Project Lore

Finally, this week saw a return to somewhat normalcy in-game, after about two weeks of haphazard scheduling around the holidays. Starting the week of Christmas and stretching through New Years, my own guild and many others I know of saw a startling halt to raiding, despite all that new content and drool-worthy loot within Icecrown Citadel. I was able to sneak in a couple hours here and there for the weekly raids and a few daily randoms. Then toward the end of my extended vacation, I had a couple of entirely empty days that I chose to fill with WoW. With few others in my guild on, I decided to catch up on some questing that I've pretty much abandoned (other than dailies) since hitting 80. I finished up quests in Zul'Drak, remembering the days when that content was incredibly difficult, spent a little time in Storm Peaks, and continued on to Icecrown. And something struck me: Arthas really has left his mark all over Azeroth. Of course, with hordes of undead minions roaming the planet, you can see Arthas' imprint everywhere. But through questing, you see more the larger essence of his influence. Such is the case with a quest chain starting at Sindragosa's fall that leads the adventurer through some key moments in Arthas' life. It begins with meeting a ghostly childish figure, Matthias Lehner, who gives you the quest Where Dragons Fell and you witness the Raising of Sindragosa. In subsequent quests, you play as Arthas and see him kill his own soldiers then raise them as undead, then battle Illidan Stormrage. I don't want to give anything away to others of you who may not have seen the line, so I'll simply say that the questline concludes with a heart-pounding confrontation between the Lich King and the heroes who are fighting against him. I've heard others reference this questline before (mainly through comments on my post asking whether Arthas can be redeemed, a question which I still think is valid despite the conclusion of the questline). But since it's something that easily can be overlooked on the grind to 80, I hadn't actually seen it for myself. So if you, too, find some time leading up to the battle with the Lich King, I recommend seeking out this ghostly little boy (whose name, by the way, is an anagram of Arthas Menethil) and playing through it for yourself. Now that the battle is nearing, has anyone else found themselves thinking through some of these older quest lines involving Arthas? Do you think we can draw any clues about the final encounter from them?