Coincidence? Lich King versus Witch King
I may be a Blizzard fanboy, but I also love Battle for Middle Earth II. So the first thing I thought at the Wrath of the Lich King announcement was, WTF?
A note for historical purists: fantasy literature liches come not from the German liche (”undead corpse”), but from the original Dungeons & Dragons lich, which was directly taken from the barrow wights in The Lord of the Rings; who were themselves servants of, you guessed it, the Witch King of Angmar.
Also, Lord Sauron wants his hat back.
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28 comments to “Coincidence? Lich King versus Witch King”
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18. February 2008 at 3:58 pm :
You’ve probably never play wc3:frozen throne?
25. February 2008 at 8:27 pm :
Read up on DnD liches before you publish next time; the lich is a template tacked onto a normal wizard/sorcerer/cleric that creates a phylactery to house his soul so that he can transcend to undeath. The lich cannot be truly destroyed without destroying the phylactery. This is far from a barrow wight.
12. March 2008 at 4:45 pm :
The lich kink (WC3) had that look 1st… Way before the EA turd battle for middle earth…
9. April 2008 at 1:23 am :
Wow,noobs
U guys never read LOTR TRILOGY BEFORE?
OR JUST SIMPLY FORGOT THE FOTR MOVIE THAT CAME OUT AT 2001?
SAURON WANTS HIS HELMET BACK
28. April 2008 at 3:40 pm :
dude fuck world of warcraft noob lord of the rings whas before world of crap,
that wrath of the litch king is from rise of the witch-king and the picture is almost the same as lord of the rings ,
world of crap the maker of WOW is a imitator fuck him!
6. May 2008 at 9:52 pm :
you guys need to all chill…all these kings ar F’N EPIC so who really cares everyone takes a little something for inspo. & besides why hasnt anyone said anything about Sauron & witch-king imitating each other?
….W.O.W….& lord of the rings are f’n awesome(&im not a fat chick or ugly) …idk what sauron is but sounds bad ass if its like lich king or the witch king…YAY EPICNESS..evil knight kings are HOT
8. May 2008 at 4:58 pm :
well LOTR was a classic novel but the video games for WC3 were out before the LOTR films. As lore follows there is some possible relation or copy. Although in terms of looks; no its coincidence since the original look for the char was in a pc game before the film its impossible to say blizz copied. Tolkien had his own vision of the character when he created it. The concept art created by the film industry determined the looks for it, which may have been the complete opposite of Tolkien s vision.
Blizz may have ‘’sneaked” into the concept art base of new line cinema / LOTR and stolen these idea’s but i find this incredibly unlikely.
It could also be visa versa since the game was out before the film.
Its impossible to tell which all new know is true Tolkien fans should not judge this because its the production company who made the art for screens.
10. May 2008 at 1:31 pm :
please guys dont u have anything better to do then discuss this kind of things?!
how childish is that?!
15. May 2008 at 2:14 pm :
First off… Just about EVERY Fantasy game, book, etc is based off the original version of Dungeons and Dragons. Secondly.. who gives a f’in shit?
Seriously, If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, fantastic.. Glad to hear it. Same goes for WoW. Personally, I love the hell out of both. I think people should stop debating what came first, and who’s creative idea inspired whos because quite frankly, both of them exist and it doesn’t really matter.
If you really want to get down to it.. World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings are both HEAVILY influenced by DnD. Plain and Simple.
So quit bitching and start enjoying!! Why commit to one? Both are amazing in their own UNIQUE right. There are MAJOR variants for each and both are insanely well thought out . The story lines from both of these “entities” are about as far from one another as it gets, so what if some of the artwork is similar?
Get over it and start watching those DvD’s and Playing WoW!!!!! WOTLK Is going to f’in ROCK!!!!
15. May 2008 at 2:20 pm :
In Correction to my post Where I said “World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings are both HEAVILY influenced by DnD. Plain and Simple.” What I meant by that… is that the creators (Producers, whatever, what have you) have probably in some way, shape or form.. been influenced by DnD. Not that the idea themselves were introduced or created based off of it. Which could also be entirely true, but hey, who the hell am I to distinguish specifics, I know nothin about.
28. May 2008 at 4:42 am :
I hate to break it to a certain someone, but D&D is based on the original novels of Tolkien; not vice versa. When halflings were introduced they were called hobbits until the Tolkien estate sued Gygax and company.
