Here is a treat for some Warcraft lore fans who wondered about the backstory of Lament of the Highborne. We see the scene when we bring Alleria’s gift: the pendant, back to Sylvanas at Undercity. You can actually see the pendant on the Forsaken’s hand. The video shows Sylvanas singing while flashes of memories of past and present are displayed. We see a cut-scene from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos using the Wow-engine showing Sylvanas’s high elven body wearing her blueish cowl, fighting waves of Undead Scourge as they marched into Quel’Thalas.
Sylvanas impaled by Arthas’ Frostmourne. Her body placed on an altar, where King Arthas performed a ritual to turn Sylvanas’ spirit into a Undead Banshee. This is actually seen in the new video, no joke. You can see Sylvanas’s spirit rising as a Banshee, leaving behind her corpse as an empty husk. I think this is one of the coolest videos Blizzard has released.
If at least they could replace her night elf model to a high elven model … /rantoff
Bornakk posted the following at the official forums.
The exact origins of “Lament of the Highborne” have been lost to antiquity. Certainly the melody pre-dates the War of the Ancients, in which the song served as a lament for the fallen: a tribute to their steadfast bravery against overwhelming odds. Millennia later, the high elves of Quel’Thalas sang the lament, largely unaltered, in the Troll Wars. Here, too, the elves ultimately proved victorious, but they would not remain so. A plague of undeath swept through the human nation of Lordaeron in the Third War and converted many citizens into mindless undead minions of the Lich King. This army—the Scourge—invaded elven lands and decimated the populace, some of whom were raised into undeath and forced to join the Scourge.
As leader of the last elven defenders, Sylvanas Windrunner suffered a terrible fate: her spirit was ripped from her body and transformed into a banshee. When the Lich King’s power faltered, however, she and other undead were freed of Scourge control. She has since reclaimed her body and become queen of these undead rebels, the Forsaken. Although her heart is full of bitterness, she cannot forget the people she once loved… the kingdom she gave her life to defend.
Click here to watch our new World of Warcraft gameplay video of Lady Sylvanas singing “Lament of the Highborne,” a sad, ancient elven song of bravery against overwhelming odds:
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/movies.html#lament
