Minor quests that showed exactly what we know.
This does not happen for goblins specifically, or Blood Elves specifically, or gnomes specifically, or dwarves specifically.
We are well aware that societies are not that fond of warlocks. But to have a explanation for every single race-warlock combination is redundant. I am not sure what people expect of an explanation with a draenei-warlock combo, that has not already been told. Civil society does not like them… but they are tolerated on the field of battle.
We know, the story is told… there is no need to repeat it.
Why would someone choose to be a warlock? Well, WoW is allegedly a RPG, you make your own character and your own character’s story, that is up to you to figure out why your character went that route.
I did consider it. But thought it irrelevant due to it being extremely shortlived up until a quest completion. After that there is no mention of it, you are just another civilian as far as the game is concerned.
My biggest gripe is not so much with class storytelling. It is that people demand a whole essay written on specific race-class combos. It is absolutely redundant. It is stories already told, and we do not need them repeated over and over again.
The only time we would probably need further explanation, is if something was actually said to be physically, biologically impossible. Not even for Lightforged practicing fel would be impossible. I have not seen any evidence of that personally.
It seems ironic for anyone to suggest this somehow makes your choice of race more relevant, because it literally does the exact opposite. It boils your race down to ONLY their appearance, because their culture is rendered completely meaningless.
Lightforged Warlocks are still another problem altogether. Same thing with Void Elf and Undead Paladins, god forbid Blizzard is dumb enough to try to add those, although this is such a monumentally glaring oversight already, I really have no faith.
Mechanically saying ‘they just can’t’ is just lazy. There’s still going to be a strong consideration of what race a player would want to play, but it’ll be based on their preferences and the story they want to tell instead of being decided for them by forces beyond their control.
Again, the culture of the race is still important, and will still be involved in the player’s decision-making unless they’re looking for optimization, and even then the restrictions don’t stop that either.
Opening all races to all classes does not result in the opposit, but I do agree that it also does not make a race more relevant.
What it does is increasing the fact, that our characters are oddities in the story, we are adventurers. We do what the footmen and grunts, the average Joes, do not do. That is the entire point of our characters in the story.
If races somehow become less relevant, it is not due to player draenei or tauren being able to be warlocks.
It is that blizzard forgets that we do have different cultural norms, and have to put on a quest to somehow justify warlocks being acceptable within that cultural norm, despite us already knowing they are not.
Also, blizzard forgets that there are cultural norms and racial differences already… so that worry is absolutely redundant.
Every race is a human with different physical features.
How different is a warlock from a Shadow Priest anyway? We’ve seen lots of draenei practicing dark magic over the years. Hell, we saw a bunch of them in TBC in Auchenai Crypts and the like.
It’s not exactly the ‘expected’ race/class combination, but it’s not unheard of in the lore. If humans, orcs, etc. can be warlocks without succumbing to evil and corruption, then so can draenei.
Race/Class restrictions were fun in Classic when it gave each race a particular flavor and recognizable range of skills, but in the modern game with like 24 races and 13 classes, it’s a little silly to restrict some of the races to only ~half the classes.
All this is to say…give me worgen shaman, gosh darn it.
I would not want to see lightforged be locks, but don’t see a problem with regular draeneis. Your demon is basically your slave to do your bidding. You can even force it to kill other deomons. Demons and locks are generally not best friends.
Since you were so kind to ask, I put together some points. For the example’s sake, imagine this is happening early in BFA.
At Stormwind Keep, you get a missive from Velen. The prophet commends your contributions to the war with the Legion and the Argus campaign, and asks for your presence in a meeting that is very important.
I could make the player travel all the way to the Exodar for this, but instead I’d place it in that balcony where Khadgar spoke to the player after the battle at the Broken Shore, or possibly in that room no one uses in Dalaran.
Here, we walk in as Velen is talking to a group of eredar. Several draenei guards are around them. The speaker or leader of these eredar is introduced as Summoner Sahryaa, and is trying to explain her position to Velen as the player walks in.
This is how we learn that the eredar that survived the war with the Legion have been leaderless without Kil’Jaeden or Sargeras himself. They are asking for a truce with the draenei.
Velen is trying to convince these Eredar to give up their ways wholesale and embrace the light. Sahryaa says her people are not willing to go that far, saying her people are more than willing to pull their weight using the abilities they’ve honed over the centuries.
