Death Battle Predictions: Sauron VS Lich King

 

Sauron, the Lord of the Rings from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth writings.

The Lich King, Master of the Scourge from Warcraft.      

Throughout fiction, the idea of a dark lord, a presence invoking fear and dread in the hearts of men, is something many have explored. But few enemies of all that is good are as notable and powerful as these two. They are masters of darkness, and command forces capable of destroying all in their path. Add into the mix artifacts of great, terrible power backing them up, and few can hope to stand in their way and defend the world.

But today, these two masters of darkness will battle with the peaks of their power to see which is truly the ultimate evil. Doom and destruction will surely reign supreme, but when the shadows spread, which of these villains will come out as the victor? Brace yourselves, for while evil will surely move forward regardless of the outcome, only one can come out on top in this high fantasy DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Get Started…

While we put in our best efforts to make this blog as complete as possible, there are likely many factors that we missed or did not touch on. These two characters happen to have a lot of material that is less researched than most, which proved difficult to go through within the two weeks that we were allotted. With the limited amount of time to research, unforeseen issues preventing some of our members from working the whole time, and the massive amount of mostly untapped content, we unfortunately cannot say with confidence that everything is here. As such, we have to ask that you take our findings with more of a grain of salt than usual. 

Despite this, we have still managed to compile a blog from our findings to the best of our ability. We hope that you all enjoy.

Background

Sauron

“You can not hide. I see you. There is no life in the void. Only… death.”

Long ago, Eä was created by the music of Eru Ilúvatar, together with the Valar. Ilúvatar offered all of the Valar the choice to go and experience the world he made, and many of them accepted this offer. While many sought to obey the will and benevolent guidance Ilúvatar gave, there were those who went astray. Chief among them was the Vala known as Melkor, who sought to twist and control all that was created in this new world. In time, he would be defeated, but another Dark Lord would rise up in his place: Melkor’s greatest lieutenant, Sauron.

Sauron was a Maia, those who generally served the Valar and performed various tasks they were created for by Eru. He was once known as Mairon, and his mission was to pursue and ensure order and perfection. As a student of the Vala Aulë, Mairon would work to give order to all around him, but in time his heart became darkened. Mairon took note of the abilities and skill Melkor had, and ultimately betrayed Middle-Earth to side with the Dark Lord. From there, he became known as Sauron, and did battle for his master throughout the First Age. While he did suffer some notable defeats, such as a significant loss to Huan and Luthien, Sauron did manage to escape the downfall that would come to Melkor.

From there, Sauron took up control of all the evils that Melkor had created throughout Middle-Earth, uniting them under his rule and beginning his own plans for control and order throughout the land. Unfortunately for all who opposed him, Sauron was also immensely cunning, and would succeed in bringing many powerful forces under his sway as the ages progressed. Greatest amongst his deceits was the creation of the Rings of Power, which he gave as gifts to those he sought to control. Three for the elf lords, seven for the dwarves, and nine for the kings of men. And one, a master ring, he created for himself to control and dominate all others within the fires of Mount Doom, in the heart of Mordor. 

In time, his ruse was discovered, but not without cost. Even when outmatched, Sauron would find ways to bring down his enemies, eventually corrupting King Ar-Pharazôn the Golden and causing the events that would destroy the island nation of Númenor. But this event would take a toll, for Sauron was heavily damaged by the destruction of Númenor, and lost the power to take a fair shape before men. Sauron would soon muster his strength once more, but became opposed in a final battle pitched on the slopes of Mount Doom. Sauron was defeated, but he was not destroyed, for the Ring survived.

From there, Sauron’s power lay dormant, but he would eventually return once more. The Ring remained bound to him, and Sauron’s forces began seeking it out to restore him to his former power. None should dare attempt to use such a tool, for they too might fall to the Dark Lord’s corruption. Perhaps the most unexpected and smallest of forces would one day bring a permanent end to Sauron’s influence, but all should fear his name. So long as the One Ring remains whole within Middle Earth, the Dark Lord Sauron will never truly be gone for good, and he will not stop until all of the land has fallen to his power.

Lich King

“When my work is complete, you will beg for mercy -- and I will deny you. Your anguished cries will be testament to my unbridled power…”

Within the vast reaches of the cosmos, there lies Azeroth, a single planet that bears infinite potential. With that potential however, came endless conflict. Throughout the world’s extensive history, it’s faced threats ranging from elemental gods, giant dragons, eldritch abominations, and about as much war as you would expect from the series’ title. Out of all of these evils, however, one stands out as one of the most notorious: the undead armies of the Scourge, and their leader, Arthas Menethil, The Lich King.

But before that, before he was a monstrous lord of the Scourge, feared throughout Azeroth, Arthas was a young man. He was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, son of King Terenas Menethil II and Queen Leane Menethil. From childhood, Arthas trained to become a warrior. He learnt combat from Muradin Bronzebeard, and was taught of the light by Uther the Lightbringer. All this training would lead to Arthas joining the Knights of the Silver Hand at only 19 years old, an accomplishment backed up by his remarkable skill with a blade. Which led to his reputation as a knight growing. But for as much as he was a brave and strong knight, he was also headstrong and far too sure of himself. Traits that would come back to haunt the Prince as the path he walked began to grow colder and darker. 

As news of a Scourge, a Plague making the dead rise from their graves began to spread, Arthas was duty-bound to try and stop its spread. He fought his way through the undead until he learnt of the demon Mal'Ganis, the leader of the Scourge. Arthas, wishing to defeat Mal'Ganis, made his way to the city of Stratholme. Only to discover it had already been infected by the Scourge. To prevent its spread, Arthas ordered his men to purge the city. Many, such as Uther, objected to this. But Arthas' response was simply to accuse them of treason and send them off. As the bodies of his purge piled around him, Arthas met Mal'Ganis and vowed to defeat him. As the city he had slaughtered burned, Arthas began his trek to Northrend.

Arriving in Northrend with a group of knights, Arthas was reunited with Muradin, who was there to search for the runeblade Frostmourne. Together, they searched for the blade and fought through the Undead. When an order from his father arrived to call him home, Arthas chose to ignore it. He deceived his men and had the boats burned, hellbent on completing his quest. Anything besides victory was not an option in Arthas' mind

Venturing out with Muradin, Arthas soon came upon Frostmourne. While Muradin tried to dissuade him from claiming the blade, its power spoke to him. He was willing to pay any price for the power needed to aid his people. And that price would be his dear friend's life when Muradin was struck down by a shard of ice. The blade's siren song was too alluring for Arthas. He claimed Frostmourne and left Muradin for dead. 

With Frostmourne in hand, Arthas confronted and seemingly struck down Mal'Ganis, spurred on by the voice of the Lich King in his mind. Losing more and more of himself to the Lich King's hold, the proud warrior Arthas died, and the Death Knight Arthas was born. He slaughtered and revived his men as his undead legion. Arthas marched to the Capital of Lordaeron and laid waste to it. He murdered his own father in cold blood.

Manipulated by the spirit Ner’Zhul, Arthas would go to Northrend and claim the Helm of Domination for his own. When Arthas put on the helmet, the two spirits of Ner’Zhul and Arthas merged, with Arthas becoming the dominant one in the guise of the Lich King. 

Many years later, Arthas would awaken into a world that had changed. Azeroth had found itself with many new champions roaming the lands, attaining great power and accomplishing great deeds. Arthas, knowing that the time had come for the Scourge to wage war on the living, began his assault on the Horde and Alliance in earnest, while secretly setting his sights on these new champions. 

A vicious war raged across Northrend, and the Champions of Azeroth began proving themselves against the Scourge’s mightiest soldiers time and time again. Eventually, the time came for a final assault on Icecrown Citadel alongside the combined might of the Horde and Alliance. The champions once again overcame all obstacles, and found themselves before the throne of the Lich King, alongside the paladin, Tirion Fordring. 

The ensuing battle had the champions summoning their entire might against Arthas’ onslaught, and it seemed for a moment that the forces of good would prevail. However, Arthas quickly turned the tables, unleashing a devastating blast that killed all of the champions in a single hit. He then revealed that everything up to this point was all part of his plan, the war in Northrend, the champions’ triumph over the Scourge, all of it was so that Arthas could claim his ultimate, unstoppable force of death. Knowing now beyond a shadow of a doubt that these champions were the most powerful fighters Azeroth had to offer, he began raising them as death knights that would herald the coming of the apocalypse, laughing at their failure to recognize his plan in time. 

All seemed lost, but with a desperate plea to the light, the incapacitated Tirion was granted a burst of power, and shattered Frostmourne with a single strike, releasing the spirits trapped within, including that of Terenas. The spirit of Arthas’ father quickly resurrected the fallen champions, and Arthas met his end soon after. In his dying moments, he saw Terenas one final time, and with his parting words, Arthas realized that only darkness awaited him after the end. 

