Was Arthas a Death Knight when he killed Terenas?

[Deleted]

Yes, he was broken and kept his messed up mind at that point, but the powers of the Death Knight came to him at that point in my opinion.

I doubt it. I think he reverted to a fighter when he took up the blade, maybe one imbued with unholy power, but he didn't use any of his powers other than fighting provess against Mal'ganis.

[godofslack]

In order to be a death knight one does not need to actually be dead. For example scourge lord Tyranis is a death knight who still human and NOT undead. He was a runeblade wielding hero with necrotic powers therefore he was a Death knight.

[Deleted]

In order to be a death knight one does not need to actually be dead. For example scourge lord Tyranis is a death knight who still human and NOT undead. He was a runeblade wielding hero with necrotic powers therefore he was a Death knight.

Wielding those powers will turn you undead in the end.

Quoting from Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. This concerns the death of Kel'thuzad.

The body began to rot immediately. Decomposition that should have taken days happened in mere seconds, the flesh bloating, bursting open. The men gasped and stared back, covering their noses and mouths. Some of them turned and vomited from the stench. Arthas stared, horrified and entraptured as the same time, unable to look away. Fluids gushed from the corpse, the flesh taking on a creamy consistency and turning black. The unnatural decomposition slowed and Arthas turned away, gasping for fresh air.

Basically, Kel'thuzad was undead, but kept his looks through his magic. Once the magic was gone, decomposition came... very swiftly.

[Gigajot]

Yes, because he killed and raised his lieutenants Falric and Marwyn (seen below) as death knights as well.



And when you play as Arthas in the Matthias Lehner quest line, you are already a death knight when you kill and raise your troops who followed you to Northrend.

It is all pretty clear cut that Arthas was a death knight by this point.

[Blazefrost]

Well, he did when he ripped his heart off.

How does one rip their hear off through 2-4 layers of superhardened saronite wihtout harming the armor... and you do you rip a heart OFF in the first place???

[Caradinist]

How does one rip their hear off through 2-4 layers of superhardened saronite wihtout harming the armor... and you do you rip a heart OFF in the first place???

Mortal Kombat shows plenty of demonstrations.

[Insno]

Mortal Kombat shows plenty of demonstrations.

Could have also seen a certain Indiana Jones movie recently.

[Teslatroll]

Arthas was never a death knight. He's the Lich King.

A Death Knight has to die to be turned, doesn't he? Arthas never died, atleast not physically.

[Krazitrain]

Arthas walked right up to him, a death knight would have death gripped him.

[samladin]

Yes Arthas was dk then. Rise of the Lich King book confirmes it.

[Mindipedia]

Not really, he went over the transition without dying. Basically the necrotic energies permeated him to a point where he was more undead than anything else.

This can happen. See: Noth the Plaugebringer.

Noth has never died (unless you count as killing him) yet his bio says 'Noth is now more undead than human.' The powers given to him to be able to raise necrotic servents for himself and the Scourge in general has slowly turned him undead over the years. Same thing happened with Arthas.

Therefore - Trivia orc wins again.

[Powerogue]

he was slowly being corrupted by the blade while prancing around northrend for no apparent reason, finally returned home and stabbed his father.

i'm not sure there's a defined line of deathknightitude, but it started when he picked up that stupid blade. :