Invincible

Invincible was the steed of Arthas Menethil, both in life and death. He was the skeletal steed that Arthas rode throughout Warcraft III, though his name was first introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, and his backstory in the novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King.
==Biography==
===Life===
Invincible was born to the mare Brightmane on the Balnir Farmstead in Tirisfal Glades, in the winter of the year Stormwind fell. At Jorum Balnir's invitation, Prince Arthas—then nine years old—assisted in the foal's birth.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 1 The moment he met the foal's eyes, Arthas felt a bond between them and knew that the horse would become his mount and inseparable friend. Although he wasn't a warhorse, as those were a separate breed, he would bear Arthas in ceremony and daily life. The Balnir family, who bred horses used by the royal family, gave the horse to Arthas two years later. Arthas considered naming the horse "Snowfall" or "Starlight" because of his white coat, but in the informal tradition of Lordaeronian knights and nobles naming their steeds after a quality (Uther's was "Steadfast", King Terenas' "Courageous"), he named the colt "Invincible".Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 2
One of the prince's favorite activities whenever he needed an escape from his royal duties was to go riding on Invincible through the Tirisfal countryside, and in particular to guide the horse in a leap over an embankment near the Balnir Farmstead.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 3 Mount and rider were always completely in tune, with Invincible obeying Arthas' every command, and the prince often felt that the stallion flew rather than galloped.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 4Underdev: Invincible
One winter afternoon when Invincible was ten years old, a few months before Arthas was inducted into the Knights of the Silver Hand, the two went riding despite a growing snowstorm. When Arthas tried to guide the stallion over their favorite jump, Invincible lost his footing on some icy rocks and, instead of landing smoothly, fell and shattered his forelegs. Too far from help and unable to heal the stricken horse, Arthas was forced to kill him by stabbing him through the heart with his sword in order to relieve his pain. The stallion was buried on the grounds of the Balnir Farmstead at Arthas' request. The guilt and trauma of Invincible's death left a deep impact on Arthas, who long viewed the incident as his only failure in life. He never revealed the truth of what had happened to anyone else and instead let them believe that it had been an accident.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 7 In response to the horse's death, Arthas made a private vow to always protect others no matter what sacrifices were required and to never again let himself be caught unawares and unable to help, which influenced several of the decisions he made later in life.
===Undeath===
Seven years later, the night after he landed in Northrend to pursue Mal'Ganis, Arthas had a dream of Invincible's fatal injury and of having to kill him again. This time, however, the prince found himself holding a very different sword. When he pulled it out of Invincible's body, the horse didn't die but was instead miraculously healed and made stronger than before. Arthas felt that the dream was a joyous omen.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 14
thumb|Arthas and Invincible in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
After murdering his father, Arthas—now a death knight—ran directly from Capital City to Invincible's grave at the Balnir Farmstead. With the power of Frostmourne, Arthas resurrected the horse as his undead steed. He decided that Invincible's death seven years earlier had not been a mistake on his part, but rather an essential part of his destiny. He believed that the now undead horse was proof that he had never been wrong about anything in his life—if the stallion had been alive, he would've feared the death knight, but now the two could be reunited. Although he hadn't been bred to be a warhorse, Invincible's resurrection made him immune to hunger, pain, and exhaustion, making him the perfect steed for Arthas.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 19 Now fully living up to his name, he could move with unnatural swiftnessArthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 18 as well as become a spectre and disappear, to be resummoned by Arthas at any time.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 22
During the Scourge invasion of Quel'Thalas, Anasterian Sunstrider confronted Arthas in single combat, severing Invincible's forelegs with his runeblade, :Felo'melorn, to dismount him. Witnessing Invincible's injuries brought on a surge of memories and sent Arthas into a rage, during which he shattered Felo'melorn and struck down Anasterian. This time, however, Arthas was able to necromantically repair the injuries.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, chapter 20Blood of the Highborne, chapter 2 At the start of the Plaguelands civil war, as Arthas' powers weakened and the Dreadlord Insurgents turned much of the Scourge against him, the death knight was relieved to find that he could still effortlessly summon Invincible. He felt certain that the stallion still loved him and was the one creature that would never turn against him—"the one thing he had done completely right".
Invincible continued to serve as his master's mount even after Arthas became the new Lich King. The horse was known to stalk through Icecrown Citadel and fly on the winds around the spires.Underdev: Fall of the Lich King: Invincible Rising Sindragosa has also been referred to as the Lich King's mount.Frost Infusion
Following Arthas' defeat, Invincible's saddle was lost beneath Icecrown. Years later, the Knights of the Ebon Blade retrieved the saddle and used it to create steeds for the Four Horsemen.Fallen Steeds: Saddle of the Frozen Crown
==In World of Warcraft==
===Invincible's grave===
In World of Warcraft, Invincible's empty grave can be found at the Balnir Farmstead in Tirisfal Glades. A plaque on the headstone reads:
The grave was added to the game in patch 3.0.2 and was the first place to mention the name "Invincible", before the novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King was released and expanded on the horse's backstory. The plaque is absent in the post-Battle for Lordaeron phase of the zone, apparently a developer oversight.
===Invincible's Reins===
When defeated on heroic difficulty in 25-player mode, the Lich King has a small chance to drop Invincible as a flying mount.
==Appearance==
At birth, Invincible's coat, mane, and tail were gray, but by the age of two they had turned white as snow. This was a rare color even among the Balnir-bred horses, who mostly had light gray coats. His eyes in life were brown.
