Saw an old post on here that got me thinking about how Worgen are often RPed plainly as Worgen and not as a person with a curse. This got me curious to ask, does your Worgen consider themselves cursed, or perhaps gifted instead? And why?
Personally, my Worgen character is, in fact, cursed. She chooses to stay in her human form and fears needing to use the wolf when she needs to. But I wanted to make sure she had a reason to be scared that wasn’t just “she’s feral and unwieldy.” She couldn’t be from inner Gilneas because in my eyes, gilneans have grown proud of their worgen forms. So I decided instead she was a citizen of Pyrewood who has since taken control of her curse but still fears becoming a killer again like she used to be.
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I never much cared for whole cursed and afraid angle. None of my own Worgen characters have been like that. Rosyllyn, my first and currently only Worgen character, holds a neutral but positive leaning perspective. She fixates on the positive aspects of the Worgen form and generally views the balance of the bestial influences of the curse to be a challenge of the mind and will. The desire to retain her humanity is seen as fuel for a greater guiding imperative to maintain her physical and mental prowess. In her current characterization, as it has changed slightly since her initial creation, she’d likely acknowledge her condition as a curse by technicality but consider it a gift by perspective, recognizing the struggles as such but choosing to interpret them positively. I like to imagine her mental acuity allows her to maintain self-control a little easier than the average person, which may further contribute to her disposition.
One of Rosyllyn’s apprentices was slated to become a Worgen as well. That character currently sits in a sort of narrative limbo for one reason or another. She might have leaned a bit further into a more wary disposition, but at time of writing it’s kind of impossible to tell.
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Even after being welcomed into the Alliance, my hero never felt at home in the confines of a “proper” society. His blood runs wild and he wants to be free. After the Battle of Azeroth, he joined up with a band of Kul’Tiran pirates and has been sailing the seven seas ever since. Yeah, he’s a monster, but he sees it as his “real” self and not a curse. Though he’s known to take human form when he’s trying to blend in and be sneaky.
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I feel like some of us undead/DK players can somewhat relate on the matter.
Take me for example. Lilus is my main, but I also have a gnome rogue named Elrika that I RP as a former San’layn captive/slave. Yes, that means exactly what you think it does: I’m playing her as a gnome vampire.
Both characters are horrified at the things they did while they didn’t have their free will and were working for the Scourge, but while Lilus laments the things her own undead state have taken from her, Elrika revels in what she has become (she’s not evil, but she’s definitely learned to embrace the darkness and gleefully turns her powers and hunger towards wanted criminals)
It’s easy to do the “woe is me” stereotype with a cursed character if you’re playing as a DK. I feel like the character concept I have for Elrika gives me a chance to do something different: sure, she wishes she were still alive at times, but she’s not going to ignore the advantages and powers she’s gained from her curse as it allows her to protect people far better than she did in life.
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Jonathan Harmarth is absolutely a man carrying a curse, but bear in mind that many Worgen have had over a decade, in-universe, to adapt to that curse and adjust to it, and learn to deal with it.
Jonathan Harmarth here made it worse trying to search for an experimental “cure” before fully succumbing, which has had the permanent side-effect of making it particularly difficult for him to return to human form, even when calm, requiring conscious effort just to maintain.
Just in general, he struggles with the amplified rage and aggression of the form, but turns it to his advantage by using combat as an outlet for said aggression.
He does also have some PTSD (which I didn’t actually realize for the longest time was what I’d done) over the circumstances of his return to civilization; due to the efforts of certain parties, he was vividly aware of what he was doing while feral for that particular period of time, but simply was unable to control himself, and thinking back to it messes him up bad.
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“It is no more a curse than any other power in this world but neither is it a gift, though its value to a body ravaged by time and tribulations cannot be overstated.”
Notwithstanding other preexisting conditions, Maurdeth is well into her 60s having spent the lion’s share of her days traveling, fighting and toiling, and she knows that without the curse she’d be hobbling about on a cane at best. As hard as the rage can be to aim, much less contain, and as much distance as it puts between herself and others, she wouldn’t trade it even for a full return of her humanity.
So cursed, but good.
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