What Happens to Lightforged that Lose Their Faith?

Wyrmrest Accord
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I’m thinking of rebooting and leveling this older character, and one angle I am considering is a Lightforged Draenei that has lost their faith and found a new path in shamanism after settling on Azeroth.

I have some considerations though, and is this even a reasonable angle for a Lightforged character?

Are there any examples of a Lightforged losing their faith after the lightforging process? Would they lose the glowing tattoos and golden eyes, or are those there to stay? Would they revert back to a more base Draenei over time?

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Can’t speak much for Lightforged lore, but I think a Lightforged whose tattoos are just “off”, almost like a lamp that’s been turned off, is a really cool aesthetic.

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That is a cool aesthetic to think about!

Just off the top of my head… I’m not sure. I see their immersion in the Light as sort of the foil to the Ren’dorei’s immersion in the Void. Because the Light is actually a part of them I think they should be able to use it to some degree regardless of their mentality, as any other creature that absorbs magical energies is able to do. Not to say those energies wouldn’t have effects on the mentality itself (see the aforementioned Ren’dorei and the whispers, as well as anything with the Fel).

At the very least, having their faith shaken in the sense that their (very?) long time leader X’era was wrong did not affect their capabilities in any way.

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At the moment no. In fact, lightforging was described as dangerous because of its failure rate. You need a strong faith to pass, so I don’t think we’ll see a lightforged have a crisis of faith.

I like the concept, but it might be something you need to wing.

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yeah while i agree that a perma-lifelong “doubt in the light” character might not be able to pass, it’s important to note that tests of faith would not necessarily be “one and done” so to speak.

tho while i think it could be possible because of the nature of temptation and the fact that sticking to your beliefs is not always easy, there’s also the argument of what the lightforged did having lasting effects on their psyche. We know that fel energy causes hedonistic, power-hungry tendencies (which is why i believe most fel users did turn to the legion-- for a while, they promised so much power). We know that shadow energy makes you crazy. So in theory, overloading on light energy might start erasing the parts of your brain that feel doubt or fear. Imagine it-- severe overload to the light makes you reckless because you simply cannot feel fear. It makes you difficult to reason with because your willpower convinces you that you are right. It makes you rule-bound and orderly but at the cost of individuality. I think that’s part of why the naaru are the way they are, and why the Lightforged go along with it-- the nature of light magic itself just… does that to people.

Also since fel and arcane are addictive, it’s also possible that other forms of energy are addictive, though at a lesser rate than fel and arcane. That being said, Lightforged have a lot of light. A Lightforged that “loses their light” might suffer withdrawals if they lose their connection somehow-- whether it be through a crisis of faith or some external force.

(edit to note: light being addictive/causing psychiatric changes is purely headcanon so op you don’t have to listen to me, it’s just my thoughts on the matter and some blathering. psure that some day blizzard could make a wayward lightforged or someone that left the lightforged, and I don’t think your idea is Impossible. in fact i think it’d be neat to see!)

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Clearly they become one of these handsome devils:

(I’m totally kidding ofc. Draenei do not turn to dwarves when they lose faith… or do they…?)

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My Lightforged Draenei have all been shaken by Xe’ra’s attempt at forcibly Lightforging Illidan; particularly as it’s supposed to be an incredibly dangerous procedure to go through.

Koshina, my Lightforged Hunter, took it particularly hard, but it never disrupted her faith in the Light. Rather she just now wonders how pure the Naaru really are, in event of learning so much from other Draenei about the Naaru that no one in the Army of the Light was ever told by Xe’ra.

I’m uncertain what would happen to a Lightforged Draenei, if they were to lose enough faith in the Light that they become unable to call upon it. Since they’re infused with it, I’m not even sure they can ever truly ‘lose faith’ in it but …perhaps the Light can be dimmed, so to speak.

I do remember one time having an IC interaction that ended up getting to a point in the conversation where the potential unique weakness to Void corruption was offered as a threat to the Lightforged Draenei. Perhaps that could be a thing, though I’m uncertain if it’s supported by lore.

