Who has Arthas' soul?

| Thursday, July 16, 2009
Is he a soulless abomination? Or does he have a soul, corrupted by years of murder and worse? Maybe he doesn't have his soul and he's trying to find a replacement.

Frostmourne steals souls. He picked it up, got his soul stolen. Where is it at that time?

I see three possible possessors: the sword itself, the Lich King, and someone in the Burning Legion since they created Frostmourne.

If Frostmourne has his soul then he is still a slave. Perhaps it even took Ner'zhul's soul during the merger. It would seem a bit silly for the latest greatest threat to the world to be run by a sword.

If the Lich King has his soul, then things are confusing. Did he get it back when they merged? Was it as he left it or had Ner'zhul damaged it? I don't imagine that former orc plays nicely with others toys. If Ner'zhul had it, then what was the point of their dramatic merger? He could have done that without Arthas needing to climb all the way up. Merge them and then Arthas can pick up their combined souls when it is convenient. I realize Arthas was in the area anyway due to fighting off Illidan's forces. Maybe they were already merged, or the merger was in progress while he was ascending to the Frozen Throne. Was it not Arthas, but actually Ner'zhul who was hearing the voices? Was that him shuffling through Arthas' memories, seeing the mind of a human for the first time?

Finally there's the chance that someone in the Legion has it (having taken it through Frostmourne). This seems unlikely since Arthas is allied with the Lich King (or was before the merger) and the Lich King is resisting the Legion.

Maybe his soul is lost now and he's only working with the Scourge in order to harvest souls. He needs so many because he thinks he's just that important.

7 comments:

MLW said...

Ner'zhul didn't need a soul. He needed a body.

But I like to think that Arthas, being an absolutist, was always corruptible, and that being part of the Lich King offers him the answers he's always been looking for.

I'd imagine they're quite cozy together.

Hana said...

I love reading lore stuff, but having not played WC3 I'm not entirely up to snuff about, so I could be wrong any suggestion I make.

That said though, if Frostmourne steals souls I'd say it's right in the sword. It's a receptacle. Why it holds on to souls I don't know. Maybe it gains power from it and so Arthas's soul is now being used as a battery.

Klepsacovic said...

@Jormundgard: Don't undervalue souls! But you're right, the mobility of a body was something he was seriously lacking.

@Hana: My impression was that it steals souls to gain control of them for the true owner. Have you read LoreCrafted? It's a lore blog, had some interesting stuff, better than what I write, though watch out for the spoilers tags if you're likely to read any WoW books or comics.
http://www.lorecrafted.com/

Suicidal Zebra said...

Does Frostmourne steal souls, or eat them?

Speaking of the Blade, one of my favoured lines of thought is that Frosty and the Ashbringer are two sides of the same coin.

1) The origin of Frosty is still up for speculation but I like the idea of it being forged from the spark of a Void-God in the same way that the Ashbringer was formed by the spark of a Naaru.

2) Frosty steals souls (Bolvar and Saurfang are the latest examples), Ashy frees them (Mograine Snr and Jnr, High Inquisitor Fairbanks).

3) Renault's act of betrayal corrupted the Ashbringer into a Deathknight-esq Runeblade. Perhaps an act of redemption by one wielding Frosty will turn it to the Light in a similar (but opposite) manner.

Frostmourne speculation isn't quite my favourite lore debating point, that post is reserved for the gradual Corruption of the Dragonflight's, but it is well worth an idle thought between wipes.

Klepsacovic said...

@Suicidal Zebra: Twin swords of sorts would be interesting. While it could be argued that Frostmourne is inherently evil and therefore unable to be cleansed, as we've seen with felcloth and fel armaments, nothing is beyond cleansing. It might be a bit destructive but I imagine Frostmourne would give a lot of Aldor rep.

As for the corruption of the flights, I feel obligated to link one of my older posts.
http://trollshaman.blogspot.com/2009/01/alexstrasza-and-her-scourge.html

Klepsacovic said...

Good thing I didn't ask "have you read this?" because you posted a comment to it. I feel a bit silly now.

Suicidal Zebra said...

Heh...

Oh, here's one to think about: Arathor the Redeemer - who's he going to redeem?

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