World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 3

by Blizzard Entertainment

  The Horde’s champions were deeply disturbed by the keeper’s words. Through intermediaries in the Kirin Tor, they quietly reached out to the Alliance heroes who had assaulted the Forge of Wills, asking if they knew the meaning of Loken’s warning. Brann Bronzebeard was instantly alarmed. From what he had learned thus far of Ulduar, he was convinced that Loken’s death would have dire consequences for the entire world, but he did not yet fully understand why. The only way to learn more was to journey into the heart of Ulduar, where Yogg-Saron dwelled.

  THE BLOOD OF YOGG-SARON

  Thousands of years ago, tendrils of Yogg-Saron’s essence seeped to the world’s surface in the form of a strange mineral called saronite. Blooms of the jagged substance appeared throughout Northrend.

  When the Lich King first arrived in Northrend, he discovered and studied saronite. He found that it was nearly indestructible and incredibly resistant to many forms of magic. The Lich King also learned that it had the power to destroy the bodies and souls of undead creatures. Intrigued, he ordered his servants to use saronite to create armor, war machines, and even his fortresses across Northrend.

  The Explorers’ League and the Kirin Tor implored members of the Horde and the Alliance to join them in a final assault on the stronghold. Since the request came from neutral parties, the heroes agreed. They had glimpsed the evil in Ulduar, and they refused to let it spread unchecked, no matter the bitter rivalry that burned between their factions.

  The assault on Ulduar was more difficult than anyone had imagined. The stronghold was defended by the remnants of Yogg-Saron’s iron army along with the other mighty keepers who, like Loken, had fallen to the Old God’s influence. The grueling battle against these forces raged from the fortress’s frigid outer ramparts to its dark, subterranean halls.

  When the invaders finally reached the prison chamber of Yogg-Saron, the Old God tore at their minds with visions of madness, betrayal, and suffering. Several of the heroes were lost to insanity, and the Old God turned them against their former allies.

  But, just as when they had faced C’Thun, the mortals of Azeroth prevailed. Yogg-Saron was defeated, and its control over Ulduar vanished.

  Azeroth’s defenders had once again achieved the impossible, but they would not have the luxury of even a moment’s rest.

  During the assault on Ulduar, Brann Bronzebeard had discovered something deeply troubling. Keeper Loken had not been exaggerating when he said his death would mean the end of the world. His demise had triggered the first steps of a fail-safe mechanism designed by the titans.

  Ages ago, the titans had instructed the keepers to build two enchanted devices: the Forge of Wills and the Forge of Origination. The first was housed in Ulduar, and the second was embedded in the ground far to the south, in a land called Uldum. The Forge of Origination served a much different purpose from its counterpart to the north. If Azeroth should succumb to corruption, the machine’s energies could be released to purge the world’s flora and fauna. Once the scouring was complete, the Forge of Origination would trigger a process that would create a new generation of life.

  To oversee this procedure, the titans had conscripted a constellar named Algalon the Observer. The entity would judge the state of Azeroth and decide whether the world needed to be scoured.

  Brann Bronzebeard did not yet know the full implications of this fail-safe protocol, but he feared it would not end well. He led the champions who had defeated Yogg-Saron into a hidden chamber within Ulduar, hoping to forestall whatever fate awaited Azeroth. They were already too late.

  Loken’s death had summoned Algalon to Ulduar, and the guardian had concluded his analysis. The Old Gods’ corruption had spread across the world and even taken root in strongholds like Ulduar. Algalon proceeded with the fail-safe protocol, believing that the only recourse was to unleash the Forge of Origination’s power on Azeroth.

  Azeroth’s heroes fought bravely to stop Algalon, much to the constellar’s puzzlement. He could not see the logic in their actions; the fail-safe had already been activated, and if he died, it would not stop the procedure.

  THE RE-ORIGINATION OF AZEROTH

  As part of the fail-safe protocol, Algalon sent a signal to the titans that would notify them of his analysis, allowing them to approve the Forge of Origination’s activation. Neither the constellar nor Azeroth’s heroes knew that the titans had fallen to Sargeras and the Burning Legion long ago.

