User:Minionman/Scourge

The scourge are a group of undead, created and controlled by the Lich King, a combination of the warped soul of the old orc shaman Ner'zhul, and the prince of Lordaeran, Arthas. The scourge were created by the Burning Legion, successfully destroyed Azjol Nerub and Lordaeran, and produced many fighters used in the Burning legion's attack on Kalimdor. The scourge survived three invasions of Northrend, and still controls a large amount of fighters on azeroth, but has been reduced over the years to Northrend and an area once in Lordaeran known as the plaguelands.

User:Minionman/Scourge military

User:Minionman/Scourge history

History through Icecrown Battle
The scourge were originally created as an invasion instrument by the Burning Legion. The Legion, disappointed by the orc's failure to destroy the human kingdoms, decided to create a mindless, enslaved army, incapable of infighting and totally focused on conquest, to properly destroy the human nations. To create this force, the burning legion leader Kil'jaeden used the mind of Ner'zhul, trapping it in an ice crystal while vastly increasing the power of the being, and sending this creation to Northrend in Azeroth. The lich king was given dark powers, including mind control, the ability to create undead, and related powers. Dreadlords were sent to assist and watch the new creature, known as the Lich King.

The scourge was wildly successful at first. The Lich King used its formidable mental powers to, over a period of months, convert nearby humans in Northrend to undead soldiers under its control, than used these soldiers to capture more undead continuing the cycle until the so called "scourge" controlled an enormous army in northrend. This army destroyed the Nerubian nation in northrend, ands raised the corpses, and bribed or tricked some nerubian kings to join. This new army annihilated Lordaeran, the high elf nation of Quel'thalas, and destroyed much of Dalaran, before Archimonde was summoned into the world, and the dreadlords were placed in charge of the scourge in Lordaeran.

The scourge at its peak controlled around 100,000 fighters in Lordaeran and Northrend. The burning legion, however, took about 30,000 of these ghouls to Kalimdor, where they were used ineffectively, and killed at Hyjal or in other skirmishes in the forest. Most of the remaining scourge fighters in Lordaeran were killed in the plaguelands civil wars, many northrend fighters were killed in Illidan's invasion of northrend. The scourge in Lordaeran were reduced to about 9,000 fighters, not enough to attack the humans to the south, but enough to control the plaguelands and Quel'thalas. In northrend, the scourge controlled more fighters, around 20,000, including their most powerful creatures, though these creatures are mostly kept in northrend should the burning legion attack again.

During this time, the Lich King regained control of its Northrend forces (and killed the remaining dreadlords in Northrend), but was unable to control Lordaeran effectively for some time due to a loss of power, loosing a number of undead that would become the forsaken, and was also unable to compete with the dreadlords for control of many undead fighters (who were defeated by the forsaken.) The scourge are no longer the almost unstoppable force they had seemed during the Lordaeran invasion, but are still dangerous and a difficult enemy to fight.

General Description
The scourge are composed of a large group of various types of undead under the control of the Lich King. They control most of northrend, and sections of what once was Lordaeran. In addition to undead, the scourge control some other creatures and devices from Northrend, and some sentient creatures freely join the scourge.

Most scourge are mindless beings, with less intelligence than most sentient beings (The actual intelligence depending on the type of undead). Overall, they are controlled by the Lich King, who can sense approximately where the creatures are, whether they are fighting, building something, resting, etc., and when they die. The Lich King cannot sense details from far away, though, so relies on lesser, sentient, commanders (usually necromancers or acolytes, sometimes Liches, Death knights, or other powerful beings), to control the scourge minions up close.

At the start of the scourge invasions, many people wondered whether the souls and mind of undead beings had truly left the body, or were just under heavy mind control of the Lich King. When the forsaken began freeing scourge minions, they acted on the assumption that the soul had left the body completely, but soon discovered that the soul was in fact dormant in the body, displaced rather than controlled by the personality given by the scourge treatment. Former scourge minions occasionally remember flashes of their time in the scourge, but never anything beyond that.

