Recaps

A mysterious plague killed five thousand Orc soldiers at the Argent Tournament, while Thrall and Eitrigg survived, and Robbie and Kel'Thuzad began investigating its source. With the Orcs weakened and Tirion's standing improved, General Tuyang urged him to secretly kill Thrall and Eitrigg and seize power.

• A calamitous ash spread from Icecrown, causing the Orcs at the Argent Tournament to suffer painful green sores while the Scourge remained unharmed.
• Vol'jin struck the injured Tirion after Tirion's attempt to heal Thrall worsened his pain, and the human Veteran used dark magic to restore Thrall and Eitrigg.
• The Orc soldiers endured three days of torment and died, leaving Thrall enraged over the loss of five thousand troops.
• Kel'Thuzad identified the ash as a targeted plague, and Robbie proposed asking Y'Shaarj about the flesh's possible role in producing plagues.
• Vol'jin privately instructed a trusted subordinate, while Tirion noticed Thrall treating him with greater respect after the Orcs' losses.
• General Tuyang sealed Tirion's room and proposed secretly killing Thrall and Eitrigg so Tirion could become the Savior.

Tirion Fordring rejected General Tuyang’s offer to seize power, then hesitated until Thrall made him the scapegoat for the Orcs’ losses at Icecrown Glacier. Thrall put Tirion on trial before the Argent Crusade, where the officers called for his execution.

• General Tuyang urged Tirion Fordring to turn against Thrall, but Tirion refused despite suspecting Thrall might blame him for the disaster.
• Garrosh accused Thrall of colluding with the Scourge, while Saurfang the Great condemned Thrall’s failure to protect the five thousand Orc soldiers.
• Thrall secured Jaina’s support by offering the Argent Crusade’s Northrend gains, then had Orc soldiers capture and mutilate Tirion Fordring.
• Thrall accused Tirion Fordring of secretly aiding the Scourge and betraying Argent Crusade soldiers during a public trial.
• General Tuyang and the Argent Crusade officers demanded that Thrall execute Tirion Fordring, while Thrall and Jaina prepared to flee if the crowd turned against them.

Thrall had Tirion Fordring tortured and nearly killed, but the Emissary intervened and restored both men, leaving Tirion withdrawn from public life. Meanwhile, Robbie explored the Junction of Life and Death and followed an underground river toward the being known as Walking Death.

• Thrall accused Tirion Fordring of poisoning the Argent Crusade’s water and had him fried in boiling oil while the soldiers cheered.
• The Emissary revealed that the human Veteran had secretly protected Tirion Fordring’s head, then punished Thrall by plunging him into the oil as well.
• The Emissary ended the conflict and took Tirion Fordring and Thrall away; the next day, both returned, and Tirion withdrew into drunkenness while General Tuyang arranged for an adventurer to impersonate him at ceremonies.
• Robbie evaded pursuit, entered the underground river at the Junction of Life and Death, and found that the cave’s balance of power had shifted toward life.
• Robbie boarded the gray wooden boat and followed the current to seek Walking Death, the shattered soul of Y'Shaarj.

Robbie visited Y'Shaarj at the Junction of Life and Death to warn him that Elune had sent a piece of his body to the surface, but the Human Veteran followed and attacked. Y'Shaarj revealed himself as N'Zoth, defeated the Veteran, and exposed the Emissary's original form as an Orc.

• Robbie told Y'Shaarj about Elune's Life Plague and the piece of Y'Shaarj's body she had sent to the surface.
• Y'Shaarj realized Elune had used the flesh as bait to locate and enslave his soul, but the Human Veteran appeared despite Robbie's barrier.
• Robbie trapped the Human Veteran's body in a Puppet Orb, but the Veteran escaped as a shadow and summoned Elune's Runes to attack Y'Shaarj.
• Y'Shaarj revealed his intact body, shattered the shadow vortex, and identified the Veteran as a true Servant of the Moon Goddess.
• N'Zoth revealed that he was an avatar of Y'Shaarj and transformed the Human Veteran until his original form appeared as an Orc.

