Limit of Death Knight Free Will

[PiesOfNub]

Eh, we can just give him the rest of the Draenei. Never liked them space-goats.. -_-

[rentreality]

Why do I get the feeling that a number of Scourge got to say, "Hellooooo~ free will!" when the whole Wrathgate incident happened? After all, Arthas nearly DIED!

[Nostra]

We don't know that, actually, he might just have gotten something stuck in the throat. All he did was cough a bit, heh.

Besides, I imagine that it is not when his body injured that his will over the undead weakens, rather that when beset by attacks of a magical nature, not just any kind of magic but super-duper magic, his control over them is disrupted. Using the Eye of Sargeras against him proved effective, and so did the Ashbringer when it was combined with the power of however many thousand souls that rest at Light's Hope. If only the Ashbringer is brought forth, who knows, Arthas might just laugh.

As for the Scourge, third generation Death Knights having free will, I don't think you can count on it, really. Rather I think they are allowed to keep certain traits of their personality, just driven to the extreme. This doesn't mean they had free will though, since we know for a fact that each and everyone of them was commanded by the Lich King personally which would hint at them all having a bond to him.

As for the rogue death knights, it's possible that they simply happend to meander off into an area which the Lich King couldn't reach them, and so regained their will. And was killed.

[Baldwin]

We'll I do believe that Death Knights do have an exreamly limited control of their will. For one thing they must be aware of where they are and what they are doing and have enough free will to control thier actions like swinging a sword. But not enough free will to break free of the Lich King so I think there has to be a balance where they have enough free will to know where they are can control some of thier actions but not enough to break completly free or say no I won't do it.

[Kaghuros]

Death Knights are given more free will than zombies, as Baldwin said, but are essentially locked into doing what they must. If I remember correctly, refusing to kill something when under Arthas' control causes a Death Knight unmentionably excruciating pain and basically locks them in torment forever until their unlife is ended.

[Baldwin]

So then they can be held responsible for any lives they took?

[Kaghuros]

Well, that depends on who's looking at it. The Lich King's will is absolute in that not many Knights can beat it. The ones that do (Third Gen only) are punished through terrible torture.

I'd think that all the freed Ebon Blade Death Knights are extremely traumatized or developed strange mental devices to keep themselves sane because of knowing that they couldn't stop themselves from taking the lives of so many people. It's something they need to live with, but also something people can still IC'ly blame them for (They may even blame themselves.).

[Nostra]

That really depends on your character, I think, personally I'd not hold them responsible, neither would Alistus. But my Night Elf most certainly would, and so would probably my character Sudara.

[Kaghuros]

That really depends on your character, I think, personally I'd not hold them responsible, neither would Alistus. But my Night Elf most certainly would, and so would probably my character Sudara.

Most definitely this. No matter what's true or not, every character believes what they believe.