The Infinite Dragonflight in Stratholme
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 16th 2008 at 2:33PM
We hit on this one with Mount Hyjal before, but Ironcog brings up an interesting point: why exactly are we going to be mucking around in the old city of Stratholme via the Caverns of Time? In Escape from Durnholde, we're obviously trying to make sure Thrall gets out of the prison camp, and the Infinite Dragonflight is fighting to stop us and ruin history. Same deal in the Black Morass -- the Infinite Dragonflight is trying to keep Medivh from opening the Dark Portal. But in Hyjal, the dragonflight is nowhere to be seen, and we're basically just time tourists. You'd think the Bronze Dragonflight would want us to stay out of there.Of course, we don't exactly know what's happening in the Stratholme of the past -- maybe the Infinite Dragonflight is causing problems there that we need to stop (or, even better, maybe we'll get to see an as-yet-unknown reason why a Paladin of the Silver Hand, headstrong as he might have been, decided to slaughter an entire town even before he was under Frostmourne's corruption -- maybe there's more to Arthas than we saw in Warcraft III).
But hopefully the Infinite Dragonflight storyline will be continued in some way -- mucking about in time isn't exactly safe, so there should be good reasons the Bronze Dragonflight sends us back to these past events. Watching history firsthand is fun and all, but the lore of the Bronze Dragons falls apart completely if they just start opening up theme parks in the past.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Raiding, Lore, Bosses, NPCs, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Swarfy Apr 16th 2008 2:50PM
Ummm, If i remember the contaminated food had been distributed among the city before he got there. and he killed everyone before they turned into mindless zombies.
Maybe he thought he was doing them a favor? Course I dunno, I kinda like my undead priest... hehe
Dotixi Apr 16th 2008 2:56PM
Yeah thats what I remember as well...for some reason people only remembered that he killed a bunch of people and not that they were already doomed.
Bring on the slaughter!!
habbah Apr 17th 2008 11:45AM
From what i have read the new COT instance will have us assisting arthas in the "cleansing of stratholme".
as for why im sure that will be explained at some point.
jake Apr 16th 2008 3:08PM
I agree with you on the pointlessness of 'time traveling tourists'. Cram some lore in for a reason, please?
Though I take offensive with this assertion:
"maybe we'll get to see an as-yet-unknown reason why a Paladin of the Silver Hand, headstrong as he might have been, decided to slaughter an entire town even before he was under Frostmourne's corruption"
The mere size of the 'official' thread, debating the merits of Arthas doing this on the forums, demonstrates the strength that either side of the argument lends. To merely chalk it up to an external force robs the event of its very rich ethical dilemma.
anonymoose Apr 16th 2008 3:04PM
"even better, maybe we'll get to see an as-yet-unknown reason why a Paladin of the Silver Hand, headstrong as he might have been, decided to slaughter an entire town even before he was under Frostmourne's corruption "
He was mad because he was ret and got no buffs for a long, long time.
Heilig Apr 16th 2008 3:59PM
I lol'd
ILikePvPbuthatePvPers Apr 16th 2008 3:36PM
This is going to be one messed up instance...
LET'S DO IT! ^_^
juicyjuice Apr 16th 2008 3:09PM
Hmm, well the theory I support is the one based on what Chronolord Deja says in Black Morass:
"Why do you aid the Magus? Just think of how many lives could be saved if the portal is never opened, if the resulting wars could be erased ... "
It seems like they are attempting to keep Azeroth pure and unspoiled from the horde invasion. While many people think theyre up to devilish plans, some theories suspect that theyre kind of a splinter group of the bronze dragonflight, and that they disagree with the bronze flights position on maintaing history when it could be changed.
So maybe theyre going to attempt to keep the plague from ever infecting the people of stratholme, this would mean that Arthas would never have to slaughter them, which might keep him from completely losing his sanity and subsequently heading to Northrend. This would keep him from ever having to pay 20,000 dollars for frostmourne and essentially ever becoming the lich king.