N'Zoth and Robbie concluded that Elune might be restoring her damaged soul by consuming Orc souls, and N'Zoth planned to track them through a slaughter at Icecrown Citadel. By probing the Primordial Emissary's memories, they saw how Elune had formed from the remains of a gigantic Orc and divided its faint soul into the Emissary and a white stag.

• N'Zoth argued that Orcs had been created from Ogres and that the Titans had transformed humans from other worlds into Vrykul.
• Robbie suggested that Elune had revived the Orc race to regain her strength, and N'Zoth proposed that she was feeding on Orc souls to heal her own.
• N'Zoth planned to turn Icecrown Citadel into a battlefield, use the Primordial Emissary to mark the dead, and monitor their souls in the Shadowlands.
• N'Zoth invaded the Primordial Emissary's memories and showed Robbie a planet-sized Orc corpse with a faint soul and a green light growing over its heart.
• The green light formed a newborn planet, which drew the Orc's shattered soul into two parts: the Primordial Emissary and a white stag.

The Moon Goddess Elune ordered the Emissary to unite the Alliance and Horde to rescue Lorne from Icecrown Citadel before the Scourge completed a prison for his soul. Thrall avoided leading the attack himself and, with Vol'jin, planned to send Jaina and Sylvanas as representatives.

• N'Zoth learned that the Primordial Emissary had once been powerful enough for a fragment of his soul to become Malorne, and Elune had used his body to resurrect herself.
• Elune told the Emissary that the Scourge was mining the Pit of Saron and ordered an assault on Icecrown Citadel to rescue Lorne, warning that Thrall would lose the Warchief position to Garrosh if he failed.
• The Emissary told Thrall about Elune's order, and Thrall protested before deciding to seek help from Vol'jin.
• Vol'jin advised Thrall to show sincerity without risking himself, then proposed sending Sylvanas and Jaina as Horde and Alliance representatives.
• Vol'jin suggested forcing Jaina to comply through Aegwynn and persuading or threatening Sylvanas, including a threat to destroy Undercity and a claim that Arthas had left Frostmourne behind.

Vol'jin manipulated Thrall, Aegwynn, Jaina, and Sylvanas as he carried Thrall's demand to recruit them for the mission to rescue Emissary Lorne. Jaina set out to gather more allies, while the chapter ended with her arriving in Stormwind, where King Varian reflected on his strange new life and the kingdom's collapse.

• Thrall ordered Vol'jin to pressure Aegwynn and visit Sylvanas, hoping to secure help while weakening Theramore and the Undercity.
• Vol'jin convinced Aegwynn that Thrall had insulted her and Medivh, and Aegwynn ordered Jaina to rescue Emissary Lorne.
• Vol'jin asked Sylvanas to commit the Forsaken to the rescue, and she agreed while privately planning a countermeasure.
• Jaina went to Stormwind City to persuade King Varian to send troops.
• Varian recalled awakening in this world as Stormwind's king and realizing that famine, displacement, and political turmoil had devastated the kingdom.

Jaina struggled to assemble an Alliance force against the Scourge, finding Stormwind depleted and Theramore’s veterans unwilling to fight. After meeting Sylvanas at the Dark Cathedral, Jaina agreed to infect the five thousand troops with a slow-acting plague before they attacked the Pit of Saron.

• Varian signed an order for one hundred thousand soldiers, but Jaina found fewer than two thousand unfit recruits in Stormwind and learned that the city and surrounding lands had been devastated.
• Jaina recruited three thousand veterans in Theramore, but their ships were sabotaged and the soldiers made themselves sick to avoid the expedition.
• Jaina gathered three thousand Argent Crusade candidates to bring her force to five thousand and used Dalaran to transport them to the Dark Cathedral.
• Jaina met Sylvanas, who had brought fewer than a hundred Royal Dreadguards, and agreed to mix plague into the troops’ food and drink so they would rise as Forsaken after being killed.
• Jaina and Sylvanas led the Alliance and Horde forces in their first attack on the Pit of Saron.

