The plot of the Legendary Scholomance Academy cards in World of Warcraft

Once again, Hearthstone players get to experience an expansion packed with characters from the World of Warcraft universe, this time at Scholomance Academy, one of Azeroth’s iconic locations.

Contrary to the dark images of this place in World of Warcraft, in Hearthstone it is depicted much more fun. The Legendaries of this expansion are all World of Warcraft characters and they all have interesting stories for players to learn. Forget the pretty images of this academy in Hearthstone for the moment, let’s get to what’s really going on here – Kel’Thuzad’s magical academy.

We will begin with the story of the fortress of Caer Darrow, the Barov family, and a mighty wizard from Dalaran…

Just before the Second War, the Barovs were one of the wealthiest families in Lordaeron. Their territories included Tarren’s Mill, Brill, and Southshore. However, for the head of this family, Lord Alexei Barov, that was not enough. His ambition to become more powerful is only surpassed by his obsession with the evil plans of other clans.

Alexei’s wife Illucia shared the same opinion as her husband, and together they devised a malicious plan to expand the territory, but without success. Rumor has it that the two often quarreled every night, thinking about immortality and other evil intentions to maintain their position in Lordaeron.

All of this took place at the fortress of Caer Darrow on an island in Lake Darrowmere, the headquarters of the Barovs. This place later became known as the Western Plaguelands, to the east of the Tirisfal Glades.

One day, a shaman from Dalaran arrived at Caer Darrow to talk to Alexei Barov. It was none other than Kel’Thuzad of the Kirin Tor, a great mage and a member of the Council of Six (the six most powerful mages of the Kirin Tor). Kel’Thuzad offers to help this desperate lord.

What Alexei didn’t know was that Kel’Thuzad had made a pact with the Lich King, one of Azeroth’s most formidable villains and the leader of the Scourge, an unstoppable army of the undead. Kel’Thuzad’s interest in necromancy was known only in Dalaran, where he was banished after Antonidas, a member and later head of the Council of Six, discovered the His crazy plan.

Kel’Thuzad overhears the hopeless situation of the Barovs, and proposes to them the only solution: immortality. In return, Kel’Thuzad asked the Barovs to make Caer Darrow’s fortress a place to live and study his necromancy. What followed was perhaps the darkest chapters in World of Warcraft history.

After securing a deal with the Barovs, Kel’Thuzad brought his most loyal followers to Caer Darrow. Since then it has been known as Scholomance, a school of necromancy and the main stronghold of the Cult of the Damned, the organization Kel’Thuzad created to serve the Scourge army of the undead.

In the game World of Warcraft, Scholomance is one of the first five-player late game dungeons. In the original WoW, it was one of the most difficult Dungeons, partly due to the complex strategies required to overcome each Dungeon boss.

Once inside the Dungeon, the player can immediately see and feel what Kel’Thuzad did to the Caer Darrow fortress.

DOCTOR KRASTINOV

One of the main people responsible for turning Caer Darrow into Scholomance was Doctor Krastinov, also known by his victims as “the butcher”. Krastinov is one of Kel’Thuzad’s most loyal retainers and his specialty is creating potions to summon the undead. He used the blood of innocent people to create this disgusting potion, and it is said that he created the first undead for the Scourge army.

DISCIPLINARIAN GANDLING

This is the head of Scholomance in Kel’Thuzad’s absence. Like his master, Gandling was also a member of the Kirin Tor and followed Kel’Thuzad to learn necromancy.

From what the player can see in Scholomance, Gandling looks like a slug, not dead but not quite alive either.

This is confirmed by the image of this card in Hearthstone, and not only that: his armor has many images of Old Gods, which we also saw in the trailer for this expansion. . But why would Kel’Thuzad, a loyalist to the Lich King, want to get involved with the Old God?

RAS FROSTWHISPER

Unlike other mages, Ras Frostwhisper never went to Dalaran to become a magician of the Kirin Tor.

Instead, he taught magic on his own, through books and wizards visited his hometown of Stromgarde, and gradually he became extremely adept at magic. Perhaps that is why he was noticed by the Lich King and became one of the first members of the Cult of the Damned as a lich, and he sought more power through becoming immortal.

Lich are magical creatures that look like ghost magicians. Their souls are stored in an item called phylactery, and they will appear after the lich is killed.

At Scholomance, he was the first high-ranking member of the Cult of the Damned and became very close to Kel’Thuzad.

LOREKEEPER POLKELT

We don’t know much about Lorekeeper Polkelt, one of the mini-bosses in Scholomance Dungeon. It is said that he once served the Barovs as a historian. His image in Hearthstone was the first of him alive – WoW players only know him as a brainless zombie.

