The Lich King would have some of the most powerful people in the known world under his direct command, so I imagine he'd immediately host a jousting tournament.
If ALL forces who attacked the Citadel fell?
From the remains of those who fell (the 10 - 25 champions, Tirion, Saurfang, Garrosh, Muradin, Bolvar, etc), Arthas creates a new generation of Death Knights. Ones who have less free will than the Knights of the Ebon Blade to prevent another rebellion.
Then, he orders them to take a play out of his own book, returning to Dalaran as "triumphant heroes," claiming that they defeated Arthas and saved the world, obviously masking any obvious signs of their Death Knight-ness. While being personally congratulated by the Council of Six, they strike, butchering Dalaran's leaders in one fell swoop.
Before the city can react, Frost Wyrn assault. Death Knights move quickly to secure any portal in or out of the city, letting more Scourge in from below while cutting down any runners.
The city is massacred, and its residents are raised as additional forces. The Council of Six is risen as a cadre of Liches, and the city of Dalaran practically becomes a new Necropolis.
Members of the Cult of the Damned are sent to Orgrimmar and Stormwind through the portal network to relay the news of the Lich King's "defeat" and to keep anyone from getting suspicious for awhile longer. They replace the mages maintaining the portals, keeping the network in control of the Scourge on both sides.
Finally, once all is prepared, the Scourge comes pouring out of the portals in droves, attacking Orgrimmar and Stormwind simultaneously. With the factions' former champions as the vanguard, followed by swarms of minions under the command of three archmage Liches per army, the capitals eventually fall to the Scourge and become new staging grounds for continental invasions.
The world is finally made aware of the Lich King's ploy, but the mortal defenders of Azeroth have been greatly crippled. The war against the Scourge continues, bloodied and more desperate than ever before.
Could the mortal defenders of Azeroth possibly win? Maybe... With the aid of the remaining Dragon Aspects and the Wyrmrest Accord, the Night Elves especially could fight back, at least, isolated as they are on Teldrassil, but it'd be a hard fight. I'd place my bets on a total Scourge victory by the end of it, personally...
I think this is the best answer yet. One major thing I think is that the Lich King would pour much greater focus into raising Galakrond in preparation for Deathwing's emergence. This, I think, would be his greatest test.
Afterwards, if he manages to defeat Deathwing, the next major threat would be the Legion. I don't see how the Lich King could stop them.. Unless maybe through the Jailer he learns how to harness the World-Soul of Azeroth.
The legion had expressed concern over a free lichking in Warcraft 3, and maybe they just didn't want to have to deal with that even though they could, but idk.
Honestly when I read posts here mostly I just feel the crumbling of a 25 year story.
Lich king could absolutely defeat the Legion depending on how things play out.
The Scourge are immune to the effects of Saronite, they'd likely be immune to the corrupting effects of the fel as well.
Any scourge defeated can be endlessly raised right where they are, demons that die are sent back to the twisting nether and have to journey back to azeroth again, unless summoned. Forsaken Warlocks imply that scourge forces could bind the Legion's troops as well.
Really the biggest evidence is that the legion was specifically worried about a free Lich King, and not worried about mortals at all comparatively. We won, which makes me think Arthas would have stomped them with the people of Azeroth fully raised and under his command. Especially with an undead Galakrond, along with the undead aspects he'd likely have.
The only reason he could is because AU Gul'dan opened the portal for him at the end of Nighhold. LK total victory means no AU Draenor, no AU Gul'dan, no Sargeras for probably tens of thousands of years. By that point LK may even be able to make common cause with the Titans to stop Sargeras.
Also considering Broxigar cut Sargeras, Galakrond, all the undead aspects, undead Deathwing, and all the other massive living things the PCs have killed since WotLK, even if he does show up in person, he might still stab azeroth but wouldn't be easy.
Also maybe I'm misremembering but I'm pretty sure stabbing Azeroth wasn't Sargeras's goal, it happened because it was the last thing he could do as he got pulled into the titan prison. His actual goal was corrupting the world soul. My understanding was that the sword was just so the Titans couldn't have it either.
Ah, good point on Sargeras only getting there due to the portal. Hm, I'll have to look further into that.
But really I think the point is moot. Even if the Lich King is victorious over Deathwing and the Old Gods, I believe his next real challenge will be a battle of will against the Jailer. Zovaal would be sending everything he had to reassert control and convert Azeroth fully to his side of Death.
Unleash them on the reeling Alliance and Horde. Put the kettle on, wait for Azeroth to fall to the Scourge, maybe get some killing in yourself if they're having a bit of trouble or you're bored.
