klisemfg Chapter 238 Varimathras, the Dreadlord
Chapter 238 Varimathras, the Dreadlord
The Undercity Royal Quarter is hidden next to the Alchemy Labs...
The wide entrance steps to the sewers weren't far away, and given how dangerous this dead end was, it seemed illogical for the Queen to choose to establish the Royal Quarter right next to the sewers. If the enemy blocked the entrance to the Royal Quarter, a deep, dark city would become a tomb entrance.
The sewers lead directly to a hidden hillside outside Undercity, through which Undercity's bats frequently pass.
The Scarlet Crusade also maintains observation posts near the sewer entrances, constantly monitoring the underground city's movements...
This is clearly a weak point in Undercity's defenses. Queen Sylvanas, as the former commander of the Silvermoon High Elf Ranger Force and the Ranger General responsible for protecting Silvermoon, must have such poor military understanding.
Of course not, Undercity's real escape route is the sewers.
This is essentially the back entrance to Undercity...
The Queen chose to settle in Undercity because the Banshee Queen had broken free from the Lich King Ner'zhul's control near Lordaeron, and almost joined forces with the Burning Legion's lackeys responsible for guarding the Scourge's minions to kill Arthas, Lordaeron's first traitor and death knight.
If Ner'zhul hadn't been aware of this early on and hadn't arranged for his spy, the High Lich Kel'Thuzad, to keep watch and provide timely assistance, Death Knight Arthas would have already been killed by the Banshee Queen Sylvanas.
He was thus unable to return to the Frozen Throne to rescue Ner'zhul and protect his broken soul from Illidan's complete destruction.
Ner'zhul had been eyeing Arthas's strong physique for a long time. Long before the Stratholme plague massacre, he had arranged for Kel'Thuzad to guide the former Prince of Lordaeron, Arthas, who was known as a son.
On the surface, it was to cooperate with the dreadlord Mal'Ganis to seduce the prince into corruption and to sow discord among the rebellious forces within the old alliance; in reality, it was to secretly seek an opportunity to break free from its constraints...
The Lich King Ner'zhul attempted to lead his people to escape from Draenor by using the three artifacts to open a portal, which shattered Outland. Only his broken soul remained, which was captured by the Burning Legion, tortured in every way, and finally locked inside the strange armor of the Crown of Domination.
With the release of the deathly frost granted to him, and the transformation of his undead army large enough, the Lich King Ner'zhul gained immense power... and yearned for freedom and vengeance.
He needs to merge with Arthas to command the Scourge undead army and fight against the demons of the Burning Legion.
Break free from the Burning Legion's control and finally achieve revenge...
However, like Arthas, Ner'zhul was not in control of his own destiny, yet he constantly wanted to use the abilities bestowed upon him by their original masters to turn the tables.
Their relationship is also contradictory... master and servant, deception and disloyalty coexist, and Prince Arthas's sinister smile reveals his true intentions.
However, the moment he picked up the runeblade Frostmourne, Prince Arthas of Lordaeron was corrupted. He was driven mad, lost his sense of self, and amplified his resentment.
The distrust of his teacher, Uther the Lightbringer, the betrayal of his girlfriend Jaina, the doubts of his subordinates, the tragic deaths of his people, and the curse of his men being infected with the plague and killing each other, plunged the prince, who once firmly believed in the Holy Light, into self-blame and anger.
He felt the insignificance of mortals and witnessed the power of death.
They also felt fear of the demonic army behind the orcs and undead puppets, and the immense power of their master, the Dark Titan Sargeras. This was especially true after witnessing Archimonde the Defiler, the former second-in-command of the Burning Legion and high lord, descend upon Dalaran, destroying it with a single hand—a place renowned for its powerful magic.
Humans are so insignificant in the face of evil...
Arthas craved power... and refused to be a slave.
In this respect, Arthas and the demon hunter Illidan are the same kind of people...
They all craved power, and to achieve their goals, they were willing to abandon everything, side with the enemy, steal evil powers not belonging to mortals, and ultimately become the very thing they least wanted to be...
Simply because corruption is so easy: abandon humanity, transform into a demon, forsake faith, and succumb to desire...
Power seems within easy reach...
Commanding countless puppets, working for their master to destroy everything, ruling as king... and looking down on all others...
It seems that Northrend and Outland have become the private domains of Arthas and Illidan, indirectly fulfilling their allegiance to the two true gods of death and chaos...
But... what do one's original aspirations and ideals mean after losing consciousness?
So-called achievements and hegemony...
In reality, they merely become puppets of others, gradually becoming slaves to their desires for a non-existent dream... ultimately playing with fire and getting burned...
......
Lorraine and his apprentice also had a question: was the Lich King currently inhabited by Arthas or Ner'zhul? Or was it a combination of Arthas, who had already ascended the Frozen Throne, and the old orc shaman Ner'zhul...? They were one body with two souls, and it was truly impossible to determine who was in control.
The Scourge army has received orders to return to the Frozen Throne to defend their master...
From this perspective, Arthas's soul is likely at a disadvantage; his body, his identity, and his people have all become Ner'zhul's property...
The dominant soul within the Lich King should be the original, fragmented soul of Ner'zhul.
......
The runic sword Frostmourne possesses the ability to kill the living, extract fragmented souls, and seal away the resurrected dead.
The Crown of Domination and Frostmourne, forged by several dreadlords using Saronite, are divine artifacts from another realm.
