Rumors of the Royal Capital's residents leaving for Kul Tiras spread faster than the news of Prince Arthas's coronation.
A week after Arthas's Coronation Ceremony ended, Stratholme, the largest city in Lordaeron's Northern Lands, received word that Prince Arthas had been crowned king. Yet just the day before, its residents had already been debating why the people of the Royal Capital were abandoning their homes.
Stratholme was a special city. Its people felt a profound gratitude toward the Kul Tirans.
When the Scourge Plague ravaged the Northern Lands, the people of Stratholme had nowhere to flee and were forced to enter the territory of the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas.
The righteous, compassionate General Sylvanas took them in. But although Stratholme's people escaped the plague, they could not escape the war between the Trolls and the Elves.
In that war, which threatened the lives of hundreds of thousands of Stratholme's residents, the Royal Court had not provided so much as a shipment of provisions, let alone troops to reinforce them later.
Tens of thousands of Stratholme's people had only the troops of the Order of the Silver Hand and their city guards to protect them as they struggled to survive in the forests ruled by the Amani Trolls.
The forest was the Amani Trolls' home ground. They knew how to exploit every shadow, every patch of mist, even a single leaf.
Over a thousand residents of Stratholme died at the Trolls' hands, and nearly five thousand elderly people starved to death.
Just as the shadow of death fell over all of Stratholme's people, the pall of despair abruptly lifted, and the first light before dawn illuminated the entire forest.
Reinforcements from Kul Tiras arrived, bringing vast quantities of food and supplies.
When the war between the High Elves and the Amani Trolls