Learning to RP: the Death Knight

Argent Dawn
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Hello, Argent Dawn! Returning player and rookie RPer here.

This post is a WIP, where I attempt to summarise the essential information one would need to start roleplaying a DK. I haven’t caught up with Shadowlands lore yet, so corrections/suggestions are welcome :slight_smile:

DISCLAIMER: The following is my interpretation of the lore and comes with no warranty. By reading this post, you agree not to sue me for any IC or OOC injuries caused by the content. Oh and spoiler alert!

DK Lore in 5 Minutes or Less

As of this writing, a newly created DK character has the passive Veteran of the Fourth War. That means your character was KIA in Battle for Azeroth, and there happened to be a Knights of the Ebon Blade mobile resurrection reanimation station nearby. Lo and behold, you were reborn as a ripped killing machine!

Lich King II, Bolvar Fordragon, made you swear fealty to him and then sent you off to “find your own destiny”. Imagine my surprise when I was greeted with this new DK intro quest. Who is this Bolvar fellow, and why does he look like he was just vomited out by Deathwing?

In short, Bolvar was Regent Lord of Stormwind when Anduin was a kid. He was said to have a “noble spirit” and an off-the-chart approval rating. Okay, that changes things! I’m going to take a wild guess that DKs under Bolvar can be very different from those under Arthas.

The now out-of-date Wowpedia entry describes DKs as:

  • Without emotion or memories of past life
  • Suffering from the “eternal hunger” to kill

The benevolent Lich King Bolvar probably wouldn’t inflict such dark characteristics on his chosen knights, right? I mean, it would give him a bad name, for crying out loud! In other words, the current generation of DKs can (possibly) have positive emotions and be free from the eternal hunger!

Game Mechanics vs the Lore

Everything I’ve read about DK lore tells me that DKs are just as undead as the Forsaken. However, every now and then, something in game jumps out at me and shatters that illusion.

Here, I’ll list some of the inconsistencies I’ve noticed. I know WoW wasn’t designed with RPers in mind so I’m not complaining too loudly. Indeed, these inconsistencies can even be opportunities to be flexible with your RP choices. Necromancy is not a precise science, after all.

I. DKs eat?
In the original Acherus, an abomination, whose name escapes me, sells food and drinks which I don’t mind consuming in real life. Aren’t DKs supposed to not eat? If there is no demand, why is there supply?

If I’m not mistaken, this NPC was removed in Legion, along with the ability for non-DKs to enter Acherus itself. I see this as a welcome fix that brings mechanics in line with the lore. The living shouldn’t be able to pass through the Death Gate!

That being said, there is perfectly logical justification for DKs to eat normal food. Some of us might want to eat and even cook to feel what it’s like to be alive again. Just don’t forget to throw up ICly after the meal. Otherwise that food is going to rot in your dead stomach.

II. DKs can be feared.
I understand if this were not the case, DKs would be OP. But, according to Bolvar, “death has no power over the damned”. Then what is there that can scare a DK? Postmortem depression?

Sure, there is the Lichborne spell, with a whopping 1-minute cooldown. So I only get to be fearless for 10 seconds, every 60 seconds? I want my life back…

III. DKs need to breathe.
This, IMHO, is the most immersion-breaking design decision in the entire game. First you tell me my character is dead. But every time he’s underwater, a frickin’ breath metre pops up. Is he dead or not?!

Unlike the other inconsistencies, there is no workaround for this one. Not even Lichborne, which supposedly makes you even more undead than you already are, can eliminate the DK’s need to breathe!

Upon further inspection, Lichborne’s description says, “Draw upon unholy and frost energies to become Undead for 10 sec.” Wait a minute… To “become Undead”, with a capital U? Does that mean DKs are less undead, or more alive than the Forsaken? (With the exception of Forsaken DKs, of course.)

It all makes sense now. There is a whole spectrum of undeath! On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the souls in the Maw, and 10 being newborn babes, I’d put DKs somewhere between 4-6. There will be individual differences for a certainty. So it’s up to you to decide how dead your DK is :wink:

To be continued because the servers are up~

References

I can’t include links in my posts for some reason :confused:

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This is a good summary of most of the need-to-know for starting as a DK. However, don’t fully agree with this qouted bit, not least because DK characters without these traits (mostly the Dark Hunger) are supremely lame.

