All the World's a Stage: How roleplaying a Death Knight will be different
by David Bowers 
Jun 1st 2008 at 5:55PM
When you decide to roleplay, a whole new world of imagination opens up to you -- soon you realize that all the world's a stage, even if just an electronic one.We don't know a whole lot about death knights in WoW yet, but what we do know is already enough to show that death knights are the class with the most background story already laid out for them ahead of time: The death knights we will be able to play are former servants of the Lich King who have now turned against him and joined the Alliance or the Horde instead. This background story is built into the class -- something each and every death knight roleplayer will have to take into account when they roleplay their character, and it will have ramifications upon everyone else in the entire global society of Azeroth as well.
Some other classes have a great depth of lore behind them as well, such as druids, paladins and shamans, who look to Malfurion, Uther, and Thrall for inspiration. These classes certainly look up to their heroes and follow in their footsteps, just as, in some ways, death knights follow in the footsteps of Arthas. And yet for other classes that has little effect on each individual's path to becoming a practitioner of his or her particular abilities. The transition from normal shmoe to level one hero is left vague for the player upon character creation, unless, as a roleplayer working on a backstory, he gives it special attention.
Indeed, some classes are pretty straightforward, and don't necessarily suggest a story at all. Instead, they present us with an image, or an idea -- when you play one of the existing nine classes, you can fit right into the role without a story, because the role feels like a basic archetype you already understand.
The twist
When you think of "Warrior" for instance, you imagine a great fighter clad in impressive plate armor, wielding a deadly weapon of some sort. Likely you might think of his fearsomeness, his recklessness, or his strength. If someone asked you, however, how it is he got to be a fighter, your mind would probably leap to the most obvious answer: "by... fighting!" Presumably, at some point, a warrior decided not to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," but to "take arms against a sea of troubles," and by opposing, kill 'em dead. The basic template for this type is so simple that it could fit any number of interesting characters.
The same is true with many other classes, such as a mage (who studied lots and learned to wield magic), or a priest (who joined some sort of priestly order). Each WoW character went through a character twist: some sort of change in life that caused him or her to choose a certain path. In the case of rogues and warlocks, this path is not universally accepted by the society at large.
Warlocks in particular have a tougher time of it, being as they ride a tide of evil energies, just barely succeeding (or failing) at keeping themselves sane in the midst of it. Indeed warlocks are the class most thematically similar to death knights in that both of them try to bend evil powers towards good purposes -- although, if anyone wants to roleplay a truly evil character, a warlock is the most obvious choice.
The death knight double-twist
Death knights, too, are so obviously evil at first glance that they require quite a bit of background storytelling to explain why players should be able to control them in the first place, let alone take them into battles against their archetypal hero figure, the very one who made their powers possible. Death knights are not merely characters who stepped onto a certain path in order to perform heroic deeds -- they are former heroes who fell into the temptation of the dark side (so to speak), became twisted versions of their former selves, tainted with all manner of wicked magics, and yet finally managed to reject all the purposes for which the Lich King instructed them and become something of true heroes again -- only this time they fight their former master with all the same powers he taught them to use.When you create your death knight character, you will begin in a floating necropolis, somewhat akin to Naxxramas, and undertake a series of quests that will teach you how to play your class and give you some sense of how your character got to be this way. No one knows for sure, but I think it's safe to make some assumptions about how this is going to go: From the very beginning, the Scourge will be your enemy rather than your friend, and your first quests will put you in conflict with it. I imagine these quests will probably be geared towards wresting control of the necropolis away from the Scourge and into the hands of some as yet unknown death knight group in opposition to Arthas. Getting a sense of who your new allies are, and why they have turned against the Lich King, will be just as much part of the death knight experience as learning how to kill assorted zombies, skeletons, and other sorts of unfriendly phenomena.
New twists on an already twisty twister
In light of all this, players need to realize that their characters are not Lich-King wannabes. As attractive as it may seem to play a character who seeks to steal the Frozen Throne direct from under Arthas' icy butt, that particular motivation is going to get old fast. We will have to work out our own reasons for joining the Scourge and then fighting it again, and hopefully Blizzard's introductory quests will help us with that without necessarily spelling it out and making all death knights the same. After all, stories like those of death knights are tricky. What kind of character starts out good, turns evil, then turns good again? How can a server full of such characters all do this in different ways? Here are a couple of ideas that come to mind:
- A gnomish scientist who obsesses over creating life: In his quest to unravel this mystery and bring inanimate objects to life, he stumbles upon knowledge of undeath, and gradually falls into the clutches of the Lich King. Later, when he and the other death knights break free, he resumes his quest for the mystery of life, believing that the phenomenon of undeath holds the key.
