((Since it was a pretty short notice/Monday event, not everyone made it. Wanted to post this here so everyone could see what we did :) ))

Grymhorn’s walk through Stonard last week stirred me. While my people are from Draenor, we have settled on Azeroth. What’s more, my family, the Grin has its history deep in the roots of this world as well.

We have made an impression on the people here, from the humans of Stromgarde, to the elf hovel of Darnassus, to the dwarves nestled in their own hall of Ironforge, the Blacktooth Grin has left their mark.

The reason I asked you all to Hammerfall will be explained…please, walk with me.

It was years ago now, when the Keepers of Stromgarde were one of our…most consistently challenging opponents.

Yagyu led the clan at the time, while the Smashblade was being held under the warlock Bok’theg’s thrall, but that is a story for another day.

/me clenches his hands at the memory.

Yagyu SIEZED power after Gorfrunch became Bok’theg’s plaything! He did not earn it with a Mak’gora, he did not become elevated or chosen to it, he seized it.

/me takes a breath and closes his eyes for a moment before resuming.

The Keepers and the Grin were at one another’s throats constantly, each corrupting the progress of various campaigns for the other whenever possible.

Finally, after years of strife, we had them on the run. Yagyu and strategists from most of the Dread Horde, including former warchief Ashenrock, made preparations to take the very hold the Keepers called home.

This would have gone well, had the Keepers not seen through what we were planning. They sent assassins to kill Yagyu at Sun Rock Retreat, where the meeting was being held.

Ashenrock was struck down, thought dead, and Yagyu was badly poisoned. The sheer audacity of this attempt forced the hand of the Dread Horde, and to war we marched.

We mustered at the gates of the Highlands, as we just were. Select members of the Dread Horde prepared to march on Refuge Pointe while the main force waited in ambush.

It went off mostly without a hitch. The battle was bloody, but with the combined might of the Dread Horde and the Grin, we crushed Refuge point instead of merely drawing fire, and rallied our way to the Keep.

The Keepers, led by the dorf Stonemug, attempted to escape as we took the Keep. The Suncrown blood elves occupied the Keep as we raced after the Keepers all across these Highlands.

Finally, we chased them full circle and put them back near their own fortress. Suncrown pushing outward, the Grin and Dread Horde pushing inward, leaving this very stretch of land the only recourse for the Keepers. However, through some insane endeavor that Stonemug came up with, Suncrown was pushed out of the keep, leaving the bulk of Grin forces still ready to take the bedraggled Keepers on.

/me removes his helmet and wipes the sweat from his brow.

I’m nearing the end of my tale now.

As we kept the Keepers occupied, Ashenrock returned to us, wounded, but able to stand. He had learned about Bok’theg’s deception, and with great fury shattered the warlock’s stone keeping Gorfrunch under thrall.

Around this time, Yagyu had Stonemug and his remaining men cornered, and prepared a charge. Gorfrunch, who to many still was rightful chieftain, ordered the Grin to not follow Yagyu’s order.

/me stops again, and stares into the distance.

You do not disobey a direct order from the rightful chieftain, let that be clearer than anything else I’ve said today. Yagyu charged. Stonemug and his men felled Yagyu as Gorfrunch rightfully reclaimed the Grin.

The Keepers escaped to Northrend, but if nothing else, we wiped the Keepers of Stromgarde off of Stromgarde that day. I haven’t seen their banner fly since returning from Northrend, but that is another tale.

/me sighs and pulls a flask from his bags, taking a pull and looking at the gathered Grin.

The point of all this. Can anyone tell me?

The point is the Grin is made for war. We revel in wartime. We always have, and always will. It is in the blood we share through the colors we fly.

Though some of our brothers and sisters may want for more power, remember this, and this is something I think we have been slowly forgetting.

Power is like respect, it must be earned and not seized.

While Yagyu seized the power of the Grin’s might, he did not earn the respect of the clan as warchief.

Gorfrunch to Chaos, Chaos to Krom, Krom to Kragh, the line of the warchief has been either earned or handed down to someone worthy, and our respect as a clan has gone with it.

FEAR THE GRIN!