Fire and Ice: The Fates of Fordragon and Frostmourne?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 5:00AM | Richard 'Greyseer' Powell | in Lore, Speculation, Spoilers | 5 Comments | Share Article 
This article contains potential spoilers speculated from datamined content. These are not official story events, but may strongly suggest the direction of events to come.
Yesterday, MMO Champion posted pictures of what they've labeled "lavaman." Immediately speculation popped up regarding who this being may be, with some people thinking that it may be a version of Arthas that we haven't see yet.
Of course, that we've seen his death animation would indicate that this isn't Arthas at all, but someone else. But who?
The Immolated Champion
During the encounter with Yogg-Saron, we see a scene with two entities. One being labeled the Turned Champion and the other labeled the Immolated Champion. We know, through recent leaks, that Deathbringer Saurfang will be encountered in Icecrown Citadel. This, most likely, is the Turned Champion. But what of the Immolated Champion? Who's that?
How about our old friend of speculation: Bolvar Fordragon? We know that he fell just before the red dragons came in to raze the Wrathgate area with fire. It's possible that Bolvar's body was caught in this conflagration, yet somehow the Lich King was still able to take him.
I think that dragon's fire could be enough to consider someone immolated, don't you?
Check this out:
'Lavaman' image provided by MMO Champion
The belt, the boots, the cloth around the upper parts of the greaves... are we looking at Bolvar Fordragon's current form?
We'll see, won't we?
Mourning the Frost in the Shadow
In addition to this, we also have some more information regarding Shadowmourne, the stated Legendary weapon that replaced Frostmourne as a piece of player loot (assuming Blizzard wasn't pulling our chain at BlizzCon).
It seems that Blizzard has moved back towards a series of epic quests in order to achieve a legendary class item, much like with obtaining Sulfuras, the Hand of Ragnaros. That said, we can see an axe that will most likely be the base weapon, much like the Sulfuron Hammer was the base weapon for Sulfuras. This base weapon may be Shadow's Edge.
What intrigues me is not necessarily the quests needed to upgrade the weapon, but the weapon's final form. Does Shadowmourne's fully-charged appearance hint at the potential fate of Frostmourne? Or is it merely coincidence?
Images provided by MMO Champion
Specifically, it appears that the signature skull from Frostmourne is embedded within the blade of Shadowmourne. Could the final step in forging this weapon actually be the destruction of the Lich King and the sundering of his blade?
We saw from the Lich King's death animation that he may not be wielding Frostmourne at the end, so what happens to the sword? Is it reclaimed by the Burning Legion? Is it taken up by another villain? Or is it destroyed?
Will Frostmourne really be shattered? Or is the appearance merely consistent design aesthetic?
What are your thoughts?
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Reader Comments (5)
Awesome call on lavaman = bolvar, it hadn't even occurred to me.
Wow. Well, they did say Frostmourne would have a "unique fate" ...
But honestly, I managed not to even notice the Frostmourne-skull on Shadowmourne until you pointed it out. It does bring up an interesting possibility, though: perhaps the Battered Hilt that starts the Shadowmourne forging quest is Frostmourne's hilt, possibly dropped by the Lich King when you kill him.
And Shadowmourne is undoubtedly a runeblade - after you get Shadow's Edge, you apparently have to feed it 1000 souls to power it up to Shadowmourne. That's a very Frostmourne-ish appetite.
As to the Lavaman - I'd be very surprised if that wasn't Bolvar. And I have a sadface, because between being immolated and the Lich King trying to turn him, his chances of being saved don't look so great. But maybe Blizzard will surprise us ... either way, it'll be very interesting to see how that all plays out!
I'll second the call on Lavaman = Bolvar. It hadn't occurred to me, but now that you've said it, I believe it.
My friends and I were thinking Lavaman would be a new addition to Vault of Archavon at first. When you look at his picture alone, he looks like he'd be large, like the 'ons. But side by side with Bolvar, it's pretty obvious to me. Really can't wait for this patch!
Lavaman almost looks like he could be a burned out ragnaros (even though he's an elemental)...
Since the Wotlk version of "The shattered sun offensive" is going to be called "The Ashen Verdict" this is what i initially thought:
Immolated bolvar maybe ESCAPES from the lich king somehow, and he goes to tirion fordring, all pissed off, and he makes the ashen verdict.
However, i dismissed this idea when i remembered the immolated champion dialogue from the visions of yogg, so, idk, he may end up being part of the arthas encounter, because he isnt a boss himself, and we already know saurfang is gonna be a boss himself.
As for if it is actually bolvar, 1, it looks like him, i.e the armor and stuff matches, 2 it would make all the sense in the world, because red dragonfire doesnt actually kill living beings, it cleanses them, (like the quest in icecrown where you try and save that 1 paladins life by geting a bunch of super powerful npc's stuff, and 1 of them is alexstraza's fire) plus we havn't seen him pop up anywhere else yet.