Warcraft Lore Facts - The First-Generation Death Knights

Also known as the Death Knights of the Old Horde, or the way-cooler-than-modern-DKs-Death-Knights.
I suppose this can also be a sort of thank-you video for 2000 subscribers, since I've always been a big fan of the first death knights and wanted to do a video on them.
Also, I think only Teron Gorefiend could make yellow look menacing on a character.
Transcript:
#1:
Before the Scourge began, during the Second War, Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer purged the Horde of most of its warlocks and disbanded Gul'dan's Shadow Council while the latter was in a coma. After waking up, Doomhammer planned to execute Gul'dan as well, only for the warlock to point out that now the Horde had no spellcasters for its war with the humans; as such, he was allowed to live until he proved his usefulness. Gul'dan had the idea of reviving his old Shadow Council, and, as such, took their souls and placed them in the corpses of slain Stormwind knights, in a ritual that necessitated Gul'dan sacrifice his few remaining necrolytes. The result of that ritual was the first death knights.
#2:
Unlike modern death knights, which keep most of the physical features they had before undeath, these first death knights had disgusting and disfigured bodies, so much so that even some orcs screamed in terror when seeing them for the first time, and, as such, most of them tended to hide their faces behind dark hoods. Another thing which differentiates them from modern death knights is that the first generation ones focused a lot more on spellcasting rather than melee combat, as befit their origin as warlocks. They did not often use fel magic, however, instead becoming master necromancers, much more capable than the Horde's first attempt at necromancy, the necrolytes. Despite this, some of these death knights have proven they can fight toe-to-toe in melee combat even with master paladins, and all of them carry a jeweled truncheon imbued with the spirits of the sacrificed necrolytes, which can be used for this purpose.
#3:
Unlike what Gul'dan had hoped for, the first death knights were never loyal to him after being reanimated, serving only themselves. They did proclaim their loyalty to Orgrim Doomhammer and the Horde, and never broke those oaths, even when Gul'dan deserted in search for the Tomb of Sargeras, but it can be argued that it simply was not in their interest at the time to betray the Horde. In Beyond the Dark Portal, it was Teron Gorefiend, the first of the death knights, and his followers that convinced Ner'zhul to enact his plan to open portals to other worlds for the Horde to invade. They served the elder shaman loyally, but only in exchange for the promise that, once this goal was achieved, they would receive a world for their own.
#4:
In addition to their former abilities as orc spellcasters and the new necromantic powers they gained, the death knights also had access to their respective hosts memories. This was used to great effect also during Beyond the Dark Portal, when a group under Teron Gorefiend infiltrated Stormwind with the help of that information.
#5:
Despite their great power, these first death knights, perhaps more so than the modern ones, were especially vulnerable to the Light. During Beyond the Dark Portal, when the paladin Turalyon attempted to interrogate the death knight Gaz Soulripper using the Light, a method which worked on orcs, he wound up almost accidentally killing him and nonetheless caused him great pain. Later on, during the battle at the Black Temple, Turalyon dueled Teron Gorefiend himself, and, despite the death knight's great dark power giving him the initial advantage, the paladin then defeated him with relative ease by calling upon the Light.
#6:
One of the more notable death knights was Ragnok Bloodreaver. During Beyond the Dark Portal, he was sent to the Tomb of Sargeras to recover the Scepter of the fallen titan along with a group of orcs. After succeeding with heavy losses, he tried to coerce the other orcs to venture further and claim the Eye of Sargeras as well, but was unable to. Later on, after Draenor's destruction, Ragnok gathered an army of fel orcs and, with the help of an ethereal mercenary, began enslaving nether dragons. He planned to use his forces to overthrow Illidan and become the new Lord of Outland in his stead, and even managed to defeat and take over the Dragonmaw clan while doing so. He was eventually defeated when he attempted to assault the Dark Portal and was repelled by the Horde and the Alliance, and was eventually disintegrated by the paladin Jorad Mace.
You should probably follow me on twitter. @Teeironor

[@creakychair9387]

the greatest Death Knights in my opinion.

