Long time lurker here, I rarely ever post but I had this question I couldn’t find an answer to.
You see, I’m not much of a Roleplayer (Though its something on my “to-do” list), but I need the headcanon for my characters to work. I want to roll a priest, preferably an alliance race, However, I like to try all the different specs of a class I’m playing. So I want to roll a race that is at least somewhat valid lore-wise, when it comes to playing all the three priest specs, i.e holy, discipline and shadow.
Now I realize there may be no race that fits all these three specializations (holy, discipline, shadow) perfectly, but I was looking for a race that has at least a decent level of lore support for being any of the three specs.
Holy is a given for any race and shadow seems to be used by some races more than others. Discipline is a bit odd because it’s a weird battle healer thing and shadow is feared and sparsely used by the majority of priests. If I had to chose once race that could equally represent then all I’d go with Night Elf.
Yes, I’m a bit biased but it does fit in my mind. Discipline like I said is a battle healer but the Priestess of Elune are trained warriors. In fact that are closer to paladins than any of the other priests races are. Discipline could be like calling down Elune’s holy wrath. Holy is again just a given for the spec, too bad they don’t get a silver spell affect.
As for shadow, Elune does have a dark side and is the Night Warrior. This make take a little creativity but instead of focusing on the void aspect you could focus on the shadowy and fear inducing themes that come with nightime. Elune is prevalent at night and it is when the Night Elves live and thrive. Try using Sira and her abilities as inspiration or better yet Cordana Fellsong and her abilites in the Vault of the Wardens dungeon. She says things like “may the night shroud me in shadow” and “all night elf children learn to love the dark”. Use her as inspiration to build on shadow. The first generation of warderns where former priests anyway.
In any case I think you will need to use some creativity to come up with a reason as to why any race could represent all three, I just think a NE is a good choice. I don’t see the Dreanei or Humans being big on shadow as they would the first two, especially not the dreanei. Same for dwarves but there have been humans and dwarves that have delved into shadow but I don’t think that they continued with the other 2 aspects of the class.
These are the races that make use of and fit for all three spec along with lore fits for each spec. Oh all of the races the ones that fits for all three are Human, Blood Elf, and Troll but all of the listed above are good fits if you want to dive into all three while being in character.
I’m going to make an argument for Gnome. Despite their general comical depictions, Gnomes are quite disciplined. Driven by their innate curiosity to know a thing they’ll push themselves sometimes to the edge of death or madness in order to discover the hidden secrets, or to master the given subject.
Priests are solely spell driven. Not a whole lot of physical combat involved, such as with the Warrior Class, and so I feel are much easier to explain given their diminutive stature. That’s not to say I don’t think Gnome Warriors work, I think that work perfectly. I just realize that others hold differing opinions, but I digress… Gnomes make excellent Mages for the reasons above, and so I think that translates perfectly well into the Priestly class. The only possible question that might arise is that of Faith, or Belief, as Gnomes are notoriously intellectual creatures.
While I feel that being highly intellectual does not innately negate one’s personal beliefs, Warcraft Lore has also stated that one may wield the power of the Light through sheer power of Will itself. Leading me to believe that faith in a god or divine entity isn’t the only means that can be used. Faith, or a strong Belief, in one’s own power and ability (translating into a powerful Will) would suffice to wield the Light.
Consequently, that same powerful Will would be required to stave off the madness induced by the Shadow and the Void. As much, if not more so, to be able to wield both Light and Shadow, such as a Discipline Priest might.
Gnomes, I’d argue, have such Will Power in spades provided that character has the driven curiosity to know and unravel the intricate mysteries of both Light and Shadow, or the deep seated drive to master them.
Human is by far the most versatile of all races when it comes to alignments and allegiances. Its not impossible for any race to have outliers, but the Humans are so varied you can have anything base idea work without people raising an eye.
The “Light” is pretty versatile, so a lot of races actually fit the bill for all 3 specs. There is almost always a “merciful” (Holy) portion to their beliefs and a “vengeful” (Shadow) portion to their beliefs, and I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to think there are some who vie for balance (Discipline).
