The Earthen have hammered their way into Azeroth’s spotlight, and if you’ve been eyeing those gemstone beards and adamantine brows, this guide will carry you from “Where do I even start?” to rolling your first Earthen and chasing heritage armor. You’ll find everything you need here: exact requirements, where to grab the initial quest, a clear walkthrough of the chapters, and what to do if the chain stalls. By the end, you’ll know how to unlock the Earthen allied race cleanly, and what you actually get for doing it.

Requirements And Preparation

Account And Expansion Access

To unlock the Earthen, you need active game time and access to The War Within expansion on the Battle.net account that will host the allied race. You’ll also want at least one character on that account at the new level cap so you can finish the Khaz Algar story cleanly and see all recruitment NPCs. If you’ve been away a while, log in, let your addons update, and make sure your account has the expansion flagged as active, phasing issues often trace back to missing expansion access or unfinished prologues.

Campaign And Renown Milestones

You’re expected to complete the core Khaz Algar campaign on one character. Finishing the main story ensures Dornogal is fully phased, key Earthen leaders are present, and the recruitment chain (the “Coreforge Accord” arc) becomes available. Renown is generally helpful but not a hard gate for the unlock, think of it as smoothing travel, opening vendors, and adding side stories rather than blocking your recruitment progress. If you do push Renown with local factions as you go, you’ll reduce the odds of a stray prerequisite sending you back to mop up a side objective.

Recommended Gear And Quality-Of-Life Addons

You won’t need raid gear, but a comfortably geared level-cap character makes the scenarios and delves breeze by. Keep a speed set or movement toys handy for cross-zone errands. For addons, an objective tracker like Azeroth Auto Pilot or BtWQuests helps keep you on rails without spoiling everything. HandyNotes for Khaz Algar can be useful if a step asks you to poke around a subzone you haven’t fully mapped. And if you’re planning to switch alts mid-chain, an account-wide progress tracker addon can stop you from accidentally duplicating steps.

How To Start The Earthen Unlock Quest

Where To Pick Up The First Quest

Once you’ve completed the Khaz Algar campaign, check the Embassy in your faction’s capital, Stormwind or Orgrimmar, for a recruitment call that mentions the Earthen and Dornogal. If you’re already in the Isles, you can also head straight to Dornogal: look for an envoy near the central concourse or recruitment board offering the opening breadcrumb into the “Coreforge Accord.” If no quest is visible in the Embassy, that’s your cue to fly to Dornogal and check there.

Travel And Phasing Considerations

If the NPC isn’t present where a guide says they should be, it’s almost always phasing. Confirm the final chapter of the Khaz Algar campaign is marked complete on that character. If you swapped shards right after a story step, relog to force the phase. War Mode can put you on a different shard: toggle it off and back on if things look deserted. And if you still can’t see the starter quest, open your Adventure Guide in Dornogal, Blizzard often pins recruitment breadcrumbs there after you meet the main conditions.

Step-By-Step Quest Chain Walkthrough

Chapter 1: Into Khaz Algar

You’ll begin by reporting to Earthen leadership in Dornogal and proving you’re a reliable outside envoy. Expect a tour of the city’s key halls and a few short errands that establish how the Earthen function, literally and socially. You’ll handle an introduction to the Coreforge, learn who controls what in the city’s council structure, and resolve a minor crisis that shows why your faction needs the Earthen and why the Earthen need you. The tone here is diplomacy first, steel second: pick up contextual items and read the short flavor notes, later dialogue checks nod to them.

A short investigate capstone typically wraps this chapter. Treat it like a guided story investigate: you’ll escort or defend an Earthen artisan, clear pockets of hostile creatures, and interact with Coreforge machinery. If you’ve ignored delves so far, don’t sweat it. Follow the quest markers, keep your interrupts ready, and prioritize elite adds that fixate on NPC allies.

Chapter 2: Delves, Allies, And Diplomacy

The second leg opens into broader Khaz Algar politics. You’ll visit outlying holds, mend frayed alliances, and learn why the Earthen don’t present a united front by default. Several objectives can be done in either order. If you’re on a healer, take the escort first to leverage your toolkit: if you’re tank or melee, handle the outpost clear where stunnable elites spawn in tight quarters.

You’ll tackle a longer investigate featuring multiple wings to prove your reliability under pressure. Mechanics are straightforward: avoid frontal cone smashes, step out of quake ripples, and use any movement cooldowns when platforms shift. There’s a puzzle beat in the middle, rotate runes or valves to align conduits. If you watch the glowing filaments that tether runes, the solution becomes obvious: connect matching colors in a continuous path. Finish by securing a diplomatic token and returning to Dornogal for council deliberations.

