The Lich King establishes the Scourge in Northrend

Full History

Kil'jaeden's transformation of Ner'zhul into the Lich King placed extraordinary necromantic power in the hands of a servant bound to the Frozen Throne. Northrend became the center of this new menace. From his confinement the Lich King was able to extend his influence across the icy continent, raising the dead and creating forces that did not depend upon ordinary mortal loyalty. His armies were meant to prepare the way for the Burning Legion's greater invasion of Azeroth.

The living civilizations of the north did not accept that domination without resistance. The nerubians of Azjol-Nerub, whose history reached back to ancient insectoid powers, fought the growing undead threat. Their underground defenses and distinctive society made them formidable opponents, but the Scourge gradually overwhelmed them. The campaign added the defeated to the Lich King's power and helped establish Northrend as the center of a spreading necromantic empire.

The Scourge's expansion eventually crossed from the distant wastes into the human kingdoms. Kel'Thuzad, a mage drawn to the Lich King's promises, founded the Cult of the Damned and prepared the spread of plague. Grain and other means of contagion turned settled communities into sources of undead warriors. The danger was particularly difficult to contain because it attacked the ordinary life of a kingdom, transforming its inhabitants rather than simply marching against its walls.

The collapse of Lordaeron during the Third War showed what the army formed in Northrend could accomplish. Arthas's transformation into a death knight and the summoning of Archimonde brought the Scourge into the Legion's wider campaign. Yet the Lich King also pursued his own survival when his control weakened. The creation of the Scourge was not a minor northern war; it was the beginning of an undead power that remade the political world of Azeroth.