Ironhoof

Ironhoof is an aged tauren warrior and member of the Garad'kra. He longs to prove he is still strong and an asset to both the tauren people and the Horde.Bloodsworn, intro
==Biography==
===The Garad'kra===
Ironhoof was a personal friend of the tauren's high chieftain, Cairne Bloodhoof. Even after Cairne was killed in a mak'gora with Warchief Garrosh Hellscream, straining the relations between orcs and tauren, Ironhoof remained staunchly loyal to the Horde. When the Garad'kra militia was formed, Ironhoof demanded to be conscripted, seeing it as a great honor.
Ironhoof joined the orc Malgar in defending a small orc farm in the Northern Barrens from centaur raiders. Malgar and his wolf Remnes were injured in the fighting, but Ironhoof saved them by defeating the remaining centaur. As Ironhoof questioned one of the survivors, the centaur's new leader Aratas appeared and killed the survivor with a spear throw before disappearing. Despite the orc's protests, Ironhoof carried the injured Malgar and Remnes to Orgrimmar to recuperate in the Wyvern's Tail inn. While the orc slept, Ironhoof bought him a tauren bow to replace his destroyed rifle. When Malgar woke up, Ironhoof tried to convince him to join him in the Garad'kra. The orc—who wanted nothing to do with the Horde and didn't want to take orders from others—refused and left the city, though not before telling the tauren that he owed him a blood debt for saving his life.
The Garad'kra commander Shagara summoned Ironhoof and his new teammates Ashra and Rada'jin to the Valley of Honor to inspect them. She appointed Ironhoof to be her stone guard, giving his commands the same weight as hers, in the hopes of using his vast battlefield experience to mold her team. Ironhoof tried to keep Shagara's team together, criticizing Shagara for almost killing Ashra in their mak'gora and trying to stop Ashra and Felgrim from bickering with each other during the Garad'kra assembly in the Ring of Valor.Bloodsworn
===The Barrens and Maraudon===
Battlemaster Bröng gave the Garad'kra their first mission of dealing with the new centaur threat. In the Northern Barrens, Shagara's team found Malgar under attack from Aratas and his soldiers. Ironhoof held his own with his axe, but his teammates proved to be disorganized and only won the battle thanks to Malgar's help. Afterward, Malgar's unlikely friend Dorthar, a centaur abandoned by his kin, revealed that Aratas had created an army of centaur and orc slaves in Desolace in order to invade Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar. Shagara asked for Ironhoof's advice, and he decided that the Garad'kra needed to buy the Horde time by striking at Desolace on their own.
Shagara sent word back to Bröng, after which the team set out on a zeppelin journey to Desolace alongside Malgar and Dorthar. Ironhoof did not mind working with Dorthar, despite the long rivalry between centaur and tauren. As the journey continued, the Garad'kra helped Dorthar learn how to fight, knitting the team closer together and training them to work as a unit. On arrival in Desolace, Ironhoof and Shagara formed a plan to stop the centaur army by killing Aratas, even if it meant their own deaths, while Malgar and Dorthar would free the orc slaves. In the ensuing battle outside Maraudon, the Garad'kra started to lose against Aratas' perfect ones until Malgar joined them and turned the tide. Rada'jin died from one of Aratas' spears meant for Malgar, and the khan retreated into Maraudon with the unconscious Shagara to sacrifice her to his elemental father.
Rada'jin's death caused the Garad'kra to immediately fall back into disagreements until Malgar declared that he was going after Shagara, which convinced the others to follow him. Inside Maraudon, Aratas summoned his "father", and the Garad'kra stopped to fight it while Malgar followed the centaur. The elemental proved to be impervious to all of Ironhoof, Ashra, and Felgrim's attacks, and the battle seemed lost until Malgar and Shagara returned with Aratas' spear, the elemental's only weakness. After the others used their abilities to create an opening, Ashra used the spear to destroy the elemental.