After his death, Arthas’s soul was cast into the Maw, a place of eternal suffering, by the spirit of his old mentor Uther, and was later claimed by the Jailer. Who utilized Arthas’s soul as a power source for Kingsmourne, a blade that would be used to bend the current High King of the Alliance, Anduin Wrynn, to his will. In a battle to reclaim Anduin inside of Kingsmourne, Arthas’ soul emerged and engaged in battle against the Champions of Azeroth as he did all those years ago. During the battle, Anduin finally regained control and split Kingsmourne in two, releasing him from the Jailer. In the process, the last remaining remnants of Arthas’ soul were also freed, resulting in him fading from existence, as there was simply not enough left of him to form a proper spirit.

Equipment

Sauron

Mace

A massive bludgeoning weapon, fit for Sauron’s physical form gargantuan size. With it, he struck down Elendil in the Battle of Dagorlad and was completely decimating entire armies of elves and men with every swing.

Sword

While serving under Morgoth, Sauron wielded a sword. He still occasionally wields a sword in battle, usually while he's not in his well known armored form. He can light it on fire, and when he assumes his armored form, the sword transforms into the mace seen above.

The One Ring

“One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

The Ring of Power (The Ring, One Ring, Isildur’s Bane, etc.) is a magical ring forged within the fires of Mount Doom by Sauron himself, and serves as the greatest evil known to Middle-Earth. Sauron uses The Ring as a way to control all Ring Bearers across Middle-Earth, granting himself enhanced power, abilities of all the Rings and control over all influenced by this artifact. The Ring also contains a major fraction of Sauron’s fëa (soul) and carries out his will. As a result, his fate is bound to it. The Ring’s influence has corrupted many who wore or came into contact with it, including but not limited to gaining abilities such as invisibility to physical beings, enhanced power, a form of immortality, and a longer life span for an indefinite amount of time for any mortal who obtains it. For Sauron, The Ring allows The Dark Lord to take control over those influenced by evil and have a major influence on other beings susceptible to evil and corruption. 

The Ring is nearly indestructible, as any and all weaponry has failed to destroy it and it has even been mentioned that the power of the mightiest dragons stood no chance against The Ring. Despite its many strengths, The Ring (and to an extent, Sauron) can be destroyed by casting it into the fire from whence it came. However, merely removing the Ring from Sauron will not strip him of his power. The Ring must be possessed by a new bearer in order for Sauron to lose this strength, and even then, to completely destroy Sauron, the Ring must be cast into Mount Doom.

Ithil-stone

The Ithil-stone is one of the Palantíri within Middle-Earth, which the Nazgûl captured from the fortress of Minas Ithil. After that, the stone came into Sauron’s possession, and he has used it for a variety of purposes. In order to use a Palantír to its maximum ability, one must possess an extremely strong will; not a problem for Sauron, who has managed to unlock a vast amount of capabilities from his stone. Sauron is able to use the Ithil-stone to see faraway things, and even to communicate with others utilizing the stones. This is how he managed to corrupt Saruman, and break the waning courage of Denethor as well.

Lich King

Frostmourne

Frostmourne is a two-handed Mourneblade and is the main weapon of the Lich King. Forged by the Runecraver to aid the Jailer in his conquest of Azeroth, it is a one-of-a-kind special blade due to the fact that it is adorned with special rune magic called Domination, giving it the ability to dominate the will and souls of others. Frostmourne is able to use Domination in order to take the souls of others and trap them in a spiritual realm. With each soul that Frostmourne absorbs, he gets stronger. It can also affect the souls of those stored inside the blade, corrupting them and turning them into violent spirits, creating minions for the Lich King to summon. Frostmourne has one significant downside, in that if the blade is destroyed then the spirits will be released and could kill the user of the blade, as shown through Arthas’ defeat and death. 

Plate of the Damned

The Lich King’s armor and one of the items made in order to bind the spirit of Ner’zhul. It is composed of Saronite, a substance which is bathed in the blood of the Old Gods. Through being mystical in nature, it gives the Lich King’s armor the ability of regeneration, allowing him to regenerate from an axe strike within seconds.

Helm of Domination 

The Helm of Domination was created by the Runecarver. Similar to Frostmourne, it also uses the power of Domination, allowing Arthas to keep control of the undead. If the Helmet does not have an owner, then the spirits will run rampant. Because of this, Bolvar Fordragon took up the identity of the Lich King in order to prevent the dead from destroying Azeroth.

Abilities

Sauron

Maia Physiology

Before his arrival on Earth, Sauron was an Ainu, an angelic being who participated in the creation of the entire universe. Like other Maiar (Ainur of lower rank than the Valar), Sauron was a being who lived outside of existence, and was sent to Earth during the First War. He is an immortal spirit who chose to take a visible physical form in order to influence enough beings to amass large armies.  His physical body is not his true form, and destroying that body does nothing to his immortal spirit.

Telepathy

Using the One Ring, Sauron can communicate with whomever the ring-bearer was, specifically Frodo in many cases. He was also capable of telepathically communicating with Saruman and other powerful beings, as seen in various media. 

Soul Manipulation

Using the One Ring to control the Rings of Power, Sauron had full control over all who wore them; many would meet a damning demise. Even outside of this, however, he possessed soul manipulation abilities, as shown during his fight against Celebrimbor. He is able to corrupt the souls of beings over-time, as shown with the likes of Talion. 

Auto Resurrection

During many instances in which Sauron was considered killed or defeated, Sauron was capable of instant resurrection. The most popular example is when Sauron was slain during the Second War, he immediately became the Eye of Sauron while his soul remained within the Ring. He was also able to use it quickly after his body was destroyed in the fall of Númenor, moving his soul all the way to Mordor and healing there.

Geological Manipulation

Sauron has caused Mount Doom to erupt. He was also capable of manipulating the weather, creating total darkness so his armies could wage war, and creating earthquakes powerful enough to destroy all of Mordor.

Pyrokinesis

Sauron is well known for his control over fire, using it in various ways, such as the forging of The One Ring. In some cases, he has been shown to have some form of pyrokinesis via magic, like engulfing himself or his weapon in fire, or leaving his enemies scorched with his flames.

Telekinesis

Sauron possesses telekinetic abilities, notably using it to recall the One Ring back to him Green-Lantern-style.

Teleportation

Sauron is capable of magically teleporting, which he can often use to appear on the battlefield and intimidate an opponent. It also allows him to move around the field for an advantage, or leave the area entirely to enact a plan or leave his victim to be dealt with by minions.

Additionally, through an ability known as Shadow Walk, Sauron can shroud himself in shadows and teleport, closing the distance between himself and his enemies, as well as healing himself a tiny bit in the process.

Darkness Manipulation

Due to learning sorcery from Morgoth, Sauron can control darkness and send it out in the form of concussive force energy blasts that knock the afflicted target back. These blasts explode upon contact and can attack multiple targets at once.

Necromancy

Sauron’s sorcery allows him to bring back anyone who is dead with a move of his hand.  The souls that he resurrects are then placed under his influence, and will do whatever he commands them to do.

Mind Control/Influence

Sauron’s natural influence over minds with his cunning is further amplified with the ring’s own influence over minds when Sauron is near the Ring.  Even Frodo, a Hobbit that could resist the Ring’s temptation, would have completely failed to resist its temptation had Sauron been close to it.

Even when Sauron is not near the Ring or when the Ring is not near the person Sauron wants to influence, the mere knowledge of its power is able to influence similarly powerful beings. This influence is strong enough to even affect his enemies, such as Galadriel. The reason its influence is able to affect those that despise Sauron is that it is possible for the Ring to trick its target using their strongest desires, even if their desire is to kill him.

The Ring’s influence is strong enough that Gandalf, a Maia who is also an immortal spirit using a physical form, states that he is not able to resist its influence even when Sauron is nowhere near it. This is another showing of the Ring’s ability to influence those whose ideals oppose Sauron’s own will.

Sauron’s influence turned Saruman the White, the most powerful Maiar wizard at the time, evil using Saruman’s fear after he looked into the Eye of Sauron and saw crippling defeat.  The mere threat of overwhelming evil turned Saruman to Sauron’s side.

Even when captured and jailed, Sauron is able to control the minds and wills of an entire kingdom. He used this to influence the Men of Númenor to fight for him, after surrendering to their leader Ar-Pharazôn, as a tactic in order to get to Númenor in the first place.

Flight

Sauron can transform his physical body back to an immortal spirit at will in order to fly.  