The depictions of Invincible as an undead are noticeably inconsistent, with different sources portraying the horse's appearance in wildly different ways. His original look in Warcraft III: Classic is that of a partially skeletal horse with horns, identical to the mounts ridden by other Death Knight units in that game. 's patch 3.3 introduced a new, unique design with the Invincible's Reins mount: a flying undead steed with bat wings and larger portions of his skin and flesh still intact. Most subsequent depictions in World of Warcraft and other sources fluctuate between these two versions of his design.
Year	Appearance 	Flesh	Horns	Wings	Notes
2002	Warcraft III: Classic 	 	 	 	First appearance. Depicted with most of his flesh intact, but with an exposed skull and tailbones.
2009	Arthas: Rise of the Lich King	 	 	 	The novel describes Invincible as purely skeletal with fiery red eyes and states that all his soft tissue had rotted away by the time Arthas raised him.
2009	:Invincible's Reins 	 	 	 	The World of Warcraft mount.
2011	Trading Card Game 	 	 	 	Same design as the mount.
2014	Blood of the Highborne 	 	 	 	The novella calls Invincible "a rotting, skeletal, horned steed with blazing eyes and glowing hooves" and "an ebon, fiery-eyed steed".
2018	Chronicle Volume 3 	 	 	 	Same design as the mount, but without wings.
2018	Warbringers: Sylvanas 	 	 	 	Depicted with most of his flesh intact, but with an exposed skull.
2018	:The First to Fall 	 	 	 	Same model as the mount.
2020	Warcraft III: Reforged 	 	 	 	Largely resembles his Warcraft III: Classic design, with most of his flesh intact but an exposed skull.
2020	Afterlives: Bastion 	 	 	 	Only seen at a distance in a single shot, but seems to use the same design as the skeletal warhorse model introduced in .
2021	:I Intend to Live Forever 	 	 	 	Same model as the mount.
2021	Hearthstone 	 	 	 	Same design as the mount.
2022	What Makes Us Strong 	 	 	 	Uses the skeletal warhorse model introduced in .
2022	Sylvanas 	 	 	 	The novel calls Invincible "a horse of bone and desiccated flesh" and later describes him as "mummified".World of Warcraft: Sylvanas, chapter 12, pg. 153, 159 (ebook)
2022	 	 	 	 	Same design as the mount.
==In Hearthstone==
*One of 's alternate skins in mode is , which depicts him riding the horse.
*Invincible appears as in the expansion. Its flavor text reads: "No it's not, I can see it right there."
==Notes and trivia==
*Like Invincible, Anduin Wrynn's horse Reverence also comes from the Balnir Farmstead.Exploring Azeroth: The Eastern Kingdoms, pg. 107
*A common joke concerning Invincible is to refer to the horse as if it were named 'invisible' due to the similarity of the words. The phrase is often "Why is it called Invincible if I can see it?".
*Invincible appears as an ally card in the Assault on Icecrown Citadel Treasure set for the Trading Card Game.
*In Warcraft III: Reforged, the multiplayer skin Fallen King Arthas depicts Arthas as a living king of Lordaeron riding a white horse. This is presumably Invincible, the way he would've appeared if still alive.
*The horse is mentioned in one of ' click quotes in Heroes of the Storm: "I once had a horse named Invincible. Turns out, he... wasn't."
*As part of the event—a crossover between Warcraft and StarCraft—in Heroes of the Storm, a -horse hybrid known as the Invincilisk was added as a mount, matching the zerg-themed skin for Arthas. The name is a portmanteau of Invincible's name and the suffix "-lisk", seen in the names of several zerg types in StarCraft. The Invincilisk's flavor text makes reference to the aforementioned invisible joke.
*Invincible's death in Rise of the Lich King is based on the death of the American racehorse , who shattered her forelegs during a 1975 race and was subsequently euthanized.
==Gallery==
File:Invincible-art.jpg|Artwork of Arthas and Invincible from the Wrath of the Lich King site.
File:TCG Invincible.jpg|Invincible in the TCG.
File:Invincible HS.jpg|Invincible in Hearthstone.
File:Reforged - Arthas DK concept.jpg|Warcraft III: Reforged concept art of Arthas and Invincible.
File:Reforged credits art 21.png|Arthas and Invincible in Reforged.
File:Fallen King Arthas - Death Knight.png|Fallen King Arthas riding a living Invincible in Reforged.
File:Arthas defeats Sylvanas.jpg|Arthas riding off on Invincible after slaying Sylvanas Windrunner in Chronicle Volume 3.
File:Sylvanas Warbringers5.jpg|Invincible in Warbringers: Sylvanas.
File:I Intend to Live Forever - Arthas.jpg|Arthas on Invincible in Andorhal.
File:The First to Fall Arthas2.jpg|Arthas entering Quel'Thalas on Invincible.
File:What Makes Us Strong - Arthas.jpg|A vision of Arthas on Invincible during Sylvanas' assassination attempt.
File:Invincilisk HotS.jpg|The Invincilisk mount in Heroes of the Storm.
===Fanart===
File:Liang Xing Fan Art.jpg|Invincible in a StarCraft crossover fanart, by Liang Xing.
==References==
==External links==
Grave plaque	Grave plaque	Unused NPC
 	 	
Category:Horses
Category:Readable objects
Category:Tirisfal Glades objects
Category:Arthas: Rise of the Lich King characters
Category:Blood of the Highborne characters
Category:Afterlives characters
Category:World of Warcraft: Sylvanas characters
Category:Hearthstone legendary cards