The Lich King (boss)

The Lich King (boss)
Last updated:	August 30, 2023
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Voice actor:	Michael McConnohie

The Lich King is a boss found in the Knights of the Frozen Throne mission. He is the final boss of the mission.

Hero powers

	Passive	Auto-cast

Deck

The below classes are listed purely for reference, and have no effect on the boss' use of the cards during the battle.

Class	Card	Quantity
Boss	Skeletal Knight	2
	Looming Presence	2
	Val'kyr Shadowguard	2
	Frostmourne*	1
Death Knight	Obliterate (The Lich King)	2
	Anti-Magic Shell (The Lich King)	2
Mage	Shatter	1
	Coldwraith	3
	Water Elemental	2
	Blizzard	2
Neutral	Glacial Shard	2
	Grim Necromancer	2
	Saronite Chain Gang	2
	Sludge Belcher	2
	Maexxna	1
	The Black Knight	1
	Bonemare	2

• Frostmourne is not technically part of the deck. This card will be added to the top of the Lich King's deck on turn 7.

Class Challenges

• The Lich King has a challenge card for each class, making the encounter more challenging. These cards cost 1 Mana, and do not start in his deck. When the game begins, the appropriate card will be added to his hand, and one of his starting cards will be shuffled into his deck. He will always play the challenge card on turn 1.

Lich Card	Effect	Class Played Against
Fallen Champions	Whenever an enemy dies this game, take control of it.	Paladin
Necrotic Plague	Set minions in your opponent's hand and deck to 1/1.	Shaman
Purge the Weak	Destroy all enemy minions that cost (3) or less, wherever they are	Druid
Shut up, Priest	Your opponent can't emote.	Priest
Soul Reaper	Deal 2 damage for each duplicate in opponent's deck.	Warlock
The Hunted	Deal 2 damage to your opponent for each minion in their deck.	Hunter
The True King	Gain 100 Armor.	Warrior
The True Lich	Set the enemy hero's remaining health to 1.	Mage
The Price of Power	Destroy every spell in your opponent's hand and deck.	Rogue

Note: Due to being added to the game after Knights of the Frozen Throne, Demon Hunter does not have a specific challenge and cannot be selected against the Lich King, but using the Whizbang the Wonderful deck, the Demon Hunter deck can be selected by it. Maestra of the Masquerade also can set the player as a Demon Hunter, since the card takes effect from the very start of the game. While the encounter is beatable, it's not properly implemented; the Lich King won't play any cheat cards, and the win screen defaults to Mage, but without any class-specific dialogue or epilogue text. Oddly, Death Knight can be selected for this fight despite not being implemented.

Dialogue

The Lich King

Misc

Unlocking The Frozen Throne

Shall I lay down Frostmourne and throw myself at your mercy? Spoiler: I will NOT.

Before match

You will beg for my mercy. You will press the "concede" button, and I will deny you.

Rematch after first victory

Look at your hand, champion. Look at what you've become. Are we really so different, you and I?

After winning with all heroes

Now I stand, a lion before lambs...and they do not fear.

Encounter

Greeting

Is that your deck? It looks like a plea for help.

You call that wretched pile of cards a deck?

Your anguished cries will be a testament to my legend-level play.

You think I'll have mercy on the likes of you?

I am the beginning and the end - I AM THE NEW META.

You suffering will be legendary. Your rank will not.

Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder...

Greeting against Arthas Menethil

I hate mirror matches.

Emote response

No one orders me around!

Boss cards

Fallen Champions

The Light won't protect you here, Paladin. Nothing will protect you!

Necrotic Plague

Your minions cower in terror before me, Shaman!

Purge the Weak

I will dismantle your deck, and then... YOUR SOUL.

Shut up, Priest

Silence, Priest! The Light will be deaf to your cries for mercy.

Soul Reaper

Warlock, set aside your pitiful hand. The terrors you command will soon serve ME.

The Hunted

Lonely Hunter. Strip away your little friends, and what is left to oppose me, hm?

The True King

Warrior. You will make a marvelous Death Knight once I have broken you.

