The general consensus about Lightforged Shadow Priest is that they are an anomaly that is tolerated because of game play reasons. The reasoning is that Lightforged need to be able to be priests as it makes sense for Holy and Disc but not so much for Shadow. But since you can’t prevent priests from being Shadow for obvious gameplay reasons, Lightforged shadow priests are a thing that is in the game but doesn’t make sense from a lore perspective. So anyone who cares about the lore of their character or who wants to roleplay would steer clear of playing shadow as a Lightforged draenei.
But I was wondering, can it make sense after all ?
So what does it mean to be Lightforged ? It means you have undergone a ritual to infuse your body and soul with the holy light. A select few Draenei have done this to empower themselves to fight off the burning legion. Now the holy light is basically the opposite force of shadow or the void as in there can’t be light without shadow and vice versa. Now this holy light is embodied by the Naaru, that are creatures made out of pure light. Lightforged Draenei worship and follow these Naaru much like regular Draenei but they just take it one step further and become Lightforged. A bit like Holy light extremists.
But we have also seen that a Naaru can fall to the void and become a dark Naaru. Essentially this means that light can become shadow (and vice versa).
So if a Naaru that is made out of pure light can fall to the void, why can’t a Lightforged Draenei fall to the void ? What happens when the holy light that is infused into a Lightforged body and soul would fall to darkness much like what happens with a dark Naaru ? Well it would make sense that is Lightforged would become a dark Lightforged, a Darkforged if you want. And if that Darkforged would be a priest it would make sense to play as shadow.
So in my opnion if you want to (role)play a Lightforged Shadow priest that makes sense from the perspective of the lore it can be done. You have fallen to the void just like a Naaru can fall to the void and become a dark Naaru, you have become a Darkforged Draenei.
Just like Forsaken Holy priests, Lightforged Shadow priests only exist because of game mechanics and nothing more.
Lightforged bodies are literally that. Forged in light, if they come into contact with void, they cause an unstable reaction. So, RPing one is not possible (not in a good lore friendly way, anyway).
A Lightforged Shadow Priest is literally a contradiction in terms. I’d give anyone RPing one some serious side-eye. It’d be like having a Holy Warlock or some other nonsense class mixture.
This is true, when the strength of the Light fades or the Light is corrupted, it can turn into the Void. This is also how the Void can come into existence - a lack of Light.
In that case, the Lightforged will no longer be “lightforged”. The Light is the complete opposite of the Void, and when both “collide”, weird stuff happens (the Great Dark Beyond and the Twisting Nether came to be after constant collisions between the Light and the Void).
However, it MIGHT be the case that a combination of Void and Light is possible, which has something to do with the recent debate about what Elune is, seeing the whole “dark side” of Elune-thing developing with Night Warrior stuff.
So, to answer your question, no, a being of Light cannot voluntarily call upon the Void/Shadow. A Naaru can also only call upon the Light, but can turn into a being of Void, which negates any use of the Light but allows the corrupted Naaru to use the Void.
That is not true, Undead beings can use the Light but it will be very painful. They can even be healed by the Light.
Kretias, you see what he did there? He gave examples of things that do not exist lore-wise, but are possible due to in-game mechanics. He gave the example of the Forsaken. While there are indeed no known Holy Light users among the undead Forsaken, there are Undead who are, but not among the ranks of the Forsaken.
The only difference between the Forsaken and the other Undead is that the Forsaken are part of a specific nation, so there is no metaphysical difference between, say, Alonsus Faol and Lilian Voss. Therefore, in this context, the difference between “Forsaken” and “Undead” is neglectable, which is why Daltor is correct. The Forsaken CAN be Holy Priests, as is evident from the fact that their kin can be.
End of topic. He said Forsaken. Not undead. And because Forsaken Holy/Disc priests exist solely for gameplay reason. Which is correct. Never did he state they cant wield it because of their body. This is something you put into his mouth. He simply stated they only exist for gameplay reason but lorewise do not. Youre trying to nitpick for the sake of nitpicking.
In his example he even ONLY explained why the lightforged cant be void wielders. He didnt touch the Forsaken for the very reason because they can.
That is true, but the Light and Undeath are not mutually exclusive, like the Void and Light are. Alonsus Faol, Sir Zeliek, some of the Scarlet Crusaders in Tyr’s Hand, all examples of Undead who can still wield the Light. And none of those are metaphysically different.
So there is still a difference between Light/Void and Light/Undeath.
I think there’s a line of thinking that you can’t have one without the other - that finding a balance between the two states is what following Priest orders is all about.
I wouldn’t exclude Lightforged from having a hand in the Shadow side… they are painted (to the Horde at least) as being fanatical and that never really ends well.
It’s only from Legion onwards that Shadow has included Void magic - the tool was changed in game too - and that was only because of the Artifact weapon. So It’s reasonable to think that a Lighforged priest may not have come into contact with the void - at all. Just a theory anyway.
Lightforged draenei can be shadow mostly because of the gameplay reasons. But I guess how they can also be corrupted like everyone else, they can’t be immune to every form of corruption.
Remember that the Undeath are constantly being sustained by Necromancy, anything opposite to that (which would be Life magic I guess) would destroy them. Necromancy itself should fall in its own category (or Death in general), but you are correct that the act of raising a body can be done with Fel (I think that the Eredar Warlocks and the Dreadlords did so during the War of the Ancients).
Chronicle I has retconned a lot of what we knew about the Light and the Void, which was accompanied by a sudden change of Shadow Priest philosophy, who are now more Void Priests than traditional Shadow Priests.
