Ruins of Lordaeron

Ruins of Lordaeron

The Ruins of Lordaeron is all that remains of the City of Lordaeron, the great capital city of the Alliance. Now it serves as nothing more than a sad reminder of the power of the Scourge. The area is literally haunted by the final tragic events that led to the death of King Terenas and the city's destruction.

To this day you can still hear the moments before King Terenas' death; hushed whispers in the courtyard, the clanging of bells in the entryway, the faint cheer echoing the welcome of Prince Arthas, and the murmur of voices in the throne room. One such sentence that is uttered says " This kingdom shall fall, and in the ashes shall rise a new order that will shake the very foundations of this world." — Arthas after slaying his father, and proclaiming the Scourge's invasion and victory over Lordaeron. If you can detect invisibility, you will see the ghosts of the citizens of Lordaeron still haunting the castle's courtyard. Beneath the ruins now lies the Forsaken capital city — the Undercity, where the dark queen prepares to reclaim her lost lands to the east.

The lands outside the ruins are no longer full of cheerful people enjoying the sun, but with demons such as Darkhounds and Duskbats and the Scourge lurking nearby at the borders of the Plaguelands.

There is also a new section of this zone holding an Orb of Translocation that connects the Undercity to the blood elf capital of Silvermoon for those with the Burning Crusade expansion.

The Ruined Palace

The throne room of Lordaeron.

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Undercity is beneath Lordaeron’s ruins, but above the Forsaken city, so one can visit Lordaeron’s palace. Terenas’ throne room and the royal crypts are still intact. The bloodstain where Arthas slew his father can still be seen. The magnificent gardens are also accessible, though they have grown wild and play home to lurking beasts.Template:Cite You may also even hear the voices of the cinematic at the end of the human campaign in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

Arena Details

As of patch 2.1, the Ruins of Lordaeron have become the first arena to be set outside of Outland, and the only one to be set in a capital city (even though it's technically above the capital — the Undercity — and not accessible outside of speaking to the Arena Battlemaster).

Although very similar in appearance to the Ruins of Lordaeron subzone above Undercity, the arena version has some notable differences. For one it is more symmetrical (one end doesn't lead to Tirisfal and the other to the throne room). Also, the Lordaeron Citizens are visible without the aid of invisibility detection, and of course in the arena they cannot be attacked. One of the most unusual details is that the arena is located on a map that is set not at Tirisfal Glades, but rather in Silverpine Forest. Players can only see the effects of this in-game through the mini-map, but an observant player might notice the road placement does not match up with that of the area around Undercity. In fact, the arena appears to have been placed in the same general location as Ambermill. Using an external map viewer application, one can see the roads to Hillsbrad Foothills and Greymane Wall, and even Shadowfang Keep. All of this is only an aesthetic effect however, and should not be interpreted as lore.