Shadowmourne < onlyinclude > < / onlyinclude > Shadowmourne is a two - handed axe which is a quest reward from . It is available exclusively to warrior s , paladin s , and death knight s . Equipping Shadowmourne awards the Feat of Strength , . Background . Before being The Lich King , Prince Arthas Menethil was a servant ruled by a sword he believed was the key to saving his people - the runeblade Frostmourne . Finding and claiming the blade among the frozen wastes of Northrend was an odyssey unto itself , and the search cost the prince his mentor , his relationship with his subjects , and his humanity . It cost the living of Azeroth far more . With a tight grip on the blade that he traded his life for , Arthas ravaged the kingdom of Lordaeron and broke free from the control of the Burning Legion . By the time the former prince ascended as the leader of the Scourge , Frostmourne was already glutted with the souls of the numberless dead who dared to oppose him . Now , Arthas has become so inseparable from his weapon that the sword ' s likeness has even found its way into the architecture of his fortress , Icecrown Citadel . Its hilt is never far from his hands ; its ghostly whispers constantly ring in his ears . Frostmourne , as much as the Lich King , is the ruler of Northrend . To challenge that rule , mighty heroes will need to follow more closely in Arthas ' s path than ever before . In a relentless quest to arm the forces of the living against the Scourge , Highlord Darion Mograine has formed the Ashen Verdict , a union between the most skilled craftsmen of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade . Though the peerless paladins of the Crusade wield the power of the Light , and their leader clutches Ashbringer , a few of Mograine ' s dark warriors have begun to question their hopes for victory . These death knights insist that the Ashbringer and the skills of the Argent Crusaders will not be enough to best Frostmourne alone . They swear that Darion Mograine has long been quietly aware of another legendary blade - one that could be the key to defeating the Lich King and cleansing Northrend . . . But it doesn ' t exist yet , for the moment , the weapon is only a formless idea . It is spoken of quietly , and the Highlord has a habit of silencing those who discuss it in public . But the hope of an artifact to rival Frostmourne is strong within the minds of the Ebon Blade . Just its name inspires the furnaces to burn late into the night , the bellows to pump air , and the darker half of the Verdict ' s smiths to swing their hammers until their fingers fail . While other craftsmen lean over whetstones and gather pitted blades by the hundreds , these few dream of a single weapon to end the war for Northrend . Shadowmourne . . . A great two - handed axe fit for a giant , born of sacred and corrupt powers , host of a thousand dead souls and able to be wielded only by the most stalwart armsmasters of Azeroth . Its creation seems nearly impossible ; and yet , the rumors do not cease . Some smiths claim that Shadowmourne must be nothing more than an ordinary axe , honed to unparalleled perfection , while others would shape it from a weapon of immense import in the world . Darion Mograine believes that only the hammer of Arthas himself will provide a worthy model - but such absurd ambition is just the beginning of Shadowmourne ' s creation . To contain the energies that dance across its cold edges , Shadowmourne would be hewn from piles of impure Saronite : the hardened blood of the Old God , Yogg - Saron . To fuel its power to kill , it should be drenched in the souls of the most potent servants of the Scourge as they are slain , one by one , with the unfinished blade . To help break through the Lich King ' s armor , it is to be adorned with fragments of the Frozen Throne , originally crafted by Kil ' jaeden out of ice from the Twisting Nether . Only with these mighty components , it is said , can Shadowmourne be finished . And , yet , even if the axe could be completed , questions and fears remain . Is forging the souls of the deceased into a weapon treated with blood and the essence of the Twisting Nether truly any different from the crafting of the Scourge ' s runeblades ? Who is to say that the Lich King wouldn ' t simply annihilate - or control - the maker for their impudence in mimicking his most treasured possession ? If Arthas , one of the most dedicated knights of his age , lost his humanity to the whispers of Frostmourne , might Shadowmourne bring the same doom and misery to the living as its sister blade ? And who will be bold enough to try to wield such a weapon ? Might Shadowmourne bring the same doom and misery to the living as its sister blade did ? Mechanics . The proc effects from Shadowmourne are unlike any weapon currently in the game and as such the way they act is completely new . Soul Fragment generation works off the Procs per minute system , and has a very high number of occurrences per minute . Current testing has shown that auto attacks on average generate one fragment every two seconds , and special abilities generate fragments at the same rate for a combined total of approximately one Soul Fragment every second on a single target . In AoE situations the Fragments gained per second will increase , but because not all of the players GCD ' s will be used to do AoE it is still unclear exactly how much faster fragments will be generated ( in terms of Fragments gained per second ) per target added for each class .