Are there anybody on horde side that Roleplays as warlocks while playing their warlocks? If so what does that look like for your character?
Of my many, only one really embodies your traditional warlockiness.
For that one, Immgar, it really comes out as your typical demon summoning warlock who think she can completely control whatever she sets her mind to. Less Fizzlebang summoning Jaraxxus and getting stomped and more careful consideration for what limits are and gradually pushing them. Always having a helpful banishing spell geared up just in case. Being an orc and growing up and experiencing the results of Nerzul and others who thought they could control what they couldnt created a cautionary tale to take it one stop at a time.
Speaking of growing up, its what brought her in the warlock direction. An outcast class, she was kinda an outcast child. Bullied, shunned, teased, just an overall not great time. Some want to prove them wrong and be the orkiest ork that ever orked, others take that isolation and fall into further isolation until they find their found group.
Immy here sparingly is used in a warlock role. A Royal Apothecary first and foremost, he has a little, yet annoying, imp helper. He knows how to drain and siphon various essences for his research, but beyond that it doesn’t really show. He’s here for science!
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My warlock constantly makes checks not to harm his friends and allies when he obtains power boosts, new demons, or powerful magic relics. He had people who were close to him but through his unending thirst for more they have since abandoned him. Does not help he is also a blood elf so add the literal thirst for magic and you’ve got one two-legged vice walking around.
My boy here is a warlock more leaning towards the D&D definition, where he got his power from making a pact to act as the Agent of a Dreadlord (and coincidentally being the inciting incident that turned him into a Felborne). He recently broke with the Powers That Be, however, which means he’s left with a bunch of fel in his system to reverse-engineer how to work with because suddenly he’s worrying about Soul Shards and Rituals instead of just leaning on a magical sugar-daddy for that - suddenly becoming exposed to Risk has made him near-paranoid and brought out the Cunning he has in spades instead of intellect per other mages!
Effectively a Fiend Warlock multiclassed with something like a Shadow Sorcerer, all-together!
The type of warlock you choose to be is determined by your Good/Evil range. Even if it seems unlikely, there are in fact good warlocks. Magic is magic and even fel/demonic is no different in how it is used, surprising as it may be, to any other type of magic.
For example: A warlock making a pact with a demon vs a mage making a pact with a summoned elemental. Look at what is involved. The summoning ritual itself, the goal of the summon, and the price to be paid for the summon.
A mage may exchange a portion of his/her arcane pool for the support of an elemental. A warlock may do the same, offering arcane power allowing the demon to exist in our realm/plane. Or a pact may be made through the offering of souls.
Would your perception of a warlock who offers the souls of murderers/bandits/thieves be different vs the offering of innocent (or seemingly innocent) souls?
Now the intent of the summoned pet/creature is irrelevant vs the intent of the summoner. The pact binds the summon to the users will and choice of actions. If the summoner uses the demon for noble actions, the pet must adhere to those commands even if its own nature is dark and evil.
The appearance of any summon would be ferocious or insane, but such is a reflection of its nature and environment from whence it came.
Does the summon of a mage act any differently regardless of appearance?
The same is no different in the class talent of a warlock. Is destruction magic different than fire magic? Both Burn, both consume, and both rely on a magic pool of mana from the caster.
The difference for a mage is the greater attacks are fueled at a more costly use of their mana. While the warlock spells may be further infused by souls (evil or innocent souls) to enhance the power output of the spell.
Covering both Demonology and Destruction, the final class talent of affliction may be in itself evil altogether. Again the intent of the caster is the determination of its role as a good or evil warlock.
Affliction itself is the art of torture, of pain. The goal is to have the subject suffers at a reasonable pace but also ensures a timely death. Ask yourself who or whom youd want to experience that? (Enemy bandit, your boss, ex girlfriend or boyfriend who cheated on you behind your back.)
I think the ends justify the means in that regard. But the nature of affliction is to lead the opponent to death, and is no more evil than the flames of a fire mage slowly burning the victim alive, or a frost mage freezing the opponent till their heart stops. Only difference is the speed. (And to harvest their soul for later consumption in another spell.)
This is all In character Warlock references but should still be a sound guide to even cannon/non-cannon choices regarding the type or side of a warlock you see yourself as.
A warlock is just a user of a type of magic that grasps at the nature of chaos magic itself. But as some would say chaos creates change and therefore change is not always a bad thing.
What it really looks like is being swarmed by so many imps, you’d think they were gnats, and having devil dogs constantly pulling at your chain wanting to tear everything in front of you apart, all while some bully demon, who thinks he owns your soul does a lot less to keep you alive than you’d have hoped for when signing that contract. Yea, something like that.