Forsaken

This article is about the undead Forsaken lore. For the playable race, see Undead (playable). For more information on the living dead in general, see Undead. For the in-game reputation faction, see Undercity (faction).

{{#ifeq:-|-||Template:Sort}}[[File:{{#switch:horde|alliance=Alliance|boss=Boss|combat=Combat|hostile=Combat|horde=Horde|aldor=Aldor|scryers=Scryers|kirin tor=Kirin Tor|rare=Rare|elite=Elite|both=Both|kyrian=Kyrian|necrolord=Necrolord|night fae=Night Fae|venthyr=Venthyr|neutral|#default=Neutral}}_{{#switch:{{{2}}}|xlarge=64|large=32|small=15|#default=32}}.png|{{#switch:horde|alliance=Alliance|boss=Boss|combat=Mob|hostile=Mob|horde=Horde|aldor=Aldor|scryers=Scryers|kirin tor=Kirin Tor|rare=Rare|elite=Elite|both=Alliance & Horde|kyrian=Kyrian|necrolord=Necrolord|night fae=Night Fae|venthyr=Venthyr|neutral|#default=Neutral}}|link={{#switch:horde|alliance=Alliance|boss=Mob|combat=Mob|hostile=Combat|horde=Horde|aldor=Aldor|scryers=Scryers|kirin tor=Kirin Tor|rare=Rare mob|elite=Elite mob|kyrian=Kyrian Covenant|necrolord=Necrolord Covenant|night fae=Night Fae Covenant|venthyr=Venthyr Covenant|both|neutral|#default=Faction}}]]The Forsaken
{{#if:Forsaken.jpeg|File:Forsaken.jpeg}}
Main leader	[[File:IconSmall_{{#switch:undead |night elf=NightElf |blood elf=BloodElf |high elf=HighElf |#default=Undead}}{{#if:Female|_Female}}.gif|{{#ifeq:{{{3}}}|Large|26px|16px}}]] Lady Sylvanas Windrunner
Capital	The Undercity
Theater of operations	Tirisfal Glades, Silverpine Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands
Language(s)	Orcish, Gutterspeak
Affiliation	Horde, Undercity
{{#if:|Reputation}}
Tabard	{{#if:|[[File:{{{tabard}}}|90px]]}}

The undead Forsaken (or simply the Forsaken or Undead) are a race and a faction of intelligent undead who broke away from the Scourge and took control of much of the kingdom of Lordaeron, destroyed during the Third War by the death knight Arthas Menethil. The Forsaken are led by their founder, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, the former Ranger-General of Quel'Thalas. Convinced that the races of the Horde could help them accomplish their objectives, the Forsaken entered an alliance of convenience to achieve victory over the Lich King.

The Forsaken's capital is the Undercity, in the royal catacombs beneath the ruins of the capital city of Lordaeron.

History

Third War and aftermath

During the Third War, the once-glorious capital of Lordaeron, Capital City, was decimated by a Scourge army under the command of Prince Arthas Menethil. Death offered no escape for the scores of humans killed during the Lich King's campaign to scour the living from Lordaeron. Instead, the kingdom's fallen were risen into undeath as Scourge minions and forced to wage an unholy war against everything and everyone that they once held dear.

In the wake of Illidan's failed attempt to melt the icy continent of Northrend, the powerful energies possessed by the Lich King inside his Frozen Throne slowly began to decay. Inexorably this resulted in a partial loss of control of the more distant Scourge forces. The result was that many undead under the Lich King's mental domination had their conscious will restored. Their spirits and memories were somehow returned to their undead bodies. Even the Lich King's champion, Arthas, began to weaken as the Lich King's power waned. Arthas the death knight and his lieutenant Kel'Thuzad the lich were suddenly thrust into an undead civil war. Still fanatically loyal to the Lich King, Arthas heeded the call of his master and returned to Northrend as Illidan launched his second attempt to destroy the Lich King directly. Arthas left Kel'Thuzad in command of his forces when he departed.

Lady Sylvanas Windrunner rallied half of the standing undead forces in Lordaeron and staged a coup for control over the undead empire. With their leader's sharp cunning and the assistance of their banshees, the undead forcibly coerced a number of lingering forces in Lordaeron to fighting their battles with them; such as gnolls, bandits, and ogres. First, the dreadlord Varimathras fell to the Dark Lady, and swiftly sold his loyalty to Lady Sylvanas in return for sparing him. With Varimathras' assistance, the undead forces successfully deposed the leadership of Detheroc and his army, allying with the considerable forces of the mind-controlled Grand Marshal Garithos in order to free Lordaeron from the control of the remaining dreadlord, Balnazzar. Garithos, though despising non-humans, joined forces with the undead and their inhuman allies to this end. Lady Sylvanas promised to leave Lordaeron to his jurisdiction after the battle was won, despite herself never having any intention to respect their pact, and together with their new allies, the undead marched to end Balnazzar.

With their combined forces, the undead and the Alliance resistance dismantled the final bastion of the dreadlords' power in Lordaeron, and Varimathras personally destroyed his nathrezim brother. No sooner had Garithos demanded that the Forsaken leave the land that Sylvanas promised him when she turned on him and executed the human leader; claiming the ruins of Lordaeron for the free-willed undead instead. With her immediate enemies dealt with and the ruins of Lordaeron firmly in her hands, Lady Sylvanas proclaimed her faction of self-aware undead as the "Forsaken," and resolved to slaughter anyone who would dare stand in the way of their dominion.

