 Gnomeregan Blackjacks | |
|---|---|
| |
| Main leader |  Nimbus Clash
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| Membership | 32 people |
| Race(s) |  Gnome
|
| Character classes | Death Knight, Warrior |
| Formerly | Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock |
| Base of operations | New Tinkertown |
| Theather of operations | Gnomeregan, Northern Barrens, Southern Barrens |
| Main language | Gnomish |
| Secondary languages | Common, Orcish |
| Affiliation(s) | Independent, but Alliance-aligned |
| Status | Crippled, but active |
The Gnomeregan Blackjacks is a guild of Alliance-aligned gnome mercenaries led by Nimbus Clash. The guild used to be prosperous with hundreds of members and a variety of character classes, but a massacre killed 92% of the membership, and now it is basically filled with female death knights, the only non-death knight is Nimbus, who is a warrior.
Background
This section concerns content exclusive to World of Warcraft.
Shortly after the gnomes finished settling at Tinkertown, Ironforge, Nimbus Clash, left homeless and also nearly hopeless by the loss of his home, rallied a group of gnomes who, like him, were eager to take actions against Thermaplugg on their own right. Thus, the Gnomeregan Blackjacks were founded, initially composed solely of Nimbus and his surviving friends and relatives.
They knew that, despite their seemingly hasty nature in retaking Gnomeregan, they'd have to wait some time to prepare themselves properly, and they did so by running errands for many factions within the Alliance, aiding them in combat and providing them with their own engineering inventions.
Time passed, more and more gnomes joined Nimbus's cause, and what began with a small denizen was now a guild with over 123 members.
Wrath of the Lich King
This section concerns content exclusive to Wrath of the Lich King.
A Dreadwalker, guild term for Death Knights. The first death knights who joined the guild wore this uniform, which became the official one for the class.
The guild didn't grow much during the beginning of Year 27, in fact, it began losing members as guild's income still wasn't enough to buy enough equipment to assault Gnomeregan, the numbers thus declined from 225 to 155 members, this huge loss shook the founding members of the Blackjacks a bit, but luck would smile upon them in a horrid way.
Members of the guild died fighting against the Scourge at the Eastern and Western Plaguelands, their corpses were rallied and most of them were turned into death knights. Initially, these casualties brought even more despair to Guild Master Nimbus, but when the death knights were freed from the Lich King's domain, these undead gnomes not only searched for their old affiliations with the Blackjacks but also brought a considerable group of fellow gnomish death knights with them. Nimbus received his undead brethren with open arms, despite his distrust in undead, the Guild Master knew he would be fool to neglect control over such powerful gnomes.
Thus, the Gnomeregan Dreadwalkers were founded as the Death Knight squad of the Gnomeregan Blackjacks, and it was under their guidance that Nimbus led the guild to the War against the Lich King at Northrend. At the frozen continent, the Dreadwalkers, eager to prove their worth as proper members of gnomish society again, managed to recruit many other undead gnomes into the guild.
Many gnomes rescued by the Blackjacks also joined their ranks as a mean of both gratitude and, depending on their circumstances, shape a new future for them.
Later on, Guild Master Nimbus led the guild into participating of Operation: Gnomeregan, although initially thrilled with the total retaking of Gnomeregan's surface, the lack of conditions for a proper assault inside the radioactive city was greatly disappointing for all of them.
Cataclysm
This section concerns content exclusive to Cataclysm.
The Blackjacks spent most of their time aiding their brethren in protecting the surface of their city from New Tinkertown when they were not dwelling into a section of the city to save radiated gnomish soldiers or inflict some casualties at their leprous brethren.
The threat of Deathwing did worry many in the guild, but Guild Master Nimbus insisted that they were to stay in gnomish lands aiding their brethren. However, months of inner power struggles and pressure from the lower ranks over the guild master finally convinced Nimbus to spearhead an all-out assault in the final battle against Deathwing at Dragonblight.
The Gnomeregan Blackjacks, now with almost 400 gnomes, swarmed across the ranks of the Old Gods' forces alongside the defenders of Wyrmrest Temple, even aiding the Alliance and Horde adventurers in the defeat of the mighty Morchok before it could demolish Wyrmrest. The guild then sent a small handful of their forces to the Skyfire gunship once they saw Ultraxion's body crash lifelessly against the ground, this small group joined the forces that eventually defeated Deathwing.
Despite the light casualties, that battle was mostly glorious for the Gnomeregan Blackjacks, and it made realize how foolish Nimbus was to hold his forces back so much, he realized that, although Gnomeregan's reclaiming is important, there are threats in this world that, if not defeated, will decimate everything they fought for and there will be no city to recover. More than that, flashbacks of other races aiding in Operation: Gnomeregan came to Clash's mind, the guild master finally realizing that the Alliance had become more than a source of income and supplies to fuel his goals, he owed them much for the aid they provided to his people.
From this point on, the guild's activities expanded outside of Dun Morough, the Blackjacks now had mercenaries under the supervision of overseers directly submissive to the guild master in each Alliance capital city, ready to take on any task.
Mists of Pandaria
This section concerns content exclusive to Mists of Pandaria.
