Mountain King

Who Are They?

Mountain Kings, as misled by the title, are more often than not, not actual kings. However, many kings are actually Mountain Kings, as Dwarves hold their strongest warrior as their mightiest leader more often than not. Through the mountains and undergrounds, each small clan upholds a king, many of which have simply ascended in their family to the mightiest warrior known to Dwarf-kind. However, since their conception, they've led away from being actual kings to rather just being called Thanes, in a throwback to their life before the clan unity.

Mountain Kings are not specially trained by some wise, quiet master, they grab the coattails of greatness, climb on it's back and grind it's head into the ground as they slide down the mountain of greatness and achieve a higher being as they fall. Wielding, more often than not, two weapons that a man alone could only lift one of, the Mountain King is a weapon in themselves, with the traditional weapons being a mighty hammer and two sided axe, but variations due occur depending on the preferences of the dwarf. Both weapons are often lightning enchanted, as their rise to insurrection against themselves gives them a great ability to use lightning based attacks in the heat of battle. While they do not focus their efforts on discovering the secrets of the titans, they have long known of a powerful spark within every Ironforge dwarf - and mountain kings draw upon this spark and fan it into a raging flame. They conjure magic hammers and axes to hurl at their targets, stunning and slowing them so they can get close enough to use their real weapons. They transform themselves into silver-sheened creatures of living stone, shrugging off all attacks and hacking through flesh and bone with frightening ease.

Mountain kings are champions of Ironforge, and as such they protect Ironforge's interests. Some remain in Khaz Modan, protecting their homelands from the depredations of trolls, troggs, and worse creatures. Others travel the world searching for the foes of Ironforge and, by extension, the Alliance — demons, undead, Dark Iron dwarves, troggs, and ice trolls. They are crusaders for their race, stamping out their enemies before they have a chance to strike at Ironforge or Stormwind. Other mountain kings travel the world on missions provided by their king, the Explorers' Guild, other patrons, or perhaps themselves.

Mountain kings have a tradition of proving themselves against mighty foes. Some Mountain kings fall to dragons, demons, or other ferocious creatures, but mountain kings are famous for overcoming these challenges and then seeking out another, even mightier beast. Mountain kings live only for battle; they are unconcerned with their race's preoccupation with technological gadgets, with mining precious materials, or with crafting great weapons. They feel a debt to the Alliance, which saved their kingdom during the Second War. Wherever the banner is raised against the forces of evil, there stand mountain kings, gripping their axes, slugging back ale, and loudly asking why the battle has yet to begin.

Who Likes Them?

The Alliance still sees the Mountain Kings as heroes, due to their great works within the Third War and protecting the Alliance nations from destruction.

The Horde would either see it as a meaningless title since it isn't in their system, or fear the Mountain King, especially if they were Third War Veterans, due to their killing power.

Training

Requirements

Hunters, Paladins, Rogues, Warriors and Death Knights can become Mountain Kings.

Alliance » Dwarf

Horde » None

Strengths

• Strength

A Mountain King is incredibly powerful, with the ability to cleave armor and rend bones into paste with ease..

• Endurance

A Mountain King's endurance skyrockets, giving them the ability to shrug off physical paralysis or physical pain-inducing attacks often.

• Weapon Mastery

A Mountain King is best suited to using two large weapons, sacrificing speed for incredible strength. While apt at hand to hand, they're masters of dual wielding.

Weaknesses

• Bulky

A Mountain King is a wall of muscles. While strong, they have poor maneuverability. They are slow and rarely able to block quick attacks. They have poor ability to dodge an attack.

• Magic

Mountain Kings are not resistant to magic unless otherwise warded and it passes through their tough hide easily.

• Ranger

Mountain Kings have forsaken the use of ranged attacks and equipment.

• Specialty

If wielding anything but bulky two handed maces, cleavers, otherwise large weaponry or simply using their fists, Mountain Kings are unskilled with their weaponry and lose any combat bonuses.

Skills and Abilities

• Storm Bolt

A magic hammer is thrown from the Mountain King's own hammer, smashing their target in a flurry of lightning.

• Thunder Clap

The Mountain King smashes the ground with anything they have, sending waves of electricity to all targets around.

• Avatar

An extremely taxing yet powerful ability, the Mountain King lets the power of the Titan take over, and they grow in size, become partially ethereal and extremely powerful.

Training Outline

The Mountain King, while initially powerful in his own right, must be able to isolate himself to search within his sacred Dwarven history of being to grasp the magic that sparks inside. From the heralding of the Titans, the Mountain King will often venture to a land they are far away from the rest of the world, or perhaps a sacred shrine within Dun Morogh, to understand their past and how to better their future. A great deal of the Mountain King's training is spent alone or in battle.

The first step is to initiate the search. The dwarf must be interested in his history and the life of the Titans before him, and must connect this to his current life of battle to further his ability.

The first stage of the training is understanding. The Mountain King must do his own research within his family tree to understand his past and how his siblings and he came to be. A simple step, but the initiating one that often comes to be. Their method of learning may vary, whether books or word of mouth, but the future Mountain King must be aware of his Titan past and his Dwarven future.

The next stage is the christening. This is the part where the Dwarf must make sacrifices and harrowing isolation to connect within himself the Titan spirit that hides inside. This isolation is necessary to comprehend the past, to search within themselves to eliminate all needs but the need to battle. A Mountain King may take many, many approaches to this, but the premise is the same; the dwarf must come to true contact with their Titan spirit.

The last step is using the ability. The Mountain King must enter in battle to use their power in any way possible, as electricity spirits from them, and their avatar ability skyrockets. This final task solidifies the connection of the Dwarf to the Titan spirit, as their first handful of attempts often fail due to the power being too great for them to handle at the initial.

Active Mountain Kings

• Gwydd Crazyhammer