Paladins and the Void

Lore Role-playing
1

Hi,

I was wondering if it was lorewise possible for a paladin to learn how to use void magic.

Velaeda is supposed to be a former member of the Argent Crusade and I think it would make sense for her to dabble in this kind of magic, both to understand her enemies (to destroy them) and to help her allies (namely Forsaken / Death Knights of the Ebon Blade) when they were wounded.

If this was possible lorewise, what implications would it have? Would it be painful to use the Void or would she have a harder time to wield the Light afterwards?

What are your opinions on this? Would this be something that would be accepted in an RP background story or would it be considered god moding?

Kind regards,
Vela

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2

I don’t think a paladin would be able to use both light and void. If you are a paladin, you use the light. You are infused by it. If you start using the void, then you stop being a paladin. At least that’s how I see it based on how the Paladins work in Warcraft.

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3

Thank you. I will stay away from the Void then. :slight_smile:

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4

:broken_heart:

5

Better question is -why- a Paladin would use the Void.

Paladins are taught that the Void is the incarnation of all evil, with evidence to support such claims.

The Holy Light fills the user and the recipient with tranquility, makes them feel happy and content and can suppliment food for a brief period.

The Void is the opposite, it fills the user with fear and anquish and slowly turns the wielder to insanity.

Paladins & Priests alike - if you’re not one of those Netherlight Temple weebs - have been taught to root out evil all where it might exist, which in this case is the Void.

So to answer your question, no.

If you become a Paladin you essentially become a champion of the Light, possibly someone who -hates- the Void.

You probably wouldn’tve been accepted by the Light during your coronation as a Paladin if there was a chance you might turn to the Void.

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6

Think of the Hippocratic Oath. According to the healer compendium only shadow magic (aka Void) can heal undead (Forsaken / Death Knights), so imho it makes sense for a dedicated healer to learn how to help these people.

Even if you consider their current state as abominations, to permanently cure the curse you will likely have to understand the magic that caused it.

Last but not least destroying something gets much easier if you understand how it works. So learning about Void magic to destroy the Scourge or other practicioners of the Void doesn’t sound too unreasonable.

And blood knights don’t need to be accepted by the light… draining M’urus power like in the old days is still possible, although it’s discouraged.

7

The undead are everything the Light says is evil.

Let me put it this way, let’s assume God is exists in real life and he can grant people the power to heal like Jesus did.

By proxy, the devil and other demons exist. Would you succumb to the devil’s power if it means being able to heal demons?

Chances are you won’t, because demons are evil and sin incarnate. The same argument can be applied to Paladins & the Undead.

“But the Undead can become Priests” I hear one of you screech. Naturally they can, but the use of the Light is near painfully murderous for them. They’re still the epitome of everything the Church of the Holy Light teaches against.

8

Only that the undead were once humans and we know their souls will end up in eternal torment when they get destroyed.

If a priest had the chance to save a soul from such a fate, shouldn’t they try to do so? Especially since most undead did become what they are through no fault of their own.

Anyway, if the lore does not permit it I will not RP it, even though it seems to me to be a lost opportunity for story telling.

9

No, not really
Sylvanas saw… something that scared her enough to change her and got the funy idea, it is a good thing if she raises more corpses in a state she fears and despised all in her un-life. Sob sob my peaple will die ouuuut… yes. Yes they did. and should. Something that was dragged out from the grave should return to the grave, not multiply…
We actually don’t know what awaits to a rasied corpse after its death (Gorefiend died several times and returned without any ill effect, Morgrain was ravaged by the Light and rasied by the Deathlord… again… yet not mentioned any Hell or eternal torment)
As far as we know, Sylvanas could have been fooled by somebody… or thing that wanted her to do the stuff she did

You don’t actually have to be a ‘good’ person or Light fanatic to be a Paladin. Scarlets, Zandalar, Blood Knights, Sunwalkers…
What makes a paladin a Paladin?

