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Monday, September 27, 2010

Arthas Menethil - Hero, or Villain? (Part One)


Many WoW players nowadays only know of the villainous Arthas, the Lich King, the ‘bad guy’, or big scary guy in black armor that you see when rolling a Death Knight.  Everyone coin has two sides, and it saddens me to know that many people are playing WoW without knowing anything about the story line. 

Arthas, after he turned evil.
Arthas, before he turned evil.




So, let me fill you in on how Arthas Menethil, an innocent boy, turned into the Lich King.




    • Arthas was born a prince, heir to King Terenas Menethil II, ruler of Lordaeron, now known as the Undercity.
    • At age nine, Arthas was gifted a horse from family friends, he named it ‘Invincible’, and fell in love with it through battle.  It was his war-steed.
    • Ten years later, in the harsh of winter, Athas needed some alone time from the insides of Lordaeron, so he decided to take Invincible out for a joy ride.
    • Once outside, with snow and ice blanketing the ground, he guided Invincible over a familiar jump, but his horse slipped, shattering its forelegs.  With no way to get help, Arthas gave Invincible a merciful death.  Some say it pushed him to become a paladin, some say it pushed him to the darker side of things.

    Arthas, and Invincible.

    • Training under the first Paladin, Uther, Arthas was accepted into the Knights of the Silver Hand at age 19.  The greatest fighting force of the Alliance.
    • Arthas formed a romantic relationship with Jaina Proudmoore, a powerful mage.
    • When Arthas was 23, scourge invaded northern land spreading the plague.
    • Arthas, Jaina, and his men went to defend their land and found Kel’Thuzad, one of the scourges leaders.
    • Before Arthas killed him, Kel’Thuzad told them that he had infected the stored grain in Anderhol, and had already shipped it out to the surrounding villages.
    • Kel’Thuzad also told them that his boss, Mal’Ganis, a demon, who was stationed in Stratholme.  Arthas, his soldiers, and Jaina, met up with Uther, Arthas’ mentor.
    • Here’s where it get’s intense.  They get to Strathlome to find that most of the citizens have already eaten the infect grain, and are turning into the undead.
    • Arthas ordered his soldiers and Uther to purge the entire town.  Uther was shocked Arthas said that, even if he was the king he wouldn’t follow that order.
    • Jaina and those who were loyal to Uther left, while Arthas and those loyal to him remained.  They slaughtered every townsfolk they saw, and set Stratholme on fire.
    • Arthas encountered Mal’Ganis and demanded a duel, but he slipped away, telling Arthas to meet him in Northrend.
    • Something snapped in Arthas that day.  He realized that whatever he did, however many people he killed, he wouldn’t be able to stop the scourge.  The plague would always spread faster then he could quell it.

    113 comments:

    1. i am all for evil in everything.

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    2. So many MMOs have great storylines these days, but you're right, they often go ignored. I'm a huge nerd, so I've been playing Lord of the Rings Online for a year or so, and the blending of story into quests is totally seamless, other games could learn!

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    3. this is a good post that makes me want to come back for more

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    4. Nice post. I need to get into this stuff more.

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    5. Reminds me of the faces of meth series

      ^^

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    6. Interesting stuff. too much to digest in 1 sitting ;p

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    7. Wow addiction, very real, very scary.

      brb going to check something on the internet for 8 hours. :-P

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    8. to be honest, I liked Arthas far more when he turned evil and wouldn't take shit from anyone :P

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    9. Wow that is some deep research! I'm loving it! Keep it coming!

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    10. Nice post man can't wait for more
      always following you mate
      cya

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    11. this is a good post that makes me want to come back for more

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    12. Hey, I'm back from the dead! Come and visit my blog!

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    13. Interesting...
      Do you think this game has a better story than Zelda?

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    14. Blizzard did such a great job with the lore. Thanks mayne!

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    15. epic story..I always love the good/evil thing in videogames, especially when I can decide betweeen both.

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    16. the lore is good but the game is goin downhill for a long time now

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    17. didnt know that, good blog, following

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    18. They knew how history would be shaped and it's all a dream in the minds of the dragons or something...

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    19. I liked the WC3 Arthas voice and box-art representation better than what WoTLK saw. He looked and sounded like the lead singer of a metal band, who would fuck with that?

