Ner'zhul

Ner'zhul was the elder shaman of the Shadowmoon clan, the most respected spiritual leader of the orcs on Draenor, and the first orc the Burning Legion deceived. His mistakes set the orcs on the road to the Horde, and his last desperate gamble tore his world apart. Captured by the demon lord Kil'jaeden, he became the first Lich King, the mind behind the Scourge. In Classic he is the unseen master of the undead armies that fill the Plaguelands and Naxxramas.

Biography

The deceived shaman

Ner'zhul led the Shadowmoon clan and was the most honored shaman among the orc clans. The demon lord Kil'jaeden reached him through visions, posing as the spirit of his dead mate, and told him that the draenei were plotting against the orcs. Ner'zhul believed him and rallied the clans for war.

When Ner'zhul began to suspect he was being used, Kil'jaeden turned to his ambitious apprentice Gul'dan instead. Gul'dan took over, made the clans drink demon blood, and left Ner'zhul a broken old shaman watched by the Shadow Council. The spirits of the elements, angered by the orcs' deeds, stopped answering him.

The fall of Draenor

After the Horde lost the Second War, Ner'zhul took command of the orcs still on Draenor. His plan was to open portals from Draenor to other worlds so the orcs could escape their dying land. He sent forces back through the Dark Portal to steal powerful artifacts from Azeroth, among them the Skull of Gul'dan and the Book of Medivh. When he opened the portals at once, the energies ripped Draenor apart, leaving the shattered remnant later known as Outland. Ner'zhul and his followers fled through a portal into the Twisting Nether.

The Lich King

Kil'jaeden was waiting. He had Ner'zhul tortured by his dreadlords, destroyed his body, and bound his spirit into a suit of enchanted armor sealed in a block of ice. Ner'zhul became the Lich King. Kil'jaeden sent the ice to the frozen north of Northrend, where it struck Icecrown Glacier and became the Frozen Throne. From there Ner'zhul's mind reached across the land, and he built the Scourge, an undead army meant to clear the way for the Burning Legion.

With the human necromancer Kel'Thuzad and his Cult of the Damned, the Lich King spread a plague of undeath through Lordaeron. When Kil'jaeden later sent Illidan Stormrage to destroy him, Ner'zhul called Arthas Menethil north to defend him. At the end of the Third War, Arthas climbed the Frozen Throne, put on the helm, and merged with Ner'zhul into a single being.

In World of Warcraft

Ner'zhul never appears in person in Classic, but the Lich King, the combined being of Ner'zhul and Arthas, is behind the Scourge everywhere players meet it.

• In the Western Plaguelands and Eastern Plaguelands, the Scourge holds most of the old kingdom of Lordaeron, and dungeons like Scholomance and Stratholme are Scourge strongholds.
• In Naxxramas, the flying necropolis over the Eastern Plaguelands, [[forever:npc:15990]] commands the Scourge in the Lich King's name.
• In the Barrens, the lich Amnennar the Coldbringer rules the quilboar of Razorfen Downs. In Bring the End, players learn that Amnennar has a direct telepathic link to Ner'zhul and that the bond must be broken; the quest rewards include the [Vanquisher's Sword].
• In the Undercity, the Forsaken exist because the Lich King's grip slipped. Sylvanas Windrunner's quest givers often speak of the Lich King as the enemy the Forsaken plague is meant to destroy.

Later history

• In Wrath of the Lich King, players went to Northrend to fight the Lich King. By then Arthas was the dominant will, and when he fell at Icecrown Citadel, Bolvar Fordragon took up the helm.
• In Warlords of Draenor, players meet an alternate-timeline Ner'zhul as a boss in Shadowmoon Burial Grounds.
• Shadowlands revealed that the helm of domination was forged by the Jailer, recasting the Lich King's origin.

Trivia

• Ner'zhul's fall is the subject of the novel Beyond the Dark Portal and of the Warcraft II expansion of the same name (1996).
• The Warcraft III manual and the Frozen Throne campaign first described how Ner'zhul became the Lich King.

Sources

• Ner'zhul - Warcraft Wiki
• Bring the End - Warcraft Wiki
• Lich King - Warcraft Wiki