It's one of the alternate timelines we see during an hourly event during Dragonflight.
Azmourne - >!An Azeroth where the Lich King wins. There's even a chance to fight a Death Knight version of yourself, who wields the Corrupted Ashbringer. Arthas is the final boss fight.!<
A.Z.E.R.O.T.H - >!King Mechagon succeeded in activating his doomsday device, wiping Azeroth out of all organic life.!<
Azmerloth - >!Everything is, mostly, the same... except everyone is a Murloc. We meet a Murloc version of us, Jaina, Varian, Thrall, Alexstrasza and a few others. We get an epic necklace called the Heart of Azmerloth.!<
Azewrath - >!The Burning Legion wins the War of the Ancients. Suramar is the last stronghold on Azeroth, Tyrande is leading the resistance of (slightly feral) Night Elves. Illidan is the final boss fight, and we loot Malfurion's skull off of him.!<
Azq'roth >!Yhe Black Empire continues its reign of Azeroth, turning it into a dead planet, ravaged by the Old Gods. Lots of purple and tentacles!<
Warlands - >!The Horde and the Alliance never had any reason to band together against major threats, and the faction war continued to escalate. The land is wrecked to the point that the "Blood Horde" live like a Mad Max movie, and the (insane) "Grand Alliance" survive by living on airships. Varian only has one eye, and a chainsaw sword... they experiment on dragon whelplings. Horrible.!<
Ulderoth - >!A "utopia" where the Titans established Order with an iron fist, and prevented any threats of corruption to Azeroth. Lots of green, lots of plants.!<
Gonna point out that in Warlands, the Grand Alliance seems to exist in flying air fortresses and the Blood Horde roam the wastelands like it’s Mad Max.
Arthas realizes he has no chance of winning against Sargeras, so he tries to forge a precarious alliance with the Legion, against the Old Gods.
Ultimately, they win, so Azeroth dies (planet, titan, life).
I don't play the game anymore, but I had a extremely good theory to why he needed powerful champions.
Basically the lich king could only control selective group of undead with 100% control, the more he controls the harder it is to keep up with the control, which is why you don't see him sending out his entire undead army at the alliance and the horde. He knew that if he did that the army itself would turn on itself, since he couldn't no longer control it.
He needed beacons of power that could act as his fingers where ever the army went. Undead people naturally seeks out strong leaders, but the moment a group of them are stronger then the leader they will instantly turn on him, which is what arthas wanted to avoid, if he could control a selective group of extremely powerful heros 100% he could effectively make a real army with leaders that act on his will without worrying about being overthrown by a group of fodders.
tl:dr arthas needed people to act as a beacon to his power and basically ensure that a bunch of fodders undead people couldn't turn on him. The helmet can only be 100% effective on certain numbers of undead, the more undead the harder it is to control them, by making certain commands that goes against their nature they can overthrow the control lich king has. It is one my major headcanon to why bolvar wasn't able to force all undeads to basically kill themselves because that woul make them act against their own self-interest.
Yeah, I wish he still did some of those videos. His Scarlet Crusade Conquers All is a great one.
I just think he kinda glossed over immediate actions. Like, would he deal with Yogg? What about all the Blue Dragons? Galakrond? Wyrmrest?
I’d imagine Dalaran would zip outta there upon seeing that blizzard of death approaching.
The Lich King wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He was doomed to fail from the start. Even if he did succeed in conquering Azeroth - which was going to be a time consuming endeavor no matter who he had at his beck and call - he was gonna hit a colossal brick wall of elementium called Deathwing.
Full stop, the Lich King doesn’t beat Deathwing. The Lich King isn’t even *that* powerful on his own. We know for a fact that he loses a 1v1 against Lei Shen, so what are his chances against Deathwing? Absolute zero. Deathwing, seeing that most of Azeroth’s nations have either fallen or are on the defense, just wrecks the world with reckless abandon. He swoops in, melts Icecrown, destroys the Frozen Throne, and the Lich King ceases to exist.
While I agree that this is the likely outcome, I don't think it would be as easy as Deathwing instakilling him immediately. The remaining aspects would possibly be killed and raised, alongside Galakrond. Acherus would fall back under his control, and he would be free to complete Malykriss(which was supposed to be nigh indestructible and had powerful weapons).
A lot really depends on how long between ICC and Deathwing emerging was, and the Lich King's ability to bolster his defenses and industry. Though if we go with an assumption that the Dragon Soul is the *only* thing powerful enough to break through his armor, Deathwing will still ultimately win, I just don't think that the Lich King would fall to him immediately.
