What are the "forbidden" types of magic?

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I’ve been enjoying the class fantasy of a Warlock being a practitioner of forbidden magic. Obviously, Demonology, Fel, and Void magics are considered “forbidden” or at least frowned upon, and Warlock specs focus on those.

But what about Necromancy and Decay? Wouldn’t those be considered forbidden magics too? Why aren’t Necromancers considered Warlocks, or Decay Shaman for that matter…?

Also are there other forbidden types of magic that a Warlock might be interested in?

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They are. Death knights get spat on when they arrive in stormwind and orgrimmar.

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Entirely dependent upon the culture you’re flinging spells around.

A Draenei and an Undead are going to have polarized reactions to seeing a warlock, for instance.

ETA (hit enter way too quickly!):

Necromancy is a practice that has been confirmed to be unlinked to any one power. We have druidic-like necromancy going on with the plant people we saw in WoD. Not to mention we had light based necromancy to raise Calia Menethil.

So playing with Decay isn’t required for necromancy (hell, most of the Forsaken were raised with shadow!).

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I was more talking about Decay being a type of forbidden magic in general, but the ones who use it are generally called “decay shaman” rather than “decay warlocks”, which seems off.

Likewise, Necromancers seem to have their own classification, but at least in that case one could argue “all Necromancers are Warlocks, but not all Warlocks are Necromancers.”

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I wouldn’t say there’s a definitive link between warlocks and necromancers. A warlock can be a necromancer, but that defeats the purpose of what makes a warlock. A warlock works with fel and demons - any animating of the dead would likely be a side thing. What we see more regularly is shadow based necromancy with zero if very minimal interaction with fel/demon summoning.

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Isn’t that a misconception though? Warlocks don’t have to associate with demons/fel, most of them just do as it’s a form of magic that offers quick access to power. Just like the Affliction spec delves heavily into shadow/void magic as a source of forbidden magic.

But I suppose in the case of Decay Shaman it could be along the lines of just how a Shadow Priest is different than an Affliction Warlock, and Death Knights are different than Necromancers.

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Warlocks are not necros. Warlocks in WOW deal with demons and Fel, not with Death. Death magic and Fel magic are completely separate schools.

Necros deal with death magic and decay as well but raising the death is not always done with death magic as it was previously mentioned. You could use nature or light magic as well to bring someone from death.

However, in any case you still deal with the realm of death when you are bringing someone from dead and in which case death magic is still involved.

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Affliction is sort of the redheaded spec thematically, but it still works with demons. The main key is Fel which naturally lends itself to summoning.

In the same train of thought for the quick access to power: why would a warlock spend the time to prepare a vessel and bind a soul to create their minion when they have the ability to conjure and bind a much stronger entity? The former isn’t practical or appealing to a warlock who is already skipping the line by dabbling in Fel.

As it is, the closest we have to a playable necromancer is the Deathknight, and shadow priest if you squint really, really hard. That’s a lot of squinting, though.

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The wowpedia article on warlocks says: “Warlocks are magical practitioners that seek to understand darker magics, among other fel-based and destructive spells.”

To me, that’s saying Fel is just one type of dark magic warlocks are willing to dabble in. That’s backed up by the fact that Affliction spec is mostly shadow/void spells.

Necromancy is another “dark” magic. So it makes sense to classify Necromancers as Warlocks…unless there is something fundamentally different about Necromancy that sets it apart.

In my mind Warlocks are distinguised in that they seek to control these dark magics without being controlled by them. For example, Shadow Priests pray to the Void, they serve it. Death Knights are dead, they channel Death magic through themselves since they are a part of it.

A Necromancer is a living being that controls the dead, just like a Warlock.

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You’re missing the difference in titles, not to mention the wowpedia itself is a shaky place to get your information (it still often cites the RPG for its information which has been slashed as non-canon for a long while now.)

What makes a warlock is that they work with fel and demons. Otherwise you’re saying a shadow priest is also a warlock. A deathknight works with dark magic, so are they also a warlock?

A necromancer works with death and the dead primarily, which is not what a warlock does at all.

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I do think the Shadow Magic Warlock use is not as deep as the ones Shadow Priest uses, because they never get insane with it, just with their evilness for power. I think they could use a Necromancy spec, even if with a class skin, but it might take things from the Death Knight.

I think Blizz affiliated Locks with demons a lot by now.

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I did say why shadow priests and death knights are considered different than warlocks. The gist is they “serve” those forces rather than dominate them. Warlocks summon and bind a Voidwalker. Shadow priests become the void with Void form.

Necromancy and Decay Shamanism is all about domination. Dominating death and dominating the elements respectively…

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What dead do Warlocks control ? Warlocks have 0 ability that controls the dead. They control demons, demons are NOT dead. Fel is destructive by itself so yes Warlock do have destructive spells which come from Fel magic. I think you are confusing some stuff.

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They are, Gul’dan and other Orc Warlocks in fact raised the first DKs… see Teron Gorefiend in The Black Temple, who is an example of a DK raised by the Shadow Council and Gul’dan.

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That’s an example of a warlock using necromancy, but not being a necromancer which has already been touched on earlier. Otherwise we have some spicy implications about what happened in the aftermath of the Lordaeron Family Reunion.

