Okay friends, hear me out. I’m out of touch with this particular aspect of the lore and I would like someone to explain to me, in layman’s terms, this specific interaction.
1.) I am aware that void and shadow are often regarded as the same thing. Are they?
2.) I am aware of what each of these elements are individually, but I really need someone to explain warlocks to me. I’m fairly well-versed in WoW’s lore, but I don’t get it. I never have, tbh. What is the nature of a warlock’s shadow magic? Fel-infused shadow/void?
3.) How do void elves fit into all of this I wonder?
Here are my uneducated answers to my own questions, please correct me where I am wrong:
1.) Not exactly, void is pure void and shadow is negative energy. They may be similar in nature but different in construction, that’s how I interpret it.
2.) My interpretation of a warlock would be using fel-magic to create a type of energy that imitates the power of the void, called shadow for convenience’s sake. The Royal Crown to Pepsi, so to speak.
3.) Void elves bridge the gap and void elf warlocks are able to use pure void in conjunction with straight fel magic.
Thoughts? Comments? Enlightenment? Please, elaborate. I am fairly out of the loop with lore post-BFA outside of major story beats and more widespread knowledge. Much obliged.
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- For the academic, yes. There is an important disparity between lore and game mechanics here. Spells that are categorized into the Shadow category originate from Void energy sources, though based on certain interpretations of how energies cycle, one could technically produce spells that mimic the effects of shadow magic using other energy sources (see Druids of the Thorn/Drust). In-game mechanics, however, clump spells together based on their effect and broader categories, so a Death magic powered spell and a void magic powered spell have the same effect and would therefore both be considered ‘Shadow’.
- For WoW player Warlocks, its assumed for most quests that they dabble in a bit of everything, but most powers draw from Destruction energy (They study and adapt anything that grants them power, Fel magic is fairly easy to get into for lots of effect.). One of the fairly ambiguous revelations from Shadowlands is that Necromancy is not always the result of Death Magic - different energy sources can replicate the effects of other types of magic with their own twist. Much the same, Fel magic, as seen with Soul Engines, breaks things down to get to the juicy energy inside, so the ability to draw out constituent energies would be easier for those practicing Fel magic to master, particularly something as fluid as Void energy. Some Warlocks do tap into the Void. Others do not and achieve the same effect using Chaos/Fel.
- Void Elf Warlocks, much like other Warlocks, would therefore tap into whatever offers them more power, or is easier. Tastes may vary.
I think the majority of the issue is that the mechanical issue of ‘Shadow’ damage and lack of clear distinction of what power source certain characters or spells are tapping into makes it all bleed together. I personally go for the interpretation that there is no barrier to mixing and matching. With sufficient understanding of the fundamentals of each type of energy, a single individual could technically with enough time and skill generate a ‘fireball’ from any source. The major issue is that no mortal has sufficient time or resources to get anywhere close to that level of mastery.
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Great questions. Meirneth is pretty solid with answers, but I like to hear my own voice, so I’ll chime in.
- At some point, they started getting really weird with shadow/void. Before…I think Legion? Shadow and Void weren’t as interchangeable. In terms of priests, for example? The deepest Shadow wasn’t a whole Void thing. It was more - I remember reading something that pointed out that Shadow Magic used mental spells, which I thought was cool. Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Control, Psychic Scream. Then, they went in a new, weird direction, and shadow priests went full uulwi ifis halahs gag erh’ongg w’ssh. That’s just kind of a personal gripe I have, though, if I’m being honest.
And I agree with your assessment, too. Shadow is like the absence of Light, and Void is…well, Void. A friend mentioned that with, like, Elune and night elf priests? That kind of thing. I think it’s something where they’re very, very closely related, but not the exact same. Shadow is tiptoeing that line to going too far, y’know?
- One of the kind of cool things about WoW that a (different) friend points out is that ‘demons’ in WoW are actually interstellar space aliens. And the Twisting Nether, the source of fel energy (I may be mistaken, but I think this is in the ballpark) is located in outer space. Or ‘The Great Dark Beyond’. And since outer space has a lot of nothing, or negative energy as you put it, there’s probably a fair amount of it there, woven into things.
I’m talking in circles even to myself, so…I think my short answer is ‘The same place where fel magic is sourced has a bunch of shadow magic, too. So, it’s easy to borrow some of that for those abilities.’
- One important thing to keep mind is that void elves did not choose to be void elves. This is the result of a process to turn them into creatures of the void. I bring that up because it wasn’t a case where all of them were trying to study void to use in combat, and went in it thinking ‘I’m going to use a void way to do X’. It was more ‘This happened, but it turns out I can still do this or that’. I will admit I kind of like the small detail that their racial is not something they can choose to do. It just…happens.
So, yeah, void elves can use void magic because that’s part of who they are, the same way that draenei can heal, or blood elves can arcane torrent.
Anyway, that’s just my theory, mind you. I am far from an expert.
I agree, though I 100% understand why they do it like this. It does give us some freedom to RP though, so…I’m all for it.
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