Thorgrim Grudgebearer

Hobble me closer, I wish to hit them with my axe!

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"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind."

– Mahatma Gandhi

"You stand before the High King. I will hear you beg now..."

– Thorgrim Grudgebearer

Thorgrim Grudgebearer was the last High King of the Dwarfs. He's from the Royal Clan Durazklad (Kh. Stone-Armour) is the High King (leader) of the Dwarfs during the Age of Reckoning. He is the Lord of Karaz-a-Karak, the capital city of the Dwarf empire, he is the leader of the Dawi people and he is descended from some of the most ancient and noble of all Dwarf lords, and as legend would have it, Grungni himself (as all the Royal Clans are believed to be direct descendants of Grungni and Valaya).

He is the keeper of Dammaz Kron (Kh. Grudge Book) - the Great Book of Grudges - on whose pages the most grievous misdeeds done to the Dwarven race are recorded, written in the blood of the High Kings. Dwarves are very good at bearing grudges, and the Great Book of Grudges recounts many episodes of the infamy of other races and of the gods themselves; every Grudge must be repaid, at best with coin at worst death and destruction. His purpose as high king is to make sure that all of the dwarf kingdoms work together.

He's unique for being a Dwarf who FINALLY acknowledges that the Dwarven habit of starting grudges, such as generational vendettas, over small matters and only accepting death and destruction as payment (for example; a Dwarf king's army attacked an Empire army to kill their general; the Dwarf king ordered this because the general's grandfather cut off one of the dwarf's father's hands), does more harm than good. In the End Times he wants to help the rest of the world, which shows he is Awesome.

Thorgrim was also able to break the spine and decapitate Queek Head-Taker for his crimes against Karak-Eight-Peaks. Unfortunately, he then gets shanked in the back thrice immediately after by the Skaven super assassin Deathmaster Snikch, his dying thought about how pissed he is over such a dishonorable death. A bad end for a great character. Oddly enough 8th edition removed the runes his armour is supposed to have which would've prevented that type of death from occurring.

Total War: WARHAMMER

Thorgrim is the faction leader for the main Dwarfs faction, later renamed "Karaz-a-Karak". He specializes in buffing his fellow Dawi's leadership, but is kinda redundant since Dwarfs have high enough leadership already. In combat, he leads his Dwarf kin atop his mighty toilet seat Throne of Power, where he can be seen commanding his four bodyguards to slam his throne at the enemy, judging by his attack animation, yet it is counted as AP damage. Truly a relic crafted by Grungni.

Funnily, he is known in the game for raiding Ostermark just because they forgot to pay 1 coin short for a Dawi's work, as well as sending his Thane agent to assault a Dwarf Hold for stealing his Halfling chef, who knows how to make his favorite nutty fig pudding (guess that's his favorite canonical dessert).

Warhammer 3, or to be more precise, the release of the Immortal Empires sandbox campaign, has not been kind to Thorgrim however. Where he was one of the undisputed strongest factions when played by the AI in game 1 & 2, which could often been seen snowballing early and conquering the entirety of the Badlands (that is, if RNG didn't decide that it was Grimgor's turn in that particular campaign to be the late game slog fest for the player), he is little more than a footnote in the last entry of the trilogy. "Footnote" as in despite being a major factions with a strong starting settlement (aka the literal racial capital of the Dwarfs), he is one of the first major Order-aligned factions to get wiped out. This can be attributed to several factors:

- First and foremost, the AI in Warhammer 3 is a lot more passive compared to Warhammer 2, resulting in factions generally only conquering a handful of bordering provinces instead of creating the massive, 50+ settlements spanning empires as in Warhammer 2.

- Similarly, the speed at which factions confederate each other has also been majorly toned down. Intended or not, this has indirectly buffed factions who have unique ways of confederating other factions of the same race outside of diplomacy, e.g. Greenskins.

- In spite of Grimgor, Thorgrim's greatest rival and threat in Warhammer 2, being moved closer to the Darklands, this has not brought Thorgrim much respite. Skarsnik now starts directly north of him, and Wurrzag is no longer competing with Grimgor in regards of who gets to confederate the Badland Greenskin tribes due to the latter being moved. The only dynamic factor in the Badlands currently is therefore whether Wurrzag or Skarsnik takes Thorgrim out, generally decided by which Greenskins factions gets to fire their Waaagh up first.

- The Dwarfs, while still being favoured by auto-resolve thanks to their heavily armoured units, are without a doubt one of the most dated races in Total War: Warhammer. Outside of the FLC that introduced Thorek and the Rune system, the Dwarfs are pretty much in the same state as they were when Warhammer 1 released, only difference being that, among other nasty things, now they have to contend with aforementioned Greenskins Waaagh mechanic, which utterly stomps the Dwarfs in auto-resolve.

And even if played by a player, Thorgrim is arguably tied with Ungrimm for the place of worst Dwarfs Legendary Lord. His Lord effects (= buffs he provides to the army he commands) are still solely focused on the absolute trash unit that are Hammerers, and nothing else. His faction effects are a meager 10% research speed (Dwarfs have quite low research time for their tech from the get-go, meaning you need to stack multiple research buffs just to shave a single turn of) and -10% construction cost, though only for the region Thorgrim currently resides in. Speaking of his starting army, that's another thing worthy of an entry in the Dammaz Kron, because the High King of the Darfs starts with an absolute abysmal selection of units:

- 1 unit of Hammerers, aforementioned trash tier unit, whose only purpose is to burden your early game economy with their high upkeep cost

- 1 unit of Longbeards, aka more expensive Dwarf Warriors

- 1 unit of Dwarfs Warriors with Great Weapons, who won't provide much mileage either, since you won't encounter many heavily armoured units for quite some time

- 1 unit of Dwarf Warriors, the one of the only two units that are fine

- 1 unit of Dwarf Miners, an expensive tier 1 unit completely made obsolete by the fact that Miners with Blasting Charges and regular Dwarf Warriors exist

- 2 units of Quarrelers, the only thing that gives him at least some offensive capabilities

and finally a single Gyrocopter squad, which is not only highly situational, but also expensive.

In comparison, his fellow Dwarfs Lords start with 5 overpowered, immortal heroes on top of a much more synergistic army (Belegar), a better army, runes and rune magic (Thorek) and a better army as well a a stronger lord (Grombrindal). Hell, even Ungrimm gets potentially immortal Slayers from turn 1. Scratch the tie mentioned above, Thorgrim is definitely the worst of the bunch. Here's to hope the announced "Thrones of Decay" DLC offers some goodies for the Dwarfs that gives Throgrimn at least a fighting chance.

Gallery

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  The High King acts!

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  Getting sums of money wrong. That's a grudgin! Abandoning allies in battle. That's a grudgin! Begrudging us your best ale. Oh you better believe that's a grudgin!

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  Carry me closer! I want to hit them with my axe!

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