Death Knights - Dead or Alive?

[BountyHunter]

This is something which I found quite curious. We have agreed there is the fact that even though Death Knights are called 'Death' Knights the ritual for making them doesn't involve death. But does that mean we can actually have Death Knights who are 'alive'? I shall put this into two opinions.

Death Knights can be alive, as I said above, the ritual doesn't involve death. Thus, that means, if your raise a living one it becomes a living Death Knight. It is able to drink, eat, breathe and many other things which dead people cannot do successfully. It's that simple isn't it?

Death Knights must be dead, you can raise the dead to be Death Knights and even if one was raised from a living being why would the scourge give them food and drink during their time in their ranks? They would most likely die from malnutrition or dehydration. Either way, a dead mindless soldier is more worthwhile then a living mindless solider.

I would like to hear people's opinions on this, if you're willing to share.

[Moose]

Food for thought.

[Drak]

Heres what I think:

Death Knights are UN-dead, like Forsaken. They do not NEED Food and Drink, they only eat and drink to remember the good ol' days and such. They'll be perfectly *cough* 'healthy'? without food and/or water.

But since you brought this up, here's something -I- want to know. Can you roll a death knight saying one of your characters died and got risen again and no where near the Arthas took control over you plot? Just curious *shifty eyes* Whaaat? IM CURIOUS!!!!

[Bovel]

I subtley remember there beeing a or several texts saying that those who became death knights were either slain heroes or offered themselves willingly to the Lich King. The turning is never really described but since it does not involve the stealing/sucking of a soul I think these are the two possible scenarios;

1. Someone slain in Plaguelands is raised to a death knight through some complicated ritual. This one is obviously then dead.

2. Someone willingly offers their body and mind to the Lich King and is put through the ritual. They are not kill during the process but are still bound just as strong to the Lich King. Since they can just reanimate their minions after they have fallen, I think that these alive death knights are still just as reckless as other undead and will shortly suffer wounds that will kill them soon enough.

[ManDudely]

The WoWwiki say;

"When a death knight who owns a runeblade is destroyed, the sword dampens its powers, taking on the appearance of a nondescript magical weapon. It uses its empathic powers to manipulate its next owner — encouraging feelings of possession and anger, discouraging kindness and altruism. Once it gains enough control over its owner, it encourages him to seek out the secret places where death knights still dwell. Only then can the runeblade accomplish its goal of gaining a new master."

Now I can see how this can be interpreted in two different ways. This either means the Runeblade would lead the new owner to Death Knights so they would slay them and retrieve the weapon for their own kind, or that the Runeblade leads the new owner to Death Knights so the ritual can be performed on the new owner and thus turn them into a Death Knight. I'm leaning to the first interpretation, as I don't think there would be many Death Knights that would inflict their circumstance on others, and if they would do, would require the aid of proper Necromancers who actually -know- the ritual. This would require Necromancers to have previously been involved in the 'creation' of Death Knights, as I'm sure the ritual was not easy to perform, nor learn.

Now, on Death Knights themselves. It is certainly a strange and unusual form of Undeath. They were never stripped of their consciousness like the rest of the Scourge, so I can see that being a main point of contension for the arguement that they didn't necessarly -need- to be killed to undergo the ritual, but their bodies had to have been dead to be under the Lich Kings control, right?

I believe their bodies are physically dead, but are animated via the Necromantic energies invoked during this undisclosed ritual, and maintained by alternate energy sources; namely the life force of other creatures. You -can- eat, drink, breathe, etc, but you do not need to. Your flesh is dead, but in a state of preservation. You can't reproduce, as your 'junk' almost certainly doesn't even work; your flesh is psuedo-dead, and freezing cold, as is your blood if you have it. You need hot blood to get it up. Even then, you stopped making 'little swimmers' long ago. Sexual reproduction isn't a function required in killing machines... and let's face it, Arthas created the Death Knights as a disposable force just to draw out what'shisface.

It's hard to explain, and I'm sure others have alternate theories and such. Death Knights - dead or alive; my answer is both. Twisted unlife. Everything I have presented is simply how I understand the information I have thus far discovered, and is certainly not hard-lore.

[Vorce]

I'd just like to point out that the first Death Knight never had to die :> That is all ~ hehe

Fien then :<

[ManDudely]

The first Death Knights were those Orc Warlock/Necromancer things, which is not what we're talking about here.

Unless you're talking about Arthas, in which case... his soul got sucked out, and his body possessed. He eventually became fully Undead (at least mechanically, I'm unsure what the stories say about that), even if he was alive when he started, so let's just leave him out. Super-special loreguy and all.

[Yunnemaria]

What I understand from the descriptions alone is that the lore-makers really fuzzed up a lot of details about the Death Knight.

To be honest, though, a living Death Knight shouldn't be too far out there. If we go strictly on what recent books say, I mean. Aside from the "Lichborne" skill [though we all know that WoW skills =/= what happens in RP] which CAN turn a Death Knight undead.

I fully support Living Death Knights, as well as Dead Death Knights!