Alternatives II: The Lich King of Draenor

While exploring some of the countless realities open to my roommate, Malchazaar, on my roof, I came across a version of Azeroth that wasn't there.

That is... Azeroth wasn't there. It was reduced to a field of asteroids. I can only assume what happened to the planet. Perhaps the great Sundering eons ago was more cataclysmic in this reality. Or perhaps there was no Sundering and the Burning Legion completely demolished the entire planet after consuming the world of the Night Elves. I was never to learn a precise answer. But as I was pondering the possibilities, a gigantic space vessel flew in my direction.

I had read the stories of the Draenei and seen them countless times raiding my tower, but I had never had the pleasure of seeing their vast space-traveling vessel in tact. It was clear as they got closer that this was the very same Exodar that crashed into my planet in my reality, yet remained in tact in this reality. It occurred to me that since Azeroth was gone, my alternate self in this reality never had a chance to open a portal to Draenor. The orcs never came and they never destroyed their home-world with several other portals to Azeroth. Draenor was still out there with a healthy civilization of both Orcs and Draenei... or so I thought.

There was something about this area of space, evidently, that draws the most ardent of magic users wether a planet exists here or not. As I passed through the walls of the Exodar, I floated as a ghost around the inside to see the Draenei's purpose in this region. They were excavating chunks of the remnants of Azeroth to use as channeling devices for their own magic. Once they had gathered enough asteroids, they were on their way back home. To Draenor.

When I got there, the planet was beautiful. I'm sure those who have visited Outland in my reality could relate to some of the sights I saw here in a perfectly preserved version of Draenor. But it was different. The Burning Legion had a hold on these people, too. War had ravaged much of the planet, and though it was still whole, it was not without its scars. The Orcs had survived the ages, but they were split into separate factions. There were those who were corrupted by demons' blood and those who remained pure. Also on the planet were the aforementioned Draenei, but these were a stouter, more war-like version. In my reality the Draenei ran from the greater evil, but with more numbers and greater resolve, the Draenei in this reality stood fast against the Legion. But they did not trust any Orc, pure or corrupted.

These three factions fought against each other constantly. I saw Velen in the Draenei army, I saw Thrall in the uncorrupted Orc army, but here is where it gets interesting: fighting for the corrupted orcs was a person I had only half expected to see: Ner'zhul.

In my reality, Ner'zhul had saved some of his fellow orcs from complete damnation by advising them not to drink the blood of Manaroth and, thereby, become corrupted. Because he betrayed the Burning Legion in this manner, they kept his spirit alive as they tore his body to shreds. In agony, Ner'zhul agreed to work once more for the Legion, so they placed his formless spirit in the Frozen Throne where his powers could grow. This is how the Lich King was born.

In this alternate reality, I have no reason to believe that the same thing did not happen. Ner'zhul commanded his army from within an alternate version of the Frozen Throne laid to rest in what we know as Shadowmoon Valley. Without Arthas to free him, he remained there, his powers over the mind growing exponentially. Even I, as a spirit, felt the whispers of his suggestion within my head.

The Lich King of Draenor was an even more powerful force than the one I know on my Azeroth. And I sought to know why. It seemed that as a spirit encased in armor and crystal, the Lich King has no barrier to how great his mind-controlling strength can grow, even though this encasing is as a prison to him. This is the key to the lesson I learned from this alternate reality. In order to destroy the Lich King we must not merely destroy his body, but his spirit as well. As long as he has a body, his powers are slowed, but if he is allowed to escape from that body there is no telling what kind of horrors he may be able to unleash.

In the end I influenced a Draenei to go back to the Azerothian sector of space from which I came so that I could travel with him. As I left this entirely different reality I was haunted by a frightening thought: If the Lich King can survive the complete destruction of Azeroth in this reality, how much less hope does that give us?