[@creakychair9387]

due i am i wonder how many their were.

[@Teeironor]

About as many warlocks were in the Shadow Council, give or take. We only know of 3 named death knights, though: Teron Gorefiend, Ragnok Bloodreaver and Gaz Soulripper.

[@creakychair9387]

ok so how many warlock would be left as the Necrolytes were pretty mush wiped out (i could se some survivng in Outland/Draenor because there were some in the Fel Horde. but they might have learned it themselfs) so how many warlocks would be left in DA HORDE?

[@Teeironor]

That's rather impossible to say, I'm afraid, since Blizzard almost never provides exact numbers for its lore. Here's a small attempt on my part to say: The number of orcs in the Old Horde could be anywhere between a few thousand (going by Rise of the Horde, which offhandedly mentions that the Frostwolf clan, considered a smaller one at the time, had about 80 members) or a few hundred thousand (since the orcs were described to be so numerous that they could blanket all of Lordaeron). So, going by those numbers, let's say, out of those 80 Frostwolves, 5 or so would be shaman (or later warlocks or other spellcasters), and out of those 5, 1 or 2 would be a member of the Shadow Council (there is a minimum of 1, since Gul'dan had spies in every clan). There's about 18 or so clans in the lore, so, at the bare minimum, Gul'dan would have 21 members in the Shadow Council (the 18 spies, plus himself, Cho'gall and Kargath Bladefist, who was also a member but was not killed by Doomhammer). Let's say that the maximum amount would be 10 times higher, thus taking into account the maximum population the orcs can have, but also considering the fact that having too many members in the Shadow Council would be counterproductive. So, my personal estimate is that the Shadow Council had between 21 and 210 members, of which not all were necessarily spellcasters. So the number of death knights, by extension, can be anywhere between 15 or so and 150, approximately. That's just my take on it. Since this is just speculation with barely any basis on actual lore, you are free to disagree, and if Blizzard ever detailed the numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if the count was different.

[@creakychair9387]

it sounds good to me. By the way what do you think an avrage clan population would be? it would be hard for Orgrim to kill Kargath since he was in Draenor.

[@chrisyuri4187]

oh that art, I loved reading the Warcraft 2 manual as a kid, the artwork and lore was awesome.

[@plasticbudgie]

Dude i understood you so well!!!! great video great content!! earned your self a sub bro! Keep up the great work!

[@Teeironor]

Thank you!

[@creakychair9387]

Jeebus the nostalgia is hitting me hard right now. And good god my spelling was really horrible. Hope you are good Teeironor.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

The Nazgûl of Warcraft.

[@Dreadlord100]

I'm Aliiiiive!

[@abrickwalled]

It would be pretty ironic if Jorad Mace used an ace.

[@DocJamesH]

"I'M ALIVE!"

[@patrikzotaj4528]

it is unknown if lich king and undead scourge does have scourge versions of gul'dan second war horde death knights as death knight necromancers and spellcasters.

[@Pyromaniac_Akeks]

love your videos. wondering if you know anything about the void walker braclets, they look neat and kinda want something like that for my d&d game

[@Teeironor]

There isn't any information on the Voidwalker bracelets outside of speculation, unfortunately. Best I can think of is them being analogous to the bracelets worn by elementals, which have the role of either "binding" them to the plane they are in, basically allowing them to exist there unhindered, or the role of restraining their abilities and forcing them to service. The sources for that information are rather shaky, though, so take that as you will.

[@daveshn]

The part about Bloodreaver, the one who went to the Tomb of Sargaras, was a retcon. They were sent to get the skull of Gul'dan that a demon wore around its neck. Also, in Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal, the spell that hurt the undead was called exorcism.

