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Ask CDev (Ask Creative Development) was a series of Q&As carried out by Blizzard’s Creative Development team who met with Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi in order to provide official answers to fan questions concerning World of Warcraft. It took…
"Can you please explain how “light” works? The lore states that undead are physically incapable of using the light, much like the Broken, but then we have Forsaken players casting healing spells, and Sir Zeliek in Naxxramas using pseudo-paladin abilities.
Without spoiling too much, we can tell you that wielding the Light is a matter of having willpower or faith in one’s own ability to do it. That’s why there are evil paladins (for example, the Scarlet Crusade and Arthas before he took up Frostmourne ). For the undead (and Forsaken ), this requires such a great deal of willpower that it is exceedingly rare, especially since it is self-destructive. When undead channel the Light, it feels (to them) as if their entire bodies are being consumed in righteous fire. Forsaken healed by the Light (whether the healer is Forsaken or not) are effectively cauterized by the effect: sure, the wound is healed, but the healing effect is cripplingly painful. Thus, Forsaken priests are beings of unwavering willpower; Forsaken (and death knight ) tanks suffer nobly when they have priest and paladin healers in the group; and Sir Zeliek REALLY hates himself."
So yes. There are in fact holy-using forsaken priests. It’s not a matter of ‘oh there’s only a tiny amount’, it’s a matter of unwavering willpower.
I don’t care about paladins in this regard, but at least get the lore right. This thread shows that people have absolutely no idea in that regard. If you’re going to make a claim, do it with a source. Otherwise, GD can agree with you all you want, but you are incorrect.
Edit: Some seem to be even wrong about paladins/light in general. There’s nothing special about being a paladin, you don’t need some certain ‘silly faith’ or whatever. So those arguing against troll or night elf paladins also make 0 sense. Because it fits in lore . The light is about willpower. That’s it. There’s no special Mary-Sue reason as to why you can use the light over others. As much as people want to be special, that simply isn’t the case. ‘Believe in yourself’. That’s it. It’s how we got Scarlets.
Putting it out there that undead CAN use the light. It just requires a high amount of willpower, so they’d be in pain. Arguably more noble, therefore, than the living using the light if they’re doing it to defend the innocent.
Edit: Also before someone pulls the ‘but it’s rare’ argument, we have playable void elves, which would be like maybe 20 in existence if we’re being realistic. Not to mention, our character is canonically the ‘hero’ on a regular basis, so being ‘exceptional’ isn’t a stretch.
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