Dwarves: By the Makers

The races in World of Warcraft that I've talked about so far have varied in how they interact with their gods. The draenei are able to see the naaru and even speak with them directly, and the orcs share a similar relationship with the elementals. The August Celestials have actively worked alongside the pandaren to help guide them and protect them throughout their history. Humans can tap into the power of the Light, though they are unable to communicate with it. Night elves worship Elune, despite never having seen her, and are blessed in return by her gifts. The tauren strive to please the Earth Mother, believing that they catch glimpses of this deity in all aspects of nature.

Then there's the dwarves.

The dwarven race on Azeroth is interesting in that it knows exactly what beings created it, but chooses to worship the deities of other races. The two primary religions amongst the dwarves are shamanism and the path of the Light. Neither the elements nor the Light were what created the dwarven race, however. That distinction lies with a race known to the dwarves as the Makers.

While most races take their gods on faith, the dwarves long ago embarked on a quest to find those who made them and learn more about these “Makers”. With the support of Magni Bronzebeard, king of the dwarves, an organization called the Explorers’ League set out to find proof of the dwarves’ origins. One of the most famous and successful explorers of this league is Brann Bronzebeard, brother of the king himself.

 

Piece by piece, one artifact or dig site at a time, the Explorers' League was able to put together the story of the creation of the dwarves. In fact, they (and players) are able to interact directly with some of the Makers in the game, helping the dwarves to better understand their past.

In World of Warcraft, a race of mighty beings known as the Pantheon exist. The Pantheon wander throughout the universe seeking out life forms like themselves – for each member was once a world, one which gained sentience and eventually woke up to begin their roamings. Life forms like the Pantheon who are still sleeping are known as “world souls”, and one such world is Azeroth itself.

 

When the Pantheon discovered Azeroth they found it under attack by the Old Gods – forces of the Void, the ancient enemy of the Light. (I've mentioned them briefly in an earlier post; they're rather similar to the various insanity-inducing gods in Lovecraft's works.) Desperate to keep the dormant world soul safe from the corruption of the Old Gods, the Pantheon set out to destroy them. However, they feared that they could not combat the Old Gods without damaging the world too much, given their size and power. To this end, the Pantheon created a race of beings they called the keepers.

It is the keepers who are known to the dwarves as the Makers.

Though many were lost in the battles which followed, the keepers were eventually victorious over the Old Gods and their forces. Most were killed, while the Old Gods themselves were imprisoned deep within specially constructed jails. The Pantheon, satisfied, decided to return to their cosmic wanderings. They left Azeroth in the hands of the keepers, and tasked them with keeping it safe.

(The keepers in WoW are based heavily upon different real world mythologies – and I mean heavily. A simple look at their names proves my point: There's Ra, Odyn, Loken, and Thorim...oh, and Thorim has a big lightning hammer named Krolmir. Yes, I'm serious. It amuses me greatly.)

While the Old Gods had been defeated, there remained other threats to Azeroth that the keepers sought to eliminate. A few straggling forces from the armies of the Old Gods yet remained; corruption from the Old Gods themselves had seeped into the land and needed to be dealt with. In addition, Azeroth itself had been badly damaged in the battles between the Old Gods and the keepers. It needed to be repaired.

To these ends, the keepers decided to make new life forms out of stone to aid them in retaking and restoring Azeroth. The first to be made were the anubisath, the mogu, and the tol'vir.

 

 

 

 

Each of these races was to serve a different purpose. Giants had already been made during the war with the Old Gods. Additional species were later formed, also from stone: the earthen and the mechagnomes.

 

It is here that the dwarves first enter the picture, because they began as earthen. The earthen were tasked with carving out mountains, mines and valleys for Azeroth.

(In fact, this post also gives you the origins of the gnomes – they started out as mechagnomes, who were inventors of fantastic machinery.)

With the task of protecting Azeroth in the hands of their creations, the keepers largely became absorbed in their own matters. Freya wandered Azeroth, with new plant life springing up in every realm she touched. During this time she met and befriended the Wild Gods – deities worshiped by a myriad of races, including the pandaren and the trolls. Tyr fought battles against the forces of a mighty dragon, ultimately losing his hand in the process. (This hand was to serve as the namesake for the Light's Knights of the Silver Hand.)

