New to being this deep into the lore.
How did taking the Fel change the Orcs? From my limited understanding, Orcs were always strong and prone to raging (Barbarian style) but clans like the Frost Wolves were still more focused on family and caring for one another than fighting.
Did that change when they took the Fel Monster Energy™?
Fel changed the orcs by:
And then there’s the Pink Kryptonite…
Chugging the entire cup of Fel turns Orcs Black-Grey it seems.
Grom and Blackhand all took a swig of the Chalice of Unity and thus only went Green with Red Eyes while Kilrogg in WoD took two outright gulps of the Chalice of Unity and turned Black-Grey with Glowing Green Eyes.
Incidentally the Dire Orcs who should have undergone the same treatment as the rest of the WoD Orcs gained Red Skin suggesting that the dose should be higher to give Dire Orcs the Black-Grey Skin even if said dose does give Glowing Green Eyes.
A Swig turns Orcs Green with Glowing Red Eyes, two Swigs turns Orcs Red with Glowing Red Eyes, a Gulp turns Orcs Red with Glowing Green Eyes and two Gulps turns an Orc Black-Grey with Glowing Green Eyes it seems.
iirc, Blizzard did say that Gul’dan made ‘improvements’ to the samples of Mannoroths blood he had left.
Sean Copeland claimed that the AU ‘fel orcs’ are not true ‘fel orcs’ due to them still retaining Green skin somewhat. The tweet is no longer available. Will try and find an archived version.
I thought it was red?
Either way, green only happened after the fel wore out of them, as far as I knew.
1 dose or enough residual exposure over a short period of time = green skin
2 doses and I think your skin becomes red. That is what happened to the Warsong after they drank the Blood of Mannoroth again to defeat Cenarius. We can also see a few regular orcs with red skin but no obvious demonic features in game. one example was even part of the horde.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Quartermaster_Dekrok
3 or more and you start to gain a more demonic look. Such as the Fel orcs in Outland. Who had a constant source of Fel blood via Maggy.
There were those lost one orcs in Warlords of Draenor that got retconned
The Novels describe Grom and Blackhand as taking swigs while in this cutscene Kilrogg took two outright gulps.
The Chalice of Unity was not right next to easily harvestable pools of Mannoroth’s Blood so the Horde Clans had to take swigs in order to get the Blood to everyone.
The Pool that Mannoroth put Blood into in Warcraft 3 already had water so the Blood should have been diluted for the Warsong Clan.
As for the Orcs of Illidan’s Armies had the Blood distilled and Magically enhanced pumped directly into their veins for the sake of enhancing the Blood Haze(which as the Durotan Animation shows is natural to the Orc Species even without Fel). He wanted fiercer Orcs not Demon Orcs!
Clearly the Pit Lords’ Blood has something in it that increases Rage automatically that is more valuable to Illidan than the raw Fel.
Considering Grom was released from the Blood Haze the moment Mannoroth died which resulted in the Red Eyes fading and how the Orcs get more fierce the closer Mannoroth was to them I dare say the only reason the Orcs of WoD had Green Eyes was because Mannoroth was dead so they simply got Fel Corrupted.
The fact that the Orcs of WoD showed obvious mutations just from two gulps makes it seem as if Illidan’s distillation process diminished the amount of actual Fel Corruption the Orcs received in BC despite the Blood being directly pumped into their veins.
Ironic how a container of distilled Pit Lord Blood has less Fel than an equally large container of undistilled Pit Lord Blood.
In short if you don’t want your Orcs getting bloodlusted kill the Pit Lord before dumping Fel down their throats for power. Killing the Pit Lord banishing him to the Twisting Nether severs the connection they have to their Fel Blood thus rendering it merely a source of Fel so there is no reason to keep the Pit Lord alive if you want the Fel Blood for power.
Speaking of Lost Ones: the Lost Ones are due to the Red Pox while the Broken are the result of Fel Corruption(attaining Wrathguard Faces with the possibility that further Corruption would create a Wrathguard) with those who are Half-Broken and Half-Lost One like the Broken of Outland have Lost One Feet due to the Red Pox and Wrathguard Faces due to the Fel Corruption tainting the Red Pox.
how can broken be fel corrupted when eredar wield all the powerful magics just fine
On Draenor rather than just fel corruption, the Broken were specifically caused by exposure to the Red Mist concoction Gul’dan made by combining fel magic with the Red Pox, which had its origins in the Curse of Sethe, a void-influenced affliction.
It’s never really been explained why some eredar on Argus became Broken as well despite the Broken mutation on Draenor having a very specific origin that was unique to that planet. The story’s also never really elaborated upon how Argus’ Broken ended up having various shared cultural and magical themes with the Broken of Draenor when the two groups have very different backstories.
The Broken on Argus retain Draenei Hooves yet have the faces of Wrathguard. That seems to be the only difference.
Considering how there are two Demon Hunter Subtypes: Vengeance(back Spikes) and Havok(back Wings) it’s quite likely the Eredar have those two as subtypes as well.
Broken do look quite vengeful towards Velen and the Legion while Kil’jaeden like the Havok Demon Hunters struggled with the changes.
Guys like Archimonde who simply accept the power seem to have minimal changes aside from skin color.
The Broken on Draenor have Arakkoa-like feet by the way likely due to the Red Pox being a copy of the Curse of Sethe. The Fel would naturally give their wrathful selves a Wrathguard-like face on top of the Void Pox’s attempt to make them like Cursed Arakkoa.
Gul’dan for what it’s worth was filled with a desire for Vengeance so he got the Back Spikes. Kilrogg was obsessed with fulfilling destiny so he got spikes on his hands and body as Black Gunk spread over said body.
Iskar simply returned to being a High Arakkoa as he desired.
Fel reacts to the Desires of the imbiber it would seem. Vengeance gives one claws and Spikes on one’s back, Conflict causes Bat Wings to grow on one’s back, fulfillment of Destiny causes Spikes & Black Gunk to appear over the Body, Animalistic Bloodlust(like Illidan’s Orcs) causes one to be hunched over and grow Spikes on the Spine only and Specific Desires cause one to attain said desires.
So basically Fel is gamma radiation… like how Betty Banner became the Harpy because of her unexpressed issues with Bruce, and the Leader a Big Head and Bruce’s own repressed rage?