Finale: The Coreforge Accord And Scenario Tips

The final chapter culminates in a multi-stage scenario where you defend the Coreforge, rally Earthen clans, and sign the Accord that formally recruits the Earthen as an allied race for your faction. Expect wave defense, a short chase, and a boss that uses knockbacks and periodic ground shatters. Don’t stand near ledges: position with your back to a wall when you see a wind-up for the knock. Use a movement ability to cross shattered platforms, and save a defensive for the overlap between the quake and add spawns.

When the final cutscene ends, you’ll receive the achievement for recruiting the Earthen. If you’re running with friends, everyone on the same stage gets credit, but each person must have personally completed the earlier chapters.

Timegates, Skips, And Common Pitfalls

Weekly Locks And Renown Alternatives

The recruitment itself isn’t meant to be hard timegated once your main campaign is finished. If you hit a “come back later” prompt, it’s usually because you stepped into the chain mid-campaign or rushed to the finale without a prerequisite side step. In those cases, finish the flagged prerequisite and the chain opens back up immediately. Renown can substitute in a few convenience spots, vendors and flight paths unlock sooner, but it’s not a replacement for the main story completion.

Alt Skips And How To Recover Stalled Quests

After you unlock the Earthen account-wide, you don’t need to repeat the recruitment on alts just to create an Earthen. If an alt is already mid-chain and stalls, abandon the current step and pick it up again from the Embassy or Dornogal’s envoy. If the scenario won’t queue, drop group, relog, and make sure you aren’t mid-investigate on a different chapter. Worst case, use the in-quest “Stuck?” option in the quest tracker to reset the phase to the most recent stable checkpoint.

What You Unlock: Rewards, Racials, And Heritage Armor

Allied Race Achievement, Mount, And Tabard

Completing the Coreforge Accord grants the Allied Races: Earthen achievement and unlocks character creation for the Earthen on your account. You’ll receive a faction-appropriate Earthen mount and a tabard featuring their sigil. The mount and tabard unlock immediately on your collections tab once the recruitment quest turns in, no extra errands.

Heritage Armor Requirements And Transmog Notes

Earthen, like other allied races, have a heritage armor set you earn by leveling an Earthen from their starting level to max-level thresholds without using a level boost or race change. You can use heirlooms and Rested XP: that doesn’t invalidate it. The set comes with distinct gemstone accents, plate-like silhouettes, and works as a transmog for the appropriate armor classes on Earthen characters. If you want the complete appearance on multiple armor types, plan for more than one Earthen or keep an eye on future appearance updates, heritage sets occasionally gain extra tints in later patches.

Racial Traits Overview And Class Synergies

Earthen racials lean into resilience, craftsmanship, and battlefield stability. Expect a defensive cooldown that sheds harmful effects or grants a burst of damage reduction, a passive that improves your resistance to knockbacks and stuns, and a crafting perk that helps professions tied to metal and stone. Tanks love the sturdiness, melee appreciate the anti-knockback in mechanics-heavy fights, and crafters get real value when pushing endgame recipes. In terms of classes, Protection Warrior, Vengeance Demon Hunter, Guardian Druid, and Blood Death Knight feel great with the defensive kit, while Enhancement Shaman and Retribution Paladin benefit from uptime racials in movement-heavy encounters.

Creating And Leveling Your Earthen

Customization Options And Name Ideas

You get a satisfying spread of stone and metal tints, gemstone beards and brows, and chiseled facial patterns. Subtle body cracks with glowing inlays sell the “forged, not born” vibe. You can keep it classic with earth tones or go full opal-and-obsidian royalty. For names, lean on geology with a twist: Basaltin, Veinwhisper, Flintbrow, Garn Helix, Shardwyn, or Corebrand. Short, punchy names read best next to those heavy silhouettes.

Starting Experience And Early Leveling Route

Earthen begin with a short starting experience that grounds you in Dornogal’s culture before you’re sent to your faction hub. From there, you can choose Chromie Time for 10–70, then push 70–80 in The War Within zones. If you want the fastest path to heritage armor, chain queue dungeons during Rested XP windows, weave in campaign chapters for the free gear bumps, and knock out world quests in zones where you’ve unlocked the better flight paths. Don’t sleep on delves, solo-friendly, punchy, and great for practicing movement against the same mechanics you’ll see in max-level scenarios. By the time you hit 80, you’ll have enough gear to step into entry raids or Mythic 0s without feeling made of gravel.

Conclusion

If you’ve finished Khaz Algar’s story, the Earthen recruitment is a clean, story-forward chain: pick up the envoy call, tour Dornogal, prove yourself in a few delves, and seal the Coreforge Accord. From there, you get a slick mount, a tabard, and access to one of the most flavor-rich allied races WoW’s added in years. Roll an Earthen, chase that heritage set, and enjoy the satisfying thunk of stone meeting steel. And if an NPC goes missing or a scenario misbehaves, don’t panic, relog, re-pick the breadcrumb, and you’ll be back on track in minutes.