One of the new Achievements for Icecrown Citadel is named “Been Waiting a Long Time for This.”

They’re not kidding. It’s been nearly seven years since Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and finally players have the opportunity to battle Arthas Menethil, the Lich King, undying lord of the Undead Scourge and arguably the single most prominent villain in the Warcraft universe. Hours upon hours of questing, multiple character arcs, and, depending on your interpretation, anywhere between an entire expansion and the entire game have all led up to this final confrontation.

Considering that players’ tally of slain victims includes not just one but two eldritch abominations of Lovecraftian horror and multiple demigods, I suspect it would be a good time for the Lich King to look into his (un)life insurance.

The storyline of Warcraft won’t end with the defeat of the Lich King. Multi-million-dollar franchises do not come to a close simply because the existing plotline has been concluded. The upcoming Cataclysm promises a well, cataclysmic upheaval tied to the emergence of another classic antagonist, the fallen Earth Aspect Deathwing. But trying to replace Arthas Menethil as Warcraft’s ultimate villain will be a tall order, considering the important role he and his Scourge have traditionally played in the game world and his own far more human character compared to the alien, elemental nature shared by many of the franchise’s other villains.

Fire and ice...

Whether or not you have any interest in Warcraft’s storyline, Arthas Menethil is a commanding villain. Fallen hero, patricide, regicide, and unrepentant agent of genocide, the former paladin who became the Lich King has left his mark on the game world. Some of the eeriest zones in the game are the aftermath of his handiwork. Three major player factions were created in direct response to him: the rebellious undead Forsaken, the sinister Knights of the Ebon Blade, and the order of paladins and heroes known as the Argent Crusade.

Certainly players have faced other opponents; from barbarian trolls and deranged cultists to Lovecraftian horrors, but few of them had half the charisma or credibility as a threat. We never saw their armies laying waste to the land, and their origins and nature usually remained matters of obscure backstory rather than developed organically within the game. With a couple exceptions, most of these enemies were essentially created for the MMO, and they usually felt small and localized in comparison no matter how direly NPCs talked up their pedigree as villains.

Hey, dad. I'm home...

Anyone who’d played Warcraft III knew precisely what the Scourge under Arthas could do. Where the Burning Legion’s siege on Quel’danas involved handfuls of demons, the Scourge in Warcraft III had clashed with and obliterated entire nations on-screen. And unlike the more or less static and often genuinely inhuman villains in most of World of Warcraft, we’d seen Arthas fall from a haughty but well-meaning paladin to a sadistic, sarcastic black knight, murdering his own father, butchering his people, and eventually assuming a position of near-godlike power.

The Old Gods, the Burning Legion, and other such ancient evils Blizzard has employed in the past as adversaries may be dangerous and sinister; there’s no question that they’re threats to be overcome. But they are also, almost by nature, closer to elemental forces than real characters. The Old Gods are alien and inscrutable intelligences of cold malice as indifferent to human motives as we are to bugs. The Burning Legion is insanely dedicated to a nihilistic goal of universal destruction, and with Kil’jaeden bested, it has lost its best flagship representative.

As Arthas’ successor, Deathwing will be a difficult sell. His power is without question, of course, but power alone does not a compelling adversary make. The former Earth Aspect is a fallen protector of the world, but his betrayal took place in the distant past of the backstory and he hardly fits the archetype of a fallen hero. Throughout the franchise’s history Deathwing has been a psychotic, megalomaniacal conqueror, unlike Arthas never once sympathetic. Like the other godlike antagonists of the Warcraft universe he lacks the personal connection with humans or the player to flesh him out. Blizzard has their work cut out for them in making Deathwing a suitable successor for the Lich King’s mantle, and unlike Arthas they do not have the luxury of a more story-friendly single-player experience for the players to get to know and hate Deathwing.

And it’s not just the antagonists that Blizzard is going to have to redefine. Many of the major protagonists of World of Warcraft have been defined by their relationship with, and opposition to, Arthas and his Scourge. Highlords Tirion Fordring, head of the Argent Crusade and premier paladin on Azeroth, and Darion Mograine, lord of the Ebon Blade, were both defined formerly by their campaign against the Scourge. The dilemma’s horns are even keener for the racial leader of the free undead, Sylvanas Windrunner, whose entire reason for continuing an existence she loathes has been to seek bloody vengeance on the Lich King. Can these powerful personalities remain relevant and adaptable once their archnemesis has been destroyed?

Enter the new guy. Looks cheerful, doesn't he?

The issue is even more pressing for two playable races: the undead Forsaken and the Blood Elves. Both victims of the Scourge, they have been from the onset engaged in a grueling and vicious campaign to hold off the undead for the entirety of World of Warcraft. The struggle to stay free, for the Forsaken, and alive, for the blood elves, has greatly characterized the thematic feel of desperation and grim purpose for these antiheroes. And unlike characters, who can be retired or die heroically, entire playable races are simply not going to be removed from the game.

It’s going to be interesting seeing how Blizzard addresses these writing challenges. Of course, they could probably coast along, as many other MMOs do, on gameplay mechanics and increasingly hazily-justified new content at the expense of story- many purist fans of the franchise have accused WoW of exactly that. But doing so might well gut the game of some of the power that’s made it such an enduring staple of the MMO market.

But somehow I don’t think that’s what Blizzard wants. Despite the chorus of “lorelol” or variations on that general theme upon the stygian wastes of the game’s forums, the developers themselves have never shown indifference to their creation’s storyline- broadly painted as it is. The technical innovations and world-sweeping changes to be introduced in Cataclysm suggest a continued resolve to keep the core narrative of the Warcraft franchise strong. Let’s hope they succeed, so the narrative of Warcraft doesn’t fall alongside its Lich King.