Blood Knights

[Mortiphobia]

As we all know, The Burning Crusade wrapped up with Lady Liadrin's Blood Knight Order pledging allegiance to A'dal and the Shattered Sun Offensive. Since then, the Order has stopped sucking the light from Mu'ru and the Sunwell has been restored with the essence of the aforementioned wind chime naaru.

I'm curious to know how exactly the Blood Knights are going about using their Light-given powers. If they're not stealing the power from Mu'ru, how do they do it? Are they just like normal paladins, holding a firm faith in the Light? Do they pledge loyalty to A'dal, gaining their powers through him? Does the Sunwell grant them the holy magics they seek to wield?

I'm personally inclined to believe they wield the holy magics of the Sunwell, still using the Light similarly to how they originally did, however, with a less sinister twist. Perhaps there is more than one way to become a Blood Knight.

How does the community feel the Order gains their powers?

[Terant]

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Tides_of_Change

Heh. A lot of the answers are probably under the "Sin'sholai Blood Pact" thing.

[Mortiphobia]

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Tides_of_Change

Heh. A lot of the answers are probably under the "Sin'sholai Blood Pact" thing.

The link provided no answers for any of my questions. =x

[Piroska]

If they're not stealing the power from Mu'ru, how do they do it? Are they just like normal paladins, holding a firm faith in the Light? Do they pledge loyalty to A'dal, gaining their powers through him? Does the Sunwell grant them the holy magics they seek to wield?

Initially, they drew on the remnants of the powers that had been drained from M'uru, using the magisters who'd bound him as catalysts. According to the Blood Knight article:

Travelling to Quel'Thalas once more, Kael'thas and his "felblood" minions entered Silvermoon, took M'uru from his place under Blood Knight headquarters, and took the naaru to the Sunwell Plateau. In the empty chamber, the magisters that drained the Light energy stand around, dazed; young initiates seeking to learn the powers of resurrection (who would normally tap the power directly from M'uru) must instead collect the residual holy energies from the dazed magisters.

Afterward -- after Lady Liadrin learned of the prophecy -- they regained their faith in the Light (as you may recall, Liadrin was of the opinion that the Light had forsaken them and she was the individual that led and set the tone for Blood Knight training) and effectively regained their use of it. To tie in a discussion from an earlier thread, since the powers wielded by a paladin are essentially rooted in faith, both the belief that they'll work and the belief that he's doing right, if he doesn't has faith it'll fail. From the same article, we learn that the blood elves pledge themselves to both the Naaru and the Shattered Sun Offensive:

Seeing Kael'thas' treachery for herself, Lady Liadrin travelled to Shattrath and met with A'dal , who informed her that M'uru had known his fate - to aid in the redemption of the people of Quel'Thalas, as prophesied by Velen. With this new insight, Liadrin pledged herself and the Order to the Sha'tar and the Shattered Sun Offensive, the army raised to battle Kael'thas and his nefarious master, Kil'jaeden.

This idea is further reiterated during the quest to cleanse Quel'Delar when Liadrin speaks at the Sunwell:

My brothers and sisters, words cannot describe what I felt upon seeing the Sunwell rekindled. In that moment, the Light revealed to me the truth of the terrible things I had done. Our people had walked a dark path and mine was among the darkest of them all.

But the Light showed me that I was not lost. It helped me to find the strength to survive in spite of all that had happened and all the evil I had wrought. It is a strength that we sin'dorei all share. It is a strength we will need to free ourselves of the addiction ravaging our people. It will be the most difficult battle we have ever faced, but our resolve and the power of the Sunwell will sustain us until we have been restored to our greatness.

So, to tie everything together, immediately after M'uru disappeared the Blood Knights leeched off of the remnants of Holy power the magisters had absorbed. However, after Liadrin learned of the prophecy and the role that she and her people had played in it, she regained her faith in the Light. Though she pledged both herself and her people to aid the Naaru, I'm of the opinion that the reclamation of her faith -- and the faith that it inspired in the people who followed her -- allowed the Blood Knights to wield the Light again without siphoning from another creature.

Hope that this helps shed some light (teehee) on your questions!

