Lore Spotlight: The Four Generations of Death Knights and How To Meet Them In-Game

Reddit user u/Zezin96 has created a fantastic explainer about each of the four generations of Death Knights. We go into further detail about how these Death Knights can be met in-game.

Four Generations of Death Knights

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First Generation

Created by: Gul'dan
In exchange for sparing his life, Gul'dan promised Orgrim Doomhammer powerful soldiers for the new warchief's campaign in Lordaeron. Gul'dan infused the corpses of the fallen knights of Stormwind with the souls of the few remaining Shadow Council members and empowered them with the energies siphoned from the necrolytes slain by Orgrim.
Unlike later generations, these death knights were closer to spellcasters than actual knights.
All of these death knights were either slain by the Alliance or turned into liches by Kil'jaeden. However, the first and arguably most powerful one, Teron Gorefiend, would be resurrected by a particularly gullible adventurer in Shadowmoon Valley.

Second Generation

Created by: Ner'zhul
After the orcs failed in their purpose to weaken Azeroth's defenders in preparation for the Burning Legion's second invasion; Kil'jaeden turned the orc shaman Ner'zhul into The Lich King and tasked him with creating an undead army to succeed where the Horde failed.
To do this, Ner'zhul would need a champion to lead this new army and selected the human paladin and prince of Lordaeron, Arthas Menethil, to fill that role by turning him into a death knight similar to those created by Gul'dan. Arthas would prove to be a great success and Ner'zhul would repeat the process on slain paladins of The Silver Hand.
Unlike the previous generation that were orc warlocks in stolen bodies, these death knights contained the souls to Read more on wowhead.com