Thera is right about the playable warlock class not having any ties to necromancy.

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Nec·ro·man·cer

/ˈnekrəˌmansər/

noun

  • 1.a person who practices necromancy; a wizard or magician.

If they practice necromancy, that makes them necromancers, that’s the definition of a necromancer. If anything I think player characters should have one or two abilities for necromancy given the role it has in Warlock lore (under the Slaughtered Lamb beneath the Warlock training room we also see coffins standing and lying empty, suggesting grave robbing and necromancy), we also see Orc Warlocks raise the Fel wolves using Demons to reanimate wolf corpses.

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Not saying it shouldn’t, but also being a necromancer is specialized. In the most familiar comparison we can look at druids and shaman. A shaman may channel life itself, but they work primarily with the elements. Likewise, a druid can invoke the winds but not dabble fully into the elements. By stepping over their primary school it does not make them the other discipline by that act alone.

A warlocks primary focus is fel and the subjugation of demons. That is what marks them, and if they use that for a necromantic ritual it does not change their entire school of focus.

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This is the only thing that matters in this topic.

That is a specific lore char and is not playable. The major lore chars always have more power/skills than regular playable chars. Tyrande can use the skills of hunter/priest/druid, does that also mean hunters can rez ppl ?

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While this is true, we see regular low key Warlock NPCs who are nameless using necromancy, it’s a widespread practice in Warlocks lore wise, I see no reason Warlocks can’t get a minor spell or two for raising say a Fel wolf or a single skeleton/generic Undead.

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The thing about the lore in terms of warlocks is that they are … there are several types of warlocks first of all:

  • Azerothian warlocks
    They are literally just mages … there’s not a single defining characteristics between a mage and a warlock, because a ‘warlock’ is the name given to a male mage sort of, they are essentially mages who look towards power and how to use it on others, whereas mages usually just study the arcane, which of course can include women but it has also been used to differentiate between warlocks and sorcerers, its a mess is the point, but more importantly mages who are interested in power usually find the arcane limiting and thus’ would resort to summoning demons, which is a very different thing than actually using magic as its … summoning a demon is dangerous, but it isn’t forbidden because of the magic, it is forbidden for the dangers it poses on society
    Generally speaking, most of this will be arguing in largely to entirely pointless semantics and an interpretation of the lore (for an example, Medivh should classify as a warlock, but he’s definitively a mage and not using fel magic, yet he should classify as a warlock for summoning demons, the whole Dark Portal, and way more … but as far as I am aware he actually himself never used fel magic himself)
  • Draenor / Orcish warlocks
    This is where it gets weird… because of demon blood because they draw upon demonic energies to empower themselves, but the only one who actually does this actively is Gul’Dan until he has taught some high ranking members of the Twilight Hammer to use it, but they typically draw upon other sources of magic such as void, madness, just straight up a lot fire, which would insinuate that ‘fel’ magic is something inherently connected to a demonic connection such as the ones that orcs have, and they tap into it in order to empower themselves by basically overloading on power (see Gul’dan frying nightfallens in order to empower himself, basically stealing their power, by increasing theirs? Its a weird type of power in short, I imagine one could compare it to sugar where it directly affects people and kills them by overloading their systems if used too much and that somehow allows a person to steal their life essence)
    And the thing is … Gul’Dan takes the souls of dead orcish warlocks, and puts them into human corpses, so whilst it isn’t necromancy … it is a form of soul possession that has necromantic implications so… is soul-necromancy a form of necromancy would be followup question and I would definitely quantify this as a possibility, not to mention that you very much so can argue that a warlock could probably take a corpse or a skeleton and essentially infuse it with energy to make it move, but it would require a soul of some kind to be “animated”
  • High elven warlocks (?)
    Like this is a weird one but… you can definitely argue that much like Surumar’s Nightborne used actual fel magic and the likes, High elves such as Azshara in terms of using the magic to empower themselves but not to use it offensively, but rather more in the sense of “I empower myself, so I can wield more powers, so I can in turn use more devestating arcane magic” is a form of a warlock, because they straight up have connections or access to demonic sources of energy
    They probably still just count as mages, whom at must summons or wields specific types of fel-based magic, but you definitely can see that there is a sort of connection to it, so… and does that mean that the ghosts in Black Rook Hold are warlocks because they had this type of power forced onto them? I don’t have an answer to it, but one can definitely make a sort of argument for and very easily against it as well

But in general … in terms of ‘forbidden’ magic … I honestly would just say that it depends entirely on the area and circumstances in which you find yourself in
Shadow Priests are condemned by some, revered by others, questioned by most, and yet Alonsus Faol, one of the most respected priests, only acts with caution but not fear of the shadows, the void, or anything else

I would say this:
Must forms of magic, when taken to their extreme or includes actors that would have at best difficulties consenting to it, would be seen as forbidden magic
Druids of the Scythe
Fanatical beliefs in the light
Uncontrolled elemental magic
Necromancy
Fel magic
Blood magic
Time magic

You can really make any of these types of magic when derived from their source if it is an extreme source or its done without consent

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