Of course, since we have to keep history the way it was written (yawn) that would mean we have to ensure that the people of strat do get infected, and I think we have to actually help Arthas "cleanse" the city, according to the recent gamers convention. If that doesnt leave a sick feeling in your stomach, nothing will.
Of course, maybe theyre just trying to put out the fires there. Those buildings have been burning for like six years now!
Tuberon Apr 16th 2008 3:36PM
The idea behind say, Black Morass, is that the horde invasion NEEDED to happen, or there would not have been an alliance against the Burning Legion.
I'll grant that's a nice little retcon, but the same type of logic can be applied. Perhaps the Infinite Dragonflight intends to stop Arthas. While everyone thinks "Maybe he would have stayed sane!" You would lose all the effects he had, including the ENTIRE Forsaken.
Would the humans, night elves, and orcs have joined forces against Archimonde if Jaina hadn't spent that time chasing Arthas? We can't be sure.
Dunwich Apr 16th 2008 3:40PM
If they Orcs never came through the portal, the Alliance would never have formed, and could possibly have led to war between the member races. Regardless, the Burning Legion would have found Azeroth again anyway, and proceeded to put the planet to the torch. Without the Orcs to galvinize and rally the member races, or indeed the aid of the Horde (Which would never have formed, as the orcs would still be on Draenor, the Trolls drowned on their island, the Tauren on the edge of extinction at the hands of the Quillboar and Centaur, the Forsaken not even existing as the Scourge would never have been created, and the Blood Elves still being happy High Elves) at Hyjal, the Legion would have won a decisive victory.
Sithril Apr 16th 2008 3:28PM
he did it becouse he knew what happened with those people in Heartglen (who ate the undeath-plague-infected-weed or what ever) so he wanted to spare those people of having to eternaly serve as Malganis' slaves .... i don't think he explained that to Uther .... and Uther refused to "cleanse" the city ... so Arthas disbanned the Silver Hand ......
so - he wanted to spare those poor folks from eternal slavery , and to stop the plague to spread any further
xenothaulus Apr 16th 2008 3:34PM
"Watching history firsthand is fun and all, but the lore of the Bronze Dragons falls apart completely if they just start opening up theme parks in the past."
But don't forget, those theme parks will have shiny new loots.
unagieater Apr 16th 2008 4:01PM
I'm thinking that we're going to help Arthas, and the Infinite Dragonflight will be trying to stop it from happening.
What I want to know is who will we be fighting? level 5 peasants? Only Bosses? Dragonflight Like in Black Morras? Will some of them have already become Undead?
Reinard Apr 16th 2008 4:11PM
Mal'Ganis' demon minions, I'd imagine.
CDS Apr 16th 2008 5:21PM
I'm leaning more towards being our job to make it happen, maybe we the players are what really goaded Arthas to kill the entire town and without our goading him history would have been different, maybe even with Arthas trying to save the towns people instead of slaughtering them.
Blackhorn Apr 16th 2008 4:06PM
What I'm curious about is how it will be executed.
There are a few options...
Black Morass Style: We are there merely to directly prevent the Infinite Dragonflight from disrupting Arthas as he goes about his righteous duties "pwning alliance nubs"... leaving us as players safe from getting our hands dirty.
Durnholde Keep Style: We are there to directly assist Arthas, and help him "smush doodz".
I vote for Option 1. We already know Arthas can get the job done on his own. The people of Stratholme certainly aren't level 80 elites when Arthas moseys in. So clearly, there's the Infinite Dragonflight factor we have to personally deal with.
Kyle Apr 16th 2008 4:28PM
It might be an attempt to drive home his madness. We're forced to come along and watch his descent, in hopes of spurring our righteous fury to take his loo... I mean to rid the world of his evil.
