So she’s a culmination of Forsaken development since Cata you mean, where the Forsaken PC is raised by a Post LK Sylvanas Allied Valkyr, doubled down by the recent development of the Night Elf Undead?
Like I hear you man but this just hasn’t been central or essential to the Forsaken PC experience for years.
In fact through that starting questing I’d say you really learn that even though you were raised in Lordaeron’s/Undercity’s cemetery, even though you are functionally a “local”, the still living humans despise you. Hell, Gilneans pick becoming Worgen over becoming Undead.
The Former Scourge angle hasn’t been central for the Forsaken PC development since Cata’s introduction of Gilneans.
I think the issue is not to double down on theme violation and actually play what makes the faction interesting instead of reinventing it?
Yes Cataclysm forsaken experiance was stupid, but that doesn’t excuse being raised by choice under the power of the light as an undead. If she didn’t have the option to return to her natural form and needed to become undead to return to life at all it would be different, but no, she CHOSE to become undead.
WoW has a nasty tendency to not treat curses like curses a lot of the time, Calia could have been a time to show why someone would even want to have a emotionally damaging curse put on them. Hell, this is just making me wish they did something other then kill Zelling. That would have been a super cool way to develop the forsaken while making other nations fear they’re becoming to much like the scourge, a Forsaken Cult of the Damned that let’s people brave the curse of undeath in return for a second chance at life. It’s more poignant then the mass raisings in cataclysm, while also not having the same brainwashing debates or completly doing away with the forsaken’s morality.
That’s easily fixed by the Light forsaking Calia sometime during Shadowlands and her becoming Natalie Seline pt 2, and maybe giving Natalie Seline a Forsaken model of some sort and make her a Forsaken character like she should’ve been.
Easy enough to do. We know from Alpha questing that the Light and Void have both tried to invade the Shadowlands. Have her be told by the Naaru to usurp the Shadowlands given she is Undead, and let her break from the Naaru as Sylvanas broke from the Lich King.
They had their chance, if they want to develop Calia to be more like the forsaken then ok, but as it stands she isn’t anything like them.
Calia needs a good deal more development before she could be considered for the role of forsaken leadership and i wish people will just stop saying “Give her a chance to be developed”. The possibility of her being developed in a way that would make forsaken players like her is highly unlikely given blizzards past track record. Especially Since Christie Golden, who I blame heavilly for the ruination of the characters Baine and Jaina, is her main writer. Golden has also proven to not get the Forsaken in the past, with BtS effectively redoing their society and making one of the most durable races in canon, afraid to clap their hands to hard.
Give Calia a chance ignores all the evidence that she won’t be able to be made compatable with forsaken themes. As she stands she is contradictory, and i do not want her in the Faction until those contradictions are ironed out.
Lilian? Hates being Undead, albeit has strong leadership and solidarity for the Undead. But she’s the one pushing for Calia in-game right now.
Velonara? Has not demonstrated any visible leadership skills. Post Sylvanas she claims both the Forsaken and the Sindorei as her people.
Aelthalyste or Natalie Seline? The former is a banshee and presumably an Arthas-raised High Elf Undead given she’s been around since Classic I believe. However everyone’s headcanon that the RPG lore of the Forsaken being all/majority followers of the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow was retcon’d with Legion’s develop of Natalie Seline, who wasn’t shown to be Forsaken allied at all either.
There’s Belmont yes, Apothecary Faranell too, but do you believe they’ll put a dude in charge of the Forsaken, thus having all the core races of the Horde be men primary leadership?
They want her to be developed into a Forsaken character while not being part of the Forsaken lmao
Everyone keeps complaining about “No Calia” while providing zero functional solutions given the current material existing plot and array of characters.
My solution is allow the forsaken to go leaderless for a bit. There are some undead who I feel fit the forsaken leadershipwise a lot more then anyone else.
Helcular is the biggest one, he proved in the Legion invasion of Hillsbrad to be a pretty effective leader. Yes he is a man but I don’t really care what gender the Forsaken leader is, just if they’d be a good fit for leader.
In the end though i think one thing that could work best for the forsaken, at least in the Interrum period, is a Council. I don’t so much need a central character for the forsaken at the moment and a Council could exist with several candidates on it until one can be elected “High Councillor” and effectively be the proper racial leader, with the other Councillors having political sway in canon but not be the races figurehead, hopefully avoiding another council of three hammers like scenario. that way we can see what forsaken players actually want.
I really like the idea of a council. Desolate Council 2.0.
I like Calia and agree she needs development. But I like Calia because she’s like a Disney Princess in World of Warcraft. She’s outrageously inexperienced to lead. She appears to be too kind hearted, heck it got her killed. She is very naive about the politics of the world.
But I think this is a good start to an origin story (new origin since she’s now newly undead).
The Menethil name is a good foundation to build/rebuild Forsaken society after Sylvanas leaves. It has recognition in both the Horde side and the Alliance side. Not just for Arthas, but also for King Terenas Menethil.
I know it won’t happen, but I really hope if they clean up the Undercity, we get a quest where we walk with Calia Menethil and Voss through this newly cleaned up Undercity and Voss explains the function of each part of the city to her. Explain how despite it’s wear and tear, the Forsaken have made this place a home. Explain how the Cult of Shadow was a response to the lack of the Light. Explain all the things that make the Forsaken the Forsaken. Then take a representative from the Apothocaries, the Cult of Shadows, and other sectors and place them on this council so that Calia can learn about her people.
Then have this council decide on things. The final say falls upon Calia, but she is inform upon things and is guided by her people instead of merely leading them.
Again I know it won’t happen. But I really just want to see Calia walk through the undercity trying to greet an abomination guard and not knowing what to do lol.
Calia Menethil could be a great character and can expand Forsaken lore so much. Because this is an opprotunity to tell the Forsaken story through her. Whereas Sylvanas used to Forsaken to tell her story.
Same way Alleria was resisting the Void before becoming void infused via consuming a Darkened Naaru. Or same way they put Rezan and Rastakhan front and center only to kill both. Or how Voljin was made warchief only to do nothing all of WoD and be killed immediately after. It’s what blizzard does. Knee jerk plot twists for shock factor.
Have Lilian represent the Humans, Velonara represent the Helves, Delaryn represent the Nelves. A super epic Girl Council invoking all of Forsaken history.
You know forsaken use the light too right, do people not play the game, blizzard themselves said forsaken still believe in the light and use it, just most of them turned to the shadows
Cdev has described an undead using the Light to heal as being akin to being cauterized. It does the job, but boy does it sting.
The Light is a natural weapon against undead, but if your intent is to heal, it’ll mend the wounds, just as turning holy fire against the living has the potential to be lethal.
Yeah I read somewhere a few years back that if Undead heal themselves with the Light they start to become aware of their rotting flesh and it freaks them out.
Like they can feel stuff crawling around since everyone knows you guys have insects inside of you.
Why is this such a sticking point for you? They’re clearly given a “non-core race” leader (Telanji) some spotlight. There’s also Thalysra, who got some light with Loth’Remar. What difference does it make if the Forsaken leader is male?