Jaina and Sylvanas staged a victory at the Pit of Saron to build their reputations while secretly planning to enter the Forge of Souls and steal Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination. With Taelan’s help, they slipped into the pit disguised in a mine cart, but an imposing voice stopped them in its depths.

• Jaina led five thousand Alliance soldiers in a staged assault on the Pit of Saron, defeating the disguised low-level undead at the cost of around a thousand casualties.
• Sylvanas had Goblin photographers record the battle and arranged for Jaina to pose for additional photographs, planning to publicize their victory.
• Sylvanas told Jaina they would use the staged battle to lower the Scourge’s guard, then enter the Forge of Souls and take Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination.
• Sylvanas revealed that Tirion Fordring had traded her information about the pit, and that his son Taelan could help them infiltrate it.
• Jaina and Sylvanas disguised themselves and hid beneath ore in a mine cart, which Taelan guided through the Pit of Saron’s defenses.
• A voice suddenly ordered them to stop as they reached the depths of the pit, and Jaina heard Sylvanas’s heartbeat.

Jaina and Sylvanas infiltrated the Halls of Reflection, where they found Frostmourne and Emissary Lorne trapped in a mirror. They were shocked when an elderly Arthas entered the halls.

• Jaina disguised herself and Sylvanas as Ghouls, and Taelan smuggled them past Garfrost and into the Forge of Souls.
• Jaina and Sylvanas used magic to evade Scourge patrols and entered the Halls of Reflection.
• Sylvanas moved to take Frostmourne, but Jaina confronted her after learning the Helm of Domination was not there.
• Emissary Lorne warned them that Frostmourne would reap the soul of anyone who picked it up and said they needed courage and sacrifice to rescue him.
• Lorne warned them to hide, and Jaina and Sylvanas saw an elderly Arthas enter the halls.

Arthas used Orc Soul Essence to temporarily restore his strength and tortured the captive Human Veteran while insisting he would not surrender the Lich King’s position. After Kel'Thuzad warned that the Scourge was near collapse, Arthas considered abdication, and Jaina and Sylvanas realized they had to act before he decided.

• Arthas fed ground Soul Essence from the Forge of Souls to Frostmourne and vowed to kill Thrall, Jaina, and Sylvanas once his strength returned.
• The Human Veteran told Arthas that Orc Soul Essence could only ease his aging temporarily and that the Alliance and Horde could defeat him if they united.
• Arthas tortured the Human Veteran with black flames and the souls from Frostmourne, demanding a cure for his aging.
• Kel'Thuzad warned Arthas that his aging had reduced the Scourge to less than one percent of its former strength and urged him to yield to a new Lich King.
• Arthas refused to give up control of the Scourge, but later admitted he might abdicate if Robbie's experiment failed.
• Jaina and Sylvanas feared the Scourge would regain its strength if Arthas abdicated and resolved to act before he made his decision.

Jaina and Sylvanas escaped through the Halls of Reflection while Arthas pursued them, using adventurers as expendable cover. Arthas caught up with them at the balcony, where he revealed that Sylvanas had escaped through a double and Jaina was a mechanical decoy.

• The Human Veteran rejected Sylvanas’s hopes of becoming Warchief and said he would recommend Garrosh if Garrosh rescued him.
• Arthas found Jaina and Sylvanas in the Halls of Reflection, forcing Jaina to blast an exit through a weak spot in the wall.
• Jaina and Sylvanas used adventurers to hold back the Scourge while they broke through Arthas’s ice walls and fled toward the waiting ships.
• Arthas recovered his strength and struck down Sylvanas, but Jaina realized the woman was a High Elf double possessed by Sylvanas’s consciousness.
• Arthas cut Jaina in half, revealing mechanical parts instead of blood.

Jaina learned that Arthas had lured the Horde toward Icecrown Citadel, where a new Magic Circle awaited the souls of those killed in battle. Aegwynn advised her to use Thrall to force the Alliance into the conflict, and Jaina urged him to seize Stormwind City.

