I’m a little confused. Pretty much every race is an acceptable biologically-sustained creature. They eat, they breathe, they poop. Therefore they grow older, they maintain their bodies, and eventually they die.
What sustains the Undead/Forsaken? Do they have an operational digestive system? They don’t need to breathe (hence their racial ability). If it’s some sort of magical mumbo-jumbo, then wouldn’t we see a connection of that in the Shadowlands?
Any light y’all can shed on this lore conundrum would be appreciated.
It’s magical mumbo-jumbo. Undead in pretty much all forms of fantasy media are animated by Necromantic magic, elbow grease, and sheer force of will.
And yea, you do see a connection to that in the Shadowlands. The Lich King, the source of the magic that animated you, got his power from the Maw, apparently.
Forsaken don’t eat, breathe or sleep. Don’t need to since their body is dead. Their souls are magically bound to a corpse. You can cut off one of their limbs and sew a new one back on like nothing. They’ll still die though if they sustain enough damage that the soul can’t hold on anymore or if other magic erases the binding. But the necromancy that raised them is all that sustains it.
So if the Lich King is no more, the helm of dominion is shattered, and we’re going to fight Sylvanas and the Jailer and steal energy from the Maw… wouldn’t that cause Forsaken to suddenly crumble and become dead again?
Was it Maw energy, or was it generic Anima, or generic Necromancy, or what?
No. The scourge still exist. And the forsaken used to be scourge. They were freed from the lich kings control. The helm being destroyed merely broke the lich kings control over the scourge, it didn’t undo the magic that keeps them alive.
As far as we can tell at the moment all the necromantic magics we have encountered regarding The Scourge, are a result of Zovaals manipulation in the mortal realm.
Alright, I think I get it. It’s still kinda confusing to me, but hey, the elves need to key in to various wells of power to stay healthy and sane, so I guess we’ll see if they reveal anything new in Shadowlands
Forsaken can eat if they want to, but they don’t need to. I can’t remember the details but there’s a quest in one of the early Forsaken zones where you get food as a reward where the item description says something like “it’s pretty good, if you’re in to eating”.
Forsaken do rot, although it’s at a slowed rate. I feel like I remember something about them having like, embalming fluid instead of blood (but don’t quote me on that). And yeah they will replace body parts as necessary from other corpses. And magic.
