Death knight organizations Death knight is the name of a class shared by several organizations of powerful necromancers . These orders share a few things in common , including riding horses with horned skulls for heads and many of the same abilities . The death knights of the Second War were powerful undead necromancers created by Gul ' dan to replace the warlocks slaughtered by Orgrim Doomhammer . The first and most prominent of the death knights was Teron Gorefiend . A new order of death knights emerged during the Third War , in service to the Lich King . They were created from humans ( and occasionally other races ) who had been turned undead and granted unholy runeblades , and most were former paladin s who had forsaken the Holy Light . In " World of Warcraft " , the death knight is the first of the hero classes , see Death Knight ( hero class ) . Of the Horde . During the First War , warlocks and necrolytes composed the magic users of the Horde . However , when Orgrim Doomhammer seized power for himself , the warlocks of the Shadow Council were branded as traitors to the Horde and executed en masse , leaving the Horde without its leading practitioners of demonic magic . Only Gul ' dan the Warlock and a few others survived by pledging allegiance to the new warchief . Seeking to please Doomhammer , Gul ' dan promised him an army of undead warriors loyal only to him . After a number of failures , Gul ' dan summoned his necrolyte followers to a conjunction spell and sacrificed them while they were channeling . This sacrifice allowed him to imbue the spirits of the members of the Shadow Council into the corpses of the fallen Knights of Stormwind . Thus the death knights were born . Each death knight was given a jeweled truncheon into which the powers of the slain necrolytes was imbued . Doomhammer was pleased with Gul ' dan ' s creations , however , he overlooked the fact that the spirits of the Shadow Council warlocks remained loyal to Gul ' dan . The dreaded undead spellcasters were distributed among the Horde clans , and some of them crossed the Dark Portal and established themselves in Draenor , joining the forces of the Elder Shaman Ner ' zhul as well as Mogor the Ogre - Lord . Some , such as Ragnok and Gaz Soulripper , were assigned special duties during the conflicts . With the Alliance victory , most of the death knights were destroyed , though some of them were rallied by Teron Gorefiend , who offered his allegiance to Ner ' zhul in exchange of a world for the death knights alone to conquer . During the destruction of Draenor , many death knights ventured alongside Ner ' zhul into the Twisting Nether , where they were captured by the Burning Legion and transformed into lich es . The Ghostriders of Karabor are the remnants of those death knights stranded in Outland . After the Second War and Draenor . While a new , distinct order of death knights has arisen in Azeroth , no death knights of the original order are known to have survived . Any in Azeroth would likely have been destroyed by the Alliance of Lordaeron . Nonetheless , it is possible that a few death knights may remain . Not all travelled with Ner ' zhul , as evidenced by the Ghostriders . It is believed by some that the Black Rider s of Deadwind Pass are surviving death knights of this order ( perhaps Attumen ) . This is speculated on in " Alliance Player ' s Guide " and " Horde Player ' s Guide " . The undead Ghostriders of Karabor still haunt the roads of Shadowmoon Valley . So far , the only physical death knight that has been spotted is the infamous Teron Gorefiend , who has joined forces with Illidan . Of the Scourge . Even the most honorable warriors can fall prey to the temptations of the Lich King . Some who devote themselves to his cause become the horrors known as death knights — elite members of the Scourge who lead the Lich King ’ s armies . Neither their personalities nor their skills are lost , but their souls belong to the Lich King . When Prince Arthas Menethil of Lordaeron gave himself over to Frostmourne during the Third War , he became Lich King Ner ' zhul ' s first death knight , sworn to the Scourge and invested with dark powers to carry out its will . Since then , paladin warriors who accede to the call of the Scourge and make a pact to serve the Lich King receive a vampiric runeblade specially crafted for them and are anointed by Ner ’ zhul as one of his death knights . Thus the Lich King fashions his corrupted paladins : his greatest champions — living or undead — in his campaign to conquer all of Azeroth . Becoming a death knight does not , ironically enough , involve actually dying . Thus , most death knights resemble their living selves , though pale and with an unholy light that illumines their malefic eyes . However , as powerful and valuable agents of the Scourge , death knights are not freed from service to the Lich King when they die . They are simply raised into undeath to continue their grim work . As a result , the occasional death knight is undead and more closely resembles a zombie or skeleton , with rotting skin and