Acherus and WC3-Era Death Knights

So, one of the things I get asked about semi-regularly is whether or not we'll take a Death Knight that emerged from the Warcraft 3 portion of the Warcraft timeline.  There are a few thoughts on this that I'd like to share!

I've got some mixed feelings about it.  On one hand, there are a lot of obvious complications in the relationship between that generation of DKs and those raised in the lead-up to WotLK.  These older-generation Knights (commonly referred to as 2nd gen DKs) have, as a group, little to no reason to be on board with The Ebon Blade or its vision...they weren't created and used as canon fodder.  They weren't thrown away in a bid for Tirion Fordring's life.
Also, there's about a five-year gap in the timeline they have to answer for, between the events of WC3's Frozen Throne campaign and the start of WotLK.  Where were these Knights?  What were they doing?

Then there's the race factor.

We're Horde-side, so the most obvious (and highest player population, let's be honest) point of concern there is Sin'dorei/Quel'dorei character creation.  If the elf fell during the invasion of Quel'thalas, they're Quel'dorei.  Sin'dorei didn't exist yet, that didn't happen until Kael'thas returned to the wreckage of his homeland and made his proclamation.  Some newly-christened Sin'dorei may have fallen in the subsequent Northrend campaign led by Kael'thas during the Frozen Throne story, but not a lot.
Orcs were largely migrating out to Kalimdor during WC3's later chapters, as well.  Not all of them, obviously, as seen in Arathi Basin's small Horde outpost (pre-Cataclysm update) and the continued Frostwolf presence.  Trolls, if they're Amani or that tribe's offshoots, could fly pretty easily.  Proper Forsaken, loyal to Sylvanas, would have no reason to be loyal to the Scourge at that point in time, but it's easy to just play it off as undead Humans.  Goblins could conceivably have been in the area, since some had thrown in their lot with the old Horde during the WC2 campaigns in the northern parts of Eastern Kingdoms, so there may have been stragglers/entrepreneurs in the region during WC3.
Tauren?  Not only unlikely, but highly so.  I'd love to see a convincing pre-WoW Tauren backstory for a 2nd gen DK, though.

Now, if you've got a 2nd gen DK and have made it past these reasons why you shouldn't, great.  I'm glad you're still reading.  Hopefully your character's origin slips through the big obvioius barriers, because I personally love a good DK origin story.  One of our first recruits is a 2nd gen DK, so it's not unacceptable!