Were Death Knights in existence before “Burning Crusade?”
Yes. The 4 Horsemen were all death knights. Arthas was a death knight in WC3. They were not a playable class until Wrath, however.
3 Likes
Depends what you define as a DK. The original ones were orc souls stuffed in stormwind infantrymen corpses and they date back to the the last battles of the First War.
The Second Gen DKs were Fallen Knights of the Silver Hand, which became DKs during the Third War.
3 Likes
Yeah. Death Knights first existed in the Second then Third War. First as Orcs in the corpses of human knights. Later as fallen paladins and warriors turned by Arthas. But also in Warcraft 3, maybe 2 as well?
The first Death Knights we know of were those created by the Orcs during the Second War, in Warcraft 2. They were the souls of Orc Warlocks bound to human corpses, such as Gorefiend.
After that we had the Death Knights from the Scourge, Arthas being the first of those, during the Third War, which took place during Warcraft 3.
Keep in mind the Second War Death Knights were far more caster oriented, while the Third War Death Knights were more melee.
5 Likes
It’d be cool if we got some more info on the 1st gen DKs. Most people don’t even know they existed. When you think “Death Knight”, you think of the 2nd gen Scourge variety.
5 Likes
Thank you all for that history lesson. I appreciate it. It’s all good to know. By DK I meant the ones from the Scourge (only ones I knew about until now).
1 Like
Before their eponymous comic was released it was a pretty popular theory that the Dark Riders were 1st gen DKs. They ended up being something different but part of me wishes they had been, though I did like their actual backstory.
I did hear mention of Dark Riders (dk what they are) being connected with DKs.
Considering their noted differences, did the Lich King just really like the name “Death Knight” and decided to co-opt it for his own use or did he consider his version of Death Knights an extension of the work that Gul’dan and the warlocks did?
1 Like
I think it might be more of a different meaning behind the words.
The Second War’s Death Knights were literally the corpses of Knights from Stormwind used to house the souls of dead Orc Warlocks. In that respect, they were quite literally dead knights. They still wielded fel magic though. By contrast the Third War’s Death Knights were practitioners of a more thorough form of necromancy in a way the Second War’s weren’t. Second War Death Knights did have some necromantic powers, but they were still mages, whereas Third War Death Knights were true commanders, and thus filled the definition of Knight a lot better.
2 Likes
I just got a mental image of Ner’zhul saying to himself, “I’ll show you Gul’dan, my death knights will be even better than yours! 100% more death and knight in my death knights!”
4 Likes
Baron Rivendare was in WC3