To the Rise with all Due Haste!

Quest Giver: Baron Sliver – The Shadow Vault, Icecrown [43, 25]

Objective: Report to Lord-Commander Arete at Death’s Rise in Icecrown.

Quick Facts

• Turn-in Location: Death’s Rise [19.5, 48.1]
• Chain Position: Opens the Death’s Rise/Onslaught Harbor questline. Followed by The Story Thus Far…, then Blood in the Water, then You’ll Need a Gryphon.
• Prerequisite: Ebon Blade Prisoners (given by Vaelen the Flayed at the Shadow Vault)

Walkthrough

This is a simple breadcrumb quest. Baron Sliver sends you southwest from the Shadow Vault to Death’s Rise, a cliff-side Ebon Blade outpost overlooking the sea.

• Fly southwest from the Shadow Vault to Death’s Rise [19.5, 48.1]. The platform is carved into the mountainside east of Onslaught Harbor and southwest of Jotunheim.
• Speak with Lord-Commander Arete to complete the quest.
• Pick up the Death’s Rise flight path from Dreadwind (gargoyle flight master) while you’re here.

Efficiency Tips

• Grab the flight path immediately. Death’s Rise has its own flight point, and you’ll be returning here regularly for dailies once you progress the chain.
• Do Alongside: If you still have Shoot ‘Em Up or Vile Like Fire! available as dailies from the Shadow Vault, knock those out on your way since they cover the Jotunheim area between the two hubs.
• No epic flying mount? Use the drake provided during the daily quest Vile Like Fire! to cover distance toward Death’s Rise. Fly straight toward your destination at normal speed, then use the drake’s burst of speed when the timer warns you to return. If the drake despawns mid-flight, you gain a parachute effect and land safely.
• Completing this quest unlocks 2 daily quests at Death’s Rise, and progressing further through Lord-Commander Arete’s chain unlocks a third.

Lore Context

Lord-Commander Arete is a Forsaken death knight affiliated with the Knights of the Ebon Blade. He describes himself as “particularly adept at nullifying magic,” a trait that becomes mechanically relevant later in the chain when he provides you with a device to break Grand Admiral Westwind’s protection sphere.

The quest chain you’re starting here sends you against the Scarlet Onslaught at Onslaught Harbor, the zealot faction’s last major stronghold in Icecrown. Arete harbors an intense hatred for the Onslaught, prioritizing their destruction even over the war against the Lich King.

The chain ultimately culminates in one of WotLK’s best reveals: Grand Admiral Westwind, the Onslaught’s hidden leader, turns out to be the dreadlord Mal’Ganis in disguise. This is the same demon who orchestrated the Culling of Stratholme and lured Arthas to Northrend in the first place, making this chain a direct callback to Warcraft III’s most pivotal storyline.

Death’s Rise itself is a platform carved into the mountainside that the Ebon Blade captured from the vrykul of Balargarde Fortress. The corpses of the platform’s former vrykul occupants still litter the ground, a grim reminder of how the Ebon Blade operates.

Possible Easter Egg

• Arete’s name derives from the ancient Greek word arete (ἀρετή), meaning “excellence” or “virtue,” particularly in the context of fulfilling one’s highest potential.

Cross-Expansion Connections

• Mal’Ganis returns as a significant figure in Legion (Nathrezim infiltration storyline) and again in Shadowlands (Nathrezim lore in the Sepulcher of the First Ones reveals dreadlords were secretly agents of the Sire Denathrius all along, recontextualizing Mal’Ganis’s schemes throughout Warcraft history).
• Lord-Commander Arete has no significant later appearances.
• The Scarlet Onslaught remnants persist at Onslaught Harbor through later expansions. The Bronzebeard brothers note in Exploring Azeroth: Northrend that a surprising number of crusaders remain at the harbor even with their leadership destroyed.

Explore Icecrown’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Icecrown Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.