The Garad'kra returned to Orgrimmar, where Ironhoof helped Shagara search for recruits that could take Rada'jin's place, until Malgar offered himself for the role. Shagara accepted this, and the friends then gathered to witness Dorthar joining the Horde.
===Dragonflight===
Ironhoof was amongst the tauren who followed Bovan Windtotem to the Ohn'ahran Plains after the Windtotem leader received a vision from Ohn'ahra. After the tauren were attacked by Clan Nokhud, Ironhoof was amongst those that regrouped at Toghusuq Village and could be found tending to the Weary Pack Kodo in the northeastern part of the village. In contrast to his fellow tauren who hated the centaur, Ironhoof admitted that they were in dire straits because of the centaur, but he did not hate them. Instead, he explained that he would choose his enemies based on their actions over their ancestry. When asked about the :Bloody Axe found at where the tauren had been attacked, he revealed that it belonged to his friend Nawa, who was later rescued from captivity.Delivering Bad NewsJoint Rescue Operation
He later attended the joint funeral for the fallen tauren and Maruuk Centaur within the village, where he reflected on the old hatred between the tauren and centaur of Kalimdor, and how the old scars run deep. He then expressed his hopes that one day his people would be able to overcome their traumatic past and see beyond the surface, as he had.Case Closed
Ironhoof later joined in the rebuilding of Toghusuq Village, where he admitted that his people were still wary of the centaur, but that they were acclimating. He even muses about the possibility of one of the Maruuk joining the Horde, while flashing a knowing smile at adventurers.
==Objective of==
*Needs to be spoken with in Delivering Bad News.
==Quotes==
===Bloodsworn===
*"To risk angering one's ancestors in the midst of battle is unwise. One never knows when their time will end."Bloodsworn, pg. 29
*"Cairne Bloodhoof was more than my high chieftain; he was my friend. He gave his life in honor of the Horde. I too stand by the Horde, and I will stand by you. You have my word."Bloodsworn, pg. 43
*Ironhoof: "You have no reason to fear me, Dorthar."Dorthar: "But you are tauren, and I, centaur."Ironhoof: "Yes. Our two races have clashed over these lands time and again. Our history is filled with blood and murder. But I do not choose my friends or my enemies based on their lineage. It is one's spirit that matter."Bloodsworn, pg. 96
===Ohn'ahran Plains===
;Initial gossip in Toghusuq Village
:I know we are in dire straits because of the centaur, but I do not hate them as some of my people do.
:I choose my enemies based on their actions, not their ancestry.
;Gossip after A Final Word
:My fellow tauren are still wary of the centaur, but are slowly acclimating to their presence. It is a start, at least.
:Who knows? Perhaps some day one of these centaur will decide to join the Horde.
:<Ironhoof flashes a knowing smile.>
;Dialogue
==Notes==
*He has blue eyes.
*In Beginnings & Ends, the precursor comic to Bloodsworn, Ironhoof is seen repairing an old and rusted breastplate. A fellow tauren tells him it might be better to retire the armor, but Ironhoof replies that it still has plenty of battles left to face.
*Ironhoof made his first in-game appearance in patch 10.0.7 (2023), 14 years after he was first introduced in Beginnings & Ends (2009).
==Speculation==
*He may be a member of the same-named tribe of Desolace mentioned in the Traveler book.
*It is not clear if he is a member of the Windtotem tribe or is simply one of the tauren who decided to join the Windtotem in their decision to come to the Ohn'ahran Plains.
==Gallery==
File:Ironhoof Beginnings & Ends.jpg|Ironhoof in Beginnings & Ends.
File:Horde1CoverSample.jpg|Ironhoof and Malgar on the cover for the canceled World of Warcraft: Horde.
File:Horde OGN CoverA.jpg|Ironhoof on the cover for Bloodsworn.
==Patch changes==
*
==References==
==External links==
Category:Tauren characters
Category:Warrior characters
Category:Bloodsworn characters
Category:World of Warcraft: The Comic characters
Category:Ohn'ahran Plains NPCs