It is continued passive exposure in some cases.
Frostwolves and Blood Elves both suffered from continued fel radiation exposure and was physically changed as a result thereof. I imagine time has a thing to do with it.
But
It is largely inconsistency. Many High Elves in Allerian Outpost in Outland should be having green eyes, but they do not - because blizzard is inconsistent with their lore. We also know why some Blood Elves take on more demonic forms, and that is because they actually actively consume fel, unlike the vast majority of Blood Elves. They either consume hefty amounts of fel energy which transforms them to something more demonic, or they drink demon blood.
Green skin and green eyes are simply from a long exposure to fel radiation.
But as said.
Blizzard is also very… VERY inconsistent with their own lore.
Well, I don’t think it is canon, but this is my own speculation:
Originally, we started in the respected starting zones to the race we were playing, and to where the race was from. So for example, Humans were Stormwind Humans with training in Northshire Abbey, or Dwarves were Bronzebeard Dwarves from Ironforge.
But with the changes to the starter experience with Exile Reach from the original starting zone, it also does make sense to expand upon, also to with the classes being unlocked to other races, since Exile Reach does move the story forward out of the starting zones which are locked to a certain timeline.
Though this is my own speculation, and I’m not sure whether Exile Reach is actually canon lore. But honestly, I do want to see the full lore evolve into something new, and for the story to stop being static.
The short of it is that in Warcraft 3, paladins were immune to the plague of undeath and as such could not be raised like other minions of the Scourge. Arthas and other former paladins like him were corrupted and empowered through the rune blades/the Lich King, but they weren’t walking corpses when they became death knights. The manual expressly mentions they kept their humanity (making them no different from necromancers like Kel’thuzad prior to his death).
If you want a WoW example, there is that quest in Tirisfal Glades (or was it Silverpine?) where an undead woman gives you a locket to place at her dead husband’s grave. It’s implied that the reason he avoided becoming undead like this woman was because he was a paladin.
Nope, they stopped caring a long time ago when they started forcing ideas through and making the lore make zero sense with some of their forced actions. Like for example the jailer who came out of nowhere and suddenly was behind everything bad that happened to azeroth or whatever. Nothing we can do about it though they’re going to force things even if the lore doesn’t mesh right as they think it’ll get them more subscribers and thus more money. The normal draenei will probably get eredar skins which means hey alliance getting more supposedly powerful forces in agents of the legion while Horde gets shafted. Night elf warlocks are also happening and they full on hate the legion and demons so much becoming a demon hunter is a massive taboo at one point so good luck explaining the lore on that one
Exiles reach takes place right before BFA, or right around it. The racial starting zones start in either TBC or Cata. New accounts can ONLY make a toon on exiles reach.
So in the very least no noobs will be exposed to being a Draenei warlock in the OG starting zone.
so true. its not like warlocks are inviting demons for friendship. they are literally tearing them from the twisting nether and forcing them to behave.
Since we’ve seen Tauren, Draenei, and Night Elves, and possibly Mag’har, working with the Primalists this exp I can imagine others seeking power and tossing their beliefs aside.
LFD, they failed their trial unlike T’paartos. But bitter over the loss or feeling unworthy they shunned their beliefs to gain power.
In the end, Blizz needs to add NPCs to acknowledge that a class that was hated/feared by that race is now being practiced by members of the group with the tones running from disbelief to disgust.
I know the booklet and official site in particular mention that Paladins were unable to be infected by the plague of undeath, which caused them to be outcast by peasants who didn’t believe them. They journeyed to Northrend to confront Ner’zhul, only to wind up swearing loyalty to him, becoming Death Knights.
As far as the differences between Priests and Paladins, these differences are detailed in several books. Most notably, Rise of the Lich King (pretty good if you’re into lore) and Of Blood and Honor (kind of a shorter story, but written by Metzen himself, actually a great read with some great world-building).
The Lightforged quests involve Draenei being infused by the Light. Similarly, Void Elves are touched by the Void (Alleria obviously had a much bigger showing, unsure whether she is similar or “different” from other Void Elves in that regard). We know from other lore than these types of magic don’t really play nice with certain others.
In fact, with Lightforged in particular, it’s quite odd because in many ways, they are essentially Paladins, despite being a “race” and not a “class”. Even before this “all races can be all classes” nonsense, they always felt kind of strange to be treated as an allied race. I honestly wonder if the whole concept of “Allied Races” should be scrapped and rolled into the core races, save for those couple of outliers (the cross-faction races, Vulpera, and perhaps the BFA-specific races).
There is a way I would like to see both Draenei and Lightforged get warlock gameplay mechanics, and that is through class skins.
Legion gave us the perfect template, if you paid attention to the story. The Augari. The Augari were arcane casters, but their practices basically formed the foundation for all the spellcraft of the Man’ari warlocks who arose from Argus’ fall. They were arcane summoners, binding arcane entities. Thal’kiel took what they did and applied it to demonic summoning, leading to his execution. They could take the warlock class, re-paint all of its spells to arcane magic, change the demons to arcane entities, and rename it to Augari, and it would be perfect.
Well “lore wise” Draenei Warlocks make perfect sense to me really because people often become what they hate and fight against - or more grimdarkishly even what hated and fought them too. As a gay guy growing up I came to realize that the guys who were all “eww a gay man” are almost always likely homosexuals themselves.
An outright war or terror from or against the Fel wouldn’t stop Draenei from being Warlocks, cold indifference would. Sooo their antagonism with the Fel just makes even more Draenei Warlocks for people to play. <3 This is assuming Fel is so opposed with the Light anyway, and that every Warlock who is a Warlock is evil because demons are evil. It just seems unnecessarily strict and conservative.
I suppose a good compromise would be have regular Draenei be Warlocks but still make it impossible for Light-forged to be one- I could get behind that change as I’m probably going to make a Draenei Warlock when they come out and not a Lightforged One, but I still err on the side of liberation and freedom choice even if it doesn’t make sense Lore-wise - as like I said in an earlier thread way back in early 2000s I didn’t understand how Undead could even cast Greater Heal without instantly obliterating themselves etc. The fact they could be ‘Shadow Priests too’ wasn’t enough.
Then Blizzard should have given us the Red Eredar as well. Easily could use them as Velen, after Legion, letting limited and controlled learning and usage of the dark arts.
Lightforged need more work to get it working and respectful of the lore.
You do know that Velen wants to redeem his race and that not all Man’ari chose this but were tricked, right? Even his archnemesis said he only served as he didn’t believe Sargeras could be stopped. The Draenei also have accepted their Red kin that surrendered in the past.
You would know this if you actually paid attention to the story and quests.