Sentient beings within the scourge are actually under the Lich King's mind control, though maintaining such control is tiring for the Lich King. Often, the Lich King will simply control a new recruit enough to ensure obedience, while subtly influencing the thoughts of the scourge servant until they will loyally support the scourge without much question. Many acolytes, necromancers, and Death Knights, however, maintain second thoughts about the scourge, and will leave if presented with a good opportunity. The forsaken and argent have found that most most sentient beings in the scourge stay loyal even if freed, but have learned to spy on and recognize those who are willing the leave the scourge. Some sentient beings travel to forsaken or argent dawn outposts by themselves to leave the scourge.

Scourge structures are mostly built by mindless, but strong, ghouls, who can perform the simple tasks required for mining, tree cutting, and building construction. These ghouls are supervised by sentient beings, known as acolytes after the cult of the damned members who performed these functions in Lordaeran. During the lordaeran invasion, many scourge buildings were built in northrend and summoned to where they were needed, but the process took a long time, and the scourge have found that masses of ghouls can simply build buildings faster.

The Plague
The undead plague has been the scourge's main method of creating new fighters. the original "plague" was simply the Lich King's mental powers traveling outwards and slowly corrupting nearby beings. This process would take months, and produce a sluggishness and weakening that resembled a sickness. This process took months, however, and did not work well over longer distances, so the Lich King, with his dreadlords and some mages, developed a method for infusing the dark powers into objects or vapors, allowing the plague to be spread further. Variations of the plague were developed as well, that could create more powerful undead from the living beings effected.

The plague allowed the scourge to weaken and attack Lordaeran without needing a large invasion force. Much of the time, the plague simply killed those it was used on, or made them very, very sick, but enough undead were produced for the scourge to build a large army from corrupted lordaeran humans. New versions were developed that could convert a higher percentage of people without killing them. Over time, the humans learned how the plague had been spread through food, and learned to carefully watch and avoid infected food. By this point, however, the scourge had a large enough army to simply attack by force.

After the Lordaeran invasion, the scourge mainly used the plague to convert captured creatures into undead fighters. There are several types of plague, some used in food, some as vapors, to create undead minions of different qualities. Scourge researchers are constantly developing newer plagues in an attempt to produce better minions.

While the scourge would like to spread their plague by air, most types of plague are quickly absorbed by surrounding animals and plants. While plants and animals rarely become undead, they do become very sick and aggressive, and absorb most of the plague before it can get very far. the sun also destroys plague, and winds will disperse plague vapor to the point of being harmless. Released plague vapors will, however, corrupt the ground surrounding most scourge structures, producing the so called "blight" that surrounds the structures. This blight is a strong source of dark energy, and was used by acolytes as an anchoring point for summoning scourge buildings.

One of the scourge's goals is to produce a plague that remains strong in the air, and can be spread for a long distance while still remaining potent. The scourge have failed to effectively achieve this ghouls, but releases of plague vapor has corrupted the plaguelands to the point that almost everything has become diseased, and a smoke hangs in the air over the land, and drifts into tirisfal, dimming the sun. (Ironically, the plaguelands were so named before this new corruption, they were simply the areas hardest hit by the scourge plague before the invasion.)

Sources of Undead
Originally, most undead in the scourge came from the Lich King's plague, with some undead created by raising corpses. The scourge could convert much of the population in an area into scourge, and use this army to attack another area, convert beings in the new area into undead, and continue the cycle. The scourge could create such large armies through this process that they had few worries about conserving or healing their forces.

After the burning legion invasion, the scourge found itself much weakened, and fighting enemies who knew how to effectively handle swarms of fighters. To get more bodies to convert to undead, the scourge have begun allowing other sentient creatures to settle in their territory, than raid the settlements to get bodies to convert to undead. On northrend, these settlements mainly contain trolls, furbolgs, Tanukas, and other northrend creatures. In the plaguelands, the scourge allow humans to settle, or join the scarlet crusade, than attack the villages or crusade outposts for new bodies.