I don’t think the Calia hate has anything to do with Xera. I can’t recall Xera even coming up in Calia discussions.
I wouldn’t say Xera “poisoned the Lightwell” for fans or made the Light as a whole objectionable to the Playerbase. People still enjoy the Light just fine. They are just more aware that that the Light is capable of evil as well as good.
Calia has her own issues, which going into detail could really derail the thread… but it proves my point - the Light isn’t always about Xera.
Far as I can tell, most of the Calia hate was Horde fans thinking she’s an Alliance agent, Forsaken fans not liking a Menethil (or anyone besides Sylvanas) leading the faction or both disliking her for not being edgy enough for their tastes. Though there were WoW fans who drank Blizzard’s “Light bad now” kool aid and distrusted Calia for that reason.
I know the Light’s not always about Xe’ra, but that was a major turning point for the fanbase given the rabid support Afrasiabi’s power fantasy got.
It sounds like you are teasing out negativity from somewhere it may not be. There are reasons to be leery about Calia, beyond what you mentioned.
There was word from on high (I believe it was Golden herself but I don’t have the quote) that Blizzard wanted a Lightforged Undead first , and later Golden suggested Calia - when it could have been anyone.
Meaning that Calia aside - and more to the point - the concept of a Lightforged Undead Character was the original goal, but for what purpose? If Calia can just be swapped into that place, what was the original purpose?
For my part, that is where I am leery about Calia. Did Blizzard want a Lightforged Undead to help tone down the Forsaken, or to be a future agent of an antagonistic Light force?
While what you’re saying is another reason and a fair question, that doesn’t disprove my point.
It actually ties into what I said about some fans drinking the “Light bad now” kool aid; as a result of that, they assume or suspect Calia is “a future agent of an antagonistic Light force”. I, for one, refuse to drink Afrasiabi’s pigswill.
I wonder if this “Lightforged warlock” is an attempt to step back from that fanaticism arc given it’s the brainchild of the lawsuit’s worst offender (like renaming Overwatch’s Jesse McCree as Cole Cassidy - and making McCree his criminal alias, clever 
- but on a larger scale).
This is despite the fact that light is indeed bad for undead
You noticed that plot hole, too?
Just like how the Light is capable of resurrection without making people undead, adding another plot hole (unless that’s just for gameplay).
You say “Light bad now” but that is not what is shown. Perhaps “Light isn’t always good, it can be bad” is the lesson.
People are leery about Calia because she is clearly an agent of some sort. Whether an agent of the Light, an agent to make the Forsaken more “Human”, or some other negative thing. I understand most - if not all - fictional characters are tools to move a story forward, or to color the tale. But Calia comes off as one of those robot crabs they send into the ocean to hang out with the regular crabs. Contrived with purpose that remains unclear, to catalyze something - and that makes her suspicious as a character.
You focus on the suspicion about the light, when there is general suspicion and mistrust about the character “Calia” both in the lore and among the fan base in real life, for tons of reasons.
there is 101 reasons to dislike calia and i hold several of them, but that is a whole other thread
Light being harmful to undead isn’t “some plot hole”, it’s one of the pillars of their appeal as a playable race.
10 years later
Forsaken NPC’s are outside the ruins of Undercity with rebuilding efforts. A player walks up to Calia standing in the same spot she has been at since Shadowlands and clicks on her
“How can I assist you?”
the player clicks on her again
“I stand ready to help.”
I wasn’t calling that a plot hole, I was saying Calia being a Lightforged undead despite Light being harmful to undead is a plot hole.
The fact remains people latching onto to Afrasaiabi’s anti-Light kool aid added more suspicion about Calia.
Incorrect. There is suspicion about Calia for many reasons, and her association with the Light is one way it could manifest. As is her association as a Menethil. She has a lot of reasons for folks to be suspicious about her.
Blizzard acknowledged as much by pointing out that she isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms by all the Forsaken.
That is different than saying a departed developer is controlling the fan base to hate the Light.
It has been a thrust since at least WoD with the Evergrowth that any of the cosmic forces taken to an extreme goes Very Bad For Us. We need them all in balance for things to be ok for us. Since then they have ramped it up for sure, but it began well before they turned over the creative keys to Afrasaiabi.
It is not even that any of the cosmic forces are BAD—It is that they are compelled to act according to their own natures; morality and the ability to choose is really a mortal thing. Good and Evil are wholly outside of their wheelhouse.
WoD was Afrasiabi’s first expansion in the director’s chair, where he sent what you’re describing into overdrive.
I just pointed out another suspicion about Calia after I addressed the main ones.
The reason the light is harmful to undead, as Blizzard explained, is that their souls are not attached properly or they’re completely missing when they’re reanimated. That’s what happens when a being is raised into undeath via bog standard necromancy. The soul is either partially there or completely missing, and so when those undead are touched by the light it burns them.
Calia was not resurrected through bog standard necromancy. She was resurrected via a the holy light, through a powerful ritual that involved both Anduin and Faol, along with the assistance of a Naaru. That’s why she looks completely different from your standard Forsaken and why she can use the light with no ill effects.
The reason it is harmful to Undead according to Blizzard is that it is imperfectly attached with Dark Magics which of course are usually Nathrezim Death Magic or Void Magic.
The Holy Light Magic painfully attacks these Dark Magics(making the Undead feel as if they are on fire and wish they would explode) then replaces them with Holy Light Magic while strengthening the link allowing the Undead to feel the Maggots and Rot on their body.
Faol has been using Light Magic so long that he no longer feels pain when exposed to it as shown in the Before the Storm Novel. The imperfect link born of Dark Magics has been completely replaced with a perfect link born of Holy Light Magic which means yes he is constantly feeling the rot in his body due to his efforts and yes has gotten used to it.
Calia was straight up raised by Holy Light Magic which yes means creating a perfect tether between the Soul and the Body since there is no reason to not create one.
So why was Calia made undead when the Light had the power to make her properly alive again? Or is the lore separate from in-game resurrection mechanics? It also raises the question of how Lightforged Draenei were able to be made undead; how do you explain that?
lightforged dont make sense
ppl defend anything at this point. its like one step above undead paladin (which is coming soon because of Calia)
IIRC, she was supposed to be raised as a living human, but Calia specifically wanted to come back as an undead “in order to better understand her people”. The light didn’t fail at raising her, but accommodated her wish to be that way. It’s part of what makes her character so barf-worthy.
The lich king was a extremely powerful death entity and could basically raise anyone he wanted