Future of Bolvar the Lich King (spoilers)

[Deleted]

The whole DK campaign is a very unsubtle hint at Bolvar being already a villain and a solid part of Ebon Blade being his, not Deathlord's. Especially the lich.
In mount quest any future major alliances with dragonflights are scrapped - and I'm quite sure you don't do that merely to acquire one more Frostbrood Wyrm.

[DeicideUH]

Whatever the future of Bolvar, I hope they do him justice and don't just make him Arthas 2.0. A more cunning and subtle Lich King, without so much personal power, would be interesting.

I once imagined a "Return to Northrend" expansion concept:

Northrend probably returned to a quiet state.

My guess:
* Horde and Alliance settlers are trying to populate some of areas (Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Grizzly Hills). Resources are being harvested to fuel trade and civilization.
* Elves of all kinds may be moving into Crystalsong and Coldarra, in search of arcane secrets.
* The Nerubians retreated into darkness and are quietly rebuilding their society. May prove a threat to foreign settlers in the future.
* Natives are mostly trading with the new settlers, few conflicts, except maybe with wolvar and trolls.
* Dragons went silent and mostly disappeared after the events of Dragon Soul.Northrend is without guardians.
* Vrykul are probably the greatest threat right now. They are probably raiding settlements and reorganizing their clans throught internal warfare.
* The Scourge went dormant and into hiding. No signs of undead, but many whisper they lurk in dark places, waiting... Almost no one knows about the new Lich King.
* The Cult of the Damned still exists, but very weakened. They are probably competing with the Lich King for control of the undead, releasing and binding small groups of undead to their will.
* The maddening whispers of Yog-saron are gone for now. Still, dark things still rise from the depths now and then, threatening anyone in their path.

Frankly, this could lead into an interesting expansion...

In such an expansion, the initial focus wouldn't be the Lich King. He starts as somewhat our ally, then over the course of the patches his threat rises, and finally we need to confront him, but not in Ice Crown again. Further patches could lead us away from Northrend, perhaps. Maybe this time we can purify Bolvar instead of killing the Lich King and repeating everything? Bolvar was not corrupted before donning the helm, so there's always a chance of this being an outside influence over him.

It's just a general draft, I never gave it much thought.

Potential new areas could include Azjol-Nerub.
Sylvanas could search this new Lich King in order to have power over death.
Kel'thuzad could be in contact with the spirit of Ner'zhul and both trying to control the Lich King.

There are many possibilities.

[Deleted]

what i think will be a major defining factor wether bolvar is in the running to be a future raid boss is what we end up doing with our artifact weapons. for instance should he ask you to deliver the blades to him for safe keeping. this could easily be tied into the lore with the help of a blacksmith. take the shards of frost mourne forge them with apocolypse you have a weapon of great power. and he manipulates you into arming him. forcing both factions to question your real motives.

[elaina]

Something I've always been unclear about - just how well-known is Lich King Bolvar around the world of Azeroth?

From the original ICC cinematic I was always under the impression it was some deep dark secret and possibly even the player character wasn't supposed to know per se, but it was included to be revealed to us the players as something cool.

Then in Legion, during the Frost Death Knight artifact quest, Archerus is parked right next to ICC and it's just like Ohhhh heeeey what's up Brolvar!
Like Bolvar and the DK's are old college roommates / drinking buddies.

Did I miss something? Is the knowledge mostly limited to death knights?

[Friendlyimmolation]

Something I've always been unclear about - just how well-known is Lich King Bolvar around the world of Azeroth?

From the original ICC cinematic I was always under the impression it was some deep dark secret and possibly even the player character wasn't supposed to know per se, but it was included to be revealed to us the players as something cool.

Then in Legion, during the Frost Death Knight artifact quest, Archerus is parked right next to ICC and it's just like Ohhhh heeeey what's up Brolvar!
Like Bolvar and the DK's are old college roommates / drinking buddies.

Did I miss something? Is the knowledge mostly limited to death knights?

Sylvanas and by extent the Forsaken probably know. Not sure who else knows.

[Mojo03]

Obviously we are going to as some point in the future.

