Know Your Lore: Magic is...

[TalonBot]

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

For the past several weeks we've discussed magic in the World of Warcraft setting. We've talked about where it comes from and the various ways it manifests in the universe. We've talked about druidic, shamanistic, fel, arcane, shadow and the magic of the Holy Light. We've even talked about subsets of arcane such as necromancy. This week, things veer off into the speculative.

We've seen that there are different ways to achieve the same thing. Kel'Thuzad, a magus of Dalaran, learned necromancy from the Lich King. The Lich King gained his necromantic powers from Kil'jaeden, an eredar and second in command of the Burning Legion, which makes heavy use of fel magics, and the Lich King himself was originally Ner'zhul, a former shaman. Meanwhile, it was Ner'zhul's former studen Gul'dan who took demonic secrets from Kil'jaeden and developed Horde necromancy and invented the first death knights. Meanwhile, the mage Naberius developed his own form of the ritual of undeath that created liches with no help from any of them.

Likewise, we've seen that the naaru can tap into powers of the Light and also of shadow, just as priests can. And yet warlocks tap a similar shadowy power despite having no connection at all to the Light that fuels the naaru life cycle. Indeed, warlocks tap arcane magic to fuel their shadowy arms, even as priests tap the Light and its opposite. What does all of this mean? Ironically enough, a broken who became the first shaman of the draenei may well have stumbled upon the answer.

Everything that is, is alive. And magic? Magic is.Continue reading Know Your Lore: Magic is...

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore

Know Your Lore: Magic is... originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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