  Though the titans would never receive Algalon’s signal, that would not have stopped the fail-safe. Ultimately, the Forge of Origination would have destroyed all life on Azeroth.

  But the mortals did not back down. They fought for their world, for their homes, and for their friends. And in the end, they made Algalon yield.

  Algalon was moved by their resolve. Azeroth was not the first world he had purged, and he had never considered that life on those other worlds had wanted to survive as desperately as these heroes did. He decided that they had earned the right to fight against Azeroth’s corruption themselves. Algalon allowed the mortals to reverse the fail-safe protocol before the Forge of Origination rumbled to life.

  Algalon then disappeared, but he did not go far. He would watch over Azeroth from a distance in the years to come.

  Despite the chaos and carnage unfolding in Northrend, the war against the Lich King was proceeding well. The armies of the Alliance and the Horde had crushed numerous Scourge outposts throughout the continent, taking the undead’s territory piece by piece.

  All that was left was the final assault on Icecrown Citadel. The Lich King was holding most of his remaining forces there, almost daring his enemies to storm the Frozen Throne.

  Garrosh Hellscream and Varian Wrynn were eager to see the Lich King destroyed, but neither one of them gave the order to attack. Tirion Fordring, the leader of the Argent Crusade, had sent word to both leaders, warning them to hold back. He believed that a full, overwhelming assault was exactly what the Lich King wanted.

  The Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade had both carved out small footholds near Icecrown Citadel and spent weeks carefully observing the tactics and movements of the Scourge. Despite their differences, the paladins and the death knights had shared information with one another and reached the same conclusions. The Lich King was prepared to absorb heavy losses in a ground assault because he knew the Scourge would inflict heavy losses in return. Every one of the living who died in battle would rise again as a minion of the Lich King.

  Tirion believed there was only one way to conquer Icecrown: a small, surgical strike force could punch a hole in the citadel’s defenses and fight its way to the Lich King.

  To that end, Tirion called upon Azeroth’s champions to prove themselves worthy of this crucial mission. Thus, the Argent Tournament was born.

  Despite the tension between the factions, both trusted Tirion Fordring. He had shown exemplary bravery in his fight to protect Light’s Hope Chapel, and the Horde remembered his commitment to justice in defense of the orc Eitrigg many years earlier. None doubted his sincerity and single-minded desire to see the Lich King destroyed. There was no shortage of heroes willing to march at his side, no matter their faction.

  Countless heroes participated in the tournament’s trials. Before long, Tirion had winnowed the ranks to find his chosen few. He and the Argent Crusade now had their champions. They were joined by Darion Mograine and many of his death knights under the banner of a new order called the Ashen Verdict.

  Together, they would bring final judgment upon the Lich King.

  The assault on Icecrown Citadel began in the skies. Gunships from both the Horde and the Alliance swooped toward the stronghold and landed their forces at different locations. The invaders cut deep into Icecrown Citadel until they reached a wing of the fortress called the Halls of Reflection. There, the Lich King himself clashed with the mortal champions, forcing them to
retreat.

  Despite this defeat, Azeroth’s defenders redoubled their efforts and prepared for a final assault. The Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade forged a staging ground just inside Icecrown Citadel’s main entrance, and the champions of Azeroth leaped forward to bring down the Lich King.

  The battle that engulfed Icecrown Citadel tested the strength and willpower of Tirion Fordring and his followers. Not only had the Lich King kept his most powerful and dangerous minions close to his side, but he also commanded a hero from the past: Dranosh Saurfang.

  After the proud orc had fallen at the Wrath Gate, the Scourge had recovered his corpse. The Lich King had then transformed Dranosh into a death knight, and now he was forced to fight against his former allies—and they were forced to vanquish him. When Varok Saurfang learned what had become of his son, he was heartbroken. Even members of the Alliance sympathized with him, so malicious and brutal was the torment inflicted on his beloved boy.

