With his Frozen Throne beckoning and the might of Frostmourne in his grasp, the Lich King dominated Fordring and encased the Highlord within an icy tomb. His attention turned to our ranks, as he unleashed his full fury upon the raiders that were now barring the advancement of his evil throughout Azeroth.

For weeks we had battled with Arthas, high upon the lofty peak of Icecrown Citadel, gaining ground and learning his schemes and underhanded tactics. He continued to launch his Val'kyr and undead minions upon us, and even Frostmourne itself pulled hungrily at our very souls. We struggled to overcome the horde of evils and angered spirits, combined with Arthas' waves of crippling plagues, diseases, curses and dark frozen magic.

Clutching onto our last ounces of strength, we had finally weakened the Lich King, only to witness his final act of vengeance. He brought forth the full power of Frostmourne and slew all before him, but Fordring left in the icy tomb.

The Highlord called upon the power of the Light, breaking his bonds and enabling him to smash Frostmourne with the Ashbringer. The devoured souls within Frostmourne escaped, circling the area in a fine mist and trapping Arthas. The spirit of his father, Terenas Menethil II, came forward and resurrected the fallen heroes spread about the floor before the Frozen throne. We rose again, quickly regaining our vigor, and unleashed all we had left upon the Lich King.


Overcome by the combined might of all the heroes aligned against him, Arthas succumbed and finally fell, mortally wounded. The Lich King's darkened reign was finally over ... or so we thought...

Father? Is it... over?
At long last. No king rules forever, my son.
I see... only darkness... before me...

March and April proved to be difficult times for our guild and raiding crews. Ongoing scheduling conflicts, work commitments and obligations kept many of our raiders away from WoW, and our work within the Leftovers raiding community began to stall, leaving our 25-man raids suffering. Determined to continue progression through Icecrown, we turned our attention back to 10-man groups in April and managed to jump forward quickly with victories over Professor Putricide, the Blood Queen, Dreamwalker and Sindragosa ... leaving only the Lich King, himself, ahead.

Our raiding crews ventured forth into the frozen halls of Icecrown Citadel, tracking through the horde of undead minions aligned against us by the Lich King, himself. Many difficult battles have been fought, and ultimately we've defeated the denizens of the Lower Spire including Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Deathbringer Saurfang and the airship battle between the Skybreaker and Orgimm's Hammer.

Continuing on through The Plagueworks, we defeated the two abominations, Festergut and Rotface and are poised to take on their mastermind, Professor Putricide. On journeys through the Crimson Hall, we overcame the triad known as the Blood Prince Council in a very chaotic and challenging encounter. The Blood-Queen Lana'Thel still bars our progress forward onto the Frozen Throne, though we shall overcome her vampiric powers and move forward in our quest to meet the Lich King.

A small crew of determined raiders returned to the Halls of Ulduar to seek out Algalon the Observer, and halt his analysis and purging of Azeroth.

I have seen worlds bathed in the Makers' flames. Their denizens fading without so much as a whimper. Entire planetary systems born and raised in the time that it takes your mortal hearts to beat once. Yet all throughout, my own heart, devoid of emotion... of empathy. I... have... felt... NOTHING! A million, million lives wasted. Had they all held within them your tenacity? Had they all loved life as you do?

All across the lands of Northrend, many battles have been fought against the vile Scourge. Countless lives have been lost since the Alliance and Horde first reached the frozen wastes, but the champions of Azeroth continue to march forward. Now Icecrown Citadel, the cornerstone of the Scourge's power and the home base of the Lich King, is their final target. Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade have forged an alliance with Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict. The strongest combatants of this coalition, along with the champions of the Alliance and Horde, will lead the charge against the citadel.

The past few months saw our raiding teams continuing the cycle of Trial of the Crusade bosses, Onyxia and whatever we felt like digging up in Wintergrasp and Ulduar. Our eyes are on Icecrown Citadel and the Lich King, himself ... the final battle for the heroes of the Alliance. Our 25-man charter defeated the Northrend beasts on heroic mode and our 10-man crews completed the Call of the Grand Crusade in October and notched the Tribute to Mad Skill achievement in November.

We held our first Scavenger Hunt in October, sending teams across Azeroth and Outlands for unique items, rare kills and trophies. November had TSgers returning to the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, to revist an old enemy in C'Thun and give him a good thrashing.

Onyxia, the broodmother of the black dragonflight, had returned to unleash her vengeance upon the heroes of Azeroth. Once again, the banners of the Silver Guard were raised before her lair, as we met her within the burning depths of the Dragonmurk. Neither the great broodmother, nor her swarming whelps and guardians could overcome the might we released upon them.

For a time, Onyxia masqueraded as one of the highest officials in Stormwind, preventing the people there from sending much-needed aid to the areas near the Burning Steppes (where her brother has great power and influence). Her own lair lay in Dustwallow Marsh on Kalimdor, and she considered it a safe haven were her true identity to be discovered in Stormwind.

Ultimately, she was unmasked by Marshal Windsor with the help of Varian Wrynn, Broll Bearmantle, Valeera Sanguinar, and Thargas Anvilmar. Taking Anduin Wrynn captive, she fled back to the safety of her lair with Varian and his entourage in pursuit. Varian, Broll, Valeera, Thargas, and Jaina Proudmoore descended into the depths of her lair to rescue Anduin and bring her to justice. In the end she was slain by Varian, and her head taken back to Stormwind to be hung from the gates.

