Orgrim Doomhammer Orgrim Doomhammer , also known as the Backstabber by loyalists of Gul ' dan and Blackhand , was the Warchief of the Orcish Horde during the end of the First War and the entirety of the Second War . The orcish capital of Orgrimmar , the Horde - controlled town of Hammerfall in the Arathi Highlands and the flying battleship " Orgrim ' s Hammer " patrolling the skies of Icecrown , are named in his honor . Biography . Rise of the Horde . Orgrim of the Blackrocks and Durotan of the Frostwolves originally met whilst secreting away as children from the sleeping tent during the Kosh ' harg festival in Nagrand . The two troublesome youths stayed up past their sleep time to spy on the clans ' councils , only to be severely disappointed . Deciding instead to spend the rest of the night challenging each other they soon formed a bond . While technically not forbidden , it was considered against tradition by the Blackrock and Frostwolf clans to which they belonged . Orgrim and Durotan never stopped being friends . During a race through Terokkar Forest they accidentally stumbled upon a raging ogre . In a last burst of speed they ran for their lives . During their escape they ran into a brigade of draenei who rescued the lads . They spent the rest of the day with Restalaan and conferencing with Velen . Orgrim started his rise to power through the Thunderlord Clan to which he also belonged . Blackrock Clan had strong connections to the Thunderlord Clan and for this reason Orgrim was able to rise to power in both . Upon the death of his father , Orgrim became wielder of the Doomhammer and second - in - command to Blackhand . Although Orgrim was internally opposed to the war against the draenei he followed Blackhand ' s orders and even gave in to the blood lust Gul ' dan had cultivated . But , like Durotan , he began to wonder if the orcs had been deceived . He was one of the few orcs that didn ' t drink the blood of Mannoroth , claiming to be unworthy to drink from the same vessel as the Warchief and chieftains . Though Blackhand was gullible enough to believe this excuse , Gul ' dan was not , and would remain wary of Orgrim from that point on . The First and Second Wars . Doomhammer was one of Blackhand ' s most trusted lieutenants , commanding a number of battles against the forces of the Kingdom of Azeroth . But Orgrim was less and less convinced about the decisions Blackhand made , and was growing more suspicious about Gul ' dan ' s motives . When Gul ' dan fell into a coma , trying to pry the secrets from the head of the dying Medivh , Orgrim took this chance to seize power by killing the Warchief , and becoming the leader of the Horde . Around this time Durotan arrived to see Orgrim . Some sources claim it was before Orgrim became Warchief , while others state it was after Orgrim had defeated Blackhand . The Frostwolf clan had been exiled for Durotan ' s refusal to follow Gul ' dan ' s schemes . Durotan had known about Gul ' dan ' s treachery and his pact with Kil ' jaeden , but had been silent about it . He eventually decided to tell Orgrim about Gul ' dan and the Shadow Council , and Orgrim decided it was time to stop the evil warlock . On his way back home , Durotan was ambushed by Gul ' dan spies , and he and his wife were killed . Their unnamed baby was thought dead , but was instead found by Aedelas Blackmoore , who named him Thrall and raised him as a slave . Unlike Blackhand , Doomhammer decided he would not be a puppet to Gul ' dan and his Shadow Council . Doomhammer captured Garona and tortured her into revealing the location of the Council , seeking to destroy it because he believed it to be a corrupting influence over the Horde . Orgrim then killed as many warlocks and members of the Shadow Council as he could manage , effectively crushing their power . When Gul ' dan awoke , he found that the new Warchief had destroyed the Shadow Council - branding the warlock caste as traitors and executing many of them - and intended to slay him as well . Begging at Doomhammer ' s feet , Gul ' dan reminded him that with the Shadow Council gone he was the last true sorcerer within the Horde , and that they would need him against the human wizards . The warlock promised that he would create an army of all - powerful necromancers , loyal to the Warchief : the Death Knights . Doomhammer readily agreed , despite ( correctly ) suspecting Gul ' dan of treachery . A bitter enemy of the Alliance , Doomhammer was in the front ranks as he led the Horde into Khaz Modan and the Second War . Although he commanded the Horde with an iron fist , Doomhammer also demonstrated his prowess as a diplomat as he made new allies for the Horde among the goblin s and trolls of Azeroth . Doomhammer claimed the Blackrock Spire as the Horde ' s base of operations , and allowed Zuluhed of the Dragonmaw clan to pursue his research into the Demon Soul . This led to the enslavement of the dragonqueen Alexstrasza , and the breeding of dragons to help the Horde in the war . Under his command , the Horde was able to wreak havoc on the northlands , conquering most of Khaz Modan and gravely damaging Lordaeron and Quel ' Thalas . Orgrim also made a pact with Lord Perenolde , the ruler of Alterac . The treacherous human allowed Orgrim and the Horde to pass unimpeded through the mountain passes towards Lordaeron ' s Capital City , in exchange for the assurance that his nation would not be attacked by the Horde . Orgrim , though suspicious of the human ' s motives , agreed . However , Doomhammer was correct in his previous assessment of the perfidious Gul ' dan . When the Horde was launching the final and massive attack on Lordaeron ' s Capital City , Gul ' dan ' s Stormreaver Clan , along with Cho ' gall ' s Twilight ' s Hammer , and all others loyal to the warlock , abandoned the Horde and set sail to the south . Chasing him to the Tomb of Sargeras , Orgrim sent part of the Blackrock Clan and the Black Tooth Grin clan to engage both the Stormreaver and Twilight ' s Hammer forces . Gul ' dan and his warlocks entered the Tomb of Sargeras but were slain by the demons within . The rest of the clan members were annihilated by Orgrim ' s forces . Weakened by losses caused by Gul ' dan ' s treachery , Doomhammer was forced to fall back from the human capital of Lordaeron to his fortress at Blackrock Spire . There he fought the final battle of the Second War against the Alliance of Lordaeron , leading a charge from Blackrock Spire to clash with Anduin Lothar and his paladin guard . Human and orc battled one another in a titanic conflict that left both warriors drained , but the Warchief was able to vanquish the Regent of Azeroth . Some believe that Doomhammer did not win fairly and that Lothar was killed after being ambushed by Horde warriors . Nevertheless , Lothar ' s death did not have the effect that Doomhammer intended . Rather than being demoralized , the Alliance - led by Lothar ' s lieutenant , Turalyon - rallied , whipped into a frenzy that shocked even the Warchief himself and all but destroyed Doomhammer ' s forces , chasing them back to the Dark Portal . Orgrim himself was defeated and captured by Turalyon , soon after Lothar ' s death . Meeting with Thrall . After the defeat at Blackrock Spire , Doomhammer was captured and held as an oddity ( his own words ) in the palace of King Terenas of Lordaeron . However , Doomhammer was able to escape easily from Lordaeron City and made his way to an internment camp , where he saw what had become of his people . Rather than the bloodthirsty warriors he had led in battle , Doomhammer found only lethargic , wasted souls . Despairing , Doomhammer very nearly fell victim to the lethargy himself , but managed to retain enough of himself to escape from the internment camp . He lived as a hermit in the less - traveled areas of Lordaeron , until one day , he was contacted by Drek ' Thar of the Frostwolf Clan . The elder shaman informed Doomhammer that there was a young orc staying with the Frostwolves high in the mountains of Alterac . This orc , discovered to be the long - lost son of Durotan , had escaped after being raised a slave by humans and had begun searching for his people . Durotan ' s son , Thrall , was determined to find a way to free the captive orcs and restore them to their former glory . Orgrim had heard of this Thrall before from Grom Hellscream , whom Thrall had met before he began searching for his clan . Hellscream had nothing but good things to say about the youth . Intrigued , Doomhammer paid a visit to the Frostwolves to see Thrall for himself , but made it clear beforehand that he didn ' t want Thrall to know who he was . When Doomhammer arrived nobody referred to him by name or told Thrall about him . When Thrall met Doomhammer that night , he did not realize he was dealing with the former leader of the Horde of whom he had heard so many great things ; he only saw a strange orc warming himself by the fire . As the night wore on , Thrall became increasingly annoyed by the secretive demeanor of the stranger , and by his talk of how there was no point in trying to fight the humans . When Thrall insisted that the freedom of the orcs was worth fighting for , the stranger asked him what he was doing hiding in the mountains with the other Frostwolves if he really believed that . Becoming more angry , Thrall argued that he would travel south in the spring to join Grom Hellscream and the Warsong Clan , that together they would storm the camps and liberate all of the orc prisoners . The stranger scoffed at the notion and contemptuously dismissed Hellscream as