Like, if they did something that goes totally against what they believe in, or if they perform an action that they do not believe is morally justified, will the light leave them like it can for other Paladins/Priests or are they basically Light batteries that are so fueled by the Light’s power that they can never be rejected by it?
Maybe, since Light based powers are based on faith. The easy way around this is to simply believe everything they do is morally justified.
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If you soulbind with draven does your light explosion occur before or after stone form shatter?
So the utilization of Holy Light is a little different for paladins and priests versus Lightforged.
Basically, the paladin and the priest are conduits of the Light. Their faith/will power is the key they use to access the “realm” of Light. With faith, or willpower, they can bring the Light to heal or attack, but always being conduits.
The Lightforged is different: They are “possessed”/“incarnated” by the Light. Basically their body remakes itself, the Light is now part of their system like blood and bones. Light even transforms the way the universe is felt. He thinks as if he were a sacred spirit within a being, always guiding him along the path of what is right in his view.
In this case, it is not very possible for a Lightforged to “lose” the Light, as it is now part of it.
We can compare it with the Void Elves, which are another group that has been modified in a profound way by magic, or the Ethereals, with the same situation.
It is not possible to make them “lose” their powers and spells as they are part of who they are now.
For a Lightforged to lose the Light, for what we have lore of them so far, just killing them. It is not necessary, for them, an almost fanatical faith in the Light, because they have the Light living within them, it is something intimate, and therefore, much easier and more powerful for them to access this power.
In a common case, for a paladin or common priests, to be more powerful with the Light requires greater faith. The more faith, the more power, as more Light energy is possible to lead from the “realm” of Light to the material world.
As for Lightforged, it doesn’t work that way, as they have the Light within them, so extreme faith in the Light is not required. An example of this is Lothraxion, who is a “sensible” being and not fanatical, and yet a powerful user of the Light after being Forged by It (it is worth mentioning that, if he is indeed a double agent as some theories suggest, still reinforces the fact that a Lightforged does not need great faith to be powerful with the Light, for the Light is within him).
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That makes me wonder if they still retain their free will.
We see them thinking as individuals, but are they capable of “Disobeying” the Light’s guidance if it’s so deep within their being that it changes their “Self”?
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So yes and no.
Lightforged are different from Lightbound, and that difference is clear in the name and actions.
A Lightforged still retains their free will, but yes, their notion of the world has changed. But he doesn’t become an obedient soldier forever, and he can disobey orders even from beings of pure Light. An example of this is Turalyon and Lothraxion, who when Xe’ra decides to execute Alleria, put themselves in front of the elf to protect her. They, in a way, went against a decision of a Prime Naaru, a being with the deepest connection to the Light that exists in the material universe.
The Lightbound, they no longer have free will. They are literally almost possessed by the Light, or by the Naaru who controls that power. Those who believe fanatically are left “free” and others are forced through brainwashing. The example of this is Yrel and the draenei and orcs of the alternate Draenor.
We have little information yet, but as far as we know, this is due to the ritual of transformation by the Light. While a Lightforged goes through a ritual of its own, where he finds himself on a path of Holy Light, facing his fears and nightmares and allowing his faith to be superior to everything else (Lightforged’s initial scenario), the Lightbound on the other hand are literally controlled by the Light, there is no ritual of its own or anything, there is only a power forcing its will against the mind of one or more individuals.
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That’s a good question.
if the Light were authoritarian I could see it being a thing like the Light would 'punish" anyone who disobey’s the light through a shock of pain or something. If you make a morally bad decision you get zapped like electroshock.
But I think it’s far more benign. if you don’t follow the Light’s guidance The Light will simply refuse to answer your call when you call for it and your powers would slowly diminish over time the more you made bad decisions. (but that doesn’t explain why some bad people like Sally Whitemane and the members of the Scarlet Crusade still are able to call the Light)
I was under the understanding that the method that the Scarlet Crusade (And all other playable races besides Lightforged) simply had to believe that everything they were doing was either totally justified or some form of “For the greater good” for the Light to be called upon.
For Lightforged, I believe it’s totally different since it’s like their blood has been replaced by pure Light energy or something. (Or the magical equivalent)
It also calls into question things like: Will a Lightforged harm undead/Forsaken simply by touching them even if they don’t consciously will that to happen?
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I would hope it would boil down to the nature of the forsaken/undead. There’s some morally upstanding Forsaken like Alonsus Foal who are still able to channel the Light. Turalyon was able to stand near Alonsus without killing him, so I don’t think the Light harms undead as much anymore as it used to in vanilla lore.
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Probably. Since they’re infused with light magic. Their very presence is probably very uncomfortable for an undead/forsaken.
