UPDATED Story Approaches, RP and Lore for Orc Priests

Wyrmrest Accord
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In our regular Shadowmoon time line, the orcs dabbled with the “Dark Star”. After seeing what it did to the shaman who looked too deeply they forbid ever touching it again. It was labeled as evil, and strictly forbidden at the risk of exile. Then they went back to only focusing on the stars and the elements.

The AU Shadowmoon would have had the same story, but rather than Ner’zhul giving into Kil’jaeden pretending to be his mate (because she was still alive in this time line), he instead fell into desperation to save his clan and broke their law of not tampering too far into darkness of the void.

This caused the AU orcs to split. Rulkan became Chieftain basically and the Shadowmoon Exiles held onto the tradition of never delving into the shadows again.

Every Shadow Priest/Priestess in WoD was a hostile enemy mob.
Now, if you’re using the term differently in reference to Shadowmoon clan more inline with the darkness of night and moon…maybe. But they would be misrepresenting themselves I feel.

Now, is it totally out of the realm of possibilites that an AU Mag’har could be attempting to try and be an shaman and deal with the shadow and balance something that was forbidden?

Not at all.

But it must be approached with the full acknowledgment that this was against their own clans beliefs and law for good reason. The shaman who looked too deep into the void began abusing and desecrating their own spirits and ancestors, who are the most important aspect too shamanism. So if you approach this narrative with the understanding they are doing something controversial and could possibly have them seen as going against their own clan, then fully possible (no matter what other character may say to you that makes it seem okay. Some people don’t know the full weight of these choices and may just hand wave it IC. Keep to your story, let it keep its weight. The importance of your story telling be seen and effect other players)

A Shadowmoon shaman will most likely be a “priest” or mystic of his clans beliefs. In reverence to the moon, the understanding of the stars and their conversation with the ancestors. There will also be a leaning to enjoy the night time more for these reasons hence the name…Shadowmoon. Since they always lived in the shadow of the moon.

You could always go the route of an orc attempting to reconnect to their shamanic roots after being forcibly converted to the Light or accepting the light thinking they use Shadow in a desperate attempt to connect to the night. But it won’t end up being what they want. The shadow in terms of light rely a lot on fear, instinct, chaos and darkness and often drive people to mindness if not understood.

So there is always a potential to try and approach anything you want, but I think even on the Iron Horde, nothing of what they were doing were good and would not be the shaman they once were. They might even be dark shaman at that point, which would be even more of a no-no.

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Hijacking the thread slightly but what about Nightborne priests? They didn’t have any Elune worship that I know of or can remember. Would they have had clerics for their version of the moon wells (I forget what they are called)? Or would they have just been like ancestral priest-monks kinda like the Buddhists?

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lorewise, i feel like shaman fill the role of priest

like its just a different name for the same thing

kinda like how Blood Knights and Sunwalkers are called paladins

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Nightborne can’t be shamans (yet), or do you just mean calling them shamans as a priest?

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hm, i missed a few posts.

i was talking about orcs lol

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Oh ok I was really confused! lol

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From what I know, I think there are small references in the form of easy to ignore items with flavor text or areas that show that there may be people who still believed and do believe in Elune? I’m unsure myself. I know that Suramar had some sort of focus to Elune in the past, and I would not be surprised if people did not give up all those thousands of years. Faith is not always about seeing.

When that bubble went up, I’d imagine that the mere idea that Elune was still there, outside, was comforting. The idea that maybe every night, she rose up to just see if her night children will feel her this night, that every night she tried only to hug Suramar dome in hopes that the people in there will remember her. Holding onto their former teachings can be personal too, for family, friends, for it being the only thing keeping them same in the night to remember what use to bring them light.

They also have a major focus on starry motifs. It seems like Suramar’s whole aesthetic is built around a night time aesthetic. Trees with stars under them make me think…if they can’t see the stars in here, we will simulate it for ourselves to remember the beauty of what our night life use to be.

So…in a way, they actually would have a lot to connect with I feel with the orcish priests who might lean toward Mu’sha/moon. If they lost their ability to be Elune priestess like they once were, they might gravitate to the people who are. They’re so different. They are not kaldorei or highborne, but yet they still look at the moon with love like their people did. How affirming that would be to a nighborne finally free to see Azeroth. This orc, who has been sneered at by a group who use to be their people (the kaldorei) was looking at the same moon with the same reverence and love.

If it’s orcs who are reconnecting with their old Shadowmoon heritage by drawing power from the moon and stars (which is stated that they did) , they might be able to reconnect to that old faith in a new found way.

There are other ways I’m sure…but I like the idea of nightborne of believing in an Elune who can’t look at them and finding her light in a new way on the Horde.

They do, they are the spiritual leaders of their people. Which is why I really wanted to ensure to those who might be unsure that orcish priests may be former shaman, people who might have had shamanic potential but were not accepted, or shaman who have a hard focus on worshipping the sun and moon or stars. However on the Horde, they might be called Seers seeing as An’she tauren priests are called Seers.

The idea of orc priests leaning toward a celestial body is exciting because it feels like a slow return to normalcy among the orcish people. One I think has always been there, just not portrayed or thought about in this manner.

Shadowmoon had holy water temples, intricate ways of burying their dead, entire stone fortresses and landmarks to view the moon with important ritual spaces being in those areas. They were deeply religious , smart and ahead of themselves…makes it disappointing none of it could have been enjoyed since all of that was made hostile.

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An Orc Priest is called a Pastorc.

