Exploring Northrend: The Vrykul

After spending a restless night at Vengeance Landing, I awoke to one of many cannon fires coming from just outside the inn. As you can imagine, I found myself more than ready to leave this Forsaken settlement. Don't get me wrong: it should not be a secret that I prefer the Horde. After all, I kind of helped start them. If nothing else, I definitely helped them come to Azeroth. Not by my own will, but... that's another story. Regardless, the Forsaken have a sad story of their own and I would not hinder their quest for vengeance. I sympathize with these undead creatures and wish them well.

But a loud cannon firing while I'm trying to sleep just will not do.

Taking on raven form once more, I flew up to the top of the hill, preferring my wings to the rickety lift they had set up. The first thing I noticed at the top was a Forsaken man talking with what seemed to be humanoid bison. I would come to learn later that this is a member of the Taunka, and I will study them at a later time, but what REALLY caught my attention was across the road from them. An abomination leading an attack against a race of large, almost giant men.

But they weren't men. Their skin was rock solid, they had beards like Dwarves, but they were almost as tall as any of the mechanical watchers I have in my Tower (aside from my beloved Curator... I wonder how he's holding up). Overhearing the extraordinarily intelligent abomination (which isn't saying much) talking to an adventurer, I learned that their name was the Vrykul. The name rang a bell. Somewhere in my studies long ago I had heard the name.

Quickly I flew to the next town, New Agamand, which featured some lovely gothic Forsaken architecture, but there was no time to dawdle. I set my hearthstone to their inn and teleported back to my tower. I scavenged through nearly all my books and finally found what I needed.

The Vrykul existed on Azeroth thousands and thousands of years ago before even the Great Sundering. Nearer to the creation of the world by the Titans. It is said that the Vrykul were created by the Titans originally to be the inhabiters and tenders of Azeroth. They were made with stone or with iron or scales depending on their aspect, much like the Earthen, predecessors of the Dwarves. Then the Old Gods came. The Dwarves have long known the effect of the Old Gods on their ancestors. The Curse of Flesh was given to them in order to twist them into something a little more like what they had in mind for Azeroth. The same thing is rumored to have happened to the Vrykul, only instead of merely giving them flesh, it also shrunk them. Thus were born the first Humans.

But this only happened to a few of the Vrykul before the Titans retaliated and locked the Old Gods within the earth. The rest of them wondered away into the Cold North. They lived normal lives for a while. And then they vanished. Without any known reason, they just fell asleep as a race and were never heard from again. Until now.

I had to find out why they had returned and what they were up to, so I activated my hearthstone and traveled back to New Agamand. In the distance I could clearly see the Vrykul's known base of operations: Utgarde Keep. I put on my wings and flew over there, unsure of what I would see. But once I got close it was clear. The Vrykul had risen because of the Alliance.

Though I'm sure not ALL the blame could be laid on them, surely they could have been more wise as to their choice in settlement. When Arthas Menethil rode to Northrend when a detachment of soldiers chasing after the dreadlord, Mal'Ganus, he was called by the Lich King to his runeblade, Frostmorne, and sought it out. When he found it, he killed Mal'Ganus and, overpowered by the blade's attachment to the Lich King, ran off into the Frozen North to seek out the Lich King himself, leaving his troops to fend for themselves. And fend they did. They constructed a small town by the name of Valgarde just outside of Utgarde Keep. It was my assumption then, which was confirmed later, that this is the disturbance that awoke the Vrykul.

But there were still unanswered questions. The Vrykul of the distant past were not a cruel and evil people. They were strong warriors, yes, but they were not unkind. What had turned them? What convinced them to attack those who may actually be their sons and daughters? I had a disturbing theory. I hoped it was wrong. But there was just one way to find out. I had to enter Utgarde Keep.

The form of a raven is quite useful when you don't want to be seen. Call it a defect, but humanoids just don't think to look up when they're looking for intruders. Birds are rarely spotted even when they're indoors. As long as I'm quiet, I go unseen. When I entered the Keep, my theory was all but confirmed, for the first person I ran into was familiar, indeed. Prince Keleseth is a known member of the San'Layn, a group of undead elven princes who are loyal to the Scourge and the Lich King. In Utgarde Keep he appears to be an ambassador for the Scourge to the Vrykul. This was all the proof I needed of their connection to the Lich King. But what would cause a race of previously benevolent half-giants to turn their backs on Azeroth and follow the Lich King? For this I would need to investigate further.

There are four things that settled this question for me. Traveling deeper into the Keep I found Ingvar the Plunderer, as he is called. He seemed to be directing the attack on those who had awakened them, the town of Valgarde. It was a grand show of strength. He was motioning proto-drake riders and barking commands as though he controlled the minions of the entire world. As I was watching, a small group of adventurers approached him and he attacked them. Five against one was an uneven match, it seemed. Ingvar fell quickly, but just as the group thought they had done their job, the form of a spirit or some kind of energy being descended on Ingvar. The spirit brought the Vrykul back to life! That is, back to undeath. This new Ingvar was a twisted, rotten version of the one who I saw leading the attack on Valgarde. The undead Ingvar attacked the group of adventurers and this time he won.

I flew away from there and traveled amongst the rest of the Howling Vjord. Eventually I ended up at a Vrykul burial ground called Shield Point. But the dead here were not dead. Spirits and skeletons left their graves and attacked anything that came near. Four spirits in particular were out for vengeance against those who would disturb their graves. It seemed the Vrykul cemetery is only temporary lodging. They don't stay there for long.

Leaving the burial ground I flew around some more until I came across the Vrykul town of Scorn. I would not have stayed long were it not for the cries of a Vrykul warrior coming from the top of the city on a hill. There was a large pyre and a warrior named Halfdan was fighting an adventurer who seemed to have challenged him. When the adventurer defeated Halfden, the same spirit I saw appear to Ingvar appeared with another like him to Halfden. But this time it was not so benevolent. The spirit declared the defeated warrior unworthy of ascension and banished his soul to oblivion.

I almost had it, the Vrykul, it seemed, were obsessed with the afterlife. And when I say afterlife, I don't mean a world beyond this one. I mean living in this world as an eternal being. All the pieces of the puzzle were there, but they would not be put together until one more encounter. I rested for the night at New Agamand and awoke to a new day and a new discovery.

I had heard of strange events happening in the northwest, so I decided to investigate. In this area I found the place they called Gjalerbron. It would seem like a normal Vrykul fortress, but for one small difference: The Scourge. Liches roamed up and down the the stairways, a frostwyrm circled above, gruesome monstrosities guarded sensitive areas Necro-Lords sacrificed innocent lives in rituals of reawakening. And there in the uppermost room of the area I saw King Ymiron of the Vrykul being awakened by his queen with the help of several Scourge Necro-Lords.

This was it. This was the key. The Lich King had invaded the Vrykul's uppermost ranks and offered them eternal life after death. Then it occurred to me: the spirits that appeared to Ingvar and Halfden, perhaps they were not just spirits. The frightening truth may actually be... these are servants or mouthpieces of the Lich King himself. He had taken advantage of their own mythology that the strongest shall rise as warriors beyond death and actually GIVEN it to them. What was once a mere superstition had now been given true life and has unwittingly made them servants to the most vial of all villains, the Lich King.

Truly Northrend has fallen to the power of the Lich King. It is a dark day, indeed, when proud races such as the Vrykul can fall victim to his unyielding power. After learning this, I headed back to New Agamand where I will rest a while. My plan next is to explore the Borean Tundra and the inhabitants there. But I suspect I have not seen the last of the Vrykul.