The Dark Iron Dwarves were one of the three major branches of dwarves. They had lost the War of the Three Hammers three hundred years ago and had been exiled along with the Wildhammer Dwarves. The Wildhammers had gone farther north, while the Dark Irons had come south. Some unexpected circumstances had forced them to cross the Badlands and enter the Searing Gorge, but even exile had failed to diminish the dwarves' innate love of digging.
So the Dark Iron Dwarves had spent three hundred years excavating an enormous underground city beneath the mountains between the Searing Gorge and the Burning Steppes. Using heavy obsidian, they had built a magnificent city that rivaled Ironforge and named it "Shadowforge City."
Rumor had it that even the Blackrock Orcs' Blackrock Spire had actually been built by the Dark Iron Dwarves, only to be seized as a base by the Blackrock Orcs after their defeat in the Burning Steppes.
Whatever the truth, Blackrock Spire and Shadowforge City were unquestionably the dominant powers in the Searing Gorge and the Burning Steppes at present. No one could challenge their authority in either place.
With Liadrin on his arm, Dick walked with restrained dignity through a magnificent corridor nearly five meters tall, decorated with chandeliers and wall lamps. Two Dark Iron Guards led the way. Behind Dick, the Paladins clustered in twos and threes, quietly discussing this underground architecture so utterly different from that of the human world.
Yes, Dick had ultimately chosen the supposedly "terrible" bodyguard service. The Paladin had no intention of confronting the Dark Iron Dwarves here. However crazy he was, he would never imagine taking on an entire dwarven kingdom and the orcs with his few dozen people. That would be nothing but suicide.
"Three hundred years ago, these places weren't called