@Gnomeregan is the breathtaking, multi-tiered subterranean techno-metropolis that serves as the ancestral capital of the @Gnome people of Azeroth, as well as the name of the exiled @Gnome government itself. Millennia ago, the @Gnomes—descended from the titan-forged, metallic Mechagnomes who succumbed to the organic Curse of Flesh—migrated to the snowy peaks of Dun Morogh. Burrowing deep into the bedrock of the mountains near the @Dwarf @Kingdom of Ironforge, they constructed a sprawling, automated wonder of high-tier engineering, driven by steam, clockwork mechanics, and volatile arcane science.
For generations, @Gnomeregan operated as a highly progressive, meritocratic technocracy governed by the High Tinker, an elected leader chosen based on the utility and brilliance of their inventions. Under the long-standing rule of High Tinker @Gelbin Mekkatorque, the city grew into a marvel of pristine laboratory sectors, massive rotating gears, and pneumatic transit tubes. The gnomes maintained an incredibly close, symbiotic relationship with their @Dwarf neighbors, helping them build the Deeprun Tram and providing advanced technological blueprints that fundamentally elevated the infrastructure of the @Eastern Kingdoms.
When the Third War erupted and the burning forces of the @Scourge swept down from the north, the Alliance of Lordaeron called upon @Gnomeregan for military aid. During the Second War, the gnomes had provided vital submarines, flying machines, and mechanized artillery. Shockingly, however, during this new global crisis, High Tinker @Gelbin Mekkatorque abruptly withdrew his forces, offering only minor token blueprints and automated equipment while keeping the bulk of his army strictly within the city walls.
To the outside world, this sudden isolationism appeared to be a stunning act of cowardice and betrayal. In truth, it was a tragic, desperate act of sacrifice. At the exact moment the @Burning Legion struck Azeroth, @Gnomeregan was hit by a massive, catastrophic invasion from deep within the earth: an absolute tide of savage, primitive troggs. Knowing that the Alliance was already stretched to its absolute breaking point fighting the @Scourge, @Gelbin Mekkatorque made the agonizing decision to conceal the invasion, choosing to bleed his own people in secret rather than divert vital holy and martial forces away from the survival of the surface world.
The war against the troggs quickly devolved into an unwinnable nightmare. As the primitive creatures overran the lower residential grids, @Gelbin Mekkatorque turned to his chief advisor and closest friend, Sicco Thermaplugg. Thermaplugg, secretly consumed by a bitter, psychotic jealousy of @Gelbin Mekkatorque's political position, devised a devious and apocalyptic solution. He convinced the High Tinker to detonate a highly volatile, radioactive bomb within the city's ventilation shafts, claiming the toxic fallout would systematically eradicate the troggs while the gnomes shielded themselves in the upper levels.
The plan was a catastrophic trap. Thermaplugg had intentionally altered the chemical equations to ensure the gas would be lethal to organic life. The radioactive cloud rapidly swept through @Gnomeregan, instantly killing nearly half of the entire @Gnome population. Far worse, the surviving troggs proved entirely immune to the radiation, while thousands of exposed @Gnomes mutated into mad, green-skinned husks known as Leprous Gnomes.
Thermaplugg instantly seized control of the lower levels, crowning himself the "King of @Gnomeregan" and binding the mindless leprous gnomes to his tyrannical will. Heartbroken and facing total extinction, @Gelbin Mekkatorque led a frantic, fighting retreat of the remaining survivors up the lift shafts, fleeing into the freezing winds of Dun Morogh.
The displaced survivors of @Gnomeregan were warmly received by King @Magni Bronzebeard of the @Kingdom of Ironforge. The @Dwarfs granted their traumatized allies a permanent, heavily mechanized sector within their own mountain city, which the exiles proudly christened Tinkertown.
Operating as a government-in-exile, @Gelbin Mekkatorque established the Tinker's Court within @Kingdom of Ironforge. From this high-tech command center, the @Gnomes dedicated their surviving intellect to creating survival gear, piloting suits, and advanced weapons systems to aid the Alliance, officially joining the faction to secure their political survival. Mekkatorque has organized numerous elite, subterranean strike teams to breach the back entrances of @Gnomeregan. These brave commandos managed to secure the upper hangar bays and clear out pockets of radiation, but Thermaplugg’s massive army of defensive turrets, clockwork death-machines, and trogg thralls kept the heart of the city firmly out of the High Tinker's reach.
Operating heavily out of Fizzcrank Airstrip in the Borean Tundra, gnomish engineers deployed massive mechanical harvesters, siege engines, and specialized de-pumping stations to combat both the @Scourge's armies and the local nerubian swarms. Their technological superiority provided the Alliance with vital aerial supremacy throughout the freezing campaign.
Crucially, the massive technological and economic boons gathered during the @Northrend war allowed @Gelbin Mekkatorque to quietly plan his grandest masterstroke. As the war against @Arthas Menethil expands, the High Tinker officially declared the initiation of Operation: @Gnomeregan. Armed with massive, newly forged saronite-plated siege tanks, thousands of radiation-cleansing radiation suits, and a massive coalition of Alliance champions, the @Gnomes of Tinkertown began amassing an overwhelming amphibious and subterranean invasion force on the outskirts of Dun Morogh, poised on the absolute threshold of launching an all-out, apocalyptic war to finally overthrow Sicco Thermaplugg and reclaim their magnificent, golden techno-city once and for all.