Mag’har Orc Warlocks

Carhagen has the right of it. I was just making an analogy to critique those characters’ choices in-universe. True, as you said, the analogy isn’t perfect. And it’s not about attacking fans or going anywhere near real-world politics.

Matches the typical warlocks psychological MO though, right? :yum:

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Sounds like my kind of people.

:rofl: Okay, I’ll give you that one!

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I am at work right now, but I’m making a note here, i shall prepare a bulleted list for you later in the evening

I am not saying the book is wrong or lying but merely that they were working off the best information they had at the time and are not all knowing omnipotent beings

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I see your point, and I don’t disagree, however, let’s look at “uncorrupted” . I believe the devil is in the details.

The orc clans of Draenor never drank the demon blood that corrupted their distant kin.

This was taken from the character creation screen. Now, I know an orc who plays with fel will be technically be corrupted. But mag’har only describes orcs that didn’t partake in the demon blood.

They are still uncorrupted, even if warlocks, because nobody drank the blood. Apparently, that’s what uncorrupted means to them. It specifically states the demon blood is what made them corrupt, opposed to fel.

My apologies if somebody brought up that point already, I don’t have the time to read forums like I used to. I only bring it up so people can acknowledge it as a factor.

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People have, but it’s not as big of a factor as it might seem.

Fact is that no matter if you drink the blood of a demon, or you use warlock magic, if you’re a Mag’har Orc, your skin will turn green. The only difference will be how quick the change occurs. For using warlock magic, the change is slow, the old skin withers, dries up and when it falls off the new skin beneath it has a greenish tint and the green pigment gets stronger and stronger until all the Orc’s skin is green.

If they drink the blood, it happens almost instantly and the change doesn’t wait for the old skin to wither and flake off, it just transforms all the skin rapidly.

Either way, whether they use warlock magic, or they drink the blood, they are still corrupted. Therefor, they cannot be considered Mag’har.

The best and easiest solution is to get off your gatekeeping stance and expand your concepts of the race, and perhaps not everyone walks the same party lines. If anything their experience with the Light SHOULD cause many to contemplate using it’s opposite.

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Besides elements of lore that need to be rewritten to support this, I do enjoy races being unique. I believe homogenizing races makes them bland.

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Exclusion isn’t making a race unique when the game does no other worldbuilding. It just makes it a race with less options.

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So leave those options open for unique classes down the line instead of filling them with trash that doesn’t fit the race?

People are so desperate to make warlocks ‘work’ when they don’t when they could be spending that energy creating ideas for classes that -could- work and promoting them.

I’m not going to apologize for wanting Blizzard to remain consistent with their own writing. It’s about time they did that instead of chopping and changing to make stuff fit whenever its convenient.

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I don’t see Blizzard adding a unique class that’s only real function is to serve as a reskin of an existing one, though.

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What’s the definition of “not working”? Just because a tribe names it’self “The Pure” is not a guarantee of purity. It’s just a name.

Did you have a freakout when you saw Night Elf Druids becoming interested in Etherial technology in Outland?

No? Because they were looking at it as a way to preserve nature in regions that were otherwise barren and inhospitable.

That’s not even remotely close to this mess that Blizzard has created.

Alright first off we should come to terms. Blizzard is highly inconsistent with this lore and there is back and forth narratives going both directions, and a few that can be interpreted a variety of ways. There are more characters who point fingers and say “warlock bad” than not and we often have to actually read in between to lines to see the picture, but I shall try and lay it out.

  • The Maker (Boss in Blood Furnace TBC) journal entry
    All creatures who use the power of fel magic, willingly or otherwise, slowly take on the appearance of Demons. The Maker accelerates their corruption and performs cruel experiments on any who attempt to resist.

Well dang that seems pretty cut and dry. However why do we have the Shen’dralar of Eldre’thalas (Dire Maul) who have been feeding off a demon called Immolar for the last 10 thousands years? How long does it take The Maker?

  • Prince Tortheldrin maintained control over the surviving Shen’dralar by imprisoning a demon in the ruins of Eldre’Thalas and letting his subjects siphon its strength. The exposure to demonic power twisted Tortheldrin’s mind, and when the creature faltered, the prince ordered the deaths of many of his vassals so only he and his most fanatical followers would be left to enjoy the corrupt energy.

