WoW: Lich King Announced

Blizzard Entertainment on Aug. 3 announced plans for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to the hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The news came at the company's BlizzCon gaming festival in Anaheim, Calif., before an audience of more than 8,000 gamers.

Wrath of the Lich King will open the forbidding wasteland of Northrend to exploration, with new levels of power, new dungeons and encounters, a new character profession and the game's first hero class.

Players last visited Northrend in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, when Arthas Menethil fused with the spirit of Ner'zhul to become the Lich King, one of the most powerful beings in the Warcraft universe. He now broods atop the Frozen Throne deep in Icecrown Citadel, clutching the rune blade Frostmourne and marshaling the undead armies of the Scourge. In Wrath of the Lich King, the forces of the Alliance and the Horde will battle the Scourge.