Quick Overview
Hammerfall began as a place of confinement rather than a free settlement. The old arrangement could not last. Arathi was no peaceful homeland waiting to be claimed.
Full History
Hammerfall began as a place of confinement rather than a free settlement. After the Second War, the victorious Alliance held captured orcs in camps throughout the human kingdoms. The site in Arathi belonged to that system, which kept prisoners under guard while the victors struggled to decide what should become of the defeated Horde.
The old arrangement could not last. Internment bred resentment, and the rise of Thrall brought the imprisoned orcs a movement determined to end their captivity. In the upheavals that followed, the camp passed into orcish hands and became a Horde foothold in a region still scarred by the wars with humanity. Its new name honored Orgrim Doomhammer, whose campaign and death became central to the memory of the liberated clans.
Arathi was no peaceful homeland waiting to be claimed. The survivors of Stromgarde, rival human claimants and other hostile powers contested the highlands. Hammerfall therefore came to embody a sharp reversal: ground once used to imprison orcs became a place from which they defended their own freedom, within sight of people who remembered them as invaders.
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