Cyrik Blackforge

== Lord Cyrik Blackforge ==
"Some have called me halfbreed. Some have called me mudblood. I know what I am however: I am Blackforge."
Lord Cyrik Blackforge is dwarven noble with a penchant for archaeology, who also used to be an ace pilot back in the days. Currently in the position of Seat of Artifacts for the Senate, he is also a representative for the Dark Iron presence in the city of Ironforge and a dwarven representative when visiting other racial capital cities.
== Prologue ==
Cyrik Blackforge was born as the son of thane Greippner Blackforge and the thane's wife Wilhelmina in the village of Dun Modr roughly seventy years ago. During Cyrik's younger years, the great Thandol Span was being built and Cyrik loved to watch the workers and their tools work with the immense task of bridging the gap. He especially loved to see the cogs and wheel of a crane turn in order to lift the heavy stones to their respective place in the giant project. Greippner encouraged this, and Cyrik got himself busy learning a new craft.
That, and the friendly engineers at the worksite who allowed him to look at the schematics, was what inspired Cyrik to study engineering himself, eventually going to Ironforge to study further and also learning how to fly their aircraft. As the years go by, wars erupt and peace follows, he got skilled to such degree that he got too cocky for his own good. One day when he was up in the air, he got surprised by a storm and got flung around like a leaf in the wind. His instruments in disarray and with no visual sight of where he was going, he could do nothing but pray that his skills were enough to get out of the storm safe and sound.
Eventually, he saw land in the distance as the storm was clearing up, but he had no clue where he was. The storm had swept his plane along great distances and in such speed that he managed to cross the great sea to the continent of Kalimdor. As he flew on fumes the last bit to shore and inland, he noticed a red mountain in the vicinity. He managed to get there before the fuel ran out, but a stone in the path where he landed turned the plane over, causing it to crash. In unknown territory and without supplies aside from the emergency rations in the crashed aircraft, he started to dig out a temporary shelter.
== A new direction ==
However, as he was digging, his shovel hit something hard. As it was just where he planned the bed to be, he dug out the object, a stone tablet of some kind with vaguely familiar runes inscribed upon it. Not certain what the finding was, he kept it in his backpack and decided to journey to the coastline, hoping to find a ship or the like. He eventually found a small harbortown called Ratchet, where he traded the location of his downed aircraft for a ticket to Stormwind. After a few days with good wind in the sails, he reached Stormwind where he bought a ticket for the Deeprun Tram.
As he returned to Ironforge, he dropped by the Military Ward to tell his superiors that he was alright, after being reported as 'Missing in Action' for some weeks. His commander was quite angry for the loss of the aircraft and for Cyrik's absence, but Cyrik managed to tell his side of the story, how it was out of his hands to do anything while in the raging storm. Eventually the commander decided that he wouldn't charge Cyrik for desertion, but he didn't need pilots that could not spot storms or pilots losing their aircrafts, so Cyrik got fired from the military. As he exited the office however, he felt the heavy backpack and got reminded of the stone tablet within.
He walked the distance to the Explorers' Hall, where he asked about help reading what was written on the tablet. The explorers there were surprised over the find, and wanted to know further details about the location, how he had found the tablet and so on. Cyrik told them as much as he knew, and the League offered him a job within their ranks to travel back to Kalimdor to dig out some more artifacts. After travelling back and aided in the founding of Bael Modan (meaning "Red Mountain"), Cyrik got rewarded with the title of 'Lord' for his discovery of a Titan facility of some kind.
== There and back again ==
He travelled back and forth between Bael Modan and Ironforge, as his duties required of him, until the time came when his responsibilities would become even greater. A messenger arrived to Ironforge bearing ill news: Thane Greippner was murdered by the Twilights Hammer cult, they had sacked Dun Modr and made attempts on blowing up the Thandol Span! Lord Cyrik Blackforge became the youngest thane yet of the Blackforge Clan, and as he vowed to reclaim Dun Modr sooner rather than later, he applied for a seat in the Senate to make things happen a bit faster. There were problems with that however and circumstances forced the Blackforge for quite some time to remain exiled from their own lands. 
During his time in the Senate, he still travelled to Bael Modan as was his routine to check the digsite he had helped to found. Trouble had been brewing with the tauren tribes in the area, and scouting reports indicated the presence of goblins nearby, in some mining operation. Seeing as the digsite was what caused the diplomatic trouble with the tauren to begin with, the dwarves of Bael Modan found the taurens to be hypocrites if they allowed mining operations by goblins if the dwarves weren't allowed to dig for artifacts and thus worked to drive them off the site more effectively.
However, that yielded some results none of the dwarves at the camp foresaw. One day while Cyrik inspected the fortifications, the base suddenly blew up, flames and explosions everywhere. Cyrik got stuck under some rubble deep down in the base, which protected him against the blasts, but not the fires that started to flare up everywhere. A brave adventurer who spotted the explosion defied the flames and ventured inside, to look for survivors in the compound. He found a few dwarves yet living, one of which was Cyrik who still was stuck under rubble.
== Do unto others... ==
As the adventurer pulled out the singed dwarves from the inferno the base had become, he spotted a dead goblin in the midst of the fortress. When the dwarves from the fortress came about, he told them about his discovery. Cyrik listened to the tale and got so enraged that he told the adventurer to come along, despite Cyrik barely being able to walk, and headed over to the goblin mine in the vicinity. There he told the adventurer to bring explosives from around the site and put it in the entrance to the mine. 
