A Prince of Lordaeron

Arthas was born to King Terenas four years before the First War. He grew up as the heir to Lordaeron, learning swordsmanship from Muradin Bronzebeard. His early life also brought him into the company of Jaina Proudmoore, long before the plague would divide them.

A Paladin and a Prince

At nineteen, Arthas entered the Silver Hand. Uther served as his paladin mentor, adding another duty to the prince’s future kingship. His relationship with Jaina also deepened in these years. These personal ties would be tested by the choices he made in his kingdom’s defense.

The Plague of Undeath

A plague spread through Lordaeron, turning its victims into undead. Arthas and Jaina investigated its source and confronted Kel’Thuzad. The crisis was larger than a local outbreak: the Scourge was undermining the kingdom from within, confronting the prince with an enemy that grew with every death.

The Culling of Stratholme

At Stratholme, Arthas learned that infected grain had already reached the population. He ordered the city purged before its people could rise as undead. Uther refused, and Jaina left him. Arthas continued without them, making the destruction of Mal’Ganis his overriding purpose.

The Price of Frostmourne

Arthas pursued Mal’Ganis to Northrend, where he joined Muradin in the search for Frostmourne. He took the blade despite its warning. Muradin was struck down and believed dead. Arthas gained the power to defeat his enemy, but the sword bound him to the Lich King.

The Prince Returns

Arthas returned to Lordaeron bearing Frostmourne and murdered his father. The kingdom he had sworn to protect became a target of his undead campaign. Now serving the Scourge, he also killed Uther while seeking the remains needed for Kel’Thuzad’s resurrection.

The Teacher’s Last Stand

The effort to restore Kel’Thuzad brought Arthas back against the paladins of his former order. Gavinrad guarded the necromancer’s remains and fell when the death knight came to recover them. Carrying those remains onward required a suitable vessel.

Uther stood in defense of the urn holding King Terenas’s ashes. The student he had trained now sought to empty it for the enemy who had helped destroy the kingdom. Their confrontation gave the war a terrible intimacy: duty to the dead king placed Uther directly in Arthas’s path.

Arthas killed his teacher with Frostmourne and took the urn. The defense of Lordaeron lost another of its great paladins, while the Scourge gained what it needed for the journey to the Sunwell.

The Fall of Quel’Thalas

Sylvanas Windrunner met the Scourge as Ranger-General of Quel’Thalas. Each defensive line bought time, but the enemy could turn the fallen into more soldiers. Barriers that had protected the kingdom before could not stop Arthas’s advance.

He killed Sylvanas and denied her the release of death, raising her as a banshee under his command. The defender of the kingdom was forced into the army destroying it. Her awareness of that destruction made the captivity part of the punishment.

At the Sunwell, Arthas used the elves’ sacred power to raise Kel’Thuzad. The invasion’s immediate objective was fulfilled, but its consequences were only beginning: a ruined kingdom, a corrupted font and a former ranger whose eventual freedom would be inseparable from the desire for revenge.

The Prince and the Empty Well

Kael’thas returned to a homeland that needed a leader while he was still grieving his father. Arthas had destroyed its defenses and used the Sunwell to restore Kel’Thuzad. The sacred source that had sustained the elves was now a danger to them.

The prince chose to destroy the corrupted font. It was an act of preservation that looked like another loss: the survivors would no longer be poisoned through it, but they had also lost the magic on which generations had depended.

They called themselves blood elves in remembrance of the fallen. The name gathered their grief into a shared identity, while the emptiness left by the well created a need Kael’thas would spend the rest of his life trying to answer.

The Fall of Dalaran

Arthas and Kel’Thuzad attacked Dalaran, overcoming its magical defenses. The fallen city became the staging ground for Archimonde’s arrival. The Scourge’s campaign had opened the way for a demonic invasion, extending the disaster beyond the kingdoms Arthas had already destroyed.

The Price of the Skull

In Felwood, Illidan encountered an unexpected guide. Arthas, already a death knight, pointed him toward the Skull of Gul’dan. The Legion was using the relic’s power, and taking it would give Illidan the means to challenge Tichondrius.

Illidan chose to absorb that power. His body changed, taking on the wings, horns and hooves of a demon. With his new strength he destroyed Tichondrius, dealing a serious blow to the invasion. Arthas had helped turn one of the Legion’s weapons against its own commander.

For Illidan, victory proved the value of his methods. Malfurion saw the transformation as another surrender to corruption and banished him. The brothers agreed that the demons had to be stopped; they could not agree on what could be sacrificed to do it.

The Forging of Ashbringer

The dark crystal recovered by Alexandros Mograine during the Second War remained dangerous long after the battlefield fell silent. As the plague spread through Lordaeron, he brought it before fellow paladins at Southshore. Their Light did not destroy it: the crystal absorbed that power and became radiant. What had injured Alexandros could now be used against the undead.

At Ironforge, Magni Bronzebeard forged the crystal into Ashbringer. He had received word that Muradin had died during Arthas’s expedition. Although that report was mistaken, his grief accompanied the making of the weapon. Alexandros returned to a kingdom falling before the Scourge, carrying a blade that reduced the undead to ash.

The Forsaken Break Free

As the Lich King’s power weakened, Sylvanas discovered that his commands no longer held her. Freedom returned inside a body and existence she had never chosen. Arthas was still within reach, and she moved to turn that brief opening into revenge.

Her banshees drew him into an ambush. A poisoned arrow immobilized him, but she wanted him to suffer rather than die quickly. Kel’Thuzad arrived before she could finish him and drove her away.

Arthas escaped toward Northrend. Sylvanas remained in Lordaeron, where the dreadlords also sought control. Recovering her will had begun the struggle; holding a place for the undead who would become the Forsaken required another war.

A Dragon Bound to the Scourge

As Arthas hurried to reach his endangered master, Anub’arak suggested raiding the hoard of Sapphiron. The dragon’s artifacts could aid their passage through the north. They entered his lair as enemies, killed its defenders and took what they had come for.

Arthas did not leave the dragon dead. Though his power was weakening, he raised Sapphiron as a frost wyrm. The new servant helped clear the road toward the underground passage, but remained outside when the army entered the confined tunnels.

That encounter left a guardian the Scourge would use again. Sapphiron’s later presence in Naxxramas began with this act of conquest during the march to the Frozen Throne.

The Ascent to the Frozen Throne

The weakening Ner’zhul called Arthas back to Northrend. Illidan and his allies were moving against the Frozen Throne, and the death knight could no longer assume that the power sustaining him would endure. Reaching Icecrown became a race to preserve his master and himself.

Anub’arak offered a route through the fallen nerubian kingdom. The former king guided Arthas through tunnels haunted by the consequences of the Scourge’s conquest. For Arthas the passage was a shortcut; for Anub’arak it was the ruin of the realm he had once ruled.

At Icecrown, Arthas overcame Illidan and climbed to the prison above. He broke the ice and put on the Helm of Domination, joining himself to Ner’zhul as the Lich King. The prince who had taken a cursed blade to save his people now sat at the center of the power that had destroyed them.

Illidan survived the duel. Vashj and Kael’thas brought him back to Outland, where the failure left him preparing for Kil’jaeden’s wrath. Arthas gained a throne; his opponent returned to a kingdom that could not make him safe.