First, a warning — this article contains spoilers. Chances are everyone has either seen the final cinematic from defeating the Lich King. Maybe you clicked the new statue in Dalaran, saw it on MMO Champion, or killed Arthas on 10 man. There are also some spoilers concerning Culling of Stratholme, Warcraft III, and the Scarlet Onslaught plot in Northrend. So if you don’t want those spoiled for you, turn away now!
One of the most tantalizing quest lines in Northrend is the one about the Scarlet Onslaught. While I wasn’t excited to see them in the Death Knight starting zone (though I do love that zone) or Dragonblight, I enjoyed facing off against them on behalf of the Knights of the Ebon Blade in Icecrown. At the end of the series, the Grand Crusader reveals himself to really be Mal’ganis (I hope no one is surprised by the Scarlet Crusade being led by another Dreadlord), but he shouts that we will never defeat the Scourge without his help. Then he goes to the Legion Home World to gather his forces, leaving us to wonder at what comes next. Unfortunately, nothing comes next, we never hear from Mal’ganis again. This disappointed me a little bit, bringing back memories of developer chats where they talked about Alleria and Turaylon fighting the Burning Legion on their home world. Oh, what could be!
Those events came to mind as my guild killed the Lich King (ICC25) week-before-last. Watching as the mantle of Lich King moves from Arthas Menethil to Bolvar Fordragon, it made me wonder about the fate of the Scourge. Then Arthas’ words from Culling of Stratholme came back to me — “I will hunt you to the ends of the earth, (Mal’ganis). To the ends of the earth!” Come to think of it, most of Arthas’ crusade was him chasing after Mal’ganis and the Burning Legion. Grasping Frostmourne to kill Mal’ganis, only to have his soul stolen. Then, as a Death Knight, he aided Ner’zul against the Burning Legion once again. Having Arthas die before seeing the Scourge really strike out against the Burning Legion saddened me a little, but then it got me thinking — perhaps that is the ultimate fulfillment of the new Lich King. Perhaps he could continue Arthas’ crusade against the demons. I don’t know what Blizzard has planned for the future, but here’s how I would handle things.
I would like to see the Burning Legion assaulted by all of the races they have created, enslaved, or attempted to destroy. While the list of races upset by the Legion is too long to list, here are the races I think have a strong vested interest in seeing the Legion destroyed. First, the Alliance have a good foothold in an assault against the Legion in the Draenei. While it’s easy to forget about them hiding away on Azuremyst Isle, Draenei aren’t native to Draenor (Outlands) – their home planet is Argus, which gets referenced as one of the major Legion strongholds. Reclaiming part of their now-demonic planet would give the Alliance a stronghold to work from there. Kil’jaeden is the current leader of the Legion while Sargeras is missing; and him, Archimonde, and the Prophet Velen were three of the leaders of Eredar culture back in the day. I would love to see an expansion with Velen taking the helm of the Alliance and leading the assault on the Legion. Much the same way Dalaran was relocated to Northrend to face off against the Blue Dragonflight, I’d like to see Exodar or perhaps part of Tempest Keep used to transport the Alliance to Argus.
For the Horde, the orcs have suffered greatly at the hands of the demons. One of their leaders was torn apart by demons and had his soul frozen solid in a block of ice while his replacement, Gul’dan, sold the race into demonic slavery. Ever since the first taste of Manneroth’s blood a major plot line for orcs has revolved around balancing their blood lust and their shamanistic origins. The Burning Legion (and the fel orc horde) symbolizes the blood lust side of orcs. The same way Grom Hellscream struck out against Manneroth to free his people in Kalimdor, it would be cool to see Garrosh Hellscream leading the orcs against the Legion Homeworld to get revenge. There’s a lot of potential to bring up the old orc and draenei rivalry in the form of the Eredar all over Argus. Where Alliance quests would revolve around the sadness of seeing their home world defiled and their brethren corrupted, the orcs would see the eredar as a way to vent their anger against the draenei. Also, here’s a chance for them to get revenge for what happened to Ner’zhul and the orcs who went with him through the portals during Draenor’s destruction. In fact, perhaps they can find some of the survivors on Argus.
The Forsaken, too, can trace their origins back to the Burning Legion creating the Lich King. Sylvannas is searching for a focus for her people; I think that once Arthas has been dealt with the next logical step is to strike out against his creator. The plague that created the Forsaken was also created by the Burning Legion, if there is any hope of a cure it exists within the depths of Legion territory. Sylvannas has also gone out of her way to make enemies of the dreadlords. In the Frozen Throne campaign she spends most of her time killing off dreadlords and taking over Lordaeran territory. Since we now know that all of those dreadlords are alive and well, maybe it’s time for her to figure out how you permanently take a Nathrezim out of commission. She needs to even the score with Varimathras, Balnazzar, and Detheroc. In fact, Detheroc is the only major Nathrezim we haven’t seen magically come back to life to lead the Scarlet Crusade, I’d love to see him doing something else important.
Since Blizzard loves neutral cities, there are two neutral factions that have an interest in Argus. First, Akama was an eredar before he was a “broken one.” He and his Ashtongue Deathsworn would make a good neutral outpost. It might be a good opportunity to include Maiev again, perhaps searching for her brother. It seemed a little strange that the reason she hates Illidan is because he tried to kill Jardon Shadowsong, yet after Illidan dies she doesn’t mention going to try to find her brother. Jarod has been missing in action for far too long! While I’m sure Turalyon and Alleria’s child is looking for his parents, I’d like to see him team up with Maeiv. Perhaps some of the liberated fel orcs from Black Temple could join the Deathsworn, too.
It isn’t just Akama’s crew, however. Back in The Frozen Throne it was mentioned that many Netherwing Drakes travel through the Twisting Nether to various worlds. The Netherwing Flight may be trying to seek out its missing members, perhaps even trying to liberate some captured by the Burning Legion. They’d make a nice way to get players between portals and worlds, too.
Finally we come to the reason I started writing this article, the Scourge. The Nathrezim have been experimenting with necromancy for over ten thousand years. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Ner’zhul is the only instance of a “Lich King,” it’s likely they have used this strategy to conquer other worlds. In fact, it would be a fitting punishment for Mal’ganis’ failure to assault the Frozen Throne if he were to be ripped apart and frozen in ice from the Twisting Nether. Much the same way Eredar are particularly well-attuned to being warlocks or mages, I would imagine that after ten thousand years Nathrezim are very powerful necromancers. A Dreadlord Lich King would be even more powerful than an orc (or human) Lich King. What if our heroes reached Argus to find a new, stronger Scourge in addition to the demons of the Burning Legion? It seems like it would be a great opportunity to return to the Frozen Throne and recruit Bolvar Fodragon’s Lich King into the fight. Blizzard could have a raid to strike out against Mal’ganis as an early raid, where destroying him would allow Bolvar to wrestle the demonic Scourge free and use them to face off against the demons. I think it would be a fitting finale to see Bolvar leading the Scourge against the Legion.
Again, I don’t know what Blizzard’s plans are for the Scourge, but in my mind this is the perfect place to take them. And the best part about liberating Argus now is that Sargeras is still missing in action. You can easily have a demon expansion, liberate Argus, kill Kil’jaeden, and then have Sargeras come back and create a new Burning Legion to serve as the ultimate bad guys. It’s perfect!
