Where? The Carrion Fields, Dragonblight
There’s something to be said for the Lich King. Granted, I’ve already said it, but it bears repeating. The guy has massive power at his fingertips and has little to no strategy. You let the greatest heroes of Azeroth get to your throne and then try to convert them into powerful servants and just assume that it’ll all work out in your favor. Wonderful, brilliant, a stroke of genius. I’m sure not one of your generals would have pointed out the number of logical missteps and oversight that plan had, namely because the Lich King comes off as the type of evil overlord who kills people who disagree with him.
But what does this have to do with what I’m talking about today? Well, I was flying about my business in the Dragonblight the other day when a strange thought hit me as I passed over Wintergarde Keep. Why the heck is Naxxramas positioned over the Carrion Fields? I mean, the position of Naxxramas in the Eastern Plaguelands always seemed to make some sense, it was positioned over Stratholme, a fortified city that was controlled almost entirely by the Scourge (The Loonies held one building and the western square, but they hardly were much of a threat to the Scourge.) So it made sense to establish your floating citadel of death and doom above it. Kind of. Not really.
The necropoli were designed to be mobile fortresses for massive deployment of Scourge forces directly in enemy territory. The shining example of this was the use of Acherus the Ebon Hold to lay siege to the Loonies’ city and take control of New Avalon before the Scarlet Nutballs had a chance to react. No sooner than the capture of Havenshire, the Ebon Blade had already captured the chapel and the house out by the Orchard and began to assault the city proper. This is how the Necropoli should have been utilized.
Instead what do we have? Well, during both Scourge Invasions, the necropoli were positioned outside of the major cities of both factions and also some really strange locations. I mean, I can see sending a necropolis to the Blasted Lands, as it would actually be quite advantageous to seize control of the Dark Portal. However, sending one to the south end of the Eastern Plagueland, and desolate pointless places like Azshara or Winterspring never quite made sense to me. Also, why not position your forces directly over the enemy cities? Dropping your forces in mass right in the middle of the city streets. Can you imagine dropping a cauldron of the plague of undeath directly into the middle of Stormwind? Certainly this can’t be accomplished with every city, Ironforge and the Undercity both lie buried under the earth, and the Exodar has a roof over the entire place. The strategy however works more than it doesn’t, and shouldn’t be disregarded so quickly.
This brings me back to Naxxramas and the Carrion Fields. My understanding is that the Carrion Fields are where the lowest tier of the town of Wintergarde stood. It fell to the Scourge, and thus it became the Carrion Fields. Not bad, direct deployment to take control and everything. But why the heck start at the bottom of the hill? Wouldn’t it have been a smidge better if you had started your attack at, oh you know, the center of the fortress on the hill instead of the town below it? You know, leave a less fortified area for the 7th Legion to hole up in? I mean it’s the 7th Legion for Pete’s sake. Do you know what they are capable of? (For those not aware of what the 7th Legion is capable of I suggest you read up on them here. They are AWESOME.)
This is sadly just another example of the Lich King’s complete and utter lack of strategic ability. It’s not surprising considering he is the fusion of a stubborn prince who burned his own boats on purpose and an orc whose great idea for getting the hell out of Draenor was to open more and more portals till the planet was shredded. Still, I have to wonder how then, did the Lich King manage to so eloquently recruit the Cult of the Damned and spread the plague grain across Lordaeron without being noticed for so long. Did merging with Arthas drag him down? Did the scheming foursome of color coded dreadlords come up with it? Was it actually Kel’Thuzad or something?
It’d be pretty sad if it was Kel’Thuzad. Sitting on his chair in Naxxramas with his skull in his hands repeating over and over, “We’re doing this all wrong. Why didn’t we just go with my idea and start at the top of the hill? Why do we always listen to HIS ideas?” Probably cause he’d kill you if you didn’t, Kel. He’s just that kind of evil overlord.
Vrykerion 
Not to mention that an airborne plague would follow the air currents/winds and flow downhill!
Also, I think that yes – merging with Arthas DID hinder the LK’s intellect. Have you HEARD Arthas in Culling? Guy’s an idiot.
.-= Rades´s last blog ..Fixing Distracting Shot =-.