• Sylvanas and Jaina returned to their ships after Sylvanas's double and Jaina's Titan-forged construct were destroyed at Icecrown Citadel, while Robbie revealed himself as the disguised Arthas.
• Jaina reported what she had learned to Aegwynn, who reasoned that Taelan was reliable and Arthas had sought to silence Jaina before the information spread.
• Aegwynn told Jaina to keep the Alliance and Horde as the main forces, avoid fighting the Lich King herself, and enlist Thrall to pressure the Alliance into sending troops.
• Jaina confronted Thrall in Orgrimmar, and he resisted until she warned that Garrosh could replace him as Warchief.
• Jaina told Thrall that Stormwind was weak and proposed that two thousand Orcs take the city and force Varian to submit.

Sylvanas recruited Garrosh to pursue the Lich King’s power while seeking Alliance cooperation. In Stormwind City, Thrall and Tirion Fordring forced Varian to approve a decree imposing a Flesh Tax on his people.

• Doras restored Garrosh’s confidence after his defeat, and he accepted Sylvanas’s proposal to become the Lich King.
• Sylvanas said the Horde needed Alliance cooperation and hoped Tirion Fordring would persuade Varian.
• Tirion arrived in Stormwind City with a thousand Argent Crusade soldiers and threatened Varian with the Ashbringer.
• Thrall appeared and demanded that Stormwind provide people under a decree imposing the Flesh Tax.
• Varian, terrified and confused, stamped and signed the decree, and Thrall ordered the tax’s collection to begin.

Varian secretly issued a decree calling on Major Garrick to raise an army against Thrall, but Anduin betrayed the plan. Thrall handed the decree to the stable hand and let him leave, while Varian was left facing an ominous farewell.

• Varian learned from a stable hand that Major Garrick could gather forces in Elwynn Forest and that other regions might join if the King issued a decree.
• Varian drafted a decree appointing Major Garrick Beast-Slaying Grand Marshal and First-Class Duke of Stormwind City and ordering him to drive out the Orcs and the Argent Crusade.
• Thrall confronted Varian with the decree after the stable hand was captured, and revealed that Anduin had informed on them in exchange for a roast chicken.
• Anduin told Thrall he expected to become King of Stormwind City, but Thrall brutally beat and wounded him, blaming him for ruining his plans.
• Thrall gave the decree to the stable hand and allowed him to leave, then told Varian that it had been a pleasure working with him.

Garrick Padfoot used King Varian’s edict to rally more than five thousand soldiers, while the royal call met resistance and divided loyalties across the kingdom. In Westfall, Grayson set out for Stormwind City with his fleet, and in Lakeshire, Fangore gathered an independent force and marched toward Elwynn Forest.

• Garrick Padfoot had deserted King Varian’s northern expedition, later led Northshire Abbey’s defenders against the Kobolds, and built a stable settlement in Elwynn Forest.
• After receiving King Varian’s edict, Garrick copied it and sent it throughout the kingdom, drawing enough followers to raise his army above five thousand.
• Captain Grayson urged Gryan Stoutmantle to answer the royal command, but Gryan refused to involve Westfall in Stormwind City’s politics.
• Grayson resolved to sail to Stormwind City with his pirates, and Gryan supplied his fleet while warning him not to accept political power.
• Mayor Solomon refused to let Lieutenant Fangore use Lakeshire’s soldiers, so Fangore assembled two thousand men from adventurers and Morgan’s Vigil troops and marched toward Elwynn Forest.

Captain Bellygrub abandoned the Night Watch to seek advancement in the campaign to retake Stormwind City, where the vast allied army found the city empty and rescued Varian. Thrall was captured after his escape portal failed, but Medivh intervened, drove the soldiers from Stormwind Keep, and left Varian to announce a banquet and rewards for the army’s commanders.

• Captain Bellygrub quit the Night Watch, recruited a force of three thousand, and marched toward Elwynn Forest as the king’s defenders gathered in numbers exceeding a hundred thousand.
• Grand Marshal Garrick Padfoot led the allied forces into Stormwind City, where they found no enemies and crowded into Stormwind Keep.
• Thrall taunted the soldiers, but his Portal malfunctioned; as they attacked him, a black feather shielded him and blasted hundreds of soldiers away.
• Guardian Medivh arrived, demanded Varian, and forced the soldiers to withdraw from Stormwind Keep after rescuing the barely breathing Thrall.
• Varian issued a royal decree crediting the defenders with saving Stormwind City and inviting the commanders to a banquet where they would receive rewards.

