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
“Before the prince became a king, he fought many battles… but only one where he came close to dying. It was fought right here. After you let me show you what happened, you’ll understand everything. Find a bloodstained stone and pick it up from the floor.
You’ll see what happened.”
-Matthias Lehner
Matthias Lehner in the Court of Bones wants you to look for a Bloodstained Stone and complete the Prince’s Destiny.
You will be able to choose one of these rewards:
You will also receive:
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:
Quest Giver: Matthias Lehner — Court of Bones, Icecrown [48.5, 72.8]
Objective: Find a Bloodstained Stone near Matthias Lehner, interact with it to enter a vision, and defeat Illidan Stormrage as Prince Arthas in a recreation of their legendary duel at the base of the Frozen Throne.
Quick Facts
Walkthrough
Matthias’s Introduction
Finding the Bloodstained Stone
Entering the Vision
| Button | Ability | Mana Cost | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parry | None | Parries Illidan’s next attack and regenerates 25% of your mana if successful. 3-second cooldown. This is your primary ability. |
| 2 | Deathstrike | 2,000 | Melee strike dealing weapon damage +20,000. Mediocre damage for this fight. Use sparingly. |
| 3 | Stomp | 5,000 | Knocks Illidan back, creating the range Annihilate needs. Instant, 4-second cooldown. |
| 4 | Annihilate | 10,000 | Leaps at Illidan dealing weapon damage +400,000 and stunning him for 6 seconds. 8-25 yard range. Requires Illidan to be knocked back first. 15-second cooldown. |
Battle Strategy
The “Pierced Heart” Debuff
If You Fail
Efficiency Tips
Lore & Secrets
The Duel at the Frozen Throne
This quest recreates the climactic finale of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, specifically the cinematic “A Long Time Coming” that plays after completing the final Scourge campaign mission, A Symphony of Frost and Flame.
In the original Warcraft III story, Illidan Stormrage was sent by Kil’jaeden to destroy the Frozen Throne and kill Ner’zhul (the Lich King’s original identity) before Arthas could reach it. Illidan’s forces raced Arthas’s army up the steps of Icecrown Glacier. When both leaders reached the summit, they dueled one-on-one.
After a brutal exchange, Arthas landed a critical strike with Frostmourne, cutting Illidan down. Arthas then ascended the Frozen Throne, shattered the ice containing Ner’zhul’s spirit, donned the helm, and merged with the Lich King.
The quest is slightly anachronistic: the original duel took place when Icecrown Citadel was little more than a tower of ice, long before it was rebuilt into the massive saronite fortress players see in WotLK.
The Heart Revelation
This quest contains Matthias Lehner’s single most important piece of dialogue.
On turn-in, he finally reveals the truth about the Pulsing Crystal:
“After that fight, the prince realized what was holding him back was that he was still human… he could still feel… he could still bleed. He still had a heart. The first thing he did when he became king was to rid of himself of it. He threw it down the pit where we first met.”
Everything connects. The Pulsing Crystal from A Short Fuse was Arthas’s literal frozen heart. By touching it, you established the mystical connection that made Matthias visible. The “Pierced Heart” debuff during the Illidan fight shows the moment Arthas decided his heart was a liability. And Matthias, the ghost of Arthas’s discarded humanity, has been showing you these visions because you are the only living person who has touched the last physical trace of who Arthas used to be.
This revelation sets up the chain’s climax: Tirion’s Gambit, where Tirion Fordring attempts to use the heart to redeem Arthas, only to discover that no humanity remains, and destroys it with the Ashbringer.
Cross-Expansion Connections
Arthas vs. Illidan Across the Franchise
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 Journal“Before the prince became a king, he fought many battles… but only one where he came close to dying. It was fought right here.” Matthias stood among bloodstained stones scattered across the courtyard. “After you let me show you what happened, you’ll understand everything. Find a bloodstained stone and pick it up from the floor. You’ll see what happened.”
The stone was cold against my palm, and then the world came apart, and for the second time I was him.
Across the frozen court stood Illidan Stormrage. The Warglaives of Azzinoth ran green at the edges, and ten thousand years of fury had come to Icecrown to collect.
I understood almost at once that the prince did not win this fight by attacking. He won it by refusing to be opened. So I parried, and parried, and every blade I turned aside fed something in me, and the cold in the blade grew with each one. Frostmourne pays a man for his patience.
The glaives found my chest anyway.
A thought surfaced that did not belong to me, from the part of him that was watching his own life. Your heart has been grazed by Illidan’s glaives. If only you could rid yourself of this useless thing…
When the cold had built high enough I stomped the frozen ground open and leaped, and Frostmourne came down with everything the prince had ever traded away behind it. The blow stunned him. I did it again, and paid for the next one with more parries, and did it again, and the demon hunter went down on the ice and did not rise.
I stood over him bleeding from wounds that should have finished me. The blood was warm. His body knew it was still a man’s, whatever the blade had begun.
The vision let go, and I was kneeling in the Court of Bones with my chest burning where nothing had touched it.
“Did you see, Vikstone? Did you?” Then Matthias said, quietly, “After that fight, the prince realized what was holding him back was that he was still human… he could still feel… he could still bleed. He still had a heart. The first thing he did when he became king was to rid himself of it. He threw it down the pit where we first met. And you, Vikstone, were the first person to touch it since.”
The organ in the ice. The cut on my hand that left no mark.
He won the worst fight of his life with the heart still in him. It grazed, it burned, it nearly cost him everything. And his conclusion, standing over Illidan with his own warm blood on the stones, was that the thing which had felt all of it had to go.
I thought of Namarie. I thought of Lunara. The grief has sat in my chest for two years like a stone I swallowed, and it has cost me sleep and judgment and very nearly my life on more occasions than this journal admits, and it is the reason I am on this continent at all.
He cut his out and threw it down a hole.
That is the difference between us.
Vikstone now knows exactly what he touched at the bottom of that pit and exactly who has been following him since, which turns out to be the problem, because Knowledge is a Terrible Burden.