- A blood elf mystic who tries to find freedom from addiction to magic by embracing the power of undeath: For her death magic is like a form of tantric secret ritual -- it is alluring and attractive because it is the very opposite of everything her people holds dear, and she believes that embracing her opposite will result in her freedom. Just because Arthas is such a nasty guy, she protests, doesn't make his power any less real.
What sort of character do you have in mind to fit the death knight backstory?
All the World's a Stage brims over with ideas and experiences about roleplaying. Consider making a character diamond to help you get into character, coming up with an interesting backstory, writing a good description of him or her, and, if you have time, freeing your mind.Filed under: Warlock, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Lore, RP, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, All the World's a Stage (Roleplaying)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
C.A. Jun 1st 2008 6:22PM
I'm very interested in finding out how much of this is right. It all seems like that is the way it'll go. Whoever is leading the deathknights will be pretty big.
I'm wondering if they'll have quests to gain the trust of your faction as well. I think that in adversity people come together, but seeing the Horde and Alliance welcome the deathknights with open arms seems very unlikely. It would be interesting if you were an outcast for a while and had to operate out of the citadel only (except zeps and boats), or perhaps started out as unfriendly with your factions.
Hurode Jun 1st 2008 6:37PM
That actually made me think of another aspect to Death Knights that I haven't seen anyone else touch upon. The backstory of the Forsaken as a race seems similar to the backstory of the Death Knight as a class, in so far as they were former servants of the Lich King but broke away from his grasp.
It's true that the Forsaken's alliance with the rest of the horde is only one "of convenience" as the undead intro describes, but the race is at least accepted amongst most of the rest of the horde. Is it really so irrational to think that the same couldn't apply to Death Knights? If an entire in-game race can reject the Lich King and become so widely tolerated, it's not too off-the-wall to think that the same would apply to a Death Knight.
C.A. Jun 1st 2008 7:57PM
Very good point
Suzaku Jun 1st 2008 8:26PM
Well, one thing to consider is that Death Knights won't be starting in the usual places and will have their own trainer in EPL to kick things off. They likely will only be heading to the capital cities to trade and train after that, as they'd be leveling in Outland and then returning to Northrend.
I'd think referring to the tabletop Death Knight and Demon Hunter lore would be a good choice. Demon Hunter lore in the sourcebooks specifically deals with them being outcasts, so there might be some ideas there.
Another thing to consider is the Cult of the Damned. The Cult is a bunch of mostly-still-living Scourge in training, and yet they're able to infiltrate common society to spread discontent as well as the plague.
According to the alpha leaks, it seems that the Death Knights will have their own faction to deal with, the Knights of the Ebon Blade, which is the anti-Arthas Death Knights, said to be uniting under Highlord Darion Fordring, who may be the Ashbringer or his other son.
ErsatzPotato Jun 1st 2008 8:07PM
"Some other classes have a great depth of lore behind them as well, such as druids, paladins and shamans, who look to Malfurion, Uther, and Thrall for inspiration."
They may but needn't. A priest, warrior, or mage may look to one of those as inspiration as well, even if that's not his or her skills.
I realize it's an obvious point, one you surely know, but it's worth mentioning occasionally. Not every warlock is diabolical, moustache twisting, wants-to-burn-the-world-to-it's-knees evil monster. Not every rogue steals from every darn person in sight, klepto-style.
Class and race can be useful hooks for RP but they're no more than that. Class & race & lore can too easily become crutches. That's the road that leads to one-eyed half-demon half-vampire orphans.
Nor need there be a huge backstory for RP. The RP background when I made my RP holy priest consisted in it's entirety of: human holy priest. Raised in Desolace. Which became in play...
