“MAMA!” The young high elf screamed and woke up from her nightmare with a jolt, sweat dripping from her forehead.
“There, there,” the woman tending to her spoke gently, rubbing the young elf’s back to calm her down. “It was just a dream this time.” She murmured some words, weaving a spell of soothing.
Mor’thana looked up, trying to blink away the tears in her brown eyes as she found comfort in the embrace of the woman she had come to call “Mother.” Kaelstrasza was the closest thing Mori had to family since her parents had been slain in the Fall of Quel’Thalas two years ago.
“The dreams…they won’t stop,” pleaded the child. “Can you do something about them?”
Kaelstrasza’s long eyebrows furrowed as she frowned in thought. Her glowing red eyes searched Mori’s imploring face, trying to find an answer.
“There might be a way to bring them back!”
Mori’s desperate plea had haunted the woman over the years since then.
Kael frowned and stood to her full height. She muttered, deep in thought as she paced across the living room. She is yet only six years of age, it may not be wise, she told herself, but she needs to know the truth.
“My child,” the woman began, “it is time that I told you about the true nature of life and death in this world.”
Mori looked quizzically at her mother. Kael chuckled, and stooped down to pick the young elf up. She gracefully seated herself on the ornate couch and placed Mori upon her lap. The woman pointed at the fireplace, and a neat flame sprung up from the wood.
Kaelstrasza snapped her fingers and produced an image of a tulip in bloom.
“You see this flower,” she spoke, “it lives. It was once a seedling but blossomed into something more beautiful and elegant. It will not last forever, though. Once the winter strikes and removes the flower’s sun and food, it will die.” The petals fell off the image of the flower one by one and disappeared. Mori saddened at the thought.
“A flower blooms and wilts. Humans, elves, orcs, and other creatures with souls are not so simple. For them, life and death have many different forms.”
Mori’s eyes widened. She had never heard about different forms of life…or death, for that matter, back in Quel’Thalas.
Kael waved her hand and produced an image of a human man. “This man lives,” she explained, “but he is mortal.” She closed her fist, and the human fell to the ground. “One day, from either natural or unnatural causes, he will die.”
Mori shuddered, remembering the loss of life she had witnessed two years ago.
“This man may very well stay dead for the rest of eternity,” the woman began, “or he might not.”
Mori was stunned. “So, you can bring people back to life?”
“Not quite life,” Kael replied, “Resurrection and reanimation are not quite the same thing. True resurrection, where you return to the flesh as you were while alive, is a miracle and impossible without aid from the divine. Reanimation, on the other hand, is a cruder form of life and much more accessible, but it alters your appearance.” The man in her illusion slowly stood back up, his back hunched and his skin falling off his body. “This man is called ‘undead’, for he has been reanimated back to life.” His eyes had an eerie golden glow to them, and Mori couldn’t help but stare at them.
The young elf fell silent in thought.
“My parents,” she spoke a few moments later, “what happened to them? Are they undead?”
“I don’t know,” the woman answered. “Arthas raised many of the high elves that were slain that day to join the ranks of his army. I cannot say whether your parents were among those who were brought back under his servitude.”
Mori remembered watching the Intruder, or Arthas, as he was called, pouring the strange black liquid into the Sunwell and seeing the skeletal figure emerge from it.
“And that big skeleton,” Mori asked, “was he undead, too?”
“Yes,” Kael replied, “but a special kind of undead called a lich.”
“Are all liches made with the Sunwell?” Mori had never seen one before the strange skeleton.
“No, my child.” Kaelstrasza had to resist letting out a laugh. “Most liches are born after the person binds their soul to a container known as their phylactery.”
Mori’s ears perked up at the strange new words. Undead. Lich. Phylactery. She wanted to know more. She needed the answers to many questions.
“Then why did Arthas use the Sunwell? And why was that skeleton so special?”
Kael thought to herself for a moment, then stood up from her seat as she picked Mori up and placed her directly onto the couch.
“Let me tell you the story of the infamous mage and necromancer Kel’Thuzad.”
The woman clasped her hands together then slowly spread them apart as an illusion formed in front of Mori like a stage at the outdoor theatre. In the image, several men and women (humans and elves alike) were seated around a large table. A middle-aged man in purple robes stood away from the table.
“That man is Kel’Thuzad,” Kaelstrasza explained. “He was once a great scholar and Archmage of the Kirin Tor, the most powerful body of wizards on Azeroth.”
Mori watched as an elderly mage bearing a long beard walked up to Kel’Thuzad.
“That is Antonidas, the leader of the Kirin Tor.”
“Kel’Thuzad, you are a disgrace to your kind. A heretic, hiding among those who choose to live according to the laws of the land."
“Antonidas, you must listen to me!” pleaded Kel’Thuzad, “I am merely trying to understand the powers that destroyed us in the Second War. We must learn to wield and counter these warlocks’ magics ourselves if we are to have any hope of survival!”
A murmur of agreement spread across the observers seated at the table.
“Then what,” demanded Antonidas as he opened a box containing two undead rats scurrying around, “do you call this?”
