Creation of Death Knights

[Fortwit]

I would like to pose some possible points against the common idea that Death Knights are created through the use of Shadow Magic and Rune Magic that is not of Arcane origin.

I am not a Lore master, so please, if you can provide some proof against any of my claims, I would be absolutely glad to hear it!

I spawned this thread because a friend and I had a heated discussion about the Creation of Death Knights. He's a champion and I regret possibly having made them grumpy because of it!

This is not a discussion on the magic that Death Knights use now, but rather the magic used to create them. However, the magic they use is a contributing factor.

Reasons why I believe Death Knights may be of Arcane origin

Commonly, Some believe frost magic was a major contributor to their creation, because it may be a reason they do not rot, they are not often beyond a cool temperature and they don't age.

1. Frost Magic has never been recorded to give life or unlife.

2. Although shadow magic has a history of animating the dead, Never before have any undead had the blue glow that Death Knights have, which is a very common side effect in Arcane magic. Examples are High Elves. Their eyes are blue from an addiction to arcane magic. I also note there are many Arcane animals, such as Arcane Wyrms and arcane monsters/constructions that are all blue.

3. The area in which rune magic is used was the current dominion of the Lich King when Death Knights were created, and was renowned for using ancient rune magic and/or having history of first using it, which is Northrend.

4. Although Death Knights use Unholy, Blood and Frost type runes, There are not many runes in WoW that are not blue in colour. There are no sources of other rune types in the area that the Lich King resides, Nor is there any evidence of other types of rune magic influence there.

5. Frost Magic is channelled through the manipulation of Arcane Magic. Runes can be created to manipulate anything in the universe. This can include blood and possibly the source of unholy magic as there is nothing in lore explaining the source of unholy(The use of "Shadow Damage" when unholy magic OOCly is discussed further on).

6. I have been told about, but cannot find anything, on other kinds of rune magic. The only rune magic I’ve been able to find information on is regular Rune Magic, which is used to describe Ley lines and in turn manipulate arcane magic which coincides with the concept that there are few runes that aren't actually blue, and that arcane magic often manifests itself as a blue colour.

Common Opposing Ideas:

1. Shadow Magic and/or Frost could have created Death Knights.

This is quite possible and at least partially true.. There are alot of Necromancers under the Lich King. This still does not explain the blue glow on death knights. This may explain the fact they use shadow magic in their unholy runes. Perhaps it was a mixture of shadow magic and arcane magic in their creation, which is also quite likely from the abundance of Necromancers. Necromancers may have been responsible for the reanimation of Death Knights but not enstilling their source of power.

However, as previously mentioned, there is no lore behind unholy magic. Shadow Magic may just have been the type of damage Blizzard decided to OOCly use. There are other instances, such as many Night Elf spells using “arcane” damage when they actually are sourced from the moon.

The Death Knight goes into the shadow plane several times and their horse consists of shadows. Their horse is also blue. I believe that the fact that the horse is blue does not reinforce the fact that the blue glow around Death Knights is sourced from shadow magic. I think this may just be an effect that Blizzard over looked, wanting to make the horse look interesting and to coincide with the Death Knight’s own blue glow. Blizzard have a reputation of being inconsistent.

As mentioned before, I cannot find any references to shadow magic ever giving a blue, glowing effect to things that it has reanimated.

2. Frost is the source of the glowing light on Death Knights

If this was true, then the extent of all Death Knight’s abilities in Frost magic are adept. Also, Frost magic hasn’t been recorded to give any form of strong glow on the user for extended periods of time. This is not to be confused with fog that can be produced from using Frost magic and the blue hue of the hands while casting frost magic.

Frost magic causing the Death Knight to have a blue glow would prevent Blood DK’s from ever warming themselves, using hysteria on themselves or any other form of heat changes to their own bodies. It may also severely stunt their ability over blood. Simply put, For Frost to engulf every Death Knight constantly would mean they all specialize in frost.