Only kid around, with dumb parents, and got shoved off onto the local dwarven priest. Was trained as one, only choice available. Growing up in Desolace, saw the centaurs being slaughtered for no obvious reason. Doesn't give a hoot about the gods. He gets by with the skills he has and is finding his own place in a world full of pious Janus-faced prats and idiotic wars. I imagine he'd be awfully cranky if he got turned into a death knight by yet another self-serving group of power happy a**hats. He's a nice guy generally but don't be a jerk to others in his sight or he won't let you live it down. On the other hand, he hangs out with a group of crude dwarven mercenaries and works with them for hire to clean up messes made by all sides, Horde or Alliance. They're his friends. Ignores his compatriots when they tell their drunken war stories but isn't above indulging on occasion and hiring a hooker to treat badly and pay well. [not RP'd, that's kinda dull stuff] On his down time he hangs out in lower city with the refugees. Being rootless, homeless, looking for...something. He understands that. He's teaching the ogre over by the mana loom to play i-go. It's not going well. That's okay, an ogre is probably the only one he could beat anyway. Loves the game but plays poorly.
Now, none of that is particularly interesting to anyone not involved. Nor am I claiming Mad RP Skillz. The above slab of text is an example of allowing the character to grow from the most basic start. including class & race. While making a detailed background is it's own sort of fun, I prefer to start barebones and create on the fly. Put the flesh on the bones by RP itself. The improvisational aspect can be fun--and lead to a more real character. It's not the only way to do it, but it's worth trying.
...and if any of my RP toons saw someone yelling HAPPY SKULL DAY! he or she would smack them on the back of the head or talk to a guard to get 'em locked up in a sanitarium. That's RP at the SNL skit level. Might as well be Makin' Copies! Started reading the RP column again when you started doing it.
David Bowers Jun 2nd 2008 2:05AM
Spontaneous improvisation is certainly one way to go, and I'm very glad it works for you so well. I wouldn't recommend it as the only way, however. Roleplaying is an art like painting. Some people like to plan things out carefully, and their performances can come out with a certain polished feeling, whereas others can just make everything up on the spot and come up with something quite different. Both are good, they're just not the same, and each person is free to prefer whichever speaks most to his or her heart.
It's not fair to say that just because someone likes to do a little planning ahead with their character's background that they are doomed to create another cliche demon-spawned vampire seductress. It is important not to emphasize the backstory, however, and remember that the real joy of roleplaying is the whole interacting with other people in character thing. Still, each character needs some sort of concept, even if, like you, one doesn't clearly articulate that concept at first and just lets it pop into existence over time.
By the way, as far as I know, there's little to no way a human could have been born and raised as a farmer in Desolace, as no humans knew about Kalimdor before the events of the Third War (Warcraft 3) led them there, about 6 years ago according to the in-game story timeline. Fortunately, your story of growing up could work just as well in a number of places in the eastern kingdoms too - changing centaurs for... I don't know... murlocs?
Zali Jun 2nd 2008 9:36AM
David,
I don't know about that. Why can't a human have grown up in Desolace? The question to ask is "how" in the world did a human end up in Desolace... along with a Dwarf priest. Were they on a ship that was blown off course in a horrible storm, only to get lost in a terrible fog for days and days, totally getting lost and then getting shipwrecked on the coast of Tanaris? Did they hike for days through the desert, trudging between the spires in Thousand Needles before finding the lush lands of Feralas where they lived a little better, before being driven off by deadly ogers and finally stumbled into Desolace where they were able to eek out a pathetic existance farming and fishing, until they were finally found during the 3rd war?
After all, in RP it ain't where you're at, it's how you got there that counts.
ErsatzPotato Jun 2nd 2008 9:53AM
"By the way, as far as I know, there's little to no way a human could have been born and raised as a farmer in Desolace, as no humans knew about Kalimdor before the events of the Third War (Warcraft 3) led them there, about 6 years ago according to the in-game story timeline. "
DOH. Oh well, that's what I get for not following the lore closely enough. Bad, bad RP'r! Only made the character to RP with a friend so it's not a big deal. Easily fixed by jumping his internal timeline around a smidge. It's not like he talks about the place anyway.
Which brings me too.... First, you're entirely right about my vampire dig. Uncalled for. The problem I find with meticulously crafted backstories, though, is they come with a strong need to, well, share them. Reasonable. I put all this work in; I'm proud of it. But the vast majority of it is stuff even the character's friends wouldn't know or care about. At the extreme it's like buying a loaf of bread and telling the cashier, "Thank you. My mother is an alcoholic and beat me until I was twelve." I see a lot of that happening in RP on Shadow Council.
