Chapter 3
Back at Archerus, the main base of operations for the Lich King and his minions, the air was different, I couldn t quite place it but something was off. Highlord Darion Mograine was talking with the master, they were planning something, the air, it felt alive with electricity. They gathered all the knights, recently turned and seasoned veterans. The king spoke of a war that was coming, a war on the light itself. We were going to storm Light's Hope Chapel, the one symbol of the light in the plague lands. The land was overrun with scourge and Archerus loomed over it like a specter but Light's Hope and its hallowed ground still stood. It took two weeks to outfit all the soldiers, 10,000 strong. The church was only guarded by 300 men and woman; we could easily destroy them within minutes.
All of my training honing my dark art was going to be needed for this. I focused my mind and called a lesser scourge to my side. At dawn, we marched out, led by the Highlord and two of the king's best death knights Koltira and Thassarian. We finally saw the chapel's forces and burst into a dead sprint. Maces, axes, and swords barred and at the ready, thousands of death knight voices yelling into the wind. Time seemed to slow as our line crashed into theirs, the sounds of clashing plate and steel broke the morning silence. Bodies fell around me, dark magic and searing light flying all over. I spotted a paladin about 20 yards casting something towards the Highlord and channeled my unholy energies and reached through the nether to pull him towards me, he fell with a thud at my feet, my axe finding his neck upon landing. I looked down at his twisted face, he almost looked familiar but I couldn't place it. I shook off the ghosts of my former self and charged at the next priest I saw.
Things looked to be in our favor when the ground started to shake, a slight smile crept onto my face as I knew the master was approaching. As his feet found the ground a paladin walked out of the chapel, he was dressed much like the others but his power was immense, the light was strong in him, it coursed through and around him, the light was almost blinding as I and the others turned away to shield our eyes. When he spoke it wasn t to the master but to Highlord Mograine, he fell to his knees in front of the paladin, unable to move. What we all saw next was life changing, the vision of Alexandros Mograine, the Highlord's father, coming from the light. I was too far away to hear what they were saying but the master was not amused, he attempted an attack on the paladin but the light in this place was too strong, even for the Lich King. The paladin spoke out to us, telling us of the Lich King s betrayals, I didn t know what to think, but then the master's voice spoke confirming all of our fears, he had sent us here to die, for good. We death knights were no more than pawns ho him in his chess game of power. Arthas, as the paladin explained was once a fighter and a prince of lordaeron, corrupted by the power and hatred.
So moved by the vision he had seen, the Highlord pledged his allegiance and that of all the death knights to the paladin s order, the Argent Dawn. It was as if a cloud has been lifted from my mind, no more were we corrupted scourge but agents of the light. As I felt the power of the chapel surround us all, my memory became clear. I was Dalstan, once a great warrior and husband, a man of valor and fierce allegiance to my city and people. A soldier in the royal guard, an officer tasked with protecting King Varian Wrynn himself. My wife Erwin was a beautiful woman and a powerful mage, her life was cut short in the battle against the scourge. It left me reckless and without abandon, I charged and broke ranks and was struck down by a wall of scourge, death came swiftly. As my mind raced back to the present the Lich King was gone. Bodies both scourge and righteous were strewn about. The Highlord spoke, he was standing near the great paladin, who I later learned was Highlord Tirion Fordring, he told us we would travel to storm wind and properly allege ourselves to the kind and pledge our services in fighting the remaining scourge that plagued the world.
"This day will go down in history as a blow to the Lich King and all that he stands for. Those who stand before me, ready to pledge themselves to the light and to the side of righteousness are all instruments in his undoing. Though we were not meant to be, we are and we will use our abilities anyway we can to show our solidarity against the evils of this world."