User:Minionman/Thunderhorn Village Battle

The so called "thunderhorn Village Battle" was a small fight between a dwarven mining expedition and a group of Tauren warriors.

Background
By the Time Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms began regularly contacting each other, most Tauren had settled in Mulgore. Mulgore at the time was mostly wild grassland and forest, but the Tauren settlers were quickly learning to use the land's bounty. Many villages and towns were being established, and the once trading post of Thunder Bluff was quickly becoming a major city. Thunderhorn village was one of these new villages, it was established on a convenient outcropping of rock near the mountains bordering Mulgore to the west.

The dwarven explorer's guild had been established shortly after the scourge invasion, but was quickly exhausting surface sites in the eastern Kingdoms. When the Dwarves heard of the existence of a large continent to the west, many explorers eagerly volunteered to travel to the new land to search for archeological sites. The dwarves planned to travel to the lands of the newly discovered Night elves, but the first few excavation teams sent to kalimdor navigated poorly, and landed at several different location on the Kalimdor coast. Three groups landed along the ashenvale coast, two group landed near theramore and were rescued by Theramore sailors, and one group landed in Durotar.

The group landing at durotar was quickly captured by orcs, but convinced their captors that they were in Kalimdor for peaceful reasons, and simply carried weapons for wild animal protection, and were set free by the orcs.

Thunderhorn Village Excavation
When the Excavators reached Tauren lands, they were allowed to explore as they pleased. the Tauren wished to avoid unnecessary wars, so treated the dwarves as travelers, even without knowing their experience with the orcs. The Dwarves explored some of Mulgore and the barrens, but could not find a site that showed any signs of dwarven ancestry, until reaching Thunderhorn village.

At thunderhorn village, the Dwarves discovered several rock formations that clearly suggested a special meaning for dwarven ancestry, and asked the village leaders for permission to dig. The village leaders turned them down at first, but upon discussion with the villagers, agreed that the dwarves could dig, so long as they would assist in building a new village at a nearby site first, refilled and replanted the land once they were finished, and paid a large sum of money, or other goods, to the village in return for using the land.

The members of the dwarven excavation party had little respect for the Tauren, seeing them as an interesting curiosity. they were annoyed that the Tauren would make it so difficult to dig for such important artifacts, so instead used trickery to clear the village. One of the dwarves spread rumors that a nearby village was under attack by harpies, and needed assistance of food, supplies, and warriors. When most of the villagers left to "assist" the village, the dwarves forcibly removed the remaining villagers, and bruned down the buildings. They than set up a defensive perimeter, and started digging.

The villagers, as expected, were extremely angry when they discovered what had happened, and demanded that the dwarves rebuild the village, and pay the villagers for what had happened. the dwarves were unconcerned, arguing that they had important artifacts to dig up, and weren't going to let some "silly little village" get in the way.The argument became quite heated, and after some time, one of the dwarves shot one of the villagers. The villagers, left, carrying the injured one away for treatment. The injured villager survived, but the tauren now saw the dwarves as violent invaders, instead of the merely criminal travelers they had been before.

The Battle
Within a few hours of the shooting, A large group of Tauren warriors arrived at the village, site, and ordered the dwarves to leave or be killed. The dwarves laughed at these new arrivals, thinking that their guns and defensive ground would easily defeat the attackers. Their laughter simply enraged the Tauren even more, and they immediately attacked the fortifications. Many of the Tauren were now equipped with thicker metal armor, and with new weapons designed specifically to enhance the shockwaves that Tauren warriors already used, and these shockwaves quickly destroyed all the fortifications built by the dwarves.

The fighting was more a brawl than an organized battle, and the dwarven gunmen were easily defeated by the Tauren. Most dwarves only managed to shoot once or twice before being stunned by shockwaves or war stomps, or being charged by Tauren. Many of the shots either missed, or were unable to seriously injure the Tauren, and the dwarves were extremely weak in close combat compared to the Tauren. 10 expedition members were killed quickly, the other members surrendered. Some were exchanged immediately, and traveled back to Ironforge, others were exchanged over a period of several months to the alliance.

Aftermath
No Tauren died from the battle, and about 10 dwarves were killed. The battle showed the usefulness of the Tauren's new weapons and armor, which would later be significantly improved by enchanting in Silvermoon. The destruction of the village also further bonded the Tauren and orcs, and converted some former isolationists and traditionalists amongst the Tauren. The village itself was rebuilt, though the anger of the original inhabitants remains.

The story told to dwarven leaders was quite distorted from the actual events in Kalimdor. Realizing that most in the alliance would not support the destruction of a village, even among the supposedly savage Tauren, the Dwarves changed their story, and instead described a random attack on an excavation site. The prisoners were respected members of the Ironforge dwarf nation, and arrived first, so were able ot successfulyl spread their story to the alliance. When Cairne's ambassadors attempted to get their story across, it was seen as an exaggeration or lie, and only after several years did members of the alliance realize the true story. By that point, the horde and the alliance had fully formed, and little could be done at that point.