As a person who plays these classes (as a main and alt respectively), I’m very much interested in their lore. I’d like to learn more about where Monks derive their power, and any relationship it may have to Shamanism. To me, it’s very clear where Shaman derive their abilities, that is, the five elemental spirits, other spirits of the natural world, and their ancestors.
Monks are more blurry. I can understand that Brewmasters use booze to withstand damage; I can understand how Windwalkers manipulate Chi (which means life force, so the element of Spirit/Life) to deal damage, but I’m not so clear on Mistweaver.
What exactly is the Mist they wield, and does it have any canonic relationship to the element of Water? Am I insane to think that Windwalkers might have a relationship with the element of Air, and Mistweavers to Water?
Is it a coincidence that Monks also have Storm, Earth, and Fire as an ability?
*Mistweavers are unique among those who heal. The energies they channel are mysterious, oftentimes misunderstood by commoners—who rarely travel beyond the borders of their homelands—as some form of folk medicine. But those who weave the mists wield the power of life’s essence, using a mixture of preventative and restorative spells to mend their allies’ wounds. The inner tranquility that guides mistweavers allows them to sustain their healing for long periods of time, and gives them the strength to care for multiple injured allies.
I figure ‘the mist’ is just a further manipulation of spirit energy, and related medical practices.
Chi is the same thing as Spirit, the fifth element, the element of life, that shamans use to commune with the main four. I assume monk mist is pure Spirit, though water may also be mixed in. Things like BM’s breath of fire is probably done exactly like how shamans use fire spells, since both classes use Spirit.
Basically as I understand it, monks are a specialized form of melee shaman when you get down to it.
Guys. They have wild gods as patrons and use nature magic. They’re druids who do martial arts instead of transform.
Also druids and shamans are splinters from similar concepts in other fantasy and real world practices. WoW classes make fluid concepts far too rigid sometimes and I resent them for it.
The August Celestials and Monks in general have no known connection to the Emerald Dream, so I don’t agree that they are related to druids.
Druids don’t have the monopoly on Wild Gods, or even nature magic in general. Other classes have been seen drawing upon Wild Gods or working for them in some way. Talanji drew her Light power from Rezan, a WIld God, but she’s a priest.
Heck, using druidic magic doesn’t even make you a druid, according to Chronicles. Only a connection to the Emerald Dream doesn.
I’m curious, just in general. Aren’t the August Celestials at least connected to the Dream from Freya’s actions? Thought they were on the list in The Chronicle.
Looking at Chronicles, they are on the list of Wild Gods, but doesn’t say they were among those connected to the dream, they just appeared on the list. Though I can see how it might imply it.
I’'m not going to assume they have any Dream ties until we actually see it.
I mean, are all Wild Gods tied to the Dream? Even the troll ones? The two are seperate from one another after all, the existance of the Wild Gods is not reliant on the Dream.
It seems a rather significant implication. They are both on the list next to the mentioned linking and we know Freya had a relationship with them, having gifted the Brewmaster Monk staff to them. But I can see it either way, for sure. They’ve not exhibited anything special with the Dream.
I think that would relate more to the problematic conflation The Chronicle intentionally has with Wild Gods and Loa. That said, no, I would say you could be a Wild God not linked to the Dream as the term Wild God refers to them as such before that point.
Dream connections aside, Celestials also don’t seem to teach monks in the same ways that Wild Gods do their Druids. Wild Gods are a lot more nature-oriented, and with much more importance placed on the animal itself. On the other hand the forms of the Celestials seem almost irrelevant (at least in the literal sense), and they focus primarily on imparting wisdom that would help their students better focus and harness their Spirit, and as well as just be better people in general.
Basically Wild Gods help us understand the natural world and its creatures, whereas Celestials help us better understand ourselves.
Although it’s unclear in a canonical sense, in my humble opinion the August Celestials are just wild gods of a different label (like Loa, although they are a different topic) thus more or less have some connection to the Dream. I don’t recall an instance in which they’ve ever visited the Dream, but their spirits are timeless and values are ageless, much like the other wild gods.
I don’t think the August Celestials are tied to the Dream, since if they were then Yu’lon wouldn’t need to do her statue reincarnation thing, she could just be reborn via the Dream. Though that make sit odd that Freya never tied them to it, since she definitely knew of them as seen in the Brewmaster artifact’s story.
Chronicle 3 changed that to the Nightmare was infecting the temple before the remnants of the Atal’Ai arrived in vanilla, and when they did they used Hakkar’s blood to add another layer of corruption on top of the Nightmare.
Since Hakkar was in the Shadowlands in Cata ZG, I don’t think he’s tied to the Dream either.
The statue could just be a faster means of rebirth, given she has a new corporeal form immediately upon death. Whereas reforming in in the Dream takes indeterminate time, but can often seem quite long for some Wild Gods.