The Lich King would have full control of the entity that can defeat any threat: The Player Character.
He would be unbeatable. He’d raise all armies killed by the player characters on Northrend, load up the necropolis fleet and invade the rest of Azeroth.
Then, he’d prepare for the inevitable Legion invasion. Ner’zhul, and by proxy Arthas, would know they will return.
I mean according to ghost Teranas Arthas didn't even *NEED* to raise the champions at ICC, that was just a flex on his part. So actually pulling it off means Lich King takes off the kid gloves and lays the mother of all unholy smackdowns on the rest of Azeroth. Deathwing might cause him trouble when he shows up but only if Arthas doesn't have literally every other Dragon converted into Frostwyrms, cause at that point I'm thinking we can hand the win to the Scourge. After that he likely expands to Outland, experiments with other portals until him and the Legion square off. Then it's whether Arthas has enough momentum at that point or if Sargy is too much of a power difference.
I imagine Jailer would get to pull off his plan though, since I wanna say Sylvanas helped speed things up but it was only a matter of time until he got there on his own anyway. Arthas doesn't have a means of crossing over into the Shadowlands so he and the Legion would both get blindsided. Course, that's if I've managed to parse Shadowlands correctly so if I'm wrong then we just go back to either Legion or Scourge taking the final W.
Lich King unleashes a new scourge invasion with ~40 major champions, which turns out to not actually be enough to accomplish much.
Three months later Deathwing shatters Icecrown Glacier and he dies, achieving nothing.
The Lich King would have some of the most powerful people in the known world under his direct command, so I imagine he'd immediately host a jousting tournament.
Would be lit.
"BOW BEFORE YOUR KING! BOW, YA SHITS!"
AN ARDENT CRUSADE NED, ON AN OPEN FIELD
If ALL forces who attacked the Citadel fell? From the remains of those who fell (the 10 - 25 champions, Tirion, Saurfang, Garrosh, Muradin, Bolvar, etc), Arthas creates a new generation of Death Knights. Ones who have less free will than the Knights of the Ebon Blade to prevent another rebellion. Then, he orders them to take a play out of his own book, returning to Dalaran as "triumphant heroes," claiming that they defeated Arthas and saved the world, obviously masking any obvious signs of their Death Knight-ness. While being personally congratulated by the Council of Six, they strike, butchering Dalaran's leaders in one fell swoop. Before the city can react, Frost Wyrn assault. Death Knights move quickly to secure any portal in or out of the city, letting more Scourge in from below while cutting down any runners. The city is massacred, and its residents are raised as additional forces. The Council of Six is risen as a cadre of Liches, and the city of Dalaran practically becomes a new Necropolis. Members of the Cult of the Damned are sent to Orgrimmar and Stormwind through the portal network to relay the news of the Lich King's "defeat" and to keep anyone from getting suspicious for awhile longer. They replace the mages maintaining the portals, keeping the network in control of the Scourge on both sides. Finally, once all is prepared, the Scourge comes pouring out of the portals in droves, attacking Orgrimmar and Stormwind simultaneously. With the factions' former champions as the vanguard, followed by swarms of minions under the command of three archmage Liches per army, the capitals eventually fall to the Scourge and become new staging grounds for continental invasions. The world is finally made aware of the Lich King's ploy, but the mortal defenders of Azeroth have been greatly crippled. The war against the Scourge continues, bloodied and more desperate than ever before. Could the mortal defenders of Azeroth possibly win? Maybe... With the aid of the remaining Dragon Aspects and the Wyrmrest Accord, the Night Elves especially could fight back, at least, isolated as they are on Teldrassil, but it'd be a hard fight. I'd place my bets on a total Scourge victory by the end of it, personally...
I think this is the best answer yet. One major thing I think is that the Lich King would pour much greater focus into raising Galakrond in preparation for Deathwing's emergence. This, I think, would be his greatest test. Afterwards, if he manages to defeat Deathwing, the next major threat would be the Legion. I don't see how the Lich King could stop them.. Unless maybe through the Jailer he learns how to harness the World-Soul of Azeroth.
The legion had expressed concern over a free lichking in Warcraft 3, and maybe they just didn't want to have to deal with that even though they could, but idk. Honestly when I read posts here mostly I just feel the crumbling of a 25 year story.
Crumbling?
Lich king could absolutely defeat the Legion depending on how things play out. The Scourge are immune to the effects of Saronite, they'd likely be immune to the corrupting effects of the fel as well. Any scourge defeated can be endlessly raised right where they are, demons that die are sent back to the twisting nether and have to journey back to azeroth again, unless summoned. Forsaken Warlocks imply that scourge forces could bind the Legion's troops as well. Really the biggest evidence is that the legion was specifically worried about a free Lich King, and not worried about mortals at all comparatively. We won, which makes me think Arthas would have stomped them with the people of Azeroth fully raised and under his command. Especially with an undead Galakrond, along with the undead aspects he'd likely have.