They're just building things up now.

[DarkTZeratul]

Something I've always been unclear about - just how well-known is Lich King Bolvar around the world of Azeroth?

From the original ICC cinematic I was always under the impression it was some deep dark secret and possibly even the player character wasn't supposed to know per se, but it was included to be revealed to us the players as something cool.

Then in Legion, during the Frost Death Knight artifact quest, Archerus is parked right next to ICC and it's just like Ohhhh heeeey what's up Brolvar!
Like Bolvar and the DK's are old college roommates / drinking buddies.

Did I miss something? Is the knowledge mostly limited to death knights?

Well, the Ebon Blade knows and went to Ice crown Citadel because Bolvar contacted Darion directly to ally against the Burning Legion. But it does seem as though the knowledge is quite limited. Even Sylvanas, who knows there's A new Lich King, may not know WHO it is.

[Deleted]

Is the Scourge even powerful enough for Bolvar to do something with them? Think they are just sitting still in Icecrown leaving the rest of Northrend for it's other inhabitants to do whatever they want with? Or did the Argent Crusade just dump all the undead they killed in mass graves.

[DarkTZeratul]

Is the Scourge even powerful enough for Bolvar to do something with them?

To some degree. It's heavily implied that Darion is working with him because the Lich King would otherwise be unleashing the Scourge on the Broken Isles.

[Deleted]

To some degree. It's heavily implied that Darion is working with him because the Lich King would otherwise be unleashing the Scourge on the Broken Isles.

Wouldn't that actually be extremely useful for both the Horde and the Alliance? The Scourge should be extremely good in attrition warfare they probably don't need much of anything beside their equipment.

[DarkTZeratul]

Wouldn't that actually be extremely useful for both the Horde and the Alliance? The Scourge should be extremely good in attrition warfare they probably don't need much of anything beside their equipment.

Beyond the fact that most of Azeroth is still under the impression that the Lich King and the Scourge are gone (and the idea is to keep it that way), you can probably see the problems with letting the undead run rampant across the Broken Isles.

[Tyrathius]

Wouldn't that actually be extremely useful for both the Horde and the Alliance? The Scourge should be extremely good in attrition warfare they probably don't need much of anything beside their equipment.

I'm honestly a little confused as to why the Knights of the Ebon Blade WOULDN'T want this.

I mean, I can see the Paladins or someone making the argument that the world is better off not knowing that the Scourge is still around. And I can see Bolvar secretly wanting to build up his forces rather than see most of them die against the Legion. But the DKs? Our whole thing is pay evil unto evil. We don't care about right or wrong, we want to save Azeroth by any means necessary. Our campaign is us making one morally ambiguous decision after another. We alienate ally after ally, commit evil after evil, knowing that even if we succeed in stopping the Legion we'll be the world's next most hated. Because that's what it takes to win.

I think we would see sending the Scourge at the Burning Legion as an excellent way to kill two birds with one stone. And if some people get a little scared, who cares. At least they aren't the ones getting killed by the Legion.

[Friendlyimmolation]

Wouldn't that actually be extremely useful for both the Horde and the Alliance? The Scourge should be extremely good in attrition warfare they probably don't need much of anything beside their equipment.

probably because the scourge would be attacking everyone not just the legion, and or the legion would seize the scourge.

[Deleted]

probably because the scourge would be attacking everyone not just the legion, and or the legion would seize the scourge.

I thought the Scourge was under the Lich Kings total control? Wouldn't that require the Legion to seize the crown before being able to do anything and if so why haven't they already done that. They might have tried that, I'm just curious.

[Friendlyimmolation]

I thought the Scourge was under the Lich Kings total control? Wouldn't that require the Legion to seize the crown before being able to do anything and if so why haven't they already done that. They might have I'm just curios.

Bolvar is not yet as strong as Arthas was. Last we saw he was unable to control the scourge outside of Northrend. In warcraft 3, the dreadlords were able to take the scourge from Ner'zhul.

