Ulthalesh
- This article is about the dreadlord. For the artifact named after him, see
[Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester].
 Ulthalesh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Nathrezim |
| Occupation | Former self-proclaimed ruler of Mardum |
| Location | Sealed within the Deadwind Harvester |
| Status | Active |
Ulthalesh is a nathrezim who once ruled the prison dimension of Mardum and who refused to join Sargeras when the latter formed the Burning Legion. As punishment, Sargeras imprisoned Ulthalesh's spirit in the scythe of the same name.
Biography
In the ancient past, Ulthalesh was one of the demons who were defeated by the titan Sargeras and imprisoned in the realm of Mardum. Ulthalesh ruled Mardum with an iron fist and plotted for the day when he could take revenge on Sargeras. When the titan returned and shattered Mardum to recruit forces for the Burning Legion, scores of demons refused to join him and instead rallied around Ulthalesh. In answer to the challenge, Sargeras forged a great felsteel scythe and used it to harvest the souls of the rebellious demons, trapping them in a new prison. Ulthalesh, the strongest of will, was the last to be devoured. Sargeras named the weapon "Ulthalesh" after the dreadlord who had opposed him.
Ulthalesh's spirit gave the scythe great strength, but also a curse. The scythe obeyed its wielders' commands until they were mortally wounded, at which point Ulthalesh consumed their souls. Over centuries, Sargeras bestowed the blade on numerous servants, only for Ulthalesh to devour their spirits. Over the wailing of souls trapped in the weapon, the titan could hear the dreadlord's laughter. During the War of the Ancients, Sargeras gave the scythe to the eredar Sataiel, who used it to completely drain the life from the land now known as Deadwind Pass, creating a powerful magical nexus in the process. Sataiel knew she should inform Sargeras of this new power source, but Ulthalesh whispered to her from within the scythe, convincing her to keep the nexus to herself and hide from the Legion until the two of them had gathered enough strength to kill Sargeras himself.
When Sargeras discovered Sataiel's betrayal centuries later, he manipulated Scavell, the Guardian of Tirisfal, into hunting her down and killing her. Scavell then hid the scythe where no one could find it, but Sargeras knew that Ulthalesh had become even stronger from Sataiel's spirit and that he was still plotting on challenging the Dark Titan. Centuries later, Sargeras—now possessing the Guardian Medivh—sent the Dark Riders to find the scythe and hide it in the Karazhan Catacombs in order to deny Ulthalesh any further opportunities to gain more power through finding new wielders.
According to A Hypothetical Examination of the Legion's Weaknesses, a tome outlawed and deemed apocryphal by the Legion, the scythe is one of the few things in the universe that Sargeras fears. Ulthalesh does not care about the fate of its wielder, since if they die and are consumed by him, he only becomes more powerful. He has been playing his game with Sargeras for millennia and "knows the meaning of patience".[1] During the third invasion of the Burning Legion, the scythe was retrieved from Karazhan by a warlock champion of the Council of the Black Harvest.[2] As of the end of the Fourth War, Khadgar believes that the weapon is still in the hands of the champion. Khadgar also believes that even though Sargeras has been defeated and imprisoned at the Seat of the Pantheon, Ulthalesh still hopes to one day slay his old nemesis.[3]
[10-45]