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Wouldnt that be normal for Shadowmoon orcs? I mightve missed it in the other clans but they seemed to be more elementals and ancestors. in fact, i can kinda picture an orc shaman with a naaru totem if they really needed a connection to the light

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They were nightelves before the Sundering… it slipped past me at first, but it makes sense that some of the nightborne would hold on to Elune worship.

snortlaugh

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It would have, yeah. But orcs in general , as shamanistic culture, would have purpose to respect the moon and see benefits in understanding it. Shamans would have been always interacting with each other, sharing information and teaching each other. Durotan stated to have his ceremony with Draka on the next full moon. The full moon would have benefits to the orcish traveler or the shaman. It’s a comforting source of night light in a world full of dangerous enemies.

Shamanism is pretty much about life in general. It’s about honoring your people around you, the ancestors of the past, the elements that help you survive and appreciating what helps your day to day life and keeping it all in balance. Nature and People working together through mutual respect.

The Shadowmoon Clan though would be the majority though, they drew power from the moon and stars, drew and carved constellations everywhere, there were names for powerful stars and rituals could be done during important cosmic events. But that doesn’t mean shaman of other clans would not look at that same moon and not see its importance. They are a traditional and native like culture where information was shared across shamans during times like the Kosh’harg. However when it comes to other clans, the reverence might only be with that clans shaman and relying on them to interpret the meaning, where as the Shadowmoon would have been an entire mystic culture with likely more orcs than just the shaman revering the moon’s power along side the Ancestors.

So it’s why I feel a majority of orc priests would be orcs who might have had shamanic promise, but for some reason cannot be shaman. The path of still looking to something related to them is another avenue they can pursue and still be in contact with shaman. With the way things are, I feel like this is something would have happened naturally as soon as they were reminded of these ways with the tauren and saw how similar they were.

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Even though it’s not canon, I do like to go back to the old D&D Warcraft books for inspiration from time-to-time. I could see an orc priest being RP’d as a Pyremaster, since they use divine fire. The whole “commune with the dead” aspect could maybe be why they dip into shadow magics (if you need an excuse for your headcanon). The priest’s shielding, healing and protective spells could be the ancestors’ divine powers protecting the priest and his/her allies.

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Yeah I don’t care if it’s cannon or not, I’ve used it several times for inspiration, though I think it’s more soft-cannon since techno-mages are in both the game and book.

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Yeah I can see that! That could be their way of balancing Light and Shadow in that point of view and also very tied into a shamanic path.

I’m mostly just using context clues in the game it self and to help people think creatively in a way that fits in universe. Different forms of orc ‘priesthood’ without the automatic go to of ‘Shadow Priest’ which seems to be the only thing many people see the orcs being.

But I think your ideas might be things they do within their practice, rituals that are a part of being who they are. But they seem far more shamanic, which in this case, this Seer (or priest) sounds like someone who is a shaman and decides to be more a Seer for them.

However I don’t think the Shadow really needs to be justified at all. I think they can fully learn of respecting it, but likely not using it as a way of accessing the Ancestors. I think theres far too much weight on what happened with the Shadowmoon clan for shadow to be used to commune with the dead. If the Seer is already a shaman, they won’t need it.

For me, I think if you’re making an orc priest character who is not a shaman, the most compelling way (for me) is to not let them do some of these things right away. No ancestral visions or communing with the dead. They were unable to become a shaman, so now they must turn to other aspects of life. Giving your character set backs, obstacles and boundaries on their abilities will make them more interesting and challenge you to be creative. So if you did want them to have a moment of talking to the Ancestors you can work on finding a very creative way that is inherently tied to the fact they became a Seer. But this is just how my brain works.

(Over all though, I actually avoid the non-canon book as much as I can. But there are still a lot of good inspirations in there I wish could still be a thing. Far too much world building was removed, but on the other hand some stuff that was taken away I’m okay with. As for the Divine Fire, I think in that case it’s the symbolic usage of the fire to ceremonially burn the body in the context of a shamanic lense. The fire becomes even more sacred in that moment. However I think maybe if it was a Seer, it could be the fire from An’she.)

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Orc Priests worship Green Jesus.

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would they call them priests? or would they just call them shaman?

i feel like “priest” is more of a human term and the fact that classes are so tied into WoW its kinda hard to talk about characters without including a class

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I think Pyremaster is just the priestly-form of Shaman. More towards the organised religion aspect of ancestor worship than the shaman - drawing from irl.

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I was playing around in character creator last night since my priest is currently bugged out and unplayable atm.

I made a Vulpera priest which made me curious what faith a Vulpera might have in the Light? I figure one way out is to say they follow whatever the Zandalari do but that’s not as fun.

I’m curious what people’s thoughts and headcanons are for Vulpera priests. Would they have their own take of worshipping the sun and the moon, perhaps the light from a campfire or something else unique to them.

I think Vulpera could have some really unique takes considering their isolation from others and the spotty lore Blizzard has given us on them.

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I worked this out a long time ago for vulpera: Priests have a strong sun motif in their spells, or could be interpreted as such, with all the yellow and white flashes. And considering tribal cultures usually deify the things around them, the fox folk would lean into sun-worship quite a bit. I dunno what they would call the sun in their folklore since Blizz copped out on setting info for them.

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Prior to the War of the Ancients, Suramar was the location of the Temple of Elune, which according to Wowpedia was the center of Elunarian worship amongst the ancient Kaldorei. Even if Elunarian religion became less pronounced or less mainstream in Suramar over the 10,000 years it was shielded, I really doubt that it disappeared completely.

My headcanon is that for mainstream Nightborne society, Elunarian lore has become more of a literary tradition than a religious one, but also that actual devotees and small orders of priestesses do still exist in Suramar as well.

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