Following this, Queen Sylvanas and the Forsaken claimed the Undercity as their own and completed the winding network of catacombs and crypts that the Scourge had begun constructing. Today, rivers of poisonous sludge flow through all avenues of the vast Undercity. The toxic fumes and fetid odors permeating every corner of the stronghold have made it a place almost unbearable for the living members of the Horde. Yet for Sylvanas and her cursed followers, the Undercity has become a much-needed refuge in a world where her kind is still feared and hunted.

While the Forsaken had claimed a base of power, their hold on Lordaeron was tenuous at best. To this end, the Dark Lady looked to finding allies.

Alliance with the Horde

Sylvanas worked to ensure that the damned such as herself would have a home free from threats by the living. As a means to further her own goals and protect her budding nation, Sylvanas sent emissaries to various factions in search of allies. To that end, she sent ambassadors to both the Alliance and the Horde. Her emissaries to the Alliance never returned. Sylvanas suspected that they hadn't survived long enough even to make it past the gates of Stormwind City. At the time, the humans were generally unaware of the Forsaken's existence and of their split from the Scourge. On the other side the world, the kind-hearted tauren of Thunder Bluff proved to be the most promising contact. Specifically, Archdruid Hamuul Runetotem saw the potential for redemption in Sylvanas' people, even though he was fully aware of the Forsaken's sinister nature. Knowing that no human agency would ever give them shelter or aid against the Scourge, now their hated enemy, they eventually turned to the Horde, based across the sea in the distant land of Kalimdor, for assistance.

To convince the Horde to accept the Forsaken into its alliance, the undead ambassadors claimed that they merely sought a cure for their degenerative condition, which they said only the powers of shamanism and the life-giving energies of the earth could provide. In exchange for this healing aid, the Forsaken vowed to support the Horde in all of its ventures throughout Lordaeron and Azeroth. Magatha Grimtotem also claimed she merely wanted to aid the Forsaken in their quest to finding a path back to being human and was thus one of the prominent proponents for the alliance between the tauren and the Forsaken.

Having done battle with the undead on many occasions, orc warchief Thrall and tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof of the Horde were immediately suspicious of the Forsaken's motives. However, due to growing political tensions, the warriors acquiesced to a council of sages known as The Earthen Ring. The council argued that it was the Horde's duty to aid the Forsaken, who wrestled with inner demons just as the orcs had for generations.

Thus, the tauren convinced Warchief Thrall, despite his misgivings, to forge an alliance of convenience between the Forsaken and the Horde. In the end, the Forsaken's chances of victory against the Lich King were bolstered, while the Horde gained an invaluable foothold in the Eastern Kingdoms. Though Thrall and Cairne secretly suspect the worst, it remains to be seen what Sylvanas and her fanatical Forsaken have planned....

The Darkspear trolls are not particularly fond of the Forsaken because of their shaman beliefs,^{[citation needed]}  but tolerate them and have learned to trust them in times of war.

World of Warcraft

This section concerns content related to the original World of Warcraft.

As the primary Horde force in the Eastern Kingdoms, the Forsaken went about dealing with a number of their surrounding enemies. New free-willed undead, freed by Lady Sylvanas, were inducted into the Forsaken's ranks and assisted their new (and old) people in the tasks set before them within Tirisfal Glades. For years this blighted area has been home to Queen Sylvanas and her Forsaken, as well as the remaining vestiges of the Scarlet Crusade. Their zealots, bent on wiping out any and all undead from Azeroth regardless of affiliation, have long been a thorn in the Forsaken's side. Recently, the Argent Dawn has offered assistance to Sylvanas' people against the Crusaders' constant harassment in eastern Tirisfal Glades. In addition, the Forsaken have begun a fresh march on their enemy's stronghold – the Scarlet Monastery – in an effort to finally secure their homeland from external threats.

Concurrent with securing the immediate regions pertaining to Lordaeron, the Forsaken turned their attention to numerous conflicts neighboring their kingdom. The humans and dwarves of the Alliance, the perennial enemy of their Horde allies, remained at large on the continent. The Forsaken launched several offenses against their new enemies, resulting in the conflict for resources in Arathi (which the Defilers were tasked with securing) and a number of conflicts around Hillsbrad Foothills, Alterac Mountains and the Plaguelands arose. Furthermore, the Forsaken began research into a certain form of plague that could be used against the Scourge (and ostensibly, the living). The Royal Apothecary Society rose to meet this goal, and has been conducting a number of low-key experiments ever since.

Nathanos Blightcaller, the Champion of the Forsaken, was liberated by Lady Sylvanas herself from the Scourge. After they had proved themselves to the queen, the Blightcaller tasked Forsaken members with killing the beast that had taken his life, retrieving a document pertaining to both his and the banshee queen's time as living comrades from a lodge of exiled elves, and assaulting the Scarlet Crusade's primary power-base in Lordaeron.

Culture and people

“Do not shy from dark paths, if those paths lead to victory.”

— Forsaken proverb

The Forsaken capital of Undercity is always awake, just like the Forsaken themselves. The city is a place of dark, somber colors, stone walkways, and steps. The Undercity has inns, forges, and businesses that cater not only to the undead, but visitors from the Horde, with whom the Forsaken have allied themselves. There are some illuminations in the form of dim lamps and muted torches. These sources of light are not merely there to serve the living; though the undead have no true need of light, it perhaps gives Undercity's chief inhabitants a facade of some other existence.

The Forsaken navy is composed of ships dredged up from the bottom of the ocean. Most of them were once among Lordaeron's fleets.

The living may refer to the Forsaken by various pejorative terms, including "deaders", "rotters", and "bonebags".

Becoming Forsaken is an unpredictable process. The body and mind are certain to change, but it is impossible to know to what extent and how well someone will cope with the process.