Friday, June 12, 2015

The Ebon Blade and the Jailor of the Damned

The Knights of the Ebon Blade were ostensibly created to wipe out the Scarlet Crusade, and at least in the Eastern Plaguelands, they were wildly successful, wiping out the Scarlet Enclave in what I consider canon to be a single day (basically in real time as you do the quests.) Of course, their real purpose was to draw out Tirion Fordring, the last founding member of the Knights of the Silver Hand and one of the greatest champions in the fight against the Scourge. And actually, they succeeded there. It was Arthas' error to think that he'd be able to easily assault Light's Hope Chapel, and the big backfire of the whole Ebon Blade plan is that the Lich King's domination over his death knights at Light's Hope was severed.

The Knights of the Ebon Blade didn't suddenly become automatically good guys - they still retained a lot of their ingrained, predatory personality traits, and worst of all kept the inflicted addiction to causing pain. No Death Knight is going to be able to return to a peaceful life (though that blind one who makes DK armor in ICC... I don't know what he does to deal with the addiction.)

Still, most of them, released from the will of the Lich King, decided to band together and dedicate their order to defeating Arthas and actually becoming the newly-formed Argent Crusade's biggest allies (kind of to pay off the debt of, you know, trying to kill them all.)

And the Ebon Blade succeeded. They aided the Heroes of Azeroth in ascending Icecrown Citadel, and while Darion Mograine wasn't there for the final battle, they certainly achieved their goal of removing Arthas.

Today, the Lich King is Bolvar Fordragon, who took the crown in order to keep the Scourge ona tight leash. Bolvar has a lot of advantages over Arthas - not only was he always a more even-headed Paladin than Arthas had been, but he also never touched Frostmourne, and thus retained his soul. Indeed, there's little reason to think that Bolvar has become evil at all - he withstood a solid year of torture and never lost his righteous will.

Bolvar does have a couple things to worry about, though. While Arthas seemed to consume the personality of Ner'zhul to become the real dominant identity of the Lich King, it's possible that the Helm of Domination retained some residue of that more malevolent personality. Also, we're told that Arthas was actually holding the Scourge back from just totally rolling over the world, which could suggest that even a righteous person as Lich King is, at best, going to still be a dark lord of evil.

But, for the sake of argument, let's say Lich King Bolvar is actually totally as good as we thought. After all, the Scourge has gone from being possibly the biggest threat on Azeroth to a minor annoyance restricted to the Eastern Plaguelands.

The Knights of the Ebon Blade have been searching for a purpose since the defeat of Arthas. With their revenge accomplished, what is there for them now? The Forsaken have had a similar crisis, but the Forsaken have an advantage, which is that they are still similar enough to the living that they can take on a semblance of normal lives - as farmers, scholars, tradesmen. They're also a key part of the Horde, and thus have investment in the wellbeing of their allies. Also, Sylvanas has given them a new goal to work for, which is the conquest of the Lordaeron subcontinent (which, you know, is not without its problems, like angry British werewolves.)

Bolvar might be a Lich King worthy of the Ebon Blade - his goal is not the destruction and domination of all life on Azeroth, but to draw back the Scourge. And who better to aid him than an elite corps of Death Knights who have experience leading the undead?

Admittedly, the Ebon Blade is pretty fractured at this point. Most of its members have simply returned to their home factions looking for forgiveness and some altered version of a normal life. But Acherus is still maintained by a garrison of knights, and Mograine himself still has some sway. Would it be anathema to the freedom they gained at Light's Hope to ally themselves with the Lich King once more? Or is Bolvar's cause exactly what the Ebon Blade needs?

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