The Dreadlords offered these items to their master, the Dark Titan Sargeras, as punishment for Ner'zhul, whose soul was bound to the Crown of Domination, becoming a tool for controlling the undead...
The Lich King, encased in solid ice, was hurled by the Dark Titans to the continent of Northrend... where the Titans' secrets lie, and Sargeras clearly had his own original plans...
However, his subordinates Archimonde, Kil'jaeden, the demon lord, and the dreadlord were all utterly incompetent...
They've been unable to conquer Azeroth for so long...
Even the great Dark Titan seemed to be getting impatient...
In fact, Frostmourne can affect Arthas from thousands of miles away... This is originally a set of equipment from another world...
The Dark Titan Sargeras trusted his dreadlord followers and initially didn't concern himself with the purpose of these few pieces of armor and swords made of scrap metal. He readily believed that these runic items came from the dreadlords' homeland, Nathrezim, where many similar magical artifacts were said to be particularly adept at controlling souls.
Nathrezim is the real name of the dreadlords. They were once believed to be immortal demonic creatures born from the endless void, just like all ordinary demons.
They were discovered when the Dark Titan Sargeras ventured into the depths of the Void to rescue his newly born kin.
The Dreadlord comes from the void, claiming to be an unseen guest...
As the Dark Titan Sargeras fell, he unleashed the demons he had imprisoned. The Dreadlords, like the original Draenei mother race, the Eredar, became the Dark Titan's right-hand men, responsible for imprisoning, torturing, and tormenting the souls of those who resisted.
Kil'jaeden and Archimonde, the leaders of the Eredar, became the second-in-command of the Burning Legion, commanding the demonic minions under the pit lords to conquer the world.
The dreadlords are responsible for infiltration and subversion... infiltrating the worlds they want to destroy in advance as intelligence officers and spies.
The Dark Titan Sargeras always believed that the Dreadlords were extremely loyal to him. It was Tichondrius, the leader of the Dreadlords, who told Sargeras that the Void Lords in the Void were powerful, immortal, and fed on corrupted cosmic souls...
The Old Gods were the vanguard sent by the Void Lords...their greatest enemy...
Sargeras was bewitched by the dreadlords, fearing that new Titans would be corrupted by the void and become their minions. That's why he wanted to purify everything and set his sights on the Azeroth star-soul, which had already been corrupted by the Old Gods.
Sargeras personally killed many immature, infected Protosses in an attempt to stop the Void invasion...
The void is omnipresent; it is inherently an embodiment of holy light...
But the Dark Titan Sargeras didn't think so. He was obsessed with the idea that as long as all the Star Souls were destroyed, the world would be free from the corruption of the Void and order would be restored. Only then would the ordered universe created by their Pantheon be truly pure and as beautiful as he had initially seen.
The truth is, after destroying many immature Titan souls... Sargeras became increasingly deranged, he lost his mind... becoming a world destroyer... everything was unfolding exactly as the Dreadlords had hoped.
They look terrifying, with the typical appearance of demons, yet they pretend to be weak and frail.
Whether before the leaders of the Burning Legion, the Lich King, or Queen Sylvanas...
The dreadlord Varimathras always insisted on his loyalty to the Queen... To prove his loyalty, he personally killed his two brothers as a pledge of allegiance... The Queen, seeing that he could kill two other dreadlords... began to trust him somewhat.
The truth Varimathras didn't tell the Queen was that the Dreadlords, like many of the unkillable demons of the Burning Legion, could be resurrected in the Twisting Nether...
His two brothers were only nominally killed...including Deselok, who was killed by the Queen herself, and Balnazar, who was killed by Varimathras...
The Dreadlords are themselves Void creatures projected from the otherworld into the Azerothian universe. Even in the so-called Shadowlands... no one knows how Denathrius, the true master of the Dreadlords, created such a being—a being embodying all evil, cunning, deception, and feeding on mortal desires and fears...
They are the true Void Demons...
"How is the plan progressing, my esteemed Grand Apothecary?"
"Lord Varimathras, the initial experiments were successful, but we need more samples. We need to ensure the new potion can kill both humans and the undead... completely wipe these guys out... Also, I'm not the only chief apothecary; Grand Apothecary Faraniel is also responsible for some research. It's difficult for me to use my own people to test the product..."
In the Royal Quarter of Undercity, at the Walled Pavilion, the Queen had just concluded a meeting with several key figures when the Dreadlord Varimathras eagerly received the High Apothecary Putress...
Affliction Warlocks, clad in the Plaguebringer suit, are not only masters of poisons but also adept at using demonic magic.
It's not surprising that he's walking with the Dreadlord.
Putres was once considered a madman, until he made the progress the Queen desired, rising to become one of Undercity's two great apothecaries and commanding the Plaguebringer forces...
The Plague Messenger is more accurately described as an officer leading a combat force belonging to the Royal Society of Pharmacists.
They are both an honorary title and a unique position.
In theory, the Royal Apothecaries' Guild and the Plaguebringer forces are directly under the Queen's command, but in reality, Queen Sylvanas spends most of her time traveling around, tracking the movements of her enemy, Arthas...
The Forsaken's political and research work was handled by the Dreadlord Varimathras and the High Apothecary Putres...
Lorraine was chosen by Putres because of his unique identity as a necromancer; the Grand Apothecary was very interested in Lorraine's ability to take three souls at once.
......