The True Lich

Mage! I alone hold sway over the bitter chill of death!

The Price of Power

Come out of the shadows, Rogue. Where would you be without your "tricks"?

The Lich King gets a horseman of Uther of the Ebon Blade

If I get all four, this is going to be so embarassing for you.

Frostmourne

Frostmourne Hungers.

Frostmourne Hungers. Did you want anything?

Behold the power of Frostmourne!

Counterspell counters The True Lich

How did this get past QA!?

Mana Bind copies The True Lich / the player casts the other challenge cards

MADNESS! Who tests these adventures!?

Using a copied Shut up, Priest

But wait you can't- *silence*

Emotes after the Lich King uses Shut up, Priest

Priest Hero (When using Anduin)

Greetings: Mmpphh!

Well Played: Mmpphh...

Thanks: Mmphmm.

Wow: Mmpphh...

Oops: Mmpphh?

Threaten: Mmpphhhhhh!!!

Emote Responses after the Lich King uses Shut up, Priest

The Lich King

Silence!

Shh!

Shhhhh!

Zip it.

All right zip it.

Ziiiip.

Emote Responses after using a copied Shut up, Priest

The Lich King

Mmmph.

Mppmph Mmmphm!

MphMPH!

Mpphmmm...

Taunting the player

No card can forestall my inevitable triumph.

Each card you play brings you closer to oblivion.

You play cards the way my Father ran his kingdom. Weakly.

That was your most pathetic turn, and you've had some bad ones.

Your demise is inevitable, and no emote can express your shame.

How do you shuffle those cards without feeling sorry for yourself?

Who built that deck for you? Did they think you were fighting Hogger?

Player's cards

Snowflipper Penguin

I... I love him.

Mindbreaker

My power is not so easily eclipsed.

Arfus

Bad dog!

Professor Putricide

I knew I never liked you.

Blood-Queen Lana'thel

Your betrayal does not surprise me, Lana'thel.

Bolvar Fordragon

Bolvar Fordragon

You...!

The Lich King

The breaking of this one has been taxing.

Bolvar, Fireblood

The breaking of this one has been taxing.

Illidan Stormrage

The Frozen Throne is mine, demon. Step aside.

Sylvanas Windrunner

After all you've put me through, the last thing I'll give you is the peace of death.

Archmage Antonidas

I finished you once, old man. I'll do it again!

Sindragosa

She was MY finisher! Give her back!

Tirion Fordring

I'll keep you alive to witness the end, Fordring.

Becoming a death knight

Yes... Embrace your new power... I have already won...

Kel'Thuzad

Kel'Thuzad (alternate summon)

Glory to the Lich King!

The Lich King

Kel'Thuzad! You're in the wrong adventure!

The Lich King

The Lich King

Well hello handsome.

The Lich King

I look good.

Summoning Darion Mograine (from The Four Horsemen)

Mograine! I can't even keep track if you're a good guy or bad guy anymore.

Gluttonous Ooze or Acidic Swamp Ooze against his Frostmourne

A pathetic attempt...

Frostmourne phase, second turn

Trapped Soul

...help us...

Frostmourne phase, third turn (skipped if the Lich King controls 2 Trapped Souls or less)

Trapped Soul 1

There is no escape...

Trapped Soul 2

...there might be some escape...

Trapped Soul 3

...shh!

Frostmourne phase, fourth turn

Trapped Soul

...save us...

Destroying Frostmourne by defeating all Trapped Souls

Did someone nerf my weapon?

Remorseless Winter

Face now your tragic end.

Damaging The Lich King below 10 health

Impossible... IMPOSSIBLE!

Death

I see... only darkness before me...

Defeat

Join me in the darkness...

Victory

Tirion Fordring

You did it, champion!

Hero

There must always be... (changes into death knight) ...a LICH KING!

After first completion

The Lich King

Impossible... IMPOSSIBLE!! What do you say, best of nine?

Lore

This section uses content from Wowpedia.

