Millenia had passed, and the demon overlord Kil’Jaeden (formerly a wise ruler of the magical race of eredar) had continuously chased after his own people (referred to as the Draenei) who actively avoided the corruption by traveling to other worlds to avoid his vast and powerful army, the burning legion, which was granted to him by the Titan Sargeras. With the Draenei finding a permanent refuge on the planet Draenor, Kil’Jaeden sought after the planet's own residence to wipe out the Draenei rather than chasing them again. Finding immediate help from the vile orc warlock Gul’dan, both Gul’dan and Kil’Jaeden would gradually deceive the popular Orc Shaman leader Ner’zhul into believing the Draenei were his enemies, causing a war between Orc’s and the Draenei. After finding out his war with the Draenei was a lie, Ner’zhul would eventually perform a spell that would create various portals around the planet Draenor, entering one of them with his closest followers while the power of opening so many rifts in reality would tear his planet apart. Instead of finding himself in a new world to start a new life in, Ner’zhul came face to face with Kil’Jaeden himself in the space between worlds referred to as the twisting nether. Angered at Ner’zhul’s failure to destroy the Draenei, Kil’Jaeden endlessly tortured Ner’zhul, only stopping under the condition that he continued to be his servant in exchange for power. By agreeing to the terms, he would have his soul ripped from his body and placed inside a suit of armor and a magical runeblade which were encased in diamond-hard ice, casting him into the icy land of Northrend on the planet Azeroth. With his powers now increased a thousand fold, the orc became an entirely new being now referred to as “The Lich King,” and would begin to weaken Azeroth’s defenses to ready the planet for the Burning Legion’s invasion. To do this, the Lich King would create a plague that would become known as “The Plague of Undeath.” This would kill someone within a few days and turn that deceased individual into an undead servant of the Lich King, granting him complete control of their will and making them a part of his undead army known as The Scourge. The Lich King discovered that with each additional death at the hands of his army or his plague, the stronger his psychic powers got.
In time, this plague devastated the continent of Northrend, wiping out most of the life there. Angry with his demonic leaders and jailers, Lich King secretly hid the true scope of his powers, and seeked out a champion to help assist him in his plans to break free from his captor's control. By expanding his consciousness across the entire planet, he would find his champion in the land of Lorderon from a man named Arthas Menethil.
Son of King Terenas II, Arthas Menethil was a prince, a respected paladin and a strong, tactical warrior and a wielder of the light. With the eventual arrival of the plague in his kingdom, Arthas would tirelessly try to prevent the spread of the virus day in and day out. As the Lich King started sending his cohorts to test Arthas, The Lich King was slowly corrupting his mind, causing him to make brash decisions and lash out at those closest to him. This came to a climax when Arthas commanded his knights to purge the entire city of Stratholme, killing many innocent lives as well as plagued ones.
Now beyond the point of no return, Arthas knew he needed to put a stop to the plague no matter the cost. Heading to Northrend where the source of the plague was, he heard tale of a magical runeblade with power unrivaled. However, the blade was cursed, but being ready to destroy his enemies at all costs Arthas readily accepted this. By picking up the Frostmourne blade, it would claim Arthas’ soul, and Arthas would be under the control of the Lich King, now serving his every need. First, Arthas slayed the dreadlord Mal’ganis, then he would take a trip back home, murder his father, assume the role of king and take the land of Lordaron by storm with his brand new undead army. The Lich King and Arthas would follow the orders of the Dreadlords and Kil'Jaeden, amassing more power until The Lich King would sever his connection with Kil’Jaeden and be too powerful for his Dreadlords to stop. Eventually the Lich King would be threatened from his icy prison, beckoning for his death knight to become his vessel.
After a long, brutal war, and a fight with the powerful demon hunter Illidan, Arthas finally made his way to the Frozen Throne. Breaking the Lich King’s icy prison, he put on the helmet that laid within the ice, fusing his soul with Ner’zhul’s becoming the one true Lich King. Arthas would enter a mental, psychic battle with Ner’zhul for power of the Lich King vessel, and become the dominating personality to control all of the Lich King’s might.
