Do 4th generation Death Knights suffer from the hunger?
I didnt see any mention of this in the allied race DK intro and I know that initially the hunger was a curse put on DK’s by Arthas so as to keep them destroying.
So now that we have Bolvar - would he inflict his DK’s with the same hunger? (Hunger being the need to kill or the dk goes crazy)
Personally, I dont think it would be a stretch to say that Bolvar does not inflict the hunger on his DK’s - even as the short allied race intro states - that “in life, you were a hero to your people. For their sake, you made the ultimate sacrifice.”
After you pledge your loyalty - Bolvar says, “You are empty inside, just like me.”
There is nothing said of the hunger.
Which to me, could infer that new -4th War DK’s do not suffer from the hunger, but carry out their sacrificial duty to their people to protect them as a sort of quest for fulfillment.
Makes me very sad that Blizzard did this to the next generation of DKs. Not enough lore or storyline explanation to go by. I mean, it makes sense that Bolvar would not follow the same path as Arthas, and yet, it is that hunger that makes a DK so ruthless.
I say we make our own in headcanon about it and say something about how Bolvar is undead by means of the Lifebinder, and only tempers the undead ghoulishness of a hunger for life to make it safe for the DKs to work in their respective factions.
Until we can get a developer to give us more lore on it! Maybe we will see something in game about it?
I typically assume the Endless Hunger to be present in 4th gens until explicitly stated otherwise. Given that there’s no indication that the method of creating Death Knights has changed between Arthas and Bolvar; meaning they could just as well be the same and so have the same caveats.
The aforementioned quote could mean anything. Arthas’ equivalent statement made no mention of the vice either; the most insight that message inferred was about a DK’s emotional state. It was Razuvious who explained the vice afterward.
Hey guys! I discussed this subject quite a bit back in Legion! Heck I even wrote a lore guide a few years ago (I was vonhellequin back then.)
The Short Answer: probably not, but maybe.
After going through Alot of quest text and flavor books in the original dk starting zone, it was revealed that the Hunger was CONDITIONED into the 3rd gen death knights by the scourge to discourage their rejoining the force of the horde or alliance.
The new scourge dks ate insects, were forbidden sleep, and were driven into duels with their peers to weed out the weak (or the few with a tidbit of humanity left.) There’s a bit more, but it would be safe to assume that 4th WOULD NOT have the endless hunger.
EXCEPT.
Except that from the very start Blizz has been a tad hazy about WHY undead specters torment the 3rd Gen Dks. I have always assumed that the physical pain 3rd gens associate with having gone too long without inflicting suffering on another was conditioned, and that the specters were a part of the deals the original lich king made with the forces of undeath (hence the only reason they did not assail 3rd gens on the regular was on account of the lich king.)
In summary: Do 4th gens experience physical anguish or hunger when not killing often enough? Probably not, id say.
Are they stalked by apparitions of undeath when they don’t kill? Probably, it very well may be how death knights “Buy” their continued existence.
In addition, the scourge had dozens of different “models” of undead creatures, including dks, so as far as i know, the sky is the limit.
Theres more, but I’ve hit the points I wanted to make! And if the new dk starting zones have given us updates on any of the above, please fill me in!
I’m inclined to believe that Fourth Gen DKs don’t have “the Endless Hunger”. Other undead, even those created by the Scourge, are not shown to have this near-biological need to inflict pain onto others.
I understand DKs are a step up from your typical undead in terms of power, so maybe something about that process requires the death knight be afflicted with the Endless Hunger. However, I think its far more likely that it’s an optional thing Arthas inflicted upon his generation of death knights.
Bolvar’s been a bit weird? His depiction in Shadowlands thus far seems to be a bit more “i’m still a paladin, just spookier”, but in Legion he definitely had “Oooh, is Bolvar evil now?” vibes. And maybe that Bolvar would have? I don’t know.
I think you could justify either way, but my money’s on 4th Gen DKs don’t have the Endless Hunger.
What do you think of rp a DK that instead of killing and harming to deal with the spectres instead follows a ghost whiperer concept of listening to them and helping them deal with whatever they left behind in the mortal realm.
Its a big divergence from the maim and kill concept, but it would focus on their death aspect still.
Yeah, there’s more to it than that, and conditioned is a far better word. Had all the death knights simply been “built” in such a way, they likely would’ve been poor death knights. Theres alot of speculation about how death knights achieve power by their “fall,” which is why in the Fionas caravan quest line, its mentioned that paladins make fine death knights.
There was rigorous testing to see if the right individuals had been found (including the examples above) and in addition they made you kill your “best friend” in life.
The specters are the most mysterious aspect of this, and there’s been alot of speculation about the bargains the Lich King had to make with undeath entities about them. We just don’t know enough yet.