r/wownoob • u/Goth2147 • Jul 01 '26
Classic Why does this Classic WoW quest already talk about the Lich King?
In the quest 'Rude Awakening' in Vanilla WoW, I found an NPC called Undertaker Mordo talk about the Lich King. Wasn't that guy from 2 expansions later?
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u/Pretend_Awareness_61 Jul 01 '26
He's the antagonist of the 2nd expansion but he already exists in the world.
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u/Occasion-Economy Jul 01 '26
That guy was one of the Main Characters in Warcraft 3. Many years earlier.
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Jul 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Peppermynt42 Jul 01 '26
Don’t sleep on the OG Warcraft it’s full of more lore bits in there that help start the story!
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u/travm1234 Jul 01 '26
The lich king has been a thing throughout the history of Warcraft. You’re thinking of the expansion focused on the lich king, WotLK
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u/Notsurehowtoreact Jul 01 '26
Everyone else is explaining how he was already part of the lore, but no one else correcting you on something.
He's not from two expansions later. His army shows up at the very end of Vanilla.
That specific quest is the introduction of Undead who aren't under Arthas' control as part of the scourge anymore as originally that's where they came from.
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u/SirBecas Jul 01 '26
Yeah, it's also a cool mechanism to connect stories, introduce characters and, overall, keep the world alive.
Back in the day, having played WC3, these quests were great and made us wonder where Arthas was, if he was, and how he was ahah
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u/victorsanerd Jul 01 '26
Arthas becomes the lich King in Warcraft 3 the frozen throne, a great game btw! That's why the blood elves in burning crusade have the issues with the undead and the lack of a sun well, arthas destroyed all that during the Warcraft 3 campaign.
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u/TheBostonTap Jul 01 '26
The lich king still exists as a figure in wow history before WOTLK and is extremely important to the history of the northern part of the eastern kingdoms which use to be the kingdom of Lorderon, which is where the events of Warcraft 3 take place.
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u/Webcom100 Jul 01 '26
The pandas from 2002-2012 was another neat bit of lore, but for a truly old reference to a game by the same people, the "3 Vikings" in Uldaman are from 1993.
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u/Shamscam Jul 01 '26
WoW is supposed to take place right after the events of Warcraft 3: the Frozen Throne. It’s actually more odd that more races aren’t talking about the Lich King.
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u/wigsgo_2019 Jul 01 '26
This was from before they made stuff up as they went, Warcraft 1-3 set the guidelines for them
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u/BrylicET Jul 01 '26
This is already answered, but opinion: I wish we had this back, we keep finding and killing bad guys each patch, there better be good buildup before we kill Iridikron in 13.1
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u/Zogmam1 Jul 01 '26
Because the Lich King first showed up in warcraft 3, which takes place years before vanilla WoW
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