[Kagthul]

Is the Scourge even powerful enough for Bolvar to do something with them? Think they are just sitting still in Icecrown leaving the rest of Northrend for it's other inhabitants to do whatever they want with? Or did the Argent Crusade just dump all the undead they killed in mass graves.

If Bolvar wasn't there controlling them, they would literally wash over Azeroth in a tide of undeath.

That's straight up what Bolvar himself says when he takes up the burden. SOMEONE has to be the Lich King, or Azeroth is dead. Period. Full Stop.

[Darktbs]

i've been wondering.

What if the Lk tricked us on ICC and the whole "There must always be a Lich king."was just a plant for him to survive his aproaching doom?

Remember, before Arthas killed Ner'zhul, he received numerous visions from the Future, including one of Frostmourne clashing with Ashbringer.He could very well be aware about his possible defeat and when Tirion started his march on Northrend, he knew he could lose.

The oportunity appeared when Bolvar died.While the paladin could very well resisted the torture, is a bit odd that Bolvar is standing right above the Frozen Throne right before we fight Arthas and is ready to take the Helm when the Lk falls.

For bolvar i have two theories.
1-He was already corrupted before the fight(But can be argued that he should be free when Arthas died)
2-The Lk knew that Bolvar would do the ultimate sacrifice and be the jailor of the damned.

Also, the "There must always be a Lich King", it was told to us by Uther and Terenas, two people that were trapped within Frostmourne.

But how does he know that?Can a soul trapped inside hear the Lk thoughts?Its a commom knowledge shared only among high rank Scourge members or, what i suggest, the Lich King made this up, either telling some subordinate or by other methods, preparing a escape alternative if he loses the war, making all spirits inside blade believe.
And when he actually died, Terenas, beleving in the lie, tell it to Tirion and Bolvar, who just happen to be there, accepts the burden in his place.

"The Lich King wouln't plan all of this."
Well, he choosed Arthas to be his champion before the Scourge began, knowing he would be his most powerfull champion and walk every step to damnation.

He deceived the Deceiver, showing Illidan(indirectly) the skull of guldan making the Legion lose the war.

Attacked Light's hope just to take Tirion out of hiddin.(It backed fired in the end, but he did)

Made the "champions of the light" stronger just so he could ressurect them in the end.

Attacked Light's hope again, knowing they would fail, Darion would sacrifice himself to save his brothers thus making the Horsemen trust him.

Time and time again he proved he was always one step ahead of everyone, why makes you believe he would not have a escape plan?

[DarkTZeratul]

i've been wondering.

What if the Lk tricked us on ICC and the whole "There must always be a Lich king."was just a plant for him to survive his aproaching doom?

Several people have put forth a variety of theories along the lines of it being a trick pulled by someone or another. Enough so that Blizzard explicitly said it's exactly what it looks like at face value (while simultaneously acknowledging that it means neither Arthas nor Ner'zhul ever unleashed the full might of the Scourge).

[The Prince]

Can't we just leave Ner'zhul in the past? I get that many players disliked how he was dealt with in the book, but Blizz was right saying that he had to go because Arthas was the ultimate protagonist of the scourge story.

Bolvar becoming evil is definitely more interesting than "Ner'zhul is back and is controlling him". Bolvar has all the required stuff to become a major figure in WoW: former paladin, former Stormwind reagent, infused (?) with red dragonflight magic, iron will that even Arthas couldn't break, and self proclaimed jailor of the damned. And now he's doing shady business with the deathlord and Acherus.

The success of this formula can be already seen in this (and other) forums, since players speculation and hype is mostly directed towards Bolvar and the void/N'zoth.

On the bolded part, what if Arthas actually managed to break him? With the purpose of being a failsafe if the battle on top of ICC went wrong, just to be sure that the entity known as the Lich king would live on and be able to work unnoticedly on the grander schemes of things. That plot twist would be amazing (imo) and would take LK´s story to new heights. I think there is a potential with Bolvar that could make him more dangerous than previously imagined. Anyhow, just me speculating. :P

[Rafoel]

To some degree. It's heavily implied that Darion is working with him because the Lich King would otherwise be unleashing the Scourge on the Broken Isles.

Where is that implied? I never got such immersion.