Ashbringer (Blade)

The Ashbringer is a powerful sword known for its use against the Undead Scourge. Forged from the crystal of a fallen Naaru by the late Magni Bronzebeard, it was crafted to serve as a weapon of vengeance against the Undead Scourge which the late King believed had claimed the life of his brother Muradin Bronzebeard.

Originally wielded by Highlord Alexandros Mograine, also known as 'The Ashbringer' the blade saw to the deaths of many undead creatures in the remains of what was the Kingdom of Lordaeron until it was used by Renault Mograine to kill the Highlord, which caused the blade to become corrupted. Shortly after the dishonorable act, the Lich Kel'Thuzad raised Alexandros Mograine as a Death Knight of the Scourge and he kept the corrupted blade, until his second son Darion Mograine killed him and claimed the blade for himself. Later discovering that his father's soul was trapped in the blade, Darion ran the blade through his own heart in an attempt to free him from the blades corruption. The act purified the soul of the former Highlord, releasing it from the blade, but also turned the younger son into a Death Knight, who continued to wield the blade in the service of the Scourge until the Battle for Light's Hope, which saw the blade purified when it was held by one of the few remaining original Paladins of the Silver Hand, Tirion Fordring, who used the blade to strike and wound the Lich King at the end of the battle.

Following the battle for Light's Hope, Tirion Fordring continued to wield the blade as he pushed the newly formed Argent Crusade into Northrend. During the Siege of Icecrown Citadel, it was Tirion Fordring who used the Ashbringer to shatter Frostmourne, the runeblade wielded by the Lich King that had claimed many lives and souls.

Following the Northrend Campaign, the Ashbringer remained in the hands of Tirion Fordring, the Highlord of the Argent Crusade. It is his personal weapon and remains so to this day.

Origin
The origins of the Ashbringer can be traced back to the Second War against the Orc Horde. In the final weeks of the war, during the Assault on Blackrock Spire, Alexandros Mograine, at the time a Paladin of the Silver Hand discovered a mysterious dark crystal on the body of an Orc Warlock. Originating from Draenor, the crystal was said to be the 'living embodiment of shadow' for when Mograine touched it, the energies of the crystal tainted his hand, causing it to transform into a state that could almost be described as undead. Compared to the rest of his body, it was tainted and could not be healed.

Choosing to keep the mysterious crystal. Alexandros kept it hidden away for many years, until the Undead Scourge began to ravage the lands of Lordaeron. He then chose to reveal the crystal to his allies among the Silver Hand, proposing that they seek out its opposite, for if there was a crystal which was the living embodiment of shadow, surely there was also a crystal which was the living embodiment of the Holy Light. Appalled by the presence of such a dark object, the Paladins tried to destroy it by casting holy spells at the crystal, but to the shock of all present, the crystal was not destroyed by the light, but absorbed it, and in doing so became the object which Alexandros had proposed they search for, a crystal of pure light. Each of the Paladins agreed that a weapon should be crafted from this pure object, a weapon which could smite the undead with such power that only ash would remain. From that point on the weapon had a name 'The Ashbringer'.

To forge such a mighty weapon, Alexandros knew that they needed the finest blacksmith in the Eastern Kingdoms, and so Alexandros and High Inquisitor Fairbanks traveled to Ironforge, where they spoke to Magni Bronzebeard, the King of the Dwarven city. The King of Ironforge was more than happy to forge the weapon, as it would act as a tool of vengeance against the Undead Scourge, who he believed had claimed the life of his brother Muradin Bronzebeard. He hammed away at the weapon on the Great Anvil until it was complete before giving it personally to Alexandros Mograine.

Corruption
Following the decimation of the Silver Hand at the hands of the Scourge during what would become known as the Third War, the remaining Paladins of the Silver Hand who had not been killed in Arthas's purge, banded together and formed a new army dedicated to eradicating the Undead from Lordaeron. The Ashbringer, both man and weapon, became the best weapon in their arsenal, so much so that it gained the attention of the leader of the Scourge forces in Lordaeron, the Lich, Kel'Thuzad. Knowing that he needed to remove the Ashbringer from the battlefield, he conspired with the Dreadlord Balnazzar, who had killed and possessed the body of Grand Crusader Saidan Dathrohan. While the Scourge and the Burning Legion were no longer allies, even Balnazzar realized that the blade and its wielder would pose a problem for his plans to turn the human army into tools for the Burning Legion. When Alexandros Mograine declared his intention to attack the Undercity, Balnazzar put his plans into motion, not only to remove the most powerful weapon the human forces had, but also to protect his brother Varimathras, who was attempting to manipulate Sylvanas Windrunner and her Forsaken.