The Sunwell was endangered by the Void, supposedly, but …would the agents of the Void have succeeded so easily? It’s possible perhaps. Lightforged life-forms would seemingly be a different manner, since they’re conscious, sapient creatures, generally speaking, and might likely be aware of some foreign, dark force attempting to mess with their heads and turn them to the Void.

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As other folks have pointed out, I don’t think you can.

And isn’t that a horrifying concept?

Maximum TL:DR mode engaged here, but as Arlifrex and Ariiah pointed out, to use the Light is to believe absolutely in something, and Lightforged take that, like, fifty steps more in a process that forces the individual to face their inner demons, to literally fight them or die, and is so dangerous you need a partner with you who has already undergone the process (player is already Light Forged during their intro campaign) or someone you trust implicitly who can help you through this process.

And remember, the Naaru are of the Light, they are not the Light themselves, despite how Xe’ra tried to portray herself.

As Kailarra pointed out, the ‘Primal Forces’, Void, Fel, Arcane are all addictive and can influence the mind. Light is no exception and is generally ignored for its addictive qualities because it magnifies positive emotions, and the Light Forging process, again, takes this several steps further, forcing the would-be Lightforged to face their own darkness and burn it away, which is not just a symbolic event, but a mental and spiritual one wherein their fear, their self-doubt, their anger and their despair is all defeated and destroyed, leaving behind only the parts of their being that resonate with the Light.

Now, this shouldn’t imply a Lightforged Draenei, or any other Lightforged being, is without fear, or anger, or any of the ‘darker’ emotions, but they have control over those emotions in a way that those not physically and spiritually fused with the Light can never match. Even the Pandaren Shado-Pan must maintain tight emotional and mental focus to prevent the Sha from effecting them, and that requires decades of training, meditation and experience to accomplish to the level of an individual like, say, Taran Zhu.

There’s also something to be said that the Light is with the Lightforged in every moment of their life. Not just their waking ones, every single beat of their heart is one with the Light. A Lightforged Draenei who loses faith in the Light is losing faith in themselves, and that could be disastrous to both their physical health and mental stability. That said, they can also feel the Light surging through them, as much a part of them as the blood in their veins and the marrow in their bones, and the Light itself is sentient in a way that is difficult to explain, and oft exploited by beings like Xe’ra and her Army of Light, and the Dreadlords who taught the Scarlet Crusade new and horrifying uses of the Light (interesting that now we know why ‘Demons’ like the Dreadlords could use the Light when it was supposed to be inherently hostile to them …), and it worked despite everything because the Light will respond to a strong will, and will enhance and magnify the positive emotions of a potential host.

To love, to hope, to be charitable and kind, all of these facets of the mind are strengthened by the Light, and I imagine doubt in a Lightforged Draenei would be more along the lines of ‘how are we failing the Light’, rather than ‘how can the Light be failing us’, given their countless millennia of indoctrination and sermonizing by Xe’ra, and how it was ‘only’ the Light that saved them from enslavement to the Legion.

Or at least, that’s my TL:DR thoughts.

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Maybe the true Tyranny of the Light was the friends we made along the way.

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Thanks everyone, a lot of the points brought up were what I was sort of sticking on as I was trying to flesh out the character any deeper than “Wouldn’t this be cool if…”

This especially. I knew there were more than just the physical changes but you all brought it up more eloquently than I could lol.

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My Lightforged Draenei’s like hugging people.

…though tbh this is true of basically all of my characters, but especially my Draeneis and Lighforgeds.

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NGL, 2020 is the year when we all desperately need a hug and most definitely shouldn’t accept one.

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Virtual hugs are at least safe.

…my Naaru, now I know the real update that needs adding to this game desperately.

An actual hug emote! Properly animated and all!

Yes, this is a good idea.

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Well there are LFD DKs so I can imagine it’s possible to do something different. Just have the Light infused with you so it’d be hard to do anything the Light has an allergic reaction to. But don’t let that limit you!

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A Lightforged Death Knight is likely the most excruciating existence imaginable in this world…

But I’ll take a hug!