Time Manipulation Resistance

In the video game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Sauron is able to resist Celebrimbor’s ability to slow down time.

Illusion Magic

Sauron has been shown utilizing the power of illusions in order to manipulate and trick people for his own benefit, through making them see things. This was shown when he manipulated Gorlim in order to ensnare him.

The One Ring has also been shown to alter how its wielder appears to their opponents, to intimidate foes. For example, when an Orc snuck up on Samwise Gamgee, who was holding the Ring at the time, the Orc perceived Sam as a cloaked warrior surrounded by shadow with a menacing physique, so intimidating that the Orc fled in terror.

Terror Aura

Sauron’s terror aura was able to drive out the defenders of Minas Tirith on its own, and defend the entire tower after Sauron claimed it.  Nobody could ever get through the aura he placed around Minas Tirith.  Sauron is able to use this aura both offensively and defensively, and can place it around an area he wants to defend, to ensure that nobody can get through.

Shapeshifting

During the First and Second Ages, Sauron could transform himself into different beings. These include a humanoid-like appearance, a werewolf, a serpent and a vampire.  Sauron’s werewolf transformation was so terrifying that its presence instantly knocked out one of the most powerful elves of the First Age, Lúthien.  Sauron lost the ability to take on a “fair shape” after being swept up in the destruction of Númenor, but he is still capable of taking forms suitable for battle.

Wrath of Sauron

A self-healing move Sauron can perform that allows him to drain the very life force of his enemies to replenish his own health. He can target multiple opponents at once and drain their life forces to replenish his own.

Lich King

Undead Physiology

Arthas’ turn to serve Ner’zhul did more than mark a full turn to evil, he had also joined the ranks of the undead. More than simply animating a corpse, the status of undeath in Warcraft entails a number of effects. For starters, their physical senses are severely dulled, to the point that they cannot smell the rot of their decaying flesh, or otherwise feel the damage that has occurred to their bodies since death. Undead do not perform biological functions, and do not need their internal organs as a result, as seen with Arthas removing his own heart without issue. Furthermore, contact with holy Light will cause undead severe pain, however, they are not completely cut off from its use. Some have actually achieved priesthood in their undeath, and light spells intended for healing will still aid an undead as it would anyone else, despite the pain it causes. Extended contact with beneficial light magic has actually been recorded to restore some of an undead’s lost senses, although this is typically detrimental to the individual’s sanity due to the damage their body has sustained. Additionally, undead are typically immune to effects that target the mind or trigger specific emotions, such as fear.

Cryomancy

The Lich King is a master of ice magic, being able to utilize the element through various means. He has shown to be capable of freezing foes in a solid block of ice, creating ice spheres that harm nearby victims, creating giant ice spikes and can create ice tendrils. His control over the element is so great that he can freeze water in order to create a bridge of ice over the sea for his armies to go through. 

• Chains of Ice: Ensnares the target in frozen chains, severely decreasing their movement speed for the duration.

• Icebound Fortitude: Freezes the blood, becoming immune to effects that prevent the user’s actions, and causes them to take significantly reduced damage.

• Mind Freeze: Directly sends ice magic into the target’s mind, disrupting whatever magic they are currently using, and preventing them from using it again for a short time.

Necromancy

Ner’zhul, and by extension the Lich King, have complete control over the undead (to the point that their souls are bound to the Lich King’s will), binding them to his evil forever until they are slain. He can create skeletons, ghouls, abominations, vile spirits, etc. He can even resurrect non-humanoid beings such as Nerubians, in order to fight for his army. His most impressive feat of Necromancy was the time he resurrected the mighty frost wyrm, Sindragosa to fight on his behalf. 

• Control Undead: Overrides the will of a target undead being, forcing them to serve the user.

Wind/Storm Creation

Arthas can cast a spell called the Remorseless Winter that is capable of creating a localized Winter Storm that drains the warmth out of its victims. Its only downside is that Arthas must stand still when casting the spell, though he has found a way around this via a smaller version that all Death Knights learn.

Shockwave Creation

By stabbing the ground with Frostmourne, the Lich King can send underground shockwaves all around him, crumbling the ground underneath his opponents.

Domination

Domination, as you may have guessed, is the power to suppress the wills of other beings to the user’s whim. It is powerful runic magic that enables its user complete control over their victim’s thoughts, emotions and sense of self to their very soul (pg38). The Jailer fused the powerful rune magic of Domination with Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination. This has allowed Arthas complete control over his target mentally and spiritually. Arthas has used this ability to bend Undead, Nerubians, Death Knights and more to his whims, creating a vast army to challenge the forces of both the Alliance and the Horde.

Victims of Domination note that they often cannot distinguish between which actions they were forced to partake in, and what they chose to do of their own accord. Anduin also notes that there was a dark part of himself that almost enjoyed committing evil acts under the Jailer’s control. Likewise, individuals that have some form of internal darkness, such as Kel’Thuzad, often find themselves susceptible to manipulation from Domination users. The Primus, who is the being that created Domination magic, states that prior victims of Domination are not immune to being affected again.

Disease Manipulation

Ner’zhul, and in turn Arthas, can utilize what is known as Fel energy to inflict disease and death onto their opponents. Plague can be described as being entropic death energy that when inflicted, brings the being to entropic state or oblivion (basically death). Ner'zhul/Arthas used the power of the Plague to infect many beings in Northrend to use in his army, as those inflicted with the Plague are completely subservient to the Lich King:

• Necrotic Plague: Infects the target with a deadly plague, causing massive damage, if the target dies then it will jump to a nearby unit. As the plague inflicts more people, the Lich King’s power will increase (this is known as Plague Siphon).

• Frost Fever: A disease caused by most of a Death Knight’s frost magic. Inflicts frost damage and slows the attacking speed of the victim.

 Soul Manipulation

As mentioned earlier with Frostmourne and Domination, Arthas can manipulate the souls of others, removing them or sealing them. The souls that are claimed by Frostmourne can be manipulated to the Lich King’s own whims, using them as minions called Vile Spirits. In his boss fight, he has various soul-based attacks:

• Harvest Souls: Attempts to harvest the souls of all nearby enemies. If the foe is still alive once the attack finishes, then their soul will be transferred into Frostmourne to be eaten. This ability stuns all targets for the duration of the attack, and even works on targets who have stored their soul in an external object, such as a Soulstone.

• Raging Spirit: Rips out a piece of the target's spirit, forming a mirror image of the target that will attack them.

• Soul Shriek: The stolen piece of the target’s soul unleashes a scream that damages all targets in an area in front of them, dealing damage and preventing them from using magic-based abilities for five seconds.

Blood Manipulation 

Whilst Arthas has not displayed these abilities himself, Death Knights generally possess the ability to manipulate blood in various ways. Such abilities include:

• Death Strike: A powerful swing which drains health from the target.

• Blood Boil: Does exactly as it sounds, causes the target’s blood to boil. More powerful against foes who are infected with a plague.

• Blood Presence: Passively uses blood to amplify strength and heal for a portion of the damage they deal (does not work with damage over time effects). 

Darkness Manipulation

Unholy or Death Magic is a type of magic that acts as a counterbalance to Holy Magic, through its infliction of disease and death onto its targets:

• Death Coil: Fires a black wave of Shadow Energy to damage a nearby target. Beings such as Arthas can also use Death Coil as a means of healing themselves.

• Pain and Suffering: Deals damage to all enemies in an area in front of Arthas, also causing them to take damage over time.

• Defile: Infects the ground with shadow-magic; should an enemy of the Lich King step into an infected area, they will suffer damage, and cause the area to grow in size and deal more damage. 

• Soul Reaper: Strikes the target with dark energy, causing damage over time and causing Arthas’ attack speed to increase for a short time.

• Death Pact: Sacrifices his own allies in order to heal himself. 

• Infest: Deals damage to all enemies around Arthas, causing them to suffer damage over time that will continue to ramp up until the target is either killed, or is restored above a sufficient amount of health. 

• Asphyxiate: Lifts the enemy target off the ground, crushing their throat with dark energy and stunning them. Seriously leaning into that Darth Vader inspiration.

• Death’s Advance: Passively prevents the user’s movement speed from being reduced beyond a certain amount. Can be used to temporarily amp the user’s speed and make them immune to effects that reduce speed, knock them back, or force them to move.

• Gorefiend’s Grasp: Summons a mass of shadow tendrils around the target, which grab all nearby enemies and move them to the target’s location.

Telekinesis

Multiple Lich Kings have displayed the ability to exert telekinetic force, such as Bolvar throwing chunks of the Frozen Throne as seen above, or Arthas’ Soul Harvest incapacitating its targets for the duration of the spell.

Portal Creation

Death Gate: Allows the Death Knight to create magic gateways. Although most frequently used to travel to their stronghold, it has been used to travel to other locations.