So in 10 thousands year time he just developed being a senile old man? Not only that but despite being cannonically killed… you talk to him in Legion… and he is alive and well and talks perfectly fine. He doesn’t seem insane at all. Big hmmm

Lets try something else. Satyrs are demons right? If fel and demons are so corruptive why do they seem to live in rather alright places and not glowing green radioactive pits? They have lived for the last 10k years easily

  • Like many of his fellow Highborne, Peroth’arn swore allegiance to the corrupted Xavius in exchange for gifts of demonic power. As a master of fiendish magic and recipient of the satyr curse, Peroth’arn stands outside Azshara’s palace in defense of the Burning Legion, ready to destroy those hoping to disrupt the entrance of the Dark Titan, Sargeras, into Azeroth.

Alright so its a curse and not a product of any fel corruption. Whats the point then. According to [Satyr Hooves](link censored) they have to ACTIVELY corrupt things by feeding off it, I guess they’re addicted to magic? I don’t think purity is full of fel. (and oddly the magic is stored in their hooves.)

In the warlock quest Infiltrating the Black Temple (Green Fire questline) Kanrethad make the observation:

  • Jubeka Shadowbreaker says: So this is how Illidan bound so many demons to his will…
    Kanrethad Ebonlocke says: Yes. The payment for the demons’ service was to drink from the energy of this place.
    Kanrethad Ebonlocke says: By feeding upon this place’s power, they were broken free from their addiction to the Legion’s magic.
    Kanrethad Ebonlocke says: I believe this is the original power source he intended to offer the blood elves to free them from their addiction to the Sunwell… but for some reason he didn’t let them near it…
    Jubeka Shadowbreaker says: What?? you have no proof of such a claim.
    Kanrethad Ebonlocke says: Didn’t you notice? The demons under Illidan’s command were free of the entropic, fel-green corruption that pervades the Legion.

While you can interpret this however you like, and he could very well be incorrect, this seems to set the tone that demons, and corruption, are not normal but a by-product of the legion and by extension Sargeras.

We know that not all demons were part of the Burning Legion. Many had to be conquered or recruited, including the Sayaad, Annihilan, and Aranasi. There may be more, most the rest are either unexplored or specifically other non demon in origin and just modified by Sarg.

Xal’atath specifically mentions

  • From birth, pit lords are oversized and stupid. Somehow the Legion manages to magnify both traits

Which seems to imply the legion somehow further corrupted an already demonic species.

And moving on to magic. The green fire questline alone seems to debunk this notion there there is Shadow(Chaos) Fire(Chaos) Nature(Chaos) and any other pseudo magical bunk. The greenfire questline is specifically made to “corrupt” the fire spells with fel. Which implies IT WAS NEVER PART OF THE SPELL TO BEGIN WITH.
No warlock outside Draenor has a problem with corruption. They have a problem with over indulging like every other magic, but zero documented cases of it happening passively. The Kirin-tor and human history has a long tradition of hunting down demons from various people summoning them, and even a few rebels learning warlock magic themselves who had to be hunted down. And yet there was never a single case of one of them doing a Gul’dan.
Gul’dan seems to be the root of the “corruption” problems on Draenor. He was taught by Kil’Jaden himself. The draenei were Taught by Sargeras himself. So all this “corruption” seems to stem from Sargeras and his constant need to corrupt the world. Every single world he comes across that is his motive. Maybe “corruption” is just rampant creation magic since the titans can seemingly will things into existence and shape planets on a whim. In every case of warlock magic not directly connected to the burning legion, there doesn’t seem to be any corruption happening.

Now that does not mean Fel is safe. It is extremely volatile and does cause massive mutations if it goes wrong. We can argue Fel “Corrupts” but so does arcane. It just seems Fel has a lower tolerance for it. If we look at the warlock toolkit, there is no “Fel” damage. One can assume its actually “Chaos” but even so (Baring green fire) Fel spells are actually rather rare.
Is "summon [Demon] fel? Why? Why is summoning an earth elemental from the elemental plane different then summoning something from the twisted nether? I would like to see the source that summoning automatically = Fel, because they use life essence to reach out to the void, or twisted nether and before Void Elves we didn’t see a single case of void corruption.

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I do appreciate a well thought out post backed with facts!

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I agree. They could be fleshing out the lore for races or introducing a new class (eg; the Tinkerer) instead.

Lmao what did you think I was referencing when I said y’all were ignorant of the Black Harvest lore and needed to go read those questlines, books, and dialogue transcripts

Nah it’s BEWILDERING y’all out here arguing and claiming this that and the third when y’all had never even bothered to sit down and read through all existing warlock lore lmao

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Good job Rhito!