Unfortunately Naxxramas broke down *just before* it got into position above over Wintergarde Keep. Possibly some of that green ooze they have everywhere jammed up some of the inner-workings. Kel’thuzad told Patchwerk to give the engines a good tune-up before they set out, but he’s kind of hap-hazard at auto-repair.
But it’s not surprising it broke down, as it takes almost all of Naxxramas’s energy to maintain it’s hyper-dimensional inter-spatial displacement field. It must have something like that right, y’know to explain why it’s so much bigger on the inside than the outside (unless it’s some kind of evil TARDIS)?
.-= Wulfy´s last blog ..Success! =-.
There’s a lot in WoW that could be explained by calling them “some kind of evil TARDIS” 😀
actually… Hate to burst the bubble on this one but if you remember a wintergarde quest called “A Righteous Sermon” It actually explains why Naxx is there. Humans built a mausoleum under the village and field. This also happens to be the home of Thel’zan (A Lich). Thel’zan was previously Father Inigo Montoy (Insert Princess Bride joke here). The Phylactery of Kel’Thuzad, which was supposed to be destroyed, was given to him.
This allowed Kel’Thuzad to be able to take form in Naxx (above the Carrion Fields). And as a gift from The Lich King, he was then turned into Thel’Zan…. With lots of bodies in the mausoleum, as Mayor Godfrey explains, There will be lots of scourge to attack Wintergarde. I do agree that they could probably just send down Patchwerk and Gluth and the town would be destroyed…
My personal belief behind why The Lich King doesn’t do this is partly because i believe that some piece (albeit small) of Arthas is still left in the king. The Lich King wants to destroy, but that part of Arthas is not going to let him do it quickly. Some people think that Arthas is completely dead and nothing remains… But if you watch the Lich King death cinematic you can clearly see that Arthas is still there and was aware of things (who knows what things) that happened.
Still i have to admit… Funny post 🙂
Thank you, and yes, while the post was mainly meant for a brief wtf moment of humor, as you point out there are some very legitimate reasons for Naxxramas to be there of all places. Mainly, the threat of the 7th Legion. If Naxxramas can hold the 7th Legion at Wintergarde, they can’t join the fight in Icecrown.
However, I was under the impression that Inigo Montoy rejoined his father in the Eastern Plaguelands before Naxxramas was recalled ‘in the blink of an eye’ if I recall the Scarlet Crusade letter that details the event (It’s never explicitly stated in which order these events occured in, but it makes more sense than him hiking all the way to Northrend). And since Kel’Thuzad is a Lich, historically at least, he doesn’t NEED his phylactery to be resurrected, he only needs it not to be destroyed. So long as that part of him keeps living, he cannot ever truly die. (Yes, Davey Jones and Voldemart borrow HEAVILY from the concept of Liches) Montoy stole the phylactery not to return it so his father could be resurrected (it doesn’t hurt to keep it somewhere safe) but to save it from destruction.
But that doesn’t explain why Naxxramas decides to work from the bottom up. If they were to drown the Keep in the plague of undeath, it would easily roll down the hill and affect the crypts below regardless. There is no reason for the attack to start at the bottom of the hill except for bad strategy and poor planning. Both are the trademark of the Lich King in WotLK (Heck, even Drakuru was able to pull off a better plan than the Lich King, then you backstab him for backstabbing you.)
As far as I know from the explanations that were shoved quickly (and awkwardly imo) into 3.3, Arthas’ control in the weird duality that is the Lich King, is all that prevents the Lich King from destroying all of Azeroth. To suggest that he is also exerting enough power over the Lich King personality to spare Wintergarde Keep by incorrectly positioning his forward assault fortress, raises too many questions in my opinion. So Wintergarde is spared, but he still sends his agents to destroy Valiance Keep from within? What about his appearance at the Wrathgate? What about his ongoing assault of the Argent Crusade, led by Tirion Fordring, a former mentor when Arthas was a Knight of the Silver Hand. Even Jaina is not spared his wrath in the Halls of Reflection! So why Wintergarde?
Nonetheless, interesting thoughts all around, and I do enjoy the conversation. 😀 Thanks for posting!