14. June 2008 at 9:28 pm :
yea man the LOTR books were published in the 50’s and they had people had made sketches of Sauron and the Witch King long before WC and to whoever it was who asked Sauron is a Maiar which is like an angel but he fell from grace and the Witch King would totally kick the Lich King’s ass.
27. June 2008 at 1:14 pm :
“and the Witch King would totally kick the Lich King’s ass” lol.. why would they even fight? :D i say they group and take up the world….. of warcraft… MWAHAHAHAHA! xD
3. July 2008 at 8:16 pm :
Yes, it is a little unoriginal, but I don’t really care, I like both of them…
15. July 2008 at 12:16 am :
Hi all. This is a strange comment, but just doing some reserch… Q/ Are lord of the rings fans still out there. Do they still collect movie items? Would they buy either Lord sauron’s glove or helmet (higher price collectables..LIMITED EDITION ONLY.) And what would they Pay???? let me know if you have the answers. donkey19_2@hotmail.com
30. July 2008 at 10:17 pm :
you guys make me laugh the walls of my fortress . the lotr books were out way before warcraft even existed and the world of middle earth existed even before lotr in such titles as the silmarillion and the hobbit and many other titles by J.R.R.Tolkien god rest his soul and the movies for lotr were first being made by weta works and weta digiatal before warfcraft 3 was even started
19. August 2008 at 8:01 am :
You obviously made that Wrath of the Lich King image next to rise of the witch king
20. August 2008 at 5:59 pm :
i know wrath of the lich king how gay is that theyre sounding like possers
31. August 2008 at 8:48 am :
World of crap???? ha world of warcraft has 10 million players fuck tard how many does ur game have
1. September 2008 at 2:57 pm :
And before LORT books were out, there was this little piece of music work called Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner, and before that, norse mithology.
I feel kinda sad for mankind, not for the “pointless” argument, but for everyone who think they are right without even doing a historical research about the things that you guys are suppoused to “like and love” but you’re too lazy and don’t bother to check out any online enciclopedias (or real ones, even less).
1. September 2008 at 2:58 pm :
The idea of a poweful undead evil king came from HADES! OOOH RIP OFF…
Now seriously… people need to research a little more before claming “who should I give cradit to the work”, since, before the first LOTR movie the Arthas/Lich King helmet was already designed. And before that I suppouse there were dozens of designs like that. If I make a armour full of skulls on a drawing, that means i’m ripping of from the Lich King? Or Hades? Or maybe, god! Yeap, he made the skulls first.
…pft.
1. September 2008 at 3:46 pm :
die lick king
1. September 2008 at 3:47 pm :
kill both of them
2. September 2008 at 4:38 pm :
I don’t give a shit who came up with the idea of a lich or whatever the fuck. What concerns me is that it seems Blizz has ripped off the other games cover and name. First of all, witch-lich, they fuckin rhyme, both end with king, and wrath and rise share the same alliteration. Not to mention the blatantly similar composition of the covers. If the LOTR game came out first, Blizz should really be called on this more.
23. September 2008 at 9:08 am :
Pls people the answer is a simple the movie of LOTR made in bokk ad the book of LOTR+ is the first before the fucking games and the movie :P
28. September 2008 at 3:42 pm :
That’s crap there have been prototypes of the witchkings helm in John Howes paintings long before WOW was ever conceived, plus you have to the 6years it took to make the film, the two years in post production and the whole lengthy process of art and design… sorry to say folks but witchkings look has pretty much been laid out for years…. do ye’re research, btw I don’t really care but it pisses me off that other people do.
6. October 2008 at 10:57 pm :
Who’s the dumb a’s that said that Tolkien was a rip off?! His works is an extension of the Norse mythology. If you idiots didn’t know, original Norse mythology doesn’t have the intricate syllable system that tolkiens language has. He had to publish a whole f’n dictionary, filled with 400 years of history, seemlessly written before the actual lotr trilogy. He developed not only his own language, but a writing system and creation myths of his own characters! He was a literary mastermind of the 20th century, and who are you losers to decide whether this man’s greatest work was a rip off?!? every fantasy composition has some trace of tolkien genius. Wow wouldn’t even be here had it not been for his original ideas!
6. October 2008 at 11:03 pm :
oh and by the way dumb a, hades wasn’t a king, neither was he undead. He was an immortal god. So whoever posted on sept 1 at 2:58 really needs to get an education.