Furybound Waistplate

The Forsaken blight, drenching Angrathar the Wrathgate.

The New Plague, also known as the Forsaken Blight or Blight (not to be confused with the original blight), is the Forsaken's altered version of the powerful Plague of Undeath that led to the creation of the Undead Scourge. The Plague of Undeath had the effect of transforming normal humans into mindless undead in the service of the tyrannical Lich King. Some members of the Forsaken, including their queen Sylvanas Windrunner, were once pawns of the Lich King, but were later freed. The Forsaken's aim is to create a new plague that would annihilate the Scourge itself, and ultimately, during the Northrend campaign, this is successful. However, the Forsaken's plague was usurped by the treacherous Grand Apothecary Putress, who proceeded to unleash it upon the Scourge, the Alliance and even the Horde. As such, the Forsaken's allies have deemed it unethical to be used again at its full potency.

Background

Creation

The Apothecarium

The Royal Apothecary Society, the alchemical experts of the Forsaken, have been working on various ways to use various parts from creatures living in their sphere of control as well as agriculture grown in the Tirisfal Glades and the Hillsbrad Foothills to create powerful toxins.

The use of the New Plague on humans has thus far been only partially successful. While it kills the victim, it doesn't bring the human back after death as a new Forsaken. Other problems remaining include distribution; the Royal Apothecary Society is searching for a way to effectively spread their new plague, so that no living thing remains on the entire planet...leaving all of Azeroth as one big plagueland, ruled by the Forsaken. Sylvanas' initial plan is to wipe out her immediate enemies — the Scourge and then the Alliance, and raise them again to her cause.

The nearest brush with success yet seen involved pumpkins from the Solliden Farmstead in Tirisfal. When tested on a Scarlet Crusader held captive in the Brill Inn, it brought about transformation into a ghoul, only to cause true death seconds later.

Castillian was responsible for delivering spores which helped lead to the finalization of the New Plague. Although located in a remote town, Hierophant Theodora Mulvadania and Warlord Goretooth seem to have heard rumours about the new plague. Infiltrator Marksen seems to know what the Forsaken are up to. Sayge are sensing a change as stated in Sayge's Fortune#19.

Quests

File:Anewplague.jpg

• Quest:Battle of Hillsbrad
• Quest:A New Plague
• Quest:Hints of a New Plague?
• Quest:Delivery to Silverpine Forest
• Quest:A Recipe For Death
• Quest:Journey to Hillsbrad Foothills
• Quest:Elixir of Pain
• Quest:Fields of Grief

Final stages of production

This section concerns content related to the Warcraft novels, novellas, or short stories.

Lady Sylvanas Windrunner and Master Apothecary Faranell were among the first to witness the final stages of the plague. In the Apothecarium, a strain of blight was tested on a human female and a criminal, the former of which bled from the eyes, mouth and ears before dying a violent demise, and the latter of which collapsed in destruction.

The plague would be both elaborated upon and tested further in Northrend.

In Wrath of the Lich King

This section concerns content related to Wrath of the Lich King.

Plague experiments with the "blight" in Venomspite

The towns of New Agamand and (to a lesser extent) Vengeance Landing in the Howling Fjord and the town of Venomspite in the Dragonblight are the Forsaken's major centers for production of the "New Plague" in Northrend. After several failures in Howling Fjord, the apothecaries of New Agamand send a sample of the perfected plague, known as the "Forsaken Blight", to Venomspite. The Forsaken Blight, combined with a reactive agent, is powerful enough to turn its victims (or at least the undead ones) into shapeless piles of goo. In the quests Quest:The Forsaken Blight and You: How Not to Die and Quest:Emerald Dragon Tears, Horde players are sent to find said reactive agent (the ectoplasmic residue from the ghosts of Arthas' troops on the Forgotten Shore) and a vessel to contain them (tears of green dragons from the Emerald Dragonshrine). Before delivering the plague to Doctor Sintar Malefious in Agmar's Hammer, the player must drive a Forsaken "blight spreader" catapult from Venomspite to an area of the Carrion Fields outside of Wintergarde Keep, right in the shadow of Naxxramas, to test this new blight on the Scourge (Quest:Spread the Good Word). It appears that the forces of the Scarlet Onslaught are immune to this plague, as indicated in the failed test against an Onslaught Prisoner in Quest:Blighted Last Rites. Amusingly, Alliance players also accidentally create the Blight in the quest Quest:Absholutely... Thish Will Work!, which entails a drunken gnome alchemist sending the player to give an 'antidote' to a vrykul prisoner, which causes him to dissolve into a pile of goo. Upon completion, the quest giver says, "Huh? Well that sucks! Darn, I made thingsh worsh. In fact, I think I perfected their plague for them ...hic!"

The Forsaken Blight's most despicable use occurred during the Battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate. After Dranosh Saurfang was slain by the Lich King while he and Bolvar Fordragon confronted him, Grand Apothecary Putress arrived on the bluff overlooking the battlefield with several blight spreader catapults. Serving the dreadlord Varimathras, who had launched a coup against the Dark Lady and taken control of the Undercity for the Legion, Putress launched the Blight against both the Scourge and the combined Alliance-Horde forces. The attack resulted in the status of Highlord Fordragon becoming unknown, the near-total destruction of the combined army, and even weakened Arthas himself, who retreated back into Icecrown Citadel.

A number of Forsaken catapults capable of transporting and firing the plague.

The Forsaken attack is considered by the Alliance to be outright treachery on the part of the Horde, and the coup by Varimathras gave King Varian Wrynn an opening to purge the Horde from Lordaeron and retake the city for the Alliance. King Varian leads Alliance forces in a battle for the Undercity to avenge Bolvar and retake Lordaeron, while the Horde launches an attack on the Undercity to reclaim it from Varimathras.

In Cataclysm

This section concerns content related to Cataclysm.

The Horde banned any further use of the fully powered Forsaken Blight after the Wrathgate, but Sylvanas disregards this after the Gilnean Worgen are able to repel the Forsaken onslaught. The Forsaken later drench Southshore in the blight, though the Forsaken responsible for it express mild surprise at its effectiveness, alluding to an uncertainty as to whether the fully powered blight was employed. They reveal that, ideally, the Forsaken want to eventually inhabit the areas purged via the plague, though when more powerful versions are used the land becomes uninhabitable for a "cooling down" period.

Following the Forsaken victory in Silverpine, Deathstalker Commander Belmont and a number of Blightspreaders assault Shadowfang Keep. As the Forsaken fight inwards, they spray down most areas with another strain of blight.

Although the Horde did ban it, they gave some apothecaries a weaker version of the blight, which wouldn't be so destructive. It proves to be literally rather explosive when adventurers test it out on murlocs on Fenris Isle.