Challenge: Bring Arthas Back

Argent Dawn
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The Year is 2023 (or some vague yesterday). You are World of Warcraft’s chief narrative designer, during the planning stages of the Worldsoul Saga.

One sunny day in Irvine, California, you’re drinking a hot beverage around the Orc statue when you’re suddenly summoned to the boardroom and whisked upstairs. The heads of Creative Development, Level Design, World and Art Direction are all there, as are several members of the board.

They sit you down, and activate a Zoom call with the heads of Microsoft, Xbox, and representatives for an entire legion of global shareholders. They tell you they like the direction WoW’s going in. It’s profitable. It’s helping keep the company afloat. But the shareholders want more.

Narrative development explains the planned story arc, the expansion sets to follow The Last Titan, but then a head market researcher intervenes. They say simply:

“World of Warcraft needs the Lich King, it needs Arthas. They have the most brand recognition, and we need to hone in on players’ nostalgia.”

“He connects with our audience, man! He gets the algorithm going!”

You try, vainly, to explain to them that Arthas’ story was finished in Shadowlands. Several statistics regarding the negative reception of this particular expansion pack are used as a counter-argument.

You then tell them that Arthas’ story was resolved in Wrath of the Lich King, quite memorably and with a very positive reception.

One of the sales and marketing people notes that at that time, WoW was at its peak growth, attracting increasing amounts of profit and players. It made money once, they want it to happen again. There’s an applause from two corners of the board room.

There’s a long hour, of argument, appeals, and refutations, but before long, it’s signed in blood. Your career in the games industry is on the line.

Your job is to bring Arthas back into the main story of the game.
Do or Die.

You’re the assigned writer. Handed the poisoned chalice. A thousand incensed internet nerds will be out for your entrails if you fluff this up, the same number even if you do a passable piece of work. Your family (or pet cat) will starve if you can’t keep hold of your job, and another round of layoffs is planned next quarter, just in time for The Game Awards.

Focus.

How do you do this in a way that honours the character, reintroduces him for a new generation, and uses him in a way that improves the narrative and gameplay instead of acting to its detriment?

You can go into as much or little detail as you’d like, but to help you out, here’s an optional template:

  1. How does he come back?
  2. How is his appearance and/or personality redesigned?
  3. Description of the scene or reveal, that unveils his return.
  4. Rough trajectory of his narrative arc. What loose ends are tied? Who does he kill?

If you’re in a particularly nihilistic mood, you’re welcome to practice malicious compliance, as well.

Mood Music for Writing -

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I have four words for you:
Somehow Arthas has returned.

Done.

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Jaina Proudmoore has lost a lot over the years. As she approaches her fiftieth year, with all the destruction and misery in its wake she asks herself a simple question: where did it all go wrong?

The answer is Arthas. When she failed him, and he failed her.

She looks at the mag’har, brought over by the reckless actions of shal’dorei chronomancers aided surreptitiously by the bronze dragonflight.

She looks at Elisande, and how she freed herself from the bonds of her own destiny. Why should she be restricted to only this timeline where there is another out there where she can be happy with Arthas?

So she goes, shattering the borders between time itself to another world. She replaces the Jaina Proudmoore of that reality, using magic to make herself look young again, and takes her place at Arthas’ side.

Unfortunately for her, Nozdormu says “uh, no??” and launches 5-25 idiot heroes through the timestream to go sort her out. We’re returned back to Lordaeron in the run up to the Third War. Arthas is alive and well, still a fresh faced princeling with his paladin hammer.

Jaina was never a chronomaster, unfortunately, and her intrusion into this timeline has made it dangerously unstable. Before long reality begins to unravel despite our best efforts to stabilise it on behalf of the bronzes.

The final raid of the expansion comes as the reality begins to collapse in on itself. Every single enemy in the raid is Arthas. Some are Lich King Arthas. Some are Paladin Arthas. Some are Elven Arthas. Some are Idris Elba Arthas, but they are all Arthas. The bigwigs wanted Arthas, they got him! So many Arthas!

Ultimately, we fail: we cannot stop the timeline from collapsing. The bronzes resolve to save as many innocents as they can, however, and one of those is indeed Arthas. He is shepherded into our timeline where he finds himself lost and adrift, the archvillain of a world he only ever wanted to save, his country filled with undead that revile him, and no direction.

He retires to start a soup kitchen in Westfall under a pseudonym, Sahtra.

Jaina is put on trial by the Bronze Dragonflight and sent to the Time-Maw to fix timelines until she has atoned for her time-crimes.

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Alrighty then, my interest has been piqued. Let’s start by reimagining Edge of Night:

After Arthas’s death, Sylvanas ascends Icecrown Citadel, expecting closure. Instead, she finds Bolvar Fordragon enthroned as the new Lich King, a symbol that the cycle of domination continues. Disillusioned, she casts herself from the citadel, seeking oblivion.

