Third War

The war began subtly in northern Lordaeron, disguised as a virulent sickness carried in infected grain distributed from Andorhal. The tainted harvest did not merely slaughter its victims; it raised them as ravenous ghouls bound to the Lich King's will. Prince Arthas Menethil raced to stem the contagion alongside the Kirin Tor sorceress Jaina Proudmoore. Blinded by grief, fury, and dreadlord manipulations, Arthas purged the infected population of Stratholme before pursuing his foe to the frozen waste of Northrend. There, he took up the cursed runeblade Frostmourne, casting aside his soul. He returned south only to murder his father, King Terenas, delivering Lordaeron into the hands of the Scourge.

Empowered by death, Arthas crushed the high elven realm of Quel'Thalas to resurrect the necromancer Kel'Thuzad at the Sunwell. The undead army then laid siege to Dalaran, seizing the spellbooks necessary to summon the demon lord Archimonde into Azeroth. With the commander of the Burning Legion walking mortal soil, Dalaran was leveled in an arcane display of devastation. The Scourge had served its purpose as an advance guard, and the Burning Legion turned its sights toward the eternal power resting across the Great Sea.

Guided by cryptic warnings from the mysterious Prophet—later revealed as the redeemed Guardian Medivh—Warchief Thrall led the New Horde across the Great Sea, while Lady Jaina Proudmoore evacuated surviving Alliance refugees. In ancient Kalimdor, the newcomers clashed with the reclusive night elves before all three factions recognized the supreme threat looming over them. Beneath the World Tree Nordrassil atop Mount Hyjal, mortals stood together against impossible odds. Archimonde was destroyed by ancestral wisps when he reached the tree, shattering the Legion's vanguard and ending the war.

Although Archimonde fell, the peace of 25 ADP is fragile and stained with loss. The Alliance of Lordaeron is gone, leaving the kingdom of Stormwind and Ironforge to anchor the southern Alliance while Lordaeron sits rotting as the Plaguelands. In Kalimdor, Thrall's Horde carved out Durotar, yet tensions with the newly allied night elves remain volatile. The Scourge endures in the northern ruins, and the freed undead—the Forsaken—now hold the catacombs of Capital City, waging a war of survival against both former masters and vengeful crusaders.