Conquest of the Horde

So, yeah I have been looking for lore on the attack on Quel'thalas during the third war. I have read the book in the WoW Game, looked at the blood elf history as well as Silvermoon's history on WoWWiki.

Here are some parts I'm stuck on.. Someone told me that the Scourge reached Silvermoon with out it's defenses knowing, as the Scourge apparently killed the runners during the WC3 Campaign. Is this the case, or did people have a warning of the Scourge attack when they started attacking the Southern regions?

Secondly..
"Most of what was left of Quel'Thalas was burned down by the high elves in an effort to give the Scourge a psychological victory and leave the few high elves left who were making their last stand on Sunstrider Isle."
WoWWiki

And then..
"... in the Third War the death knight Arthas led the Scourge into the city, attacking it on his quest to reach the Sunwell. The High Elven King and the Convocation were slain and the majority of the population killed. Scourge forces held the city for a time, but abandoned it after the depletion of its resources.

Though the city was attacked by the Scourge, the undead left the buildings mainly intact. For a time the city was a ghost town empty except for dead plants, the occasional body sprawled across the cobblestones and mournful elven spirits. The only visitors to the city were treasure hunters in search of any valuable artifacts that the elves left behind before they deserted the city, but the ghosts of Silvermoon's past inhabitants made stealing difficult."
WoWWiki

Kinda confusing..

I'll just put this first reminder in here - Wowwiki is slightly outdated and relies a lot more on RPG knowledge in various parts of it than wowpedia does... And weirdly enough, your links send me to Wowpedia, where I find in the history sections plenty of information that outlines what the Fall of Quel'thalas was.

This is one of those fun cases of Blizzard not really remembering to tie up loose ends on their history and such. Technically by game lore from WC3, Silvermoon City was caught off-guard by the march of the Scourge, and I've always taken it as Sylvanas being extremely over-confident in her defense force until finally her force is just obliterated by Arthas, leaving Silvermoon City without an army to come to its defense/warning.

If I recall, though, the section of Silvermoon City that is the current capital of the Belves was infact once just as bad as the Ruins of Silvermoon (west Silvermoon), but over the years from the Third War to Burning Crusade it was under reconstruction (along with much of the Belven nation).

The basic timeline is this:

Arthas arrives in southern Silvermoon, Sylvanas sends some token troops and they get butchered by the Scourge. What would become the Ghostlands then becomes the site of massive warfare between The Ranger Corps and the Scourge, where the Scourge just slowly pushes north (this is reflective of the first undead WC3 mission in Quel'thalas).

Arthas and the Scourge have made it to the river separating southern Eversong and Eversong. Sylvanas blows the bridge and the Ranger Corps has fled across the river. The Scourge makes several bridges of its own dead and paves the path across the river (around where the Dead Scar is now). Sylvanas is still fully confident that the Ranger Corps can hold the Scourge back, but the Scourge still slowly advances north. (reflective of the second undead WC3 mission in Quel'thalas, minus the magic elven gate thing).

At the battle of Fairbreeze (I think) Sylvanas makes her last stand, where the Ranger Corps is thoroughly pinned and butchered, leaving Sylvanas to die and become a banshee. From there, the Scourge has virtually no resistance as they continue their march north, leaving no survivors (and so nobody to warn Silvermoon).

The Scourge lays siege to Silvermoon City, shattering the city's defenses and slaughtering anyone that doesn't immediately flee. However, Arthas doesn't care much to hunt down every elf, so he lets his Scourge do their thing to eastern and western Silvermoon as he punches right through the center (Dead Scar Silvermoon) to the northern shore of Quel'thalas.

Again, he paves the sea floor with the Scourge's own numbers, making a literal bridge of bodies to Quel'danas, where he attacks the Sunwell's defenders and successfully makes it to the Sunwell. After resurrecting Kel'thuzad, Arthas leaves with the majority of the Scourge's forces, letting Dar'khan take over with his own armies of Scourge.

Though! This is all my personal opinion and I'd take it with a grain of salt - if you find something that a lot of other people agree with, it's probably more right than mine, but this is just the way I've always seen it.

If you're gonna use a wiki, use wowpedia.

And Zenethen's spot on with that.