At a banquet, Varian planned to eliminate the allied commanders after Medivh and Thrall taught him to see powerful subordinates as threats. Garrick escaped after learning of the plot, but the commanders who drank the poisoned wine began transforming.

• Varian offered Garrick a reward, but Garrick asked to retire, and Captain Grayson refused an admiralship to return to Westfall.
• Medivh warned Varian that powerful commanders could threaten his rule, while Thrall described killing strong Orcs to secure his position.
• Medivh gave Varian a Chaos Potion to put in the commanders' wine, and a guard overheard the plan and alerted Garrick.
• Garrick fled Stormwind Keep and became a wanted man again, while Varian returned to the banquet and promised the commanders rewards.
• Bellygrub became a marshal, and the commanders drank the poisoned wine; Captain Grayson became a Restless Soul, while Bellygrub transformed into a giant wild boar.

After Thrall forced Varian to help the Orcs, Robbie offered him Scourge protection in exchange for killing Thrall. Varian hesitated, and Thrall tried to persuade him that betraying humanity was the clever way to survive.

• Thrall mocked the transformed Stormwind commanders, and Varian ordered the guards to release them from captivity.
• Thrall urged Varian to take command of the now-leaderless troops and join the Orcs against the Scourge, and Varian reluctantly agreed.
• Varian prayed to Fela, then heard a mysterious voice offer him a choice that would decide the fates of Stormwind and its people.
• Varian witnessed Kel'Thuzad defeat Medivh, after which Robbie offered to protect the kingdom if Varian killed Thrall.
• Varian could not bring himself to strike Thrall, who argued that House Wrynn could survive only by siding with the Scourge and abandoning humanity.

Thrall persuaded Varian to abandon his threat of killing him by tempting him with the possibility of immortality as an Emissary of Elune. In Stormwind City, Robbie and Kel'Thuzad found a mysteriously open tavern whose proprietress, Lisa, revealed she remembered events from ten thousand years ago.

• Thrall warned Varian that defying Elune could bring eternal torment and suggested Emperor Thoradin had become her immortal Emissary.
• Thrall promised Varian that serving Elune might grant him immortality, and Varian dropped his sword.
• Robbie and Kel'Thuzad walked through a nearly deserted Stormwind City and worried over whether they would have to fight the Alliance's hundred thousand troops and the Argent Crusade.
• Robbie sensed powerful magic around a tavern and met its proprietress, Lisa, while Kel'Thuzad reacted strongly to her name and face.
• Lisa said she had opened her first shop after the Sundering and recalled the Tauren who had once lived in the area.

The innkeeper told Robbie that the Hunters had manipulated the Eastern Kingdoms’ history for ten thousand years, driving races to extinction and clearing the way for humanity. As chaos spread through Stormwind, Robbie decided the Scourge must investigate Azeroth’s rejection of them and use a new Lich King to bear its effects; he offered that role to Taelan Fordring.

• The innkeeper recounted how the Hunters exterminated the Marsh Tauren, engineered the rise and fall of other races, and arranged the Trolls’ replacement by humans.
• She explained that Sindragosa’s death weakened the Hunters’ control, allowing humans to rise through their discovery of magic and the Holy Light.
• Robbie realized how little the kingdom’s current crisis mattered against the scale of the Eastern Kingdoms’ history, and resolved to become more decisive.
• After seeing hungry soldiers terrorize Stormwind’s streets, Robbie told Kel’Thuzad he would seek to reproduce Tirion Fordring’s resurrection and study the force that caused the Scourge to age and withdraw.
• At Icecrown Citadel, Taelan mistook Robbie for Arthas and denied knowing Tirion Fordring; Robbie then asked whether Taelan would become the new Lich King.

