I was reading through chronicles again and something drew my attention. The definition of light and void.
Maybe it’s just my scientific background but I have an issue with that. I think we can all agree that Mages and warlocks are supposed to be the equivalent of what would be science scholars in our world, while priest being more of a moral philosophy thing ( whether religion or not).
Well from the definition we get from light and void, this makes priest basically the physicists of Warcraft world. As primary forces of interaction, they dictate the laws of every single entity in the universe : arcane, fel and what not.
I have no problem with priests being those savants but it seems that they’re still being pushed toward a religious theme when they clearly are the most advanced scholars out there, and that quite bothers me. Not that they are religious ( even in our world this happened in the past), but that with the exception of gnomes they all seem like they are drawing their power from a religious Incantation, when they really just use primary interactions, just as we would with light and matter.
But then where does it put Mages? Does that definitely separate magic from science in wow ? ( They were quite trying at some point to link it no?)
What do you think? Maybe it’s because I’m a mathematician being too picky about such matters but I would really appreciate if someone more informed about lore than me could explain me where science lies in Warcraft, and if it is tied to magic then why are Mages considered the most scholars of WoW?
Thank you, have a good end of day!
Not really. The priest doesn’t usually try to understand Light and Void, he tries to plead with it, to get it to do what he thinks should be done, without really having to understand how it does it. They are less scientists, and more the operator’s of complex machinery. Most of the hard questions were already solved by the time the machine was build, the priest only needs to know how the buttons work. And with WoW’s Light and Shadow that is through faith, willpower focused on a certain task, in the abscence of doubt.
The inquisive mind of a scientist is not even necessarily suited to that. Science works fundamentally through systematic doubt and the knwledge of your own ignorance in your area of interest. That doubt doesn’t necessarily translate well in a mode of magic that requires you to be as certain as possible.
Well… it’s not quite clear how seperate Blizzard sees this stuff. But to your argument, no, dealing with a less fundamental force you can control, does not make you less of a scientist. Arcane power just lends itself more to being shaped and programmed for whatever use you want it to have. For the same input, you probably get the same output. With Light and Void it doesn’t seem to be that easy, so arcane energy just lends itself much more to this scientific approach. As I see it, the mage doesn’t just direct a wish at “the Arcane” to do something, he uses his mind to manipulate non-physical stuff (yes, that’s a thin in WoW) that reacts to thoughts, to create constructs, that do specific things. He does that himself, so he should better know how the stuff he is trying to do actually works. And that requires science. So that would make scientists the best people to learn to deal with arcane magic.
Apart from that… no one ever showed your mage the titan’s cosmic chart of the powers of the universe, and that Light and Void are more ancient than arcane energy isn’t necessarily something he even knows.
First of all, thank you for your quick and precise reply.
Well while I understand, there are a LOT of different type of researchers. Some are inherently 100% sure that what they do is a step in the right direction, and that doesn’t make them bad scientists per se.
More generally, Science mostly relies on hypothetical-deduction reasoning, and that does not necessarily demand to doubt all the time. In fact once you got your hypothesis, you consider your model right and try to get results out of it (even when you know some of the hypothesis you took for granted are not likely to be right) and thus back to the Warcraft universe, the light/void could easily fall into a science research category, and be called upon once you passed a certain threshold. Isn’t it what at least gnomes “priests” do in the end?
Yes sorry, did not mean to sound like a prick
This, you’re 100% right. I thought Magus in Dalaran knew that chart but if it’s not the case, then the fact that light and void are considered supernatural powers is actually quite normal and can be related to our science history. Maybe Gnomes will figure it out and they will enlighten the rest of Azeroth!
Thanks a lot for your time, I wish you a good evening
I think the main difference you should consider is that priests worship the Light/Void. They don’t seek to understand it as much as to promote its cause. The main difference between a shadow priest and an affliction warlock for example is in the way they approach the Void for their powers. Warlocks are researchers of the forbidden, they study the void,the fel and so on in order to make use of it in their pursuit of greater power yet. Shadow Priests are worshipers, equally resolute in their faith as those who worship the light, they approach the Void in a much different manner, they adhere to its creed, tap into it as one would tap into it through their faith and emotions. They are not scientists, but mystics. Mages and warlocks conduct research into the arcane, the void, demons, the very fabric of reality. They care about how things work and how they can be put to work, while priests just follow their convictions and that’s how they tap into their powers. A mage, while not using the light, may be just as interested in studying the way it works. A priest would be more interested in studying and applying its tenets or the tenets of his/her cult.
Albeit one could argue that warlocks, due to their more… pragmatic reasons for research, lack in axiological neutrality. They don’t really seek knowledge for knowledge’s sake.