Equipment
Infused with the powers of domination, this helm grants the wearer the ability to have complete control over one's will. It houses the entity Ner’zhul, which grants the wearer all the abilities and memories of him. Seeing as the Lich King had complete mental domination and dominion over hordes of undead, there would always need to be a Lich King to keep them under control so that they would not destroy the world with their numbers. Destroying the helmet would break open a portal to the shadowlands, an entire afterlife for souls to pass on to.
The Lich King will rip people's souls out of their body and place them in The Frozen Throne Frostmourne. Inside Frostmourne, a flurry of Wicked Spirits will come and attack you and explode on contact. The Lich King can summon the sword to his hand in the same way Thor can his hammer. Whatever the sword sees, Arthas by extension sees. The blade itself houses an entire spirit realm meant for the undead who have been slain by the Lich King.
The Lich King’s armor is made of saronite, discovered by the Lich King on his arrival to Northrend, and found that it was nearly indestructible and incredibly resistant to many forms of magic. Saronite ore is the blood of an Old god by the name Yogg Saron. It can destroy the bodies and souls of undead creatures. Saronite gradually and passively drives people near it insane, but the Lich King and his servants do not suffer these effects. The metal is extremely resistant to many forms of magic, even so much as reflecting holy magic in an unrefined state. After being striked, his armor is capable of regenerating itself.
Can analyze the contents of an entire building's contents and summon ghouls. It’s also invisible.
Abilities
Ice Manipulation
The Lich King has control over all things ice and snow. He can control large icicles all around his icy kingdom and create huge snowstorms. Even the newest Lich King Bolvar Fordragon could summon a flurry of snow to blind his opponents with a small blizzard.
Ice Sphere: Will fire an orb of ice that inflicts frost damage, exploding on impact.
Remorseless Winter: Creates a massive winter storm that deals frost damage within 45 yards
Ice Lock: Encases the target in ice, rendering them unable to act and causing them to be immune.
Soul Manipulation
As the Lich King, Arthas is the ruler of the damned and the undead. With every new death at the hands of his blade, his minions or his plague, a new additional mind will be added to Lich King’s Will, increasing his strength and psychic abilities. This enables him to have full control of an undead soul, or the soul’s of those who have just died. He can trap them within Frostmourne, or turn them into a soul shard like Alexadros Morgraine or a banshee like Sylvanas Windrunner.
Vile Spirit: Will summon vile spirits from his blade to come and attack the player
Raging Spirit: Rips out a piece of the target’s spirit, causing it to attack them.
Soul Reaper: Strikes the target for 50% weapon damage and afflicts the target with soul reaper. This effect deals 70000 shadow damage after 5 sec and increases the casters haste by 100% for 5 sec.
Soul Shriek: Deals 8149 Shadow damage to all enemies in a 15 yard cone in front of the caster, silencing them for 3 sec.
Necromancy
The Lich King uses necromantic abilities to resurrect the undead and have them fight by his side. He can seemingly summon these undead to his position anytime he wants.
Unholy Aura: Increase the movement speed and life regeneration rate of nearby friendly units.
Death Pact: Targets a friendly undead unit, giving a percentage of its hit points to the Death Knight.
Death Coil: A coil of death that can damage an enemy living unit or heal friendly undead units.
Animate Dead: Raises 6 dead units in an area to fight for the Death Knight for 40 seconds. Animated units are invulnerable.
Summon Drudge Ghouls: Summons 3 Drudge Ghouls to help LK fight
Summon Shambling Horror: Summons a giant undead to battle for him
Summon Val’kyr: Lich King summons Val’Kyr (Here is a group of Val’kyr surrounding the Lich)
The Lich King can summon the giant frost wyrm and dragon queen Sindragosa. Capable of freezing enemies solid and serves as The Lich King’s mount.
Necrotic Plague (Or Plague of the Undeath)
Infests the target with a deadly plague, causing 20896 Shadow damage every 5 sec for 15 sec. If the target dies while afflicted or the effect ends, this effect will gain an additional stack and jump to a nearby unit. If this effect is dispeled, it will lose a stack and jump to a nearby unit. Whenever this effect jumps, The Lich King's power will increase. The Lich King can control the plague with nothing but his will alone. The Plague of Undeath is magical and demonic in nature. It can kill someone in just as short as a few minutes. It’s important to note that the Lich King’s plague can infect druid’s, which are capable of transforming their bodies into Stags, Bears, Whales, Panthers, Birds, Tree people and an assortment of magical creatures and other animals and the plague can still be attached to them. Another interesting thing to note is that the Lich King is also capable of attaching the plague onto Death Knights, which are undead soldiers formally under the control of the Lich King.
