Dark Iron Destiny

The Dwarves of the Eastern Kingdoms were once united as a singular Ironforge Clan. All of known Dwarf civilization existed within the kingdom of Dun Morogh (though later discoveries would reveal the existence of the Frostborn in Northrend, and the dwarvish ancestry within the Earthen.) When King Anvilmar died without an heir, three clans formed and began to fight - the Bronzebeard, Wildhammer, and Dark Iron. While the war began as a three-way free-for-all, after the Bronzebeards drove the other clans out of the city, the Wildhammer clan seemed to accept their defeat and set about creating their own capital of Grim Batol off in the Highlands to the east. The Dark Iron clan acted similarly, journeying south into the Redridge Mountains where they would found Thaurissan, their own capital. But unlike the Wildhammer, the Dark Iron never accepted their defeat, and continually plotted against and skirmished with their Bronzebeard neighbors to the north in the hopes of one day capturing Ironforge.

Thaurissan, the Dark Iron's leader and founding monarch, decided that something great and powerful would be needed to defeat his foes, and so he gathered his closest allies and summoned forth Ragnaros the Firelord. The ensuing explosion killed Thaurissan and his seven fellow summoners and burned Redridge Mountains for miles in all directions, creating the Searing Gorge and the Burning Steppes. I don't know if this event also changed the Dark Irons physiologically (the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer look more or less the same, their only visible differences being tattoos and ornamental jewelry,) but it would not be that hard to imagine.

The surviving Dark Iron Dwarves, including Thaurissan's heir, swore fealty to Ragnaros, building Shadowforge city within the newly volcanic Blackrock Mountain. They would then wage war against the races who would one day form the Alliance as well as the upstart Horde invaders after the Orcs conquered the upper reaches of the mountain.

The Dark Iron Empire has kept some very disreputable company: their worship of Ragnaros caught the attention of Twilight's Hammer, who sought to aid them in spreading the chaos of Elemental Fire. We also know that when Thaurissan's queen, Modgud, led her attack on Grim Batol, she carried with her Xal'atath (the current Shadow Priest artifact weapon.) While she was killed, she ultimately unleashed a curse through the city that made it inhabitable, forcing the Wildhammer to live out in the countryside while their capital rotted.

The Dark Iron Dwarves were Warcraft's evil dwarf race, but things got more complicated starting even as early as Vanilla.

When Moira Bronzebeard, daughter of King Magni, disappeared, her father believed she had been kidnapped and held as a political hostage by the dastardly Dark Irons. Little did he know that Moira was, in fact, in Shadowforge City of her own free will, and had in fact fallen in love with Dagran Thaurissan, the Dark Iron Emperor. While we brave adventurers went in and killed her husband, we discovered the truth of their relationship: not only had Moira become Queen of the Dark Irons, she was in fact the mother of the infant who we had just unwittingly made Emperor.

As a union of both Dark Iron and Bronzebeard, Moira believes her son could become the true king of all Ironforge. But given what the Dark Irons have done in the past - holding slaves, worshipping destructive elementals, consorting with apocalyptic cults - a lot of people are very suspicious of her motives (not to mention that with an infant Emperor/King, Moira would probably have all the power until he was an adult.)

In Cataclysm, after Magni was transformed by the Titan ritual that would eventually reveal him as the Speaker (for like three expansions we kind of just assumed he was dead,) Ironforge went through a big political transformation. The Wildhammer and Dark Iron clans were officially allowed back into Ironforge and made part of the Alliance. The Wildhammer taught the Bronzebeards Shamanism while the Dark Irons introduced Warlocks and Mages.

But while playable Bronzebeard Dwarves can now pursue those paths, in Battle for Azeroth we'll be getting Dark Iron Dwarves as a fully playable race.

So how is that introduction going to work?

While there's been plenty of political strife after the formation of the Council of Three Hammers, Moira has pretty much proven her loyalty to the Alliance at this point. So in fact, it might be very easy to get the Dark Irons into the Alliance - simply allowing what has been available lore-wise since Cataclysm.

But I suspect we're going to get more of a story than that.

One thing that I think they need to deal with is that Moira might be leading the Dark Iron Dwarves, but she's not one of them. Sure, you could point out that Sylvanas leads a bunch of former humans, with only a handful of undead elves, but that bond of going through undeath is probably enough to satisfy most of the Forsaken. Is her relationship with Dagran and her son enough to convince all the Dark Irons to follow Moira? I suspect not.

While the possibility of Void Elves, Nightborne, Lightforged Draenei, and Highmountain Tauren coming out before Battle for Azeroth's actual launch seems plausible (all the necessary game files seem to be coming in 7.3.5, meaning they could easily flip the switch any time after that,) it's clear that the Horde won't be getting Zandalari Trolls until we go to, you know, Zandalar. But are the Dark Iron Dwarves tied to Kul Tiras the same way?

Obviously, Kul Tiras is primarily a human territory, and the Dark Irons are pretty firmly established in the Searing Gorge/Burning Steppes area. I suspect that, rather than finding some lost branch of the Dark Irons over on Kul Tiras, it's more likely that while we deal with the intrigue of the Tirasian political environment, we might also have to have some kind of reckoning with the Dark Irons - consolidating their role and purpose as a member of the Alliance separate from the Bronzebeard dwarves.

Might we see some new Dark Iron leadership? Or, given the subtle underlying themes that appear present in Battle for Azeroth, is the Dark Iron connection to Twilight's Hammer and other servants of the Old Gods going to turn out to be an important asset when we have to fight them?

More than the other allied Alliance races (that phrase was odd,) we really don't know much about the actual details of establishing the Dark Iron Dwarves as playable. I suspect we won't until the Beta starts, which is probably still a couple months off.