I recently wanted to get into a Priest. I enjoy the idea of Holy and Discipline as they seem fun to play honestly. A pure healer in Holy and a middle ground in Discipline it would seem. My question stems from, what is the identity of a priest from a lore perspective? On both specs sides of that question.
Also, in lore, what/who are the toughest priests and how much power do they actually hold against people like Illidan, Khadgar, Sargeras, and those magnitudes of power levels? Velen is a name that comes to mind when I think of big priests but can he hold a candle to these other power levels?
As for Pandaren, they are just a race I enjoy to play. Running around as a Pandaren is just fun to me. I understand them as Monks, but as a priest what would make them want to become one and where do they get their power from? The same as all priests? More so with Discipline and Holy as Shadow for me isnt a spec that I fully enjoy to play, just from a playstyle standpoint but if you got info on them too would love to hear it.
Hope my mess of words was clear enough to have a question out of lol. Enjoy your day and thank you in advance
Pandaren Priests are followers of the August Celestials and draw a lot of inspiration from Taoism, with the Light and the Void basically being equivalent to Yin and Yang.
Thank you both for the response. Its cool to see how they follow the August Celestials as their inspiration. When I think of Holy I think the Naaru mainly because the only Priest I really know is Velen. Been a melee for like 15+ years and getting into the caster/healer of priest has me pretty excited. Thanks again.
Before WoW’s cosmology was completely, and utterly borked beyond all recognition there was a quest in MoP where you help the spirit of a Pandaren priest get the tortured souls of Pandaren that, iirc, have been captured and kept by the Mogu in the area, to move on. He presumably uses the Light to help them move on using something called the “Bridge to Heaven” or something along those lines. This stands out to me because it does imply that Pandaren do have some sort idea of the afterlife and some sort of organized religion that isn’t necessarily based on the Holy Light as the humans know it, but they do still use Light magic.
Here’s my take: The reason why the Light is so ubiquitous as a power among priest is because Light responds to certain emotional desires that would be present in most organized religions. Hope, courage, beneficence, all the traditionally ‘good’ desires that people tend to rally to.
So Pandaren worship the August Celestials, but still use the Light, because in the service to those August Celestials they gain the power to channel the Light, their emotional desires reflect the values of those August Celestials. They don’t necessarily receive their power directly from the Celestials aside from specific boons placed upon them by said Celestials, but instead through their worship.
In this way, you could think of the human’s Church of the Holy Light as a church to the sky, or air, or fire, or any other natural force. Because that is what Light is, a fundamental cosmic force of nature.
Priest is my favorite class thematically because of how varied they appear for each race. Every race has a unique flavor of Priest but unfortunately the recent mechanical changes with Legion align the abilities to pure Light/Void so some of the themes get lost unless you really go digging into that races specific lore.
As others have mentioned, the Pandaren typically revere the August Celestials but Priests show up in both the Temples for Yu’lon AND Chi-ji in particular. Should be noted that Anduin (a Priest) was studying under Chi-Ji for a time and although not outright stated, Chi-Ji also has a few abilities that could be associated with the Light (Inspiring Song, Beacon of Hope). I can see the Pandaren maybe using the August Celestials (particularly Chi-Ji) as a conduit for their faith similar to how Zandalari Prelates do so with the Loa.
Pandaren culture also has a heavy emphasis on balance, be that elementals, spirits or energies so I can’t see why Light/Shadow would be any different in that respect. One could also make a case for a Pandaren Shadow Priest using the Sha as a source for their power perhaps.
If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, there are also some notable Pandaren priests through MoP questing. One that comes to mind immediately is Yalia Sagewhisper who is both part of the Shado-Pan and the Conclave. (The Azerothian Priesthood order.)