War stories, articles & game guides
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2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
War stories, articles & game guides
Gamer
Tribute
2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
“The Scourge uses our own fallen against us, by raising them as ghouls or skeletons, or by dismembering their corpses and using the parts to make abominations. This must stop! The dead are heroes who fell in defense of all the living, and they cannot be confined to so grisly a fate. Moreover, we cannot afford to face them again on the field, used as weapons against us.
Take this torch with you to the Fleshwerks, and burn any of the corpses you find in the Sanctum of Reanimation or the abomination lab.”
-Crusader Olakin Sainrith
Crusader Olakin Sainrith at Blackwatch wants you to burn 7 Festering Corpses using Olakin’s Torch.
Provided item:
You will be able to choose one of these rewards:
You will also receive:
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:
Quest Giver: Crusader Olakin Sainrith – Blackwatch, Icecrown [35.4, 66.3]
Objective: Use Olakin’s Torch to burn Festering Corpses in the Sanctum of Reanimation or the abomination lab in the Fleshwerks.
Quick Facts
Walkthrough
Head into the Fleshwerks from Blackwatch. The Festering Corpses are scattered throughout both the Sanctum of Reanimation (flesh giant lab) and the abomination lab area, around [34, 68-69]. They’re bodies lying on the ground, easily distinguishable from active mobs.
Stand near a corpse and use Olakin’s Torch from your inventory or action bar to burn it. The quest text says to burn corpses in the “Sanctum of Reanimation or the abomination lab,” so both areas count.
Burn 7 in total, then return to Olakin at Blackwatch.
Efficiency Tips
Lore & Secrets
Easter Egg: Ragnaros the Firelord
The quest name “By Fire Be Purged” is a direct reference to Ragnaros the Firelord from Molten Core, whose signature battle cry is “BY FIRE BE PURGED!” One of the most iconic boss lines in WoW history, first heard by raiders in Classic WoW (2005) and reprised in Cataclysm’s Firelands raid.
You’re purifying fallen Crusade heroes with fire, preventing the Scourge from defiling their bodies further. Olakin’s somber reaction (“It is not the burial they deserved, but it is better than nothing”) gives the reference a more reverent weight than Ragnaros’s battle fury.
The Moral Weight
This is one of the quieter emotional beats in the Fleshwerks chain.
Olakin explicitly identifies the corpses as “heroes who fell in defense of all the living,” not anonymous Scourge fodder. The Scourge is recycling fallen Alliance and Horde soldiers into ghouls, skeletons, and abomination parts. By burning the bodies, you’re denying the Scourge its raw materials while giving the dead a crude but respectful send-off.
Even cremation in a plague factory counts as mercy.
Explore Icecrown’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Icecrown Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.
Vikstone's War JournalOlakin had the torch lit before he handed it over, which meant he had been waiting for somebody.
“The Scourge uses our own fallen against us, by raising them as ghouls or skeletons, or by dismembering their corpses and using the parts to make abominations. This must stop! The dead are heroes who fell in defense of all the living, and they cannot be confined to so grisly a fate.” Then, without a change in pitch: “Moreover, we cannot afford to face them again on the field, used as weapons against us.”
Both reasons were true. I have served with men who could only ever say the second one out loud, and I have buried men who could only say the first.
There were more corpses in the sanctum cave than the torch was going to need. They had been arranged, by size and by what was still intact.
Festering flesh does not take fire cleanly. It has to be persuaded. I burned seven and stopped because the torch was failing, not because I had run out.
Olakin listened solemnly to the report. “It is not the burial they deserved, but it is better than nothing, and better for those who yet live. Thank you, Vikstone.”
In Icecrown, sometimes mercy came with fire instead of a blade.
Arly and Olakin had been running two wars out of the same camp all along, and Killing Two Scourge With One Skeleton is where the two of them finally point at the same thing.