  Icecrown Citadel’s guardians were many, but the strike team nevertheless persisted. They cut their way through the Scourge’s ranks until they stood before the Frozen Throne.

  There they found another hero who had vanished at the Wrath Gate. Bolvar Fordragon, his body disfigured by the red dragonflight’s enchanted fire, was suspended by chains above the Frozen Throne. Like Dranosh, the paladin had been recovered by the Lich King, but he was not as easy to corrupt as the orc had been. Bolvar had been subjected to horrific torture as the master of the Scourge struggled to turn him to darkness.

  The champions could not free Bolvar, not until they faced the Lich King. They were exhausted, battered, and enraged…just as the Lich King had planned. His true prize now stood before him: the most powerful heroes of Azeroth. If they succumbed to the Lich King, he would raise them into undeath and wield them as weapons against the living.

  The fate of the world rested upon this single moment.

  The Lich King unleashed his full fury. Tirion Fordring and his champions fought back in a valiant battle that shook Icecrown Citadel to its foundations. The Lich King ripped several heroes’ souls from their bodies with Frostmourne, but even that did not stop them. The champions trapped in the cursed blade fought on, stirring the other spirits imprisoned in the sword to action.

  But despite their valor and heroism, the champions could not prevail. The Lich King’s strength overwhelmed them all. Tirion Fordring was subdued in a block of ice, and his followers were slaughtered.

  The Lich King had won. He began to raise his foes into undeath.

  Tirion refused to give up. He broke free of his icy prison, and with a desperate blow, he destroyed Frostmourne with the Ashbringer. In an instant, the souls trapped in the blade were released. The spirits of the Lich King’s victims swarmed around their tormentor, repaying his cruelty with righteous vengeance.

  The spirit of Arthas Menethil’s own father, Terenas Menethil II, raised the slain champions back to life, and they rejoined the battle anew. This time, the Lich King was defenseless, and he was fatally wounded.

  In his dying moments, Arthas felt the corruption of the Frozen Throne fading away from him, and he was faced with the enormity of his crimes. He slipped into death, into a cold and unforgiving afterlife of darkness.

  All that was left was to decide how to deal with the remnants of the Scourge. Terenas’s spirit warned Tirion Fordring and his champions that without a powerful consciousness controlling the undead, the creatures would run amok and cause unimaginable damage to the world.

  TRIUMPHANT RETURN

  After the Lich King’s defeat, the armies of the Alliance and the Horde returned home as conquering victors. They had triumphed over one of the greatest threats Azeroth had ever known. Garrosh Hellscream was greeted in Orgrimmar with the thunderous applause of his brethren. He was now seen as a worthy heir of the Hellscream lineage and a remarkable battle commander in his own right.

  The Horde’s other commander, Varok Saurfang, remained in Northrend to oversee his faction’s withdrawal from the continent. The death of his son, Dranosh Saurfang, had deeply wounded him, and he wished to grieve in peace. His absence meant that the Horde no longer had his experience and leadership, and that would create severe problems in the days to come.

  Tirion agreed, but it was not a burden he could ask anyone else to bear. He took up the Lich King’s helm and steeled himself to become the jailor of the damned. But before he could don the cursed armor and seal his fate, Bolvar Fordragon intervened.

  Now freed from his chains, Bolvar volunteered to take Tirion’s place. The wounds he had suffered at the Wrath Gate had left his body broken and his mind scarred. He could never return to his former life—he could never walk among the living as he once had. For the sake of Azeroth, he would wear the Lich King’s helm and assert his will over the Scourge to keep them in check. By doing so, Bolvar hoped that the threat posed by the Scourge would be gone forever.

  As the armies of the Horde and the Alliance withdrew from Northrend, they scarcely saw the Scourge. Since most believed that the Lich King was no more, it was easy to assume that the undead were no longer a threat. This, of course, was not true.

