-AN-

This will at first follow Warcraft: The Frozen Throne (to an extent), but at the key moment will begin to deviate more severely, with some links to the actual story for personal preference and story progression, enjoy.

The Culling of Stratholme.

As he rode up the hill towards the proud city walls, flanked by his fellow Knights of The Silver Hand, Uther couldn't understand why he had been summoned to the city at all, there was no stench of death, no signs of decay that there had been at Andorhal, or the other pockets of the undead plague that he had encountered, but knew that if the plague took Stratholme, the consequences were unthinkable, and the loss of innocent life would be felt across the kingdom. He reached the crest of the hill and saw Prince Arthas and Jaina Proudmore standing in front of a small group of soldiers, they seemed to be waiting for his arrival, the soldiers stood at attention as Uther and his knights dismounted, Uther took the lead of the group as they approached the young prince who had called for their aid, but the prince's mood didn't seem to improve upon seeing his mentor arrive to aid him with some backup, which concerned the elderly paladin slightly, usually Arthas was glad to have him supporting him, something was clearly wrong.

"Glad you could make it, Uther" the boy almost spat at him, indignation dripping from his tone, "Watch your tone with me boy. You may be the prince, but I'm still your superior as a paladin!" he quickly responded, but it didn't seem to daunt the prince in the slightest, as if he had been expecting such a reply from the paladin. "As if I could forget. Listen, Uther, there's something about the plague you should know…" Arthas continued, the trio then walked up to the crest of the hill, able to see the grand entrance to the city, Uther saw nothing out of the ordinary with the city, but was horrified by the information that Arthas had told him on their short walk. Arthas froze at the sight before him, a small stack of empty grain boxes lying by the gate.

"Oh no. We're too late. These people have all been infected! They may look fine now but it's just a matter of time before they turn into the undead!" Arthas almost shouted out, catching Uther and Jaina off-guard, Jaina understood, Uther not as easily, he now knew of the plague being carried by the Andorhal grain, but couldn't see how it was already too late, "What?" he blurted out without hesitation, there was now an uncomfortable silence before Arthas spoke again, no hint of emotion in his voice, "This entire city must be purged." Uther and Jaina could not believe their ears, "How can you even consider that?" Uther asked the prince's heartless decree, "There's got to be some other way."

"Damn it, Uther! As your future king, I order you to purge this city!" Arthas ordered at the chief paladin, Uther knew in his heart that the prince was not thinking clearly and knew he would never carry out such a barbaric order. "You are not my king yet, boy!" he yelled back with a savage ferocity, now standing face to face with the arrogant upstart prince, his eyes ablaze with fury, "Nor would I obey that command even if you were!" he finished, now backing away from the boy. "Then I must consider this an act of treason." Arthas said coolly, this caught Uther off-guard, how could Arthas be so desperate to turn on his allies.

"Treason? Have you lost your mind, Arthas?" He said in a bewildered fury, "Have I?" Arthas replied calmly, "Lord Uther, by my right of succession and the sovereignty of my crown, I hereby relieve you of your command and suspend your paladins from service." This blow struck Uther in the heart; Arthas had gone too far with this order, "Arthas! You can't just…" Jaina started but was interrupted by the prince, "It's done! Those of you who have the will to save this land, follow me! The rest of you get out of my sight!" Uther's knights departed at this order, clearly they shared Uther's rationale that this 'purge' was wrong, "You've just crossed a terrible threshold, Arthas."

Uther turned and walked away, back down the hill, Jaina followed closely behind, "Jaina?" Arthas said in a voice that almost sounded innocent, Uther knew the two were smitten with each other, but would never admit it, but he was glad that this secret love didn't stop Jaina from seeing sense, "I'm sorry, Arthas. I can't watch you do this." She replied, continuing to follow Uther away from Arthas and the seemingly condemned city of Stratholme. The two heroes parted not long after, neither saying a word, as Jaina headed for Quel'Lithien and Uther for Light's Hope Chapel with his knights.