I imagine just being around the undead would cause them pain depending on how strong willed a particular undead is
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I do not think so. Perhaps the Light itself still hurts Undead, but just the touch of a Lightforged wouldn’t do that.
What we’ve been shown is that touching between a Lightforged and a Void elf (when the elf is in full-body Void form) can hurt both, but it hurts Lightforged more. Turalyon was greatly injured by touching Alleria after her transformation, when she transported them through a Void Rift.
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IIRC the Undead can/still do have faith enough to summon the Light but the act of doing so is incredibly uncomfortable because the Light causes them to feel the state of their undeath. (ie: They can feel their body in decay, the maggots in their skin and smell the rot of their own flesh etc.) so it’s a wholly awful experience and many choose not to pursue their pre-death faith. There are of course outliers like Alonsus (like Mith mentioned) as well as Sir Zeliek to name a couple, but I’m unsure if that has been softly retconned or not with recent events with Calia.
I don’t believe that just by being near them it would cause much discomfort, as I interpreted it being more so if they summoned the Light themselves, as the nature of summoning the Light causes it to ‘flow’ through you, but that’s mostly just me making assumptions with the information we have.
Conversely with Alleria and Turalyon, where Light and Void are in direct opposition of each other as cosmic forces, them touching in any capacity is pretty volatile.
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I wonder if they are even able to be in close contact with one another and if they are, what a child of pure Light and pure Void would actually be like since just the close proximity of these two primal forces was enough to rip a hole in the universe. At a very core particle level are Light and Void trying to kill eachother?
Maybe that’s the root cause of the pain Turalyon experiences, like the Void is trying to wage war on his very existence on a molucular level?
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They manage to have contact when Alleria is not in her Void Form. In Shadows Rising, Alleria is nearly falling off her horse in her sleep, and Turalyon catches her. Other times, Turalyon holds her when she is very angry (it seems that anger helps her “lose” some of the Void’s control).
Now, when she’s in total void form, I don’t think it’s possible to touch the two.
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I questioned this pretty heavily as well, and I’m not sure we’ll get too much clarification anytime soon unfortunately. I suspect if we ever get a Light/Void themed expansion they may explore it more but other than that I think they are banished to stand around in Stormwind for the next few years leaving the rest of us wondering.
If I’m being honest, I feel like Blizzard’s choice to create races/characters that were completely imbued with the essence of a specific primal force was a bit of a doofy move story-wise. Giving both of the ‘ultra infused’ races to the Alliance was even doofier. But I suppose that’s a gripe for another time! File it under the ‘weird lore’ dossier under the ‘wuh?’ section.
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I think the only reason why they did that is because at some point we are going to have a Light vs Void expansion and they may actuall split the playbase not by faction but based on Light and Void affiliations. and they needed more void aligned Alliance races to even the playing field.
Horde are pretty Void coded and the Alliance are pretty Light coded with only the Tauren and BE’s being Light aligned (yes I know the BE were previously fel aligned but the Sunwell was blessed by Velen and a Naaru and we are Light now) and the VE and Dark Iron being Void aligned for the Alliance set s it up nicely for a future split.
Alleria and her void powers accidentally attacking the Sunwell was the first sign of a future conflict. We might see our favorite disfunctional married couple on different sides of a cosmic war.
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When they die, the light immediately leaves their body, but otherwise not really? Don’t recall any example of a Lightforged losing the light.
I think the reason is a little simpler than this: They launched these races for the small success that Turalyon and Alleria had in Legion. Basically, it’s a way to play with someone like Turalyon and someone like Alleria.
I remember a lot of people commenting on how cool the Lightforged idea was, like intergalactic spartans and stuff. Just as they spoke well of Alleria giving new meaning to the Void.
So Blizzard rushed to release something that could catch players, which didn’t work out too well, although I really like Lightforged.
Not to mention Nathrezim Death Magic fills the Undead and we know how the Light treats Denathrius’s Death Magic: As a taint to be purged.
The Death Magic of the Legion is Nathrezim tainted regardless of Color: Death Magic of Gul’dan & his Death Knights(Purple), Death Magic of Ogres in Exile’s Reach(Green), Death Magic of the Scourge, the Death Magic of the Mawsworn(Rainbow-Black) the Death Magic of the Nathrezim will always be hurt by the Light for daring to spy on it’s Realm.
The Death Magic of the Primus and the Death Magic of the Archon are both treated much better by the Light of the Ember Ward. The Kyrian are filled with rage against Denathrius’s Loyalists while the Loyalist Maldraxxi aren’t affected by walking in it at all!
Hello I am a death knight.
We were originally comprised exclusively of fallen paladins before a dev wanted gnome death knights cause “so fahnny”