Fun fact in Warlords there’s a Dwarf Death Knight that loved getting drunk and he was in the main city there to be recruited on the Alliance side. The fact that he is a DK and can drink and get inebriated means he’s as “alive” as an undead can be. There’s also instanced death knights being able to sleep and doing so allows them to feel more alive, and while they don’t need to it helps maintain their sanity.
DKs are the best form of playable undead followed by Darkfallen elves, and then Forsaken. I wish we had more types of undead that we could play or more stages of rot and in the case of the Forsaken more preserved forms.
Wasn’t it canon in Warcraft 3 that not all the Death Knights were actually undead? I know that word of god was that Arthas was still alive until he cut his heart out after his book ended.
I remember hearing that Arthas simply wandered north in the cold after he had no men left, losing his last sanity and being consumed by the blade. At some point he simply crossed over into being an undead and no longer human, he wasn’t ever just raised. This is what I remember sometime around Burning Crusade but it was a decade ago.
This could’ve provided an explanation for how DKs are different than slave undeads but in the end they were raised too so whatever, undeath lore lol
As I understand it, according to one of the devs after his book came out, Arthas was still technically alive until he removed his heart. It’s just that necromancy has the effect of making the body and soul of the user become closer to undeath, hench why necromancers look partially like corpses.
I remember this. After seeing this Dwark DK I was basically under the impression that Death Knights are the closest thing to being alive an undead can be. They are effectively like vampires; undead but can pass for living and don’t rot, can function like a normal mortal, etc.
Whereas the Forsaken are your typical zombies. And god knows what the Darkfallen are, they are just their own special kind of undead despite not being raised by any different means than the Forsaken were. My guess is maybe undeath works different when it comes to elves?
Yes, I think this is one of those few mysteries we have left that we can enjoy in the game. It’s all magic and hand-wavey, as it should be. I think that’s my biggest complaint about Shadowlands, in that it explicitly explained the mechanics of the afterlife. I feel that death should have remained something of a mystery for the setting. Hopefully Undeath remains incompletely explained so that we can continue to have fun with it.
I think the difference between undead is fascinating. Also a reminder that the original dks were simply souls reanimating other peoples corpses. I think we can consider most undead to be the same, though in the case of the current undead around, it is their own soul reshackled onto their own body. I imagine the same power that keeps their soul connected to their body does something similar with connecting their body to itself. Holding it all together with death magic. Ironically lightforging seems to work in the same way… recreating a body with light and binding the soul to it. We also see a similar process with the draenei/manari with their vigilants.
Essentially what im saying is the soulbinding process equally effects the body as it does the soul, it binds everything together.
Same with Mogu who bind their souls to new bodies made of stone. Basically cheating death and also the curse of flesh. They just recreate their bodies and keep on going.
The Forsaken, far as I can tell, don’t contend with active decay. Only one Ask The Devs interview suggested as such. But I do like the idea of them being reworked into a different species.
Like if you raised a group of new standard undead PC races in the middle of nowhere and left them to develop as basically undead caveman they’d come off like this;
I think that sort of mutant creature should be the base-line Forsaken. But for creativity’s sake I’d also say you have a fair bit of rotting corpses who have to Doctor Frankenstein’s monster themselves to continue.
And for the Darkfallen I’d just go with the San’Layn. They’re vamps who can walk in the sun but must feed on humanoid blood. If they don’t they gradually turn into Nosferatu esque creatures, and eventually Gargoyles, who are very vulnerable to Holy, Fel or Water magic.
In terms of Undead it is relatively easy to understand the differences and how it likely works you just have to understand where the principal basis of there return to life came from.
The First Type of Undead - those from Death (Decay)
Forsaken likely have a connection with Death (Decay) this is why they have the rotting/decaying appearance and Death (Decay) being the opposite of Life recovers and gets stronger by feeding off Life, hence the Cannibalize ability when they feed on living flesh they recover health/regenerate. In addition when Forsaken died originally they didn’t go to ‘Shadowlands’ they went to somewhere else that was bleak, empty and felt lost unconnected. It is more than likely that they are ending up lost between the realms of life and death as the realm of decay is isolated and disconnected from Azeroth there spirit is unable to return to its true home of Death (Decay).
