Modgud Thaurissan

This article is about the character. For the quest mob, see Modgud (Telogrus Rift).

Modgud Thaurissan
Title	Queen
Gender	Female
Race	Dark Iron dwarf
Class	Sorceress
Affiliation(s)	Dark Iron clan
Occupation	Sorceress queen of the Dark Iron clan
Status	Deceased
Relative(s)	Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan (husband), Dagran, Dagran II (descendants)

Queen Modgud Thaurissan was the sorceress wife of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan during the War of the Three Hammers. She led the Dark Iron clan's assault on Grim Batol, where she was killed by Khardros Wildhammer. Upon her death, she cursed the city with dark magic, rendering it uninhabitable.

Biography

War of the Three Hammers

Family tree.

Modgud embraced the Dark Iron clan's long history of studying the arcane. As the wife of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan, she had first pick of the Dark Irons' most powerful artifacts, but she was never satisfied with the offerings on hand. She often dispatched servants to find new relics to study and use in the creation of spells. One of these dwarves returned with Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire. Modgud was immediately taken by the dagger and retreated into her archives for days to unravel its mysteries. At times, she could be seen talking to it. When she emerged, she called for the dwarf who had brought her the blade, but he was nowhere to be found and no one could remember his name or face—as if he had vanished into thin air.

During the War of the Three Hammers, the Dark Irons were expelled from Ironforge by the Bronzebeard clan and settled in the city of Thaurissan in the Redridge Mountains. Years later, the vengeful Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan and his wife launched a two-pronged assault against the Bronzebeards and Wildhammers in order to claim all of Khaz Modan. While Thaurissan attacked the Bronzebeards in Ironforge, Modgud led the second army against the Wildhammer capital of Grim Batol. While the Dark Iron and Wildhammer warriors fought, Modgud performed a profane ritual to strike fear into the Wildhammers. She screamed an incantation and slid Xal'atath across her palm to draw blood. Her spell brought Grim Batol's shadows to life and summoned "dark things" from the depths to attack the Wildhammers.

The Wildhammer thane, Khardros, led a counterattack and waded through the battle to attack Modgud. She reached for Xal'atath, but the blade had disappeared—or, as some would claim, it had abandoned her. Khardros mortally wounded the sorceress with a blow from his hammer. It is said that as she lay dying, she repeated the same phrase over and over: "You promised..." With their queen's death, the Dark Irons retreated south.

Legacy

Modgud's death contributed to Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan's anger, which caused him to accidentally breach the Firelands and summon Ragnaros the Firelord when trying to cast a spell to save his kingdom from the approaching Bronzebeard and Wildhammer armies.

Modgud had cursed Grim Batol upon her death, leaving an evil stain on the fortress and rendering it uninhabitable. The Wildhammers were therefore forced to abandon the city and relocate to Northeron and the Hinterlands after the war. Her evil magic also corrupted the surviving Dark Iron dwarves that fled the losing battle into the depths of Grim Batol, transforming them and their descendants into the monstrous skardyn.

Aside from Xal'atath, Modgud apparently had a mundane blade that General Umbriss later added to his possessions. His troggs also have a curse called "Modgud's Malady".

The sorceress' life and fate is described in the history book Modgud's Doom.

Xal'atath summoned a memory of Modgud, along with memories of her other past wielders, during her attack on Telogrus Rift. The memory continued to repeat Modgud's last words of "You promised, you promised!"