Astral Projection

Lich King can project his own image from far away distances to communicate with, instruct and receive intel from his undercover agents in living societies without the need of traveling all the way.

Magical Traps

When fighting against the Champions of Azeroth in order to deal with the 25 Champions, Arthas displayed a few tactical traps to cause significant damage.

• Shadow Trap: Creates a trap on the floor that when triggered, damages the target with shadow damage and knocks them away.

• Summon Ice Sphere: Creates a sphere of ice that will chase a random foe. Should it reach its target without being destroyed, it will detonate and send all nearby enemies flying.

Power Absorption

Anti-Magic Shell: A shield which absorbs a portion of magic damage which strikes the user. Energy absorbed this way is converted into power for the user. Additionally, the user becomes immune to harmful magic effects whilst the shield is active.

Power Nullification

The Lich King’s most powerful ability is Fury of Frostmourne. It not only does massive Shadow damage to all enemies, but it completely nullifies resurrection and renders victims unable to release the spirit from their bodies. Methods of resurrection nullified include:

• Resurrection via releasing the soul and returning it to the body.

• Abilities that directly undo the user’s death at will, such as Reincarnation.

• Resurrection achieved by having the user’s soul stored in an external object, such as a Soulstone. It should be noted that the Soulstone is not destroyed, but is simply unable to be used.

Fury of Frostmourne will also bypass abilities which grant invulnerability or can otherwise save the user from fatal damage, such as:

• Guardian Spirit

• Divine Shield and Divine Intervention

• Ice Block

Summons

Sauron

Nazgûl

The Nazgûl, also known as the Ringwraiths or Black Riders, are the nine most loyal servants of Sauron throughout the Second and Third Ages. Befitting their name, the Nazgûl are like phantoms; everlasting invisible specters in service to the Dark Lord and directly tied to his life, and that of the One Ring. They all possess toxic breath and fear-inducing cries, but one of the nine, the Witch-king of Angmar, was especially difficult to slay, as any weapon that struck him would be destroyed. They have fought alongside their dark lord, notably against the White Council.

Notable Abilities:

• Some degree of invisibility, due to their nature as wraiths.

• The Black Shadow, a sickness the Nazgûl can induce via exposure to them, that causes deep sleep and eventual death.

• Immortality, given by the connection to the One Ring. Shadow of War further demonstrates that unless their respective ring is destroyed, their bodies will simply reform over time from their spirits. The Witch-king can even regenerate a severed limb instantly.

• Morgul Blades and Bow, weapons enchanted to turn the victim into a wraith by leaving a shard in their body that works its way to the victim’s heart. Upon reaching the heart, the target becomes a wraith under their control. The bows are used for poisoned arrows.

• Unseen World, the unseen realm in which cursed spirits such as the Ringwraiths had formed. The Nazgûl could perceive things that occurred here and exposure to it improved their other senses.

• The Wraiths could induce fear into their opponents with their mere presence, noted to be like an aura

• The Nazgûl can travel like smoke and fire dark energy as blasts or as explosions

• The rings from a fallen wraith can corrupt the minds of others

• They have some degree of resistance to being mentally controlled

• Some Ringwraiths have shown the ability to teleport and levitate

• Nazgûl can summon chains to restrain to subdue their targets, even while dying

• The Ringwraiths can summon Ghuls, Drakes, and Wights, and even revive the dead as servants

• The Witch-king has shown minor usage of telekinesis (Implied usage in novels)

• The Ring of the Witch-king can dominate the minds of men

• Seemingly the Witch-king can kill animals, Ice Graugs, and several other kinds of beasts with his presence alone

• Weather and Fire control: The Witch-king was capable of controlling the weather to make it snow, and could even ignite his blade on fire

Mounts and Summoned creatures

Fell Beasts

Monstrous wyvern-like creatures used as the main mounts of the Nazgûl. Fellbeasts were feared for their ferocity and speed and were capable of killing soldiers by biting or crushing them.

Horses

Black horses mounted by the Nazgûl. The Nazgûl were known to be skilled at combat while on horseback.

Wights

Shapeshifting evil spirits, they are at their strongest in darkness. The Ringwraiths can summon a massive amount of them at once.

Ghuls

Feral nocturnal beasts used by the Ringwraiths, usually in packs. They despise being exposed to light.

Drakes

Bred by Sauron, they are crossbreeds between dragons and fell beasts. They are used as mounts and breath flames, which can be further enhanced by the Nazgûl.

Lich King

Invincible

(If he’s Invincible, how can anyone see him?)

The trusty steed of Arthas Menethil both in life and death. Was Arthas’s friend and life partner all throughout both their childhoods and adolescence until a freak accident made the young Prince put the stallion out of his misery, scaring him and teaching a rough lesson about the need of sacrifices at a fairly young age. As the wielder of Froustmourne however, Arthas returned to his grave, raising him from the dead, once again reuniting the two. At some point in his undeath Invincible also obtained wings, allowing whoever mounted him to fly into the combat and rain death from above.

Sindragosa

Once an ancient and powerful blue dragon. After being betrayed and struck down, Sindragosa died in the cold Tundra of Northrend, her final thoughts turned to bitter hatred. Thousands of years later, Arthas would re-animate her remains as a frost wyrm, enslaving the once great and powerful dragon into the service of the Scourge. 

Notable Abilities:

• Ice Tomb: Traps the target within a block of ice, incapacitating them until freed by someone else.

• Unchained Magic: Inflicts the target with a curse that will cause magic they use to create a backlash of arcane energy after a short period of time. The more magic used, the more damaging the backlash will be.

• Icy Grip: Summons tendrils of wind that pulls all targets within 30 yards into melee range.

Val’kyr

The Val’kyr are a class of immortal ascended beings who were great warriors in life, and in death had their spirits transformed for the purpose of transporting souls between the physical world and the Shadowlands. Although the original Val’kyr are creations of Odyn, once Arthas learned of their existence and unique abilities, he managed to create his own, and incorporated them into his army.

Notable Abilities:

• Holy Manipulation: There are multiple instances of Scourge Val’kyr utilizing Light magic, including for barriers and healing.

• Soul Manipulation: Some Val’kyr have been shown to directly remove the dark part of a target’s soul from their body, which will then be bound to the will of the Val’kyr.

• Dimensional Travel: All Val’kyr can freely travel between the Shadowlands and material world, as well as carry spirits with them (World of Warcraft: Chronicle Vol. 1, Page 48).

• Resurrection: Val’kyr possess the ability to raise the dead, and even return fallen undead into unlife.

• BFR: The Lich King has employed the use of Val’kyr to remove opponents from the battlefield altogether by simply picking them up and flying away. Their ability to move souls between the Shadowlands and the physical world means that, in theory, a Val’kyr could take a target’s soul into the Shadowlands and leave it trapped there.

Vile Spirits

•  Lich King can also summon a dozen of wraiths at once to swarm up and attack his enemies, which could also self-detonate, dealing heavy magic damage.

Feats

Sauron

Overall

• Terrorized Middle-Earth for three ages, never truly being defeated until the end of the third.

• Successfully caused the entire kingdom of Númenor to be wiped out, and survived said destruction.

• Successfully corrupted numerous powerful figures throughout time, including the nine kings of men that would become the Ringwraiths, Galadriel, Celebrimbor, and Saruman.

• One of the few allies of Morgoth to escape his defeat and be able to continue fighting.

• Organized the remaining forces of evil Morgoth left into a devastating force, possibly just as dangerous as Morgoth’s army.

• Played a major role in the creation of the Rings of Power, and created his own master ring to control all others.

• Battled Celebrimbor on even footing and eventually won, even when Celebrimbor was amplified by the One Ring for the majority of the battle.

Power

• Stated to be capable of destroying entire hills

• Creates a large explosion

• Governs the storms in the Mountains of Shadow

• Stronger than Saruman, who Gandalf believed to have been strong enough to boil the Isen River

• Smacked around Celebrimbor

• Gandalf the White considered Sauron stronger than him. This would make Sauron much stronger than Gandalf the Grey, who destroyed a mountain in his fight with the Balrog (122.46 kilotons of TNT)

• Upscales from Eärendil, who turned into a star powered by the light of a Silmaril.  

• Eärendil fought Ancalagon the Black in the War of Wrath, who was one of the servants of Morgoth in the First Age. Sauron was the most powerful of the servants even then, and became even stronger after forging The One Ring in the Second Age. This means Sauron in the peak of his power should be superior to Eärendil. 

