Project Lore

Proverb is a rare yet delicious column discussing the lore of Warcraft. It is spoiler heavy for all Warcraft games, novels, and other media. Comment on this post or send a tweet to @Heartbourne and let us know what you would like to see in future columns! Warcraft III made several references to captains of Prince Arthas. Since then, three major characters have been fleshed out as captains of Arthas' former military unit.

Oh captain, my captain!

This "captain" character appears multiple times throughout the Warcraft III campaign. He has some dialogue, and he is a controllable unit along with Arthas and Jaina on many missions. It is a little bizarre that he was unnamed for so long.

Luc Valonforth

The multiple characters created by this "captain" is partially explained by some ill timing. During the development of Wrath of the Lich King, Christie Golden was hard at work writing the accompanying novel to the WoW expansion, Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. In the novel, the character Falric is fleshed out as a royal guard who befriended Arthas and fits the role of the captain in the Warcraft III campaign, following Arthas to his corruption in Northrend. However, during the development of Wrath, the encounter team had already created a character to match the "captain", named Luc Valonforth. He appears in flashbacks during the questline, starting with The Truth Shall Set Us Free. He appears to have been intended as a major character to reappear later in the game, as he was named and had a good deal of dialogue, including the exact audio from the Warcraft III campaign from the "captain". It wasn't until later, when the novel was in the editors' hands, was this discrepancy realized. The game was left as is, but Luc was added to the novel as a minor character. It seemed a messy solution, as Falric was fleshed out as a major character to assist Arthas, yet one of the iconic moments of Arthas' downfall has this mystery fellow Luc as a major player. Some lines from "the captain" in that scene are given to Luc, and some to Falric.

An ethereal Falric in the Halls of Reflection

Unlike the other "Forgotten" soldiers in the flashback quests, he does not  die and become a ghost. Instead, he fades away, like other confirmed living characters, including Muradin and Arthas. It may be that he was intended to be an Icecrown Citadel boss, or perhaps an Alliance or Ebon Blade NPC, but he never appears in corporeal form. He appears to have been swept under the rug in favor of Falric. In addition to Falric, Golden wrote about a second royal guard who was a close friend of his. This character, Marwyn, also accompanied Arthas to Northrend. Both Falric and Marwyn were converted to Death Knights by Arthas, and can be seen as the royal guards accompanying Arthas to the murder of King Terenas II. As the second and third Death Knights of the Scourge (after Arthas), they were tasked with raising the massacred citizens of Lordaeron as Arthas' undead army in the Eastern Kingdoms.

Falric and Marwyn behind Arthas

It was widely thought that Falric and Marwyn would make an appearance in Icecrown, as they were Arthas' right-hand men in life. Indeed, in undeath, they continue to be personal assists of Arthas. The Halls of Reflection are Arthas' personal halls in Icecrown Citadel, and he calls on Falric and Marwyn when players invade to take Frostmourne in the new 5-man instance. They are the first encounter, and not a trivial one either. We will get a better look at Falric's unlife in the upcoming Death Knight manga.