Sometimes my character Daeva refers to other non-Illidari as “mortals”. It’s kinda cool to say, and to distance herself from the temporarily joys that the citizens poses. But I had questions about this.
I believed Demon Hunters are at least immortal in the sense that they are ageless. Being part demon probably does that to you, although you can’t really enjoy immortality as you live the rest of your immortal life as a cursed creature that struggles not to give in into its demonic part. So no relaxing at the beach for you as the demon inside your head gives you delicious visions of grandeur, or the knowledge that you might live to see the end times of Azeroth and everyone around you dies of old age.
Then there is the part that in game, all playable demon hunters posses a “Demon Soul”, meaning if they die their soul will go to the Twisting Nether, and wait until they can poses a new body to inhabit. They can’t die.
Somewhere I found the last part also very tempting to make part of my characters roleplay. But I don’t know how common it is, or if other people frown upon me having a character who can be killed, but will never truly die. As it takes the purpose away from death as a form of character retirement.
The way I thought of implementing this is that the way for her demon soul to return only after at least a few months of being dead, and maybe a ritual performed by warlocks or other Illidari having to get her connect to a new host. Probably a morally questionable ritual at best. So not that she gets killed by a mugger, then returns the same day to get her revenge. Also some penalties are in order, as your demon powers have waned since you have a new host.
The Slayer can’t (permanently) die (except when they can). That doesn’t mean it’s the same for all demon hunters. https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_demon_hunters
You’ll note a few of these entries are “Deceased”.
I’m not sure where the line between mortal and immortal is drawn with Demon Hunters. We know the playable DH, cited by Elenthas above, has a demon soul and thus cannot truly die outside of the Twisting Nether. I would assume that ageing is similarly a thing of the past to one so similar to a demon, seeing as they certainly appear to be beyond the ravages of time.
Then again the player DH is for all intents and purposes of the same batch and background as the other Illidari, so whether it’s an ultimately pointless case of Rule of Cool or a trait shared by others as well… I honestly couldn’t say.
More to the point, I don’t think the Illidari themselves would know. I mean they’d generally have to die to find out if they lucked out (?) on their soul being corrupted or not, and that’s a hell of a gamble to verify or debunk one’s arrogance.
As far as RP is concerned, I don’t see a problem with a Demon Hunter referring to others as mortals. Even if they’re off to the Shadowlands in case they die, there’s nothing wrong with projecting an image to the contrary.
Yes. I want to note though that I try my best to avoid the Rule of Cool that haunts the Demon Hunter in a roleplay way. When refering others as “mortals” she only does it to other Illidari. She doesn’t flaunt her immortality about.
With the idea of the demon soul yeah pff I dunno. It’s of course questionable as roleplaying so will bring my character closer to a god level, and if you roleplay as a demon hunter you should be careful about being more “special” than others.
Then again it could form interesting roleplay if done right. Having a demon soul would means my character is truly screwed and won’t ever rest from being an demonic abomination. She will be closer to demon than person, which I like as she’s contradicting in her behaviour to protect and care of others.
Then again it’s risky. And maybe better to be avoided without any good roleplay interaction reason.
I would like to hear fellow Illidari RPers about this tho.
My character THINKS all Illidari end up in the Nether, because there have been Demon Hunters who came back ( like Varedis or Illidan or the Slayer ). From an OOC point of view it doesn’t matter if they do or not, because even if they did, you’d never know IC. It takes ages for a demon to recover in the Nether now, because Argus is no longer used as a battery to revive demons.
And if Demon Hunters do die like normal people, well, it’s not like any of the dead ones can come back and spread the news. You’d never know.
As for Fel, I expect it does prolong your life. We see Warlocks use it to renew themselves and Demons seem to never age. Look at Archimonde and Kil’jaeden, unlike Velen they don’t show any sign of aging.
I would definitely argue that it applies to demons moreso than Warlocks. Gul’dan was arguably the most powerful mortal Warlock to ever live, yet even he went from a young orc to an elderly figure in due time. It’s true that Khadgar refers to him as more demon than orc during WoD, but by then he was already getting up there in years.
Whereas we have plenty of demons who never appear to age a day over the span of centuries.
Gul’dan was born deformed and weak. That’s part of why he had so much hatred and power-hunger in him. If you look at him in the Nighthold raid, Fel Roids turn him into an absolute unit.
I think also the thing with Gul’dan was, he was one of the first to dabble with the unknown forces of fel energy, directly from the source no less. Fel energies corrupt a person, so in his case I think it made him age even more, but I’m pretty sure he had a expanded lifespan.