• Created a storm that stretched from Minas Tirith to Mordor over a night. (126.69 tons - 21.984 kilotons of TNT)

• Comparable to Talion, who can freeze orcs from several meters away. (13.34 tons of TNT)

• Sent a signal to Minas Morgul by triggering a volcanic eruption. (24 megatons of TNT)

• Shook his realm, Mordor. (7.558 - 99.456 megatons of TNT)

• Can cast meteors to fire down on opponents. (142.6 Tons of TNT)

• Scales to Ancalagon the Black, who destroyed the mountains of Thangorodrim by falling. (933.58 megatons of TNT)

Speed

• Superior to Gandalf, who claims to move at the speed of wind and moves as fast as an arrow

• Flew away from Galadriel at great speeds (Mach 3.9)

• Moved FTE even in slowed time

• Kept up with Celebrimbor, who can run 694 feet in 22 seconds

• Comparable to Talion, who’s quick enough to react to arrows and view explosions in slow motion

• Likely faster than the Balrogs, who traveled from Angband to Lammoth in a relatively short period of time (Mach 2.83 - 28.27)

• Compared to the likes of Ancalagon the Black, a dragon who kept up with Eärendil within The Vingilot, a ship said to have sailed the stars and back to Middle-Earth within a day (54.75 billion - 33.96 trillion c)

Durability

• Straight-up ignored being impaled by Talion 

• Tanked several hits from Celebrimor 

• Was able to tank everything that Celebrimor threw at him, including magic arrows 

• Resisted Celebrimor’s attempts to dominate him

• Took a lightning strike from Manwë unharmed, powerful enough to smite a city with all of its inhabitants with Sauron in it. Manwë is the leader and the most powerful of the Valar, below only Ilúvatar in the hierarchy of power of Tolkien's Legendarium. The Valar were responsible for shaping the universe after Ilúvatar created it.

Lich King

Overall

• Suppressed Ner’zhul within his mind, becoming the only Lich King.

• Defeated Kel'thuzad, Mal'ganis, Uther the Lightbringer, Sylvanas Windrunner, Archmage Antonidas, Kael'thas Sunstrider, Illidan Stormrage, Champion of Azeroth and many more.

• Succeeded his father as the King of Lordaeron.

• Threatened the entirety of Azeroth with the might of his army.

• Eradicated 90% of the high elven race.

• To this day the most iconic character Warcraft has ever seen.

• The only Blizzard employee who excels at community management.

Power

• Froze the ocean between Eversong Woods and the Isle of Quel'Danas (111 teratons of TNT)

• Battled and killed Mal’Ganis

• With a single strike, killed Horde’s warchief Dranosh Saurfang and shattered the weapon

• Blasted a Undead Tauren through a Saronite Wall

• Defeated Ilidain Stormrage who:

• Killed Gul’Dan, an extremely powerful warlock and someone who posed a major threat to Legion players.

• Defeated the Pit Lord Magtheridon.

• Killed the Pit Lord Azgoth.

• Superior to Burning Crusade-era Champions of Azeroth who were unable to defeat him without side help. 

• Implied to have taken part in the battle against Argus the Unmaker, who easily overwhelmed the Titan Pantheon.

• Powerful enough to act as Sargeras’ jailer alongside the Titan Pantheon.

• Superior to Wrath of the Lich King era Champions of Azeroth who: 

• Prior to fighting the Lich King, were able to defeat demons such as Eredar and Pit Lords, who have been shown to be able to annihilate the surface of a planet, and even destroy a planet outright.

• Held their own against Archimonde for a time, a demon second in power only to Sargeras himself, and thus should be vastly more powerful than Pit Lords and other Eredar.

• Defeated Algalon the Observer, who belongs to a race of beings that traveled the cosmos alongside Titans, and on at least one occasion were able to fight alongside Argus, and keep up with Legion-era players. Algalon himself has multiple abilities that are described as creating stars or constellations.

• Have defeated multiple Titan Watchers and Keepers, whom the Winter Queen has been directly compared to. The Winter Queen is the sister and counterpart to Elune, who could create a constellation.

• Comparable to Bolvar Fordragon who:

• Fought a Jailer-empowered Sylvanas Windrunner, who later posed a major threat to characters like the Champions of Azeroth, Jaina Proudmoore, Tyrande Whisperwind, and Thrall.

• Lifted large stone structures with his telekinesis

• Was still able to somewhat keep pace with Shadowlands era threats such as Sylvanas and a Jailer-controlled Anduin, even after losing access to his Lich King powers, albeit to a much less effective degree than before.

• The Lich King’s powers (as seen with Bolvar) and Arthas’ own soul powered Kingsmourne, a major threat to Shadowlands-era characters, including the Champions of Azeroth, who by that time had:

• Defeated Xavius in the Rift of Aln who was capable of corrupting the entire Emerald Dream, and even began merging the Emerald Nightmare into baseline reality.

• Defeated the Coven of Shivarra, who were keeping members of the Titan Pantheon imprisoned and were channeling their powers against the players 

• Defeated the Titan Aggramar.

• Were able to kill the Titan Argus, who even the Titan Pantheon could not defeat on their own. Argus also possessed the ability to cast End of All Things, which would have destroyed the universe.

• Was able to fight on par with the Old God N’Zoth, who created the alternate reality of Ny’alotha.

Speed

• Scales to Illidan (as demonstrated with his fight against him), who traveled from ground to cloud height in a short timeframe (Mach 4.7 - 18.8)

• Scales to the Champion of Azeroth who:

• Moved in tandem with a light beam (0.219c)

• Prior to fighting the Lich King, defeated Algalon the Observer, who could casually travel between multiple stars within an undefined, but short, time frame.

• Fought Titans, who:

• Waged a war across the cosmos that destroyed stars in a single fight (87.66 billion - 87.66 trillion c)

• Have been stated to be able to destroy entire solar systems in the span of a heartbeat (3790.12c)

Durability

• Tanked an attack from a massive tauren Trag; the "wound" on his armor also healed up immediately

• Saronite (which Arthas’s armor is made up from) can resist attacks from Holy and Nature Spells 

• Due to Arthas’s soul being contained in Frostmourne and not actually his physical body, it is very difficult to kill him without destroying Frostmourne. 

• Cut out his own heart after his battle with Illidan.

• Tanked a blow from a Light-Empowered Uther that sent him flying 

• Survived getting attacked by the Forsaken’s New Plague which can melt human beings into goo, as well as completely vaporize the undead within seconds. 

• Survived Illidan's "Immolation" spell which utilizes fel magic, which can

destroy the soul, such as with spells like Soul Fire.

• Withstood mental-based attacks from Priests who can damage the target's mind. 

• Tanked attacks from Shamans including Lava Burst which fires Molten Lava at the target

Weaknesses

Sauron

Sauron’s greatest weakness is the infamous One Ring itself. Due to Sauron being tied to The Ring, his fate is bent to whatever happens to it. If The Ring is indeed destroyed by the fires of Mount Doom, then Sauron permanently dies. The Ring is also stated to be able to be destroyed by craftsmanship comparable to its own, so any similarly powerful weapon would be able to destroy it.  Sauron is also weak to power nullification/power restriction, as shown during the War of the Last Alliance, where the gods of his universe somehow nerfed his power, allowing the armies something of a fighting chance.

Whilst Sauron’s powers of resurrection are great, they are not unlimited. With subsequent reconstructions of his physical form requiring increasing amounts of time, as each revival requires using some amount of “the inherent energy of the spirit” (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 200 From a letter to Major R. Bowen 25 June 1957). Sufficient damage to Sauron’s spirit could severely impede his ability to resurrect, if not disable it altogether.

Lich King

Arthas is largely dependent on the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne. Although removing the helm will not kill a Lich King, as seen with Bolvar, it will cut them off from its power, and appears to cause a significant amount of pain. Should Frostmourne be destroyed, the spirits trapped within will swarm Arthas, rendering him completely unable to act, making him a free target for his opponent. Additionally, while his dominance over captured souls is impressive, spirits with strong enough willpower like Trag can break free from his control. The Light can also break Arthas' control over someone, as seen with the Death Knight Thassarian. Fire is effective at destroying ghouls and zombies created by the Lich King’s plagues.