Can grant Death Knights or any of his followers immortality.
Clairvoyance
Could see through Tirion and his soldiers disguises, knowing they were there before even looking at them. He also states how he can sense enemies. In life, Ner’zhul received many visions of his own death in varying degrees. He can see whatever the sword can see or what his Eye of Archeus can see.
Mind Manipulation
As a death knight, and the strongest one at that, The Lich King has complete mental domination over his subjects, having easily claimed control over a large portion of the populace on Northrend with his mind alone. Isolated tribes and powerful beasts fell under the Lich King’s control. The Lich King’s mind is powerful enough to expand the entirety of the planet, and can beckon to those with a small shed of darkness in their hearts, even a man of the holy light Arthas.
Life Absorption
With Death Pact, The Lich King can sacrifice his followers of the undead and add their energy to his own, healing himself completely.
Weather Manipulation
The Lich King can create an entire snow storm to overwhelm his opponents with a flurry of ice and sleet. This is the sky before Lich King casts remorseless winter (Pause to view background) this is the background after.
Soul & Mind Resistance
The Lich King’s soul and mind is indomitable, having severed his connection to the demon lord Kil’Jaeden, refusing his commands. Kil’Jaeden not only connected his will to his own, but is capable of controlling an army over 1 million large (Page 48), and estimated to be in the millions. It’s also large enough to overwhelm entire planets. Arthas engaged in a mental battle with the formerly reigning personality Ner’zhul, and won.
Darkness Manipulation
Arthas has the ability to control shadows and darkness, which gradually drain the life force of those it’s used on. He utilizes darkness as traps, debuffs and other such utility.
Infest: Deals 1881 Shadow damage to all enemy players within 60 yards. In addition, the targets will take increasing Shadow damage per second. This effect is removed when the target has more than 90% health.
Summon Shadow Trap: Summons a trap of shadows that damages all enemies within 10 yards, knocking them back
Defile: Enemies will be dealt shadow damage for 30 seconds.
Renders them unable to release their spirit or resurrect. The Lich King will place his sword down and kill the player/players on the battlefield. He then begins to bring them back as the undead.
Sends out underground shockwaves, causing the edge of the platform to crumble.
The Lich king can casually teleport.
The Lich King has shown telekinesis before, such as levitating a skull into his palm, or moving his plague with nothing but his will.
With his own power, the Lich King grew Drakuru into a giant. The Lich King should reasonably be able to do this to himself.
The Lich King has shown to be able to fly by charging his many necropoli with flight magics and moving them wherever he wanted. He also levitated during a sequence where he was the only one that didn’t fall down a giant pit.
Abilities he should have thanks to having access to Ner’zhul’s memories and powers:
An Orb of Torment coalesces nearby. The orb will continue Tormenting random players until it is thrown off the side of the platform.
The Remnant of Ner'zhul afflicts random targets with Malevolence for 21 sec. When this effect is removed all players are knocked back from the victim's location and take 11017 Shadow damage.
At 100 energy, the Remnant of Ner'zhul unleashes a blast of energy at their current target, inflicting 38564 Shadow damage to all players caught in a line and increasing their damage taken from Suffering by 500% for 30 sec. Orbs of Torment caught in the effect lose the effect of Eternal Torment and become vulnerable.
The burst of Malevolence leaves an area that inflicts 22039 Shadow damage every sec to players standing within its confines.
Once slain, players can pick up the Orb of Torment and carry it to the edge of the platform to throw it into the abyss. While holding the Orb of Torment your soul is weakened, inflicting 5508 Shadow damage every 3 sec and reducing movement speed by 50%.
The Remnant of Ner'zhul is wrapped in throes of pain that inflict 5508 Shadow damage to all players every 3 sec. Once the first armor piece is shattered away, Aura of Spite periodically unleashes a barrage of missiles at random players.
