First, some background. The Ebon Blade is an order of Death Knights based in the floating necropolis of Archeras after the Lich King Arthas abandoned them and gave them their wills back. The difference between what we see as sentient undead and the mindless ones is the amount of willpower or as we may find out, the amount of Anima one has.
Some undead with stronger wills were able to break free from Arthas’ control themselves, before and after Arthas became the Lich King. While some were only able to do so when Arthas let go of them, or when the Lich King was weak.
Necromancers often retain control of the undead they raise to some extent, but it seems as though the Lich King and other strong undead entities can take control of undead controlled by weaker necromancers. The Knights of the Ebon Blade were able to take control of a myriad of undead minions formerly under Arthas’ control during his rein as the Lich King in Icecrown, as well as many of the scourge minions that acted as servants in Archeras, including a Lich (The original frost trainer for Death Knights). And Arthas was able to take control of any undead raised by his necromancers.
But the current Ebon Blade and the current Lich King Bolvar have been very independent. Bolvar appears to want the Death Knights to retain their free wills, and has only worked with us in Legion as a partner, not a master. He acted as a strategist and information specialist and offered that information and plans to us in order to defeat the Burning Legion, threatening time take control of the Ebon Blade if we refused to fight the Legion. Keep in mind, defeating the Burning Legion was ultimately Ner’Zhul and Arthas’ original intentions for the continuation of the Scourge after the Legion was done with them, and Bolvar clearly wanted us to defeat them with just as much passion as the former Lich King. This leads me to believe that Bolvar is not only himself anymore, and was merged with the spirit of at least Ner’Zhul, if not Arthas as well. But he retained his desires for the Death Knights to maintain their freedom.
During Legion, the Deathlord InsertYourDeathKnightNameHere raised up and founded the replacement Four Horseman. And we also see Bolvar raising new Death Knights from the victims of the Fourth War (though they are all allied races for some reason and how he got the bodies is still a mystery, but plot holes, they exist). But it’s said that the reason he raised these new Death Knights is because he could sense something, namely Sylvanas, coming to challenge him. But instead of keeping these new Death Knights around as bodyguards, he sent at least some of them away, if not most of them, to join the Alliance and Horde (And the Ebon Blade as you are given a quest to visit Archeras and runeforge your weapon).
Why did Bolvar not keep more than what appeared to be mindless undead around him when he knew Sylvanas was coming to challenge him? What was his intention for raising new Death Knights? What is he going to do moving forwards into Shadowlands? And my biggest question, how are the Knights of the Ebon Blade, including both new and old Death Knights, going to view Bolvar?
Are we supposed to view him as weak now that the Helm of Domination has been broken and he and his army of the dead have been defeated by a lone banshee with some thicc plot armor? Or are we supposed to view him as an ally in need?
The Ebon Blade and the Illidari are the only sub factions that exist with races from both the Alliance and Horde, as well as hold their members ultimate loyalty. The Death Knights serve the Ebon Blade first, their racial faction second, and their allied faction third. The same can be said for demon hunters, just swap out the Ebon Blade for the Illidari.
But the Illidari has their time in Legion, and was sorely disappointing as they kept getting corrupted by their own power at a time when we needed them most, and getting outshone by other class organizations at the time.
Shadowlands is a Death Themed expansion (obviously), that will likely have ties to Druidism as we see with the Drust and their arts, as well as the cycle of death and rebirth for Wild Gods/Loa. We know that Death Knights get their power through Maldraxxus, and it is highly likely that Arthas’ soul will be either in Maldraxxus or the Maw, depending on how blizzard decides to spin his story going forwards, if at all. But this isn’t about Arthas. What I want to know is if we get to see The Ebon Blade in action going forwards, or if blizzard is going to pretend the order doesn’t exist as they focus on everything else.
I would love to see The Ebon Blade ultimately move their base of operations into Maldraxxus, as we are the military that fights our enemies to the death, and then some. I want to see Kel’Thuzad (who isn’t dead since we never destroyed his phylactery), Arthas, Kael’thas, Jaina, Bolvar, Uther, and Sylvanas all have a spotlight in the story moving forwards, as well as interact since it has been a while since some of these characters last spoke.
This expansion has so much potential, as well as a chance to tell players who have never played War3 or read Arthas Rise of the Lich King (Written by Christie Golden) that Arthas was never truly a villain, and was more gray than black in what he did in the grand scheme of things. And if this expansion is anything near as good as Jaina’s story was, I will be very happy.
But please, I want at least a little bit of involvement and focus on the Ebon Blade, even if only Death Knights see it.