Faldir's Cove was the Kingdom of Stromgarde's only port. The kingdom had once possessed a powerful navy. Although it could not compare to the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Kul Tiras, a kingdom that had once controlled the maritime fortress of Tol Barad naturally had a formidable fleet. During the Orcish War, however, Stromgarde's navy had suffered a crushing defeat in a surprise attack by the Orcs.
It had still not recovered by the time the Scourge invaded. Worse, large numbers of people fleeing the Kingdom of Stromgarde had seized every ship in the port. Faldir's Cove now lay completely abandoned, occupied by Captain Shax Aubrey of the Blackwater Raiders, who was searching for elven gems.
At this point, Captain Shax Aubrey had only recently arrived at Faldir's Cove aboard his flagship, the Forerunner, accompanied by two other ships under his command, the Maiden and Silverpine's Soul. He had not even begun exploring the Arathi Highlands.
While the ships were being repaired and the pirates were making an unrestrained racket, Captain Shax Aubrey spotted a powerful cavalry force approaching, clad in standard-issue Alliance armor trimmed in red.
"Damn it, Stromgarde cavalry! Get back aboard the ships, you bastards!" Pirates were only pirates, after all. They could not stand against regular troops, much less those of the Kingdom of Stromgarde, which boasted the strongest cavalry in the Alliance.
But pirates were still pirates. Even an eighth-rank pirate leader like Captain Shax Aubrey had noticed the Stromgarde Cavalry too late to retreat. Over two hundred pirates were completely surrounded by a thousand fully armed Stromgarde cavalrymen.
"Which of you is the leader?" Heroic Rank power surged out alongside those words, instantly silencing the pirates, who bullied the weak and feared the strong.
Captain Shax Aubrey gritted his teeth and forced himself to step forward. "I am. Shax Aubrey, honored Prince Galen Trollbane."
"You know me?" Galen Trollbane removed his helmet. Searching his memories, he did not recall knowing this pirate captain.
"Of course, honored Prince. I used to be one of your subjects... I recognized that sword, Trol'kalar." Captain Shax Aubrey had been born in the Kingdom of Stromgarde and had once captained a ship in its navy. The Orcs' surprise attack had inflicted devastating losses on the fleet, but his ship had been lucky enough to escape. Afraid that the old king, Thoras Trollbane, would punish him, he had taken his ship and joined the Blackwater Raiders. His ship, the Forerunner, was the very same warship he had commanded in Stromgarde's navy.
After learning of Captain Shax Aubrey's origins, Galen Trollbane thrust Trol'kalar against his throat. "Now you have two choices, Shax Aubrey. First, return to the Kingdom of Stromgarde and redeem yourself through service. I will pardon your crimes. Second, die by my sword right now!"
Faced with the gap in strength separating him from a Heroic Rank warrior, along with Trol'kalar's sharp edge, Captain Shax Aubrey could not muster even a flicker of resistance. Huge beads of sweat instantly soaked his clothes, and he said in a trembling voice, "I am willing to return to the Kingdom of Stromgarde, honored Prince."
"A wise choice." Galen Trollbane withdrew Trol'kalar and reined in his Heroic Rank aura. Originally, he had only intended to contact Trade Prince Revilgaz in Booty Bay through the Blackwater Raiders at Faldir's Cove. He had not expected this windfall. He decided to scrap his borrowing plan as an even crazier idea arose in his mind.
Galen Trollbane abandoned his plan to borrow money from Trade Prince Revilgaz of Booty Bay and instead sought loans from the nobles of the Kingdom of Stromgarde. He promised to repay them twice over in the future, offering the Scepter of Emperor Thoradin, an artifact from the Trollbane treasury that embodied humanity's heritage, as collateral.
The nobles of Stromgarde, who had all pleaded poverty when asked to donate, promptly produced dozens of times as much wealth to lend to Prince Galen Trollbane.
How ridiculous. You selfish bastards-when the Syndicate arrives, you'll meet the same fate as those officials in the Forbidden City! How closely these nobles of Stromgarde resembled the officials of the late Ming dynasty in his homeland's history!
With substantial loans from the nobles and enough gold at hand, Prince Galen Trollbane recruited civilian laborers to repair Thoradin's Wall. At the same time, he ordered large quantities of weapons and equipment from Ironforge, the dwarven kingdom to the south. You have no troops to spare, but surely your old trade of smithing won't be a problem?
Perhaps out of guilt, King Magni Bronzebeard of Ironforge ordered the dwarven craftsmen to use their finest materials to fulfill Stromgarde's order and sold the goods at a loss. When he saw the enormous quantity of gunpowder on the order, King Magni Bronzebeard even ordered the dwarves of Ironforge to stop using gunpowder for mining and ammunition production, diverting all of it to meet the Kingdom of Stromgarde's needs.
Driven by their guilt, the good-hearted dwarves even dispatched their naval fleet to transport the shipment, delivering most of the order to Faldir's Cove before the Scourge invasion arrived.
"At least these dwarves still know what it means to stand by someone." Standing atop Thoradin's Wall, Galen Trollbane ran his hand over a finely made defensive cannon that had clearly been dismantled from Ironforge's own fortifications, speaking with deep feeling.
At the Kingdom of Stromgarde's darkest hour, the Alliance's so-called allies had all shown their true colors. Only these good-hearted dwarves had helped him in this way.
A drop of kindness should be repaid with a gushing spring. Galen Trollbane no longer blamed Magni Bronzebeard for his coldness as he had before. Instead, he considered things from the dwarf's perspective. Magni Bronzebeard was suffering from the loss of his younger brother, Muradin Bronzebeard, and had already dispatched an elite dwarven force to the wise and valiant Grand Marshal Garithos. He truly had no strength left to spare to help Galen.
He resolved that, in the future, he would help Magni Bronzebeard find Muradin Bronzebeard, who had not actually died but had lost his memory in Northrend, to repay this kindness.
As creations of the Titans, dwarves were born craftsmen. They could well be called the most skilled race of smiths in Azeroth.
Thus, finely crafted dwarven cannons, ballistae, and other defenses were installed atop Thoradin's Wall. With Galen Trollbane's earlier encouragement and the enthusiastic help of Stromgarde's people, the long-neglected, crumbling wall was restored to its former splendor, as though it had returned to the height of its glory.
Of the kingdoms in the northern Eastern Kingdoms, only Gilneas and Stromgarde had successfully held off the Scourge's attacks. This was partly because they had faced only secondary Scourge forces, but more importantly, they possessed the massive military barriers of the Greymane Wall and Thoradin's Wall respectively, which spared them close-quarters combat with the Scourge.
If you encounter ads such as "Are you a real person?", simply ignore and close them. Do not scan any QR codes or send text messages!
Before you continue