“Hey!” The archmage exclaimed in protest, “those are my private experiments! The rats are standard experimental procedure! You had no right to go through my belongings!”
Antonidas closed the box and handed it to his assistant. “Take it away and destroy it.” He turned back to the archmage and spoke.
“Kel’Thuzad, I hereby remove from you of your title as Archmage of the Kirin Tor and expel you from both Dalaran and Lordaeron. All items formerly in your possession tainted by dark magic will be confiscated and destroyed.”
The former archmage was furious. He had tried to explain his motivations many times to his colleagues, but they refused to accept him. He bowed and left the hall, enraged.
“But he didn’t do anything wrong!” Mori exclaimed, “He was just doing experiments! Those magics hurt his people and he wanted to help protect them.”
Kaelstrasza nodded. “Other mages of the Kirin Tor were afraid that his studies would develop into something more dangerous, that he would cause corruption and catastrophe. They called it forbidden magic, and after his expulsion, banned the study of the dead, necromancy.”
The woman snapped her fingers and the image changed from the meeting hall of the Kirin Tor to the base of a mountain covered with ice and snow, the winds howling fiercely.
“It must be here somewhere. The Master told me to come to Northrend, and here I am.” Kel’Thuzad frantically searched for a door, an entrance, any opening to a shelter from the icy winds.
A giant beetle appeared next to the former archmage, and Mori watched the two travel through crypts full of laboratory equipment.
“All these resources, beautiful!” Kel’Thuzad was fascinated, “I can perform my experiments here as I please!”
Mori jumped as she heard the screams of a man in torment and the growls of a woman. Was it really a woman? She couldn’t tell.
Kel’Thuzad’s face was now twisted in horror.
“No! I cannot stay here! I must leave! This is not what I intended to do!”
The former archmage teleported out of the crypts and ran as quickly as his feeble legs could carry him. His efforts were futile, however, as the Master’s wraiths found him and dragged him to the one they served.
“I’ll give you a choice, mage,” a set of armor encased in a massive block of ice spoke through Kel’Thuzad’s mind, “serve the Lich King willingly, or I shall raise you, and you will serve me in undeath.”
Kel’Thuzad clenched his fists as he realized he truly had no choice in the matter. He lay, beaten, on the icy ground and croaked, “I will serve, Master.”
The image faded away, leaving behind a very stunned Mori. She looked up at her mother in thought.
“Would you like me to continue?” the woman asked. The young elf nodded.
“Very well,” Kaelstrasza began, “Kel’Thuzad was discovered and killed by Arthas while investigating a series of incidents involving plague. Once the young man fell under the control of the Lich King, however, his mission became to raise Kel’Thuzad as a lich.”
Kael snapped her fingers and a familiar sight appeared in front of Mori.
“Kel’Thuzad did not have a proper phylactery,” she spoke, “and the only fount of magic strong enough to bring him back was—”
“—the Sunwell.” Mori finished the sentence. The woman nodded.
“But why bring him back?”
The image of the Sunwell disappeared.
“There are rumors, my child, that the Lich King was attempting to fight against the Burning Legion, vast demonic forces that sought to destroy Azeroth. If that is true, then anyone raised with his power, Kel’Thuzad included, would be used to fight their evil regime to save our planet. The undead have special abilities and immunities that the living do not.”
Kaelstrasza sat back down on the couch next to her daughter, gently crossing one leg over the other. “I still need to do ample research,” she spoke gently, “but that is the story, to the best of my knowledge.” Kael stroked Mori’s silver hair and held her with one arm. “I do hope that helped.”
The girl nodded, her brown eyes sparkling with newfound curiosity as she stared at the fireplace.
“Can you teach me how to bring people back?” Mori looked hopefully at her mother, who sighed and shook her head, to the child’s dismay.
“It is true that I study life and death as part of my duty to the Red and Black Dragonflights,” Kael replied, “and have learned much about the magics that encompass both the living and the dead, but I do not have the skills that a necromancer would possess.”
The young high elf pouted. “There must be someone who can!”
Kaelstrasza stood up and paced around the room, her elegant robe reflecting the light from the fireplace. “As you know, Mori, the Kirin Tor do not take kindly to necromancers, though their facilities for training in magic are the finest on the planet. However,” she paused and stood still, “I can make arrangements with the warlock trainers in Silvermoon City to take you under their wing.”
“Warlock,” Mori repeated the word slowly as if savoring its name, “like the magic Kel’Thuzad was studying!”
Kael nodded. “Over the course of your training you will develop a basic understanding of how warlocks use fel magic and necromancy, and with practice you can become very powerful. Should your studies go well, I will help you find a group of adventurers with whom you can explore the world and practice your skills. How does that sound?”
The young elf nodded eagerly as a wide grin broke out across her face. I’m going to become the greatest lich on Azeroth! Mori thought to herself. Then, I will protect my people forever!
“It is decided, then,” Kaelstrasza spoke as she walked to the door, “I’m off to Silvermoon City. I shall return, my child!” With a roar, she morphed into her dragon form and turned her head to the sky. After several flaps of her great wings, she was gone.
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