Horde advances into Khaz Modan

Full History

The destruction of Stormwind did not satisfy the ambitions of the Horde. Its armies looked north toward Khaz Modan and the kingdoms beyond, where human refugees hoped to organize a new resistance. The mountains, passes, and settlements of the dwarves stood in the path of that advance. The orcs encountered defenders accustomed to difficult terrain and fortified approaches, and they could not treat the region as simply another open battlefield.

Ironforge remained the center of Bronzebeard strength, supported by the dwarves' knowledge of stone and metal. Gnomish communities also possessed technical skill and strongholds of their own. The Horde's campaign threatened both peoples and helped make their interests inseparable from those of the human states farther north. Defending Khaz Modan was a struggle for their homelands as well as an obstacle to the larger orcish invasion.

The fighting became part of the Second War as the Alliance of Lordaeron assembled under Anduin Lothar. Dwarves and gnomes contributed to the coalition, while Horde forces sought routes and resources necessary for a prolonged campaign. The war forced peoples with different histories to act together in the face of conquest. It also demonstrated that the old divisions of the human kingdoms could not contain a threat able to march across the lands of several races.

The region remained contested long after the Second War had ended. Blackrock Mountain, the Dark Iron dwarves, and the remnants of hostile orcish forces complicated the political landscape of southern Khaz Modan. The original World of Warcraft world therefore preserved Khaz Modan as more than the secure mountain home of the Alliance's dwarves. Its passes and fortresses had been central to the wars that brought the modern Alliance into being, and older rivalries still shaped the danger beyond Ironforge's gates.