Don’t forget, the Paladins are a new thing, in their curent form , dating back to the Second War
Before that? Draenei plated warrirors, but their culture had the Soulbinders… a bit shadowy priests, borderline necromancers
The Zandalari prelates worship the loa Rezan, adn the Loa of Kings is nor a Light-entity, like a Naaru, nor ‘alive’ at the moment
The Sunwalkers learned to use the… Sun^^

Paladins are heavily-armored fighters and defenders who use Holy magic to heal wounds and combat evil.

The Archbishop Alonsus Faol had perceived that the pious Clerics of Northshire, who had suffered such terrible attrition in the First War, were ill-suited for the dangers of combat. Along with many of the surviving Clerics of Northshire, he sought those of only the greatest virtue among the knighthood of Lordaeron and tutored them in the ways of magic. Led by the crusading Uther the Lightbringer, it now rested upon the new paladins - christened the Knights of the Silver Hand - to heal the wounds sustained in combat and to restore faith in the promise of freedom from orcish tyranny
Alonsus at the moment is a walking corpse and fine with it… well as much anyone could be fine with it
Give a Shadow/Discipline Priest a plate armor and some traning and you have a voidish paladin…

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10

So, if I rephrased my original question like this:
Would it be possible for a warrior / healer to learn how to wield both light and void magic the answer would be “yes”?

Thank you for your replies so far. :slight_smile:

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Yes
The Discipline priests have no problem with it… just stuff them in a plate armor and there you go^^

12

Thank you. :slight_smile:
Then I will adjust my background story to start out as a priestess. :smile:

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A priest who learned how to use a sword and wear a plate
Not the other way around, a warrior who used to learn magic^^
Potato , potahto , Tomato, tomahto

14

The Priests of the Netherlight Temple (priest order hall) learn to juggle the Void & the Holy Light. In the greater picture, it’s important to learn the balance between the two because it helps you see the grand scheme of things. They’re both the major cosmic forces of the universe after all.

But that’s only the epic priests of Netherlight Temple. Imho it’s much more fun to play as an extreme of one side, which is my character’s trope. :slight_smile:

15

That’s not true though since there are undead priests which is very much canon looking at Alonsus Faol in Before the Storm. Blizzard have stated it hurts them, but the light still shone on him the same as the humans.
Everyone who believes their cause is just can wield the holy light, hence, the Scarlet and “evil” paladins.
It is obviously possible to wield both void and light magic, see disc priests, but I don’t think it’s possible for a paladin. (note this is my own theory based on what I know) Paladins are more or less righteous knights while disc priests are seeking more of a balance between the two powers, so sure, your paladin could be curious and see it as a means to an end to get knowledge about the Void, but I think they’d stop being a paladin in the process.

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Okay, firstly, death knights and Forsaken are healed just fine with the Light too. It just hurts them a ton while it happens.

If anyone says otherwise, they’re trying to force their false headcanon on you and you should probably not take them that seriously.

Secondly, disc priests use shadow, not void.
There’s a big difference between the two.
The shadow is the “lighter” version, that even rogues and warlocks use.

Void is shadow on steroids and using it even just once will land you constant and permanent whispers in your head.
Just a note.

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17

Every Wiki entry I found claims that “Void” and “Shadow” refer to the same cosmic force (e.g. https:/wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Magic or
https:/wow.gamepedia.com/Magic )

Do you have some kind of official source that there is a difference between the two?

You are right about the Light being able to heal them, though (https:/wow.gamepedia.com/Undead). :slight_smile:
I must have missed that sentence the first time I skimmed the article and relied on the information from this blog: https:/wowhealerscompendium.tumblr.com/post/182578229340/magic-and-healing

I removed the second “/” behind the http: to be able to post these links.

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Void manifests as shadow magic just as Light manifests as holy magic

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Why do shadow priests have a shadow -and- a distinct different void form, then?

Why is there a shadow bolt -and- a voidbolt spell in the game?
If the terms could be used interchangably, that wouldn’t make a lot of sense, would it?

20

Game mechanics imho do not have to be lore accurate.

Even so, why should these spells be fueled by different sources?
Maybe the “void” variants only use more of the same power?