Summary

Sauron

“I have been awake since before the breaking of the first silence. In that time… I have had many names.” (like Mr. Lord of the Rings)

Advantages:

• Likely about even in the stat-trinity

• Far more experienced

• Possibly resists most of the Lich King’s hax…

• Smarter, and corruption or manipulation could score a victory

• About even in skill

• He's more rock and roll than you've ever been

• He doesn’t want to cure cancer, he wants to turn people into dinosaurs

Disadvantages:

• Could lose the stat-triangle if high-ends for Arthas are used

• …But the Lich King might resist his hax as well

• Weaker summon game

• Jeff Bezos (he's the real Lord of the Rings)

• I’ve never even heard of this guy

Lich King

"I suppose a welcome is in order. So welcome, insects. Welcome to my world!" (...of Warcraft)

Advantages:

• Possibly takes the stat-triangle with high-ends, likely about even

• Has overall superior summons

• Could resist some of Sauron’s powers and hax…

• About even in skill

• Loves penguins

• LEERYOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIINS

Disadvantages:

• Dwarfed in experience

• …but Sauron could potentially resist most of the Lich King’s hax as well

• Sauron’s corruption and manipulation could be a problem for him

• Whatever Shadowlands was supposed to be

• He cannot simply walk into Mordor

Verdicts

Team Sauron

Stats

The stats between Sauron and the Lich King have undeniably been a confusing and difficult process to tackle. Both of these characters come from franchises that are less frequently covered in debating, and as such, there really isn’t a solid grasp amongst the community on where exactly these two should reasonably place, nor who should be superior. However, it is very likely that Sauron is fully capable of keeping up with the Lich King in stats, possibly being superior depending on your take for a few scaling chains. While scaling Sauron to the likes of the Valar is suspicious and admittedly should probably not be used, he very reliably upscales over the vast majority of Middle-Earth’s population, and all who battled in the first two ages outside of the Valar and of course, Eru Ilúvatar. This notably places him far above the likes of Ancalagon the Black and Eärendil, even before his powers were enhanced by the One Ring.

With these upscalings, Sauron has solid scaling to star levels of power, and reliable MFTL+ combat speed as well. To oppose him, the Lich King could get some impressive scaling from the Titans, given the duels against the various champions within Warcraft. Should Arthas receive this scaling, he could edge out by a small margin, small enough that stats will likely not be too significant a factor in the battle.

That being said, while Sauron’s upscaling over the likes of Ancalagon is rather clear cut, especially with the One Ring in his possession, the Lich King has never actually defeated the champions, or even battled the Titans he needs to scale to in order to keep up. While he did initially gain the upper hand, Arthas was ultimately slain by the champions, and without ever actually fighting the Titans, his scaling is a bit less concrete than the upscaling Sauron has to comparable feats of power.

As a result, the stats for this debate can actually be very close, depending on how far you scale Arthas. With scaling to the Titans, both are likely in a similar league of power and speed, making it so that stats are surprisingly somewhat of a non-factor in this debate overall. However, should scaling to the Titans fall through, Sauron easily claims an advantage in this category.

Abilities and Arsenal

With stats likely not being a major factor in this debate, let’s go ahead and look at what might be the most important part: how their powers and arsenals clash. Of course, the most heavily-anticipated factors are the Helm and Frostmourne, and how they stack up against the power of the One Ring. In the event any of these three items are destroyed, then the battle is pretty much over. The destruction of the One Ring is an instant game over for Sauron, while the loss of Frostmourne or the Helm seals the Lich King’s fate completely. 

However, caveats exist that make these risks complicated. Obviously, one of the most significant questions being asked going into this matchup is whether Arthas has a way to destroy the One Ring, thereby completely annihilating Sauron. The answer to this question is surprisingly clear cut. Arthas has absolutely no way to destroy the One Ring.

While it is an NLF to say that the One Ring is immune to all damage, given how close stats are, it is unlikely that Arthas has the required power to actually damage it. Without this option, the Lich King does not have any means of permanently taking the One Ring out of commission, thereby removing his best shot at permanently destroying Sauron. While it is true that Toilken’s letters say that artifacts with similar levels of craftsmanship as the One Ring can destroy it, the meaning of “similar craftsmanship levels'' is pretty up in the air.  Even taking that statement at face value, since the One Ring is immune to conventional forms of damage and Frostmourne has no such statements, both artifacts do not have similar levels of craftsmanship.

In fairness, it isn’t exactly easy to take Frostmourne or the Helm out of the picture either. Frostmourne was specifically targeted with holy magic when it was broken, and it takes extreme force to destroy the Helm. Overall, of the three items, the Helm is likely the one in the most danger of being destroyed or removed. However, none of these events are exceedingly likely. As a result, it is more likely that the duel will come down to other factors.

With their destruction not being too large a factor, we can go ahead and look over what these items give our fighters. Arthas is likely best known for his soul hax, which could be an issue. However, Sauron is able to rise to the challenge. The Dark Lord of Mordor is armed with his own soul hax to meet the Lich King’s and capturing Sauron’s spirit within Frostmourne is far easier said than done. Even with his body destroyed Sauron is fully capable of acting as a spirit, moving about however he pleases, and possibly continuing to act on the battlefield. As such, Sauron can potentially escape or counter the Lich King’s powers with his own, making it a challenge for Arthas to pull off this hypothetical key to victory.

Even the threat of Fury of Frostmourne is somewhat questionable. This move was capable of (temporarily) stopping the champions and preventing resurrection, so it would reasonably be the perfect counter to Sauron. However, the One Ring would still remain a threat to Arthas, and Sauron’s spirit would also remain active on the battlefield as well. 

There is a statement in Toilken’s letters that people have misinterpreted that says if Gandalf mastered the Ring and then killed Sauron, it would be possible for him to become the new Ring-Lord.  While this statement makes sense in the narrative, it does not mean that if Sauron’s body were to be destroyed and Arthas took the Ring, he’d instantly become the Ring-Lord. If this was true, then Isildur would have been in full control of the Ring when he took it from Sauron. What the statement actually means is that Arthas would have to somehow master how to use the Ring better than Sauron has and then take it from Sauron and kill him. 

This does not seem feasible, especially because Arthas will have to be constantly resisting the Ring’s influence the entire fight.  Even if Sauron couldn’t reconstruct his body, he would still be capable of taking actions to take down Arthas.  Furthermore, given the speed and range of Sauron’s teleportation, there is a chance he might also be able to escape the move before it hits, negating the danger it would provide in the first place.

Several of the Lich King’s other key choices are also moot here. While the summons are certainly useful, they ultimately will not last long against Sauron’s stats and can be efficiently dispatched, even if the Nazgûl do not come into the fight at all. Attempting to use Scourge on Sauron is utterly useless. The plague is weak to heat, which Sauron is capable of generating at will to extreme degrees. The virus does not stand a chance infecting Sauron, even if we assume it can somehow overpass his Ainur physiology. In contrast, Sauron has options to take the Lich King off the throne for good. The most obvious one of course, is the ability to corrupt Arthas however Sauron sees fit. It’s been debated if Arthas can resist Sauron’s power given he resisted the Helm’s commands, but Team Sauron ultimately feels Sauron’s corruption is just on another level.

It is still worth remembering that Arthas was directly corrupted by Frostmourne, so there is no reason to say that he is immune to corruption in any way whatsoever.  He can resist corruption for a time since he has feats of resisting corruption, but that is not the same as having full immunity.  Sauron is powerful enough to overcome whatever resistance might be presented since Tolkien has stated that the only person in his verse to fully resist the Ring, Tom Bombadil, would eventually be corrupted if Sauron was able to reclaim the ring. So, even people of similar or higher power to Sauron who can ignore the effects of the Ring cannot resist its effects.

Characters with similar levels of mental strength, like Galadriel, Gandalf, or Saruman have also been heavily influenced by Sauron. Gandalf wouldn’t even dare attempt to use the Ring, knowing it would be extremely dangerous, and Galadriel nearly fell to its power, while Saruman completely did.  This happened when both Sauron and the Ring were not at the peaks of their power, and while Galadriel and Saruman were nowhere near Sauron himself. 

Even beings with particularly strong resistances to something like the Ring’s magic, such as Hobbits, are still vulnerable. Bilbo Baggins came close to corruption before pulling himself back to safety with help from Gandalf, and Frodo was corrupted at Mount Doom, though he had been significantly worn down. Smeagol was nearly instantly taken down by the Ring’s tainting, even when Sauron was almost completely inactive at the time.

In comparison, Arthas will be getting slammed with the absolute peak of this corruptive power throughout the entire battle. Given the levels an extremely weakened Sauron could contend with, it is likely that the Lich King will be overcome. Sauron also has his own soul hax. While it is likely that Sauron’s will cancel out with the soul hax that Arthas possesses, the Dark Lord could still potentially utilize this to pull off a victory on occasion, similarly to Arthas might be able to lock Sauron in Frostmourne in some situations.

As a result, the two actually cancel each other out in a lot of ways when it comes to their powers and arsenals. However, Arthas is overall just a bit more vulnerable to Sauron’s powers than Sauron is to the Lich King’s own moves. While it is certainly close, Sauron takes this category.

