Good evening, and welcome to tonightâs lecture: The Future of the Forsaken. Iâm pleased to see so many here, especially some of my countrymen, our allies in the Horde and honoured guests from the Alliance.
For those of you who do not know me: I am Reverend Corvenus Winteroak, Iâm a Priest of The Conclave and First Minister of an organisation known as The Tirisfallen. I have the honour of being a disciple of his most holy, The Archbishop Alonsus Faol.
In life I trained at Alonsus Chapel in Stratholme from the age of nine where I worked training aspiring Paladins, specifically in the more religious aspects of their work and using the Light to heal and protect.
Since my liberation from the Scourge Iâve worked to help my people and homeland, first as a Cleric of the Argent Dawn and later as part of The Argent Crusade. I actually served here for many months helping ready the champions of Azeroth.
Iâll start this lecture by briefly outlining the history of my people, touching on the experiences of your âaverage undeadâ during those years and months. This is important as it frames a great deal of our experiences, hopes and fears.
After that Iâll comment on recent events, outline the difficulties we face as a people and my personal roadmap for our restoration as a people and a society. You know, the âlittle thingsâ
Lets start this off with a question from me to you: What do the âForsakenâ mean to you? Hands up, please.
Wonderful, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings, and I value your honesty. Of course âForsakenâ comes from the word âForsakeâ, to abandon, or to leave something. In older times it would generally mean to ârenounceâ.
Think of some marriage vows, hm? âI forsake all othersâŚâ and what have you. This notion of being abandoned, and cast out, is central to our cultural identity as Undead.
The majority of the Forsaken made up of the men and women who died in the Kingdom of Lordaeron, most of us being citizens, some beings visiting nationals and a few others from races then aligned to the Alliance of Lordaeron.
Our freedomâŚthat event was not a sense of liberation, it was deeply traumatic. Countless thousands of people âwaking upâ from slavery to the scourge. Some remembering -everything- they had done, others remembering nothing and some, like me, having our last memory being of our death.
We wore the clothes we had died in, the armour weâd fallen in, some of us carried weapons, clubs, rusty swords. Some of us were missing limbs, or badly rotten and then into this is a spark of person you were.
Fear comes first for many, and I donât mean a poultry fear of the dark, or spiders. Terror, dread. You look at your hands and see the very thing that hunted you down, stalked your shadow and cut you down. Are you that monster?
Then someone comes along, someone powerful who offers you protection, a person who in the chaos takes the reins and leads you and you start to feel safe. More of that spark of who you were finds life, and you remember the enemy: The Scourge
We fought with The Alliance Resistance to dismantle the last of the Scourge in Lordaeron. Othmar Garithos took Lordaeron, with our help, then sought to remove us from our home.
In the weeks and months to follow there were more attacks on our people, more raids. Our fear and self-hatred found new targets, all the while Sylvanasâ credence of âFear the Livingâ âBeware the Livingâ âTrust nooneâ took root.
Those sparks of our former lives, so fragile as they were, were easily snuffed out, pushed to the backs of my peopleâs minds. We could not afford to be the soft people weâd been in life, we had to survive.
Distrust and hatred are fast growing weeds. Iâve long wondered how things might be different had someone offered us a kind hand, if someone took a moment to talk to us, to learn of our lives, the people weâd been and were. Weâll never know now.
So, my friends, we have a picture of the foundations of Forsaken Society. It does not excuse us or absolve us of many of the crimes that were to follow under her reign. But perhaps you see the circumstances that pushed us the direction they did.
We think and wonder now: what is the future of the Forsaken? We have no capital city, though thousands remain across Lordaeron, we have no leader, few role models or heroes of our own to aspire to. We have little of value, or worth⌠save our lives.
If my people are to have a future we must fundamentally shift what it means to be âForsakenâ, to be Undead. The actions of the Desolate Council proved that to simply exist is not enough, we must have purpose and value as people. There must be hope.
I believe the first step in that path is an acceptance of the duality of our nature. We can not escape the evil of our rebirth nor our fundamental nature as Undead. They are part of us, but need not be the only thing which defines us.
We must accept those of us who walk the path of Shadow, and those who would walk the path of Light. A person may use the shadow for good, or a person may use the Light for evil. We must cultivate the good, so all tools are used to that end.
We can also no longer be defined by our fear, or our hatred. We share this world, and it is my fundamental belief we have every right to exist in it, and help in turn safeguard it. This is an ideal, and it is far easier said than done.
Therefore the second step in the path must be to reconnect with our former lives, to some degree or another. Under Sylvanas this was forbidden, and I believe it was forbidden for the fact that it would help us to reconnect with this world and the living.
We are, at any point, people made by and defined by an amalgamation of all our experiences. As undead we have two lifetimes worth to call upon, and should be unafraid to allow ourselves to be guided by the experiences and memories of life.
This leads me to the third step on the path: we must begin to look inwards, and come together as a society. We must accept that we need time to heal, to reassess and to work on ourselves. Weâve spent too long with a fearful eye on the world, and neglected our hearts in the process.
My people must learn to speak more about their feelings, the good and the bad and they must be listened to. They must be shown care, and compassion by those who would guide and lead them.
The last step on this path rests with -you-, the living:
We must be given the opportunity to grow, and you must step back and give that to us. We are not ignorant of our mistakes as a people, or the crimes of our former leader. These are stains upon our honour and will mark the fabric of our society forever.
We must be the instruments of our future, and be given that chance free from interference or oppression.
Let the end of this Fourth War mark the last chapter of our society written by the hand of Sylvanas, give us the chance to write the next chapter with our own hand, to honour the legacy of the Kingdoms we died for, and the people we were.
Thank you for listening.
Now, Iâll open this lecture to questions. Please raise your hands and Iâll do my best to get through as many of you as I can.