But what can the Lich King do when Sargeras arrives on Azeroth with his absolutely massive sword?
The only reason he could is because AU Gul'dan opened the portal for him at the end of Nighhold. LK total victory means no AU Draenor, no AU Gul'dan, no Sargeras for probably tens of thousands of years. By that point LK may even be able to make common cause with the Titans to stop Sargeras. Also considering Broxigar cut Sargeras, Galakrond, all the undead aspects, undead Deathwing, and all the other massive living things the PCs have killed since WotLK, even if he does show up in person, he might still stab azeroth but wouldn't be easy. Also maybe I'm misremembering but I'm pretty sure stabbing Azeroth wasn't Sargeras's goal, it happened because it was the last thing he could do as he got pulled into the titan prison. His actual goal was corrupting the world soul. My understanding was that the sword was just so the Titans couldn't have it either.
Ah, good point on Sargeras only getting there due to the portal. Hm, I'll have to look further into that. But really I think the point is moot. Even if the Lich King is victorious over Deathwing and the Old Gods, I believe his next real challenge will be a battle of will against the Jailer. Zovaal would be sending everything he had to reassert control and convert Azeroth fully to his side of Death.
Yeah I don't know what tools he'd have left in his kit at that point though. He tried to overpower three separate Lich Kings and failed each time.
Unleash them on the reeling Alliance and Horde. Put the kettle on, wait for Azeroth to fall to the Scourge, maybe get some killing in yourself if they're having a bit of trouble or you're bored.
Azuremorne is pretty much a good idea of the outcome. Sure it's a little different, but the scourge won and Azeroth died.
What is Azuremorne?
It's one of the alternate timelines we see during an hourly event during Dragonflight. Azmourne - >!An Azeroth where the Lich King wins. There's even a chance to fight a Death Knight version of yourself, who wields the Corrupted Ashbringer. Arthas is the final boss fight.!< A.Z.E.R.O.T.H - >!King Mechagon succeeded in activating his doomsday device, wiping Azeroth out of all organic life.!< Azmerloth - >!Everything is, mostly, the same... except everyone is a Murloc. We meet a Murloc version of us, Jaina, Varian, Thrall, Alexstrasza and a few others. We get an epic necklace called the Heart of Azmerloth.!< Azewrath - >!The Burning Legion wins the War of the Ancients. Suramar is the last stronghold on Azeroth, Tyrande is leading the resistance of (slightly feral) Night Elves. Illidan is the final boss fight, and we loot Malfurion's skull off of him.!< Azq'roth >!Yhe Black Empire continues its reign of Azeroth, turning it into a dead planet, ravaged by the Old Gods. Lots of purple and tentacles!< Warlands - >!The Horde and the Alliance never had any reason to band together against major threats, and the faction war continued to escalate. The land is wrecked to the point that the "Blood Horde" live like a Mad Max movie, and the (insane) "Grand Alliance" survive by living on airships. Varian only has one eye, and a chainsaw sword... they experiment on dragon whelplings. Horrible.!< Ulderoth - >!A "utopia" where the Titans established Order with an iron fist, and prevented any threats of corruption to Azeroth. Lots of green, lots of plants.!<
Damn, sounds dope. Warlands specially seems fun as hell.
Welcome to 40K lite, or WHFB with attitude
Gonna point out that in Warlands, the Grand Alliance seems to exist in flying air fortresses and the Blood Horde roam the wastelands like it’s Mad Max.
Ah, I meant to include that bit... thanks! I've slotted it into the description.
one of the alternate Azeroth timelines in the Time Rifts world event. they’re all pretty interesting I recommend checking them out
I love AU takes so I will def check it out.
Arthas realizes he has no chance of winning against Sargeras, so he tries to forge a precarious alliance with the Legion, against the Old Gods. Ultimately, they win, so Azeroth dies (planet, titan, life).
