The story of Arthas and the Lich King, from Stratholme to Icecrown Citadel
The Lich King began as Ner’zhul, an orc shaman whose spirit the demon Kil’jaeden sealed in a block of ice called the Frozen Throne. Arthas Menethil, the prince of Lordaeron, was the hero who fell to him: he purged Stratholme, took up the runeblade Frostmourne, murdered his own father, and finally put on the Lich King’s helm and merged with Ner’zhul. Wrath of the Lich King follows the Horde and Alliance to Northrend to end him, and it closes in Icecrown Citadel, where Arthas dies and Bolvar Fordragon takes his place.
Who was the Lich King before Arthas?
Ner’zhul and the Frozen Throne
Ner’zhul was a shaman of the orcs on Draenor. After he tore open portals that shattered his world into what we now call Outland, the Burning Legion caught him. Kil’jaeden tortured his spirit and imprisoned it in a block of enchanted ice, then sent that ice to Azeroth. It landed in Northrend, on the Icecrown Glacier, and became the Frozen Throne.
Ner’zhul, now the Lich King, was given a job: spread a plague of undeath that would weaken Azeroth before the Legion invaded. Dreadlords were sent to watch him. From the throne he reached out with his mind, built an army of the dead in Northrend, and conquered the old spider kingdom of Azjol-Nerub, raising its king, Anub’arak, as a servant.
The Cult of the Damned
The Lich King needed living followers too. He found one in Kel’Thuzad, a mage of Dalaran who turned to necromancy. Kel’Thuzad founded the Cult of the Damned in Lordaeron, and the cult spread the plague through infected grain. People who ate it died and rose again as Scourge.
Arthas’s fall in Warcraft III
The prince of Lordaeron
Arthas was the son of King Terenas Menethil II, trained as a paladin by Uther the Lightbringer, and close to the young sorceress Jaina Proudmoore. When the plague began to spread, Arthas and Jaina went to investigate. They tracked the grain, killed Kel’Thuzad, and found the dreadlord Mal’Ganis behind it all.
The Culling of Stratholme
At Stratholme, Arthas saw that the city’s grain was already plagued and that its people would soon turn. He ordered the city purged before they could rise. Uther refused and Jaina left him. Arthas cut down the people of Stratholme himself, while Mal’Ganis raised the dead faster than he could kill them. The dreadlord then fled to Northrend and dared the prince to follow.
You can play through this night in the Culling of Stratholme, a level 80 dungeon in the Caverns of Time, where you help Arthas purge the city and fight Mal’Ganis.
Frostmourne
Arthas sailed to Northrend and met the dwarf Muradin Bronzebeard, his old teacher. When his men were called home, Arthas had the ships burned so no one could leave, and blamed mercenaries he had hired. Muradin led him to Frostmourne, a runeblade in a frozen cavern, and when Arthas freed it a shard of ice struck Muradin and left him for dead.
With Frostmourne, Arthas killed Mal’Ganis, but the sword took his soul. He came home to Lordaeron as a hero, climbed to the throne room, and killed his father.
The Third War and The Frozen Throne
As a death knight of the Scourge, Arthas destroyed what was left of Lordaeron. He killed Uther, marched on Quel’Thalas, killed the ranger-general Sylvanas Windrunner and raised her as a banshee, and used the Sunwell to bring Kel’Thuzad back as a lich. Then the Scourge broke Dalaran and helped summon the demon lord Archimonde.
In The Frozen Throne, Kil’jaeden turned on Ner’zhul and sent Illidan Stormrage to destroy him. As the Lich King’s power faded, Sylvanas broke free, and Arthas lost his grip on Lordaeron to the dreadlords. Called back north, he fought through Azjol-Nerub with Anub’arak at his side, defeated Illidan at the foot of Icecrown, climbed to the Frozen Throne, shattered the ice, and put on the Helm of Domination. Arthas and Ner’zhul became one Lich King.
