Death Knights not welcome at town picnic
by David Bowers 
Sep 15th 2007 at 3:13PM
It's a problem: here you are, a master of your very own runed blade, a summoner of an army of undead, an immensely powerful tank and damage-dealer -- and yet no one will let you into the lore party over at Starshine Shadowstrider's house! "Yuckie!" they say. "He got his powers from the Lich King! ...Eww!"
"But I turned against him!" you proclaim in your defense. "I wised up and came back to the Light, sorta. Okay not really but I'm still not completely bad! It's like... fighting..." your voice gradually gets quieter as party-goers stop listening, "... fighting fire with ... fire. Dammit. I'm gonna go kill Onyxia by myself! That'll show 'em."
Yes indeed. It's looking like the future's going to be pretty rough for Death Knights. As Nethaera explained, "It's most likely that Death Knights aren't going to find themselves being popular guests at the town picnic."
But Death Knights aren't alone in dealing with this sort of thing. "Keep in mind," Nethaera points out, "that Warlocks aren't generally welcomed with open arms either (depending on the culture of the race in question)." Here we have a good role model for plucky summoners of the undead: Warlocks are magic users who use the powers of the Burning Legion against the Burning Legion itself! Have not the Alliance and the Horde not gradually come to accept that just because some people happen to summon demons, cause agony, corruption and ruin, as well as steal people's souls -- that doesn't make them inherently evil, right?
So it is with Death Knights. So what if you betrayed all the peoples of Azeroth to go and serve the Lich King for a little while? So what if his taint of undeathiness is still flowing through you while you draw those unholy runes and create zombies? You can now go to Shattrath to have your picture taken with a Naaru! Your reputation should be squeaky clean.
While Blizzard may yet find a plausible reason for Death Knights to be fighting against the Lich King rather than with him, keep in mind that even if that doesn't work out, you've got one magic word that will make everything okay. Whenever people won't trust you or play with you just because it would seem that you might possibly be technically evil (on the outside)...
Just say: "Lore, lol."
Filed under: Humor, Lore, RP, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AzureWrath Jun 7th 2008 12:52AM
DKs are nice but i wonder what will happen when it comes to taking down Arthas himself?
Vadanthas May 28th 2008 4:36PM
I have to agree to some level with you... I would have preferred to see 2 things with the DK: 1) they are a third faction, neither Horde nor Alliance, and 2) they are always flagged PvP. =1 I'd like a chance to play against the rest of the players from time to time, just for giggles. I think this would have made DK more fun to encounter in the wild (imagine a raid of 10 riding in to take Stormwind or Orgrimmar by force) and would almost feel like encountering a random monster, but one that is being played by another actual human player. Plus, it would have a built-in safety valve ("I'm tired of everyone ganking me when I ride through Shatt!") and something that you wouldn't simply want to play all the time in place of those 70s that you've been working up all this time. Oh, well. I'll probably play a draenei DK for a while before going back to levelling my main toons.
hundredsouls Jul 19th 2008 4:41AM
Hmmm, does it really matter if it fits perfectly into the lore?
It's their game they can do what they want with it.
You all seem to be moaning about how silly its gonna be, but your all obviously gonna go out and buy it asap.
Slayblaze Sep 15th 2007 3:37PM
It would work into lore better if each RACE got its own Hero class which would not be available to any other race. A "Racial Class" similar to racial abilities. Death Knights would be the Hero class of the Undead race. Mountain King would be the Dwarves Hero class and so on.
overneathe Sep 15th 2007 4:24PM
Archmages being......?
Dave Sep 15th 2007 4:56PM
haha immensely powerful.
death knights will be no such thing, and anyone who's figuring they're going to be, is pretty much dreaming. They can call them Hero classes with marketing hype, but they've said they're balancing them within the scope of the existing classes, so they're not even going to be the best at anything they do, just more versatile.
popeguilty Sep 15th 2007 5:01PM
There'll be a lot less animosity once Death Knight tanks start shoring up the tank shortage.
overneathe Sep 15th 2007 5:06PM
"Hero" in Hero Class stand for "the heroes from Warcraft 3 had the same titles!". Nothing more, nothing less, face it.
@4 NO! They'll all dps! MWHAHA
Mats Sep 15th 2007 5:23PM
I'm sure the Death Knights will be welcome to the annual Warlock picnic (hosted this year in Shadowmoon)
Hybrys Sep 15th 2007 5:38PM
You know, I think you kinda missed the point of them being named a Hero Class... The reason they did it is one, for marketing, and two, to have an excuse to not get 150897132560136 people complaining about having to level them from level 1.
Also, almost EVERY hybrid I see in a useful role, wants to be DPS. Everyone likes to see big numbers, and not healing numbers... *Big numbers are the only reason for a warlock to spec Destro, a hunter to spec lolMM, a warrior to spec Arms, and so on... It's not their best DPS spec, it's the one with big numbers.*
Hybrys Sep 15th 2007 5:40PM
*coughs* Excuse me, I'm taking a rather PvE-biased stance at that.