I'll crawl back under my rock. Seems I'm unable to resist trolling this column every six months. My apologies. Good recent work on it.
ErsatzPotato Jun 1st 2008 8:04PM
On the death knight specific RP...
Could've just been gotten the plague and been powerful or useful enough the character got elevated to that status. No special backstory required. The ones suggested could be fun of course! but could as easily be, "Powerful shaman minding my own business, darn it, I'm undead and pressed into the officer corps, broke free and still dead, well, THIS sucks."
Suzaku Jun 1st 2008 9:14PM
Well, that contradicts the established lore a tad.
"When Prince Arthas gave himself over to Frostmourne, he became Ner’zhul’s first death knight, sworn to the Scourge and invested with dark powers to carry out its will. Since then, paladin warriors who accede to the call of the Scourge and make a pact to serve the Lich King receive a vampiric runeblade specially crafted for them and are anointed by Ner’zhul as one of his death knights. Thus the Lich King fashions his corrupted paladins: his greatest champions — living or undead — in his campaign to conquer all of Azeroth."
"To become a death knight, the hero is given one of the empathic weapons known as vampiric runeblades by Ner’zhul or one of his designates. Once the runeblade is used to turn a hero into a death knight, it becomes that knight’s personal weapon and is slowly charged with the life energies of those it injures and slays thereafter."
Now, those are from the pre-Frozen Throne era RPG. One can assume that any characters who would have joined the Scourge during the Third War (before Arthas and Ner'zhul joined) would have went through the same process.
Following the joining of Arthas and Ner'zhul, it would still likely have been a similar process.
Another thing worth noting is that nearly all named Death Knights in the lore have noble titles, ranging from Lord, Lady, and Baron to Duke and Thane.
ErsatzPotato Jun 1st 2008 9:34PM
Fair enough, and I was oversimplifying for effect. To lore up my version, note that what you quoted specifically mentions paladins and the noble titles. One could argue with all these new death knights about to pop out that the power of the Lich King has sufficiently spread that a) there's no longer a need to corrupt specific highly placed holy targets, and b) as the Scourge ranks grow more death knights are needed and the, ahem, recruitment standards have been lowered.
An alternative of the first is that there was never any need to target highborn paladins in the first place but it was done, essentially, for entertainment value. Rub their noses in it. It's now moved on to Serious Business.
Wulf Jun 1st 2008 8:01PM
"and into the hands of some as yet unknown death knight group in opposition to Arthas."
Just for the record, this group does exist and its known as the Ebon Blade.
Medeni Jun 1st 2008 10:51PM
I don't really know about all of this. Someone above me mentioned that the Forsaken had a similar backstory, but if I'm mistaken, I'm pretty sure no Forsaken chose to become Forsaken. The way Blizzard made it sound, they chose this path, and then decided to split.
To me, it sounds terribly reminiscent of celebrities partying, going to rehab, and then everyone accepting them again with open arms.
I just don't get how this will work out! I love the idea of a redeemed character; my Blood Knight, for example, was one of these. She went mad when she realized that all of Kael'thas's promises were just a terrible form of brainwash and that she had been tricked all along. I love that sort of story! And her madness made for some really great RP.
Still, I have no idea how I could play a Death Knight in "rehab" without it sounding contrived. If I, as a person, came out from that, I'd go The Operative route and corkscrew down my runeblade.
Any ideas?
kabshiel Jun 1st 2008 11:04PM
I'm pretty sure it's possible to become a Death Knight against your will. At least two of the DKs in Naxxramas seemed to be acting against their will (Sir Zeliak and Mograine). Mograine in particular we know fought against the Scourge until the bitter end...and then was raised up as a slave of the Lich King.
My guess is that if you're a DK who's still living, then yeah, you probably chose this path. But undead DKs may very well have just been forced into it.
Medeni Jun 2nd 2008 5:18AM
That's a good point! But . . . I still don't know!
And also David, who amazes me with his constant stream of creativity and raw, unhindered imagination, did do well to point out the Blood Elf Mystic route. I guess it's more personal preference in a character. Even the five minutes that my friends got me to play D&D, I was the goody-two-shoes no one liked. :P
Wulf Jun 2nd 2008 12:35AM
Indeed that seems to be true, kabshiel, whilst the majority of Death Knights seem to have done the Arthas thing of being corrupted or otherwise bent to the Lich King's will, there seem to be at least a few powerful individuals who have been ressuected after death to serve the Scourge. This is the route I plan to take with my DK, a human who was brought back as a Death Knight and finally broke free, he ends up joining the Forsaken as no living human would have anything to do with him anymore.