  Bolvar Fordragon was struggling to maintain control over the endless ranks of undead. The Lich King had directed them to make war upon the living, and it was difficult to quell their aggression. Bolvar fought to maintain his sanity; he had been a mighty paladin all his adult life, but the moment he had donned the Lich King’s helm, the Holy Light had abandoned him. His new necromantic powers warred with his sense of justice and righteousness, and it took nearly all his strength to keep the undead contained.

  Some pockets of the Scourge managed to break free of his control. Packs of undead in the Eastern Kingdoms continued to follow the Lich King’s old directives, mindlessly attacking anyone who dared to trespass in the Plaguelands. The most troubling blow to Bolvar’s hold over the Scourge resulted from an unexpected event: the second death of Sylvanas Windrunner.

  For years, Sylvanas had been dedicated to killing Arthas Menethil, the man who had ripped her soul from her body and transformed her into his unwilling servant. Now he was dead, and she had not even had the satisfaction of killing him herself. Longing for peace from her tormented existence, Sylvanas flung herself from the top of Icecrown Citadel.

  The fall itself did not end her, but the jagged spikes of saronite embedded in the ground did. Like the Lich King, the Alliance and the Horde had discovered and experimented with this mysterious element. It had many intriguing properties, one of which was that it could destroy the body and soul of the undead.

  Sylvanas was cast into a bleak, terrifying afterlife. Spectral beings known as the Val’kyr found her soul there and gave her a glimpse of her people’s future. Without her to protect them, the Forsaken would be squandered by the Horde and eventually made extinct. The Val’kyr offered a pact: they would return Sylvanas’s soul to her body, but only if she would bind herself to them. The Val’kyr longed to finally be free from the Lich King’s control, and they would gladly serve the Banshee Queen in exchange. Sylvanas agreed, and she returned to Azeroth to continue leading the Forsaken.

  Bolvar was shocked to feel that his connection with the Val’kyr had suddenly been severed. When he tried to reestablish his will over them, they did not respond. It was as if they now served another master.

  Bolvar considered this event a lesson learned, and he embraced his fate. Not only did he have to keep the undead from harming the living, but he must also keep others from misusing the Scourge’s power.

  TIRION FORDRING AND HIS ALLIES DEFEAT THE LICH KING AT THE FROZEN THRONE

  The Old Gods had been attempting to corrupt the Emerald Dream for millennia. They had extended their influence into the ethereal realm, and the effects of this were known as the Emerald Nightmare. Yogg-Saron’s recent defeat in Northrend had not eradicated
the danger. In fact, it had spurred the entity’s minions to action.

  Following the Lich King’s death, the Nightmare reached farther into the outside world. People across Azeroth experienced horrific dreams. Tyrande Whisperwind was one of those affected by these night terrors. As she investigated the cause, she witnessed a vision from the goddess Elune, a being revered by the night elves. In this vision, Tyrande saw her mate, Malfurion Stormrage, dying inside the Emerald Dream.

  Malfurion had been sleeping in the Dream for years, but until now, there had not been cause for alarm. Many druids spent long periods of time exploring the realm. Tyrande tried to wake him, but she could not. Then it became clear that nearly everyone who had recently entered the Dream, druid or not, was unable to awaken. Even Ysera, the Aspect of Dreams, was locked in perpetual slumber.

  Fandral Staghelm, the leader of the Cenarion Circle in Malfurion’s absence, claimed to have the answers. He downplayed the amount of corruption that had seeped into the World Tree Teldrassil, and he suggested that it was free of the Emerald Nightmare’s influence. Yet that was a lie. The Nightmare had already spread to Teldrassil, but Fandral had hidden its presence from the other night elves.

  To keep his deception alive, he declared that he could protect Teldrassil and prevent the Nightmare from having any hold upon it. Once that was done, he said he was certain there would be a way to save Malfurion.

  Tyrande would not stand by while Malfurion was in danger. She entered the Dream herself to find him. In time, she discovered that Malfurion was being kept prisoner by an ancient enemy: Xavius, the Nightmare Lord.