[Mortiphobia]

If they're not stealing the power from Mu'ru, how do they do it? Are they just like normal paladins, holding a firm faith in the Light? Do they pledge loyalty to A'dal, gaining their powers through him? Does the Sunwell grant them the holy magics they seek to wield?

Initially, they drew on the remnants of the powers that had been drained from M'uru, using the magisters who'd bound him as catalysts. According to the Blood Knight article:

Travelling to Quel'Thalas once more, Kael'thas and his "felblood" minions entered Silvermoon, took M'uru from his place under Blood Knight headquarters, and took the naaru to the Sunwell Plateau. In the empty chamber, the magisters that drained the Light energy stand around, dazed; young initiates seeking to learn the powers of resurrection (who would normally tap the power directly from M'uru) must instead collect the residual holy energies from the dazed magisters.

Afterward -- after Lady Liadrin learned of the prophecy -- they regained their faith in the Light (as you may recall, Liadrin was of the opinion that the Light had forsaken them and she was the individual that led and set the tone for Blood Knight training) and effectively regained their use of it. To tie in a discussion from an earlier thread, since the powers wielded by a paladin are essentially rooted in faith, both the belief that they'll work and the belief that he's doing right, if he doesn't has faith it'll fail. From the same article, we learn that the blood elves pledge themselves to both the Naaru and the Shattered Sun Offensive:

Seeing Kael'thas' treachery for herself, Lady Liadrin travelled to Shattrath and met with A'dal , who informed her that M'uru had known his fate - to aid in the redemption of the people of Quel'Thalas, as prophesied by Velen. With this new insight, Liadrin pledged herself and the Order to the Sha'tar and the Shattered Sun Offensive, the army raised to battle Kael'thas and his nefarious master, Kil'jaeden.

This idea is further reiterated during the quest to cleanse Quel'Delar when Liadrin speaks at the Sunwell:

My brothers and sisters, words cannot describe what I felt upon seeing the Sunwell rekindled. In that moment, the Light revealed to me the truth of the terrible things I had done. Our people had walked a dark path and mine was among the darkest of them all.

But the Light showed me that I was not lost. It helped me to find the strength to survive in spite of all that had happened and all the evil I had wrought. It is a strength that we sin'dorei all share. It is a strength we will need to free ourselves of the addiction ravaging our people. It will be the most difficult battle we have ever faced, but our resolve and the power of the Sunwell will sustain us until we have been restored to our greatness.

So, to tie everything together, immediately after M'uru disappeared the Blood Knights leeched off of the remnants of Holy power the magisters had absorbed. However, after Liadrin learned of the prophecy and the role that she and her people had played in it, she regained her faith in the Light. Though she pledged both herself and her people to aid the Naaru, I'm of the opinion that the reclamation of her faith -- and the faith that it inspired in the people who followed her -- allowed the Blood Knights to wield the Light again without siphoning from another creature.

Hope that this helps shed some light (teehee) on your questions!

Yes, that absolutely did! Much appreciated. So it seems Blood Knights are no different than their human counterparts, now. However, I still have one issue.

The various quests the NPC hands out to lowbie Blood Knights still speak of using the Light as a weapon, especially during the level 60 mount quest chain. Is this simply text that was unchanged between the stealing of Mu'ru and the re-ignition of the Sunwell?

[Piroska]

My pleasure, Mortiphobia. It's why I'm here -- to answer the unanswerable.

Regarding your question, while that may be leftover from the original acquisition and use of Light (and, to be fair, I'm not sure; I've yet to have ever leveled a blood elf paladin), it still is quite feasible. As noted, it appears that use of the Light as a paladin is contingent entirely on the dual belief that what he's doing is good and that it will work. As a result, it's certainly possible that a paladin can view wielding the Light as a weapon -- especially since a lot of the quests that pertain to obtaining a charger deal specifically with destroying various undead. In these occasions, the Light would very much be a type of weapon.

Now that I think it, the interesting caveat to the whole belief system, however, is that blood elf paladins most likely didn't have to follow those requirements. Their use of the Light wasn't based on belief; it was ascribed to siphoning power from another creature. Something fun to explore as one of those "first generation" blood knights would be readjusting to using the power and believing not only that it will work but that what he's doing is good and just. So, not only may he be burdened with the knowledge that what he did before was wrong, but also that his ability to perform the same actions might be very tenuous. At least at first!