The Gnomeregan Blackjacks sailed to Pandaria, landing on the ruins of Garrosh'ar Point, shortly after the tragedy of Serpent's Heart, where they aided their faction in combating the Horde, the threat of the Sha, and, later, the Zandalari and the forces of the Thunder King at Isle of Thunder.
Not so long after the news of Lei Shen's defeat, the Gnomeregan Blackjacks finally left Isle of Thunder, where they spent roughly a whole month at, and settled themselves at the Shrine of the Seven Stars.
Escalation
Nimbus received information that a rebellion within the Horde was ensuing at both Durotar and the Northern Barrens and that the rebels under Vol'jin had the support from the Alliance. Thus, Guild Master Nimbus sailed to southern Durotar, where he met with members of the Darkspear Rebellion in order to pledge their support to the trolls' cause, he then went to Northwatch Hold, not trusting the trolls enough to base his forces at Durotar. The bulk of the Blackjacks thus met their leader at Northwatch Hold, making daily travels to Northern Barrens in order to aid in the battle against the Kor'kron.
Vendetta Conflict
See: Vendetta Conflict
Scouts from Northwatch Hold discovered that the Kor'kron were beginning to expand their influence to the Southern Barrens and that Vendetta Point had already fallen under Garrosh-loyalist rule. With the knowledge that Vendetta Point was a small base camp, it was believed that the forces sent there were also a small few, thus the Gnomeregan Blackjacks assaulted the point with the full might of their forces, not only because they were fighting against the Warchief's Elite but also because they wished to ensure that there would be no loyalist survivors. However, the attack was a disaster, exactly 400 gnomes assaulted Vendetta Point, and only 32 managed to survive the might of the Kor'kron, out of those 32, 31 were female Dreadwalkers and were imprisoned. The remaining one was Guild Master Nimbus, who escaped this fate with a sword strike that luckily mutilating the hands of the two orcs that tried to capture him before retreating.
Later on, the Gnomeregan Blackjacks forged an alliance with Horde guilds in the form of The Grey Legion and the Azureseeker Expedition after Legionary Pazie rescued the Dreadwalkers and recovered their lost equipment under Commander Leugim's orders.
The Blackjacks settled themselves at Grey Point alongside the Expedition, aiding the Grey Legion in the base camp's protection while preparing strategies and acquiring supplies for the massive assault to come.
The Gnomeregan Blackjacks protecting Grey Point alongside Mrog's and Saulanar's forces.
The guild aided in retrieving the equipments confiscated from Taurajo by sending a Dreadwalker to get them from Nehu in a hidden spot near the ruins. The Blackjacks later joined the battle for the Fields of Blood alongside the Azureseeker Expedition and the liberated quilboar led by Mrog Hellflank, achieving total victory and, consequently, expanding Grey Point. The Gnomeregan Blackjacks sent scouts to the titan facilities of Ulduar and Uldaman in order to find titan artifacts, but were called back as soon as Leugim returned to Grey Point alongside Saulanar's forces with Haungse's armor.
In another day, when reports stated that the Kor'kron had conquered a road that led to Honor's Stand and the ramp that led to Hunter's Hill, one of the Dreadwalkers were chosen by Guild Master Nimbus to serve as the coalition's courier to the Alliance forces at Honor's Stand. Thanks to the gnomes' effort, the Grey Legion and Mrog's forces not only had the tauren from Hunter's Hill backing them up, but also the human forces of Honor's Stand, which greatly contributed to the coalition's victory on that day.
Nimbus later led the Gnomeregan Blackjacks in the final battle of the conflict alongside Saulanar and his expedition, Commander Leugim's Grey Legion and undead servants, and Mrog Hellflank's quilboar, dividing themselves into three fronts backed up by the ghouls and skeletons of the Grey Legion while Leugim led his soldiers into each one of them. The guild was briefly overwhelmed with a swarm of Kor'kron elite warriors, but the timely arrival of the Grey Legion repelled them and allowed the gnomes to press further into Vendetta Point. Later on, as Leugim and his soldiers fought Harokaja, the guild and their allies pressed the Kor'kron into Vendetta through the other entrance of the base camp, but they were all repelled by Daw'gar Stripribs, with Leugim denting Daw'gar's armor while the armies recovered from the mighty blow and the shocked loyalist being teleported away by Flameweave Kazreth, the Blackjacks, the Expedition, the quilboar and the mindless undead rose and resumed their battle, going at full force inside the camp and pressing them against the natural walls of the hills that surrounded it while Leugim led his men to defeat the Kor'kron mage. Believing it to be their victory now that Vendetta Point was seemingly empty, the death of Kazreth dispelled his phasing spell, revealing Balrocia and a bigger contigent of Kor'kron. The Dreadwalkers of the Blackjacks empowered the panting Nimbus and the exhausted blood elves and quilboar and strengthened the Legion's undead with their unholy magic, revitalizing them and allowing them to keep on fighting as Leugim's forces engaged Balrocia in combat. After a long, bloody battle, the coalition triumphed.
With the battle now over, Nimbus approached the crippled Leugim, who was holding on Suhako for support, alongside Saulanar and spoke a few words that announced their gratitude and their departure. The Gnomeregan Blackjacks and the Azureseeker Expedition then left Vendetta Point, Grey Point and the Southern Barrens, the Alliance guild basing themselves at Northwatch Hold and contributing to the rebellion's war effort at Northern Barrens.