The Fall of Gnomeregan

Full History

Gnomeregan's fall turned one of the world's most technically accomplished cities into a disaster for its own inhabitants. A trogg invasion and the use of radiation left much of the city uninhabitable. Gelbin Mekkatorque led survivors to safety among the dwarves of Ironforge. Many gnomes remained below, afflicted or transformed, while their former home became a dangerous place rather than a thriving capital.

Gnomish engineering had supplied ingenuity to the Alliance, particularly in the wars against the Horde. Yet technical skill could not solve every danger. Mekgineer Thermaplugg's choices during the crisis deepened its consequences, and attempts to halt the trogg threat by poisoning or irradiating the invaders also devastated the population. The result was exile for a people whose identity had long been tied to their great underground city.

Ironforge's welcome gave the survivors shelter, but did not restore Gnomeregan or resolve the fate of its trapped inhabitants. The original game presents the city as a contested ruin, with leper gnomes and hostile creatures still within. A historical account of the catastrophe must therefore stop short of declaring a later reconquest. Its tragedy is that a civilization's celebrated ingenuity could not protect it from betrayal and destructive desperation.