The Remnant of Ner'zhul unfurls ethereal fingers that erupt, inflicting 27541 Shadow damage to all players caught in the effect, knocking them back
Ner'zhul summons an army of shadow and death which marches across his platform, eradicating all life in its path. Tendrils of void bind the ritual bones together, inflicting 1661 Shadow damage per second to those who cross their threshold.
Ner'zhul falls into a trance, showing players a vision of their own death. Void energy rips through the sky, inflicting up to 2129 Shadow damage, based on proximity to the effect.
Feats
Strength & Destructive Power
Arthas (At half strength) defeated the demon hunter Illidan Stormrage. This is impressive because Illidan can defeat the likes of Gul’dan, who was stated to lift volcanic islands back in Warcraft II. This was kept consistent both in Warcraft 3 (2002) and the 2007 Tides of Darkness novel (Chapter 17).
There was a tweet by former lead narrative designer David Kosak back in 2016 that made it seem as though the islands were not raised by Gul’dan, but that some were already still present.
However, the 2020 reimagining of Warcraft III (2020) retconned his retcon back into being what the original lore was, which was that Gul’dan raised the islands. There are civilizations on these islands, but it's shown in WoW that parts of the other islands were protected by ancient barriers, meaning that it’s possible to say they were just protected from being submerged for 10,000 years. There is also confirmation that Gul’dan was on the islands in a 2016 audio book reading. Not to mention the Warcraft 3 Reforged Website states that that Reforged is “a complete reimagining of a real-time strategy classic. Experience the epic origin stories of Warcraft, now more stunning and evocative than ever before.” So this game and its story should be treated as the current canon. Especially between 2 games and a novel that outlines the story as such.
Raising the island chain from the ocean floor (With potential energy) would be about 64.77 Teratons. However, Gul’dan had help from 7 other warlocks at minimum, so splitting the power between the eight of them, Gul’dan would have had to have put over 8.1 Teratons of force into his spell that raised the islands.
Speed & Reactions
Can keep up with and fight Illidan who can dodge out of the way of demonic meteors. This is kept consistent within the original Warcraft 3 game as well. We know these are meteors because they’re outlined as such in spells casted from from the likes of Gul’dan which have explicitly been stated to be meteors and are shown to come straight from the sky.
To prove these are meteors, here’s additional video of green and red Meteors falling from the sky. In Warcraft 3 Reforged’s trailer, an orc is portrayed as being able to dodge these meteors. It’s worth noting that Ner’zhul was a leader of the Orc’s at one point so this should scale. On page 30 of the Warcraft III instruction manual, these green meteors are referred to as Infernals and are explained as falling down as “molten meteorites.”This is the name of the spell Gul’dan and the dreadlords can use. This is how fast the meteors can fall in combat with Gul’dan. Here’s another shot of the meteor move being used and other characters far below the Lich King dodging it.
Durability & Stamina
The first thing the Lich King did when fully powered was metaphorically and literally rip out his actual own heart, and toss it into an icy abyss. The Lich King's durability should be comparable to his AP, considering he was getting hit by Illidan who was at max power who easily killed Gul’dan.
Having formerly tied his will to Kil’Jaeden, a demonic overlord capable of running the burning legion which is multiple worlds large, The Lich King severed his ties to Kil’Jaeden’s will.
Skill, Intelligence & Other
Arthas was considered one of the best Paladin’s of Lordaran. Ner’zhul also led the Horde for a time. Arthas was capable of combat against Illidan Stormrage, an elf who is 15,032 years old.
Accomplishments
Killed most of the population of Northrend in a short time
Defeated the Dreadlord Mal’Ganis
Severed his connection with his jailors and overlord Kil’Jaeden
Defeated the Demon Hunter Illidan who is 15,000 years old
Defeated the high elf warrior Slyvanas Windrunner
Defeated the powerful orc warrior Dranosh Saurfang in one swipe
Tossed aside a former wielder of the Ashbringer Sword Darion Mograine
Weaknesses
When Frostmourne is broken, it will begin unleashing all the souls the blade had consumed onto Arthas himself. While The Lich King’s psychic powers and soul domination are powerful, beings such as the nerubians or paladins are resistant or immune to his psychic abilities, so anyone with a strong enough will can resist his control. While his armor is extremely resistant to magic, it’s not so resistant that he could handle a strong enough blow without it harming him or breaching the armor's defenses.
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