I don’t see how Calia goes against everything the forsaken are.
At first they were mindless slaves and then they got their freedom mentally.
Now they are being freed in body.
It seems like the natural progression to me.
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Sadly, the only rule Blizzard cares about anymore is the Rule of Cool. And it has been repeatedly tearing down the story since WoD…maybe even since Garrosh blew up the Vale in 5.4.
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She has not gone through the same experiences they’ve gone through the last 15 or so years; she outright invalidates them. For some within the Forsaken that may be fine; but for others … those 15 years make all the difference in the world to their identities and culture. Its a similar vein between the Blood Elves and High Elves … its truly amazing how much a little over a decade can change people (and their expectations of the world).
Calia Menethil becoming the leader of the Forsaken is essentially stating that those VERY important (and yes, horrific, but formative) years are simply not important … and they should be washed away to shove another Menethil on the throne. There are likely undead who could still be considered HER PEOPLE, but there are likely MANY within the Forsaken who have long since ceased to be (and that doesn’t make them irredeemable, it just means that their life-experiences have changed them).
Give Calia an Undead AR for the Alliance; leave the Forsaken and their fate to use Hordies (if you want Sylvie’s head on a pike though, take it … you can have her).
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This - “Why did The Light™ forsake me but raise her? Why should I follow this thing?”
The “Accept this Naaru-raised Menethil as your Queen!” stuff should be met by the Horde with the same response Illidan gave when he was “offered” his “gift”.
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Because if you don’t not only your body decays beyond salvation but also when you die die you go to the shadowlands and be tormented for all time.
If you follow Calia you avoid all of that. You’re welcome.
Forsaken
Light forged forsaken
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You don’t know that? And the idea that Blizz would create a Light Based undead without side-effects is absurd (Death should and likely will never be portrayed as a cure all like that in this setting). Calia’s existence is liable to have VAST ramifications beyond the Forsaken … and the Shadowlands and how they operate are one of THE most unknown factors in this game (we can’t even be sure the afterlife Sylvie saw was a charade, or her actual one … considering we’ve seen Death Entities being FULLY capable of stealing souls from their destined locals).
In BTS it was said Calia was unlike any undead since. She was raised different so why would she be thrown into the shadowlands when the light has a hold of her?
If anything becoming light forged guarantees that every undead forged in the light will go to the light when they die just like those forsaken humans were originally supposed to.
This sounds like a win win scenario for the forsaken.
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I suggest you don’t engage in lore talk if you don’t know about the lore.
Who says the Forsaken need to be redeemed?
Maybe some of them don’t want to be Forsaken, but want to be rebuilt by the Light?
What you’re looking at with Calia, is a way to possibly make both Forsaken on one side, and Reforged (for lack of a better term) on the other.
Shadow and Light are opposites. Who says that only Shadow has the power to reanimate the dead?
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Death is still a domain of this universe, and a pillar equivalent to Light.
The Shadowlands may be the most obvious extension of it (one we know VERY little about), but it would be foolish to deify the power of the Light to such an extent that you underestimate the power of Death. Calia is STILL an undead, no matter how LIGHT based she may be … which means the Shadowlands will still have some sort of hold on her.
Also, as a side note, the ONLY one that Sylvanas has told about the afterlife she experienced is Nathanos (and STILL we don’t know how legitimate her experience really is). The Forsaken are not aware of any potential hell she might be sentencing them to … so they don’t have the impetus to fall in line behind Calia (when she also promises no such garauntees … sorry).
The only thing we have is Sylvanas’ account.
Bwonsamdi has not indicated anything that what she experienced is total hogwash.
But if what she saw is true it seems the forces that be can grab souls and take them in their own version of afterlife. IE night elves going to nature gods and humans/draenei going to light god or whatever it is.
It kind of reminds me of how afterlife works in Divinity Original Sin where each god accumulates souls in their version of afterlife to increase their own power.
Except that it doesn’t.
Calia Menethil was literally alive in Legion, so she’s not ‘old dead and buried’ and neither is her claim to the throne.
No doubt they’re going to fix the Lore they created to make it fit their story.
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”The weight of such a burden…it must be mine, for there is no other…”
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Its certainly possible, but the Shadowlands are intended to be the counter to the Emerald Dream. Death and Life domains are the balancing systems, Lights counter is the Void. It is also the ONE world and domain in this franchise that has barely been touched upon … and we’ve only just recently started interacting with denizens of that grey-scale world. Just like with Sylvie’s afterlife … I’m not going to make too many assumptions about the plane of Death (beyond the harsh reality that its VERY possible that like with the Dream … they’ve been tainted by the Old Gods).
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This is my take, too, that OG taint has spread to other realms.
Congratulations, you played yourself.
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I was chatting about this earlier with a friend of mine. Having her called “undead” while being infused with the light goes against lore. Wowpedia even says that it’s possible for them to use the light.
While it is possible for them to use or be healed by the Light to its full effect like any living humanoid, it is accompanied by intense pain, making it require notable willpower to suffer through. Though painful, this does not cause any actual harm or damage on their undead bodies, even over long periods of time. In fact, some Forsaken with persistent contact with the Light over many years have even started to experience a return of their senses, which is not a pleasant experience given their rotted state.
So while they can use it to be made by it, forged in it, consumed by it would cause hella pain constantly. Something that I think after a while would cause serious damage to the mind.
That being said… there are types of undead out there that aren’t really “Undead”.
- Wisps: “undead” night elves that have become one with the forests, they are more like nature… spirits(?)
- Val’kyr: “undead” warriors taken by odyn, from the shadowlands, and fused with the light to serve him
- Gargoyle: they are typed as undead in WoW and W3 but in the RPG they are considered proto-golems so
- Lich: While it is 100% undead, they aren’t undead also… due to the fact they their souls are bound to objects instead of themselves. hence why they don’t look like rotting versions of theirselves.
All that said there’s one form of undead that wow hasn’t explored and I think fits for Calia… Deathless. In D&D terms, a creature that’s Deathless, is a pseudo-undead that have been returned to life or had their life prolonged by divine influence, power, or chance (died in a place where a divine being/power has touched.) And with the Naaru essentially being divine beings of the Light, having Calia be deathless would help explain why she isn’t decomposed/ing. She’s not rotting like a typical undead because she’s not undead. She’s mummified(ish) like that of a deathless creature. This would also help with the light forging, pale skin, no rot, and her ability to be totally engrossed by the light and not be in mind searing pain constantly. Just food for thought.
Edit: Reposted cause Imma dumb a** and forum stupid… attempted to edit post and clicked delete… then deleted again cause I was too stupid to figure out how to save it… so…