I am in need of any tips, tricks, and reading material that will help me RP a warlock!
Now, I already have my character figured out and set. They have a personality, history, bonds, flaws, a bucket list etc.
Now, this character was a novice mage, that has only recently started learning the dark arts under a new mentor. I want to make sure to know as much as I can about warlocks, and the types of magics they use, how it affects them etc. Mostly so I know how to adjust as my character develops, and so that I donât break anyoneâs immersion.
Please, share your knowledge with me, so that I might be a good role-player, and please do share interesting tidbits of your own warlocks, just so that I can marvel at all of the interesting characters that are out there!
Thank you, you lovely people, and have a great day!
Spectacular and a lot more effort than most. Kudos.
Hereâs the part where I try to be constructively helpful; What led your character to pursue the dark arts and who is this mentor thatâs teaching them? Is the teacher telling them the facts or convenient truths? The point of these questions is to understand what weâre dealing with. In addition, race and culture makes a doozy of a difference as to how you approach these things.
One useful piece of info off the old class trainer banter that Blizzard disabled is that a lot of warlocks seem to look down on others as âpathetic mundanesâ who are too fearful and weak to handle true power. Itâs a common, recurring theme that your warlocks are somewhat elitist jerks with an inflated sense of worth for daring to indulge in the worst of magics.
Itâs also a struggle to simply be as warlocks face a lot of bad PR and generally have to confine their research to secluded and shady places. Maybe this contributes to their jerkishness, knowing that theyâre excluded despite their noble efforts? Only a few races tolerate you having your demon hanging out in polite company, too such as the forsaken who used to have a publically exposed summoning class in undercityâs Magic Quarter.
Speaking of arcane, weâve recently established as of the Chronicles and Legion that Arcane and Fel are not friends and do not play nice together. Once upon a time it was written that Fel is Arcane in its purest form, mirroring/ripping off Warhammer Fantasy lore on Chaos = Magic and the Nether as the source of magic and home of all demons with schooling determining your mastery and area of expertise. This is not canon anymore and Fel is its own force of Chaos vs Arcaneâs Order and playing with Chaos screws with your Order magic. As a mage turned warlock, you have a transition to make that might be difficult.
Additionally, demons arenât pets. Theyâre thinking, feeling, scheming creatures that you enslave via rituals (succubi), contracts (imps) and names of power (voidwalkers, despite not being actual demons). They arenât to be trusted in any sense and those that do are fools.
Fools, yes. Appropriate for practitioners of Chaos magic, the warlocks of Azeroth seem an anarchic bunch who largely trust individual idiocy to cull the unworthy and do not seem to police their own as Dalaranâs mages do. Everyone knows the risks and if you fail, thatâs on you. At the same time, warlocks must prove their worth to be tolerated and may well chase rogue agents and demons to demonstrate their utility to the mundanes.
Warlocks arenât all about Fel either. They practice all sorts of dark arts and as the green fire questline shows, they research the firelands and void magic of the Twilightâs Hammer as well. Your spellbook is a patchwork of the profane, drawing from all sorts of dark sources as needs must. Curses, manipulating life force, throwing tainted flames and so on.
Personally, I play mine as students of the things others arenât quite willing to pursue. Itâs a gamble but someone ought to do it and that makes them special and perhaps a bit egotistical. Bold and driven, maybe reckless but not quite dumb enough to pull a Fizzlebang in the town square. Their powers are unseemly but necessary and should be respected. Be diplomatic about your value to society and find your niche.
Thatâll be all for now at least. I hope that it helps to some extent.
one thing I have always bitten mark in
fel magic is mutating
using it changes you and there is ample proof of this in the game
you may not grow a tail, wings, hoofs and horns right away but over time you do mutate demonic features, if not risking becoming a demon out right should you survive long enough and expose yourself to enough fel magic.
It is sadly common that many warlocks mean well but get drunk on power and become either used as powerful pawns or they overestimate their own power and summon something they cannot control.
As such a warlock needs to be careful as the powers they wield are often enough to destroy them, even one wrong word in your summoning incantation and you may not summon the imp you wanted but a terror guard.
Thank you for this reply, this is all very useful information!!
I have read a bit on the new lore changes to the arcane, and this is very interesting! How do you think this transition would play out? Instantly or over time?
