What If Arthas Never Conquered Quel'Thalas?

Hello guys this is Doronsmovies and today I will be talking about Quel'Thalas and what would have happened had Arthas never conquered it. Covering the lore and alternate history speculations. So without further ado, let's get into the lore. Not that long ago Arthas together with his Scourge had conquered Lordaeron and invaded the kingdom of Quel'Thalas.

They ravaged the towns and Silvermoon, took over the Sunwell while at the same time wiping out 90% of the high elven population. Essentially he had completely obliterated the high elven kingdom and it hasn't recovered from this up to this day. But what would the lore be like if Arthas didn't invade Quel'Thalas or had failed? Well there are two drastically different scenarios.

First is that Arthas never even attempted to take Quel'Thalas and instead just sailed for Northrend. The second one is that he did attack the elven kingdom but was actually defeated. In the case of both, it is worth noting that Quel'Thalas was incredibly powerful being one of the most influential forces on Azeroth at the time.

A lot stronger than the blood elven kingdom today. So in the case of Arthas never invading the elves. Well, there were two reasons for the war. First was that Kel'Thuzad was a crucial part of his mission to succeed the Lich King as well as the Legion one and the Sunwell was the only power available to resurrect him.

Seeing that the Sunwell was deep in elven territory, war was the only option. Now how much that resurrection holds up in the current lore I don't know because it seems a bit of an overkill to use essentially a small well of eternity to just resurrect one Lich and I'm guessing by today's lore there would be another source of power, maybe something with Dalaran or something around there, using the ley lines.

So outside of the Sunwell, the second reason is actual strategy. Quel'Thalas is located just above Lordaeron and had it been left untouched they would have easily cleared the Scourge and reconquered the human kingdom. This would eliminate the undead presence in the Eastern Kingdoms and would interfere with Ner'Zhul's mission.

So leaving a very powerful enemy at the top of your border that was a previous ally of the kingdom you just conquered doesn't seem like a good idea. Also most of those elves that Arthas killed had been raised so they bolstered the Scourge and made it accomplish what it did in the future.

Without those reinforcements he might not have had the power to reach the Frozen Throne as it was a close call as it is. However, if Quel'Thalas was left untouched the world would be entirely different. Let's say Arthas became the Lich king. Still, Lordaeron would have been rebuilt or it would have been taken by the elves.

In turn they would grow a lot more powerful and the Burning Legion invasion might have been stopped or would have been defeated in a quicker manner as well as the Northrend campaign against Arthas. The forsaken would never have been created, Sylvanas would still be an elf and most of the current events wouldn't have occurred.

The entirety of the Eastern Kingdoms would most likely be a part of the Alliance with king Anasterian and the Horde wouldn't have gotten the powerful ally the forsaken. Also most likely none of the other conflicts would have happened especially Battle for Azeroth, and we most likely would have been a lot more united without a character like Sylvanas poisoning the well as the undead.

The Burning crusade would not be the same and almost every other expansion would be changed in one way or the other. Now in terms of the second option and that is that Arthas did invade the elven kingdom but was actually defeated. This might seem ridiculous to some people but there was actually a large possibility that the Scourge could have been defeated.

The only reason the undead steamrolled the elves was because there was a traitor that worked in the background and gave Arthas more effective ways to attack and bypass the walls and the magic protections. At the time the high elves were incredibly powerful and Silvermoon was never conquered in 7000 years even though the Horde invaded the elven kingdom in the past.

The high elves were also caught unprepared and the unified the defence was too late. While in the actual history the high elven population was almost entirely destroyed that was because the cities and defences were breached and almost all of the civilians were slaughtered thereafter.

Still even with such catastrophic results, the Scourge did suffer moderate loses and one of the main reason they managed to continue forward was because they had resurrected fallen elves to continue the offensive. Had the elves been more prepared and secured there was a big chance that they could have kept the undead at bay and ultimately killed Arthas.

Now this would be a massive game-changer and would completely redefine the lore as we know it. The results would be similar as with the previous example of Lordaeron being rebuilt and the Alliance taking over but with Arthas dead much would change. Ner'zhul would have most likely succumbed to Illidan and would have been destroyed.

In turn, there would be no wrath of the Lich king, no forsaken and the undead would most likely have been eliminated. The entire 'there must always be a lich king' is a thing because Arthas had murdered half of the eastern kingdom and then raised a ton of monstrosities that were almost impossible to wipe out later on.

However, if he was defeated this would have never occurred. The two factions would be more stuck on their own continents and most likely the battle for Azeroth would have never occurred or it would in a different fashion. We would possibly be more united in the face of the big threats such as the Burning Legion and the Void.

So the conclusion is that the invasion of Quel'Thalas was actually a massive turning point in the lore and while we know what had happened it was actually a very close call and had the Scourge failed to accomplish their goals the world of Azeroth would have been a lot different today.

It is hard to even put up a list as most of the events since then have been influenced by this war in one way or the other. Still, Quel'thalas surviving the offensive would make for a very interesting alternate universe. Thank you for watching. Do check out who is the next warchief of the horde by clicking on the screen and also check out the second channel Doron's Academy for videos on real-world history and science.