The Dead Rise as Quel ' Thalas Falls Briefing . " With the destruction of Stratholme , the Alliance supply lines to Quel ' thalas have been severed . " " Only a handful of Human and Elven defenders remain to safeguard the ancient Elf kingdom from the onslaught of the Horde . " " The enchanted domain of the Elves has inspired Gul ' dan to unleash his most perverted creation - the Death Knights . " " Formed from the corpses of the fallen Knights of Azeroth , these once proud defenders of Humanity now serve the Horde in a blasphemous state of eternal undeath . Conjuring dark spells of necromantic horror upon their terrified foes , these Death Knights seek to unleash their wrath upon any foolish enough to stand in their way . " Background . Since the Horde ' s objective was to remove the stronghold itself , their plan was to raise a huge force and beat a path through their back door in much the same way as they had at Stratholme . First they needed to secure their base for construction . A group of Alliance enemies were already inside their walls , so the sappers were quickly moved out of the way for their ogres to do their work . When all was quiet again , the ogres immediately marched out through the west entrance and circled around to the other side of the forest , where more Alliance troops were trying to gather . From that point onward , they continued to keep forces in the clearing to eliminate enemies before they had a chance to gather in force there . They then plugged the west entrance with two farms and began building an army of workers to prepare for the assault . When they had their first hall built up into a fortress and complemented with an ogre mound , an altar of storms , and three barracks , it was necessary to send workers south to raise another town hall near a second mine . A constant stream of ogre - magi poured out of their barracks ; a group of them was sent to guard the new hall while the rest continued to guard the clearing . Sappers were also built in large numbers , for these were the tools with which the enemy stronghold would easily be demolished . As last they had a huge army of twenty ogre - magi , four catapults , and ten sappers to begin the final assault . Other magi stayed in the clearing to defend the base . Their army marched off in force to the southeast corner of the area . After slaughtering the few defenders around a third mine directly east of the city , their magi gathered west of it near an ice bridge , but did not cross it . Floating eye s were summoned to look to the west , where a tower and ballista e awaited their arrival . The magi then cast multiple runes just north of the tower , and then brought in catapults to start on it . The first barrage prompted the Alliance guards to rush them ; they exploded nicely on the runes they had set up for them . Having cleaned up the remaining units , they continued west and demolished a lumber mill and a farm . While they waited for their magic to build up again , the sappers were brought up , but remained in the rear , as they removed another emplacement of towers and defenders in the same fashion as the last with the runes doing most of the work for them . From there they made the final push through the back door of the city , pausing to build up mana again , and set runes to draw city guards to their deaths . Finally they allowed the runes that had not gone off to dissipate , cast bloodlust on their magi , targeted towers with their catapults , and poured into the city to create as much chaos as possible . This cleared the way for their sappers , who rushed in and leveled the stronghold with a fantastic display of fire and noise . The rest of the elves soon retreated , knowing that the Horde could not be stopped . Urok believed that , once again , their Gods were pleased .