I’ve been playing shadow priest a lot lately and it doesn’t really feel like a heroic class. Aren’t we against the void? I’m having trouble understanding where I fit in and why I’m even allowed in the Alliance
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Go ask the warlocks.
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The warlocks aren’t tolerated though. The class trainers are stuck in shady basements and sewers. Shadow priests just seem like they don’t exist in lore
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True enough, but i think most of the priests you see are holy or discipline
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The Alliance currently allows void elves in it. That alone should tell you that shadow priest are no longer taboo in it.
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Forces are forces. It’s how you apply them that matters.
A shadow priest, an affliction warlock or a death knight could be paragons of greatness, protecting the realm from its enemies and what not. But the powers they use are “bad”. In the same way that a prot paladin could rampage through a city killing lots of friendly civilians - s/he’s done a bad thing, but with “good” powers.
It ain’t black and white.
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They are likely tolerated just not well liked sane for warlocks and death knights
Shadow Priests usually have a bit more leeway than Warlocks. Almost every culture has some small sect that allows for it. It can be tied to death and funerary rites, like the Auchenai for the Draenei (non-Lightforged), or the Night Warrior for Night Elves (see: Tyrande shooting purple magic all over the place against Nathanos). The Cult of Forgotten Shadow was started by Humans, even if Forsaken would go on to be its primary practitioners. The Dark Irons were led by a shadow priestess at one point, and don’t shy away from shadow magic. And, while Void Elves haven’t recieved the warmest welcome, they’re still tolerated.
You’re probably even farther ahead by picking a Gnome. Gnomes don’t view the Light in a religious context. They view it as a magic to be used for healing, and Gnomish priests consider themselves more as medics than religious figures. So, a Gnome shadow priest is likely just a researcher of shadow magic. I guess a “shadow mage”, for lack of a better term.
10 Likes
You don’t see the Stormwind Guards or even the Darnassus Sentinels for that matter chasing you down because you’ve got a demon on your leash.
If you go to the extent of not walking around the city in Shadowform, who would know that you’re a Shadow Priest?
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Varian bragged about the Alliance Warlocks so them being permitted in Stormwind is unsurprising despite their use of Shadowfel Magic(small amounts of Shadow and Fel explosively reacting to each other provides a benefit equal to using a large enough amount of Shadow to hear the Void Lords).
Of course Doomguards, Mo’arg and Shivarra are likely to be shot dead canonically because the guards or other Alliance heroes don’t realize the Demon is on a leash and simply see a big brutish Demon walking through town. Only the guards and heroes who see the summoning would ignore them while the guards who don’t gang up on them.
Succubi and Felhounds wouldn’t even get a passing glance. Imps would probably just as likely as not be mistaken for the Imps of the Firelands.
How tolerated you are likely depends on what you work for, Draenei and Night Elves likely dislike it a lot, and lightforged would find that abhorrent, but forsaken, goblin’s and trolls likely are indifferent and void elves likely encourage it.
1 Like
Shadow priests used to just use shadow magic, or mind magic. There was a huge place for shadow priests among the Draenei. Soulpriests were very important for their job of guiding and tending to the souls of the dead.
This void priest crap is new.
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Sincerely OP, the true answer is bad writing. Humans and all other races of the Alliance that are part of the Church of the Holy Light were always completely attached to the Light. There was a time in the lore that even arcane magic hadn’t a complete aproval among Light Wielders. The use of shadow/void magic should be forbiden, or at least have a bad reputation, and no priest who is part of the Church of the Holy Light should use that type of magic. Anyway, Anduin wield the void, we don’t know why, and who taught him.
This is just bad writing.
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A group of warlocks were cheered for in War Crimes. Those trainers have also been there since Vanilla. Times change.
They’re not exactly accepted with open arms, but there’s currently no crusade against them.
1 Like
To be fair, shadow/void magic comes across as not being all that well known among the Alliance and Horde societies. It’s been “around,” but the backstory of Natalie Seline makes it seem that even to Dalaran and the Church of the Holy Light it’s more like this nebulous, dangerous “force” that, while generally forbidden, also isn’t particularly understood.
By this point fel and necromancy are widely known the world over as the “brand” magics of enemies of Azeroth’s peoples like the Burning Legion and the Scourge, so those who use them are reviled and have to keep their heads down. Shadow magic is theoretically the magic of the Void’s adherents, but the only broadly and publicly encountered Void threat has been the Twilight’s Hammer, and until more recently they’ve tended to use Shadow to control other forces, wielding enslaved elements rather than calling upon denizens of the Void directly to serve them.
Until very recently, openly affiliated agencies of the Void have been fewer and farther between than the widely known and broadly despised villainous users of necromancy and the fel. Shadow’s association with the denizens of Azeroth has maintained a sort of internalized “mystery” to it, so most people in-universe who encounter Shadow/Void wouldn’t necessarily even recognize what they’re looking at.
3 Likes
Indeed! Warlocks are now an Alliance staple… So much they are seen as the only ones who should be using Fel Magic according to the Mages of the Kirin Tor.
The Mages of the Kirin Tor are quite adamant that Mages should not be using Fel Magic and that only Warlocks should be using it. It would seem Demon Hunters are seen as Warlocks themselves.
It is of course logical that Warlocks of the Council of the Black Harvest are the only ones who can be trusted with Fel Magic since they are at the moment so disillusioned with Legion incompetence to the point where they actively sabotage Legion operations in Azsuna regardless of the power the Legion offers.
To be fair, shadow priests didn’t use to be ultra-void juiced. Shadow was a basic concept as the darker, opposing parallel to Holy, the Ying to its Yang. Can’t have one without the other, and Discipline was the bridge between the two. Didn’t mean it was outright evil, malevolent or otherwise misleading, though (see Troll Hex Priests and Shadow Hunters, Draenei Soulpriests, Dark Iron Shadowcasters, Alonsus, Moira and Anduin’s own uses of shadow magic), because it didn’t have an established agency of its own. So people on all factions made use of at least an ounce of shadow magic. Even the Scarlets and Argents, two very religious organizations concerning the Light*, have a few characters that make use of spells from the shadow school.
Then the void took the place as the light’s opposing force in Chronicles and Legion, was given an agency and links to the Void Lords which made it completely chaotic opposed to the light’s order, not entirely truthful in its whispers, etc. Which also leaves it being a bit more morally dubious than the base pre-Legion “shadow” magic because of its close ties to the Void Lords and the Old Gods.
*The Scarlet Onslaught was already fully corrupted by Mal’ganis-as-Westwind after Abbendis’ death in New Hearthglen hence the Onslaught Raven Archons turning into demons, unlike the Scarlet Crusade that was merely controlled by Balnazzar-through-Dathrohan’s-skin but still had most of its founding leaders and members alive at the time, who were devout with the Light and their core members using the Holy school primarily along with a few Shadow abilities, which at the time was not odd as it fits with other factions with Light users who primarily use Holy abilities paired with one or two Shadow abilities.
Try being a BLOOD ELF Shadowpriest, where when recruiting the Nightborne have your leaders shout out how shadow & void are prohibited in Quel’Thalas - then awkwardly whistling whilst slowly hiding an Old God Dagger behind your back and blow out your void form as if it were a candle.
… >_> Blizzard really needs to touch base on us Blood Elf Voidies & shadow-users that remain (Non-Void-Elves within the ranks of Quel’Thalas)
3 Likes
Maybe the Blood Elves never tolerated void users in Quel’Thalas? Why even play Blood Elf Shadow Priest if you can be a Void Elf Shadow Priest?