What is the Ashbringer?
Ashbringer is a legendary and powerful sword use against the undead in the World of Warcraft franchise. When the Ashbringer was forged, the sword was named after its wielder, Alexandros Mograine, the former Highlord of the Silver hand and was known as “The Ashbringer.” However, when Mograine’s oldest son, Renault, murdered him using the Ashbringer, the sword was transformed into Corrupted Ashbringer.
The Corrupted Ashbringer then came to Mograine’s possession after he was resurrected as the Death Knight. Afterward, Mograine’s youngest son, Darion, was forced to kill him. Subsequently, Darion also killed himself using the Corrupted Ashbringer to free his father’s spirit trapped in the sword. Thus, he became a Death Knight himself.
The History of the Ashbringer
During the pivotal battle of the second war known as the Assault on Blackrock Spire, Alexander Mograine obtained a mysterious black crystal from a dead Orc warlock. This crystal that originated from Draenor was the ‘Living Embodiment of Shadow.’ Upon touching the mysterious crystal, Mograine’s hand was tainted like the undead’s hand, and cannot be healed.
Nevertheless, he still kept the crystal until the whispers of one of the significant undead faction, the Scourge, had reached the Lordaeron. Mograine then revealed the crystal to the other leaders of Silver Hand. He also suggested that they should find the polar opposite of the crystal he possessed and used it against the imminent undead holocaust.
At the sight of the black crystal, his peers were horrified. They tried to destroy the crystal using a holy spell. However, the black crystal absorbed the divine spell and became its antithesis. The crystal became the very same crystal that Mograine had recently suggested of finding. It was then decided that a weapon must be forged using the crystal to defeat the undead. With this, the Ashbringer was born. A weapon with such power that only ashes would remain if it hits the undead.
The Corrupted Ashbringer
After the betrayal of Arthas, the prince of Lordaeron, the Silver Hand was dissolved. However, the remaining leaders banded to defeat the undead of Plaguelands. Ashbringer has been their most lethal weapon among their arsenal. Subsequently, the sword draws the attention of Kel’Thuzad. On the other hand, Balnazzar, under the guise of Saidan Dathrohan, secretly manipulated the remaining Silver Hand for the Burning Legion’s motive. Afterward, when Mograine had stated his intent to attack the Undercity, Balnazzar quickly motions a plan to eliminate the Highlord.
With this, Balnazzar made an agreement with Kel’Thuzad to eliminate the Highlord, for the dread lord’s agenda to continue. To execute the plan, Balnazzar corrupted Mograine’s oldest son, Renault. As part of the scheme, they trap the Highlord by leading him and the High Inquisitor to Stratholme, where the Burning Legion is awaiting. At first, the two fended for themselves. However, the High Inquisitor eventually trapped alive under the stack of the undead, while Mograine was easily fighting the undead. But when he grew weary, he then dropped his sword. Renault then came out of hiding and exploited his father’s fragile state. He took up the Ashbringer sword and killed his father.
Consequently, the sword became corrupted since it was used for a treacherous act. Meanwhile, Kel’Thuzad had resurrected Mograine as one of his Death Knights and reclaimed the corrupted Ashbringer. At some points afterward, Darion Mograine, Mograine’s youngest son, led a mission to free his father. Upon meeting his father, Mograine was unresponsive to his son’s attempts to redeem him. Because of this, Darion was forced to kill his father again.
Following that event, Darion possessed the Corrupted Ashbringer. He then heard his father’s voice through the sword and led him to a portal going back to the Plaguelands. Subsequently, his father’s voice led him to the Scarlet Monastery, where he was attempted to kill by his brother, Renault. During their fight, the Ashbringer acted on its own and emitted a green aura which formed into Mograine, their father. Renault begs for his father’s forgiveness, but he was quickly decapitated before being forgiven. After that, Mograine’s spirit retreated back into the Ashbringer.In Darion’s last attempt to free his father, he used the Corrupted Ashbringer to kill himself. Darion was brought back to life as a Death Knight and became the Highlord of an organization called Knights of the Ebon Blade.