Tauren had the Sunwalkers as their in-game explanation for Paladins, and Zandalari had that Sun Loa. It was a little silly but I respected that the writers created a plausible in-universe explanation that also fit with the aesthetic and tone of the races they were adding to.
I don’t think we ever got anything like that for Lightforged Warlocks (which I hate.) If we did I can’t imagine it was very believable. But I always appreciate it more when they at least explain why we have an odd class/race combo instead of just shrugging.
There was a narrative to explain Lightforged warlocks, or at least one of them, but it was a warlock-specific quest line. Whether or not it accomplished that task is a separate matter, but the devs did at least try.
I don’t remember that. Was it the Darkmoon Faire one with all the different warlocks who give their own backstories? I’ve completely forgotten if so.
EDIT: I just looked it up and I think I remember him. The Dreanei guy you get the quests from. Interesting… except the problem is, the quest doesn’t explain how Lightforged Dreanei are able to exist. It just says that he chose Light and Fel together with no explanation of how or why that’s possible. Unless I missed something.
Not a very good way to explain it in any case. The right way to explain it would be having a Lightforged Warlock trainer in a major city who gives a detailed explanation if asked.
Can’t Light and fel be wielded at the same time? They aren’t polar opposites like the Light and Void.
Also, I would argue with Lightforged they are infused with Light, but for warlocks they wield fel magic. Nothing stops them from using fel magic. Now if they started drinking demon blood and infusing themselves with fel magic there might be a problem, but just wielding fel magic I would imagine they could? Maybe…
I don’t think it’s ever been impossible to mix Light and Fel, at least with the current lore. It’s just extremely volatile. Case in point - Maiden of Vigilance in the ToS raid back in Legion. It’s possible, but with erratic and destructive results.
It’s not impossible to wield Light and Void, Discipline Priest have been doing that for years. It’s just an extremely volatile mixture that requires incredible willpower to maintain the balance.
I kind of like the idea of a Lightforged Draenei being arrogant enough to BELIEVE the Lightforging process makes them immune to the corrupting effects of Fel. Whether that’s true or not would be an interesting story line to see should Blizzard ever decide to revisit Initiate Oman.
In fact the Twilight school of magic is light (holy) and void (shadow) mixed. Atm only a few npc’s do twilight damage, most nobility is Anduin in his encounter in SotFO’s. With the following abilities doing Twilight Damage
Befouled Barrier
Wicked Star
Blasphemy
Hopelessness (only the big explosion if you fail to cleanse the debuff)
Priests used to have a pvp talent that did twilight damage but it got removed in Shadowlands.
Weirdly enough, twilight dragons do not do twilight damage, all of their twilight themed abilities do shadow damage. -_-
no one really threw fits when creatures ostensibly associated with one form of magic or cosmic energy or w/e used different magics before. why was it any less absurd to think of demons using shadow magic or fire magic than holy magic? the devs never codified in hard-and-fast rules, barring any contradiction, that demons using the light was an impossibility, or that holy creatures absolutely could not use fel.
In Warcraft 3, the “Holy Light” ability did damage to undead and demons, and couldn’t be used to heal them. The strong implication was that Light magic was directly opposed/incompatible with fel and death magic. With that fact out there, just casually saying “you can use both because they’re not opposites” doesn’t make very much sense. I even said in another thread that be able to use Light and Void together actually makes more sense, since they both directly need each other to exist. They have an opposing but symbiotic relationship in that regard.
To make Lightforged Warlocks believable, you have to give some kind of explanation on how two opposing forces that have otherwise been shown to be incompatible can now be used at the same time in the same being. Like if you’re mixing water and oil, you need a third agent to bind them so they don’t automatically separate.
There’s another issue that’s totally unrelated to narrative: Lightforged Warlocks look bad. Two clashing aesthetics – lethal poisonous green and radiant, lively yellow – that don’t look good together. You have to be very careful with character creation and transmog to make something that doesn’t look bad.