During a RP I had not too long ago (at the writing of this post) I ran into a problem.
My Night Elf DK still uses a Nightsaber (mostly around Nelf areas). However, as has been pointed out during the RP, sabers wouldn't be too happy with undead people on their backs.
When confronted about it, I didn't really have an answer except for some arguments about why it'd be possible. Still, I have no answer and therefor I'd like to run it by the community to see what the general consensus is about nightsaber interactions with the undead.
I think that, given enough time, a nightsaber COULD learn to trust an undead rider. The reason why I think that is because of our RL counterparts to WoW's mounts (horses, that is).
Horses have been described (mainly by the veterenarian who's teaching me) to be about as intelligent as your average 2,5 year old and you can get a horse to trust dead stuff, effectively suppressing its instinct to run away from it and, instead, be indifferent.
Seeing as nightsabers are apparently more intelligent than horses, shouldn't this mean a nightsaber could learn to distinguish between evil and good undead? Or maybe even remember one face from another and allowing a recently turned rider to regain the saber's trust?
In the end, I'm asking all of you for help with this matter as, if you deem a nightsaber to be intelligent enough to allow an undead rider, I won't have to think that much more around it.
If you believe a saber to distrust every undead indiscriminately, I'll have to find a different mount for my DK (probably a horse).
Of all racial mounts, I'd say sabers stand the best chance of doing it. Especially if they knew the rider prior to their death.
My main argument about this is; why would a saber ALLOW it to be trained to accept Undead?
They would probably growl at it and rip the Undead in question apart when confronted with them. Apparently it's entirely plausible to have their respective racial mount drawn from the Shadowplane. (Even though I would have no clue of HOW they would do that, ICly. The binding of the animal, that is. The summoning seems rather simple.)
Also, sabers work most likely different than horses. Horses are trained, whereas Sabers are rather held a companionship, friendship with. What would be the reason in the first place for a saber to allow a dead rider? And it is an entirely different thing for a horse not to run away during combat upon seeing dead or a dead person riding them. Also, Death Knights have an aura of sorts, that would probably mentally disturb them aswell.
tl;dr
You can have a 'shadowplane'-Saber but I do not deem it possible for a saber to be mounted by a DK.
I'd allow it.
It's still an animal and it can still be trained to do stuff. Honestly I don't see it would even give a crap if the rider is undead or not (except for maybe things like scent and such).
the only two issues are 1) as Wuvvums pointed out the smell, and 2) if your DK still wears or has saronite anywhere on his/her person, which would cause the beast to go nuts after a while. other than that, I don't see an issue.
Eh, I'm with Whym. Sure, once the saber got to know the Death Knight, maybe it would allow, but who says it would in the first place? Nightsabers and Hippogryphs are incredibly intelligent creatures, and they have most assets that Animals do, such as a better smell, better hearing, etc. However, they're still not as smart as Humanoids are, and so, their probable first reaction when they smell something out of the norm, and then see it, their first reaction is going to be either flee or to fight to save their cubs, and when animals fight to save their cubs or mate, they're not going to be subdued. You'll either have to kill them or flee yourself.
Plus, yea, what Whym said. The main thing I'm personally worried about is how the hell the Undead would get near the Nightsaber with any sort of friendly pretense.
If the creature was familiar with the undead in life, I don't think it would forsake it in death, though it would initially think something was very off. In nature, a parent returning home to find a dead cub may still carry the cub around in denial, because at the end of the day animals make strong bonds as people do, and that bond may be strong enough where it looks past the undeath. Taming a saber post mortem may be a totally different thing, so if the op is going with a saber, he should have rode it before he died.
(12-29-2011, 11:28 AM)Jonoth Wrote: [ -> ]so if the op is going with a saber, he should have rode it before he died.
And here, is the problem. The OP told our group that his / her Character had acquired the saber post-mortum.
I'm not sure if that would be possible, since animals need to feel the emotions and not see, I'm not sure if it possible for an undead to have the viberations of emotions. So I do not know if an undead could tame even a dog. I think at least. Emotions arise in the mammalian brain, or the limbic system, which human beings share in common with other mammals as well as many other species. And you need to be able to feel the others emotions to gain trust
I have always wondered why Death Knights could corrupt human horses to serve as their steed but not any other form of animals. Consider why a Kaldorei would prefer to ride a sabre, a dwarf would ride a ram, a Tauren would ride a kodo, an Orc would ride a worg, or a Troll would ride a raptor; these reasons are beyond racial lines on occasions, but also touches upon their own size, and what they are used to riding. Can you imagine a TAUREN riding a human HORSE? This means that a tauren Death Knight wouldn't possibly intend to ride a human horse corrupted and stolen from New Avalon, or do it with either any touch of realism or training; on one hand, how big can the horse be, and on the other, the tauren never had any training with the horse.
If it is possible to corrupt a human horse to serve as a steed, then it makes sense that Death Knights would learn to and probably intend to corrupt racial mounts that they are more used to. Especially since some of them are simply untrained in riding a bloody horse.
When it boils down to it, I see no reason why not. A tauren Death Knight would still ride a kodo rather than a horse, a dwarven Death Knight would still prefer a ram rather than a horse, and yes, I think a Kaldorei Death Knight would much prefer a sabre than a horse.
(12-29-2011, 11:41 AM)Zarquon Wrote: [ -> ]When it boils down to it, I see no reason why not. A tauren Death Knight would still ride a kodo rather than a horse, a dwarven Death Knight would still prefer a ram rather than a horse, and yes, I think a Kaldorei Death Knight would much prefer a sabre than a horse.
Something to consider. Playing off this, count how many epic racial mounts have
glowing blue eyes.
(12-28-2011, 05:11 PM)Sol Wrote: [ -> ]Especially if they knew the rider prior to their death.
That would have been my reasoning. I don't think it would be possible post-death, but perhaps if saber and rider had a strong bond before the incident it could work.
(12-29-2011, 12:02 PM)Caravan Wrote: [ -> ] (12-28-2011, 05:11 PM)Sol Wrote: [ -> ]Especially if they knew the rider prior to their death.
That would have been my reasoning. I don't think it would be possible post-death, but perhaps if saber and rider had a strong bond before the incident it could work.
Even if they had a strong bond before, That bond was still a feeling that the animal felt of his owner, After he died (The owner) he wouldn't be able to have those emotions anymore, So the animal wouldn't reconize it. Thats also why sabers are not be fooled easily. Because they feel what you feel and not see what you feel. So even if you act very nice, but not mean it, The saber could feel that. (I think at least)
Plus, The animal would also feel the death knights aura, Which probably would make the animal feel it has to stay away from it.
I just don't think we'd know how animals would react to undead since we can't really get inside the heads of animals, even intelligent ones. I mean, the horses you steal in the DK quest seem pretty alright with you riding them and horses are supposed to be pretty intelligent IRL, perhaps even more intelligent than the big cat species. I just feel like we apply a bit of superstition and mysticism to animals when some of them may not even be intelligent enough to know the difference.
... I'd note that you're stealing the horses. Not bonding with them.