3. Arcane Magic is purple and therefore cannot be the source of their power, because they glow blue.

There are many instances of arcane magic glowing blue. As previously mentioned, High Elves eyes glow blue. So do many animals and constructions. Arcane magic manifests itself in both blue and purple, and at times, some other colours.

[Etmosril]

I like the idea of being able to decide this once and for all, but if I may quote you..

Blizzard have a reputation of being inconsistent.

I don't think they ever considered the mechanics of the creation. They just wanted to make a cool-seeming 'hero' class, and that's what they settled on. Blizzard isn't known for making sense either.

My issue with the theory is how the bodies were preserved. It's natural to use deaders (for preservation of resources, and to intimidate your enemies further), but isn't any Arcane used for that sort of preservation necromancy by definition? Necromancy uses Arcane.

Even living Death Knights are burnt by Light and holy magic. Arcane alone wouldn't produce this effect. Necromancy (again, corrupted Arcane) does.

The idea of Death Knights not aging due to cryogenics is awesome though.

[Fortwit]

I did mention a possibility of a mixture of arcane and necromancy. Or, at the thought of necromancy being arcane; an incredibly intense necromancy through rune magic.

I thought Necromancy was shadow based.

[Masquerade]

I thought Necromancy was shadow based.

It is, but there are two types of 'shadow'.

You have religious shadow magic, which is used by members of the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow and the Cult of the Damned, basically a corrupted form of the Holy Light.

Then you have actual arcane shadow magic, which is drawn directly from the shadow plane. However, shadow is woven into every aspect of existence, so magi don't need to connect to other planes to harness it.

Two different sources of shadow magic which could be used for necromancy. I would personally assume Death Knights are a mixture, based on which type of magic the necromancer would use. Many necromancers were originally priests, which means they'd probably be using the former version. Others were mages, however, so you could have Arcaneborn Death Knights and Faithborn Death Knights mingling and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

There's also a third version of shadow magic, if you think about it. Sylvanas uses the shadow just like she used nature magic, siphoning it from natural sources. That's similar to the arcane version, but without any actual mastery of arcane spellcrafting required. Honestly, Blizzard just don't pay attention to these things, it's never beneficial for a company to spend weeks and weeks perfecting fictional physics. I wouldn't dwell on it.

http://www.wowpedia.org/Shadow_%28magic_school%29
http://www.wowpedia.org/Shadow_%28religion%29

[Hexproof]

basically a corrupted form of the Holy Light.

It's not, really. It's more like the "Mirror, Mirror" version of the Light. It's not corrupted. It's just opposite (and likely sports a goatee).

The "Arcane" Shadow magic is what's used in Necromancy, yes, but the line between the two is sort of blurry. Religious Shadow magic seems to be more mental and self-focused, whereas Arcane Shadow is much more offense-oriented and made more to affect others and the environment.

Basically everything Etmosril said.

I utterly agree there on everything.

[Dragonbeard]

I have to agree with the statement that Blizzard is inconsistent and also add in this tidbit about the rest: "Who cares?"

We can sit and debate all day on the actual nature of this magic, but in reality, it doesn't really matter. It's all been written five or six different ways depending on what you read/play/watch. As long as you get the general idea, the nature of the magic is really irrelevant.

The Death Knights of each generation were created in a different manner. The first is undoubtedly a form of necromancy (or perhaps fel magic). However, the second and third generations were created using Ner'Zhul's magic, so who really knows what he used. His powers are so random and broken that every time I turn around, there's some other thing he can do. He's a shaman whose spirit was imprisoned in a crystal from the Twisting Nether by Kil'jaeden the Eredar. I mean...that's just asking for trouble.

Shamanism + Necromancy + Fel magic = ???

I don't know what magic was used to empower beings to become Death Knights of the second and third generations and I sure as hell don't pretend to know what magic keeps them going (because if it were Ner'Zhul's, you'd think that he would just pull the plug on them). I think we should just leave some things to speculation and mystery, because I know that is exactly what the guys at Blizzard are doing.