When that was done, Cyrik used the detonator and sealed the mine, burying the goblin miners within. His lust for revenge sated for now, he has kept a searing hatred for goblins ever since then. Cyrik insists upon telling people that goblins of whatever trade prince or faction cannot and should not be trusted at any moment. The Bael Modan digsite was no more however, everything buried under tons of rock and ruins from the explosions, so Cyrik had only one option: Return to Ironforge and work to further his goals of a free Dun Modr.
As the years goes by, as threats to the world of Azeroth got handled, Cyrik noticed something within the Mountain of Ironforge had changed. Corruption seeping up from within the Mountain Kingdom, Cyrik watched in despair as one horrible event after another unfolded. Impostors had arrived to the city, trying to ruin what the good people of Three Hammers had built up. They also tried to sully Cyrik's name with imagined crimes, but the supporters knew the truth and rallied to Cyrik's side, thus further infuriating the traitors. Eventually, things got so dangerous in Ironforge that Cyrik decided it was time to leave the city, lest he'd be caught and killed by the traitors.
== The journey ==
Lord Cyrik Blackforge, just having turned seventy-three, gathered what followers he had in the city and hit the road. As the leader of a dwarven warband, he journeyed north along the olden roads to his hometown, and more dwarves joined his cause along the way each day, fellow clan members and others alike who had also left the Mountain due to the tensions within. In the spirit of the first journey north for the Blackforge they travelled, discussing freely what they were to do once settled in a safe haven.
Eventually they reached Dun Modr and had a sizable force with a good variety of troops in it. Apart from the Blackforge militia, there were Bronzebeards with strong infantry, Dark Irons with casters and war-golems, even a few Wildhammers with rifles and stormhammers for additional ranged support. Cyrik was proud to see such unity and solidarity among his fellow dwarves, that he got inspired to make an improvised speech to boost the morale further.
"Kinsmen of all clans, hear me! Bronzebeard, Dark Iron and Wildhammer alike, we march together with a single purpose, we fight together for a single goal, we stand united under a single banner! Clans of Khaz Modan, fight by our side! Do not give in to pettiness and hatred, sowing enmity and distrust! Join the cause of one vision! One purpose! Khaz Modan free from the tyranny of an oppressor's hand, our banner flying in the wind as the enemy waver at our approach! With me, for Khaz Modan! CHAAAARGE!"
== The battle for Dun Modr ==
And charge they did. The Twilights Hammer reacted and entered the fight with cultists and zealots, running up to the barricade walls to fire upon the attackers below. The Dark Irons sent in the golems first to draw the fire, shortly followed by Bronzebeard infantry and Wildhammer hunters and shamans. The fighting was intense, the cultists and zealots fighting with a frenzy of rats in a corner with nowhere left to go. Lord Cyrik Blackforge gave the order for the golems to use their flamethrowers in the doors of the stone houses, to clear our further pockets of cultists within the settlement: "We can't afford any backstabbings, clear out the houses!"
Shrieks and zealous yelling was heard, until only silence and smoke remained of the cultists in the houses. The troops kept marching through the village, up to the smithy which was the last stronghold the cultists held. The Twilights Hammer barricaded the door as best they could, to no avail against the brute strenght of golems and dwarven axes. As the cultists tried to hold the doorway, the cultist leader showed himself. A warlock speaking in a foul language, unleashing shadowbolts upon friend and foe alike forced the warband to take cover.
Cyrik ordered up a golem and Cid, who was leading the militia, to aid Cyrik in trying to push forward to the warlock. The two dwarves used the golem as cover until it got too battered by the magical attacks to function. Cid grabbed a boulder from the crumbling golem and threw it against the warlock, distracting him from the two dwarves now charging in on the warlock and cutting him down. At last, the village was liberated and Cyrik could make good of his vow. 
== A new mission ==
After a feast that lasted for days with all those involved in making the liberation happen, news came to the village that the corruption had finally been cleansed from the city of Ironforge, the impostors and traitors of the union of Three Hammers had finally been dealt with and chased from the realm. As Cyrik prepared his return to the city to see the situation firsthand along with other representatives from the various Clans of Khaz Modan, he promised that he would not forget his roots as well as his goals. 
When they arrived to the city of Ironforge, Cyrik saw that the Senate had been purged, only a handful of senators remained in their departments. Pleased with this but also worried about the stability of the realm, he asked the senators that remained about the situation. They told Cyrik about harassments in the streets, how the impostors had worked hard to ruin every bit of trust from the commoners for the authority, how members of the guilds were treated. How the common people were being cheated in the votes and insulted by the traitors. Then Cyrik got to work.
First talking with the senators about restoring order within the city good and proper, that people are to obey the laws of the kingdom, then reinforcing the guards to better safeguard the streets. Secondly, using the good example of the dwarven warband under Cyrik's leadership, the Senate initiated a program that built up trust for one another no matter the clan. Things started to look better, there were not so many crimes in the city as before, but more was needed to be done.
== A new start ==
For this to happen, the senators voted for Lord Cyrik Blackforge to become Chancellor of the Senate, the holder of the weekly gatherings that used to be held up until the corruption started. Under Cyrik's careful hand he started to hold the meetings, he recruited and interviewed many potential candidates for senators (some well suited for their jobs, others not so well suited and thus replaced after a while). he appeared publically for major events to hold speeches about the importance of unity, solidarity and respect for one another. 
After some structural changes of the Senate and its seats on a number of occasions, things are now looking as good as they were before the chaos. Only time will tell what will happen next. 
Category:Characters
Category:Alliance Characters
Category:Alive characters