VECTUS

Like Polkelt, Vector is a mini boss in Scholomance. Kel’Thuzad tasked him with researching how to create dragons for the Cult of the Damned, and his research led to the Plagued Dragonflight. To do that, Vectus surreptitiously purchased a black dragon egg from a goblin. In Scholomance, the image of Vectus is a bone mage.

So where are the Barov family members in Scholomance? Kel’Thuzad turned them into immortal beings in the service of the Cult of the Damned: Lord Barov became one of the first Death Knights, Mindrender Illucia and daughter Jandice Barov They all turned into scary ghosts.

The interesting thing about Jandice is that she still uses the power she learned from the Kirin Tor to create illusions of herself to distract her enemies.

In Hearthstone, two out of three Barovs are reasonably physically fit – however Alexei Barov looks nothing like his Death Knight version of WoW’s Scholomance. We might find out the reason for that in Adventure mode!

INFILTRATOR LILIAN

Known Hearthstone Players Lilian Voss from the Knights of Frozen Throne. Lilian’s presence in the expansion three years ago was somewhat coincidental, but this time in Scholomance, Lilian is an important character.

In “modern” Scholomance, she serves Darkmaster Gandling as a tool to blindly oppose players in the Dungeon. Initially, she intended to assassinate Gandling due to her hatred of necromancers and all those involved in shady magic to raise the dead against their will – a fate she herself had brought to bear. experience. However, she disliked herself and her fellow humans, and thus became a lone outlaw, harboring a grudge against the Scarlet Crusade, her father, and the Cult of the Damned.

When confronting Lilian in Scholomance, the player will have to free her from the summoner’s spell, and Lilian will plead for a quick death. But that death did not happen and since then players have wondered what happened to this interesting character. Years later, Lilian reappears in World of Warcraft and participates in the events surrounding the Rogue Order Hall in the Legion expansion. Since then, Lilian has joined the ranks of the Forsaken again, and now she even supports the undead after Sylvanas’ betrayal in the Battle of Azeroth.

Another interesting thing is that, like many other characters, Lilian’s image is drawn as a normal person – a member of the Scarlet Crusade. Her outfit hints at the radical organization she serves – worship of the light and more importantly – the complete destruction of all that is not with her ideals.

Lilian’s Deathrattle effect summons Forsaken Lilian, who tells the story of Lilian’s death, a story never before told in World of Warcraft! It is rumored that she had a tragic death in a battle of the Scarlet Crusade, but was resurrected at Scholomance and managed to thwart Kel’Thuzad’s plans. It’s a Warcraft-style story and fits well for Lilian to be one of the most important Forsaken in the Warcraft lore.

If you want to learn more about Lilian, you can refer to this article.

PROFESSOR SLATE

Like Lilian, Professor Slate is also present in Scholomance as a mini boss. After defeating him, the player will receive a buff capable of damaging enemies by drinking Slate’s acid.

RATTLEGORE

Rattlegore along with a few other creatures for the purpose of demonstrating the power of Kel’Thuzad’s necromancy studies. The bone golem was created by the magic of the lichs in Scholomance.

TURALYON, THE TENURED

In expansions there’s always a Legendary that doesn’t fit the Warcraft plot at all, and this time it was. Turalyon, the Tenured.

How did Kel’Thuzad convince Turalyon, one of the first five Paladins of the Silver Hand, one of the purest souls in the Warcraft world, to teach at Scholomance? Maybe because Kel’Thuzad possessed some superhuman persuasion learned from the Lich King?

Or has a young Turalyon turned himself into a double agent serving the Light in order to see through the Cult of the Damned’s diabolical schemes? Was teaching at Scholomance Turalyon’s first job before becoming a Paladin?

ARCHWITCH WILLOW

Archwitch Willow is a pretty interesting Legendary in Scholomance Academy. We can’t really be sure of the origin of this Legendary in Warcraft, but it is possible that the character was built from Willow, a Forsaken of the Twilight Hammer sect in Desolace. This cult worships the Old Gods and played an important role in the resurrection of Deathwing.

Like many other characters, the Scholomance Academy expansion also reveals the story of Willow when she was alive – a necromancy, a mighty Warlock linked to the Old Gods.

ACE HUNTER KREEN

This is the only Legendary character not in World of Warcraft but only in Hearthstone, Ace Hunter Kreen created in tribute to the 2019 Hearthstone champions: Hunterace!

According to Hearthstonetopdecks