Straga Apr 16th 2008 4:57PM
Actually someone touched on this earlier, if the citizens of Strat were not purged how many more undead would have risen to destroy the Alliance BEFORE they were able to flee across the sea to join the night elves and horde in fighting the legion? Remember the humans were having enough trouble with undead before the plagues reached their cities.
The Infinite Dragonflight seems to be mucking with anything that would enable Azeroth to survive the Legion's invasion. The question is why? I don't see what they have to gain from serving the legion directly so where is their motivation, what do they have to gain other than a power vacuum to exploit. Of course I could be wrong and they could all be part of the grand alliance of evil.
orla Apr 16th 2008 4:57PM
There are a few key events that happen here in the cleasning that if didnt happen, would change the world entirely. What if he didnt "disband" the silver hand? What if Malganis corrupted the entire town? What if he kill Malganis right there, so he wouldnt have to go to Northrend? Granted a few things of great evil could be avoided. But in the end, would it really be so great?
But if you look at the events in wc3, without Arthas being corrupted, he wouldnt kill everyone. Because everyone isnt dead and Jaina doesnt have to take everyone across the sea, the alliance just keeps fight against themselves. Granted Arthas doesnt raid Dalaran to get the spell book to summon Archimonde, or even resurect Kel, But the burning legion already has demons on Azeroth and so they can take a different route to get the book.
The horde and and thier allies are uneffected until they come up to the point where Grom goes up and drinks Manorroths blood and becomes Fel. Without Jaina being there, there isnt a way for Thrall to bring Grom back to the good side. Without Grom being around, if Thrall tries to go and face Manorroth by himself, he will more than likely be killed, Horde has no real leader ship. And to top it off the legion has another top general at Mt Hiyjal
You finally come to the Night elves, who are all alone on kalimdor save for the tauren and random orcs/trolls that have no real goals. Without arthas being there to tell Illidan to consume the skull of Guldan, he wont even show up to kill Tircondias(sp?). Legion has yet another top ranking officer in the midist.
At mount Hiyjal, without the alliance or horde there to help them, the night elves get devistated. Archimonde Proceeds to get down and dirty with the world tree, becomes super uber, forces everyone to change QQ targets from MS warriors to said leader. Everyone in the world QQs without any blue response. World get killed.
I am of course going way out on a limb here, but even screwing with anything in history will mess everything up, most of the time for the worst. Using the example of the events of Black Morras, without the horde coming to Azeroth, Alliance never forms, and gets rick rolled by the scourge/legion cause everyone is either being lazy or fighting amongst themselves. Just an example of how a bad thing can be something that saves the world.
Nati Apr 16th 2008 5:43PM
Arthas kicked in doors and murdered people in their sleep, without verifying who was plagued and who was not. He saw some empty boxes of plagued grain and decided that "this entire city must be purged". He had a difficult decision to face, but the entire -point- of that mission was that it was where he finally snapped. Uther Lightbringer, the first and greatest paladin of all Azeroth, Arthas' senior, wanted to try another way, but by that time Arthas was beyond reasoning - his pride and lust for vengeance had taken over. Mal'ganis was goading him into slaughtering the people of Stratholme, plagued and healthy alike, and falling into evil. This is what one of the soldiers under Arthas' command had to say about the Culling:
"Dearest Amelia,
Tonight I have seen things that will haunt me to the end of time.
Stratholme is aflame... and we are responsible.
Our Prince led us into the streets of the city tonight; he ordered us to break into the homes of the townspeople and... kill them in their sleep. They were plagued, claimed Lord Arthas, and had to be killed before they killed us.
It was a slaughter. Hundreds died silently to the swords of those sworn to protect them. I could stand it no longer; I fled.
Deserter I may be, but I could not commit such atrocities. In every home I could not help but see your face, or those of our children, upon the victims as they died. If standing against that means being a traitor, then so be it.
I hope to find my way back to you in time, but the roads are unsafe. Give our children my love in my absence.
James"