Tertiary Factors

Sealing the Lich King’s fate is the topic of tertiary factors, which Sauron takes quite comfortably. The Lord of the Rings is undoubtedly far more experienced than the Lich King. While Arthas has a lifetime of battle to draw from and also has the experience of the voices influencing him, Sauron has been an active threat working since the very beginning of time. The scope of Sauron’s activity just completely dwarfs the Lich King’s, by leaps and bounds. A lifetime of battle is absolutely no match for the experiences of an angelic force active since before the dawn of time.

The two are likely about even in skill, though Sauron may edge out. To his credit, Arthas has royal training backing him up, and he is an incredibly capable fighter active on the battlefield. With mastery of several weapons, his skill and capability is not to be underestimated by any force. However, Sauron is still capable of meeting this threat head-on and possibly exceeding it. The Maiar have received training and knowledge from the Valar themselves and mastered many crafts. Given these experiences, the Dark Lord has become skilled in many fields, including that of battle. He was a leader in Morgoth’s army, and effectively handled battle on numerous occasions. It is unreasonable to say Arthas should exceed him in combat skill.

Finally, the nail in the coffin is intellect, mindset, and cunning. Arthas is undoubtedly smart, capable of leading entire armies skillfully and handling difficult problems. But cunning and strategy are Sauron’s bread and butter. Sauron is a master of manipulation, weaving plans to take advantage of just about any foe with ease. Even those who intended to destroy him can fall prey to his tactics, and he has brought down entire kingdoms without lifting a finger for combat. He is almost always a step ahead of his adversaries and can quickly come up with tactics to give himself a leg up, even in a seemingly disadvantageous scenario. Of course, there is a limit to how far manipulation can go.

For example, throughout Middle-Earth’s history, the elf Elrond consistently managed to go unimpacted by Sauron’s deceits and was overall a key player in Sauron’s ultimate downfall. Beings with great humility or pure hearts are far more likely to resist Sauron’s efforts to get in their heads, even if they are not immune. A simple and kind-hearted figure like Bilbo Baggins went many years with the Ring tainting him, but ultimately emerged at the end pure and good all the same. Without a doubt, Sauron’s at his best trying to taint the hearts of those with negative traits. Pride, a desire for power, fear, greed, or just raw malice will easily be gripped by Sauron and used to his advantage.

Unfortunately for Arthas, he just checks all the right boxes for Sauron. Simply put, Arthas is exactly the kind of figure Sauron gets a grip on best. He is proud, desires power, and was even held by fear before claiming Frostmourne. As the Lich King, it is impossible to say that he is not malicious or proud. Sauron is very experienced in dealing with figures just like the Lich King, and it will not take long for him to get in his head. Even if Arthas managed to resist the whispers of the Helm and take full control, he is facing a more dangerous foe with far more experience in such a field.

With the One Ring and his own powers, Sauron has everything needed to come out dominating mentally. It is also worth noting that for as much power as Arthas already had with the Helm and Frostmourne, the Ring's promise of more power could likely entice Arthas right into Sauron's expert manipulations. Overall, Arthas just doesn’t really have a solid advantage with tertiary factors. Sauron is just too smart, too experienced, and too skilled. The Lich King can certainly keep up, but the Lord of Mordor holds all the cards in this category.

Conclusion

It cannot be denied, this is one of the closest debates in Death Battle’s ninth season, even with the numerous close battles we have already had. However, Sauron ultimately just has everything he needs to take the Lich King down for good. Stats are ultimately incredibly close, and statistically Sauron will be able to rack up a good number of wins just from raw force. But given how close the two parties are, where the battle is truly decided is all the other factors, where Sauron just takes the advantage in most aspects.

The One Ring is not in considerable danger in this fight, especially compared to the tools Arthas must not let be destroyed. Sauron has answers to the Lich King’s soul hax, and ways to keep the fight going even if his body is destroyed and he is (possibly) unable to regenerate. Sauron’s mind powers are far beyond anything the Lich King has ever had to contend with and can very much render the king into a mere puppet to the Ringbearer. And with such a complete lock on other factors like intelligence and experience, Team Sauron ultimately feels that he has everything he needs to take the victory in this Death Battle.

Make no mistake, the Lich King is an extremely formidable force in this fight, and it will by no means be easy for Sauron to come out on top. But given the close stats, the power of the One Ring, and Sauron’s vast experience and powers, the Lich King just does not have enough power to take the title here. When all is said and done, the crown will be broken. Only one lord of darkness can rule them all, and it will be from the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie. The Lich King’s reign will end, and the Lord of the Rings will rule this Death Battle.

Team Lich King

Stats

Sauron vs. the Lich King is a matchup with a lot of hearsay and debate around it and in this verdict, we hope to address a lot of the points made for and against both characters to explain why we think at the end of the day, the Lich King comes out victorious against Sauron. 

Talking about stats for the Lich King is a little bit tricky due to the fact that Wrath of the Lich King came out relatively early in the World of Warcraft’s lifecycle, when the feats of the characters were relatively grounded compared to the more cosmic events of Legion and Shadowlands. This means the Lich King doesn’t really have any massive or crazy feats compared to the planet destroyers like Sargerus and universe busters such as the Old Gods. 

However, in terms of direct destructive capability feats, we believe that the Lich King has Sauron beat. The best direct feat that Sauron has caused without the use of scaling is triggering a volcano eruption, which gets to around 24 megatons of TNT. This is pretty impressive, but not in the level of Arthas freezing the ocean between Eversong Woods and the Isle of Quel'Danas in the Lich King novel (111 teratons). This feat is much higher then anything Sauron has shown on his own via non-direct scaling, and as such without scaling Arthas has the advantage.

Admittedly, non-scaling feats is only half the story, considering the insane stuff that both Sauron and Arthas can scale to. The biggest one for Arthas would be scaling to the Champions of Azeroth, who have faced Old Gods as well as Titans, who have shown the capability of destroying the universe. Now, the big question remains: does the Lich King scale to the more recent feats done by NPCs and the playable character? The answer is a resounding yes. 

The first reasoning is that the player character pre-Legion is shown to be greatly inferior Lich King Arthas, the only time anyone is able to fight him is with the players in his boss fight, but that is outright stated to just be Arthas testing us to see if we're worth turning into Death Knights, the second he starts to try we get one shot instantly, which is consistent with other encounters we have with him. He was only defeated because Tirion got an amp from the Light (a force that transcends reality, and would definitely be able to match uni levels of power, on top of being something the undead are naturally weak to). So Arthas scaling to that level wouldn't actually break the scaling for any other character. 

Regarding whether the Lich King is comparable to God Tiers like Titans, we have instances of characters below the level of gods still achieving universal levels of power. Such as Xavius (whose a minion of an Old God, certainly below Titan level) controlling the Emerald Nightmare and the Rift of Aln, or the Scepter of Sargeras (which, despite its name, was actually created by a bunch of Eredar minions) having statements of universal power. 

When warlock players steal the Scepter of Sargeras from Gul'dan, it doesn't really seem to matter to him all that much, and was considered to be a pretty minor setback that didn't affect his larger plans. He was still a major threat when we fought him, even though player warlocks were wielding the scepter at that time. The fact that the players were still challenged by the enemies in Legion despite having access to the scepter kinda demonstrates that such a level of power isn't outside of the reach of non-god tiers.

Lastly, we see modern era characters (who scale to other universal level feats) consistently struggle against Lich Kings and related abilities. Sylvanas, despite being amped by the Jailer at that point, had a fairly difficult fight against Lich King Bolvar, and needed to exert great effort to destroy the Lich King's crown afterwards. We also see that Kingsmourne, a blade powered by Arthas' soul, is powerful enough to one shot Eternal Ones (who form a Pantheon of Death that is intended to be equal to the Titan’s Pantheon of Order). Even if the Eternal Ones are argued to not be on the same level as Titans, they should still be comparable to Elune (as the Winter Queen is her sister and counterpart), who could create a constellation. 

We later see that Kingsmourne poses a serious threat to characters like Sylvanas, Thrall, Jaina, and a post-Legion player. In Anduin's boss fight, the remains of Arthas' soul even emerges from the sword to fight us, and poses a serious threat - meaning that Lich King should be comparable to Post-Legion Player. 

All this evidence outlined means that utilizing some of the higher tier scaling and feats for Arthas should be utilized. Now here’s where things get crazy. Scaling to the Champions of Azeroth, they have defeated beings such as Xavius in the Rift of Aln who was capable of corrupting the entire Emerald Dream, and even began merging the Emerald Nightmare into baseline reality. This feat would be universe level, considering it is shown that the Emerald Dream was an entire reality of its own. Xavius was not even that strong of a being, and he’s already at a universal level of power.