Velen eventually relents, willing to show clemency to what adds up to a group in need. He does state that he will be keeping an eye on them. The moment she and her warlocks step out of line will be the moment they get cut down.
Speaking to Sahryaa will have her tell the player that it will take time for her and her cohorts to earn the trust of those the Legion has persecuted for millennia, but that there is always a first step that must be taken. She will also mention a vow she made to Velen that while others are welcome to learn her people’s ways, she will not force anyone into it.
Fast forward a bit, where you’d see one or two of these eredar warlocks fighting on the side of the Alliance. One as a champion for the mission table, the other being present in the set up for the Battle of Dazar’alor. I’d place the second either to die alongside Blademaster Telaamon or as a mini/raid boss inside the raid itself.
Taking the time gap between BFA and Dragonflight into account, enough time would have passed that Draenei warlocks would be possible by the time DF takes place, and you’d have some lore to back it up.
If we want to give the art team some additional work, make lightforged-exclusive light/holy demons for them to summon.
It’s not perfect by any means, would need some rewrites and dialogue, but the general idea is that you’d have at least a foundation for draenei warlocks. Hell, assuming this had been done during BFA, we probably would have seen some people asking for playable draenei warlocks. Just like people asked for draenei rogues after the rangari were introduced or tauren rogues after Cataclysm because of those Grimtotem rogues.
But to have a explanation for every single race-warlock combination is redundant.
It isn’t redundant when you have a considerable cultural barrier around it. Again, I’ll point to night elf mages in Cataclysm. There would have been major issues if Blizzard hadn’t planted that mage from Dire Maul in Darnassus during Wrath of the Lich King and had just added night elf mages for no reason.
Very. Warlocks are essentially mages that seek to empower themselves at all costs and very widely use fel magic. Shadow priests vary depending on the religion of the practitioner. Trolls are voodoo witch doctors, Forsaken follow the cult of forgotten shadows, Draenei are soul priests, etc etc. Priest is one of the most lore diverse classes so their abilities are usually just gameplay representations rather than lore accurate (Otherwise we’d be led to believe stuff like no night elf priests follow Elune because there is no specific Elune ability for priests.)
The argument has never been if Draenei can use dark magic, but whether or not they would accept dark users. Auchenai soul priests do exist but the reason they’re almost all hostile is because they started practicing necromancy. We’re essentially tasked to kill them because they use evil magic
Good news, Xe’ra is dead and has no say in who joins the army of light anymore.
None of them expressed so much as a “We’ll be watching you.” when I rolled up to help them on my Warlock. So clearly, they don’t mind as long as we’re on their side.
They all witnessed the fact that fel power was instrumental in the victory against the Legion. So even if they had issues previously, they probably don’t now. Attitudes evolve.
Can someone explain to me why this is such a huge problem? I’m just not following. There’s nothing lorewise that prevents any Eredar from becoming a warlock. Culturally, sure - Draenei generally don’t, but cultures evolve over time. Night Elf mages are already a thing, why are Draenei warlocks considered a bridge too far?
Their active Racial isn’t even based on a connection to The Light. It’s them calling in an air strike from the Vindicaar, they really only have one thing that’s fully based on being Lightforged, and that’s that they explode when they die. The rest is their standard gear, and the mentality from fighting demons forever.
You’re assuming the lightforged all went and said “screw X’era and all her beliefs, we’ll just do whatever”.
Taking this back to my prior post, what should be happening now is a quest to explain some sort of development (even if it’s too late for it, reconciliation between the mannari eredar and the draenei would still be the best way to go about it), then hold off on draenei warlocks until the next expansion, at the earliest. To reiterate something I said earlier, you need events to cause the change and enough time for the ideas and change to take root.
Cultures evolve over the course of generations. Changes also occur in instances of duress and great threats. Again, because people keep ignoring this point, night elf mages became a thing because the highborne of Dire Maul foresaw the Cataclysm. The Cataclysm is what led to the Kal’dorei of Darnassus letting the highborne back in. Put in simple terms, a great threat is what caused a significant change in night elf society. It wasn’t like Tyrande got up one morning and said “you know, enough time has passed since the higborne almost destroyed the world, so I think we should just let if be water under the bridge and join hands with them”. Likewise, Blizzard didn’t just make night elf mages a thing in a content patch out of the blue.
