Skardyn

Skardyn refers to two different races of earthen or dwarves created by Xal'atath. The first are reptilian creatures who inhabit the depths of Grim Batol, descended from Dark Iron dwarves who hid in the city after the War of the Three Hammers and were transformed by Modgud Thaurissan's magic. The second are maddened, Void-corrupted earthen in Khaz Algar, created when several earthen betrayed their people to Xal'atath for power. The Grim Batol type was introduced in the novel Night of the Dragon (2008) and do not appear in World of Warcraft (though they were initially planned to appear in Cataclysm), while the Khaz Algar type was introduced in The War Within (2024).

Grim Batol

Unused Cataclysm concept art of a Grim Batol skardyn.

During the War of the Three Hammers (230 BDP), Dark Iron clan forces led by Queen Modgud Thaurissan besieged the Wildhammer capital of Grim Batol. During the battle, Modgud used the dagger Xal'atath to curse the city with shadow magic, but was herself then killed by Khardros Wildhammer. Most of the Dark Irons tried to flee back south to Thaurissan and were subsequently destroyed by the Wildhammer and Bronzebeard armies, but some instead fled into Grim Batol. Modgud's evil magic transformed the descendants of these Dark Irons into the skardyn.

More animal than sentient being but not without cunning, these skardyn are described as being close in shape to a dwarf, but with clawed, paw-like hands, covered in black, coarse, scales on their bodies (even where there should be a beard), and a double-forked tongue. Their bodies are slightly shorter than the average dwarf, but have slightly extra width made up of muscle, from digging through earth with their bare hands. Their hands allow them to run as quadrupeds, and even scale cave walls and ceilings like spiders. Despite their stocky shape, they can move with far more swiftness than one would assume. Even when disarmed, they can fight with tooth and claw. A mouth full of sharp, reptilian teeth is used to devour any kind of meat they come across, no matter what state it's in; this causes them to have foul breath and a bite that can make a victim ill. Their eyes are red, much like modern Dark Irons, described as molten earth, blood red, and crimson. They tend to hiss, will howl when hunting, and their laughter sounds like someone choking on something. The skardyn will use their sense of smell to examine their surroundings, such as the earth, air, and what life there is around them when hunting (and presumably tracking). While there are male and female skardyn, even dwarves cannot tell the difference between the two genders.

The skardyn tend to wear ragged, brown hooded garments with armor, and use belts. They still use the markings of the Dark Iron clan on their garments, which decisively identified their origins. In terms of weapons, they have daggers on their belts, use axes with the same style from the War of the Three Hammers, and palm-sized, spiked balls made of metal, which are either tossed by hand or thrown using slings. They also favor pikes and whips along with the axes. As the War occurred a few decades before the dwarven discovery of gunpowder, the skardyn also use the dwyar'hun (literally "star bow" from the older dwarven dialect), a long-range weapon akin to a tiny crossbow. It fires a tiny spiked ball carved from stone, with the spikes being at least two inches long (the "star"). So long ago that the weapon has been abandoned, modern dwarves would not recognize it unless having seen or read about it in the historical records.

Skardyn have carried down the love of the pipe from their ancestors. Instead of the carved wooden pipes of the dwarves, they use curled pipes crafted from clay. What they fill them with is a mystery, as the only known substance that dead skardyn have been found with for smoking smells like old grass and mulched earth worms, something even the hardiest of dwarves would rather not experiment with. They also at least know of the ritual of Gwyarbrawden and the legends tied to it; whether they practice it is unknown. The skardyn speak a form of Dwarven, even if they often talk in a manner that's unintelligible to other dwarves. They consider dwarves from the Bronzebeard clan good eating.

Khaz Algar

Earthen skardyn in the Rookery.

A new type of skardyn terrorizes the earthen of Khaz Algar. They are beings corrupted by the Void in the Ringing Deeps and the Rookery. There are various stages of corruption for these skardyn: at early stages the still look like earthen but with Void-colored crystals protruding from their bodies, glowing hands, and sometimes horns. At later stages of corruption they become far more monstrous in appearance, losing any resemblance to their previous earthen shape.

There were two major instances of skardyn in Khaz Algar: the corrupted Stormriders led by Stormguard Gorren and the infected Machine Speakers in the Ringing Deeps caused by High Speaker Eirich's deal with Xal'atath.

Trivia

• Grim Batol skardyn were planned to feature in the Grim Batol dungeon in Cataclysm (2010), and appeared early in the beta using trogg placeholder models. By the time Cataclysm launched, however, the skardyn were simply changed to troggs entirely. It is possible that there was not enough time to create a skardyn model for the game, so troggs, in form and name, were used instead. It may be that Blizzard reasoned that the skardyn live far below the city itself, where the player cannot go anyway, so their exclusion would not be unreasonable from that standpoint. A few references to them remain in the General Umbriss encounter. In the original version of the encounter (prior to being overhauled in The War Within), Umbriss used a spell internally labeled Summon Skardyn to summon Trogg Dwellers and Malignant Troggs, the latter of which have abilities called Modgud's Malady and Modgud's Malice, and he drops items named  [Skardyn's Grace] and  [Cursed Skardyn Vest].