LORE


6 years before the First War, the warlock Gul'dan sought to convince Chieftain Blackhand to take up the mantle of Warchief of the Horde. To help convince the chieftain, Gul'dan taught some of the Blackrock clan's shaman in the ways of fel magic and how to rapidly grow adolescent orcs to adulthood by imbuing them with fel power. Blackhand was astounded by the results and ordered the shaman to transform his young sons Dal'rend and Maim into "proper soldiers".[3]

After their father became Warchief, Maim and his brother accompanied him to the Blade's Edge Mountains to forge an alliance with the ogres.[4]

Rend and Maim ultimately became leaders of the Black Tooth Grin clan, an offshoot of the Blackrock, and accompanied their father through the Dark Portal. After Warchief Blackhand was killed by Orgrim Doomhammer, Rend and Maim continued ruling over the Black Tooth Grin.[1] When Gul'dan betrayed the Horde by stealing away to the Tomb of Sargeras with the Stormreaver and Twilight's Hammer clans during the Second War, Warchief Orgrim sent the Black Tooth Grin to hunt the traitors down. Rend and Maim's forces succeeded in killing many of Gul'dan's followers while the warlock himself was torn apart by demons inside the tomb. With vengeance served, the Black Tooth Grin retrieved Gul'dan's skull from one of the warlock's followers before sailing back east.[5]

When dragon riders dispatched by Nekros Skullcrusher found the Black Tooth Grin's vessels and delivered word of the Horde's retreat to Blackrock Spire, Rend and Maim ordered the Black Tooth Grin to alter course and sail to Stormwind. That region was still under Horde control, and from there they could reach Blackrock Spire by land. However, near the island of Crestfall, the Horde fleet was attacked by Admiral Proudmoore's Alliance navy, which was accompanied by Wildhammer gryphon riders. Rend and Maim's ship and a few other vessels survived intact, but most of the Horde fleet was sunk by Proudmoore's superior forces and the dragon riders scattered in all directions.[6]

While most of the rest of the Horde was defeated by the Alliance at the end of the Second War, Rend and Maim evaded capture and took control of Blackrock Mountain along with other Horde survivors, with Rend declaring himself Warchief of the weakened Blackrock clan. Dal'rend and Maim despised Orgrim for having killed their father and blamed him for the Horde's defeat, and the brothers now planned to reforge the Horde as they saw fit. They gradually reached out to other large groups of survivors, trying to rally them under their new banner. While the Bleeding Hollow clan ignored them, the Dragonmaw clan pledged their support and offered to give some of their enslaved red dragons to Rend and Maim's forces if they were ever needed.[7][8]

About a year later, the Dark Portal was reopened and emissaries from Ner'zhul, including Teron Gorefiend, were sent to make contact with Blackhand's sons and ask to borrow their captive dragons. Rend refused.[9][10] Some time later, Nefarian and his black dragon forces arrived at Blackrock and took control of the two brothers and the forces under their control.[11]

According to Eitrigg, Rend and Maim continued ruling over Blackrock Spire, in constant conflict with the Dark Iron dwarves. They eventually managed to displace the dwarves in the upper portion of the city, but only after the dragons came and only after the death of Maim.[7]