Games - The Scourge

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	Games - The Scourge

The Scourge is a faction of the Undead in the fictional Warcraft Universe.

The Scourge is a race of undead monsters originally controlled by Ner'zhul, a magical being of tremendous power akin to the Overmind of the Starcraft universe. Once an Orcish shaman, Ner'zhul sought warlock powers and delved deeply into demonic magic, until he was confronted by Kil'jaeden, the dark lord of the Burning Legion. Ner'zhul bargained with the demons - in exchange for incredible power he would pledge the service of the enslaved Orcish Horde to the demons, and open portals for the Horde to invade Azeroth. After his defeat by the Alliance his body was ripped to pieces and his spirit tortured, until Kil'jaeden decided to use him as the leader of a new attack on Azeroth. The demonlord gave Ner'zhul a new body to inhabit, and to keep his minion and his tremendous new powers in check, Ner'zhul, now the "Lich King" was embedded in a great glacier in Northrend and watched over by vampyric dreadlords.

The Scourge, when commanded by Ner'zhul, was made up of undead monsters, including cannibalistic ghouls, Frankenstein's monster-like Abominations, wraiths, liches, banshees, frost wyrms, gargoyles, undead nerubians, necromancers, and demons. In Warcraft III, new Scourge buildings must be built on the decaying, dead land called Blight that surrounds existing Scourge buildings. This is analogous to the requirement in Starcraft that Zerg buildings be built upon Creep. Indeed, the Undead Scourge is the Warcraft III race that most resembles the Zerg.

Ner'zhul, using the undead monsters, was successful in engineering the summoning of the Burning Legion into Azeroth. But at the same time, he realized that if the Burning Legion was completely successful in destroying the world, he would become useless to the demons and be cast aside. Therefore he secretly betrayed his demon masters and contributed to the eventual defeat of the Burning Legion at the battle of Mount Hyjal. As punishment, Kil'jaeden persuaded the half-demon Night Elf, Illidan Stormrage, to destroy the Lich King. Illidan used the Eye of Sargeras, an ancient artifact, to break open the Icecrown Glacier, weakening the Lich King's control over the Scourge. Illidan was interrupted in his spell and did not succeed in destroying Ner'zhul, but a faction of the Undead, the "Forsaken", were able to escape the Lich King's control at the time. The Forsaken are the playable undead faction in World of Warcraft.

Illidan's quest to destroy the Scourge was finally thwarted by the corrupted death knight King Arthas, who used his cursed runeblade Frostmourne to defeat Illidan's expedition and free Ner'zhul (visible as an enchanted crown) from Icecrown glacier. Arthas donned the helm, merging his spirit with the Ner'zhul's. As the new Lich King, Arthas is the most powerful single being on Azeroth.

The Scourge currently rules the Eastern and Western Plaguelands from the castes of Stratholme and Scholomance in the former nation of Lordaeron, and (presumably) what remains of Northrend after the destruction of Icecrown Glacier. There's more to come as the story develops, possibly in an upcoming World of Warcraft expansion pack.

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