Caleb Archon Sep 15th 2007 9:24PM
Wow. I think some of the bile from the official forums is spilling over onto this site.
Rich Sep 15th 2007 5:54PM
Blizzard jumped the shark with the current Hero Class concept.
therationalpi Sep 15th 2007 7:02PM
From a lore perspective, plenty of groups in the game are going down the path of redemption.
Orcs were fel-tainted for a long time, but have shaken that off in favor of a more honorable path. The gnomes destroyed their own homes through their own mistakes. Warlocks use the powers of the Burning Legion. Mages use the thoroughly addictive, and considered corrupting, Arcane magics somewhat wantonly.
So I think there will be a lot of roleplay options for Death Knights.
I can see a Death Knight who says,
"This is what I have become, though I'm not proud of it. Even if it means holding on to this dark power a little longer, I will atone for my sins."
Moreover, I can see a Death Knight whose goal is freedom from the control of the lich king. He may wish to be his own master of terror. The only way to achieve that freedom is to see his former master, Arthas, slain. He may not even care about others, but good means to bad end do exist.
Vincent Avatar Sep 15th 2007 7:13PM
Am I the only guy who is just really, really excited to have the chance to play a Death Knight? That's really all I could care about at the moment. I'll worry about Lore after I see whether or not they're any fun to play.
Then lore.
Amandil Sep 15th 2007 7:17PM
"Have not the Alliance and the Horde not gradually come to accept that just because some people happen to summon demons, cause agony, corruption and ruin, as well as steal people's souls -- that doesn't make them inherently evil, right?"
---
Your wrong there. It is still prohibited to use dark magic (I think even by death penalty) in the Alliance. What do you think why warlock trianers meet in "secret" caves and under buildings? Warlocks in public play the roles of mages or priests or just townfolk. That's why, at least on our RP realm, warlocks should never run around in cities with their demon. If there's an RP paladin nearby, that warlock will surely be brought to trial and sentenced to death.
Octagon Sep 15th 2007 8:34PM
I am of the opinion that Death Knights are silly. Currently Death Knights can be from any race. That's pretty ridiculous. Death Knights are Undead. Since when did the other races of Azeroth begin accepting animated corpses in to their ranks?
Tauren Death Knights?! Night Elf Death Knights?! Dreneai weren't even on the planet during the third war.
We might as well have Forsaken Druids and Orc Paladins!
Valethas Sep 15th 2007 9:40PM
Well to what I think there's going to be 2 races that can be DK on each side. Reason for this is they get to choose between 2 races for DK and they make the most sense lore wise. On horde we would have the Undead and Blood Elves. Why not Orcs? Because Orcs were the "old school" death knights so they can't really be a "new school" one. Undead well its obvious some Paladins after becoming DKs became Undead then when the Lich King weakend they broke free and became forsaken. For Blood Elves its the same way they use the Naaru for becoming Paladins. Give em a Death Knight or Lich to drain the magics from and BAM we have a death knight. For Allys its obvious Dwarves and Humans because they were the only 2 races to have had the Paladin class of the time of the third war and if you will notice one of the Death Knight's in Naxxramas is in fact a Dwarf and obviously Arthas become one without actually dieing himself.
David Bowers Sep 15th 2007 10:23PM
There are some really good points here. A few things I'd like to respond to:
@10, I can see 1 or 2 death knights going down the road you mentioned. It would make good sense as a story for a movie or book or something. Somehow it reminds me of Darth Vader actually. But think -- would it work for all of the hundreds of new death knights that are going to come into being on each realm?
The story of the redemption of the orcs is really about Grom Hellscream and Thrall; the others all following in their footsteps. Perhaps the Death Knights could break free of the Lich King if they had one hero like that to follow? hmm...
@12, Ooo. You have an interesting point there. Warlocks do make more lore-sense as dabblers in the forbidden magical arts. Also, it sounds like you're on a really good RP realm if the general populace really pays attention to things like that. Which one are you on?
@15, Keep in mind that they've told us a Death Knight is *not* a corrupted paladin. He or she is a corrupted *person* -- period. That person could have been a mage, druid, hunter, or even manicurist for all Blizzard cares. From that perspective, the gnomish manicurist might very well have been tempted to come serve the Lich King in exchange for emo/goth nail polish. Seriously, though, my point is that there are lots of different motivations for all the races to become death knights -- not just the five you mentioned.
Thijz Sep 16th 2007 8:49AM
Guys, come on! What if they show to be the best tanks you can get, or do crazy dps? You won't let them in your party/raid because the lore tells you they were on the bad side once!? That's just over-the-top roleplaying...