I typically try to stay away from headcanons, and I end up finding the direction or hints I’m looking for in lore itself. But there are things left unexplained. So most of the following are more like “theories” than headcanons, but without enough proof to be considered canon. Yet.
Theories
Wolfsbane is deadly because…
Theory: Wolfsbane is Void Infused
Wolfsbane is deadly to worgen, that much is canon. But why wolfsbane, and why to worgen specifically? We’ve seen that it grows in the Grizzly Hills and Gilneas at least, both places steeped in void energy, and right on top or near to Old God prisons ( Yogg-Saron and Zakajz respectively). Plant life can be corrupted by void energy, see Vordrassil and Nightmare. Nature magic is also vulnerable to void energy, see Saronite.
With that in mind, Wolfsbane may be void-powered. Worgen are nature powered. Void hurts nature. Therefore, Wolfsbane hurts worgen.
The Blackwald is corrupt looking because…
Theory: It is infected with Nightmare
The Blackwald is a forest in southern Gilneas, with the great tree Ta’doren at its center. Tal’doren is the physical counterpart to “Daral’nir”, a great tree in the Emerald Dream known to calm enraged beings. Over nine thousand years ago, the first worgen created the curse to better fight the Satyr army, then rebelled against Malfurion Stormrage when he called them freaks. He banished them to sleep forever under this tree in the Emerald Dream. He said they were to sleep, at peace forever.
Unbeknownst to Malfurion, the Emerald Nightmare began to take form 4500 years ago, when Vordrassill’s roots (see above) reached into Yogg-Saron’s prison, allowing him to corrupt the dream through the tree’s connection. The Emerald Dream’s shadowy corruption began, aided by the fiendish Satyr.
When the archmage Ur studied shadowmagic in Dalaran not but a couple decades ago, he looked at shadowy dimensions. One of which he described as a “nightmarish world of darkness”. He saw the worgen, and how fiercely they battled their mortal enemy; the Lords of the Emerald Flame. Finally, he says never to attempt what he did, and absolutely never summon the worgen to our world.
About ten years ago, Archmage Arugal uses Ur’s research to summon the worgen. Alpha Prime is summoned as well, and convinces Arugal to serve him instead of Greymane. Alpha Prime starts a cult in the shadows of Gilneas, turning willing Gilneans into worgen. When confronted by Belysra - his slain best friend’s lover - he describes how torturous it was to be in the Emerald Dream, and never wants to go back. Curse of the Worgen also reveals that the “Lords of the Emerald Flame” is another name for The Satyr.
And finally, in modern day, we see the Blackwald. The physical body of Daral’nir is blackened, covered in black roots choking the forest with red thorns. Glowing red pixie-like creatures fly around the forest, and the woods is shrouded in an eternal darkness. In fact, Gilneas as a whole is said to have become darker as the years went on, and even experienced a famine as crops began to fail.
To summarize, the forest was fine over nine thousand years ago. The worgen were put to sleep in that portion of the Emerald Dream. When the Nightmare began to take hold, it not only corrupted the forest, but also woke the worgen, who did battle with the satyr. This spiritual war brought the attention of scholars, leading to their return to the mortal world. I cannot help but wonder, what would Gilneas look like if the worgen were not there to oppose the satyr?
Headcanons
People still believe worgen misconceptions because…
Headcanon: we let them
There are a handful of misconceptions about worgen that persist to this day. Things that were theorized in vanilla, never confirmed, proven false, but that people still OOCly believe. Examples include,
“Worgen are shadow creatures”
Some people still believe the worgen curse is shadow in nature. Even though that’s disproven even in Vanilla content, with the Scythe of Elune questline in Felwood and Ashenvale.“Worgen cause Shadow Corruption whereever they go”
Many people believe that any territory the worgen make home, they then terraform into the likeness of their nightmarish homeworld. In reality, Gilneas was dark before the worgen were ever summoned. Similarly, Duskwood is the result of Medhiv’s death in Karazhan, the resulting explosion that cursed Deadwind Pass and Duskwood. This is confirmed in general lore, Chronicle, and Curse of the Worgen epilogue. Duskwood was already cursed by the time the worgen were summoned.“The Gilneas outbreak was an accident”
A little more sensical, since that’s what the Starter Zone’s quests have you believe. In reality, The Bloodfang Pack was sane, and the attack was intentional and orchestrated.“Feral Packs are Mindless Worgen”
Again forgivable, since that’s what biased questgivers have you believe. However, the feral packs we see ingame (the Nightbane and Bloodfang) wear clothes, speak common, build houses, read and write, practice magic, use weapons, and more. Curse of the Worgen and Dark Riders reveal the Bloodfang and Nightbane packs respectively to be two sects of The Wolf Cult, people who have elected to become worgen and live in the wild, choosing it over city life.Tons more, but these in particular come up quite a bit. Since players still believe this stuff, their character speak it as truth. So as a character that knows that theses are misconceptions, my character has to wonder why so many people think these things.
The headcanon here is in place to preserve immersion. Being, people still believe these things because society allows them to. Anti-worgen racism is still quite real, and many Gilneans know only as much as the elves have told them, cannot correct people on these rumors, and even begin to believe them themselves. What is more, these feral packs are very secluded, seldom interacting with civil society apart from secretly entering the city to recruit, so they have little reason to try and correct people on these rumors.
People still believe Darkshire is alive because…
Headcanon: they can't tell they're actually ghosts
This one’s pretty straight forward. In lore, the Night Watch joined the Burning Legion during the Legion expansion last year. Under the command of the Legion, the Night Watch - formerly Darkshire’s defenders - slaughtered Darkshire’s population, and used their organs and gallons of blood in a ritual to summon demons inside Stormwind Keep.
This all took place in the Assassination Rogue artifact questline which, although canon, a lot of us didn’t get to do, and so don’t know about. The rogue playercharacter is tasked with killing Althea Ebonlocke and the rest of the Night Watch, thwarting their plans. The questline ends with most of Darkshire’s citizenship dead. Darkshire was struggling to begin with, and now with only a few survivors, the town is no doubt evacuated to Stormwind.
However, Blizzard didn’t update Darkshire with phasing or anything of the sort, so people that don’t know of this still see Althea Ebonlocke. And being a beloved roleplay spot for those that like grim atmosphere, like myself, people still roleplay there and speak as if nothing happened. So what do? Ignore canon lore, or ignore roleplayers?
Answer being, neither. Human souls have been known to return to the location of their deaths as ghosts, especially if their death was particularly gruesome. In some cases, you don’t even know they are a ghost until it is too late. Therefore, it is reasonably plausible for Raedolf to act as if they’ve seen a ghost, if a roleplayer speaks as if they’d just spoken with Althea Ebonlocke. Thus saving immersion, and saving face.