Quick Overview
The Scarlet Crusade established itself in devastated Lordaeron as a militant order committed to destroying the undead. The ideals that had animated the Silver Hand were tested by the loss of the kingdom and the disappearance of ordinary civil authority. Their war does not distinguish reliably between freed undead and servants of the Lich King.
Full History
The Scarlet Crusade established itself in devastated Lordaeron as a militant order committed to destroying the undead. Its members came from communities shattered by the Scourge, but their campaign grew increasingly uncompromising toward anyone they considered tainted. The order occupied strongholds in Tirisfal and the Plaguelands while the Forsaken struggled to survive nearby.
The ideals that had animated the Silver Hand were tested by the loss of the kingdom and the disappearance of ordinary civil authority. Not all who resisted the Scourge chose the Scarlet path; the Argent Dawn would pursue a different form of cooperation against the undead. The Crusade's strict identity made it powerful as a fighting force but destructive toward those unable to fit its definition of the pure and living.
The presence of Scarlet soldiers in monasteries, towers, and ruined towns is part of the starting landscape of original World of Warcraft. Their war does not distinguish reliably between freed undead and servants of the Lich King. That hostility helps explain why the Forsaken, though opposed to the Scourge, encounter the Crusade as an immediate enemy in their own former homeland.
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