a " demon - ridden dreamer . " Thrall had heard enough and challenged this stranger , who had repaid the hospitality of the Frostwolves with insults , to single battle . This was precisely what Doomhammer had hoped would happen . He had implied the Frostwolves were cowards and that the orcs as a race could not defeat the humans in order to see whether Thrall would stand up for his clan and people , and Thrall had not disappointed him . Now Doomhammer would see whether Thrall ' s fighting skill was equally impressive . Liberation of the orcs . Losing to the young shaman , and being shown mercy , he revealed himself as the Warchief of the Horde . At first Thrall was aghast at how he had treated such an important person as Orgrim Doomhammer , and began to apologize profusely . Orgrim stopped him and told him it was not necessary , explaining his reasons for staying anonymous . He went on to explain that he had a plan to break free the imprisoned orcs , and Thrall and Drek ' thar agreed to help . Along with Hellscream and the Warsong Clan , they were able to easily storm four internment camps freeing the orcs held inside . At the fifth , however , the Alliance was prepared and held a force of mounted knights . They ambushed the orcs and in the midst of their bloodlust the orcs fell victim to the knights ' charge . In the midst of the chaos created by Thrall to cover their retreat , Orgrim was mortally wounded by a strike to the back — impaled by a charging knight ' s lance with enough force to pierce the back plate of his armor and his body , denting the breastplate from the inside . With his last breath , Orgrim gave the title of Warchief , along with his great warhammer and black armor , to Thrall . The former internment camp where he fell is now the Horde base of Hammerfall , located in the Arathi Highlands . In World of Warcraft . In Warlords of Draenor . Orgrim Doomhammer makes an appearance in the fifth expansion to , appearing as a member of the Blackrock clan under the rule of Blackhand the Destroyer . In Warcraft : The Beginning . At BlizzCon 2013 , it was revealed that Anduin Lothar and Durotan would be the focus of the film . During BlizzCon 2014 , it was confirmed that Orgrim Doomhammer will appear in the film . He is portrayed by Robert Kazinsky . Orgrim Doomhammer did make his appearance in the film showing his friendship with Durotan . In original lore , Orgim Doomhammer is most famous for being the Orc who slew Anduin Lothar in one on one combat , but this famous fight does not happen in the first film . However if there are sequels , Orgrim Doomhammer may have a much larger role in the films , leading up to the epic bout . Doomhammer ' s Legacy . After the orcs found a land of their own , which they called Durotar after his father , Thrall established the city of Orgrimmar in honor of the venerable Warchief , his mentor and friend . Thrall still wears the black plate and carries the hammer that was synonymous with Orgrim Doomhammer , fulfilling his weapon ' s ancient prophecy . Doomhammer ' s name also lives on in the " Orgrim ' s Hammer " - a powerful flying warship that serves as the mobile Horde headquarters in Icecrown , the seat of the Lich King , in the frozen wastes of Northrend . Personality . Doomhammer is a warrior whose leadership ability was forged in combat . He is unendingly loyal to those who prove their strength and service , but quick to avenge himself on those who attack him or his allies . Among the orcs , his gruff , curt manner is respected , but to others he can seem dismissive and contemptuous . Understanding the value of protecting an army ’ s leadership , battles often found Doomhammer in a far - off command tent . Yet whenever possible , he is a howling , bloodthirsty presence on the front lines , personally leading his troops to victory . Though he is a towering figure in his black armor , Doomhammer can hide himself completely in as simple a disguise as a tattered cloak in order to move undetected among his enemies . Combat . Doomhammer doesn ’ t hesitate to strike the first blow in combat , usually striking from surprise using one of the Blackhand ’ s fangs hanging from his belt . Wielding the Doomhammer , he leaps fearlessly into any number of enemies and becomes a whirlwind of destruction . Distrustful of spellcasters but confident in his armor , Doomhammer usually first attempts to kill any wizards among his enemies . On occasion , he will save the strongest among his enemies for last , relishing the chance to hone his martial skill against a worthy opponent . Doomhammer ’ s Plate . This half - plate armor was , of course , once worn into battle by the mighty Doomhammer . The armor is a black iron and mithril alloy , giving the armor an overall dull black appearance . It is now worn by Thrall .