by Magistrate - 10 years ago     show comments

Welcome to the Dungeon Dossier! Every weekend, the Dossier dives a little deeper into the lore of World of Warcraft‘s dungeons. This week, read all about the irradiated technological wonder-maze that is Gnomeregan.

Gnomeregan. While many of us may only remember it as “Gnomer-again and again and again” (seriously, how many times can the Dungeon Finder land on this place), this underground techno-wonder is one of the few in-game areas of Gnome-heavy lore since World of Warcraft’s launch.

In case you, like me, ran this for years with zero understanding of what was going on, it’s actually pretty simple. Gnomeregan, the underground city of the Gnomes, was constructed in Dun Morogh with their close ally, the Dwarves. During the Third War (just before the events of the MMO began), the Gnomes accidentally unearthed the Troggs. Troggs are something of an ancient abomination, one the Titans created along with the Dwarves, Gnomes, and others but turned out to be wildly uncontrollable and stupid. The Titans sealed them away, but the Gnomes dug them up, and the Troggs started ransacking Gnomeregan in droves.

So, the Troggs came in, the Gnomes panicked, and in a moment of poor judgment, High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque followed the advice of his adviser Mekgineer Thermaplugg and released radioactive gas into the city. While some sources say it was a radiation bomb, others radiation vents, and more modern sources saying it was merely “radioactive gas,” the result was the same: the radiation only empowered the Troggs in their bloodlust and corrupted many of the remaining Gnomes, much like Sha energy or Fel (demonic) magic. The corrupted Gnomes became the Leper Gnomes, and the Gnomes that managed to escape the Troggs, Leper Gnomes, radiation, and madness of Thermaplugg became known as the Exiles.

So, there’s basically four elements at play:

1. Ignorance: Gnomes are often so caught up in their own high-minded projects that they forget the fallout their actions may cause. This was the case with the unearthing of the Troggs.
2. Betrayal: Mekgineer Thermaplugg’s selfish desire to take Gnomeregan for himself caused him to betray the High Tinker and devastate the prize he fought to steal.
3. Reclamation: The Gnomish goal for the dungeon content is to reclaim the city at the command of the High Tinker.
4. Reconstruction: New Tinkertown being a prime example, the long-term goal is to rebuild the city after years of Trogg and Leper Gnome possession.

Although little has changed as far as the actual content of the dungeon, there was a slight quest revamp in 4.0 that tied up the lead-in quests. Because of that, we have two perspectives from which to look at Gnomeregan.

(Patch 1.1) The Deviant Adviser

At launch, Gnomeregan’s dungeon story was essentially about the overthrow of Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg. Thermaplugg (who was and still is the final boss of the instance), was originally an intelligent tinker, according to the non-canon Warcraft RPG. Many years ago, Thermaplugg worked tirelessly at new and brilliant inventions, aiming to surpass the status of even High Tinker by becoming the first Gnomish king in 400 years. But the Council of Tinkers found Thermaplugg to be far too obsessed to be the leader the Gnomes needed and instead chose his closest friend, Gelbin Mekkatorque.

Through years of currying favor with his superiors, Thermaplugg eventually became Mekkatorque’s right-hand Gnome, his Chief Adviser. It was from this station that he brooded away his time scheming for revenge against his old friend for the day he would finally steal Gnomeregan for himself and propel the Gnomes into a new kingdom.

And then the Third War rolled around. While the other races, including even the Night Elves, desperately fought off the Burning Legion, the Gnomes faced a new threat in their treasured city. Troggs emerged from deep below. Thermaplugg advised Mekkatorque that the Gnomes must fight the Troggs alone, that if they involved the other races the battle for Azeroth would be lost to the Legion. An ingenius cover that made not only the Gnomes but Thermaplugg, himself, seem self-sacrificial and determined, the Gnomes could not fight the Troggs on their own and the city was soon overrun. Thermaplugg then advised Mekkatorque that the only way to purify the city was to release radiation into the halls to kill the Troggs. In a last-minute initiative that left many still sealed inside, Gnomeregan was closed, a radiation bomb was unleashed, and the rest is history.

By history, of course, I mean that the Troggs just got more powerful, the Gnomes left behind were transformed into maniacle Leper Gnomes, and Thermaplugg, himself, couldn’t escape, going mad from radiation poisoning. From within the Court of the High Tinker, Thermaplugg spent his time developing weapons of massive destruction and schemed with the Dark Iron Dwarves.

With the Third War over and unimaginable loss for him and his people the only thing on his mind, Mekkatorque branded Thermaplugg a traitor and sentenced him to death. Some older sources cite that half or as much as eighty percent of the Gnome population was slain by the Troggs and/or the radiation; as such, Mekkatorque sent in heroes to destroy Thermaplugg and avenge the Gnomes. They succeeded, but Mekkatorque later mused that the Thermaplugg that was killed was only some manner of clone or look-alike, and that the real Thermaplugg remained at large.

The Fight for Gnomeregan in Context

The primary things to take away from the original Gnomeregan are that the Gnomes are now more than ever in need of assistance from the Alliance, and especially of their Dwarf neighbors, and that although much work was done on the way down to kill Thermaplugg, Gnomeregan was far from ready for habitation.

Unfortunately for the Gnomes, the steady march of world-threatening conflicts that have occurred since the Third War have been staggering, so much so that no one has really had the time, energy, or resources to divert to helping out their Gnomish allies reclaim their home. Gnome identity slowly melded with that of Dun Morogh, and they came to rely on the Dwarves for shelter and protection, though they were, of course, potent magicians and warriors.

But even if the Gnomes couldn’t reclaim their home just yet, that didn’t mean they would give up. They spent the following years keeping the entire fiasco–and the abominations that it spawned–contained within Gnomeregan, bravely holding the line until their return mission could be orchestrated. That moment would begin with the Survivor Assistance Facilitation Expedition, or S.A.F.E.

(Patch 4.0) Getting Safe(r) with S.A.F.E.

The traitor Thermaplugg was confirmed to be alive with the pre-expansion event for Cataclysm. “Operation: Gnomeregan” poised King Mekkatorque against the return of his villainous old friend, who had developed the Irradiator 3000, a radiation bomb that, he bragged, was 26 times more volatile than the one that initially destroyed the city. This forced S.A.F.E. agents back out of the city, although they had managed to reclaim the territory now known as New Tinkertown.

While the Irradiator 3000’s explosion was a definite loss for S.A.F.E. and the High Tinker, a smaller group of S.A.F.E., the “G-Team,” managed to advance into the city once more and, with the help of heroes, finally lay waste to Thermaplugg once and for all. It is presumed that the Thermaplugg players now face in Gnomeregan is the real Thermaplugg, with his defeat being his actual death.

The Cleansing of Gnomeregan in Context

Although much work remains until Gnomeregan is safe for the Gnomes, the defeat of Thermaplugg and the reclamation of New Tinkertown represent an incredibly impressive accomplishment for the Gnomes, who largely achieved these feats on their own (although with the aid of heroes). The strategies employed by S.A.F.E. and the G-Team are clear examples of Gnomish ingenuity and further proof of their value to the Alliance.

The Dungeon Dossier runs every weekend covering a new dungeon’s lore in detail. Tune in next week to explore the ancient, dusty halls of Uldaman!

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