The Lich King Never Took Advantage of Ulduar. Why?

[Aquamonkey]

From what I recall wasn't Arthas holding the scourge back with his last shred of humanity?

No. That was just what Uther speculated. Arthas holding back the Scourge was a ploy to get the greatest champions of the world to come to him in ICC so he could turn us into Scourge and send us back to destroy our kingdoms the way he had. This plot point was shown even before WotLK was released and stated explicitly by Arthas himself during the LK encounter.

[Aeula]

A lot of his stuff was made out of Saronite. Maybe he was worried killing Yogg would cut off his supply of Old God blood?

Plus he'd loose a lot of his forces trying to take the blasted place (With no gains since most of Ulduar's defences were mechanical and thus could not be raised. In addition, most of his existing army would be pulverised beyond re-resurrection by Ulduar's gigantic constructs).

[Hyve]

If he knew about it, even the Lich King wouldn't consider a war with an Old God something to just walk into, it's be something that'd require a lot of preparation.

It makes sense that he didn't know about it, considering it was Brann who fucked everything and lead to the discovery of what was going on and such.

[McNeil]

Who's to say that he wasn't planning to take over Ulduar, but at the time of WotLK he was still busy with Zul'Drak.

[JTHMRulez1]

I remember reading somewhere that The Lich King and Yogg-Saron had some relationship (probably not friendly) with each other but the devs couldn't expand it too much.

Personally. I think he knew about Ulduar but preferred to stay away from it. Since he had more important things to focus and messing with titan stuff is usually a bad idea in general.

[Aquamonkey]

There is supposed to be a tie-in between Yogg-Saron (the boss of Ulduar) and the Lich King, and that’s how that was supposed to make sense – through Yogg-Saron’s manipulation of world events. I don’t think that was obvious enough to the players. It’s hard for them to draw that connection even though theoretically that connection exists. In the planning stages, that wasn’t much of a factor for us, because in our minds that connection existed and was clear. We just didn’t do a very good job of expressing it. (Source)

Q. What did Yogg-Saron have to do with the Lich King? It seemed like a strange tangent to make in the middle of the expansion?
A. Did you do the quests in Icecrown? Quick answer: the existence of an Old God in Icecrown had a lot to do with the ability for mortals to become corrupted. (Source)

[masterjc]

game-wise, it's "next door", but lore-wise probably it's very far away and almost nobody knows anything about it

sholazar has anti-undead protection, maybe ulduar has something like that as well
Storm Peaks are unending range of mountains, how could anyone know what was there? and if he did know it, what would he do? fight OG? for what?

[Deleted]

There will probably be some sort of segment or throwaway comment in Chronicles Vol. 2

[JTHMRulez1]

Q. What did Yogg-Saron have to do with the Lich King? It seemed like a strange tangent to make in the middle of the expansion?
A. Did you do the quests in Icecrown? Quick answer: the existence of an Old God in Icecrown had a lot to do with the ability for mortals to become corrupted. (Source)

What exactly happened in Icecrown quests?

[Eon Drache]

There is supposed to be a tie-in between Yogg-Saron (the boss of Ulduar) and the Lich King, and that’s how that was supposed to make sense – through Yogg-Saron’s manipulation of world events. I don’t think that was obvious enough to the players. It’s hard for them to draw that connection even though theoretically that connection exists. In the planning stages, that wasn’t much of a factor for us, because in our minds that connection existed and was clear. We just didn’t do a very good job of expressing it. (Source)

Q. What did Yogg-Saron have to do with the Lich King? It seemed like a strange tangent to make in the middle of the expansion?
A. Did you do the quests in Icecrown? Quick answer: the existence of an Old God in Icecrown had a lot to do with the ability for mortals to become corrupted. (Source)

This. Yogg Saron was manipulating the Lich King.

[Deleted]

read the lore.


Yogg-Saron was scared of the lich king so made a deal to stop Arthas taking over Ulduar.

who do you think built the citadel? its 'old-god' metal as described in the books/comics.

[Nathreim]

Yogg-saron probably guided him away from it.

Actually undead are immune to the powers of the Old Gods their was a quest in Icecrown that illustrated this.

The Lich King was at war with Yogg's servants in some areas but Storm Peaks was well defended by inorganics.

[CptHandjob]

Well, Arthas death scene has his father Terenas stating that "No king rules forever," which is an identical line to what Yogg-Saron claims when we fight him. Moreso, Yogg-Saron really has no reason to speak that line while we fight him... he isn't a king, we aren't kings, there are no kings anywhere in the vicinity. If it's a throwaway, unimportant line and merely a coincidence, it a highly suspicious one.

Most likely it's just a plothole. But I like to entertain the fantasy that Blizzard actually did some sneaky and subtle writing for once.

King Llane in brain room vision.

[xChurch]

The Lich King still hadn't fully secured all of the rest of Northrend yet, why go to the most barren/mountainous area before you've conquered the rest.

[Duravian]

Wait, what if this was the mission he had planned for us after we die?

[MikeBogina]

It's not that he ignored it or didn't know about it(There was undead in the zone and Crystalsong forest was the result of scourge vs ulduar), he had other priorities, the Heroes of Azeroth.

Everything we've faced, powerful beings, powerful creations and so on have always met their downfall to us. And he wanted us to join him. If he achieved ressing the champions of Azeroth, he would have swept over Azeroth in an instant. Ulduar, Galakrond, all them dragons that recently died... would have all been his.

