“Our party has defeated the waves of undeads, in the city of Stratholme. Aiding Prince Arthas Menethil for his goal to defeat the powerful demon Mal’Ganis, we entered the town hall, greeted by groups of dragons in human form. We hacked our way deep into Stratholme, blood and sweat and fallen bodies of the undeads, and of the dragons. Colors of magic engulfed our party, of offense to our enemies, and of healing to us.
Then the unthinkable happened. One of the dragons took its eyes off our warrior and attacked our undead warlock, with full force. Didn’t stand a chance, our companion fell. Dead. Maybe our undead priest tried too desperately to reverse the inevitable of our party’s first death, our orc warrior did not get the healing in time, and he too fell onto the ground, dead.
Without our warrior, it looked as though our mission was doomed. Our blood elf warlock metamorphosed into his demon form, attempted to hold off the dragons for as long as he could, but did not last long. And soon, our healer was dead too. I snapped into action, with heightened reflex. I was a blood elf rogue, carrying a poisonous mace on my right hand and a dagger on my left. My party in ghost spirit watching, as I fought side by side with Arthas. Just me, and him. Don’t let Arthas die, they all screamed. I was in killing spree, ditching out as much damage as possible. At the very crucial moment, we won. Arthas continued moving forward as I quickly rested and bandaged myself. We only had time to resurrect three of us, hardly had time to get prepared, and the big demon Chrono-Lord Epoch spawned out of nowhere, charging towards us. A voice ascended from hell and said: Prince Arthas Menethil, on this day, a powerful darkness has taken hold of your soul. The death you are destined to visit upon others will this day be your own.” – My personal journal of one of our visits to the heroic dungeon Culling of Stratholme.
Many friends ask: How can you play an online game for more than four years? It is hard to explain. In fact, I have given up explaining long time ago. The analogy as such: Regularly, you and your friend arrive at a court, spend an hour or two to play a game bounded by a certain set of rules. And in every other days, you do something else, other than basketball. How can you play basketball or football for years? Same type of courts, some set of rules, and at times, same group of friends. The answer could be as simple as what has been illustrated in the first three paragraphs of this entry. It is not the rules of the game that makes a game special. It is those memorable moments you take part to create within a game that makes you want to do it again, and again. I did not write the above story. It was a journal of one of our venture into a dungeon (in heroic mode) with five online players. Some days, we blast through the dungeon. Some days, the same reward is much hard earned.
Of all the many game aspects, I respect the role-playing gamers the most. Not only do they act in character while playing the online game, they write too. Check out the role-playing forum if you have time, for an eye-opening experience. These people are skilled writers, brilliant storytellers. Of the thousands of fan-based lore writers, some have made it to publish books that are endorsed by the brand World of Warcraft. No easy feat indeed. At the back of “Arthas: Rise of the Lich King” for instance, there is a long section of “Further Reading” listing the relevant publications out there. There is as though an unwritten rule that all the storytellers have to create stories that not only gel with the overall lore laid down by Blizzard (the creator of the Warcraft franchise), but also gel with what have been published in the past.
This book – written by Christie Golden – accounts for the story of Prince Arthas Menethil from young, his romance with Lady Jaina Proudmoore, the trial he faced, and into the dark power he turned his back away from his alliance and has become the Lich King. It is a familiar story for those who have been soaked in the lore of Warcraft for years. Familiar names, familiar places, even some of the dialogues – a faithful account of events. This book is timely as “Rise of the Lich King” is our current game expansion. For those who may be new to the lore (like Cynthia and to some extend, I, as for some reasons, I have not started on the Warcraft III Expansion pack), “Arthas” is a good book to read. Christie Golden has portrayed Arthas’s transformation well, a character whom I have developed feelings towards.
In a way, I agree with some of the readers that the later part of the book may appear to be too much of a rush (containing too many events) in contrary to the initial part that focuses more onto the character development. Maybe an expanded section to account for the epic battles would be welcome by many. Cynthia has read it and calls it a children book (what happens to all the killing and the implied sex?!). As for me, for days, I was locked inside this world of Arthas, even as I was on the plane returning from my previous holiday location.
2 replies on “World of Warcraft: Arthas, Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden – A Book Review & More”
Arthas’s story, to me, is central to the entire World of Warcraft brand. In many ways, he is much alike to Kerrigan of the Starcraft series.
Darkspore – Indeed. I am just concerned what will go beyond the story of Arthas. The lore has to continue …