It was only when the distant sounds of battle; blood-curdling screams inaudible yelling had faded that Uther decided he should return, to not only see the destruction reaped by the prince, but also to try and save any stragglers before they were caught and killed for no righteous or just reason. As he rode up the hill towards the city for the second time that day, the scene could not have been more different before him, bodies were piled high in the streets, buildings were either on fire or burnt to their ashen frames, and a few soldiers seemed to be prowling the streets for survivors, Uther approached them cautiously, "Lord Uther, what brings you back to this forsaken city?" one said when he noticed Uther approaching them.

"I have returned to bring reason back to this madness, you are to stop all attacks on the survivors, they can be saved from the plague if we act now, belay the prince's mad order, see reason" he said imploringly, the soldiers looked at each other, torn between their humanity and the orders given by the prince, "surely you know this 'purge' is not right, surely you feel guilty for all the innocent lives lost today, either rescue those still alive, or leave and atone for your sins" he preached, the soldiers didn't hesitate and left the city, as they did, several citizens appeared from amongst the ruins.

"Thank you Lord Uther, when we heard Arthas and that demon slaughtering people we hid" one of them said, shaking Uther's hand warmly, "it is my duty to defend the innocent, how many others have survived?" he said, returning their warm greeting. They looked at each other before one answered, "We don't know, all we heard and saw was death and destruction, what would compel the prince to do such a thing?" Uther sighed wearily, "I don't know, he wants to save his kingdom from the plague, but doesn't seem to realise that he is crippling it with this abominable act of shear madness."

"What do we do now milord?" one of the group asked after at least a minute of uncomfortable silence, "find any other survivors, and make for the safety of Light's Hope, and as for the dead, there's nothing else that can be done, pile them up and burn them, it's more honourable and kind than leaving them to rot where they fell" Uther said with a heavy heart. The citizens nodded solemnly and separated, heading in different directions to either flee the city or help with what little relief effort could be provided for the still-burning city, leaving Uther to wander the burning streets, looking at the skeletal buildings, lifeless corpses and wade through the pools of human blood, none of the corpses he passed showed any signs of infection, nor could he see any grain boxes or bags from Andorhal, the slaughter was completely unjustified.

Amongst the graveyard city, Uther saw a familiar figure, standing alone in an empty square, near the heart of the city, "Jaina! Jaina Proudmoore!" he yelled as he ran over to the young magi, she turned, seemingly surprised to see him again, "Lord Uther?" she said quizzically as he reached her, but he was in no upbeat mood, but tried to hide it, "Ah, Jaina, I thought I might find you here." But his tone soon shifted and his concern began to break through, "Where has he gone, girl? Where has Arthas taken the fleet?"

"He came to me before he left, I pleaded with him not to go, I told him it sounded like a trap!" she said in near desperation, Uther's impatience burst out with one word, "Where?" She sighed heavily as she responded, clearly deciding it best not to defend Arthas after the atrocity he had committed. "Northrend. He's gone to Northrend to hunt Mal'Ganis." Uther's mind instantly began to work out a plan of action, but his frustration made him curse before he had formulated a plan, "Damn that boy!" he exclaimed loudly, this outburst appeared to catch Jaina off-guard.

"I've got to inform King Terenas" he quickly followed his outburst with, noting the upset look on her face he tried to cheer her up, "Don't be too hard on yourself, girl. You had nothing to do with this… slaughter." She smiled weakly before they took another moment to look over the ruins of the once proud city, from the small town square they were still stood in. After several minutes had passed, Uther ran back the way he had come leaving Jaina alone in the square, he had to get to Lordaeron quickly in order to stop Arthas sooner rather than later, as he rounded a corner from the square where Jaina continued to stand looking over the scene, Uther spotted an unusually large bird swooping down, he naturally assumed it to be a carrion bird, coming to feast on the corpses, and continued on his way.