With Yogg Saron defeated deep under Ulduar, we turned our attention to the Trials held within the recently completed Crusader's Coliseum of Icecrown. Eager to prove our worth before the heroes of the Alliance, we entered the Coliseum and awaited the challenges presented by Highlord Tirion Fordring.

Our first match consisted of three encounters: Gormok the Impaler, Acidmaw & Dreadscale, and finally the great wendigo, Icehowl. In our second match, we overcame Lord Jaraxxus and his summoned demonic minions. The third and most challenging battle was with the Horde Faction Champions, a crew of 10 elite Horde combatants matched against our raid. The fourth encounter brought forth a technical battle with Edyis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane, the Twin Val'kyr.

Reveling in our victories, we were taken by surprise as the Coliseum floor gave way and dropped our raiders into the depths of Azjol'Nerub, right into the domain of Anub'arak. A great battle ensued and we slew the great crypt lord deep within the icy depths.

After finishing off the Keepers and General Vezax, we uncovered the hidden passage taking us further into Ulduar and finally the Descent into Madness to face the ancient evil banished by the Titans so long ago. The Old God, Yogg-Saron, proved to be a difficult challenge for our raiding charter, taking several nights of work, adjustments, setbacks and discoveries before finally overcoming the three technical phases of the encounter and ultimately defeating him within his prison.

In early August, a new raid instance, Trial of the Crusader, was opened with a new tier of content to pursue as we work our way towards our goal, Icecrown Citadel, and the Frozen Throne of Arthas. We're looking ahead to the new challenges held within the Trial, and the chance to prove our worth before the heroes of the Alliance.

Our raiders continued the exploration of Ulduar, driving deeper into the underground realm of ice and stone. Our 25-man LO charter carried on, defeating six more of Ulduar's ancient protectors ... with only four difficult battles remaining. We also established a rejuvenated 10-man LO charter in May, which stormed through ten bosses on its first raiding day. Much lies ahead for TSG, both within Ulduar and out in the lands of Northrend. Whether the fight is brought to the scourge, the horde or ancient gods ... you will find us there.

Beneath ancient Ulduar, the Old God of death lies, whispering.... Tread carefully, or its prison will become your tomb.

With April came the opening of the Ulduar raid instance, as well as several enhancements and general game content. Our raiding charter jumped into Ulduar, anxious to see the new bosses, encounters and challenges held within. Ulduar certainly tested our abilities and strategies, and we managed to defeat four of its protectors in addition to victories over Emalon, found within a new wing of the Vault of Archavon. We'll continue to push forward in Ulduar, until we reach its depths and face the ancient horrors found in the deep dark of the world.

Beyond Ulduar's gates lies no city, no treasure vault, no final answer to the Titan's mysteries. All that awaits those who dare set foot in Ulduar is a horror even the Titans could not, would not destroy, an evil they merely... contained.

Throughout March, our raid groups continued to cycle through Obsidian Sanctum, the Vault of Archavon, Naxxramus and the Eye of Eternity. The majority of our active guild members have been able to participate in raiding content here in WotLK, and we'll continue to develop those avenues as we move forward.

Our raiders had some fun as we tested ourselves with various levels of achievements, and eventually defeated Sartharion with multiple drakes. New content is on the way, and we're all looking forward to the new challenges that lie ahead. Ulduar should certainly test our mettle.

Through January and February, TSG's LO Charter had great success with the opening content of WotLK. Our raiders have seen and defeated all 25-man content that we have attempted as a LO charter. Our only limitation has been in the amount of time we're able to dedicate to raids each week, but with improvements in our speed and increasing comfort with the new raiding tools, database and point systems within LO, we will continue to streamline our efforts so that we can keep tackling more content within the couple of days we're currently scheduling each week. Our 10-man raids have defeated all existing content and we've branched out into multiple groups, allowing more TSGers the opportunity to experience content and kill lots of nasty dungeon creeps.

Ulduar looms on the horizon, and we're working on our raiding capabilities in preparation for this new and more challenging content. Keep an eye on upcoming raids and events as we continue to improve our options to experience the environments and dungeons that lie ahead.

The past two months have brought us the joys (and headaches) of the holiday season, as well as several advancements for TSGers. Many of us have seen and defeated the heroic dungeons and moved on to working in both regular and heroic raids. For 10-man raids, we've cleared Naxxramus, the Vault and the Obsidian Sanctum and are looking anxiously upon Malygos in the Eye of Eternity. Take a peek at our online gallery for all of those priceless photo ops! Click me

Here in January, we are also ushering in a new venture for TSG as we have established our own charter under the Leftovers Community Raiding organization. We're looking forward to stepping into 25-man raiding content as a guild, with the support of our friends and the LO community. Keep an eye out for more TSG 25-man raids in the near future.

With the establishment of our LO Charter, we have reached the end of a long and rewarding journey with Silver Hand Raiders. To all of our friends from SHR, we thank you for the good times, great memories and unforgettable achievements. We wish everyone the best, but hope to see you around the old campfire.