Seems like a silly question after all this time, but really, as lovable nihilists as they are, aren’t they technically still infected with the plague of undeath, and seeing as how that was a highly virulent, highly contagious disease, wouldn’t simply being around them put you at risk for infection, even if they them selves dont want to infect you?
The plague killed them.
If I were to attempt to create an analogy, I would say that the plague is the snake and the ‘undeath’ state is the venom. The snake (plague) bites you, injecting you with venom and eventually it kills you; (undeath) but it only happens if, for use of a relevant ingame phrase, it gets the killing blow. Arthas hooned through Stratholme so that the citizens didn’t succumb to the plague that they were infected with (the venom). Fairly certain this analogy is ‘correct’.
Also, the undead are kept “alive” through necromantic energy that runs through them, not any kind of plague - also the fact that they originally die would likely have rid them of any ills, see: the late Thomas Zelling.
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In all honesty I would assume they’re contagious in another way, considering they’re walking rotting corpses. But the plague wasn’t airborne at least not in wc3 and had to be consumed, or you got unlucky and stepped on a nail with the plague.
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Yeah, you won’t catch the plague simply be being near the forsaken, so a key thing is this, if you wouldn’t do it to a corpse, don’t do it to the forsaken.
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Unless that’s your thing
eww thats gross
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Marcus does some… things… with an undead chick in one of the steamy romance novels, and for all we know he is fine after the ordeal.
Then again Marcus is a paladin, so maybe he had protection. (ugh). But I’m going to just go with “not contagious”.
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Who doesn’t like palid goth women with bright eyes?
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Oct 17.
Further study of the plague has yielded disturbing conclusions, and even more disturbing implications.
Initial testing showed the plague had only minor effects on non-human creatures. Symptoms ranged from fatigue, nausea, fever, to minor hallucinations, but rarely resulted in death. On human tissue, however, the plague acts uniformly and unprecedented expediency towards necrosis.It would be foolish to think that such an efficient human killer only being found in human rations is a coincidence. While it’s certainly possible that these two occurrences are unrelated, I’ve decided to delegate more resources towards finding the source of this plague, for I fear there are intelligent hands pushing it upon our kin.
More research must be done here at Dalaran, however, I will decide who to investigate in my stead at a later date, after some heavy deliberation.
Oct 18.
I’ve stumbled upon a key factor of this plague, one so cleverly hidden in its methodology that I’ve come to two immutable conclusions: That its development was for the singular prupose of ending human life, and its inception was at the hands of an intelligent being.
Long term affliction of the plague causes a certain reanimation of activity in the dead. This activity is very small at first, and I disregarded it as a minor side-effect. However, this energy remained persistent and unwavering. A thought struck me, one which was both surprising and strong: The corpse was waiting for something.At that moment I did not have any evidence to prove it, but I nonetheless spent time pursuing it. I used my limited knowledge of necromancy and casted simple curses on the corpse. At the time I had no motivation to raise the dead, only to change or distinguish the radiating energy off the corpse. Imagine my surprise when it sprung to life and attacked me.
I did not hesitate to incinerate it to dust, and I now regret doing so. But I was able to prove my unprovoked theory, that the corpse (and by extension the plague that saturates it) was indeed waiting for further commands. It’s clear that those who die by this plague are only lying dormant in their graves, awaiting one skillful in necromancy to awaken them.
In short, it is indisputable that the plague is magical in nature.
From the Journal of Antonidas it’s clear the Plague is intended to kill and then make them sort of like ‘‘sleeping’’ agents. If the plague was contagious there wouldn’t have been need to spread it in grain supplies.
We see in the defense of Hearthglen that even if people ate the supplies, others like soldiers who hadn’t yet weren’t affected. Neither them fighting the Undead caused them to turn, I don’t think it’s like fictional zombies IRL
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" He turned back to the ground where the half-consumed corpse of his latest victim lay. A warm rush of strength flowed into his body as he ripped a mouthful of flesh from her throat. He remembered the ecstasy that had gripped him as her screams grew quiet, the terror that froze in her dead eyes as he devoured her. Craving that sensation again, he tore off another bite.
…
" He stopped feasting and waited. He waited because it was his master’s will that he do so.
A moment passed before he sensed it. The unholy magic that had reanimated his own lifeless body now caused hers to stir. He watched in rapturous wonder as the corpse that had been his victim arose a Scourge, as driven to end life as he was. She looked at him, the fear gone from her undead eyes, replaced by smoldering rage."
That’s from Dark Mirror. Now it’s a little /shrug if it’s the Lich King or the Plague that caused Natty Blight’s snack to rise from the dead. I think the real answer is inconsistent writing.
The undead turning the living with tooth and claw is hardly an idea created by George Romero or, going back much farther, Brahm Stoker. The idea of the angry dead popping from the grave, killing the living and having their victims join them in nightly murder sprees is probably a trope as old as story telling.
It frankly struck me as odd that the Val’Kyr were necessary for Forsaken reproduction. I’d just assumed there was some other method. Probably not just nom noming people since if that were the case any Forsaken adventurer would cause an outbreak everytime they used cannibalize but, something.
There was, but the Val’kyr were able to produce undead with some level of intelligence, even after they lost majority of their power from switching to Sylvanas instead of Bolvar.
Unless you were someone like Kel’thuzad or a really powerful necromancer with time and patience (like say a powerful banshee performing a complex ritual to turn a paladin into a death knight), the best you could raise was a ghoul.
Having them also being risen with free will was also a major factor. While undead do go into a mindless frenzy when first risen (the actual frenzy is different for each person), they do calm down in time.
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In lore forsaken do not spread the plague, unlike the scourge. I do not know if blizzard ever went into why.