The
Lich King, more intimidating than even death itself, has played a
major role in shaping the world and lore of Azeroth. Created by
Kil’jaeden himself from the spirit of the orc
Ner’zhul, Kil’jaeden planned to use the Lich King
in his plot to conquer all of Azeroth. Trapped inside the sword
Frostmourne the Lich King eventually betrayed Kil’jaeden and
managed to trick and merge himself with Arthas Menethil, giving rise to
the Lich King that we know and fear today.
The Lich King seemed to be an unstoppable force, taking out all enemies
in his path with relative ease, even managing to dispatch Uther, one of
the mightiest paladins of his time. The Lich King spread his
devastating Plague throughout the world and all hope seemed lost of
ever bringing a real end to his reign of terror.
However a spark of hope shot forth when the Knights of the Ebon Blade
merged with the Argent Crusade forming the Ashen Verdict. After much
preparation members of the Ashen Verdict stormed Icecrown Citadel and
allowed players like you and me to finish the assault upon the Citadel.
Many servants of the Lich King had to be defeated, pushing bands of
adventurers to their limits and asking more of them than had ever been
seen before, but eventually after many long hours, and perhaps just a
few tears, more and more champions took the final walk to stand before
the Lich King.
The Lich King was not easily defeated, and his awesome power more was
than a match for some of the champions that stood before him. Many
guilds met their match at the top of Icecrown Citadel, never to raid
together again, but finally the champions of both Horde and Alliance
learned the Lich King’s foul tricks and eventually defeated
the Lich King, with just a tiny bit of help from Tirion Fordring.
Bolvar Fordragon, as his final act of service, took it upon himself to
take over the duties of the Lich King and promised to keep Scourge in
check.
width="245">"The
Warchief Cometh" is just one of the many new quests added to old world
Azeroth
pointing to the defeat of the Lich King.
So the Lich King has fallen and all is right with the world again.
Cataclysm seems to mirror this conclusion as Plague has been lifted
from areas heavily affected such as Western Plaugelands and Tirisfal
Glades. In fact these zones look downright lovely compared to their
previous deteriorated states.
The pockets of Scourge peppered throughout Azeroth have begun to
vanish, and more than a few of the more intelligent creatures once
under the Lich King’s control are once again under their own
influence and several have even offered their services to the Horde.
Quest lines in Azeroth now speak of and revolve around the now defeated
Lich King and even new players would be hard pressed not to realize
that the big guy is supposed to be dead.
Yet much like Elvis this King just won’t die (is anyone else
attempting to imagine the Lich King gyrating his hips and belting out a
tune right now?). Thanks to some questionable execution on Blizzards
part, once players make it to Northrend the Lich King comes
mysteriously back to life and this isn’t just a bad Lich King
impersonator. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the Lich
King is dead…but only if you're not in Northrend.
Players as early as level 10 will learn of the Lich King’s
supposed demise in quests such as “The Warchief
Cometh” in Silverpine Forest where Lady Sylvanas explains to
Garrosh (much to his displeasure) that now that the Lich King of gone a
few of newly freed Scourge have decided to aid the Forsaken in several
of their newest endeavors. However once players make it to Northrend
their main goal in many of the quests found in Icecrown will be to
eventually defeat the not so dead Lich King.
Never before in WoW history has such a big storyline flaw been seen,
but of course never before has Blizzard directly addressed and based
part of an expansion pack off the defeat of an active raid boss. For
example even though players defeated Ragnaros in Molten Core back in
the days of classic WoW, no one ever questioned why he could still be
found residing inside the instance because Blizzard did not base the
Burning Crusade expansion upon his death. Therefore as the storyline
progress no real discrepancies could be detected by the normal player.
Despite this huge and rather obvious misstep Blizzard as of yet has
announced no plans to remedy the situation. So we can only assume that
months down the road when Cataclysm is finally released to the world
the Lich King will be dead, only to be mysteriously resurrected without
a scratch later in the game as players enter Northrend and are asked to
storm Icecrown Citadel.
While this may not seem like a huge deal to some, I find myself
wondering, with such gaping holes in the story line, if World of
Warcraft won’t lose some of it’s magic? Half the
fun (at least in my personal experience) is immersing yourself and
getting lost in the world and the
lore behind it. A storyline flaw that
big would defiantly be a major wake up call, but what can
Blizzard do to remedy the situation?
width="245">The
"King".
In my opinion the answer lies not in changing the beginning story line
where the Lich King is indeed dead. These quests are simply too
engaging and have far to much time and effort poured into them on
Blizzard‘s part. Instead I propose changing the ending. I do
not suggest doing away with Icecrown Citadel, as it’s one of
my all time favorite instances, however, with a little tweaking the
instance could easy fit into the new storyline.
In my personal opinion the easiest way to accomplish this would be
for Blizzard to present the idea of Icecrown Citadel much as the
Caverns of Time are presented. Instead of walking into a living
instance, players would be instead
walking into the past and reliving the experience. With a few small
tweaks in the Northrend storyline and a few changes to the text in
quests this could be accomplished with little effort. This way Icecrown
Citadel would be available in all it’s glory for those
players wishing to have the complete experience.
>
Another suggestion would be for a new boss (perhaps with similar
abilities to the Lich King) to be added at the end of the Citadel.
While players would no longer be defeating the legendary Lich King it
would at the very least make Icecrown Citadel still a viable instance
that once again flowed nicely with the happenings in the rest of
Azeroth. Or instead of a completely new boss, since the Lich King is
technically still alive in Bolvar Fordragon, it could be he that
players face off against. Perhaps Bolvar succumbs to the evil forces
that surround him and needs a gentle prodding to remember who he is.
Nothing reminds a guy that he is supposed to be somewhat on the side of
good than a proper smack down.
These are just a few of the many ways the storyline could be reinvented
to make the flow of lore in Azeroth go a little more smoothly.
Hopefully sometime before Cataclysm’s release Blizzard will
make the final call and when we step into the expansion for the first
time we will find a world that flows artfully and seamlessly from one
area to the next with no annoying disruptions.
That’s not to say that even if the storyline is never fixed
and all is left as is I won’t be one of the first
nerd…I mean people in line at my local midnight opening
holding my bladder beyond all human control in order to be one of the
first to lay my hands on and purchase Cataclysm. Even a gap in the
storyline that large can’t change my love of the game.
Join us on our forums to share your thoughts on the discrepancies in
Cataclysm’s storyline and offer your own suggestions to fix
it. Perhaps a member from Blizzard will read it and one of our
suggestions will be implemented in game. Well we can dream
can’t we?
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