Honestly, I’ve sunk over 500 hours into Baldur’s Gate 3 since it dropped in 2023, and the juiciest beef in the whole Sword Coast isn’t between devils and mind flayers—it’s the gnome-on-gnome vendetta that can totally flip the city’s fate. The Ironhands and the Gondians aren’t just rival engineer clans; they’re locked in a cycle of grudges that stretches back decades, and by 2026, the community is still spilling the tea over which side to back. I’m gonna break down the whole shebang, so you can decide which pocket-sized tinkerers get your loyalty.

Competition Turned Blood Feud

When I first bumped into these folks, I thought this was just petty workshop drama. Barcus Wroot, that sweet pacifist Ironhand, even says that friendly rivalry is baked into gnomish culture—it’s how they push each other to invent wilder gizmos. But things went sideways fast. The Gondians worship Gond, the neutral god of craft, and they chase innovation with zero moral guardrails. The Ironhands follow Gaerdal Ironhand, a lawful good deity all about protecting gnomish communities and warrior discipline. Right there, you’ve got a classic clash: freewheeling tech-bros vs. structured traditionalists.

And then there’s the runepowder bomb. The Gondians claim they invented that volatile stuff, but every Ironhand I’ve talked to in the Underdark swears their ancestors cooked it up first and the Gondians pulled a straight-up heist. Talk about a grudge that’s been simmering for generations—no wonder Wulbren Bongle is ready to paint the town red with it.

The Ironhands’ Fall from Grace

Here’s where the history gets messier than a goblin camp. Decades ago, the Ironhands were the top dogs in Baldur’s Gate, but they made a colossal oopsie: they allied with Sarevok Anchev, the Bhaalspawn murder-lord. Yep, they helped the guy who tried to drown the city in blood. When Sarevok was “ended,” the city exiled the entire clan. The Gondians swooped in, filled the power vacuum, and turned their House of Wonders into the Silicon Valley of Faerûn. Meanwhile, the Ironhands fled to the Underdark and had to eat a whole lot of humble pie—surviving duergar slavers and mind flayer nastiness while stewing in resentment. Every time I stroll through the Grymforge and free those enslaved gnomes, I feel that bitterness radiating off them.

Gondians’ Hubris: From Auto-guards to Steel Watchers

Up top, the Gondians went full throttle on invention. Their cranes rebuilt the docks, their sigil was stamped on half the metal ingots in the city, and they dreamed up the Auto-guards—mech-suits piloted by gnomes, essentially glorious Iron Man knockoffs meant to protect Baldur’s Gate. But they flew too close to the sun. Enter Enver Gortash, the Banite smooth-talker. He snatched their plans, kidnapped a ton of Gondians, slapped kill collars on the rest, and twisted the Auto-guard project into the Steel Watcher nightmare. Now those mechs are filled with zombie corpses and controlled by tadpoled brains. If you, like me, have ever fought one of those hulks in the Lower City, you know how terrifyingly wrong it all went.

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In my latest playthrough, I stood in front of that foundry and my stomach dropped. Zanner Toobin, the current Gondian leader, is blind and broken, his people enslaved while the outside world thinks they’re Gortash’s willing lapdogs. It’s the biggest “don’t judge a book by its cover” moment in the game.

A Choice That Defines the City

So where does that leave you by Act 3? The Ironhands, now led by hardliner Wulbren Bongle, have no clue the Gondians are victims. They’re cooking up runepowder and itching to blow the Steel Watch Foundry sky-high—collateral damage be damned. Wulbren sees the Gondians as hypocrites who back another Sarevok-tier tyrant, and honestly, I get why he’s gone bananas. But Barcus, bless his heart, begs for peace, and that’s the wrench in the works that got me thinking.

You’ve got three paths: side with vengeful Wulbren and reduce the foundry to rubble (bye-bye, Gondians), throw in with Zanner Toobin and try to save his people while dismantling the Steel Watchers, or carve out a third way that honors the few gnomes still shouting for reconciliation. I’ve done them all, and the most satisfying ending by far involves listening to Barcus and threading the needle—rescuing the Gondian hostages, letting them help disable the foundry, and telling Wulbren to chill. It’s not a fairy tale happy ending, but it keeps the two clans from annihilating each other and gives the city a shot at healing.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the outcomes I’ve experienced:

Choice Ironhand Outcome Gondian Outcome City Impact
Side with Wulbren Vengeance, but fractured clan Genocide; knowledge lost Steel Watchers destroyed, chaos
Side with Zanner Wulbren goes nuclear; Ironhands scatter Some Gondians saved, foundry disabled Stable transition, less bloodshed
Pursue peace via Barcus Wulbren steps down, Barcus leads Gondians rebuild with oversight Best long-term prosperity

By 2026, modders have even added extra dialogue and epilogue slides for the peace route, which tells me the community still craves that bittersweet resolution. So next time you’re deep in Baldur’s Gate 3, don’t just follow the pointy-eared drama—pay attention to the gnomes. Their feud is a masterclass in how old wounds and blind ambition can turn bright minds into weapons of mass destruction. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll hold your breath every time you enter that foundry, hoping you made the right call.