For Alliance-side specifically, I’d say Night Elf is actually the easiest and most malleable to rationalize all 3 specs for. Elune herself is very versatile and her power comes in many different ways (merciful (Holy) and vengeful (Shadow)) and seeking to balance it all isn’t a large stretch either (Discipline).
For similar reasons, I’d also throw out Worgen as a suggestion. Worgen worship seems to come in 3 different flavors (Elune, Goldrinn, Human Light) and all 3 fit the 3 specs pretty well.
Other people have given out good suggestions for other races.
I’d actually say that I think the only race(s) that don’t fit all 3 specs (Alliance-side) are Void Elves and Lightforged Draenei since (I believe?) it’s confirmed that the Void repels the Light and vice-versa.
I don’t disagree, but the reason I didn’t throw out Human as the most malleable is because their version of the “Shadow” has really only been shown in one extreme (“evil”).
Of course that kind of doesn’t really mean anything, but the reason I chose Night Elves was because the “Night Warrior” (darker side of Elune) has actually been recently shown in a “heroic” light in the story.
ymmv and personal stories and etc, but that’s where my rationale came from.
I’m not really convinced on what the “Night Warrior” thing does aside from blackening the eyes and giving a chosen warrior a Power Boost and fancy weapon. I haven’t seen anything Shadow related to it.
I actually do disagree a bit. While the humans do use shadow I doubt believe it’s something that’s widely accepted or used. Even Anduin had concerns about the void elves as people in Stormwind in the outset have lost control over it. That was in Before the Storm I think.
Discipline and Holy seem like givens for the vast majority of priests. Shadow seems like a outlier for the general population of priests but for Night Elves it follows, not as void because Elune isn’t void but as mearly shadow. She is prevalent during the night so it makes sense.
Not only that but she gave the elves shadow meld and the ability to see at night. Elune’s shadow doesn’t need to be void because she isn’t a void lord but darkness is an aspect of who she is.
After Night Elves I would say humans. But if your not looking to use some creativity to define the shadow spec in a different view like some would in terms of Elune worshippers, a human would be a better option. Because the game version of the classes doesn’t really have any uniqueness between the races humans would be best to represent the spec as it.
The Void magics are scary things. They warp the mind and can control you. It’s the same reaction people have to Warlocks. Also Shadow magic is watered down Void Magic. They are from the same source just different intensity. Also by your logic Shadow Priest Draenei would make more sense than Night Elves. They have reason with the Soul Priests of Auchenai and Velen speaks of the importance of Light and Void being in balance. I haven’t seen Shadow Priests for Night Elves unless I missed something.
Is it though? I haven’t seen anything that says that.
Now this I’ve seen. But for ne the source is Elune not the void itself. Look at the wardens abilites, they have unique shadow attacks and their power comes from Elune. So it is plausible that her form of shadow isn’t watered down void.
I know that the soul priests are part of the Dreanei culture. From what I understood they speak to and care for the souls of the dead Dreanei. I’m just not sure that they are shadow/void. I didn’t get that impression.
I said in my previous post that humans would represent shadow as it is in game but seeing that shadow abilites are an aspect of Elune and by extension the Night Elves you could easily have a chatacter that could equally represents all 3 specs as I don’t see an Elunite shadow users loosing their mind to the void as easily as a human would.
It is. I forgot where it was said but it is. Until they explain more about Elune I’ll just pass that as speculation about the source of her power.
They are very noticeable as being Shadow Priests. They don’t do the full Shadow Priest power dive like Ner’zhul does but they are capable of it as shown by Naomi who was a Soul Priest.
How Elune works is speculation. We don’t know where her followers’ power comes from be it from her or from the sources of every other magic power. We simply don’t know. It is possible but not confirmed so I’m not going to shoot it down but I won’t endorse it either. Still unless I missed something, I’ve never seen a Night Elf display Shadow Priest powers.
All I saw was that the two were pretty much one in the same. That was on wiki.
All true. She’s remained a mystery. So in this case it gives the rp’er a bit odd leeway to create something unique but still fits into the game. We also don’t see much of Elunite priests shadow or otherwise but seeing as literal shadow and darkness are aspects of both Elune and the Kaldorei the OP shouldn’t have any problem creating a ne character that is an Elunite shadow priest.