protruding bones . Death knights , despite their evil natures , remain true to a code of honor — or , at least , to a semblance of order and discipline — but only in the strictest sense . In combat , for example , death knights might abide by the rules of warfare even though in all other respects they are ruthless and cruel combatants . Death knights are elite servants of the Scourge . Few death knights exist , but they are all fearsome individuals — brutal people who willingly pledged their souls and service to the Lich King . All good creatures fear their bloody runeblades . Most death knights are fallen Knights of the Silver Hand , brought to their knees by their failure to do anything to stop the plague and save Lordaeron from the Lich King ’ s depredations . These once noble warriors have allowed bitterness and defeat to overcome them and propel their souls toward damnation . The occasional member of another class has a will strong enough to make a deal with the Lich King and also become a death knight , but these death knights are exceedingly rare . Regardless of their class , all death knights embrace the honor of their new status . To become a death knight , a Paladin must vow before Ner ’ zhul ( or one of his designates ) to serve the Scourge , be accepted , and then receive a vampiric runeblade forged specifically for him . Once the runeblade is used to corrupt his holy powers and turn a hero into a death knight , it becomes that knight ’ s personal weapon and is slowly charged with the life energies of those it injures and slays thereafter . Death knights are immune to attempts to alter their alignment magically . Holy weapons and spells that specifically target those of evil alignment ( such as holy smite ) , however , do extra damage to death knights . A death knight gains the ability to inflict disease upon a touched target , as per the spell contagion . Death knights may project a beam of necromantic energy , called Death Coil that unerringly strikes its target . Similarly , undead creatures are healed of a like amount of damage when struck by the death coil . The death knight may summon the dead to fight alongside him in combat . This ability is similar to the animate dead spell . As he continues to embrace the darkness , the life force of the death Knight ebbs as it is focused into strengthening and maintaining his physical form . An experienced death knight discovers how to leech the life force of those he slays in combat . For each living creature he kills , the death Knight recovers some of his health . A death knight can become undying ; in doing so the death knight becomes immune to all death spells and magical death effects . This immunity does not protect the death knight from other sorts of attacks such as physical damage , poison , petrification or other effects even if they might be lethal . A fully trained death knight may project an unholy aura , in a ten - foot radius that will heal damage to any undead controlled by the death knight and / or to those of evil alignment allied to the death knight , divided among those in the area of the aura ’ s effect as chosen by the death knight . The death knight can also heal himself . Those of good alignment take damage instead . Other once - noble paladins would follow in Arthas ' steps . During the fall of Lordaeron , the Order of the Silver Hand was disbanded , and its leader Uther Lightbringer slain . Some of the paladins traveled to the plague - ridden colonies , seeking to continue to help the people of the land . Though the Paladins were immune to disease of any kind , they were persecuted by the general populace who believed that they had been infected by the foul plague . Embittered by this rejection , a few traveled north to find the plague ' s source . Much as Arthas had before them , these renegade paladins succumbed to bitter hatred over the course of their grueling quest . When they finally reached Ner ' zhul ' s icy fortress in Northrend they had become dark and brooding . The Lich King offered them untold power in exchange for their services and loyalty . The weary , vengeful warriors accepted his dark pact , and although they retained their humanity , their twisted souls were bound to his evil will for all time . Bestowed with black runeblades and shadowy undead steeds , death knights serve as the Scourge ' s mightiest generals . " Tabletop . In the Warcraft RPG , the death knight is a ( an advanced class with certain requirements for entry ) . It is comparable to the , a prestige class in . The would - be Death Knight must vow to serve the Scourge and must receive a vampiric runeblade from the Lich King . Knights of the Ebon Blade ( Horde & Alliance ) . In " " , death knights appear as the first available Hero Class . They share the heritage from both death knight organizations . Their powers are a combination of most of the abilities from Warcraft II and Warcraft III . Death knights of " World of Warcraft " belong to the Knights of the Ebon Blade , an organization that begins in Scourge service but later turns against the Lich King .