To that end, he moved to corrupt Renault Mograine, the eldest son of Alexandros, by promising him power and prestige if he could kill his father. Between the two they orchestrated a trap within the Scourge controlled city of Stratholme. Renault led his father and High Inquisitor Fairbanks to the ambush location, where an army of undead awaited to kill Alexandros and the High Inquisitor. When the battle was joined, Renault fled, leaving the Ashbringer and the High Inquisitor to deal with the army. Fairbanks was taken down first, not killed, but buried beneath a pile of corpses, leaving the Ashbringer to fight on alone. Against all odds, Alexandros defeated the undead, the power of the blade and his own fortitude allowing him to survive where lesser men would have fallen, but the battle left him exhaused, and when the last undead fell, he dropped the Ashbringer as fatigue set in. It was then that Renault reappeared, taking up the blade, and thrusting it through his father's heart. The foul deed not only killed Alexandros, but corrupted the blade itself, and so Renault left it with his father's body and returned to Balnazzar, who true to his word, promoted Renault to the rank of Commander as a reward for his 'great deed'. As dark as his death was, the fate of Alexandros and the blade however, was far darker. Kel'thuzad was not prepared to let such a powerful weapon sit and rot within the ruins of Stratholme, and so he resurrected the Paladin, transforming him into a Death Knight of the Scourge. Alexandros took the corrupted blade with him, and began his service to Kel'thuzad as the leader of the Four Horsemen within the Dread Citadel of Naxxramas.

Some time later, after the formation of the Scarlet Crusade, and a breakaway faction known as the Argent Dawn, the younger son of Alexandros, Darion Mograine, led an expeditionary force into Naxxramas to free his father from the grip of the Scourge. Finding him and the rest of the Four Horsemen, Darion attempted to redeem his father, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, and Darion was eventually forced to kill the former Paladin. The Ashbringer, still corrupted, passed to Darion, who almost immediately heard the sound of his father's voice within the blade. Following the instructions of his father's voice, he eventually found himself at the Scarlet Monastery, where he confronted his brother Renault. Angered, Renault attempted to kill Darion, but before he could deal the death blow, the corrupted blade acted on its own, spewing forth green flames which took the form of Alexandros. Confronted with the image of his dead father, Renault begged for forgiveness for his betrayal, but it was not enough, Alexandros decapitated his son, forgiving him after his death before retreating back into the blade. Darion returned to the Argent Dawn, but he was still troubled by the fact that his father's spirit was trapped within the blade and became determined to free him. The opportunity arose during a Scourge assault on Light's Hope Chapel. During the battle, Darion impaled himself on the blade, which freed his father from the corruptive influence of the Ashbringer, but also turned Darion into a Death Knight, much like his father had been. Darion Mograine was appointed as the leader of the Death Knights of Acherus, and began to serve the Scourge in place of his now redeemed father.

Redemption
The Ashbringer remained corrupted for some time after Darion Mograine was turned into a Death Knight. In his hand, the blade was used to great effect. He led the Death Knights of Acherus in their crusade against the living within the Eastern Kingdoms starting with the Scarlet Crusade. Through many well executed attacks, he crushed the Scarlet Crusade forces that held the towns of Havenshire and New Avalon, even annihilating the reinforcements led by Galvar Pureblood with an army of Frostwyrms.

With the Crusade dealt with, Darion turned his attention to one of the last bastions of humanity within the Plaguelands, Light's Hope Chapel, headquarters of the Argent Dawn. Personally leading an army of ten thousand scourge soldiers, along with his own death knights, they attacked the vastly outnumbered crusaders who defended the chapel. Victory appeared to be within reach, as more and more of the crusaders fell to the undead host, however despite the odds being in Darion's favor, the tide turned against the Scourge as the power of the light prevailed over the forces of the damned. The long exiled paladin Tirion Fordring took to the field and with the aid of the light, the scourge army was broken completely. Forced to surrender, Darion and the remaining death knights knelt before Tirion as he lectured Darion on his foolishness for attacking the chapel.