Gul’dan was an outcast, I don’t think he even cared about looks, just more and more power at any cost.
There are three demon hunters known to have that ‘immortal demon soul’ thing going on. As others have pointed out: Varedis, Illidan, the player character.
Two of those, Varedis and the player character, seem like perfectly fine confirmation to me that this is something a DH at random might benefit from. It seems to be a matter of neither power nor depth of one’s corruption, it’s just a trait they possess.
You yourself already noted that it’s wise to make this regeneration take a long while, and incur some penalties, so I need not touch on that.
I never claimed Fel couldn’t empower someone, we have a laundry list of cases of that happening. It did nothing to revert his age however.
It’s entirely possible that it did take a toll on his appearance, if not his actual strength.
I realize it isn’t canon, but the Warcraft movie did a good jo of portraying him as a cripple… right up until he got into a fight. He held his own for a bit, then began losing, only to steal the life from his opponent to gain a decisive upper hand. I think that illustrated the relation between mortals and Fel rather well.
He went from a cripple who couldn’t stand properly to being able to throw hands ( something he’s never done his entire life ) with Azeroth’s greatest murder hobos. I think it’s pretty clear the Fel made his body far stronger. Do you base his ‘age’ by the color of his beard?
Kil Jaeden has white hair as well but he clearly hasn’t ‘aged’ in any meaningful way. They may look old but they move like they’re in their prime.
Genn Greymane also hasn’t reverted in age in that he still looks 70 but the Worgen Curse made his body fast and strong like he was a young man again. Magic in WoW prolongs your life.
Genn Greymane, well renowned for his magical potency.
But in all seriousness, no. Magic in WoW does not prolong your life. It can do that for extraordinarily powerful beings, but even Antonidas, one of the most potent magi of his era and leader of the Kirin Tor, was still very much an old man by the time of his death at the age of 71.
Magic actually has an ageing factor on its wielders, turning their hairs grey at an unusually young age. Or in Jaina’s case, white. A human mage can live to the age of 200, but by that point, they are a withered husk of the person they once were.
I’ve little to add since most of what needed to be said, already has been.
Hell, an odd case is with Sevis, who if killed, literally claims to being stuck in the twisting nether, supposedly destined to wander the Fel Hammer for all eternity.
Maybe he does have an immortal demon soul, and is simply too bamboozled to grasp that, or he legitimately is a wandering aimless soul, stuck with the course that he treasured. Although, considering Illidan’s own surprise, I’ll wager its the latter, and thus not entirely common, if not even rare among the Illidari.
I’ll merely note that I think its cool, and very wise that you’ve chosen for it to be a lengthy, difficult and draining progress, to return from the Twisting Nether. As with all things in RP, keeping it fair and balanced is key, not to mention the most important factor of fun.
I’ve personally also played on my character having one such demon soul, although he most definitely wouldn’t know of that for certain, since he has (fortunately) yet to meet his demise. If or when he dies, I’ll make sure to make it an awesome and lengthy storyline to boot!
Yes. I thought very much that death has to be still impactful and meaningful to progress a story. Even if your character can be returned by a ritual (or collecting the dragonballs!), it must have penalties. Else death is meaningless, and playing a character who isn’t afraid of death is just boring.
The way I see it. Even if your character knows it has a demon soul, the thought of returning back to the twisting nether with the possibility of being lost there forever, is enough to avoid death.
Then there is the thing of being truly immortal. Is that truly a blessing? Is it really something that makes you special? Or will the thought of either walking Azeroth forever, or haunting the twisting nether as a lost demon soul for eternity, really depress your character?
Just don’t use it to cause trouble, get beheaded by the authorities and then respawn to have a pint down in old town the same evening, guffawing over how you beat the system.
Haha, definitely not.
I said earlier in some comments that death always should have penalties, and to be avoided. It’s more of a trait that supports a character, instead of a trait that can be used to be more “special” than other characters.
It’s literally why the elves lived so long and why demons don’t age.
Draenei, Naga, Elves, all the nigh-immortal races you can think of are very closely tied to magic.
And Genn might not be a wizard but the blessing of Goldrinn IS magic and it’s a fact that he moves way better than a 70 year old should.
Uther was a 64 year old man and yet he was swole af and could fight Arthas on equal footing. Gul’dan Fel roided up and went from a cripple that walked with a cane most of his life to the Hulk.
