#lore week

BYE

😁😁😁

(because I am way too obsessed with this girl)

Chapter 1- seven years old

I set my sketch book down to the side and stretched my sore arms. Thankfully mommy hadn’t hit me too bad last night, so I was still able to move around without too much struggle. I tip-toed downstairs, letting out a small sigh of relief when I didn’t see her. I opened the fridge door and let out a small sigh of disappointment. The fridge was empty besides an expired jug of milk and some eggs. I walked over to the dining table, rummaging through mommy’s purse until I found enough cash. 

I walked over to the front door, grabbing my jacket. I zipped it up and headed out the door. I walked down the street, ignoring the confused glances I got. It was winter, but the cold wind felt nice on my skin. I hummed a little song under my breath until I got to the small grocery store and walked inside. I wandered through the aisles, trying to find something I could make. I finally settled on some things to make a pb & j sandwich and walked to the checkout, pleased with my choices.

I reached up a bit to drop the items in front of the cashier. The teenager gave him a bored look. “You got enough money kid?” She said, finishing the sentence with a pop of her gum. “Yup!” I proudly showed her my 20$ bill, and she nodded as she grabbed it from me. “Alright, that’ll be.. exactly twenty dollars. Enjoy kid.” I smiled as I scooped up everything into my arms and walked away. 

That had been much easier than other times. Sometimes there was this man who always gave me a weird look, like he felt bad for me. Another one of them always asked a lot of questions with a scrutinizing gaze. That teenager with the bubblegum might become a new favorite.

I finally got home, dumping the food onto the counter. Once I finished the sandwich I took a bite, grinning when I was pleased with the results. It was great. Once I finished it I could put the other things into our pantry, since that was empty to besides for mommy’s alcohol.

How are death knights’ bodies different from those of other undead like the Forsaken?

As both the death knights and the Forsaken are technically undead, much about their bodies and vital functions – or lack thereof – is similar. Virtually all death knights do not feel temperature or physical pain and have no real need to breathe, rest, or sleep, which are traits they share with the Forsaken [Death Knight, Chapter Five, Legends: Volume One: Fallen, Volume Two: Fallen, Volume Three: Fiend, Quest: They’re Doing it Wrong, Item: Diving Log, NPC: Prince Erazmin Dialogue, Traveler, pg. 96 (softcover edition), Object: Guide to the Side Effects of Reanimation]. That said, it is still technically possible for death knights to sleep if they want to [Object: The Death Knights of Acherus].

Additionally, the death knights and the Forsaken are both capable of bleeding, provided they have some sort of substance running through their veins. The fact that Arthas could still bleed and feel, even as a death knight, enraged him so much that he removed his own heart and threw it down a pit immediately after becoming the Lich King [Quest: The Hunter and the Prince]. Another death knight, Koltira Deathweaver, also complained of internal bleeding at one point [NPC: Koltira Deathweaver Dialogue].

While many of the Forsaken are described as being bloodless, some, including the undead player character, have a type of fluid inside them that oozes out when they are cut [Traveler, pg. 96 (paperback edition), Elegy, Quest: Hiding in Plain Sight, Page: Undead]. Archbishop Alonsus Faol, for example, has no blood as an undead, but it is pointed out that he is “tied together” with ichor [Before the Storm, Chapter Twenty-Six]. Not dissimilarly, a group of gnolls were reanimated after their bodies were infused with a unique type of embalming ichor [Quest: Graverobbers, Quest: Rot Hide Ichor]. Others still, such as the Scourge’s gigantic flesh giants, cannot be created without both blood and embalming fluid to preserve their parts and keep them functioning [Quest: Spill Their Blood].

The biggest question most players have concerning death knights, however, is whether or not they decay like their Forsaken counterparts. The seemingly immaculate appearance of their bodies compared to the Forsaken, many of whom are in a perpetual state of decomposition and often lose limbs, led many to assume that death knights’ bodies are preserved and maintained by a greater degree of necromantic magic [Traveler, pg. 96 (paperback edition), NPC: Forsaken Battleguard Dialogue, Quest: The Wakening, Short Story: Dark Mirror]. This is, in fact, true as Sylvanas once explained that the Val’kyr serving under Arthas raised death knights in rituals so potent that it made their bodies much stronger and hardier than those of traditional undead [Short Story: Dark Mirror].

