You know what really bothers me lore-wise is when there are blurred lines between classes. Maybe it’s just OCD but I can’t stand it.
Like WHAT is the deal with Balance Druids? They use the powers of the Elune and An’she even though it’s heavily implied that they are both beings of the Light and it also says that they use Arcane magic? What?
And what are Witch Doctors? Shaman? Druids? Priests? Make up your mind Blizz. Shadow Hunters? What’s their deal? Do they actually use Shadow Magic? And if so, how do they have a connection with the Loa, allegedly Druidic beings?
And how is Bwon’samdi a Loa if he’s a death god? Maybe they have a plan for that because he makes a distinction between himself and the “living loa.”
Speaking of Shadow Magic, let’s talk about Void Elves for a second. They are all Priests. They chose to use the Void. No other race or allied race had a say in their fate so it’s ok for them to be different classes. But with Void Elves it’s like, “Yeah he’s like a Shadow Priest/Monk.”
Building on Shadow Magic again, what’s with Warlocks using Shadow? I thought the whole point behind the Burning Legion was that Sargeras wanted to defeat the Void but he has a Void corrupted doggo that he keeps in his backyard!!! Again, it’s like Warlocks are half Warlock, half Priest. Why aren’t they constantly tempted hy the Void? And what’s special about Shadow Priests if Walrocks have the Void AND Fel?
Moving away from Shadow, what’s with the Wardens? Where do their powers come from? They can Blink, which is kind of an Arcane ability but they HATE Arcane magic because of Azshara and the Highborne. Does it come from Elune? Ok we’re back to the Light so they’re like Paladins? Oh but wait, it’s not fully confirmed that Elune is a being of the Light even though she pretty much is.
Why can Mages control Water Elementals? That’s just dumb. And why do they have frost and fire powers? If you want to argue they change temperatures to freeze water in the air or light the air on fire that’s cool, but to suggest they directly control ice and fire is cutting way too close to Shaman territory.
Necromancy using frost kind of makes sense because it’s like the chill of death. Although some DK abilities might also be looked at for questioning in the context of this rant. Like what is Death Grip? An awesome animation and spell to be sure but what is it in terms of magic?
It looks like you really put a lot of thought into that. I love the passion for the lore.
But very few people are going to read all that if you don’t separate into paragraphs. It’s very viewer unfriendly to try to read when it’s formatted like that.
So, how WoW’s magic system works is explained in Chronicle. Basically it goes like this. There are 6 primary “living essences”. They’re explained kind of like The Force from Star Wars. It’s a form of energy that blankets all of existence. These Living Essences live outside of the physical universe, and can only influence the physical universe by sending in small parts of themselves that act as “vessels”.
They are as follows:
The Light - Naaru
Life/Nature - Wild Gods
Order/Arcane - Titans
Shadow/Void - Old Gods
Death - Undead creatures. (We recently learned that this includes the Dread Lords)
Disorder/Fel - Demons
It seems that each Essence can choose how many and how powerful their “vessels” are. The stronger the being, the less of them there are. The weaker the being, the more they can have.
As an example, Arcane uses Titans. They are; as far as we know right now; the strongest beings in the physical universe aside from the new Pantheon of Death. With how strong they are, they are seemingly limited in how many of them there can be. We currently only know of 10 Titans within the universe. This includes the current Pantheon, Sargeras, Argus, Azeroth, and the world soul that Sargeras destroyed.
However, Fel uses Demons. They’re innumerable, but incredibly weak. Even the strong ones (Pit lords) aren’t that strong when you compare them to the other beings like Wild Gods, and Old Gods.
So, like The Force from Star Wars, people who have a special attunement for these particular types of magic are able to tap into them and use them for a variety of purposes.
People who are drawn to nature are able to tap into the Living Essence known as “Nature” and are able to draw in the energy, bend and manipulate it to command the trees, or turn into animals Ect…
Seemingly anyone can tap into any of these powers if they have an affinity for them. They have to have a connection to them on a deep level. (Basically you have to mean it. You can’t just be a Druid and wake up one day and say “I’m going to tap into the Arcane today and become a mage”)
Now with all of the Living Essence vessels being physical beings, they seem to also be able to tap into each of the other essences as well. They are created and are a part of their own respective essence, but they can access the others.