The Second Type of Undead - those from Shadowlands which is Death powered through Life (Spirit)
Most of these undead appear without the aspect of decay or rotting in their appearance such as seen with Death Knights or DarkFallen. As there death and rebirth is controlled as an aspect of Life(Spirit) they maintain a more life like appearance and do not rot or decay as seen with those who are connected with Death(Decay). These types of undead don’t regenerate if they feed off flesh of the living like the Forsaken for example, instead they draw on the aspect of anima(souls) which is powered through Life (Spirit) to use various regenerative or empowering abilities.
It is important to understand that with all this being said these undead actually can be different and essentially a kind of subspecies. This is attributed to the fact that although they all are bought back empowered through Shadowlands as an aspect of Life (Spirit) they are each slightly different and this is attributed to what actual zone within Shadowlands their connection is strongest. So taking Darkfallen Elves and Death Knights it is easily understandable that Death Knights are primarily connected with Maldraxxos, on the other hand Darkfallen Elves while many might think Ardenweald it is actually more likely Revendreth due to their clear disconnect and disassociation with Night Elves views on death etc.
The Third Type of Undead - those from other cosmic forces or empowered back to life by other forces.
This is a form of Undead whose souls were prevented from taking the normal pathway through the realms between Life and Death that they would normally take. Instead their souls are initially held in a type of statis that is between the realms a kind of Limbo if like. While in this state of Limbo between realms they can be influenced or corrupted if you like by other forces. If an external cosmic force floods this spirit it manipulates and changes the core aspect of that spirit to no longer be connected to their previous realm, but instead now be connected to the realm of the force that it was flooded with cosmic power from. Once that is done when that spirit is returned to Life they reflect aspects and traits of the cosmic force the soul had been forcefully transitioned too.
This is the process that we witnessed with Calia. Initially they used a massive amount of cosmic power from the realm of light to manipulate her soul (the whole power struggle portion with the Naaru etc.). Once that phase was complete the aspect of bringing Calia back to life wasn’t anywhere near as difficult, but the effects of her changed soul was clear for all to see.
While this is something we have witnessed directly with how Calia was changed by her soul being manipulated by Light, it likely isn’t the only instance of case of this especially with respect to the other cosmic forces. One thing that you should have paid attention too as it has very large and cosmic ramifications with this understanding of undead empowered by other forces. Remember the information from the brokers in shadowlands, that mortal souls where actually a form of highly prized and sort after currency. These souls were freely traded to be taken and used in other cosmic realms, not Shadowlands by those who acquired them. They could be freely taken anywhere in the cosmos and used for any purpose they wanted, all without the consent or ability of the soul to prevent it from happening. A very dark form of cosmic forced slavery through control of someones soul if you life…very very dark concept if you think about it
The Fourth and Last Type of Undead - Those that are magically reanimated dead with no soul.
This is the final type and are undead that are nothing but corpses, fleshcrafted bodies or golems etc. who have been magically reanimated through the use of magical or cosmic powers. The process by which these are bought back to undeath means they are bought back without the attachment of a soul and because of this they are generally either mindless thralls that can be controlled and used; or in some rare cases they may retain some very crude levels of intelligence which allows them to be programmed to perform certain duties or have a very limited vocabulary etc.
This is what is the basis of the Scourge and the other various forms of mindless undead that you’ve seen.
Necromancy is not this uncommon unnatural thing that mortals think it is. Margraive Sindane was quite clear when she explained to calia that her being undead powered by the light isn’t weird or strange at all because every cosmic power can perform necromancy. So there are a multitude of types of undead we haven’t ever seen
I really would have liked Shadowlands to explain the different types of undead in Azeroth, however they only left more doubts like those pointed out by the Margrave that there is necromancy of all cosmic forces, therefore, there is necromancy of Life, which has ZEROOOOOOOOOO sense.
Maybe in The War Within they will explain the relationship between Decay and Undead.
He’s got a new body now, so maybe he’ll take better care of it. As I recall archery gloves were one of the first quest rewards I got on this character back in Aldrassil. back in the days when starting hunters wore leather.