The Ebon Blade acts pragmatically, and does what the living cannot; Legion showed they have no care for what the living think of them. All that matters is the final result of eradicating their enemy.

Bolvar doesn’t even hesitate to throw his new “chosen knights” headfirst into the Maw, whereupon they all die. He is not a benevolent leader. He’s a king, a wartime general.

You could argue the Dark Hunger is a necessity. Death Knights need their constant lust for battle and bloodshed, otherwise they might want to do something other than fight, which would just make them a liability.

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what’s to even say it can be removed from this particular necromancy, at that. The scourge aren’t exactly known for designing their magic in neat, modular ways, nor for weaving in kindnesses.

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I’m with the others on this one. A death knight implies a sort of “cursed” personality. It doesn’t mean you have to be an emo teenager, but I would maintain that unless anything else is stated, fresh death knights are still under the effects of the hunger.

Game mechanics shouldn’t be taken literally. Undeads aren’t mean to feel fear or be seduced. Nothing suggests DKs should be more susceptible to fear than other undeads aside from game mechanics (but as you noted, these are here for balance reasons).

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He already has a cursed personality, he wants to roleplay as a vulpera…

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Thank you all for your feedback! I’m retconning my take on DK psychology. Suffer well.

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Especially the third generation death knights but pretty much all death knights have gone through some pretty traumatic things, like dying and for the third gens, massacring a city full of people. One of the pet peeves i’ve always had is people roleplaying DK’s and most undead, and even Demon Hunters as very normal, happy, upbeat characters when they’ve realistically been through a whole load of trauma. Not that they need to be miserable, depressing and soul destroying characters to play and be around, but I believe portraying their emotional and mental scarring is key to these sort of characters.

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Same, I tend to go for a very expressionless/emotionless personality for my DK, like he exists to serve the Ebon Blade and thats it, guy barely even talks unless directly spoken to, but everyone has a different take, the practically robotic silent killer isnt for everyone either

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There are many things that make a DK compelling to rp, whether that is figuring out how he or she deals with the Eternal Hunger, or how they interact with a world that for the most distrusts or outright shuns them.

What I personally find interesting to learn is how each death knight deals with the memories of their past lives aswell as the things they have done as a death knight. Do they rather forget their former lives because the memories are too painful, perhaps even going as far as to see yourself as a completely new being seperate from who you used to be? Or do they instead embrace their past lives, both the good deeds and the ill, and do they see their past memories as a source of strength, rather than something that hurts and weakens you?

Salfalur here is firmly in the second camp, and has chosen to try and reconnect with his old family, which he now has to a degree. So when you then meet other death knights or necromancers who are firmly in camp one, it makes for interesting rp.

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Back in beta WoW the Forsaken were classed as Undead instead of Humanoid, granting them permanent immunity to a number of debuffs - including Fear.

Both Forsaken and DKs, narratively, are immune to fear by virtue of being undead. They’re vulnerable however to things like Turn Undead, which is basically the same thing.

Likewise they don’t need to breathe, it’s just they didn’t give them a class-passive for Unending Breath, presumably because they had enough ribbons like On A Pale Horse and Path of Frost - though that second one is less impressive next patch lmao.

Personally I wouldn’t have Vot4W DKs lose the desire/need to hurt because 1) it gives roleplay motivations immediately and 2) Bolvar wasn’t a very good Lich King. He was really bad at it actually. I don’t think he had the brain capacity to tweak the existing DK reanimation spells, and the Ebon Blade probably likes their DKs to be bloodthirsty. It’s an excellent motivator in a soldier.

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Oi! Yee, playing a DK is a tricky one imho; I actually opted mine to be a sort of loser with potential. Raised for that shining glimmer of power and growth that could be given in undeath … even though he would remarkably bad at being one at first.

It’s a fun concept! Playing a being that already lived, and died; makes / can make for great RP :beers:

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People really struggle to grasp what an absolute chump of a Lich King Bolvar was

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My own Death Knight was a Paladin before being raised so he is revolted at his existence. He also retains his faith in the Light, even if it rejects him.

Honestly its what makes Death Knights in the right hands, incredibly compelling storytelling devices to play out. Its a shame most just use them for not the intended purpose.

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