In the abyss, her soul is ensnared by tormenting entities. Amidst the agony, she senses Arthas’s presence - diminished and fearful. Rather than pity, a surge of hatred consumes her. She realizes that mere death is insufficient retribution for his atrocities.

The Val’kyr intervene, offering her a return to the living. Sylvanas accepts, but with a condition: they must also resurrect Arthas, not to restore him, but to imprison and torment him eternally. She envisions a hidden sanctum where his undead form will suffer endlessly, a perpetual reminder of his sins.

Thus, Sylvanas rises anew, not just as the Banshee Queen, but as the architect of Arthas’s eternal punishment, ensuring that his legacy is one of unending anguish.

–

Sylvanas never let go of Arthas.

She kept his undead form hidden, a hollow husk tethered by her will - silent, broken, but still bound by the same necromantic forces he once wielded to ruin the world. She studied him, tested him, twisted the remnants of his power to serve her ends.

When the battle for Gilneas began, she saw an opportunity. Not just to claim territory - but to make a statement. A cruel echo of history.

She brought Arthas with her.

Not as a king. Not as a warrior. But as a weapon. A shade of damnation wrapped in her vengeance.

The Forsaken siege raged. Worgen resistance bit hard. And when Prince Liam Greymane stood in defense of his people, Sylvanas knew the perfect finale for her grim theatre.

As the final battle loomed in the ruined city, she whispered to Arthas:

“Do what you do best.”

Arthas, long silent, stirred. Not with will - but command.

He raised Liam from death with a trembling gauntlet, his hollow eyes reflecting the last flickers of power granted by Sylvanas. The fallen prince rose, dark and twisted - his loyalty stripped and reforged in undeath.

But then - something passed between them.

A glance. A flicker. Prince recognizing Prince.

Not just as victims, but as heirs - both torn from life, both warped by forces beyond their choosing. In that moment of mirrored tragedy, a buried ember in Arthas stirred. Not vengeance. Not power. Recognition.

A bond formed - not of loyalty, but of shared doom, and that bond, raw and unresolved, was stronger than Sylvanas’s chains.

Sylvanas turned, too late.

Arthas struck first - silent, efficient, driven not by wrath but inevitability. Liam followed with brutal precision. They didn’t speak. They didn’t gloat. They ended her.

She fell in the same square where Liam had died moments before. A Val’kyr screamed overhead, and with no choice, it descended - another soul sacrificed to drag Sylvanas back from the void once again. One more sister destined for oblivion.

When her eyes opened, she was alone.

Arthas and Liam were gone. Two revenants of ruin - one a prince reborn, the other a king once damned - disappearing into the world like a severed thread from fate’s own tapestry…

To be continued in a way too short and clunky patch questline.

Edit: Oops, didn’t take into consideration that it’s 2023. But hey, very Blizzard of me to not take things into consideration.

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It’s alright, you put the effort in, and that’s what counts.

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Bring Arthas back?

Bro you must have hit your head on the way in here. It’s 2007.

What? World of Warcraft? The Burning Crusade? Wrath of the Lich King? Activision? Are you okay?

Blizzard has just released Warcraft 4. World of Warcraft failed on launch, the real fans voted with their wallets, Naxxramas was its final raid before shut down. Apparently Blizzard said Warcraft 4 will continue some of the storylines from World of Warcraft but mostly new ones!

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All good ideas.

But ever considered that the 35 anima Arthas was reduced to could have been brought into one of the anima reservoires and then 'reshapen back into Arthas?

Imagine that, Shadowlands 2 where Arthas strikes back!

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Somehow, the boardroom in Irvine caught fire. None of the writing team’s notes survived. Some might say it was a kindness to the arts.

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I’ll give it a go:

What we thought was the last fragment of Arthas at the end of Shadowlands was actually absorbed by the most powerful and mysterious divine entity in the setting: The Godess Elune!

Elune feels like ‘Azeroth’ is threatening her divine status and decides to use the most powerful champion in the history of the setting to prevent ‘Azeroth’ from reaching Her full potential. She reconstructs Arthas in her image as some sort of Lunar Crusader - Complete with a moon-themed aesthetic (The sort of stuff that would make Wardens seethe with envy) - Suggested expansion title; “World of Warcraft: Eclipse”

Arthas is revealed as the new champion of our very vengeful Moon-Godess when his forces launch a surprise attack on The Vindicaar, which he quickly overruns and commandeers before crashing the whole thing (with no survivors) into Amirdrassil, busting up yet another World Tree and giving Elune’s Arthas-led army a foothold on Azeroth.

The spirit of The Blue Child contacts the heroes of Azeroth in the typical playbook style and pleads with them to help as the vengeful Elunarian Army is trying to establish a foothold on its surface to somehow corrupt The Blue Child and force it to go along with Elune’s antics.

