Living Death Knights and Other Questions

[LostStranger]

Sexual themes, possibly faintly disturbing. It involves that tangent over intercourse and the Undead.

Spoiler:

Of note, I do recall an Orcish couple in which the female became a Death Knight.

Did her death stop his attempts at mating? Sadly not.

[hiddengecko]

Sexual themes, possibly faintly disturbing. It involves that tangent over intercourse and the Undead.

Intercourse and the tainted, actually--I wasn't asking whether or not undead are capable of intercourse, because it's not relevant to any of my characters.

[BountyHunter]

Now, lets break this down into two parts, living and dead.

Living:

If you are a living DK you either joined the Scourge willingly or you were mistakenly alive during the time you were raised.

Being alive means you feel physical hunger and thirst, most likely at the same rate as a normal living being. You still feel pain, pleasure, cold, hot, exhaustion and all those living things. Your blood would be pumping normally which means, if you're male, yes you can get an erection and yes you can have sex. You would also be affected by normal substances such as alcohol and drugs but their effects would likely be lessened due to the natural endurance a Death Knight has to poisons and diseases.

Dead:

If you are a dead DK, you were killed and reborn by the Scourge into servitude.

Being dead means that you do not feel pain, your emotions are dulled but not gone, you are never exhausted, you never get hungry, you never get thirsty, you never sleep and you do not stop for anything. More or less, you are the ultimate warrior and your average warrior would be likely unable to kill you in a fight. Although, you wouldn't be able to enjoy the things a living person could like alcohol, drugs and sex.

This is more or less my opinion on it, abuse as you see fit.

[Miah]

For reasons that i probably won't have to go into, and dont really want to explain if i do, regardless of gender, sex as an undead deathknight woud be most likely impossible, but if it were not, there would be no...eh...enjoyment involved...and deathknights are cold as corpses...yeah..

Oh, and the one who said thank god. That was me. Because you were only the third undead deathknight I had seen. It's like a rare kind of deathknight prestige to see them how the vast majority actually would be. Undead.

[McKnighter]

Spoiler:

Undead males cannot have sex, because well. They don't work.

If a female undead, however wishes to do some with a(n) (un)willing male that is indeed alive... Well, yeah. Sorry for the guy who has to suffer through tha- Oh wait.

Now, -most- Death Knights should be undead, mostly because even if you willingly gave yourself to the Scourge, you would have to survive the Scarlet Crusade and much other things, including Light's Hope.


Even -then- if you survive, life won't be fun! I can see most alive DK's either being extremely pissed off all the time, or your typical depressed emo sort of person. I personally won't roll a living DK, but that's just my tastes.

[Arrillion]

To be honest I personally think the whole "Living DK" concept is made up by players who want to play a DK with emotions, romances and whatever. Quite often living ones turn out to be this way, although not all are played as such. In any case even living DK's wouldn't have much emotions. Since they're basicly killing tools, neither the Lich King nor the Ebon Blade has use for any emotions safe for anger or hatred, vengeance perhaps. YES they are supposed to be emotionless killing machines. Example: Arthas...period. On food and other needs of the living. I don't think they would need food, not even the "living ones". Again needing food is a limitation, especially in places like the plaguelands. Death Knights are basicly constructs, they're made to serve a purpose: Killing. If you're as powerful as the Lich King, you'll make sure they're perfect.

[hiddengecko]

To be honest I personally think the whole "Living DK" concept is made up by players who want to play a DK with emotions, romances and whatever. Quite often living ones turn out to be this way, although not all are played as such. In any case even living DK's wouldn't have much emotions. Since they're basicly killing tools, neither the Lich King nor the Ebon Blade has use for any emotions safe for anger or hatred, vengeance perhaps. YES they are supposed to be emotionless killing machines. Example: Arthas...period. On food and other needs of the living. I don't think they would need food, not even the "living ones". Again needing food is a limitation, especially in places like the plaguelands. Death Knights are basicly constructs, they're made to serve a purpose: Killing. If you're as powerful as the Lich King, you'll make sure they're perfect.

This is wrong in a lot of ways. In canon, even Undead Death Knights are clearly shown to posses emotion.

[Roxas65]

To be honest I personally think the whole "Living DK" concept is made up by players who want to play a DK with emotions, romances and whatever. Quite often living ones turn out to be this way, although not all are played as such. In any case even living DK's wouldn't have much emotions. Since they're basicly killing tools, neither the Lich King nor the Ebon Blade has use for any emotions safe for anger or hatred, vengeance perhaps. YES they are supposed to be emotionless killing machines. Example: Arthas...period. On food and other needs of the living. I don't think they would need food, not even the "living ones". Again needing food is a limitation, especially in places like the plaguelands. Death Knights are basicly constructs, they're made to serve a purpose: Killing. If you're as powerful as the Lich King, you'll make sure they're perfect.

This is wrong in a lot of ways. In canon, even Undead Death Knights are clearly shown to posses emotion.

Correct! However, Death Knight's seemed to completely lack emotion when still in The Lich Kings control, but after being released, it's slowly returning to them. In my own opinion, Death Knights feel more alive than, say, Forsaken. I just think that Death Knight's always felt like some kinda. . . . Middle thing between being undead and alive.

