I mean there’s no evidence of any form of democracy on this second Desolate Council. The first one had a democratic element, but as far as I can tell this one is a pure oligarchy; elite Forsaken leaders of various ‘departments’ have formed a council to lead their people forward. So I’d go as far as to say that they already are this (although the shady mfers depends on which council members you’re talking about, due to the clear diverse range of views on the council.) It’s not a democracy, it’s an oligarchy that attempts to represent a broad range of Forsaken viewpoints. Let’s have a look:
- (Disclaimer: I’m going to go through them and use the terms ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’. Please don’t yell at me, not everything relates to American elections, I’m trying to apply this to a Forsaken context. If you want to yell about Trump or Biden, do it elsewhere for Shadow’s sake.)
- (Disclaimer 2: In the Forsaken context I would argue alignment with Sylvanas-era Forsaken thinking is “conservative” and alignment with ideals of pacifism and cross-faction cooperation is “progressive”. You could argue that conservative refers to pre-Forsaken Lordaeron, but you’d be wrong and this is my post so shh
)
Calia represents the “Old Lordaeronians” more than anything. The Forsaken, like those found in “Before the Storm” who really miss what they were in life and want to reconnect with that in some way. She’s also quite pro-peace and pro-Alliance. I’d call her a “progressive” in the context of Forsaken politics for this reason.
Lillian represents, I would argue, those who don’t strictly have an ideology but simply want a home. She emphasises Forsaken unity a lot, helps people come to terms with undeath and the changes it brings, as she struggled in that space herself. She’s more willing than some to work with the Alliance, but she’s shown herself to be ruthless and efficient in opposing them if her people need her to. I’d call her a centrist.
Faranell clearly represents the Apothecaries. Their ideology is simple, really. They want to have complete creative freedom when it comes to their creations and concoctions. I’d call him centre-right, in the sense that he’s not a hardliner and seemed quite happy to work with Calia so long as his demands were met.
Belmont represents the Deathstalkers, I suppose, officially (and maybe the Deathguard as well - as best as I can tell there is no specific military boss on the council). But ideologically I’d say he represents the old guard of the Forsaken. He’s a conservative; perhaps not to the point of OPENLY supporting Sylvanas (that doesn’t seem to be allowed xD) but he’s an old Forsaken. He distrusts and opposes Calia, he doesn’t want all of this pacifist nonsense, he’s ruthless, brutal and dedicated the cause, and I suspect many Forsaken RPers love him for it. He’s the staunchly conservative Forsaken voice, representing that vanilla era of vengeance and carving a place for themselves in a hostile world, by any means necessary.
Velonara doesn’t represent an ideology so much as she represents the Darkfallen - the undead elves in service of the Forsaken. Ideologically she is harder to pick. She’s a bit outside the “left-right spectrum” of Forsaken politics in that her views appear to be closer to Lillian’s - she believed loyalty to her people was more important than loyalty to Sylvanas. So I’d call her a centrist, but only due to lack of information of her actual views. Fundamentally she just supports the Forsaken, and her own people’s continued role within them, even after Sylvanas’ defection.
So yeah. The council is only “representative” in the sense that it represents a broad range of views and perspectives. It does not have any evidence of being democratic in any way. It’s an oligarchy - government by an elite few. And frankly I’m glad of that, I don’t really want to deal with Forsaken elections lol.