The Lich King is the demigod ruler of the Scourge, a massive, ravenous army of undead monstrosities, insidious spirits and mortal cultists. The first Lich King was created when Zovaal the Jailer forced the Runecarver (imprisoned Primus) who was forced against his will to do so by the Jailer to create both Frostmourne and Helm of Domination The Jailer intended to use the blade and the Helm to establish his influence on Azeroth, thereby allowing him to claim his "final prize", a secret that the First Ones sought to hide and also when the orc shaman Ner'zhul (former mentor of Gul'dan) was captured by the demon lord Kil'jaeden, transformed into a spectral entity and encased in a block of ice called the Frozen Throne, which was then hurled to Azeroth and landed in the wastes of Northrend. The Lich King's task was to create a Plague of Undeath to wreak havoc on Azeroth's inhabitans, weakening the world and preparing it for the invasion of the demonic Burning Legion.

When the Plague began affecting the human kingdom of Lordaeron, the young prince Arthas Menethil set out with his mentor, Uther Lightbringer, and romantic interest, Lady and Princess Jaina Proudmoore, to investigate. However, Arthas' determination to stop the plague led him to commit increasingly desperate acts, such as purging the city of Stratholme in the belief that its inhabitants were infected by the plague, an act which caused him to sever ties with Uther and Jaina. During the Culling of Stratholme, Arthas encountered the demon Mal'Ganis, who presented himself as the leader of the undead and invited the prince to pursue him to the frozen continent of Northrend. Arthas did so, and once in the icy wastes he picked up the cursed runeblade Frostmourne despite the warnings of his old friend, Muradin Bronzebeard (brother of Magni and Brann). Although Frostmourne allowed Arthas to defeat Mal'Ganis, the blade consumed his soul and he became a death knight of the Lich King. Returning to Lordaeron, Arthas murdered his royal father and led the Scourge in its devastation of the kingdoms of Lordaeron, Dalaran and Quel'Thalas. Eventually, Arthas returned to Northrend to merge with the Lich King into a single entity, after which he was encased in the Frozen Throne and lapsed into dormancy for years. Meanwhile, his Scourge minions constructed Icecrown Citadel around the Frozen Throne, and his various servants continued carrying out his will across Azeroth.

Years later, the Scourge rose up once more to threaten Azeroth. The Alliance and Horde, as well as the Argent Crusade — a paladin organization led by Tirion Fordring — and the Knights of the Ebon Blade — a faction of death knights who had broken away from the Lich King's control — launched armies into Northrend to combat the Lich King's forces. After a long and grueling campaign, the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade launched an assault upon Icecrown Citadel, with Tirion and the heroes of Azeroth confronting the Lich King at the Frozen Throne at the citadel's pinnacle. However, just as the heroes began their assault, Arthas froze Tirion in a block of ice, forcing him to watch the battle helplessly. Eventually, the Lich King effortlessly killed all of the adventurers with a single devastating attack and began raising them as death knights of the Scourge, proclaiming that:

"No questions remain unanswered. No doubts linger. You ARE Azeroth's greatest champions. You overcame every challenge I laid before you. My mightiest servants have fallen before your relentless onslaught... your unbridled fury... Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder... You trained them well, Fordring. You delivered the greatest fighting force this world has ever known... right into my hands - exactly as I intended! You shall be rewarded for your unwitting sacrifice. Watch now as I raise them from the dead to become masters of the Scourge. They will shroud this world in chaos and destruction. Azeroth's fall will come at their hands -- and you will be the first to die. *laughs* I delight in the irony."

Tirion beseeched the Light for one final blessing, breaking free from his bonds and leaping forward to shatter Frostmourne with his sword, the Ashbringer. The spirits who had been trapped within Frostmourne attacked their former jailer, while the spirit of Arthas' father, King Terenas, resurrected the heroes, allowing them to finish off the Lord of the Scourge. Arthas expired in his father's arms, saying that he saw "only darkness" before him. However, as the Scourge would become an even greater threat and rampage across the world if they were not held in check by a ruler, Bolvar Fordragon took up the mantle of the Lich King in order to keep the Scourge contained.

Gallery

The Lich King, full art