Taelan Fordring was made the new Lich King under Robbie and Kel'Thuzad's control, while they investigated why he had not aged. After they suspected combat was the trigger, the Scourge prepared to attack as the Argent Tournament reached its final round against the Val'kyr Twins.

• Taelan Fordring accepted the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne, but the Helm trapped his consciousness while Robbie and Kel'Thuzad controlled his body.
• Robbie ordered Kel'Thuzad to create a Scourge army for Taelan, and they produced two hundred thousand weakened soldiers in three days.
• Robbie and Kel'Thuzad found no sign that Taelan was aging, then suspected that combat had triggered the Scourge's earlier aging and considered taking the offensive.
• Tirion Fordring returned to Northrend, oversaw the Trial of the Crusader, and used the bodies of failed challengers as stored military rations.
• Tirion announced the Val'kyr Twins as the final opponents, and the enormous light- and shadow-wreathed creatures entered the arena as the challengers watched in alarm.

The Trial of the Crusader finals began with the Val'kyr twins annihilating fourteen teams, leaving the two preselected champions to face them. Magni Bronzebeard’s beautiful Blood Elf goddaughter killed Lightbane Fiora with a single distant sword strike, and Tirion Fordring announced that she had inherited the Godslaying Void Slash.

• Varian learned that the Horde’s champion was a Troll recognized by Thrall as his younger brother, and that the Alliance’s champion was Magni Bronzebeard’s Blood Elf goddaughter.
• After Tirion Fordring opened the finals, Lightbane Fiora challenged the contestants to attack the Val'kyr twins together.
• The Val'kyr twins drew in and tore out the souls of all fourteen competing teams, killing them instantly.
• The Troll and the Blood Elf champion exchanged words and agreed that she would face the Val'kyr twins first.
• The Blood Elf champion struck Lightbane Fiora from a distance and split her apart with one sword swing.
• Tirion Fordring identified the technique as the long-lost Godslaying Void Slash and declared that the Lich King was doomed.

The Lich King Arthas exposed the Argent Crusade’s arena trials as a scheme to harvest souls, then raised the fallen contestants to attack the leaders and champion teams. As the massacre spread, Argent Crusade soldiers flooded the arena, and at Icecrown Citadel Robbie and Kel'Thuzad observed Taelan Fordring begin to age.

• The Blood Elf woman killed Edith with her Godslaying Void Slash, and the Troll man killed another Darkbane with his Death Curse Art.
• Taelan Fordring arrived as the Lich King, raised the fallen contestants with Frostmourne, and unleashed them on the arena.
• The resurrected Undead slaughtered both champion teams and attacked the leaders in the stands, while Varian, Thrall, Jaina, and Tirion escaped by portal or teleportation scroll.
• Argent Crusade soldiers charged into the arena in waves, and Frostmourne kept raising the fallen to swell the Undead army.
• After more than thirty thousand Argent Crusade soldiers had died, Robbie and Kel'Thuzad saw Taelan Fordring begin to show signs of aging.

Robbie and Kel'Thuzad discovered that killing Azeroth's people caused the Scourge to age, while Orcs Soul Essence temporarily restored Taelan's strength. Taelan brought down the Crusaders' Coliseum and exposed that the Scourge had removed Y'Shaarj's flesh, as Elune vowed to destroy it.

• As the Argent Crusade charged the Scourge, Taelan aged, weakened, and stopped raising the dead; Orc-resurrected Undead showed no signs of aging.
• The Emissary attacked Taelan, then revealed that the Scourge would weaken further as Azeroth's people died; Robbie and Kel'Thuzad inferred that Azeroth was rejecting the Scourge.
• Robbie had Taelan claim he had found a solution and swallow an Soul Orb of Orcs Soul Essence, which restored much of his strength.
• Taelan threatened to wipe out the Orcs and drove Frostmourne into the corpse mound, merging the Argent Crusade's remains into a tentacled monster that collapsed the coliseum into an abyss.
• The Emissary saw that Y'Shaarj's flesh and blood had vanished, and Elune appeared behind him, vowing that the Scourge would be destroyed.