Ashbringer quest in Utgarde Keep
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 10th 2007 at 2:00PM
Our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has gotten a nice tip on Ashbringer appearing in Northrend (warning: I don't think this is a huge spoiler, as it probably happens within your first hour or so of Wrath of the Lich King, but if you don't want to know anything about what happens to Ashbringer, skip this post).So apparently inside the Utgarde Catacombs (which is probably the lower section of Utgarde Keep-- I played the upper section), there is a cleric of the Silver Hand, the group led by Tirion Fordring that fought against the Scourge in Naxx, as well as other places. The cleric sends you on a timed quest inside the dungeon, to retrive a "Sacred Artifact." After you retrieve it, he sends you with his dying breath to someone back in town, who then tells you that the Artifact you just held in your hands is related to the Ashbringer, thanks you for grabbing it, and takes it away (as, Boubouille says, "the ret paladin of your party keeps crying"), promising to give it to Fordring in his fight against Arthas. How is it related to Ashbringer? Well, it could be the blade itself, except that the Corrupted Ashbringer was last seen in player hands, not at the bottom of a dungeon. Most likely, it's a mirror, or a copy, of the artifact seen in Old Hillsbrad-- a new holy artifact, meant to create a new, uncorrupted Ashbringer.
So that's kind of cool. It definitely shows how Blizzard is going to make good on their promise of involving us in the lore right away when you enter Northrend-- at BlizzCon, they said a few times that most players worried they would never see Illidan, so the idea with WotLK is to bring the lore to you (we're supposed to meet Arthas early on in this way as well). I like the way this is done-- even though you don't get to wield it, you're still able to interact with it. Should be very exciting to see how Blizzard incorporates other parts of the lore in this way.
Just so we don't take down MMO Champion's site with hotlinks, I've mirrored the three quest images after the jump.
Update: MMO Champion got it from Cydel, who also has video.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, Quests, Expansions, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
aerosaucer Aug 10th 2007 2:26PM
From the quest text, it is clear that "the artifact" is the same Corrupted Ashbringer that drops in Naxx.
They "Wrested the artifact from the hands of a fallen warrior of the light" and then "descended from...Naxxramas", obviously they stole back the Corrupted Ashbringer from former paladin Highlord Mograine.
When he calls it "this sacred blade" in the third image, it makes this fact even more obvious.
I know this doesn't seem to fit with the fact that a few players already have the Corrupted Ashbringer, but we know that item drops in instances are not canon. Otherwise, you wouldn't see so many people carrying Grom Hellscream's one axe all at the same time.
Mike Schramm Aug 10th 2007 2:33PM
Yeah, Aero, I didn't think about player drops not being canon. You could be right.
aerosaucer Aug 10th 2007 2:36PM
Upon further thought and reading, I still stand by my interpretation. I just think it's a retcon of that obscure ashbringer quest that a few people did, where someone claimed that the Corrupted Ashbringer was too deeply corrupted and would have to be forged anew. Blizz is somehow going to have to get around the fact that they said that, whether by ignoring it or explaining it away, because it certainly isn't consistent with the quest text in the photos.
Steve Aug 10th 2007 2:58PM
Whatever happened to the quest continuing in Outland? golfclap, Blizz.
RogueJedi86 Aug 10th 2007 3:01PM
Wrong tag, Lore tag, not Mounts tag. Unless we're gonna ride the Ashbringer. It might be that epic. :D
Anyways, it sounds like Tirion Fordring will be wielding the Ashbringer, and join the fight against Arthas(like Akama and Maiev did in the Illidan fight). Not us players. Still nice, the Ashbringer used to bring down the Lich King. If only Arthas had used the Ashbringer in Northrend, instead of the Frostmourne, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Tseran Aug 10th 2007 3:26PM
A couple clarifications, as I have been trying to keep an eye on everything Ashbringer related.
1. The quest when you get corrupted Ashbringer says thatone son of the Highlord Mograine is in Outland. It never said the quest had to take place in Outland.
2. We don't know that Ashbringer was the ONLY sword made from that fragment. For all we know, they could have made two, one that ended up corrupted, another that remained pure.
3. The quest text does kind of point towards the fact that what you are bringing is the corrupted Ashbringer, off Highlord Mograine himself.
4. There is plenty to suggest that the ability to create a new Ashbringer is not impossible. In fact, many theories suggest that the naruu are partly responsible for the original one, which means that the voices from the corrupted one may be someone from the legion.
Meth Aug 10th 2007 3:27PM
Its not Boubouille who found this info, its Cydel and the original source is: http://www.cydel.net/cadia/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7049
Tuberon Aug 10th 2007 3:47PM
And, now, thanks to this set of pictures, I'm going to think about Final Fantasy VII every time I hear about Ashbringer.
tim Aug 10th 2007 4:35PM
This actually makes sense when you consider what Tigole said about Naxxramas in the expansion. Tigole has said he plans to bring around a re-tuned Naxxramas into Northrend. If that occured, its likely that the old Naxxramas would disappear.
And given that so few people (relatively) were able to loot the Corrupted Ashbringer from the original Naxxramas, I think Blizzard wanted to open it up to a wider section of people. And so rather than making it an lootable object in the re-tuned Naxxramas, they probably figured they'd just make it available via an separate quest.
RogueJedi86 Aug 10th 2007 4:38PM
@#8/Tuberon
Why would you think of FFVII when you hear about the Ashbringer? They're 2 completely different things. The only similarity is big swords, and that's hardly a notable detail nowadays.