How do different races and cultures view the death knights?

The havoc wrought by the Scourge in the last decade and a half has left a deep scar on the psyche of both the Alliance and the Horde. The deaths of countless innocents, the fall of kingdoms, and the unholy twisting of the fallen has made the living reluctant to trust any of the undead, no matter their new allegiances. It should come as no surprise, then, that many of Azeroth’s inhabitants still revile the death knights today, years after they broke free from the Lich King’s grasp [NPC: Darion Mograine Dialogue].

In the Beginning

The death knights who deserted from the Scourge were not initially well received by their new living allies in either the Horde or the Alliance. Those who had personally felt the impact of the plague condemned the death knights as traitors, some going so far as to blame them for the demise of their own families [Quest: Where Kings Walk, Comic: Death Knight, Chapter Four]. Moreover, many of the living were wary of the death knights’ former position as servants of the Lich King, which did little to alleviate their distrust [Quest: Thassarian, the Death Knight, Quest: …All the Help We Can Get.]. Although the death knights sought to reintegrate back into society, many, such as Thassarian, felt stigmatized and that they had not been accepted by their peers [Comic: Death Knight, Chapter Five].

When Trag, a tauren raised as a death knight by the unholy power of the Orb of Ner’zhul, returned to his tribe to find a cure for his undeath, they tricked him and attempted to kill him [Legends: Volume One, Fallen]. Although the tauren race had allied with the Forsaken and promised to help those previously under the Lich King’s thrall, the shaman of his tribe – worried that Trag would ultimately succumb to Arthas’ control – plotted to put an end to his life [Legends: Volume One, Fallen]. The taunka, on the other hand, were much more accepting of Trag when he stumbled across them on his journey through Northrend. They welcomed the lone tauren with open arms in part because they felt kinship for him and his fight to survive, being engaged in a constant struggle against the Lich King themselves [Legends: Volume Three, Fiend].

Present Day

While the death knights have now been free from Arthas’ control for approximately six years, some of the living still continue to treat them with heavy disdain. Of course, the death knights’ dark past is not totally to blame for the uneasy relationships they have formed. Many of their recent actions are also viewed as morally questionable and, in some cases, even borderline treasonous. Without a doubt, the death knights’ need to increase their numbers by raising their fallen comrades on the battlefield draws the ire of their living allies [Quest: Knights of the Ebon Blade]. In fact, Darion Mograine recently remarked that turning both Nazgrim and Thoras Trollbane into undead horsemen would greatly upset the Horde and the Alliance [Quest: Return of the Four Horsemen, Quest: The Ruined Kingdom].

Even members of neutral factions such as the Argent Crusade have openly declared they barely tolerate the death knights, which is little surprise seeing as undead forces have attacked Light’s Hope Chapel no less than four separate times [NPC: Argent Sentry Dialogue, Ashbringer: Issue Four, Dust to Dust, Quest: The Light of Dawn, Quest: The Fourth Horsemen, Object: Compendium of Fallen Heroes]. When Darion led the charge to infiltrate the chapel barely a year ago in an attempt to raise Tirion Fordring as the final of the Four Horsemen, it weakened an already tenuous peace between the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Knights of the Silver Hand. Moreover, the death knights’ attack on their own allies and flagrant disregard for the dead that day also drew the anger of prominent members of the Alliance and the Horde, including Lady Liadrin [Quest: The Fourth Horseman].

Specific Races and Their Views

Most night elves – and perhaps tauren by extension, as evinced by Trag’s story – canonically abhor the death knights because of their unnatural existence, which goes against everything they stand for [Ask CDev, Round Four].

Unfortunately, there are few specifics on how many other races view the undead among their ranks. While it is safe to say humans and blood elves certainly despise the death knights given their personal past with them, there are not many in-game examples to corroborate this.

Having said all that, it appears some death knights seem to have fully reintegrated back into society and adopted something close to a normal lifestyle without much of an issue. Libbiara Blightrunner, for example, is a wealthy sin’dorei socialite who dresses up and spends much of her free time watching Brawler’s Guild fights [Quest: Undercover Agent: Nugg Lumbo]. Even Thassarian, who initially struggled to find acceptance among the Alliance, was eventually lauded by his brothers-in-arms [Quest: Thassarian, the Death Knight].