In a last act of defiance Darion attempted to rise and verbally lash the Paladin, but he was stopped as the spirit of his father was pulled from him, along with a vision of himself when he was younger. The spirits of the Mograines spoke for some time, but just as Alexandros was finished speaking to his son, his spirit was taken by the Lich King, who had appeared on the field to finish the job his death knights had started. Attacked by an incensed Darion Mograine for his betrayal, the Lich King batted the leader of the death knights aside as if he were a child's toy before revealing the truth to all present, that he had willingly sent the death knights to die so that their attack would draw out Tirion Fordring, one of the last Paladins of the Silver Hand that remained. Attacking the Paladin with his powerful necromantic abilities, the remaining Crusaders of the Argent Dawn attempted to stop the Lich King, but fell before his power. Hope seemed to fade as it appeared that the Lich King would indeed kill Tirion, but instead of the obvious occurring, Darion intervened. Unable to fight himself, he remembered the words that his father had said to him before the Lich King claimed him, and threw the corrupted Ashbringer to Tirion.

The moment Tirion gripped the blade, the pure energy of the Light that coursed through the Paladin purified the weapon, returning it to the form that it had taken while it was in the hands of Alexandros. Able to break free of the Lich King's power, to the great surprise of the leader of the Scourge, Tirion lashed out, striking the Lich King with the power of the Light. The raw energy unleashed wounded the Lich King and knowing that he was vulnerable, the Lich King retreated, but not before issuing a dire warning to Tirion, that their battle was far from over. Following the battle, Tirion kept the Ashbringer with him and formed the Argent Crusade, an organization with one goal, to take the fight to Icecrown and destroy the Lich King.

The War against the Scourge.
Following the Battle for Light's Hope. Tirion gathered the Argent Crusade and sailed to Northrend along with the forces of the Alliance. They arrived in Valgarde, an Alliance outpost that had been built within the Howling Fjord. Tirion himself was disguised, choosing to not draw attention to himself as he arrived in Northrend, and had given the Ashbringer to another as a means of keeping his disguise intact. The Ashbringer however had been lost within the catacombs of Utgarde Keep, which had recently been claimed by the Dragonflayer Tribe of the Vrykul, a race of giant humanoids native to Northrend. Attempting to retrieve the Ashbringer, a young Crusader named Ares the Oathbound infiltrated the catacombs, but failed and was gravely wounded. Before dying, he tasked a wandering hero with his mission, to recover what he called a 'sacred artifact' and return it to Lord Irulon Trueblade, who was stationed within Valgarde. The hero completed his task, and after the artifact was returned, Tirion chose to abandon his disguise and reveal himself, taking up the Ashbringer once more as he vowed again to defeat the Lich King.

In the months that followed, Tirion, while wielding the Ashbringer, would deal blow after blow against the Scourge and its leader, even managing to destroy the former heart of the former Paladin turned lord of the Undead which greatly wounded both the Lich King and Tirion. But the true blow to the Lich King came during the Siege of Icecrown Citadel, when Tirion Fordring and a group of brave heroes confronted him at the Frozen Throne itself. The battle against the Lich King was long and tiresome. Tirion and the Ashbringer had been encased in a block of magical ice, removing him from the battle entirely as the Lich King laid waste to the heroes that Tirion had brought with him. As he dispatched the last hero, he began to taunt Tirion from his magical prison, telling him that he had planned the invasion all along, that these heroes that he had brought were to become his new army that would lay waste to the world of the living. As the Lich King began to channel the spell which would resurrect the corpses of the brave heroes as Death Knights, Tirion prayed to the Light for a final attempt to shatter the bonds which kept him in place. The Light, against all odds, came through for Tirion, and once freed, he turned the Ashbringer against the Lich King, taking the Lord of the Damned by surprise with a blow that was not aimed at the Lich King himself, but at his sword, Frostmourne. The holy power of the blade outmatched the demonic forged runeblade and shattered it, releasing all the sounds of the innocents that the Lich King had claimed. Trapped in what was effectively a tornado of souls, the Lich King could do nothing as the heroes were returned to life, before he himself was cut down. The Lich King was dead, and the War against the Scourge was over.

After the War
After the War against the Scourge ended, Tirion Fordring and the Ashbringer returned to the Plaguelands, where the Argent Crusade began to purify the once corrupted lands and turn them into what they once were. Tirion himself reclaimed Mardenholde Keep and the village of Hearthglen, which became the new base of operations for the Argent Crusade, at least within the region known as the Western Plaguelands. Since that time Tirion and his forces have done their best to keep the Scourge and the Cult of the Damned in check, and the Ashbringer has become a symbol of hope and inspiration within the region and abroad.