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    20. Hey mate, thanks so much for the comment on my blog, I love the support from followers. :) However, I've a defensive mechanism in the form of hatred for Wow. But I felt a comment was needed nonetheless. If I could make a request of some HoN?

      -JKane

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    21. Sweet dude
      this was actually good to kno

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    22. Dude..I never even knew! Thank you for filling in my ignorance, sometime I will have to read up on the lore :).

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    23. I wish Blizzard didn't make so many of these clichie'd easily corruptible characters like Arthas and Sargeras.

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    24. i thought he was a douche alive and dead. :/

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    25. I often forget how good the lore behind a game can be.

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    26. I don't even play WoW and that was incredibly interesting!

      Thanks for posting!

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    27. I think his next step is to be resurrected as a good guy again.

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    28. I love Warcraft 3 so much...
      nice blog you have here bro
      supporting and following~

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    29. Interesting use of characters. I loved WC3

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    30. Sooo basically he transformed into my girlfriend without her makeup on. Yep looks pretty accurate to me.

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    31. Something just randomly slipped and he was like "evil wins w00t"

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    32. So is he a good guy or a bad guy now?

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    33. He's a good character. One that will be remembered long after WOW is done and gone, similar to Goku or Sephiroth.

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    34. Man. I have spent almost one full year of my life on that game and I never knew any of that. Thanks for the sweet background info.

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    35. And you say I posted a wall of text.

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    36. People need to read this before playing WoW, I would say. Always good to know your background so you can get immersed. Great blog man, following/supporting.

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    37. i love the lich king storyline. it's a shame its all coming to an end.

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    38. this is one of my more favorite blog posts from you :)

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    39. I guess a lot of us don't really pay attention to the story when we play. Kind of hard to doing so many quests, though.

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    40. I don't really play WoW. I never knew there was a story.

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    41. thx4 checking me out, like the blog, supporting :)

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    42. I love lore from established "universes" like Warcraft. Though even if i don't play WoW, i still read about the storyline now and then and look for updates on it.

      Though, that can be said about lots of games i both play and don't.

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    43. nice. more HoN posts please im thinking of buying it lol

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    44. I get kind of nostalgic because It remembers me on warcraft TFT xD

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    45. I like the background to WoW, so pumped for cataclysm

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    46. For a fictional character in a game, he has quite an in-depth background...

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    47. Not a WOW fan, but still supping and commenting tho, and all that.

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    48. just looking at those 2 pictures mde me wanna go play warcraft 3 sooo bad :D

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    49. Woah, I'm gonna show this to some of my WOW playing friends.

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    50. i loved to play the wc3 campaign

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    51. I miss when Warcraft wasn't all WoW. -sighs-

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    52. Interesting post. I played wow for a few years.. And quit upon Lich King.. Cuz now its too noob friendly.. Anyways, maybe youll enjoy my starcraft 2 blog

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    53. I see. Yeah, the storyline is quite epic.

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    54. Very nice, post I never knew the storyline behind Athas thanks for sharing!

      Mike

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    55. Yeah, I hate it when people ignore the story, it adds so much to the game! :p

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    56. Arthas was neither a hero nor a villain ultimately , but a human . A flawed human who's ambitions took a wrong turn.

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    57. wow has such a good story. which makes it such a good game.

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    58. evil looks better imo.


      smoochies n' poopies! :*

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    59. I don't really play wow, but I thin kthe story is nice

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    60. Awesome back story, I didn't know that about the Lich King.

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    61. lol'd at the faces of meth reference, nice post

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    62. wow awesome post. I love to hear the lore of WoW

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    63. i agree with every (prime number)th poster in these comments.

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    64. I used to play WoW for a 6 months and I just got bored ;D
      But the story you wrote here is quite interesting ;)

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    65. Arthas is a hero.. \o
      and will always be...

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    66. Horses and Woman........Screw'em. They'll turn you into one evil, angry, mean SUMABICH xD

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    67. He's the man.. WC3 lore is what got me into WoW. I wish they would stop killing everyone -.-

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    68. I got to watch my friend do a Ice Crown Citadel raid. It was insane.

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    69. interesting post, still cant risk playing wow myself

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    70. wtf uther, what would you have done? Heal them? You know that kills them too.

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    71. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    72. pretty sweet info dude, i never really knew the back story!

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    73. for me he's more of the Evil guy.

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    74. i really liked Arthas's story in WCIII, never played WoW so I don't know whats been happening lately though

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