Kil’jaeden transforms Ner’zhul into the Lich King

Full History

Ner'zhul had been drawn into the Burning Legion's manipulation of the orcish clans long before the Dark Portal. His later attempt to escape Draenor through multiple magical passages ended with the destruction of the world. Yet his history did not conclude in the chaos of the failing realm. Kil'jaeden seized the former shaman and punished him by turning him into a new kind of servant, one whose power would be exercised through death and domination rather than through ordinary orcish armies.

Ner'zhul became the Lich King, bound to a frozen prison in Northrend. His body and former life no longer gave him the freedom of a clan leader or shaman, but his consciousness wielded formidable necromantic influence. The Legion intended the new servant to prepare Azeroth for invasion by spreading undeath and weakening the peoples who might resist. The icy prison established the center from which he would reach across the northern continent and eventually into Lordaeron.

The Lich King gathered undead servants and contested the ancient nerubian powers of Northrend. His influence later reached the living mage Kel'Thuzad, who founded the Cult of the Damned and helped spread the plague. Prince Arthas's pursuit of that threat led him toward Frostmourne, while the Scourge brought the kingdom of Lordaeron to ruin. The former shaman's new power thus created a weapon whose effects far exceeded those of the earlier orcish invasion.

The Lich King later struggled against the efforts of Illidan and Kil'jaeden's shifting purposes, drawing Arthas to Icecrown to protect the Frozen Throne. The final Warcraft III cinematic brought Arthas and Ner'zhul together in one ruling figure. The transformation of Ner'zhul is the crucial link between the Legion's manipulation of Draenor's orcs and the undead catastrophe of the Third War.