[hiddengecko]

To be honest I personally think the whole "Living DK" concept is made up by players who want to play a DK with emotions, romances and whatever. Quite often living ones turn out to be this way, although not all are played as such. In any case even living DK's wouldn't have much emotions. Since they're basicly killing tools, neither the Lich King nor the Ebon Blade has use for any emotions safe for anger or hatred, vengeance perhaps. YES they are supposed to be emotionless killing machines. Example: Arthas...period. On food and other needs of the living. I don't think they would need food, not even the "living ones". Again needing food is a limitation, especially in places like the plaguelands. Death Knights are basicly constructs, they're made to serve a purpose: Killing. If you're as powerful as the Lich King, you'll make sure they're perfect.

This is wrong in a lot of ways. In canon, even Undead Death Knights are clearly shown to posses emotion.

Correct! However, Death Knight's seemed to completely lack emotion when still in The Lich Kings control, but after being released, it's slowly returning to them. In my own opinion, Death Knights feel more alive than, say, Forsaken. I just think that Death Knight's always felt like some kinda. . . . Middle thing between being undead and alive.

Well, they're more advanced undead. They heal, and they do not rot--unlike the Forsaken. So yeah, kinda.

[Sourpuddle]

In any case even living DK's wouldn't have much emotions. Since they're basicly killing tools. YES they are supposed to be emotionless killing machines.

Arillion raises a good point here ya'll seemed to (unfortunately) ignore. They were well and alive when they were being controlled by the Lich King. Since your character is conscious the whole time of the slaughtering, he more then likely terribly wounded in the emotional sense because it was done against his will, but by his hands. That's not just something you can shrug off as a bad memory, it's something that'll scar your character for life and seriously affect his mental and emotional stability. It's not to say they wouldn't burst into bouts of emotion, because I'm sure they feel grief and remorse for what they've done (hence the joke 'Emo Knights'), however it is to say that they would be ill, to the point where the more negative emotions reflect the aspect of their lives. This would be more comparative with severe emotional trauma, which probably shouldn't be regarded as emotion in general. Really analyze before you label it, and be specific with your labeling. How far, as we've seen, has their emotions been able to stretch? Do you believe that this would deal with the general population of Death Knights, or do you believe the character you've sampled from is a stretch?

Death Knights indeed change, but I believe that the best way to understand it is that chiefly their loyalties change rather then their personalities when they're brought to the Ebon Blade. I liked Bounty Hunters last opinion on the difference between Living and Undead, it seemed pretty straight to the point and for real. Anyone want to branch out on this speculation, yo?

Spoiler:

Remember, though, ya'll. We're trying to find the RIGHT answer, the most logical one, not the one that fits us or what we want. That is a common problem in many of the arguments, particularly ones like these. No offense, of course, sometimes it happens to the best of us!

[hiddengecko]

In any case even living DK's wouldn't have much emotions. Since they're basicly killing tools. YES they are supposed to be emotionless killing machines.

Arillion raises a good point here ya'll seemed to (unfortunately) ignore. They were well and alive when they were being controlled by the Lich King. Since your character is conscious the whole time of the slaughtering, he more then likely terribly wounded in the emotional sense because it was done against his will, but by his hands. That's not just something you can shrug off as a bad memory, it's something that'll scar your character for life and seriously affect his mental and emotional stability. It's not to say they wouldn't burst into bouts of emotion, because I'm sure they feel grief and remorse for what they've done (hence the joke 'Emo Knights'), however it is to say that they would be ill, to the point where the more negative emotions reflect the aspect of their lives. This would be more comparative with severe emotional trauma, which probably shouldn't be regarded as emotion in general. Really analyze before you label it, and be specific with your labeling. How far, as we've seen, has their emotions been able to stretch? Do you believe that this would deal with the general population of Death Knights, or do you believe the character you've sampled from is a stretch?

Death Knights indeed change, but I believe that the best way to understand it is that chiefly their loyalties change rather then their personalities when they're brought to the Ebon Blade. I liked Bounty Hunters last opinion on the difference between Living and Undead, it seemed pretty straight to the point and for real. Anyone want to branch out on this speculation, yo?

Spoiler:

Remember, though, ya'll. We're trying to find the RIGHT answer, the most logical one, not the one that fits us or what we want. That is a common problem in many of the arguments, particularly ones like these. No offense, of course, sometimes it happens to the best of us!

I was more concerned about the mechanical "can they feel, can they be happy" issue, more than whether or not they would be angsty and depressed. My Death Knight is quite angsty, and like I mentioned earlier, was suicidal initially after being freed. It's more trauma than guilt, and wondering why the Light seems to have forsaken her when she was faithful and all that.

[BountyHunter]

Can they feel, can they be happy?

Yes, Death Knights can feel and yes they can be happy. Even the most sadistic, rotting, murderous undead can be happy. The only difference is, the thing which makes him happy might be removing someone's internal organs while they still breath.

Anyone can be happy but I would think a Death Knight, who has been through a lot of emotional trauma might find happiness in different means than your average human. For an example, a Death Knight who wishes for retribution might be happy to save someone's life despite them hating his/her entire being for being what they are.