I don’t think raising fallen warriors as Ligthbound Undead is a bad idea, actually. I understand the Priory people were using it for bad reasons but as a concept itself, I think it’s actually a pretty good idea that Paladin and Priest orders should embrace.
Nathan Hale once said: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Becoming a Lightbound Undead gives defenders of the holy Light a second chance to defend everything they love, and lets them keep fighting against the forces of darkness.
If they consent to it, and keep their free will after, I see no reason why sacred orders shouldn’t embrace Lightbound Necromancy as a valid practice.
It isn’t any worse than traditional necromancy with the Forsaken (and I’d say it’s a better deal). That is of course if it is fully no strings attached, and I don’t think most light worshipping societies are going to light infuse Uncle Bob’s corpse just because they miss him.
Outside of Alonsus Faol, I think this is likely going to remain almost wholly in the realm of the Zealot. If it was just that easy and morally fine to bring people back like that, I think you’d see more instances of it happening.
I don’t think any significant amount of folks here have any real opposition to light necromancy as a field in general, but everyone does hate Calia because she has become a center character for the Forsaken and is antithetical to them on a number of levels that just so happens to be a light undead and was one of the worst decisions made. Since she was the only example until recently, the distaste formed purely based on her.
'Cause we’ve had other ‘necromancies’ before. Demons always went back to the Twisting Nether, Wild Gods the dream (Ardenweald now I suppose), and would come back after X amount of time. They died, but were brought back in some way.
I do think folks would want some sort of uniqueness to it however. It shouldn’t just be traditionally necromancy but shiny. Let the Forsaken and proper undeath retain that skill and aesthetic. Give it something unique. I would say make them more like 40K living saints, but thats basically Wild Gods now so IDK how well duplicating that will go. Nature necromancy wise, something like Skyrim’s Briarhearts could be fun.
As Waygs said too, light undead would probably be only reserved for the truly blindly zealous. Most orders I assume would prefer if their honored dead stay dead and be revered as martyrs and champions, much as they are now.
If you want to make a plot point out of filling a body with so much light that it gets up and starts walking around, fine. But don’t try to make them zombies. Do something else with it. Make them walk in a rigid, automaton-like manner. Make them float above the ground. Make them do something other than just be yellow zombies.
I think actual Necromancy with anything other than Death is stupid. Possessing a corpse with a demon soul, or piloting a corpse with spores is one thing, but the realm of Death, where dead souls go when they die, should be the sole gateway to tethering a mortal soul to a dead body.
I feel like if they had made Lightbound Undead as a separate Allied Race with Calia as the leader it would’ve gone over much better with the playerbase than the actual implementation.
Calia works a lot better if you view her less as “the new undead leader” and more as “the Alliance ambassador.” Lilian Voss just straight up said “yeah she’s here cuz alliance like her” lmao.
Also, Akkaman, I have to say: the idea of a Lightforged Undead allied race is totally metal. Glowing zombies powered by holy fire? Man are you kidding me, it’s incredible. You could bring back Lothraxion to fill in the role Varimathras had in classic. A somewhat silly but really cool twist on Undead.
Blizzard has a fondness for that particular model, which was previously used in Arathi in the conclusion to a quest series and as one of the lesser bosses in Karazhan. And in abundance in that Titan complex in Dragonflight.
If i’m being honest, having other sources of power being able to apply necromancy within their own themes is something I like conceptually in a vacuum.
SL got a lot of things wrong, but showing different aspects of death was really cool.
Calia, however, wasn’t. I feel like if Blizzard is hellbent on having all (or at least most of) cosmic forces being able to wield necromancy, at least have that Death is the most proficient at it, can more efficiently raise the dead and have their undead be the strongest since its their whole shtick.
Well, in Warcraft lore there’s “Death, the powerful primordial source of magic” and “death, the concept of life ending.” Two different kinds of death that are connected but distinct.
Calia’s only asset is that she’s pretty. She can’t fight like an Abomination, nor cast spells like a lich, nor evoke the infamous BOOOOOONNNNNEEEESTORM!