The Wrath of the Lich King story
Years later the Lich King stirs again, and the Horde and Alliance send armies to Northrend. Most of the Wrath of the Lich King story is told through quest chains as you level from 68 to 80, so you meet it a zone at a time.
| Where | What happens |
|---|---|
| Acherus and the Scarlet Enclave | The death knight story: the Ebon Blade break from the Lich King at Light’s Hope Chapel |
| Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord | The two landing points, where the Horde and Alliance first meet the Scourge |
| Dragonblight | The Wrathgate, the turning point of the story |
| Undercity | The Battle for the Undercity, after the Forsaken betrayal |
| Icecrown | The war at the Lich King’s door with the Argent Crusade and Ebon Blade |
| Icecrown Citadel | The final raid and the end of Arthas |
Death knights and Light’s Hope Chapel
New death knights start in Acherus, the Ebon Hold, as servants of the Lich King. Their story ends at Light’s Hope Chapel, where the Lich King turns on his own death knights, Tirion Fordring arrives with the Ashbringer, and Highlord Darion Mograine and his knights break free. They become the Knights of the Ebon Blade and fight against Arthas for the rest of the expansion. If you want to play this yourself, see the death knight leveling guide.
Kel’Thuzad and Naxxramas
Kel’Thuzad still serves Arthas. His floating necropolis Naxxramas now hangs over Dragonblight, and it is the first raid of the expansion.
The Wrathgate
The Wrathgate (Angrathar) in Dragonblight is the gate to Icecrown, and the quest chain that leads to it is the most famous story moment in Wrath. Highlord Bolvar Fordragon leads the Alliance and Dranosh Saurfang, the son of Varok Saurfang, leads the Horde. Arthas himself comes out to meet them.
Then Grand Apothecary Putress and his Forsaken followers release a new plague over the battlefield. It kills the Scourge, the Alliance and the Horde alike. Saurfang the Younger falls, Bolvar is lost, and the red dragonflight burns the field. Arthas takes Dranosh’s body with him.
The Battle for the Undercity
The plague was part of a coup. Putress and the dreadlord Varimathras seize the Undercity, and Sylvanas flees to Orgrimmar. Both factions strike back in the Battle for the Undercity. Thrall and Sylvanas lead the Horde and kill Varimathras. King Varian Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore lead the Alliance, and Varian kills Putress. Afterwards Varian, enraged, confronts Thrall in the throne room, and Jaina has to teleport them both away before the two leaders start a war of their own.
Icecrown
In Icecrown the war reaches the Lich King’s door. The Argent Crusade under Tirion Fordring and the Knights of the Ebon Blade fight alongside the Horde gunship Orgrim’s Hammer and the Alliance gunship Skybreaker. Muradin Bronzebeard survived Frostmourne’s cavern after all, and in Icecrown Citadel he commands the Skybreaker.
On the way you can visit the Frozen Halls dungeons at the foot of the citadel: the Forge of Souls, the Pit of Saron and the Halls of Reflection, where Jaina or Sylvanas faces Arthas and you run from the Lich King himself. Anub’arak, Arthas’s old ally from Azjol-Nerub, appears twice: as the last boss of the Azjol-Nerub dungeon and in the Trial of the Crusader. The dungeons by level guide shows where each one fits.
How the Lich King story ends in Icecrown Citadel
The Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade join as the Ashen Verdict and storm Icecrown Citadel. On the way up you meet Deathbringer Saurfang, who is Dranosh raised as a Scourge champion. After the fight, Varok Saurfang comes to carry his son’s body home.
At the top of the citadel, on the Frozen Throne, the raid fights the Lich King. When he has won and raised the fallen heroes as his own, Tirion breaks free and shatters Frostmourne with the Ashbringer. The souls inside the blade are released, among them the spirit of King Terenas, who brings the heroes back. Arthas dies, and his father is with him at the end.
Then comes the last twist. Bolvar Fordragon did not die at the Wrathgate. Arthas had kept him prisoner at the Frozen Throne, and the dragonfire had changed him. Bolvar knows the Scourge must have a master or the dead will run wild over the world, so he takes the Helm of Domination and sits on the Frozen Throne as the new Lich King, to hold the Scourge in check. Tirion leaves him there, and that is where the story stands at the end of patch 3.3.5.
For the fight itself and the bosses on the way up, read the Icecrown Citadel raid guide.
Play the Wrath of the Lich King story on Lasthavens
The best way to learn the Arthas story is to play it in the quests and dungeons of Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. Lasthavens is a free PvP realm with twice the normal experience from kills, quests and exploring, and the real 3.3.5a client runs in your browser, so there is no 17 GB download. It works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad and Android. Plan your route north with the leveling guide, then play Lasthavens.