The Scourge invaded like fire, but Arthas did not sharpen his sword against Stratholme City.
You can massacre the city, but it's not necessary.
Because Quel'Thalas is the Lich King's next target.
Ner'zhul is bound to win the Sunwell, and the Curse Cult's penetration of the high elves has never stopped.
It just doesn't work very well.
Unlike humans who only embarked on the path of magic during the Arathor Empire, Silvermoon City has many powerful old things. Even the Lich King Ner'zhul must act cautiously if he wants to play tricks under the noses of those great magisters.
Of course, this cautious approach specifically refers to Silver Moon City.
The rune stone barrier covering the Eversong Forest cannot block the power of the Lich King.
The internal fighting in Silvermoon City is far from a simple struggle for power between the royal family and the parliamentary faction.
On the surface, the parliamentarians wanted to limit the power of the king and delegate power to parliament.
Okay, that's cool.
But is this progress?
No.
Quel'Thalas is a magical kingdom, and the excellent life of the Quel'dorei elves is based on powerful magical strength.
The common people exploited the lower class elves the most ruthlessly, but it was the nobles headed by these Silvermoon City councilors who were the most ruthless.
Although four thousand years is a long time for humans, for immortal species like high elves, it is only a span of three to five generations.
Why are the nobles of Quel'Thalas nobles?
The answer was so naked that there was no covering up, because his grandfather or great-grandfather was a noble.
Their rights come from blood.
Instead, the royal faction headed by Sun King Anastarian is constantly trying to defeat the ghost that envelopes the entire country of Quel'Thalas.
Over the past two thousand years, the Sun King has promoted many high elves born from common people.
But the reality is so cruel. Under the serious tilt of resources, the good-for-nothing son from a noble family is more talented than the Qilin'er from a poor family.
The distortion of the starting line makes hard work a ridiculous word.
The more critical point is that no matter how "enlightened" the royal family is, it is also a member of the aristocratic class. The royal faction and the parliamentary faction have always been in a state of struggle without breaking up, with cooperation and confrontation being the norm.
So the Sun King will not kill himself.
If the parliamentary faction hadn't made a fuss about Kael'thas's inheritance this time, Anastarian wouldn't be so ruthless.
The political strife in Silvermoon City is a political fight that is completely divorced from the people at the bottom.
When your tongue fails, use your fists to speak.
Anastarian was ultimately benevolent and limited his struggle to those in power.
Every day, dozens of competitions between nobles take place.
Every magic duel is accompanied by the death of one or even two magician-level elves.
The Sun King spent the last time of his long life wearing down his opponent's background, just so that his son could have a comfortable environment after he ascended the throne.
A noble and proud spirit.
After all, the royal family is also part of the nobility. Anastarian self-righteously believes that it is good for his people, but he ignores the fact that this high-level struggle has seriously weakened the foundation of Quel'Thalas.
What's more, because of the Sun King's self-righteous "protection", those high elves who were born as civilians and were even promoted by him regarded this excessive internal strife among the top leaders as shame and corruption.
Dar'Kan was finally completely desperate. He could not see a shred of hope in Quel'Thalas. He could not find a way to save his compatriots. He attributed all the injustices in Quel'Thalas to the bad nature of the race.
He, Dar'Kan, who was absolutely loyal to the high elves, heard the Lich King's whispers.
The aristocratic class is decadent and vying for power, while the people at the bottom are indifferent and living in vain.
This is not the attitude Quel'Thalas should have, this is not the life the Quel'dorei elves should live.
But what can Darkan do? He is just a middle-class person who is criticized by everyone. The nobles regard him as a tool, and the people criticize him as a dog-leg.
Grievance, fear, despair, struggle, under extreme emotions, the Lich King manipulated Darkan's emotions without spending much energy.
A runestone was secretly transported by Dar'Khan to the borders of Quel'Thalas.
He believed what the Lich King said. Silvermoon City would only change under the stimulation of huge external forces.
The Scourge will be this external force.
The troubled and arrogant Dar'Khan was superstitious about the glory of Quel'Thalas, and his lack of status made him underestimate the weakening of the overall strength of the Quel'dorei elves by the struggle between the royalist faction and the parliamentary faction.
A mage who loved the high elves deeply gave the key to disintegrating the magic barrier to the enemy.
When all this happened, humans were holding an alliance meeting.
But when Arthas received instructions from the Lich King and prepared to launch an attack on Eversong Forest, an accident happened.
"Fifty-seven corpse-dropping machines were destroyed, thirty-seven siege abominations were defeated, two hundred and seventy-six acolytes were slaughtered, a large amount of war supplies were burned, and seven death knights even died from the siege and helplessness. Escape. This transport team itself is a powerful army. Could it be that Carlos Barov attacked them?"
When Alsace heard the bad news, his emotions that had been buried for a long time fluctuated violently.
"No, it's Alessandro Mograine."
Another death knight reported specific information to Arthas.
After breaking through Andorhal, this human army went all the way north to the highway built by the Kingdom of Lordaeron. Then it turned westward and headed towards the Barrier Pass. It met head-on the heavy equipment transport team of the Undead Legion departing from the city of Lordaeron.
Although Alsace was right, this transport team itself was a powerful natural disaster army, but the number of direct combat units of less than 4,000 was its biggest flaw.
Even though the 14,000-strong human army was severely depleted after breaking through the encirclement, there were still more than 10,000 human combat units participating in this battle.
With a numerical difference of two and a half times, Alsace's badly needed heavy troops were slaughtered.
Arthas laughed angrily.
Even if it is a natural disaster of the undead, the basic laws of war must be discussed.
Without these siege units and war supplies, use skeleton soldiers and ghouls to fight off Quel'Thalas' magical defense offensive and a large number of spellcaster units.
Alsace is not a fool.
To put it more bluntly, without a large number of siege machinery, Arthas doubted that a dangerous border trail could hold his army back for two months.
But this can be regarded as an additional benefit of joining the Scourge Legion.
The emotions suppressed by the Lich King's power made Arthas calm down quickly.
"Mobilize half of the troops to turn westward and prepare to attack Stratholme City. The rest of the troops will collect supplies on the spot. We need more cannon fodder and manufacturing siege equipment."
"As commanded."
