Map of Kazad Grund[1a]
Kazad Grund, which means "City of the Hammer" in Khazalid, is an ancient Dwarf hold located in the Worlds Edge Mountains that was overrun by Greenskins.[1a]
History[]
A statue of the Dwarf King Wulfram the Gruff of Kazad Grund. The inscription on the illustration states:
"LET IT BE KNOWN THAT A GRUDGE IS DECLARED AGAINST THE ORCS OF THE BOARTUSK TRIBE FOR THE THEFT OF THE GREAT HAMMER GORLNIR AND FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF THOSE BRAVE DWARFS WHO FELL AT THE DOOM OF KHAZAD GRUND. LET THIS SACRILEGE BE AVENGED AND LET NONE OF THE DESCENDANTS OF LORD WULFRAM THE GRUFF REST UNTIL GORLNIR IS RECOVERED."[1a]
Over a thousand years before the founding of the Empire, in the northern reaches of the World's Edge Mountains, the Dwarf hold of Kazad Grund flourished under the rule of the great Dwarf king Wulfram the Gruff. Since the War of the Beard, the clans of Kazad Grund had been the guardians of the ancient warhammer Gorlnir. This mighty magical weapon had once belonged to one of the fabled Dawi Ancestor Gods and was possessed of great magical powers bound up in the intricate runes with which it was decorated. If the mighty warhammer was thrown in battle by a Dwarf, the weapon would always find its target sure and true before returning to the hand of its wielder.[1a]
It was during that savage time known to future generations as the Troll Wars that Kazad Grund met its doom. The violent eruptions of Thunder Mountain were driving the children of Gork and Mork northwards. The Orc warlord Gruk Boartusk mustered his tribe and, united with the Night Goblins of the Black Moon Tribe, marched on the isolated Dwarf fortress. Kazad Grund was caught unawares, but thankfully not totally unprepared, as its farsighted ruler had long before decreed that the Guardians of the Hammer should always be ready to protect their sacred treasure. [1a]
The Dwarfen fort at the northern entrance to the pass which led to Kazad Grund proved no match for the might of Gruk's Greenskin horde. The full force of the Waaagh! struck the stronghold like a hammer blow from the gods themselves. King Wulfram was among the Dwarf force that found itself facing the teeming green tide. The Dwarf engineers wheeled out Bolt Throwers and Flame Cannons to counter the threat posed by the Orcs' crude war machines.[1a]
The battle was also joined in the skies above the Worlds Edge Mountains as Gruk's shaman, Scarbone, riding his trusty Wyvern, launched an attack on the fortress. In no time at all. the Dragon Squadron of Engineer Nordok Craggensson had taken to the air, flying their gyrocopters from Kazad Grund's crag-top launch bay to meet the shaman's challenge.[1a]
As the foul Greenskins began to overwhelm the Dwarf army, King Wulfram ordered his troops to retreat into the mountain. Once safely inside, the Dwarfs did their best to barricade themselves within the stone walls of their fortress city. However, under the battering of the countless rock lobbers positioned behind the Orc vanguard and an assault by the Giant Grumblebelly, the great gates of Kazad Grund began to feel the strain. So it came to pass that at the end of the second day of the Orc assault on the mountain the gates fell.[1a]
A great band of Dwarf Troll Slayers charged out of the shattered main gate in a desperate counter-attack, trying to stem the tide of Orcs and Goblins pouring into the mountain. Seeing the piles of Dwarf corpses, they were filled with an insane, berserk fury and immediately set about them, clearing a bloody path through the Night Goblin lines and taking on the enraged Grumblebelly. When they were done, the Giant's head adorned what remained of the lintel over the great bridge leading into the ancient fortress.[1a]
Unfortunately, by then Gruk Boartusk's army had overrun the fortress. An aged champion Dragon Slayer, Sven Bristlingbeard, single-handedly held the Axe Bridge that spanned the bottomless chasm known as Karagar's Woe, sending several hapless Stone Trolls plunging over the edge of the bridge. Fighting was taking place in every hall, vault, and stairway. Many Dwarfs made their last stand within the vast feast hall which rang with the clamour of battle rather than the voices of the clans of Kazad Grund raised in song. Others choked on the smoke and fumes that poured from the cavernous Forge Chambers where fires raged out of control.[1a]
Several hard-pressed regiments of Hammerers found themselves trapped by the flames and fought to their last breath against the Goblins that they had trapped in with them. King Wolfram raced for the Shrine of the Ancestors to protect the warhammer Gorlnir. He and what remained of his personal retinue reached the topmost chamber of the fortress just before the Orc warlord and his elite Big 'Uns stormed into the Dwarf temple. Incensed at having the most holy of places desecrated by the mere presence of the brutish Greenskins, King Wulfram lifted the ancient warhammer from the great anvil-altar, rallying his troops for the final battle for Kazad Grund.[1a]
One by one the Dwarfs fell to the Orcs until only Wolfram the Gruff was left standing atop a mound of steaming, green-skinned corpses. At last he found himself face-to-face with Gruk Boartusk himself. As Wulfram swung his warhammer, so the warlord thrust upwards with his cruel battleaxe. Gorlnir struck the Orc on the side of the head with a loud crack and one of Gruk's huge tusks broke off from his jaw as the foul warlord was sent reeling.
But Wulfram's time had come. The Orc shaman's cursed axe had cut through his gromril armour and into his stomach. Clutching the gaping wound, the Dwarf king of Kazad Grund sank to his knees and died. The battle for the Fortress of the Hammer was lost.[1a]
From that day, the fall of the Fortress of the Hammer, the theft of Gorlnir, and the cruel death of King Wulfram the Gruff and all of his people have been recorded in the Great Book of Grudges of Karaz-a-Karak as the "Doom of Kazad Grund."[1a]