David Bowers Jun 2nd 2008 3:25AM
This is a really good point Medeni. :) Come to think of it, there's something quite celebrity-like about a number of Warcraft characters. I think there's something about the story setting that makes over-the-top characters fit in well in the most prominent lore stories.
But for us playing the normal everyday adventurers it is a problem. Forsaken death knights could certainly say that they were unwillingly turned into death knights after being killed, but as far as I know, most death knights won't be undead as such, but rather will be still-living wielders of death magic, much like Arthas himself is.
Still, that doesn't mean that all these living death knights were like "Hey! I think I'll go join the forces of evil!" then later on thought, "Naaa. Evil sucks. Back to the good side for me again!" Both of the character examples I gave at the end there are people who essentially want something good, and view the mysteries of death magic as the key to getting that good thing. Desiring that knowledge, they fell into the clutches of the Lich King for a time, but never truly gave their hearts over to him. Each race has some possible motivations for desiring this dark knowledge (which I may cover in another article), mostly having to do with wanting to understand the antithesis of everything their culture is about. It's kind of like when certain very conservative families find roundabout ways to tell their children "don't even think about sex," many of them end up thinking of nothing else -- if a tauren grew up with a family telling him anything "unliving" is totally forbidden, for instance, he might be very tempted to know what was this forbidden knowledge all about? Indeed I suspect the desire for forbidden knowledge will be the single greatest motivator for our death knight characters, as it leads them to the dark side but still doesn't ruin their soul completely.
Likewise, there could be many cases of people who, for whatever reason, were forced to become death knights without actually dying and being raised from the dead. Suppose a dwarf in Muradin's expedition to Northrend stumbled upon some servants of the Lich King and made up a story about how he wanted to join them in order to avoid getting hacked to pieces. Perhaps a prominent human who was infected with the plague asked the Lich King to make her a living death knight in exchange for having the plague removed from her body (assuming that is even possible).
Assuming you do want to go with the "raised from the dead as a death knight option" though, a forsaken character isn't necessarily your only option. Humans aren't the only ones turned into undead creatures in the Warcraft world, after all: there are lots of undead mummified trolls wandering about, and you could claim to be one of those whom the Lich King found and turned to his service (as opposed to serving Atal'Hakkar or something). All you'd have to do is choose the palest color for your race and roleplay yourself something like a regular Forsaken but with trollish characteristics. Dwarves, by the way, have a bunch of pale-grey skintones that could serve them well in claiming to be raised from the dead, too. Perhaps a pale-white night elf could get away with that, as well. In any case, as the Forsaken have shown that servants of the Lich King do indeed have escape routes to flee from his power over them, it would make sense that any undead player character could have found his or her identity again and risen in opposition to the Lich King, but that character would have to go to extra lengths to try and look and feel more like an undead than a regular living person. Blood elves, for instance, just don't look very dead no matter how you design them, so this particular idea may not work for them -- though if Sylvannas looks like a night elf when raised from the dead, maybe you could make a high-elf character that way too, also a former "Dark Ranger," not unlike a death knight perhaps.
I'll think about this some more and see how many good non-"celebrity in rehab" types of sample stories I can come up with. Hope this helps!
Medeni Jun 2nd 2008 7:34AM
And I thought I would escape the trend!
You've done it, Mister Bowers. :) Now I *have* to create a silly Death Knight!
Sherief Jun 2nd 2008 2:04AM
"Knights of the Ebon Blade - Freed from the grasp of the Lich King, his former Deathknights have regrouped against him under the banner of Highlord Darion Mograine."
Necromancist Jun 2nd 2008 2:14AM
This will be really interesting... my main isn't on an RP server but I play on my RP alt most of the time anyway. This character is a female Forsaken warlock. She hates everyone and everything, and believes that every single person and creature in the entire world is beneath her.
As you might have guessed, she's pretty evil (why, yesterday I brutally mangled a newling in the guild my character's in because I thought she was too soft for a warlock. She agreed to it though :D). I'm planning on her to turn into a Death Knight after a series of events (starting when WotLK comes out, to avoid the first rush of DK characters), afrter which things get much nastier.