Faction: Alliance · Ruler: King Magni Bronzebeard
The most functional institution in the Alliance. Magni Bronzebeard rules a mountain that has fed, armed, and sheltered every ally who asked — including an entire displaced nation.
The Great Forge at the centre is a lake of molten metal and the source of most Alliance steel. The Deeprun Tram runs from here to Stormwind City beneath the sea, which is a genuine engineering marvel that dwarves and gnomes built together and mention constantly.
What It Feels Like
Warm, bright, and never quiet. There is no night here. The Forge burns constantly, so the light and the hammering never stop, and dwarves find the concept of a curfew funny. Visitors sleep badly for the first two days and then sleep better than they have in months.
Prosperous, and unembarrassed about it. Ironforge is the only Alliance capital with a working treasury. Nothing is falling down. The bridges are maintained. This is a city that pays its people.
Genuinely welcoming. Dwarves like company. A stranger who sits at a bar will be talked at within five minutes, and the conversation will be about work.
Districts and Sites
| Place | What's There |
|---|---|
| The Great Forge | The molten heart of the city |
| The Commons | Auction house, bank, trade |
| Tinker Town | The Gnomeregan Exiles. An entire nation in one neighbourhood. |
| Hall of Explorers | Explorers' League. The library. The Titan artefacts. |
| The Military Ward | Barracks, trainers |
| The Mystic Ward | Mages and the Hall of Mysteries |
| High Seat | Magni's throne |
| Deeprun Tram | To Stormwind. Under the sea. Two hours. |
Walking It
Everything is a ring around the Forge, so you cannot get lost — you can only go clockwise or anticlockwise. Dwarves give directions that way and find maps unnecessary.
Tinker Town is the loudest and strangest quarter: gnomish scale, gnomish noise, machinery in the streets, and the constant low hum of things running. The dwarves gave the gnomes a whole district and have never once suggested a timeline for leaving.
The Hall of Explorers is the best library on the continent and the only one with a live excavation department. It is also where the Explorers' League recruits, loudly, from anyone who looks capable.
Who You Meet
- Smiths and miners, off shift, still sooty, drinking early because their shift ended at dawn
- Gnomes, everywhere, in numbers that surprise first-time visitors
- Explorers' League scholars trying to fund something
- Wildhammer visitors from Aerie Peak — gryphon-riders, tattooed, treated warmly and not quite as citizens
- Mountaineers back from Dun Morogh patrol, complaining about troggs
- Human and night elf envoys, looking slightly overheated
Customs and Manners
- Your trade is your introduction. A dwarf asks what you do before your name. Answering vaguely is odd.
- Buy the round. Refusing a drink is fine; refusing to reciprocate is not.
- Clan matters. Ask a dwarf's clan, not their nation. Bronzebeard, Wildhammer — and be careful how you ask about the third.
- Do not say "Dark Iron" idly. It is a live war and somebody in the room has lost family to it.
- Craftsmanship is sacred. Insulting a piece of work insults the person who made it, and dwarves take this seriously enough to fight about.
- Nobody hurries. A dwarf who has been asked to rush a job will do it slower, on principle.
Food and Drink
Ironforge eats heavily and often, and drinks more than any city in the world.
- Roast boar and mutton, spiced hard, served in slabs
- Rock-hard travel bread that softens in stew and is genuinely good after two days on the road
- Mountain trout from Loch Modan, and cave mushrooms grown in the lower tunnels
- Cheese, aged in the cold levels, exported at absurd prices to Stormwind
- Stout — dark, thick, and the city's principal export after steel. Thunderbrew is the name everyone knows.
- Gnomish liqueurs in Tinker Town, brightly coloured, unwisely strong, occasionally luminous
Taverns. Stonefire Tavern in the Military Ward, loud and good. Bruuk's Corner by the Forge, where the smiths go. Tinker Town has a small place run by gnomes where the drinks are measured to the millilitre.
What You Can Buy
The best forge-work in the world, and the widest engineering selection anywhere.
| Trade | Where |
|---|---|
| Blacksmithing, mining | The Great Forge. Best in the world, and they know it. |
| Engineering | Tinker Town — the gnomish branch, and the only place to learn it properly |
| Mining and prospecting | The Forge district, with instructors who have actually dug |
| Alchemy, enchanting | Mystic Ward |
| Leatherworking, tailoring | The Commons |
| Guns and ammunition | Ironforge invented them. Nowhere better. |
Groups Worth Knowing
- Explorers' League — will fund an expedition anywhere on the strength of one good argument. The single best patron for a low-level party in the Alliance.
- The Senate — the clan assembly. Slow, procedural, and where the Wildhammer question keeps failing to resolve.
- Gnomeregan Exiles — a full government-in-exile in one district, with a very specific war aim
- The Mountaineers — Dun Morogh's standing patrol. Hire out as guides.
- Wildhammer Clan envoys — sympathetic, not subject, and worth cultivating separately
Downtime Here
Ironforge is the Alliance's best crafting and research city, and the friendliest place to spend a week. See Travel and Downtime.
| Activity | What Ironforge Offers |
|---|---|
| Craft | Best in the Alliance for smithing, engineering and mining |
| Research | The Hall of Explorers. Unmatched for anything titan, ancient, or underground. |
| Train | All classes but druid. Paladin training here is practical rather than devotional. |
| Curry favour | The Explorers' League is the easiest faction in the game to impress — bring them something old |
| Carouse | Stonefire or Bruuk's. Roll twice on Rumor Tables. |
| Work a trade | Caravan escort to Menethil, mountaineer contracts, trogg bounties |
Things To Do In A Session
- Take a commission at the Hall of Explorers — the fastest way to get a party moving with a patron and a budget
- Sit through a Senate session and watch three centuries of grudge conducted in procedural language
- Visit Tinker Town and be shown an invention that should not work
- Drink with off-shift smiths and learn what the Forge is actually producing lately, and for whom
- Ride the Tram to Stormwind and feel the difference in the two cities immediately
