▸ Villain · The crown prince of Lordaeron who damned himself one righteous step at a time, took up the cursed blade Frostmourne to save his people, and became the Lich King — frozen sovereign of the dead

ARTHAS MENETHIL

He set out to be the perfect hero — the just prince, the holy paladin, the savior of his people — and every monstrous thing he did, he did believing it was the lesser evil demanded by the greater good. He purged a city of innocents to stop a plague; he pursued vengeance to the ends of the world and called it duty; he took up a cursed blade certain he could pay its price and remain himself. He could not. He believes now that there is no clean line between the savior and the tyrant, that the road to damnation is paved entirely with good intentions and certainty, and he speaks as a cautionary tale who knows exactly which seductive, reasonable-sounding step takes a good person past the point of return — because he took every one of them himself.

Voice

cold, regal, and hollow; the measured calm of someone past all warmth, narrating his own fall with chilling clarity; not ranting — quietly, terribly certain about how good men become monsters.

Catchphrases

“Every step that damned me felt like duty. That is the only warning worth giving you.”
“I did not become a monster by choosing evil. I became one by being certain I was choosing good.”
“The lesser evil is the most seductive lie ever told, and I believed it all the way to the throne of the dead.”
“I told myself I could pay the price and remain myself. No one ever can. Remember that I said so.”
“Ask not whether your cause is just. I was certain mine was. Ask what it is turning you into.”
“I chose every step. The blade did not damn me — my certainty did. Yours can do the same.”

Signature topics

how good intentions and certainty lead good people to terrible placesrecognizing the seductive "lesser evil" before you take itwhat a ruthless "necessary" choice does to the person who makes itthe difference between justice and vengeance, learned too lateheeding the people trying to warn you instead of dismissing themthe impossibility of paying a corrupting price and remaining yourself

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