Over the years, the eccentric, often brilliant gnomes have contributed ingenious weapons to aid the Alliance in its fierce battles against the Horde.  When the vicious Burning Legion invaded during the Third War, the gnomes were strangely absent from the battlefield.  The Alliance later discovered that the gnomes were fighting for their lives against another invading force, resulting in the loss of their beloved city of Gnomeregan.  Now the gnomish refugees live with their dwarven cousins in the fortified stronghold of Ironforge.  They continue to aid the Alliance with their creative inventions while one day hoping to reclaim their wondrous city from the villainous forces that now occupy it.