Incredible news! While explorin' the ruins o' New Lordaeron, we stumbled upon an ancient cache of journals and archives, securely locked away in a massive, airtight vault! Dwarven-made, o'course.
Course, t'weren't just the lock that's kept these books safe over the years - many powerful magicks and wards had been piled upon that door but good! Took us almost a week just to sneak a peek inside, but what a sight awaited us! Hundreds o' pristine tomes, just sittin' there waiting for our arrival. Enough to make a dwarf weep, it was.
We've got weeks o' delicate work ahead of us, but we did manage to extract one scroll case so far, which I've sent along with this message. Thankfully our translators did nae need any time with it - it seems to be written in common, albeit in an archaic, lost dialect the likes o' which I've never seen!
Keep yer feet on the ground,
Brann Bronzebeard III
Explorers' Coalition (formerly Explorers' League)
The Lich King is dead. May his soul be damned for eternity.
Our tireless crusade, our unrelenting efforts have finally borne fruit. We have won. With the tyrant dead and Frostmourne shattered, the lost souls of all who fell to his unthinkable evil may finally rest in peace.
Uther the Lightbringer. Bolvar Fordragon. Dranosh Saurfang.
Alexandros Mograine.
Father...
I once plunged your tainted sword into my own chest to free you from its clutches, and became one of the Lich King's blasphemous death knights. And you returned the favor by reminding me of who I was during my most depraved hour, wresting me from the Lich King's control, though you paid an awful price, becoming trapped within his terrible blade.
But this chain of suffering continues no further, Father. The Lich King is dead. We are free.
Vengeance is ours.
Were you able to witness the Lich King's final moments? I think it likely that you were bravely fighting alongside King Terenas within Frostmourne, just as we were besieging its wielder. You may be proud to know that it was your former sword, the Ashbringer, that struck the final blow and destroyed that wretched runeblade.
For years I cursed Ashbringer and wondered why you had ever created it, Father. It has caused us so much pain, and at what cost! We both baptized it in our blood (as did my traitorous brother, Renault), and it corrupted our hearts and turned us to evil. Truly, it has been our family's legacy, and our curse. For years, it seemed that the Mograines would be forever linked with that damnable blade. And I hated it with every bit of my soul. For what it did to us. To you. To me.
But Father, you were right all along. Our finest weapons could not scar Frostmourne...only the Ashbringer, radiant and pure, had any effect. I was not swinging it, though I wish with all my being that I was; it now belongs to the leader of the Argent Crusade, Tirion Fordring.
Still, my heart sang as the Lich King staggered back under Fordring's assault, as Frostmourne slowly, timelessly splintered into a hundred blackened shards. And as they rained down upon the ice, ringing and chiming, it felt almost divine. A rebirth. A benediction.
Ashbringer had spoken, and the Mograines - you, myself, even Renault - were avenged.
In my darkest times, I will think of this memory and rejoice.
Speaking of the sword, you would highly approve of its current owner. Fordring wields it in the name of the Light with a fervor and faith undarkened by doubt. A mighty warrior, a man untainted by greed and tempered by many years of hardship and loss. You could not find a better man.
Do you remember him, father? Fordring was the paladin who willingly exiled himself from the Order of the Silver Hand to save an orc, all in the name of honor. He sacrificed everything for what he believed in.
At Light's Hope, after the Lich King imprisoned your soul, I tried to rescue you...but I was too weak, Father. Ashbringer was dormant in my hands, would not come to my aid. But Fordring was able to rekindle the light within it and drive back the Lich King, saving me and everyone there.
It is fitting, really. He was the one who, many years ago, guided and helped me free you from the Ashbringer, though it cost me...everything. But I would do it again in a heartbeat, Father. For you, I would give my life a thousand times.
When the Lich King fell, we all watched, enraptured as countless souls burst from the broken artifact and streamed into the heavens, to their proper resting places. And I heard your voice calling out to me, Father. I heard, no, I felt your spirit washing over me, embracing me, forgiving me for not saving you sooner. That my sacrifice was the one thing that had saved you from giving in to his foul torture. And I knew, in that moment, that all the suffering and pain that I had endured...it had all been worth it.
I would have wept, if I was still able to.
And now, I wish you farewell, Father. In some ways, I envy you. Your journey is over and you may rest, but I am still needed here. The Knights of the Ebon Blade are counting on me for leadership and guidance, and I doubt it will be too long before fools in the Horde and Alliance once again start to clash without a common foe to unify them.
Perhaps even we death knights will be able to make peace with our current state and find a place of our own in this world. A faint possibility, but I have felt a spark in my heart lately, a feeling I had not felt in a long time. I now recognize it.
Hope.
It is like you told me many years ago, Father.
Hope never dies.
Knight of the Argent Dawn,
Son.
Show/Hide Letter Notes
Pertinent Lore:
Darion's sacrifice to save his Father's soul
Mograine's Reunion - special quest only achievable by killing the Lich King while wielding Shadowmourne. This quest reunites Alexandros & Darion and they have a touching conversation. Very sad and poignant.
I wondered how I would explain these letters, and thought maybe it would be fun to imagine that many years had passed, and this was someone in the future discovering long-lost relics and antiquities. Of course it had to be Brann Bronzebeard's descendant! And as to who he would send it to, the Kirin Tor, of course. But who would be leading them, a few generations later? How about Dornaa, the cute little Draenei orphan from Children's Week?
There isn't a lot of hidden lore in this letter, though I imagine lots of people wouldn't know about the Mograine's Reunion quest. It's just a really sad story about how devoted and loyal this father and son are/were to each other, and to what lengths Darion will go to rescue his dad.
I did want to expand on what Darion thought of Ashbringer, though. There's some poetry in the sword causing the Mograines so much grief, but it all being a sad necessity because of Ashbringer's destiny (destroying Frostmourne). It is a little bit of a rip-off to the poor Mograines that they aren't the ones to actually take their revenge upon the Lich King. Their family just gets screwed over and over again. :(
Alexandros' line "Hope... Never dies," is from when his spirit talks to Darion at Light's Hope Chapel.
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