halls of Ironforge.

The Wildhammers had already been driven from their ancestral mountain after the Bronzebeards won the civil war. Grim Batol offered them a second kingdom until Modgud's magic and the violence of the renewed conflict made it unfit for habitation. Under Khardros's leadership and among his successors, the clan sought safety in the northern highlands. The great birds of the region became companions and mounts, giving the Wildhammers a distinctive military tradition.

That partnership would later help the Alliance contest the skies during the Second War, especially against the Horde's dragons. Aerie Peak remained a center of Wildhammer culture in original World of Warcraft. Its history explains why their gryphon riders stand alongside the Bronzebeards as allies while retaining their own customs, leaders, and mountain homeland.