Wildhammer clan

Before the War of the Three Hammers, the Wildhammers lived in the foothills around Ironforge. When High King Modimus Anvilmar died, civil war fractured the dwarven kingdom, and the victorious Bronzebeards claimed Ironforge for themselves. Thane Khardros led his clan north to establish a magnificent hold inside the peak of Grim Batol. Yet peace was short-lived: the defeated Dark Irons soon laid siege to the fortress. While Khardros personally slew the Dark Iron sorceress Modgud, her dying curse blighted the mountain so deeply that the halls became uninhabitable. Refusing an invitation to move back under Bronzebeard rule, the Wildhammers chose self-reliance, marching north into the forests and rocky crags of the Hinterlands.

In the lush highlands of their new realm, the Wildhammers built Aerie Peak. Unlike their subterranean cousins, these dwarves embraced the open sky and living rock, developing a deep, spiritual kinship with the native gryphons. Forging enchanted stormhammers in secluded aviaries, the Wildhammers became the finest aerial cavalry in Azeroth. During the Second War, when Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer pushed his forces toward Quel'Thalas and assaulted Aerie Peak, Supreme Commander Anduin Lothar and the Alliance came to their aid. In gratitude, High Thane Kurdran Wildhammer pledged his gryphon riders to the coalition, dogfighting the Horde's enslaved red dragons across the skies of Lordaeron and the Great Sea.

When the Dark Portal reopened, Kurdran Wildhammer led his riders into Draenor with the Alliance Expedition, sacrificing his return to seal the rift—an act commemorated by a colossal statue in Stormwind's Valley of Heroes. Back in Aerie Peak, High Thane Falstad stepped up to lead the clan. Even as the human kingdoms squabbled and fractured in later years, the Wildhammers remained steadfast partners of King Terenas Menethil II. When the Scourge swept across Lordaeron in the Third War, Wildhammer flyers took to the air once more, fighting desperately to protect allied lands and innocent refugees from the walking dead.