[@Teeironor]

Lots of things have been retconned over the years when it comes to Warcraft; pretty much every video of mine that's older than 1 year or so has been at least partially retconned. Though, actually, in Warcraft 2 Beyond the Dark Portal, you get the Skull of Gul'dan from the Bonechewer chieftain in the 2nd mission of the orc campaign, while still on Draenor, which is fairly close to what the lore for that is right now. To quote the mission description: "The skull of Gul'dan is a powerful artifact and essential for resurrecting the Dark Portal. A pathetic Orc Captain of the Bonechewer clan wears the skull as a symbol of his station and does not know of its true power. (...) Move quickly to the Thunderlord village and raise an army to crush the Bonechewer Captain and win the Skull of Gul'dan." While the first sentence in the final paragraph for the Tomb of Sargeras mission says: "Ner'zhul has ordered you to lead a small band to the tomb in order to find the Jeweled Scepter of Sargeras."

[@miguelfrancescohogar7501]

Poor necrolytes

[@tacticianM]

ha i love them and would like to know if there is any still around

[@justnoob8141]

Not anymore, it either Scourge death knight or liches

[@miguelfrancescohogar7501]

I miss this channel, hope you’re doing fine

[@Teeironor]

Well enough; just very busy with IRL stuff.

[@miguelfrancescohogar7501]

Teeironor stay well

[@thrakerzad5874]

these death knights just want to cast shadow bolt

[@muramasa4209]

you know those hooded mysterious figures , forming the dark portal and some other places? think they are the images of first death knights. these sculptures were found also in burning steppes where was a ritual circle , then in badlands , aswell in ritual circle. the 2 other are in duskwood on a cemetary. I believe they are connected to 1st death knights.

[@Teeironor]

They predate the creation of the first death knights. The ones that form the Dark Portal on the Outland side were dictated to Gul'dan in a dream by Medivh, according to Rise of the Horde.

[@muramasa4209]

@@Teeironor I see , lots of people were always speculating about those sculptures alot and didn't hear anyone say who they represent.

[@Teeironor]

Nobody really knows what they represent; not even Gul'dan in that part of the book. So we're pretty free to speculate.

[@muramasa4209]

@@Teeironor most intriguing. do you by any chance remember from what book/comic it is?

[@Teeironor]

Rise of the Horde, in the final few chapters.

[@Diego-oq5ew]

hey... your ragnok bloodreaver. I just realised that what was being one of the 1st death knights like and why did you change your name to Teeironor?

[@Teeironor]

Haha :) in all seriousness, I picked Ragnok as my profile picture more as a reference to the 1st Death Knights rather than for him specifically (although I do like him). Also because I was curious how many people would recognize the character without going by this video.

[@Diego-oq5ew]

ah, it is a good test of lore knowledge. You could make a video quiz of that sort of thing, like pictureica for wow lore characters and make a ranking on how many the viewer got right and compare it to lore knowledge like say 20 characters correct would be lore expert.

[@Teeironor]

I could, but it's relatively easy to cheat on those and I don't really have a big enough of an audience to get sufficient responses.

[@exeortegarubio]

I'M ALIVE!

[@elmapache9082]

What's the name of the comic used in the sixth fact?

[@Teeironor]

It's the Shadow Wing duology, one I quite liked.

[@elmapache9082]

Teeironor Thanks :D

[@drathick9390]

Hay dude have you done a Lore facts video on the Scarlet crusade or the Dark iron dwarf's? Their my favorite factions. :)

[@Teeironor]

On both, yes, though the Scarlet Crusade one was a very long time ago.

[@al.c.1525]

#bringbackstickwielding

[@Rameus]

We need another death knight expansion. Where the death knights band together and destroy every living thing and convert it into death knights. No soul is spared. Where no resistance is great enough to defeat them. Basically making Azeroth a death knight home world like the legion's, and where the "heroes" have to abandon ship and seek out a new home planet. Or just make an expansion where all the lesser creators on Azeroth are fed up with all this war going on and the rebel and kill every body. The end.

[@georgestaykov5358]

Ill take the rebellion thing. Im sick of the Alliance and the Horde as they are now. As Taran Zhu put it they are "like children". The heroes of Azeroth are an unstoppable force. NOTHING can stand in our way. Whats to stop us from making an army of Azeroth's adventurers and put the factions in their place. Nothing but petty loyalty apparently.

