"Master, why did you study necromancy?"
Kel'Thuzad sighed and began haltingly telling Aaron how he had come to study necromancy.
When the Orcs fought their way to Lordaeron, Kel'Thuzad, as one of Dalaran's mages, had fought alongside the Alliance army against them.
Although the Orcs were physically much stronger than humans, these green-skinned monsters had poor discipline and lacked spellcasters, so once the Alliance army organized itself, it could often gain the advantage against them.
But that situation soon changed: a group of corpse-like knights abruptly appeared on the battlefield. These knights, with their blood-red eyes and pale skin, changed the course of battle the moment they arrived.
Wherever these knights appeared, the defensive lines would inexplicably collapse. According to the soldiers who retreated, when they faced these monsters who called themselves Death Knights, an inexplicable fear would rise in their hearts, while their physical strength diminished to varying degrees. Few soldiers could withstand such a strange situation.
In the battles that followed, even the Paladins who had just completed their training gained no advantage against these creatures, so the mages, the Alliance army's elite fighting force, began targeting these Death Knights.
The fighting between the two sides was fierce. Although the mages achieved quite a few victories, they ultimately failed to gain the upper hand against enemies they knew nothing about.
More horrifying still, the mages discovered the true faces beneath the Death Knights' armor-humans!
To find these monsters' weaknesses, quite a few mages studied the corpses they left behind, but magical research was not something one could start one day and see results from the next.
By the time the mages produced some results that could be used against those Death Knights, the Alliance had already driven the main Orc force back to the Dark Portal.
Not long afterward, Khadgar closed the Dark Portal, and this research, which Antonidas and most mages considered taboo, came to a halt. After all, studying necromancy inevitably meant dealing with corpses. Ordinary people were not the only ones frightened by it; even the mages felt somewhat uncomfortable. Besides, the Orc threat had largely been eliminated, so research into necromancy was naturally banned.
At the time, Kel'Thuzad obeyed Antonidas's orders and stopped studying this branch of magic, until more than a year later, when the Dark Portal, which was believed to have been closed, opened again. This time, the Orcs did not launch a massive offensive, but instead sent a group of elites into Dalaran.
During that invasion, the mages paid a heavy price when they faced the Death Knights again, and the heavily guarded artifact, the Eye of Dalaran, was seized by the combined efforts of the Death Knights and the Black Dragonflight Deathwing.
Later, the mages who remained behind learned that the Orcs had used the Eye of Dalaran to tear Draenor apart. To keep the catastrophe from spreading to Azeroth, the Sons of Lothar, who had ventured to Draenor, sent the artifact back and then closed the Dark Portal.
It was precisely this incident that greatly heightened Kel'Thuzad's vigilance. Since the Orcs could reopen the closed Dark Portal once, they could do it again. Those Death Knights would inevitably reappear and threaten Dalaran.
"So after that, I began studying necromancy again." Kel'Thuzad pointed at the various experimental materials in his room, particularly the rats. "I've already made considerable progress in necromancy. At the very least, I can now separate rats' souls from their bodies..."
At this point, Kel'Thuzad sighed again. "Unfortunately, I still can't stabilize these separated souls. That's the focus of my next stage of research. Once I can stabilize souls, then work out how to infuse them into corpses, I should be able to create Death Knights of our own."
"So your goal is to create Death Knights to fight the Orcs' Death Knights?"
"That's right. Only Death Knights can deal with Death Knights." Kel'Thuzad nodded, his words firm. It seemed he truly wanted to create Death Knights.
"But... Master, do you know how those Death Knights were created?" After wrestling with it for a while, Aaron decided to tell Kel'Thuzad a little more. If he could keep Kel'Thuzad from being lured away by Ner'zhul, perhaps there would never be a second Lich King?
"According to our research, the souls of the dead were probably infused into corpses... Why? Was our research wrong?"
"That part is correct, but the problem is..." Aaron shook his head and said, "The souls inside those Death Knights weren't ordinary dead people. They were all members of the Shadow Council."
The so-called Shadow Council was an association of Warlocks Daniel Wu... no, Gul'dan had trained among the Orcs and ogres. Later, Gul'dan fell into a lengthy coma after becoming involved in Medivh's death, and Orgrimmar, the Horde's Warchief, who had always disliked Gul'dan, slaughtered the Shadow Council.
Later, the hard-to-kill Gul'dan woke up and, under the pretext of strengthening the Orcs' fighting power, infused the souls of the Shadow Council's dead Warlocks into human corpses. Thus, the Death Knights were born.
After hearing Aaron's account, Kel'Thuzad looked thoughtful. "In other words, the soul itself is more important?"
Aaron nodded and said, "Those Death Knights were so powerful because the souls inside them belonged to Warlocks. That's why they could cast spells. Otherwise, they would just be bodies that could move."
That was not really wrong, but it only applied to the first generation of Death Knights. Once the second generation, improved by Ner'zhul, appeared later, there would be no need for such trouble. Aaron, however, had no intention of explaining it to Kel'Thuzad in such detail.
"So in the end, my research can only produce a pile of walking corpses?" Kel'Thuzad slumped into his chair. "I thought I could... Was it all a joke?"
"No, actually, not entirely..." Aaron thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Master, have you heard of the Val'kyr?"
"What are those?" Kel'Thuzad vaguely guessed that Aaron might be about to tell him something useful, so he raised his head and looked at him intently.
Looking at this middle-aged mage, who resembled a child waiting for candy, Aaron did not know whether to laugh or cry. He continued, "Then have you heard of the Vrykul?"
"I've heard of them. They're found in both Northrend and the Broken Isles. They're very large."
"Then let's start with the Vrykul. Among them, there's a legend that the warriors who fight with the most Heroism can ascend to the Halls of Valor and become immortal Valarjar."
"And to become Valarjar, they must be guided by the Val'kyr, the emissaries of the great god Odyn. These spirit beings can guide the souls of fallen warriors into the Halls of Valor to receive Odyn's blessing and become warriors stronger than they were in life."
After finishing, Aaron glanced at Kel'Thuzad and found that, as expected, he wore a thoughtful expression.
"You mean these Val'kyr have more advanced techniques than those Orcs?" After thinking for a long while, Kel'Thuzad's eyes lit up brightly. "But according to what you've said, shouldn't these be mere legends?"
"Actually... there are Val'kyr in the Broken Isles, on the islands to the northeast."
"The Broken Isles? If there aren't any there, should I go to Northrend to look?"
"No, don't go to Northrend." Aaron felt a jolt of alarm at those words. Seeing Kel'Thuzad's doubtful expression, he hurriedly explained, "The Halls of Valor are above the Broken Isles, so the Val'kyr are all there. There aren't any Val'kyr in Northrend."
"All right, then I'll make some preparations and visit the Broken Isles." Upon learning that his research into necromancy still had value, Kel'Thuzad was once again motivated to strive forward. Even his spirits seemed somewhat different.
"Then I wish you a successful journey, Master." Aaron smiled, hoping those few words of his could change this mage's fate of being lured away by Ner'zhul.