Doggedly determined. Drunken. Daring. Dogmatic. It seems that all the adjectives I associate with dwarves seem destined to draw me into another setup for commenters to rag on me about my fondness for alliteration. But those dwarves -- they may be small, but they're a little intimidating, really. I mean, when dwarves get together to do something, they tend to go right over the top. As Harrison Jones should have said: Dwarves -- why'd it have to be dwarves?

That's why the idea of a den of dwarves fomenting world PvP (defiant derring-do, or dastardly deeds?) from the depths of a dwarf-only guild seems downright devious to me. The Three Hammers? Sounds like a dwarven hangover remedy to me. I'm sure whatever they're doing over there is all done in the spirit of back-pounding, beer-swilling brotherhood, but I dunno. You tell me if you'd feel entirely at ease alone in the inn with this crowd of hooligans. I might just scurry back to my night elven abode among the trees before someone spills dwarven ale all over my robes ...


Main character Gilran
Guild The Three Hammers
Realm Defias Brotherhood (EU)

WoW Insider: Not to be repetitive from our intro here, but ... Dwarves -- why'd it have to be dwarves?

Gilran: As the creators of the guild are long gone and they live in it as a legends, we do not know the true reason for choosing the dwarves as concept. We do know that the creators loved the dwarven race and the lore behind it. Also J.R.R Tolkien's work and Warhammer lore served as major inspirations for the guild structure and its former concept.

Do you accept non-dwarven alts? What about another guild for non-dwarven alts?

No, we do not accept any non-dwarven alts, as we would like to keep the guild strictly dwarf-only, and [I] don't think we have ever considered making a guild for non-dwarven alts, but we might do so in the future. We were once thinking of setting up a channel for members' alts in that are in other guilds, but that idea was never discussed that much, thus it never went live.

So all dwarves, then. What do you do as a group in game? There's bound to be more to it than swilling beer in the inns ...

All dwarves, aye. We do everything from drinking, feasting and socializing in the tavern, arguing in Ironforge Senate, bashing orcish skulls out, training in the fields, protecting Khaz Modan, helping our allies, exploring remote places on Azeroth and its secrets, invading Horde settlements. Basically, we do loads of dangerous adventures! We somewhat see ourselves as a casual roleplaying guild with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

The Three Hammers is deep into roleplaying and world PvP. Does being all dwarves affect official, in-character relations with other guilds?

In the lore, the dwarves are one of the staunchest supporters of the Alliance, and we do our best to fill that role and profile ourselves as dependable allies. Whenever the Alliance is launching something big, the first ones they call upon are the dwarves. Or as we like to say, "When things get tough, put a dwarf up front."

As for world PvP, it still remains strong on Defias Brotherhood. There are quite many guilds and people who organize various WPvP events. However, our roleplay-WPvP events mostly tend to be organized and pre-planned. I for one like organizing RP-PvP events more than fighting in them, because I get to meet and work with various people.

To explain how RP-PvP events look like: Many times, we approach the other Alliance RP guilds in character, asking for their aid, or we ourselves get asked to aid on a war front. [That] then gets roleplayed out -- the war preparations, the travelling, the war meetings and the war itself, of course. In some cases, characters know members of the opposite faction in-character, as a rival or such. And sometimes we either capture one of the dirty greenskins, or the way around; thus, cross-faction roleplay is not unheard of either. And most members often [have] out-of-character friends among the enemy, which often proves to be fun as well.

We go a long way back with many Horde guilds when it comes to WPvP events, and we see Orcs of the Red Blade as our main rival and major enemy in-character. Therefore, our relation with the Horde mostly consists of us supplying them with material to fill their body bags with.

How does the guild's race restriction affect PvE play? Does the guild raid?

It only affects when it comes to druids, since druid is one class we don't have within the guild. The guild had an active group of raiders at the start of Cataclysm, and they were supplied with druids from other roleplay guilds when needed. The guild isn't that endgame raid-active at the moment. Essentially, we are raiding low-level content raids for achievements and its rewards such as proto-drakes, although we are hoping to clear some Cataclysm raid content in Mists of Pandaria in order to level up the guild.

Tell us about some of the events your guild has participated in.

The guild had participated in tons of events, from small guild events to server-wide campaigns. One of those memorable events that the guild participated in was the Operation Moonhammer, where the proud dwarves and their elven allies were invading Quel'Thalas and their traitorous denizens, the blood elves. During the invasion, there were some political disagreements between the stout dwarves and their night elven allies. Nonetheless, the Alliance forces managed to reach the borders of the Eversong Woods before they were pushed back.

Another memorable event worth mentioning was the Siege of Northwatch Keep, where the Alliance forces fought against the Horde. Outnumbered, they retreated to Northwatch Keep, only to be besieged by a large force of Horde. After some fighting, the Alliance came to an agreement with the Horde; they'd allow the army to leave the keep in exchange for some high-ranking prisoners. They agreed, and the Alliance left the keep. Then the prisoners were taken to Fry Island, only to be rescued by the courageous dwarves.

As for recent guild events, I think the promotion of new high priest is worth mentioning. The Three Hammers sounded the horn of the Makers above the temple, as a new high priest was declared to lead the devotees of Ironforge to bliss and respect for the gifts the Makers have given us. The event was based on the religion of WoW and involved the gathering of several Light-based religious guilds, [comprising an estimated] 30 to 40 members in total.

Sounds like good times. So how many members are there in The Three Hammers? What sort of players does the guild attract?

It is really hard to determine all the active members we have in the guild, but at peak times (which is not summer), we have between 10 and 25+ people online in the evening. We have a few members from younger generations, but most members are between 17 and 30 years old. We also have some members who are already married and have children.

What's the primary language of the guild, and where are most of your members from?

English is the only language we allow in the guild. Since we have people from various countries, we want everyone to understand the conversations in our out-of-character guild chat. Therefore, we strongly encourage English in the guild chat. Most of our members hail from Scandinavia and England, and a part also from other countries, like for example the Netherlands.

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"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com.

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Filed under: Interviews, 15 Minutes of Fame