[@KainsTorment]

Rameus I love this idea brother

[@mudshrooze]

Hey mate sorry to bug u but ive wanted to make videos forever but dont know what i need and such. I dont want to make em for money or to get the most views i mostly wanna make em for myself and if others like it great. Any advice or tips?

[@Teeironor]

Well, it would depend a lot on what kind of videos you want to make (vlogs, machinima, gameplay, comedy sketches, etc.) and how much effort you're willing to put into them. I personally use Adobe Premiere for my videos, but I realize that it can be a bit intimidating for newcomers. You can make due with Windows Movie Maker, at least at first; it does the job and it's easy to use. You won't be able to make machinima with it, though, if that's your plan. Other advice would really depend on what kind of videos you had in mind, but something which I found to be universal and learned the hard way is this: Keep in mind that, while you're editing and spending a lot of time on each individual second in a video, you might misjudge how much that time means for you vs. how much it means for those watching the video. So, for instance, you might put a 3/10th of a second break between lines or images, which seems like a really long time in editing software, but, when the actual video is done, that will be, after all, just a 3/10th of a second which can often be way too fast. So you might end up having the video move too fast, jokes can lose their punch, points you'd like to make can be lost, and so on.

[@mudshrooze]

some videos I want to make where i just talk about stuff with cool pictures and some animations like for instance your lore facts. But Yes, i wont lie ive always wanted to make machinimas, i mean I have always wanted to be a voice actor and what not. just never had the opportunity yet. ill look into all that, I might very well have to get a new computer, my laptop is a bit iffy. I really appreciate the swift and thorough response my friend. It was a lot more than i thought you would say so THANK YOU! :) and i suppose my first videos are gonna be pretty bad so i just need to accept that now...probably should change my channels name though haha.

[@mudshrooze]

So you are saying Adobe Premiere makes good machinimas?

[@Teeironor]

Well, machinimas made in Premiere can be either great or awful, it obviously depends a lot more on the artist making them. What I mean is that Movie Maker simply does not have the capabilities to make machinima because it has no greenscreen functionality, nor the ability to superimpose multiple videos, pictures or pieces of audio over each other. Making machinima with the limited functionality of Movie Maker is, at best, much more time-consuming and results in a lower video quality, and at worst, simply impossible. Movie Maker works just fine for simple videos, though, like putting a picture on screen and talking over it (putting a picture over a video in Movie Maker, however, is much more complicated and, I think, kind of impossible). Yes, it's better to have a good computer for editing videos, but I personally have a 6-year old laptop and it works well enough (it does limit my videos to 720p, though). Just expect that you will put a lot more time and effort into videos than you would with a good computer. And no problem :) everyone has to start somewhere.

[@Teeironor]

As an example; when I first made Lore Facts ("Season 1", that is), I made each individual frame (other than the intro and the fact numbers) separately, then made one fact at a time in Movie Maker by syncing up the frames with my voice, then placed the facts together with the intro and background music. Basically, I had to render the same videos multiple times and use outside programs for very basic things. Nowadays, when it comes to Lore Facts with Adobe Premiere, I place the images/animations in a timeline whenever they're supposed to come up, and can put multiple pieces of audio and video over each other at the same time, and even edit them separately within the same program. It's a lot handier, but it also took a while to learn properly.

[@fumarc4501]

Stormreaver clan?

[@johnleep4435]

So what race makes more sense to make as a death knight orc or human

[@johnleep4435]

I would say orc and forsaken. Forsaken because you can rolepay as a warcraft 2 dk and orc pretty much the same

[@christerklattersson1784]

Dk's yey

[@Scarletraven87]

the yey in possession of Dk

[@Medieval3d3d]

True Warcraft lore just until 4:06

[@SoulKiller7Eternal]

(Sigh) not even 5 seconds you made a BS claim. The Scourge arrived in the THIRD game. Not the 2nd war...but the third war. The scourge didnt exist as the same time as Nerzhul WAS STILL AN ORC.