Maybe slowly losing the orderly control over the arcane spells as they delve more into using fel, causing their spells to start failing and having unforseen effects?
Also, the character is a blood elf. Their mentor has basically taken them in as an apprentice to have a cheap errand-runner, and teaching them the basics seems like a worthwhile exchange.
The character has led a bit of a sheltered life so far, and chose to accept the offer of tutelage by the warlock both out of curiosity, and to make whatâs left of her family proud.
I know that warlocks tend to be these power hungry, âI am better than thouâ characters. I am trying to, at least for the time being, make a bit of an unconventional warlock. Someone who hasnât bit off a big piece of the cake just yet.
I want to play through the temptations that come out of delving into these powers, as opposed to have them been granted in the background! I think that would be a lot of fun - role-playing how one becomes a power hungry, grumpy warlock, as opposed to just starting off as one.
Steering right off into headcanon lane by extrapolation but Iâd argue itâs both. In pursuing chaos magic youâre taking all that you know, all that youâre intertwined with by channeling and study and chasing its antithesis. Youâre stepping onto dry land after swimming for as long as youâve known it. All you know of ley lines and the ordering of the universe is null and you embrace all that would sunder it.
Fel is sacrificial magic; the poison of Order that consumes life to fuel itself. Itâs not transformation and transmutation of elements but consumption that leaves entire worlds in blackened ashes. Itâs pure Chaos and destroys what it touches with a power that had the very titans seek to control and halt its use by deploying the beasts that became the demonic doomguards. Oops. All is fuel to the Fel, body and soul. This might have uniquely unpleasant effects on a being as magically attuned as an elf, too.
As stated, not all that a warlock does uses fel, though and a blood elf might ease into the deep end of the pool given their Arcane affinity by using void magics (oh dear) and other less soul consuming powers. Demon summoning is a good angle and blood elf warlocks are actually titled summoners so consider that angle. It might be too heady for a novice to go full Destruction spec with all the green fire pageantry.
Arcane seems to involve a heavy use of glyphs and recognised patterns to channel the magic and this probably wouldnât apply to your new spells in quite the same way. Thereâs a fun little quest in Legion that involves matching glyphs to stabilize a warlock portal made by a novice former mage. With a mix of arcane, demonic and death runes, you blow up the whole thing if you do it wrong. Consider the powers at play and how ignorance has a price. The characterâs teacher might allow minor mistakes and the ensuing injuries to guarantee a lesson learned but would probably forcibly correct a colossal potential disaster before it can get out of hand.
Iâm not sure that itâd be okay to teach your errand boy/girl how to summon a felhound. If your apprentice screws up people might look into you in turn. You do you, though.
Maybe a lacklustre mage to begin with, seeking new power to not ruin the family legacy. The question is what family would be proud of a warlock to begin with but Silvermoonâs Sanctum is a relatively fine place to be. You may have to contend with the growing movement of golden eyed, pious blood elves who wonât have any of that shadowy nonsense in their lands, though.
Iâm struggling to come up with any more advice other than the rather rich information Levey has provided. I play(ed. Unsubbed for now.) a somewhat unconvential warlock and as long as you do it within reasonable bounds for a warlock and the character in mind then it should work rather well.
Thank you, the insights you shared are invaluable and helped me round up my character!
I canât wait to start this character on an incredible journey amongst you incredible players!
While Iâve role-played a warlock for a good five years now, Iâve always believed he fell more under the âdark wizardâ archetype than Blizzardâs fel-using warlock (as he utilizes fel magics on extremely rare occasions). Still, I might come to offer a tip or two:
I really like it when dark magic users RP the consequences of manifesting the foul sorceries they like to manifest, especially after theyâve cast something really powerful. Fatigue, paleness, weakness, varied form of exhaustion. I think it adds flavour to the entire thing.
Another thing I like to do is atmospheric descriptions of the dark magics mentioned. The dread, the voices, the weight on the air; magics called dark are called such for a reason. The biggest mistake you could make is to develop into one of those warlock RPers that portray their powers as coming without a cost, and not really all that âterrifying.â That is what I dislike most, when it comes to this sort of RP.
Warlock is a bit of a catch-all term for dark spellcasters, sans necromancers. Fel is by far their most iconic field of study, but weâve also got some who dabble with Void or the chaotic fire that Deathwing himself embodied. So your take is perfectly in line with the class lore.
