Bloodied crown

The bloodied crown moments after Terenas' death.

The bloodied crown is the crown that was worn by Terenas Menethil II, the last true king of Lordaeron. After Terenas' murder at the hands of his son Arthas, the crown was secretly whisked away and buried at the lighthouse outside Stormwind Harbor.

Shaped "more like a spiked helmet than a coronet", the crown is adorned with blue gemstones and a ring of metal spikes. At the front, it features the symbol of Lordaeron flanked by two lions rampant above an especially large gem.

History

The crown's secret burial site at the Stormwind lighthouse.

When Arthas murdered Terenas with Frostmourne in the imperial chamber during the Scourging of Lordaeron, Terenas' crown fell off of his head, bounced down the steps from the throne, and landed on the floor of the chamber, broken and stained by the dying king's blood. An unknown individual or group—believed by Flynn Fairwind and Mathias Shaw to have been refugees of Lordaeron—recovered the crown, brought it south to Stormwind City, and secretly buried it in a small grave behind the lighthouse on an island in Stormwind Harbor. Flynn believes that with Terenas' body destroyed and Lordaeron infested by undead, Terenas' subjects must have wanted a place to mourn their king and that this was their quiet way of doing so. The site is marked by a simple tombstone, whose inscription has faded and become unreadable with time.

Terenas' empty tomb in the Ruins of Lordaeron features a plaque which ends with the statement:

"May the Father lie blameless for the deeds of the son.
May the bloodied crown stay lost and forgotten."

The Alliance doesn't know who wrote this part, but SI:7 speculates that it was done on the orders of Terenas' friend, King Thoras Trollbane of Stromgarde. When Thoras himself died, he was buried with a secret epitaph whose text seems to cryptically hint at keeping a secret about something buried on an island. As such, he was probably involved with—or at least aware of—the crown's disappearance as well.

Sylvanas Windrunner noticed that the crown was missing when she entered the imperial chamber for the first time at the end of the Plaguelands civil war. She was unconcerned by this, as the crown wasn't what she'd come for. Terenas' daughter Calia, who is unaware of the crown's fate, believes that it is lost to time and that neither she nor her lost daughter will ever wear it.

During Mathias Shaw and Flynn Fairwind's survey of the Eastern Kingdoms after the Fourth War, Flynn pieced together several clues and realized where the bloodied crown was buried. He and Mathias dug it up to confirm the theory, then buried it once more and agreed to continue keeping the location secret, as Terenas would've wanted.

Notes

• The throne in the imperial chamber has a design echoing that of the crown, with a row of angular spikes and a large gem atop the backrest.
• In Warcraft III: Reforged, the multiplayer skin Fallen King Arthas depicts Arthas wearing the crown as a living king of Lordaeron.
• When asked about the crown's fate at the BlizzCon 2011 Lore Q&A, Dave Kosak and Chris Metzen joked that Blizzard would make it a "legendary loot drop".

Gallery

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  Terenas (right) with a different crown design in the Warcraft II manual.

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  Terenas with a simpler crown design in a Warcraft II cinematic.

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  Warcraft III concept art.

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  Warcraft III concept art.

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  Terenas wearing the crown in Warcraft III.

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  Terenas' ghost in the Fall of the Lich King trailer.

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  Terenas' ghost in the Trading Card Game.

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  Fallen King Arthas wearing the crown in Warcraft III: Reforged.

See also

•  [Royal Scepter of Terenas II]