Then, with the help of Monte Gazlowe, the heroes and adventurers set up a sort of space-program that culminates in our going to the moon (The Blue Child) and setting up respective lunar bases for The Horde and The Alliance. The first raid will deal with destroying the Elunarian foothold on The Blue Child. - We can title this patch “World of Warcraft: Code Blue”

Arthas has another major presence in the first patch, where he and his army have travelled to a distant solar system once beseiged by the Burning Legion. They are there to recover and restore a defunct ‘planet-cracker’ superweapon that the Legion once used to destroy the stubborn inhabitants of the system. Maybe we’ll find their survivors living deep within the broken asteroid-like remains of their world and get ourselves a new allied race. - The raid for this tier takes place “on board” the defunct legion superweapon, which the heroes reclaim and mean to use to bust open The White Lady, which is tethering Elune’s influence to our reality. - We can title this patch “World of Warcraft: Crucible of Worlds”

In the final patch, the Night Elves rally to drive the Elunarians away from the Amirdrassil crater, following Tyrande who is spearheading a new paladin order, the Blue Child’s own lunar crusaders. Night Elf Paladins are a go! - Here, Arthas reappears to defeat Tyrande’s initial assault, killing her and forcing Shandris Feathermoon to take over leadership of the new lunar paladins. - In the raid for this tier, adventurers descend into the Amirdrassil crater to recover something from the wreck of The Vindicaar.- For a title to this patch, maybe “World of Warcraft: New Order”

At the end of the expansion, the heroes recover the remains of the crucible from the wreck of the Vindicaar, which is needed to power the superweapon - They then use it to ‘crack open’ The White Lady, which turns out to be the mistake that allows Elune to fully manifest in our reality as a corporeal Godess, leading us into the next expansion.

How’d I do?

2 Likes
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You all need help :dracthyr_hehe_animated:

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Before I’d give it a try, I want to know…

Do we bring him back as a villain once more, or anti-hero or perhaps hero? Or is that up to our discretion?

And do we have to acknowledge Shadowlands happening ( I presume so) or nah? As I presume he’d be brought back during this World Soul Saga?

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To answer your first question - it’s up to your discretion. The whole team’s counting on you.

As I presume he’d be brought back during this World Soul Saga?

Correct.

You also can’t undo Shadowlands, but you can retcon aspects of its plot by introducing new contextual elements. Like -

Who exactly was Zovaal supposed to be, anyway?

Was that spark in that Mournblade -all- of Arthas’ soul, or did Denathrius keep the rest for himself?

=

That’s how I’d do it. Arthas would be this hobbled slave-knight warrior to Denathrius. His soul’s tragically mutilated, some of his limbs are missing, replaced with sharp blades and dungeon-punk weapon limbs. He’d act as Darth Vader to Denathrius’ Palpatine, being forced against his will to clean up Denathrius’ messes.

His arc would involve him breaking free and reclaiming his rightful place as King of the Damned, remaking the Scourge in its true, Zovaal-less form.

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I had a similar idea. What if Denathrius actually kept Arthas?

Denathrius was soundly defeated and humiliated, and he is freed from imprisonment, only to find that his ally Zovaal has fallen, and a new Arbiter is now active. He cannot win in the Shadowlands, so he sets his eyes on the living world. Together with his remaining Nathrezim, they scheme to invade Azeroth, and as their greatest weapon, they reanimate Arthas. But the former Lich King is done serving others, and almost immediately betrays Denathrius and slays him. He immediately assumes dominon over the dreadlords who choose to surrender, making Mal’ganis and Tichondrius his lieutenants.

Some dreadlords escape, and become reluctant allies of the heroes, purely because of their common foe. The kicker is that they are now without both the Legion, Zovaal and Denathrius. If they die now, they’re dead for good, and they know it.

For the remainder of the expansion, Arthas rages across Azeroth, both trying to rebuild his Scourge and claim his throne, but also seek vengeance against the world. He’s maddened, erratic and furious, and at times delusional and hallucinating, imagining himself as being the noble paladin again, fighting against evil.

Oh, and his magic powers, and that of the new scourge, is themed after Revendreth and its red anima, because that’s the power Denathrius bestowed on him before dying. He wields Remornia, who has fully submitted to him.

All other aspects of the Shadowlands are utterly ignored because Blizzard has come to understand nobody liked it.

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Sidenote. What happened to Arthas’ body? Was it destroyed? Buried?

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Not specified. Blizzard were asked about it at Bizzcon 2011 (so partway into Cata) but gave no definitives.

There’s a nameless grave in Stormwind with a Lordaeron symbol on it which some people speculate is where he’s buried. Arthas and Varian were friends for a while, so it would make sense. Others who might have a similar place of honour (Bolvar, Tirion) would presumably have plaques for them, but since one doesn’t, the assumption is it’s someone they don’t want to honour all that explicitly.

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