I'm Back with More Questions! Darkfallen and San'layn

Moon Guard
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Hello, hello. I thought I would ask some questions about the San’layn and Darkfallen, because I know next to nothing about them beyond a little reading. Maybe someone can clear some things up for me.

1. How is a vampyr created?

I know that Lucard can change someone into one, but how? Is this a bite, curse or magic spell?

2. How is a Darkfallen created?

Are these elves created through necromancy, possible by any spellcaster or is this strictly by the hands of the Lich King? If so, how come they are not death knights?

3. How are Darkfallen and San’layn received in the role play community? Especially within The Alliance.

I know they had a chance to official join the Horde, but that was a bust. I’ve seen people get straight up ignored in the role play community because of their character’s race/species, religious or political beliefs. I mean, they won’t even look their way. It’s like they don’t exist to them. That’s okay. I know people don’t have to interact with people they don’t want to, but it’s bonkers to think that because your character thinks or looks differently, you are absolutely DEAD to a portion of the community. I know some people ignore others that bend the lore a little bit, too. I personally don’t care, but to each their own.

4. Which class(es) are the most ideal for a Darkfallen?

I thought death knights, mages and warlocks might be the expected classes. Seeing as there can be a night elf darkfallen druid (it would be neat to have undead forms), I’m guessing class doesn’t matter much since they are just a dead elf.

5. Do Darkfallen night elves have to be risen by the Forsaken?

So, some night elves got resurrected by the Forsaken. Some stayed and some defected. Well, do all undead night elves have to have been made this way? Could another necromancer out in the world also be able to create a darkfallen? Could a night elf be cursed and risen as such upon death?

6. How does a vampyr feed? People? Animals? Blood taken through magic?

I expect draining a victim dry of their blood like any old vampire in lore is the solution, but maybe there are other ways to do it that I don’t know about. Is there even a schedule for feeding? Like, how long can a vampyr go without blood? What happens if they don’t feed? Will they go feral? Things like that.

7. How do you kill a Darkfallen or San’layn?

So, I’m guessing like most undead, they can be felled normally. Will they come back again and again or, is that it? As for a vampyr, I know Lucard needed staked. Is that how you handle a vampyr? Stake in the heart and done?

Thanks for any answers someone can provide. Also, I did get my death knight all written up and I am quite happy with him. All of the tips helped out. Anyway, thanks again for the lore tips. Clearly, there is much I need to learn. Lol

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They can be raised as undead, infected by a mist or bitten.

Darkfallen is just an umbrella term for undead elves regardless of the source of their undeath.

Any but paladin, druid and monk, really. Ultimately class doesn’t matter much for RP.

No. Any undead elf is a Darkfallen.

Anything with blood. San’layn seemed to do it through magic, but we also know they can infect via bites.

San’layn are a vampiric form of undead, they can be killed like any other undead. They can only come back if they are raised again or otherwise brought back to unlife. Lucard was staked, but staking him had zero effect whatsoever so we killed him with conventional weapons.

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San’layn are also specific to elves. Only elves can become San’layn.

OG San’layn were a group of individuals killed during Illidans attack on ICC. Arthas went around northrend and raised every one of these individuals making the first San’layn who had corrupted blood and were vampiric.

There are very few instances of San’layn being ‘created’ outside of this scenario but in BFA(this is the lore I use to justify playing Sanlayn.) we can see that they were training new ones. We know that blood corruption is a thing so we can assume that they have been infused with the blood of the San’layn which in turn turns them into a vampiric creature.

They have heightened spellcasting ability and most San’layn we see in game are sorcerers to some degree.

They also are not true vampires. They are vampiric beings. They can walk in the daylight they can walk into houses without needing permission. They require blood to sustain themselves, they are weak to light as they are extremely unholy aligned. Their bite DOES NOT turn people into sanlayn / vampires but their blood does. Being raised by one could also grant you vampirism possibly if raised with hemomancy.

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3. How are Darkfallen and San’layn received in the role play community? Especially within The Alliance.

The thing about the roleplay community is that we can be ridiculously hardheaded towards certain characters or themes. There was an uproar when Death Knights became playable, all the way back in WOTLK. Blood elves were often a point of ridicule among certain types of Horde players. I remember when Demon Hunters were announced, there were people in trade chat that very same day who were swearing up and down that “It didn’t matter if they were playable” and that there was no feasible way for Demon Hunters to ever be allowed in Stormwind. Discrimination against Vulpera, Undead elf customization, Dracthyr, Man’ari customization, you name it. Different songs with the same melody, and a ton of us are tone-deaf.

Just ignore the elitists. Even though it can be harsh at times, interaction is a two-way street.

Anything that has access to darker magics would be ideal. It seems like there’s a trend where elves have better prowess with the type of magic that’s inherent to their bodily makeup. But as others have said, gameplay =/= RP.

When it comes to the vampyrs, there’s a lot we don’t know altogether. In the matter of their creation, Murgleton notes that they are similarly cursed. There’s a lot of room for interpretation with that, with the focal points being both undeath and blood consumption.

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I just made a belf paladin with the dark ranger skin/eyes in Remix. I am ready for the hate. “Feed me with your anger!”

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Personally, I think shadow priests make for cool Darkfallen. What with their vampiric themed abilities and even having a priest talent named after the San’layn.

I wish death knights could use the Darkfallen customizations, however. A blood dk using them would be top tier.

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I hadn’t even thought of hemomancy. Now that would be a good choice for an origin. I was just so confused about why night elves could also be undead since I thought it was just a blood elf specific occurrence. Even though no one needs justification in their choice of role play character, I do think your choice is a good one and very plausible. I like that. Since you take the role of a San’layn, could you tell me how you go about that experience? Do you have weaknesses? How did you come to be? Is there a rule or more about being San’layn that you adhere to?