The Champions have fought Titans who have planet cutting feats (see Sargerus) and as demonstrated with Augus the Unmaker, who can cast End of All Things, which would have destroyed the universe, as well as Old Gods such as N’Zoth, who created the alternate reality of Ny’alotha. Universe creation and destruction would be universal. Considering Arthas’ soul has matched Shadowlands Champions, this means that he should be comparatively powerful. At the end of the day if you use the absolute high end arguments for Lich King, he would be solidly universe level scaling from the Champions, due to them hurting universe level beings. 

What about Sauron, then? Well, he is a little bit tricker. As demonstrated earlier, the most impressive destructive capability feat would be the volcanic eruption. However, Sauron does have some potentially impressive scaling due to upscaling from Eärendil, who turned into a star powered by the light of a Silmaril. If Sauron upscales from Eärendil, which he very much does, that would put Sauron solidly at star level.

It should be noted that the Silmarillion itself is very poetic rather than literal. While people have argued that Sauron scales to Morgoth, who was important in the creation of the universe, it is made pretty clear that Sauron is nowhere near that level of power. As such, the highest being that Sauron can scale to is Eärendil, who is Star Level. Either way you slice it, Arthas' scaling is much more impressive then Sauron's, meaning we believe that he should take the win in this department. 

In terms of speed, both don’t really display tons of feats on their own, or at least none are that impressive, so we are going to have to go with scaling for this. Scaling Arthas to the Champions of Azeroth at the very least gives Arthas relativistic speeds, considering that Champions have displayed being able to move in tandem with light beams, which would be require relativistic speeds (0.219c). 

This gives a nice basis for Arthas, but scaling him to Titans who waged a war across the cosmos that destroyed stars in a single fight, as well as being able to destroy entire solar systems in the span of a heartbeat (3790.12c) would put him at MFTL+ speed. Granted, we think the relativistic speeds are a bit more reasonable, but at the very high end Arthas can be defined as MFTL. Sauron also has similar crazy scaling feats, having scaled to Ancalagon the Black, a dragon who kept up with the likes of Eärendil within the Vingilot, a ship said to have sailed the stars and back to Middle-Earth within a day (54.75 billion - 33.96 trillion c). We would say overall Arthas does have the more impressive speed scaling, but you could make a fair argument that Sauron is indeed faster than Arthas.

Abilities and Arsenal

Now here is indeed the interesting question, arsenal and abilities. Both have insane hax to them that could be quite cumbersome to their opponents. Now the question remains: whose hax is better? Now the two big questions that people have asked about this matchup are “would the Lich King be capable of destroying the Ring?” and “would the Ring be able to corrupt or neutralize The Lich King so that Sauron can deal the finishing blow?”

Based on the research that we have conducted, the former simply comes down to whether the opponent is strong enough to destroy the One Ring. The simple answer of which is yes; if he is that much stronger than Sauron - which he should be at their high-ends and from observable feats - then there’s no reason why Frostmourne couldn’t just destroy the One Ring. 

There is also the fact that Frostmourne is one giant soul hax sword. It eats souls for breakfast to the point that thousands of souls are in the blade. Frostmourne could simply absorb the piece of Sauron’s power out of the One Ring, and it would become useless. All the Lich King needs to do is overpower Sauron and use his soul hax and Sauron is no more. Arthas doesn’t even need to make direct contact for this to work, he can simply will it to occur from a distance.

As for the One Ring simply corrupting Arthas, that is indeed a no-go. It should be noted that Lich King’s entire arsenal consists of cursed objects that corrupt the soul; from his armor, to his weapon, to even his soul. Arthas was still able to retain his sense of self to the point that he completely overpowered Ner’zhul in a spiritual battle, a being who was definitely stronger than him. He has fought off corruption from multiple beings and retained his sense of self.

Even the Lich King’s own armor, and in fact his entire citadel, are made of Saronite, Old God blood that can drive people to madness just by being near it, and Arthas has been wearing it for years and is completely unaffected. Even if this wouldn’t make Arthas completely immune to the Ring’s corruption, these resistances should be enough to buy him the time he needs to utilize his wincons before succumbing to the Ring’s influence. Simply corrupting Arthas to cause a victory would not work.

It should also be noted that the Arthas’s novels gave us a very insightful insight into Arthas’s personality at that point of the story; he is done taking orders from everyone, even powerful beings like Ner’zhul. Even if he put the Ring on, which is doubtful in the first place, Arthas’ own will and determination would likely fight back and overpower Sauron’s soul.

In the Tolkien letters, it is established that if the person fighting Sauron is stronger, then they can take the Ring for their own and kill Sauron with it. Arthas should be able to achieve this through utilizing the power of Domination, which can overtake extremely powerful souls. Considering the Lich King should be stronger than Sauron, there is no doubt that Arthas could use Domination to overpower the One Ring and destroy Sauron.

Lich King is also arguably a lot more versatile, being able to summon up an entire army of monsters, as well as several death, blood, or ice spells that would be more than enough to keep Sauron on his toes and overpower him, even with his pyrokinesis being a great counter to Arthas’ ice spells. His soul draining and soul manipulation abilities are also extremely helpful against a being like Sauron, whose entire power is based on his soul.  

It should also be noted that while Sauron is extremely cunning and devious, he tends to prefer being in the background, manipulating events behind the scenes in order to get the better outcome. While Arthas is also like that, he is also one of the greatest fighters in Azeroth and has a lot more experience in battle then Sauron at least based on the examples we have seen of both fighters. 

Even Sauron using trickery and traps on him would likely not work, due to Arthas’ experience with fighting warlocks, mages and other such tricky opponents, as well as his personal distrust for anyone other than himself. While it is possible for Arthas to be fooled for a time, that would likely not be the trump card that Sauron needs in order to win. 

Overall, it is unlikely that the One Ring would be able to corrupt Lich King’s soul and his stats advantage would allow him to easily destroy the Ring/Sauron without it destroying his soul. While this is by no means a stomp, we do believe that the Lich King has the stats, mental fortitude, soul hax and experience to take down Sauron for good. 

Tertiary Factors

Numbers don’t lie, the amount of years Sauron has over Arthas and even Ner’zhul is tremendous. But just being around for longer doesn’t automatically make you the toughest fighter. Sauron is many things, a ruler, a blacksmith, a general, but warrior is not one of them. He prefers to act out his plans from the shadows, manipulate the minds of his enemies, creating unrest, disarray. That’s why he was such a danger and managed to live for so long. Going out fighting on his own is his last resort option, and on the battlefield he relies mostly on his overwhelming strength, and this direct approach historically doesn’t end well for him. 

Even during his young years, Arthas was a prodigy, the greatest warrior in all of Lordaeron, second only to his mentor Uther, who he later surpassed once he picked up Frostmourne. And not just him; Arthas has an impressive resume of defeating opponents whose life experience dwarfs his own. Take Illidan or Sylvanas for example, both fighters with thousands of years of experience that dedicated their entire lives to the battlefield and were simply a breeze to Arthas, who wasn’t even at his full power yet, even weakened in Illidan’s case.

Sauron was beaten before, whether by being overpowered by Huan or being outskilled by the joint effort of Isildur, Elendil and Gil-galad. And Arthas is just as powerful, if not even more so, than Sauron and definitely has the edge in combat skill to repeat the great feat of beating the Lord of the Rings in a direct confrontation, for it has been done before him. 

Conclusion

This is an extremely close fight that could really go either way depending on interpretation of certain feats, however there are a few factors that in Team Lich King’s mind put the ball in Arthas’ court. When it comes to the stat comparison, if you agree with the highest end for both characters, Arthas has the clear stat advantage over Sauron (with Sauron’s potentially universal level scaling being shaky, while Lich King’s is more concrete), with Sauron being put at star level while Arthas can be scaled to universe level.

But stats aren’t everything, and Arthas has even more advantages, with him being resistant to the One Ring’s corruption. He would not be tempted by its power, due to his hatred for working for another being, and his soul still remained after influences from Ner’zhul, which indicates that trying to corrupt him or destroy his soul through the One Ring would not work. Arthas also has a perfect counter to Sauron through Frostmourne’s soul absorbing, also working as a perfect counter to the One Ring and Sauron’s entire being revolving around his soul. This means that if Arthas is able to impale Sauron, he can simply absorb his soul.

Arthas simply has the stats, resistances and abilities to keep Sauron on his toes and get the one hit he needs to finish the fight right there and then. In our opinion, the Lich King will give Sauron a Frost-mournful end. 

Final Tally

Team Sauron (6) - MKF4, Windindi, Bee🌸🌸, Kaiser, Legion of Doom, SoMaShadow

Lich King (5) - Mal, Rina Antiqua, Purple_Bizzare, HystericalTrend, Cyber