I can use the same argument with the Forsaken Paladin requests.
Forsaken Priests are cannonistically Shadow Priests. For game play reasons, they have two other specs that they can use.
In old lore, they couldn’t be a thing because Paladins and Priest work very differently. In one (priest), you are channeling the Holy Light. A Forsaken Paladin was not a Forsaken Paladin: they were being forced to use the Light. It was painful. And they had to have a strong will to withstand it.
Paladins are infused with the Light.
Two different concepts.
This is literally the same argument for warlocks and DH. DH are consumed by the Fel. Warlocks aren’t.
However, Caliah happened. So it sort of kind of feels like they might be able to add them…
It would really depend on where they are going with her as far as Forsaken Paladin goes.
Calia being added is new lore that was built up ever since.
The only new Lore that Warlocks get is… An OOC mission where everyone dies but the Lightforged who didn’t commit to being a Warlock during it. Mag’har don’t show up at all.
Calia being added in isn’t the same thing as that, nor did her sudden appearance come with Forsaken Paladins out of nowhere. If they do get added in, then it won’t be a surprise because the foundation is already there. No such foundation exists for Lightforged Draenei or Mag’har.
Personally I think if they fell they need to go this route: there’s needs to be some sort of explanation for all of them. But for long time races, there does need to be some sort of in game explanation.
Not some filler text. Bring back class quests I reckon.
Blizzard is just trying to get this out of the way with as little effort as possible. Which is why they just shoved Mag’har on the unlock despite not even being in the Quest and… Whatever that was that they did with the Lightforged with goes against everything we know about Lightforged and their lore.
If Blizzard still cared then they would have at least gave these two races their own quest chains to explain why Warlocks are suddenly a thing in them when they have every reason to despise it.
What gets me is that Blizzard has the hooks already.
We know Lightforged Demons exist and work alongside the Lightforged as allies. That was great storytelling potential.
They could easily have had desperate Mag’har find the Notes of Gul’dan and turned to the Dark Arts in the losing war against Yrel. Now they’re being taught how to control their power by their Green Orc cousins.
Instead, we got… That garbage Warlock quest with weak, lore contradicting reasons or no shows.
Nobody is “born” a Lightforged Draenei. They literally go through a ritual to (further) infuse themselves with the powers of the Light.
Realistically, they would be better off removed “Lightforged Draenei” as a race, and simply making those cosmetic options (only accessible to appropriate classes) for the core Draenei.
Lightforged Draenei, Void Elves, and Undead are fairly unique races that do have particularly unique physiology that actually would physically bar them from becoming certain classes.
I’m also at a point in which I feel they need to have class starting zones or something- maybe in the rebrand (cause I feel like one is coming somehow).
The Lightforged Draenei and Void Elves literally go over this in their unlock quests and again in their character-creation videos.
The Undead have a LONG history in Warcraft lore, and the details of how Undeath reacts with other forms of magic are fairly well documented. Paladins literally cannot become undead, because their bodies are infused with the power of the Light, in a way wholly unique from Priests. This was a major point in the story of WC3 and all Scourge-oriented storylines.
And before someone pulls out the “Sir Zeliek in Naxx” card, just note that he also expressly contradicted the lore. Which is why, when the “new Four Horsemen” were created, they essentially did a soft retcon with Whitemane taking Zeliek’s place, very clearly not wielding the Light anymore.
I don’t recall anything from the Lightforged or Void Elf unlock quest chains that specifically mention that they’re barred from being certain classes due to lore-based physical limitations. What was the quest/NPC text that said that?
I played WC3 and I don’t remember a mention that Paladins were unable to become undead, or that the Light that Paladins use was somehow different that the Light that Priests use. Where was that mentioned specifically?
There are restrictions that don’t need to be specifically mentioned because they go against the whole context and are not supposed to happen. No one ever told me not to commit cannibalism.
I mean, if you’re going to tell someone that something is impossible and could never happen, context is important. If someone told you that it was physically impossible for you to be a cannibal it would be a whole different ball of wax from “you shouldn’t be a cannibal because it’s wrong”.
Just because it doesn’t make sense in your head from what you assume is the lore doesn’t mean that it’s factual and is how Blizzard interprets the lore that they wrote.
It looks like your actual gripe is less that the new warlock race/class combos exist, but rather that the justification for them is currently being found lacking, and you believe that blizz could’ve done better.