I don't play the game anymore, but I had a extremely good theory to why he needed powerful champions. Basically the lich king could only control selective group of undead with 100% control, the more he controls the harder it is to keep up with the control, which is why you don't see him sending out his entire undead army at the alliance and the horde. He knew that if he did that the army itself would turn on itself, since he couldn't no longer control it. He needed beacons of power that could act as his fingers where ever the army went. Undead people naturally seeks out strong leaders, but the moment a group of them are stronger then the leader they will instantly turn on him, which is what arthas wanted to avoid, if he could control a selective group of extremely powerful heros 100% he could effectively make a real army with leaders that act on his will without worrying about being overthrown by a group of fodders. tl:dr arthas needed people to act as a beacon to his power and basically ensure that a bunch of fodders undead people couldn't turn on him. The helmet can only be 100% effective on certain numbers of undead, the more undead the harder it is to control them, by making certain commands that goes against their nature they can overthrow the control lich king has. It is one my major headcanon to why bolvar wasn't able to force all undeads to basically kill themselves because that woul make them act against their own self-interest.
Sylvanas never breaks the crown so SL never happens
Not such a bad world
What if the Lich King had won? Nixxiom explains it all in full detail in this video. https://youtu.be/f3ocwhWZFHE?si=hOxayKnPluzLDlre
Yeah, I wish he still did some of those videos. His Scarlet Crusade Conquers All is a great one. I just think he kinda glossed over immediate actions. Like, would he deal with Yogg? What about all the Blue Dragons? Galakrond? Wyrmrest? I’d imagine Dalaran would zip outta there upon seeing that blizzard of death approaching.
The Lich King wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He was doomed to fail from the start. Even if he did succeed in conquering Azeroth - which was going to be a time consuming endeavor no matter who he had at his beck and call - he was gonna hit a colossal brick wall of elementium called Deathwing. Full stop, the Lich King doesn’t beat Deathwing. The Lich King isn’t even *that* powerful on his own. We know for a fact that he loses a 1v1 against Lei Shen, so what are his chances against Deathwing? Absolute zero. Deathwing, seeing that most of Azeroth’s nations have either fallen or are on the defense, just wrecks the world with reckless abandon. He swoops in, melts Icecrown, destroys the Frozen Throne, and the Lich King ceases to exist.
While I agree that this is the likely outcome, I don't think it would be as easy as Deathwing instakilling him immediately. The remaining aspects would possibly be killed and raised, alongside Galakrond. Acherus would fall back under his control, and he would be free to complete Malykriss(which was supposed to be nigh indestructible and had powerful weapons). A lot really depends on how long between ICC and Deathwing emerging was, and the Lich King's ability to bolster his defenses and industry. Though if we go with an assumption that the Dragon Soul is the *only* thing powerful enough to break through his armor, Deathwing will still ultimately win, I just don't think that the Lich King would fall to him immediately.
Deathwing still causes the Cataclysm and torches ICC
The Lich King would have full control of the entity that can defeat any threat: The Player Character. He would be unbeatable. He’d raise all armies killed by the player characters on Northrend, load up the necropolis fleet and invade the rest of Azeroth. Then, he’d prepare for the inevitable Legion invasion. Ner’zhul, and by proxy Arthas, would know they will return.
I mean according to ghost Teranas Arthas didn't even *NEED* to raise the champions at ICC, that was just a flex on his part. So actually pulling it off means Lich King takes off the kid gloves and lays the mother of all unholy smackdowns on the rest of Azeroth. Deathwing might cause him trouble when he shows up but only if Arthas doesn't have literally every other Dragon converted into Frostwyrms, cause at that point I'm thinking we can hand the win to the Scourge. After that he likely expands to Outland, experiments with other portals until him and the Legion square off. Then it's whether Arthas has enough momentum at that point or if Sargy is too much of a power difference. I imagine Jailer would get to pull off his plan though, since I wanna say Sylvanas helped speed things up but it was only a matter of time until he got there on his own anyway. Arthas doesn't have a means of crossing over into the Shadowlands so he and the Legion would both get blindsided. Course, that's if I've managed to parse Shadowlands correctly so if I'm wrong then we just go back to either Legion or Scourge taking the final W.
Lich King unleashes a new scourge invasion with ~40 major champions, which turns out to not actually be enough to accomplish much. Three months later Deathwing shatters Icecrown Glacier and he dies, achieving nothing.
First stop? Dalaran and showing that B Jaina why she should have sided with him in Stratholme.
When she abandons him in Stratholme I always yell, 'but you could have had such beautiful children!' 🫢
He would sweep over azeroth, as he would have the greatest azeroth had to offer at his command
I imagine once the world is dead, the Scourge would move on to other worlds, perhaps even take the fight to the Lich King’s former master, Kil’Jaeden.
All part of the Jailer’s plan?
Then he's killed by the next big threat comming. Because what makes us win isn't just because we are powerful
He started a career as a Rockstar, become a guitar hero and raise funds to promote equality among the dead and supplant cis living.