The gnomes, who have been squatting in Ironforge after the power-hungry Mekgineer Thermaplugg dumped radiation all over the Gnomeregan capital, are already mounting a counterstrike led by the High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque. (The gnomish leader even looks like he’s been lifting some heavy weights in anticipation–look at those arms, man!)

Codenamed Operation: Gnomeregan, the retaking of the gnomish city looks like a massive mobilization of gas-masked troops to find and defeat Thermaplugg. Alliance characters have tried before but it seems the crazy tinker we defeated in the Gnomeregan dungeon was just a hologram copy. Maybe with this new assault, Thermaplugg will be finally put out of commission.

The Darkspear trolls of the Horde are on a similar mission, but their target is to reclaim the Echo Isles from the necromancer Zalazane. Those who’ve rolled a troll before know the sad exile of the Darkspears. Is five years too late? The troll leader Vol’jin doesn’t think so, and he’s leading the charge with back up from the rest of the Horde. Although it might not seem much of a capital now, my guess is the Echo Isles will use some phasing to simulate the rebuilding of a proper troll capital beyond a small section of Orgrimmar.

It’s nice to see the gnomes and trolls get some love from the Blizzard devs. I suppose now, the two faction leaders will be included in the For the Alliance and For the Horde achievements.

No final date has been set when the quests linked to these two campaigns will be released, but rumor mills predict it will come with the Assault of the Ruby Sanctum raid in Patch 3.3.5. Don’t worry about missing out–we’ll be in the front lines to give you a heads up when the gnomish mechanostriders and troll raptors start rolling out.