What Does Icecrown Bring? Part II
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 5:00AMPart I of this article yesterday speculated about a possible outcome for The Frozen Halls 5-man dungeon encounter. Today I'd like to continue that and peek into what could possibly happen in The Frozen Throne climax.
The Frozen Throne
Confirmed Lore Characters: Tirion Fordring, High Overlord Saurfang, Muradin Bronzebeard, Darion Mograine, Varian Wrynn, The Lich King
Speculated Lore Characters: Saurfang the Younger (Deathbringer Saurfang), Bolvar Fordragon
The 10/25 man raid events take on an entirely different flavor than The Frozen Halls, at least from the previews. Whereas the The Frozen Halls lore takes on a much more personal feel due to Jaina and Sylvanas's involvement, The Frozen Throne lore gets scaled up to something exceedingly more epic.
It is here we see the culmination of the less personal and more political story arcs in Wrath of the Lich King. Certainly, Tirion, Saurfang, Muradin, Darion, and Varian all have personal ties to the Lich King, but somehow it's hard to say that any of them have the same burning hatred or hopeless longing that we see in Sylvanas or Jaina (except maybe Darion and Muradin). Here, in the raid, we're talking the final battle of this war.
We see the merger of the Argent Crusade with the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict, which sets up a nice way for the death knights to break apart as a faction after the culmination of this story. A part of me believes that we may see Darion Mograine's death in Icecrown, possibly at the hands of his father, Alexandros. If this happens, the Ebon Blade will lose their leader, but may gather once again within their respective Horde / Alliance factions.
Who will lead them? Well, Blizzard seems to be pushing Thassarian to the forefront with his upcoming manga, and there's no reason that Koltira Deathweaver can't play a similar role Hordeside. Afterall, both of these characters were the "first" of their kind. What with the increase in the Horde vs. Alliance conflict, it only makes sense to break apart the unity of the Ebon Blade and allow them to fight each other like everyone else, right?
And what could Blizzard mean by this:
"The Lich King's most powerful death knight then stands as the final obstacle for the heroes to enter the upper reaches of the citadel."
Could we be finally seeing the payoff setup all the way back during the Wrathgate event? For the Hordeside, could the "most powerful death knight" be Overlord Saurfang's son, now rumored to be Deathbringer Saurfang? Afterall, Overlord Saurfang is commanding the Horde gunship...
And for the Alliance, will we be seeing the return of Bolvar Fordragon? Only time will tell.
There are some truly intriguing lore possibilities hidden within Icecrown, and there are still many questions yet to be answered. What is Varian doing? Will Garrosh be present? Will Jaina and Sylvanas make an appearance in the final battle?
It's not too long from now that these questions, and many more, will most likely be answered. And after that, one of the longer-running story arcs in Warcraft will finally come to a close.
I'm almost sad to see it all wrapped up...
Reader Comments (7)
I enjoyed reading your comments on the incoming Icecrown Citadel encounters. I have commented on that on my blog with a seemingly more personal not, as I am a fan of Arthas' story. Most pleasing to see someone thinking things over. Especially when we agree :)
See I am more excited to see it wrapped up. Tragedy will befall our leaders, hearts and homes to be shattered, and in the end it will make them stronger......or drive them further into madness. This will be the defining moment and set up how the main lore characters enter into the next patch. With the theme of it being more war I cannot wait to see how this plays (Epic battle between Horde and Alliance hero's to see who kills Arthas? After Wrathgate I dont see them standing side by side, I can see some trust issues with that still). The possibility's are endless. It will be interesting to watch it all unfold.
Almost forgot, where is Thrall in all this??
He would not miss the battle of a life time like this would he??
It's going to make sense that Darion dies in ICC because Blizz wrote his character into a corner. You take a guy that is convinced that DKs do not belong in Azeroth, according to his speech after the battle of LHC, and that the EB was founded to kill the Lich King and with the LK "dead" he and the rest of the DKs are going to quietly ride off into the sunset, never to be seen in Azeroth again? Nah, I would be very suprised that Darion makes it out alive.
My feeling is that if Fordring gets mortally wounded, or knocked out of the fight, that Darion picks up the Ashbringer and wields it against the LK, just as his daddy predicted, and either lands the "killing" blow or dies knowing that the LK is dead and is at peace.
Then it would open up having Thassirian/Koltira, or a Saurfang Jr/Bolvar taking over control of their respective DK factions and declaring that since the LK is "dead", the Ashen Verdict is no more as well as the Ebon Blade, that the fight continues against the Scourge.
Unless of course something far bigger happens that would explain why the Horde/Alliance are at a full war against each other and the DKs want a piece of the action and they can no longer work as one single group...
Just my two cents
I'm ascribing to the opinion that the "Most Powerful DK" is a combination of Saurfang Jr's soul and Bolvar's body. It makes more sense to me for there to be one, than for there to be two different "Most Powerful DKs." I also think that we'll see Darion die, and the Death Knights will then have to resort to faction lines beneath the respective head Death Knights. I'm looking forward to the Death Knight manga and seeing how it plays into all of this.
There is a post on MMO champion about how fitting it is to have a Orc Soul implanted into a Human body, just the same way that the very first deathknight, Teron Gorefiend was created. If it does happen, it would be really cool, wouldn't it? :D
I agree with what Earthseer says, what ever happens, we will see how the leaders of the two superpowers of Azeroth change, for better or for Worse.
I think the Deathbringer Saurfang possibility brings up some interesting speculation. I am wondering if it's the key to how we end up with Garrosh as leader of the Horde. For instance, what if Saurfang confronts his son, but ultimately is unable to kill him and is instead killed by him. If Garrosh is the one then steps up and leads the party in defeating him, then in an absence of Saurfang and with Garrosh having stepped up and done something heroic, I can see how we'd end up with him as leader.