Now it’s your turn to allow me some time to come up with my response, as Im about to enter work :sweat_smile:

Promise I’ll catch some spare time asap

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Ok, now that I finally have the time to properly answer this, I’ll try and go with the major points that more or less summarise the post. Let me know if I’ve missed anything:

The quest to end his reign is called “The Madness Within”.
https://www.wowhead.com/quest=27110/the-madness-within
And it includes a conversation that goes:

The Highborne ghosts that you see wandering through the courtyard and halls of Eldre’Thalas were slain, not by invading Gordok ogres or satyrs, but by the Prince himself!
The people were destroyed in order to preserve the Prince’s immortal life and near limitless powers. The power once divided among thousands now funnels into the Prince and the Shen’dralar zealots. Those few remaining survivors are directly feeding power into the pylons in order to keep Immol’thar imprisoned. Should the demon break free of its bonds, it would surely destroy what little is left of this once great bastion of arcana.

Which means that the corrupting practices, drove him to such level of insanity and thirst for power, that he ended up killing his own people.

This is fairly reminiscent of other Warlock mindsets, that include, but are not limited to several Shadow Council members, as well as other from the Black Harvest.

Yes.

But bear in mind that it just implies that Demons can indeed be without Fel corruption.

But the thing here, and its a bit that goes all the way back to the novels I quoted, Warlock corruption isn’t exclusive to Fel.

Many creatures that Warlocks work with, are considered Void spawns.
And still, we’ve been repeatedly shown how dealing with those beings, ends up corrupting the user.
You mentioned Immolthar. Well, sucking energy from it turned the Shendralar Prince mad enough to kill his own people.
You’d also find this other example:

Tendris Warpwood was a staunch defender of Eldre’Thalas, his heart inexorably entwined with the fate of the city. When the Sundering shattered the land, his resolve never wavered, but as corruption seeped into the ruins over the next 10,000 years, so too did it infect the ancient’s spirit.

Another example of this, involves the Corruption curse, that Cho’Gall inflicted upon Shinfel Blightsworn.

Shinfel’s blood had been corrupted during the fight with Cho’gall and her arms were now covered in black marks left behind by the corruption that had erupted from her skin.

Correct.
But, as seen with excerpts from novels such as War Crimes, and Lord of the Clans, the invocation of said fire follows a somewhat unique method that is corrupting on itself.

“But you said that the shamans were disappearing. Doesn’t that mean that the warlock’s way was better?”
“The warlock’s way was quicker,” said Grom. “More effective, or so it seemed. But there comes a time when a price must be paid, and sometimes, it is dear indeed.”

Pieces such as this dialogue, reference how Warlocks tap into sources of power such as Fire. And how their approach is differentiated from that of for example Shamans.
It’s interesting to read these bits, as they offer additional layers to these summonings:

  • Shamanism: Requesting the aid said power.
  • Dark Shamanism: Bending said power to ones will.
  • Warlock: Making a bargain at a personal cost to gain said power.

An interesting spell that showcases this difference, is called The Cipher of Damnation.
The Cipher of Damnation is a powerful warlock spell used to corrupt and dominate the power of the Elements. It was kept as a tome that was later scattered into three fragments.

This was showcased as specially relevant in the corruption and subduing of Draenor elements, and has 2 ingame versions that can be found in AU Draenor, and in Outland (involving its usage in both timelines).

There is an additional piece that could’ve involved a spell similar to this one, regarding the quest of the Black Harvest warlock Ritssyn:

Who went to gain more knowledge regarding the usage of fire related spells, to the Firelands.

It’s unknown the degree of his success, or how he planned to harness said power (we never had definite clarification about the outcome)
But I’d say that it would involve spells similar to the one I quoted above.


To avoid extending this much longer, I’ll leave a summary of what Warlock corruption seems to be about given all the canon sources we’ve had so far:

Warlock practices often corrupt, not because of the source of power, but because of the method used to invoke them.

It may sound as a joke, but Hearthstone has a funny mechanic to show this.
With “Life Tap”, you lose some health points and in exchange, you can draw another card each turn.

That’s the dominant fantasy for all Warlocks, and why they are corrupted after wielding magic that others use differently.
They must literally give up pieces of themselves in order to wield said power in such destructive ways.

This has been repeated over and over specially regarding their distinction with Shaman.
And even if they are prone to be affected by other sources of corruption (specially if they abuse them) such as Fel, the important element here is how they use them.

That’s the most obvious reason as to why we have a distinction between them and other casters such as Shadow Priests or Dark Shamans. Or why the latter weren’t corrupting the planet as Warlocks did.

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