All of the Titans are pure Arcane Energy. They are physical beings made from the living essence “Arcane”. However, Eonar can tap into the essence of Nature. Sargeras can tap into the essence of Fel. Ect…
Elune who you might see as a being of light, might actually be a being of nature. She is the Winter Queen’s sister (who is a being of nature) bred with nature spirits, created a nature deity, and taught Ysera the guardian of nature how to use her abilities.
My thinking is that she has access to both the Arcane and Light essences and is able to pass that along to her students. (Druids and priestesses of Elune.)
Since Druids are tied to the Emerald Dream, which was created by a construct of Arcane, using Nature magic, it makes sense that Druids can use both Arcane and Nature magic.
They use spirit magic, which is tied to Nature.
Loa were originally Death beings before being retconned in BFA to be Nature beings. They were originally seen as “Anti-Wild Gods”, but have since been retconned to be Wild Gods themselves.
BFA and Shadowlands has done a lot of retconning of the lore. Especially when it comes to Druids.
As Ulfar; the giant Thrownspeaker bear in Drustvar; sais, Death is as much a part of the cycle of rebirth as Life. Bwonsamdi is just another aspect of the natural order.
They don’t. I’ll explain it this way. A Mage uses Arcane Magic. They can form the Arcane into various forms. Their spells can look and act like Fireballs, which would be spirit magic like Shaman, but it’s still Arcane.
Warlocks only use Fel magic. It just takes on the form of Shadow, but it’s still only Fel. A Shadowbolt is still Fel magic. It’s only shadow magic in game for gameplay reasons. In the lore, Warlocks use Fel magic to cast shadowbolts, which is a form of Fel energy.
Same thing. It’s all Arcane Magic, and isn’t produced the same way a Shaman uses his magic. They’re creating Arcane constructs that takes on the form of water. It’s not actual water though. Neither a Shaman or Mage would be able to control each other’s elementals. A Fireball hurled at a Shaman would feel very different from a Shaman’s fireball. (Shaman using actual fire, while mages using arcane that looks and acts like fire.)
I don’t think they actually have any magic powers. They seemingly blink around, but I think that’s just Blizz’ way of making them out to be super fast and agile. I don’t think they’re actually blinking around. It’s just easier for Blizz to implement that sort of animation than for them to physically move the character.
I think they’re just incredibly skilled warriors who use their natural Night Elf agility to move around the battlefield really quickly. We’ve also seen Maiev use traps against Illidan suggesting that they could also be using some sort of technology.
Elune is almost certainly a being of Nature who has the ability to tap into the powers of Light and Arcane.
Otherwise her child would have gained access to her powers of Light… Which he didn’t. He’s purely nature.
Necromancy falls under the Death/Necromantic essence. They’re just using Death Magic to the same results that mages do. They can form their magic into different shapes. Death Grip is just another spell that Necromancy offers. Same with Howling Blast. Instead of creating frost from Arcane, or using water to turn to ice; Death Knights more or less drain the heat from the area leaving it cold and bitter.
WoW’s magic system is a little weird. If you understand the premise of the Living Essences, then it gets a lot less muddy. I completely get why you’re confused on how some classes can use spells from different schools of magic, but for the most part; from a lore standpoint; they’re only use one school. All mage spells are Arcane. None of them are “real” elemental magic.
All Warlocks use Fel. Even though the spell’s animation looks like Shadow, it’s still Fel. Even thought Incinerate looks like it could be a mage spell, it’s not Arcane. It’s still Fel. It just takes on a different form to perform a different action.
It’s like throwing a left hook vs an uppercut. They’re both punches, but they look different and hit differently. They’re both useful for different things, but they’re both still punches.
I can answer this one for you (if someone hasn’t already). Mages don’t actually control elementals, per se (that’s shamans); they control constructs (made with arcane magic) that look like elementals.
I actually really like the new explanation of how the magic system works. Basically, there are 6 “forces” that you can tap into. Each one a different aspect of the natural order of the universe.
All physical beings have the capability to tap into them if they have an attunement for them. This includes beings that are created from the other essences. (Eonar, an Arcane being using Nature magic.)
They are infused with the Void, it is apart of what they are, not who they are. Just like Worgen are cursed and that aspect of what they are is apart of their lives and gives them abilities.
Same can be said about the Light Forged, they are infused with The Light. Forsaken are Infused with energy from the Pantheon of Undeath. It is what they are, not the way of life they have chosen.