You are so right and it is so unfortunate. My paladin is a sect of the Scarlet Crusade that broke off to right our wrongs and fight the scourge. So, basically how the crusade started before becoming fanatic. Let me tell you, people have been so rude or just act like I don’t exist. I was just trying to get a prayer to start my day and when I learned why she wasn’t responding to me, but someone else, I was like dang. That kinda hurt a little. Lol. Oh well. It’s okay.

Ah okay. I thought it was like, a specific ritual or something like in Northrend. So it’s just a dead elf. I thought there was way more to it. Lol

Thanks guys!

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So for Sae he was a regular Darkfallen who chose to be infused with the corrupted blood to better serve the Forsaken.

I play him as having a very strong weakness to the Light because he has an Unholy Aura(inspired by the Warcraft 3 Death Knight Aura). I like to play with the idea that whomever raises you into undeath as a “higher level undead” imparts some of themselves into you. Sae was transformed by a scourge aligned(secretly) DK, so I have him as being transformed physically and given unholy strength as well as “artificial” muscle mass and height from the raw hemomancy used to raise him again. I also gave him ‘the call of the damned’ which I played with as an ever lingering voice in his mind to destroy all life(something to overcome). He can shapeshift, turn into a cloud of blood, and hunt via blood scent.

Other than that I don’t like really go out of my way to like be a hyper obnoxious in your face anime character about being a vampire. Sanlayn were subtle and political they are powerful and used to infiltrate societies and cultures much like the Dreadlords did so I play him as very composed and manipulative.

One last thing that I like to do for aesthetics is we see a lot of male San’layn with their lower faces covered especially with the Blood Princes, so I like to play Sae with a veil as much as I can when it looks good.

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In response to how they are received in the RP community, namely the Alliance: I think it really just depends on the character and the person RPing them.

I have two Darkfallen characters on the Alliance, and I’ve had zero issues with being included in spaces there. I really make a point to follow the lore as closely as I can. That being said, I have added some things regarding my characters that aren’t seen in the lore but are absolutely not out of the realm of possibility based off what we have gotten from Blizzard (which isn’t a whole lot!)

I’ve come across people who ignore the lore completely and, honestly? It’s their $15 a month. Some RP a bite as being the cause to turn them. Others RP their characters as being unable to walk in the sun. If they are having fun, that is all that matters! Alliance is a really BIG melting pot, so I think people often overlook that there are a lot of people just vibing. They want a space to do RP and MG gives that to them.

I’m just someone who loves vampires in pop culture. WoW has them and I am grateful for what we have. <3

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Quick thought. 2 adaptable things to consider for your story building purposes:

1, DKs have an entire Blood Spec…
2, Blood Trolls of Nazmir…

Always feel free to ad your own flare to these types of things.

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If my cold dead heart were capable of feeling warm and fuzzy, the support of the deader community would do it.

Ah, who’m I kiddin’, you guys are great! C’mere! Group hug!

:black_heart: :skull: :black_heart: :skull: :black_heart:

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Honestly Hunter seems like it gave one of it’s hero specs a serious nod to people who play as Darkfallen.

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Darkfallen hunter reporting in!

Go, go, Necro-Ranger!

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Never trust an elf!

I’d offer what I have for lore… but everyone else already has covered it!

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Hey, hey. Watch the racism there, round-ear.

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Racism? All I said was never trust an elf. The only thing you can trust are undead. And Liches.

Bringing up ears though? Now that’s racism! You’ve been assigned a semester in Scholomance to learn about how not to be. One Truth in Undeath and all that.

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I am undead! Tch. Just like a hoo-mon to assume the only undead and liches can look like them.

So sad. Learn to look beyond the outside…you gotta go deep, deep, inside. To the cold, black, oozing, depths of a person’s heart…

…preferably through the ribcage.

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Yea, Hunter is really a good one. I see people play Mages A LOT too. The nice thing about Darkfallen/San’layn is that you can really play most of the classes with a reasonable story behind it.

If Blizzard wants to give us power, they will give undead the ability to roll a druid. :sunglasses:

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I mean elves are pretty much responsible for all of the problems that exist in the WoW universe :grimacing: .

Innocent whistling Anyway…

Sae’themar’s been selling various Scholomance text books lately so, I apologize in advance for the influx of new students im sure its an admin nightmare. Just doin San’layn shenanigans out here.

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I’d like to point a few simple things out. Firstly, The San’layn - that is the name of the Scourge sub-faction that the vampire elves that Arthas created belonged to. It’s a political alignment, essentially. (Don’t ask about hero talents idfk, folks)

Second is that, yes, while every instance of vampire in Warcraft is seen interacting with or consuming blood in some form? It’s not unreasonable to assume that they run off of the magical essence inherent in one’s lifeforce, more-so than hemoglobin. YMMV, I prefer to think of it as being a very flexible thing that hinges on ‘consume life’, conceptually. Especially since it’s overtly, as per the OG San’layn group, a replacement for the thalassian arcane addiction.

Third!

There are legitimately no actual class restrictions in lore! It’s entirely feasible that you could play a darkfallen paladin! Or a druid! You’d have to do some serious legwork for the character’s internal logic, their story, or write something up with someone else, but there’s nothing actually stopping that.

Questions are good! Just keep in mind that Azeroth is a goofy nightmare plane as far as storytelling goes. ‘Consistency’ might as well be a dirty word, here, and if you have a neat idea? Within reason? GO AHEAD! Use it! I promise you that the writers put less thought into this stuff than we do.

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