I’m sure such a thing is possible but how might it happen?
Here’s the scenario I was thinking - Perhaps an elf was killed by an especially sadistic Death Knight during the Third War in such a way as to have her spirit come back as a banshee. Then, perhaps that Death Knight dominated her undead mind and used her as a minion for a bit before forcing her back into her dead body as it was being raised into Undeath as a Death Knight.
I was also wondering how Undeath effects banshees themselves, seeing as how they’re really just naturally occurring spirits, in a sense. Surely its different to other undead seeing as how they don’t actually have a body in their banshee form? Or is it that, as banshees, their souls are imperfectly attached to a specific place due to the trauma they experienced there? That would explain why some of the ones we encounter across the Broken Isles are sort of bound to certain locations but that also brings up that fact that many were made into minions of the Scourge, being mobilized all over the place during the Third War. That could just be because the Lich King had them under his command but I’m not sure about that. If, instead of being bound to a body they were bound to a place, it doesn’t make sense that they’d be able to leave that place because they’d be using it as a pseudo host in the place of an actual body and, unlike a body, places can’t move (most of the time).
Idk, I may be overthinking this. I appreciate all responses.
Personally I think Shadow Priest is a better class choice for a banshee RPer: they get psychic scream and other abilities related to intangible, psychic attacks, and they can go shadow form to signify their being in intangible banshee form!
Then again death knights’ Breath of Sindragosa can also kinda resemble a banshee scream, kind of?
As to your proposed backstory that sounds like something that definitely could happen! Will your banshee be angry the death knight that did this to her and seek revenge? Or would she take the viewpoint that everyone was under the scourge’s control and was not themselves?
I don’t really care about the in game abilities of the character as that doesn’t much affect RP for me.
Also, it’s more just speculation right now. I don’t have all of the specifics ironed out just yet but I would imagine with how tormented she would be, it would be more of the former.
You could always be a Kaldorei DK whose soul became a Banshee, but was rebound when raised into a Banshee. Sorta like a Death Knight with more Banshee like abilities.
Going over the Wowpedia page and recalling some half remembered things there doesn’t seem to be a lot of particular details on banshees. Their most defining feature, besides their abilities, seems to be that a lot of them are just rather angry.
One might assume that they share most of the limitations of any incorporeal undead without a body alongside their more peculiar capabilities; possession and sonic attacks.
I doubt they are ‘physically’ bound to places, though they could be mentally; in the sense that those not entirely aware will likely stay in one place because they lack mind for anything more, as would be common for most mindless undead.
In regards to the scenario you presented it seems pretty sound to me. I personally doubt a banshee who has reclaimed their body would be a true Death Knight but that is, of course, just a matter of personal opinion.
I also personally think a Death Knight using their knowledge and magic to emulate banshee abilities could be just as interesting. I personally toyed with the idea for my Blood Elf DK.
On a slightly related note I’ve also contemplated the idea of a banshee being able to inhabit corpses by peculiar means. I had an arc I was planning with another DK of mine, who has a banshee as a companion, wherein she attempts to provide the banshee with a new body, her own having been long lost, by slaying a family member and bind the banshee to her body.
The point you made about there not being a lot of particular details is where most of my problems lie in regards to this issue.
Assuming, as I am, that banshees are the literal souls of fallen female elves manifested as malevolent spirits, it should theoretically be possible to raise an elf into Undeath as a banshee, then raise her once more as a full-blown Death Knight.
The first instance of raising for this scenario would entirely affect the spirit as she would be risen into Undeath as an “incorporeal” undead, leaving her body entirely unaffected. The second instance of raising would then be a sort of vile simulation of how resurrection works in the first place. However, instead of pulling the soul from the Shadowlands, it would pull that already awakened, undead soul back into the body.
All of this entirely depends on how raising something into different types of Undeath affects the soul in the first place since all we really know is that the connection between the soul and the body in an undead creature is “fractured.” That scenario I just mentioned also brings up the matter of whether or not a body who’s soul has left it is even connected to that soul anymore, potentially rendering the second resurrection meaningless as the soul has already been risen without a body.
I’m not sure. I usually come up with character concepts that utilizes some vague lore but, in this case, most of what the character would be based around is just entirely unknown as of right now.
Given the examples we have, namely Sylvanas and the Dark Rangers, it could be speculated that a banshee may possess some connection to their body as it seems to be the only inanimate body banshees are even depicted as inhabiting. Admittedly that all assumes that all Dark Rangers are indeed banshees and the bodies they currently inhabit were originally their own; its more than nothing, either way.
I always assumed that generally nothing extra is required for a banshee to inhabit their own body. If such a think where to take place, that is the re-reanimation you described, the most palatable possibility I can think of (or rather the closest thing I could compare it to) would be with Forsaken Death Knights; assuming they were indeed raised into undeath on two separate occasions.
I can’t help but feel like raising someone as one form of undead just to raise them again as another is overcomplicating things, but I am assuming a lot here. The very idea of that is largely unexplored but I can’t imagine it would be particularly practical. On another slightly related note I imagine the process would add to the soul in question’s torment, though that thought is based on little to nothing.
I didn’t realize it before but what you said about over complicating things here is very true. I’ve probably just gotten caught up in the character concept.
I don’t really agree with the idea of all banshees having an inherent connection to their bodies because if they did, one would imagine all of them would just inhabit their body once more. Seeing how Sylvanas can use her banshee abilities in her physical form, it’s not a stretch to assume all banshees with bodies can do the same. And if that’s true, there’d be literally no reason for a banshee to not inhabit her body.
Also, your final point is not at all based on nothing. Seeing how the act of raising someone into Undeath a single time affects their humanity, it’s not at all a stretch to assume those who have been forced to endure such an experience twice would lose even more of their humanity.
Regardless, I have a blood elf hunter so I may just give RPing a Dark Ranger a try. I don’t think I’m going to reach a point of stability with this type of character’s backstory to feel comfortable RPing it.
There could be other reasons as to why not every banshee simply reclaims their body. It could be damaged beyond practical use, for example; or otherwise unrecoverable.
Yea, I was going to mention that but I figured it would be somewhat of a rare occurrence, even for a banshee. How often does one die in a manner as to have their body damaged beyond use? You’d have to be literally burned alive or something to that effect.
I figure that it could factor into the circumstances of the banshee’s creation or their situation afterward. Perhaps the means by which they died entailed a lot of bodily damage. There are also likely older cases where their body might’ve naturally aged to an unusable state before the opportunity to reclaim it.
There could also be cases of outside meddling, like priests or paladins consecrating the body, which I imagine would make uninhabitable. I’m primarily basing this one on a quest near Light’s Hope where you’re tasked with burying consecrated blades in fallen zombies to prevent them from rising again. Similar measures, as well as cremation, could be taken for any corpse especially in Scourge heavy areas.
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