Acherus : The Ebon Hold Acherus : The Ebon Hold ( pronounced a - ker - us ) is a former Scourge necropolis floating above Light ' s Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands . It is the headquarters of the Knights of the Ebon Blade and is the starting area for all death knight s of the Alliance and the Horde . As such , the Ebon Hold has been designated as a sanctuary , with PvP combat forbidden within its halls . History . Built by the skeletal architect Obrahiim and said to be so powerful that not even the dread citadel of Naxxramas would be able to withstand a direct assault , Acherus is located in a region of the Eastern Plaguelands east of Tyr ' s Hand known as the Scarlet Enclave . Here , under the direct command of the Lich King , the death knights of Acherus were trained in its halls for a specific purpose : The destruction of both the Scarlet Crusade and the Argent Dawn , the last bastions of Light ( albeit corrupted , in the case of the Scarlet Crusade ) in the Plaguelands . Within the halls of Acherus were mounds of bodies , the corpses of slain heroes gathered by the Scourge to resurrect as death knights . Under the watchful eye of the feared Instructor Razuvious , Scourge necromancers raised bodies chosen by the Instructor and gauged for their worthiness . If they were found worthy , they were attired in the trappings of a " herald of Arthas " ; if they were found wanting , they were consumed by hungry ghouls . Also present inside are runeforge s , where death knights emblazon their weapons with runes that better aid them in their battles against their enemies . In the Heart of Acherus , other unworthies were kept in chains for initiates to slay in cold blood as part of their training . Given their task , the death knights of Acherus laid waste to the towns of Havenshire and New Avalon and before turning on Light ' s Hope . During the Battle for Light ' s Hope Chapel , the Lich King revealed that he sent the death knights on a suicide mission in order to lure Tirion Fordring out of hiding . After the Lich King fled back to Northrend when Fordring cleansed the Ashbringer , the death knights who remained on the field formed the Knights of the Ebon Blade under the command of Highlord Darion Mograine , and from the Scourge to serve as their base . Acherus now hovers above the destroyed Scarlet lands as the base of operations for the Knights of the Ebon Blade , still containing many of the newly freed death knight trainer s . Darion resides at the center , vowing for revenge against the Lich King . Naxxramas ' recent return to Northrend prevents Acherus from actually proving the theory that it could destroy it , but many Scourge nevertheless have been rooted out of the ruins below the necropolis , and the Scourge banners have been replaced with the banners of the Ebon Blade . Darion has taken to periodically journeying to the battlefield at Icecrown to meet with Argent Highlord Fordring and aid adventurers from both sides in the front - line battle against the Scourge . With the war effort now focused entirely on Northrend , Acherus has been quiet since the battle against the Scourge . Its trainers still teach the finer points of the dark arts to their acolytes as they gain in strength , but the Ebon Hold itself remains a silent , ominous shadow in the hellish orange skies above Light ' s Hope . Inspiration . , meaning " river of woe " , is a river that runs in northwestern Greece , and is connected to various underworld myths . In Greek mythology , the river Acheron was a branch of the river Styx ; Acheron was the border to Hades , and those seeking to enter Hades had to pay Charon , the ferryman , for passage . Those who could not were condemned to wander the banks of the Acheron for one hundred years . In his epic " Aeneid " , the Roman poet Virgil uses " Acheron " to refer to all of Hades , and says the following to the main character , Aeneas : " " Flectere si nequeo superos , Acheronta movebo " " ( " If I cannot deflect the will of Heaven , I shall move Hell " ) . Acheron was also described as the river that formed the border of Hell . In the " Inferno " , book one of his " Divine Comedy " , Dante Alighieri - given a guided tour of Hell by Virgil - meets Charon at the banks of the Acheron and pays for passage across ( at Virgil ' s insistence and despite Charon ' s reservations , as Dante was still a living man during his journey through Hell ) . Speculation . In early concepts of the Broken Isles , it appears that a small floating " something " is to the northeast of the Broken Shore named Acherus . Given that the floating city of Dalaran moves to the new continent , it may be that Acherus moves as well .