Anduin Lothar dies at Blackrock

Full History

Anduin Lothar carried the memory of the First War into the Second. He had defended King Llane's kingdom against the invading orcs and led the survivors of Stormwind north after its fall. In Lordaeron he became the commander of a coalition assembled to prevent that devastation from spreading across the rest of the human world. His authority rested not on a claim to rule every Alliance kingdom, but on experience and the trust of allies facing a common danger.

The long struggle took the Alliance south toward the Horde's remaining centers of strength. In the fighting at Blackrock Mountain, Lothar was killed. The loss struck the coalition at a moment when its armies needed a decisive victory. His death could have become the collapse of an alliance built in part around his personal leadership and around the refugees who had followed him from Stormwind.

Turalyon instead rallied the survivors and continued the campaign. The Alliance pressed forward and defeated the Horde's remaining field forces. Orgrim Doomhammer was captured, and the Second War moved toward its conclusion. The victory could not restore Lothar or erase the ruin of his homeland, but it ensured that his death did not overturn the cause for which he had assembled the Alliance.

Lothar's legacy continued through the soldiers who had served under him. The Sons of Lothar later carried the war back through the Dark Portal to Draenor, honoring a commander who had helped save the northern kingdoms after failing to save his own. At the original World of Warcraft endpoint, his name belonged to the history of the Alliance's formation and sacrifice. His final battle was both a grievous loss and the moment at which a new generation accepted responsibility for the struggle he had led.