Unfortunately, there was also dissent amongst the ranks of the keepers. Odyn was jealous that Ra had been left in charge by the Pantheon, and so he split off from the other keepers and created his own kingdom, the Halls of Valor. Ra himself remained unaware of this fact, having departed his brethren to guard against the return of the forces of the Old Gods in the south.

Petty squabbles between one another, along with their own duties, kept the keepers from seeing a larger threat until it was far too late.

The power of the Old Gods is great, and the mighty prisons which held them were not enough to entirely stop them. One god, Yogg-Saron, was able to worm his way into the keeper Loken's mind. Loken had long been in love with his brother Thorim's wife, Sif. They had been having an affair for quite some time, but Yogg-Saron prompted Loken to tell Thorim of their relationship. Sif vehemently opposed this plan, and when Loken insisted she broke off their relationship. Consumed with jealousy, Loken killed her.

Loken instantly regretted what he had done, but it was too late. Fearing the wrath of his brother, he sought to cover up Sif's death.

 

(Thorim discovering his wife's body.)

 

It was then that Yogg-Saron's plan became truly nefarious. The Old God took the form of Sif and appeared to Loken, offering him forgiveness. “She” then told her lover just what he needed to do to avoid being brought to justice.

Loken feared not only the other keepers, but also the eventual return of the Pantheon. To hide his small act – the killing of Sif – he decided to completely sabotage the entire operation of the keepers. It definitely wasn't the smartest thinking on his part, but, in his defense, he was being manipulated by an ancient and evil being bent on the extermination of life itself.

Under “Sif's” guidance, Loken went to the machine which was responsible for the creation of the keepers' helpers. Known as the Forge of Wills, it had made the earthen, the mogu, and all of the other stone beings who helped the keepers. Loken made an army of his own in order to combat the keepers...but, while he did so, Yogg-Saron sabotaged the Forge. From then on, any creatures made by it were tainted with an affliction which would come to be called the “Curse of Flesh”.

 

A long saga follows, in which Loken wages war on his own kind. Eventually, all that remain of the keepers shut themselves away in isolation, leaving their creations alone on the world. It's somewhat depressing, and since this post is rather long I'll have to encourage you to look into it on your own.

As far as the dwarven part in the tale goes, the earthen found themselves without their Makers. Determined to still carry out their duties, they did their best for a long time. Eventually, however, the earthen found themselves becoming afflicted with the Curse of Flesh. Their stone skin began to turn to flesh, weakening them greatly. Hoping that their Makers would return to cure them, many of the earthen were placed into hibernation, watched over by the mechagnomes.

 

Due to the chaos caused by Loken, the Makers never showed up to aid the earthen. When they eventually awoke, it was as creatures entirely of flesh. The earthen had become dwarves.  They set out from the ruins in which they had hibernated and created a kingdom for themselves, the capitol of which is Ironforge.

 

(In fact, the Curse of Flesh infected all of the creatures formed by the keepers. In time, the mechagnomes became the fleshy gnomes of today's Azeroth. The mogu, the anubisath, the tol'vir...all of them became creatures of flesh and blood, though those three longed for the return of their mighty stone-formed bodies.)

 

My favorite part about this whole story is the way it ties together the different zones. The various creations of the keepers are spread throughout all of Azeroth. The dwarves fill the middle part of the continent called the Eastern Kingdoms. The tol'vir and the anubisath roam the bottom of the continent of Kalimdor. Giants, earthen, and mechagnomes can be found all over the continent of Northrend. The mogu roam the continent of Pandaria.

(In fact, this post ties in quite nicely with my one about the pandaren. I spoke there about a mogu emperor known as the Thunder King, who gained his powers from a mighty being. That being was the keeper Ra, who was taken by surprise after his long years of self-imposed exile. He was imprisoned by the Thunder King, who siphoned off the keeper's powers.)

 

I hope you guys enjoyed the post!  I'll be back next week to wrap up my WoW series with the story of the trolls - which was actually the first one I wrote for this set.  See you then!