Say we ignored the Scourge, repelled their initial attacks and stayed home. The Scourge would have to deal with the Loken's army and the Blue Dragonflight. Eventually the Scourge would/could win on all fronts, but it would take much longer and by then the Cataclysm might happen. If the cataclysm happened while Yogg was still active, Deathwing would have immediately went to free Yogg and the Scourge would no doubt fall to that.

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If he knew about it, even the Lich King wouldn't consider a war with an Old God something to just walk into, it's be something that'd require a lot of preparation.

It makes sense that he didn't know about it, considering it was Brann who fucked everything and lead to the discovery of what was going on and such.

He knew about it, Arthas knew of the Yogg Saron since War3FT. He also knew of the Cataclysm and Nightmare, thanks to Ner'zhul. He also has a shit ton of Nerubians who know a whole lot of the Old Gods.

[Flurryfang]

From what is heard from Brann, he pretty much was the first to open up for Ulduar. The place was pretty closed and very few whispers from Yogg-Saron came out of the prison before that. So Arthas did proberly not see any gain in messing with the titan maschines and defensive systems.... He really did not have the siege equipment to deal with the Flame Leviathan like we had. One thing is sure though, Arthas knew what laid within Ulduar. He build his entire fortress out of Saronite and forced prisoners to mine for him, since most beings went insane by being near the raw material.

Yogg did not mess with Arthas and Arthas did not mess with Yogg. They proberly had a dark lord agreement, without being real allies.

[Drosul]

I've always been under the impression that it went down like this:

Arthas beats Illidan, then goes into the hibernation mode after WC3 campaigns... Scourge is slowly taking over Northrend.

Yogg manages to loose his chains..... LK, being an entity of vastly expanded consciousness, probably knew more about Old Gods than any single living person on Azeroth..... especially since he was given his power by the Legion, who seemingly exist for the sole reason of thwarting the Void Lords/ Old Gods.

Arthas wakes up, as a result of Yogg getting "free".... He knows he can't beat Yogg's forces with the army he has, so in desperation he decides to engage the Horde AND the Alliance simultaneously, with the hopes he can procure enough "meat" for his army to both conquer the planet AND kill Yogg.

Then things proceed by zone.....

Plan A was hold us off and assimilate the armies in Borean/Howling Fijord.... Hold us at the beaches, rez our dead and can conquer the world.... He gets crushed instead.

Plan B was hold Dragonblight long enough to rez Galakrond.... Also fails

Plan C was using Argul Guerilla warfare against us in Grizzly hills to delay us.... His army is running out of meat, so he shifts priority to an easier target, the trolls... and puts the bulk of his forces towards "recruiting" them. He's largely successful here, despite our meddling.

Plan D, is to harden his defenses in Icecrown, and get us to handle Yogg for him.... He can hold us there (or so he believes)

Plan E, is his attempt to "recruit" our champions like he does in the ICC encounter with him.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

If you've been in Yogg-Saron's mind, you've seen him manipulating all sorts of historical events. This is just another.

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Another factor: Algalon. Not sure how Arthas would find out about Algalon, but knowing about him would sure be reason for keeping hands off the doomsday scenario.

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I've always been under the impression that it went down like this:

Arthas beats Illidan, then goes into the hibernation mode after WC3 campaigns... Scourge is slowly taking over Northrend.

Yogg manages to loose his chains..... LK, being an entity of vastly expanded consciousness, probably knew more about Old Gods than any single living person on Azeroth..... especially since he was given his power by the Legion, who seemingly exist for the sole reason of thwarting the Void Lords/ Old Gods.

Arthas wakes up, as a result of Yogg getting "free".... He knows he can't beat Yogg's forces with the army he has, so in desperation he decides to engage the Horde AND the Alliance simultaneously, with the hopes he can procure enough "meat" for his army to both conquer the planet AND kill Yogg.

Then things proceed by zone.....

Plan A was hold us off and assimilate the armies in Borean/Howling Fijord.... Hold us at the beaches, rez our dead and can conquer the world.... He gets crushed instead.

Plan B was hold Dragonblight long enough to rez Galakrond.... Also fails

Plan C was using Argul Guerilla warfare against us in Grizzly hills to delay us.... His army is running out of meat, so he shifts priority to an easier target, the trolls... and puts the bulk of his forces towards "recruiting" them. He's largely successful here, despite our meddling.

Plan D, is to harden his defenses in Icecrown, and get us to handle Yogg for him.... He can hold us there (or so he believes)

Plan E, is his attempt to "recruit" our champions like he does in the ICC encounter with him.

That's pretty good!

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From what is heard from Brann, he pretty much was the first to open up for Ulduar. The place was pretty closed and very few whispers from Yogg-Saron came out of the prison before that. So Arthas did proberly not see any gain in messing with the titan maschines and defensive systems.... He really did not have the siege equipment to deal with the Flame Leviathan like we had. One thing is sure though, Arthas knew what laid within Ulduar. He build his entire fortress out of Saronite and forced prisoners to mine for him, since most beings went insane by being near the raw material.

Yogg did not mess with Arthas and Arthas did not mess with Yogg. They proberly had a dark lord agreement, without being real allies.

Plus Algalon. If any of Lich King's sources tipped him off to Algalon, he'd have to hold off until he had a plan for preventing the reset.

[fcc]

I've always thought in a way that two of the Yogg Saron visions shadowed actual things, arthas being killed and showing deathwing to foreshadow Cataclysm, but it's probably wishful thinking.