World of Warcraft®

Scenario: You've got a death knight, a relatively good person. He died a hero, raised by the Lich King, broke free, all that good stuff. He was a carefree person who took the bad things in stride, and despite the best efforts of the Scourge, did not drain that from him completely.

No one goes through death without their mind being altered a bit, but this was a guy who was relatively stable and content. Even in undeath, with his new dark powers, he still fights the good fight and remains an honorable person, battling against evil.

Would this be a possible thing?

Yes, it is quite possible to do this. Remember everyone is an individual, so they vary greatly.

Scenario: You've got a death knight, a relatively good person. He died a hero, raised by the Lich King, broke free, all that good stuff. He was a carefree person who took the bad things in stride, and despite the best efforts of the Scourge, did not drain that from him completely.

No one goes through death without their mind being altered a bit, but this was a guy who was relatively stable and content. Even in undeath, with his new dark powers, he still fights the good fight and remains an honorable person, battling against evil.

Would this be a possible thing?

There is a Death Knight in the Citadel much to that effect.

Only he cut out his eyes.

My DK is Alliance. You would automatically assume she's a good person. And she is a decent person. But she's also brutal and has a thirst for blood and revenge. She can get quite evil. She truely embraces her unholiness.

So I think its perfectly acceptable for the opposite to be possible. It really is about background, motivation, and more importantly, how the individual chooses to accept and react to their fate.

My DK is Alliance. You would automatically assume she's a good person. And she is a decent person.

Just because she is Alliance does not mean she is a good person. Are you assuming that the Horde are bad and evil? I disagree. I know plenty of Alliance that are evil, as well as Horde. It depends on the individual.

Death Knights are the very definition of the anti-hero. They tend to not take up arms in the name of justice, or for righteous causes, but are much more personal in their motivations. After Light's Hope Chapel, our entire Order came into existence to get revenge on the Lich King for betraying us, and essentially sending us there to die.

Once we rejoined the Horde/Alliance factions, personal motivations may or may not have held sway over fighting for the cause. Each DKs story there could be different. Some might have chaffed under the military leadership of the Warsong Offensive, constantly disobeying orders, or charging into battle without proper authorization.

Or they may have rekindled some of their former connections from their life, and embrace life as a member of their faction, trying to fit in, but constantly being held at arm's length because others feared and distrusted them.

You can also tailor Death Knight personalities by their tree. Blood may be more passionate, violent or headstrong, while Frost is cold, calculating or impartial. Unholy might be devious, but could just as easily be merely macabre.

Death Knights can run the gamut from noble hero seeking redemption, to blood-thirsty barbarian hunting revenge at any cost. But I think in all cases, Death Knights are defined by tenacity, and a hard edge in their dealings. There is probably not a lot of room for a "moderate" Death Knight.

My DK is Alliance. You would automatically assume she's a good person. And she is a decent person.

Just because she is Alliance does not mean she is a good person. Are you assuming that the Horde are bad and evil? I disagree. I know plenty of Alliance that are evil, as well as Horde. It depends on the individual.

When starting out the game its easy to go 'Alliance=good, Horde=evil' I have since learned differently and quite respect the Horde. My comment was directed to that old, nub type thinking that I think we almost all still have deep down, no matter how much we cross the fence or reinvent the factions to ourselves. It is still way too easy to think Alliance=pretty good people and Horde=ugly evil people plus some creepily feminine male fairy things :P

Horde=ugly evil people plus some creepily feminine male fairy things :P

Hey now, we're probably the most dangerous death knights at the moment. Not only have we been cheated out of Arthas' death as elves of Quel'Thalas, we've also been denied that victory as Knights of the Ebon Blade. We have ample reason to be spiteful at those who took our kill from us, and that makes us more lethal now than we were before!

Maybe we'll all join the Forsaken in the near future...at least they're getting something done.

Definitely possible. It irks me that nearly all DK NPCs fall into HURRR I'M DEAD AND SO ANGRY group. I was pleased to see Thassarian want to return to his sister above all else.

Most death knights should fall into that category. They are death knights, not paladins or priests.

Look, it's all fine and good to be a different sort of death knight. Fighting for good instead of evil and trying not to be dark and gloomy, but don't diss the standard death knights for fitting into their archtypes.

Thassarian wouldn't be unique or interesting if every other death knight were exactly the same.

You can also tailor Death Knight personalities by their tree. Blood may be more passionate, violent or headstrong, while Frost is cold, calculating or impartial. Unholy might be devious, but could just as easily be merely macabre.

This seems like a cool idea to me.

I roleplay this character exactly like she would have been had she not died; happy, bubbly, and a terrible engineer, but more so. Except she sees the darker side of things now as well. She knows that without shadow, there is no light, and so is a bit world weary now.

In my opinion, most DKs are like that. Death might have changed them, or they may cling so tightly to their ...humanity? that they become caracatures of their former selves, like Gnorma.

Very interesting thread, and great replies from Makorr and Grimblade :)

This may sound odd, but I always viewed Death Knights as I would a character in a "World of Darkness" roleplay. Wether you're a mortal, werewolf, changeling, or vamp, walking a righteous path is often difficult and many times, entirely unrewarding. The other course is to simply descend into despair and madness, indulging your bloodlust. Just like real life, one would have to decide how much they will allow their circumstance to define "who" they are.

So, if you don't want to be evil, don't be. If you do, go ahead. If you want to toe the line between the toe, do that. It's a game, so be sure to enjoy yourself.

They exhausted this archetype with the Forsaken. It wouldn't matter if Thassarian was a ~*~speshul snowflake~*~ or not. There was a dire need for something different in regards to the disposition of a freshly unchained DK.
I'd rather see more RSPs with godmoding futa draenei DKs if it meant one less "dead and angry" sort milling about (not that I ever see RSPs on Maelstrom :V)

We were talking about the NPCs, not roleplayers.

Here's the advice I always give to people making a new Death Knight character: Think about who they were in life first, then try to imagine how death would've changed that person. Caled here was good humored and generally unflappable in life and tries desperately to remain the same in death, going so far as to turn his existence into a constant bloodbath to drown out the memories of his time under the Scourge. He fears that if he remains idle for even a moment, he'll lapse into memory and lose himself forever.

That's how I see good-aligned Death Knights. Well meaning people bogged down by personality complexes and/or coping mechanisms.

I think this is good advice.

Khrom here is the most brutal and ruthless Death Knight you'll ever come across. He has little to no regard for most life and will indiscriminately rend apart his foes with bloodthirsty zeal. He loves nothing more than to utterly annihilate his foes with his unholy rune axe and the icy chill of death that permeates his very being.

He is also a loving father and devoted follower of the Light. He acknowledges what he is, but he refuses to relinquish who he was. He was a Paladin. He was a father. He was a hero. He'll continue to be, too, but what happened to him has irreversibly tainted his being. He doesn't have the capability to temper his actions. A simple act of retaliation for petty transgressions will result in brutalization because he can't tell the difference.

An eye for a life.

I don't see any reason why a death knight couldn't be good and repentant. I would imagine that a sizable number of death knights do just want to try to reclaim some sense of honor.

i like to farm

Definitely possible. It irks me that nearly all DK NPCs fall into HURRR I'M DEAD AND SO ANGRY group. I was pleased to see Thassarian want to return to his sister above all else.

I made nice clothes.

I died.

I make nice clothes. Sometimes I have to sew a ghoul's arms back on. :c

But if all you did was make nice clothes, why would you have originally beeb selected to be a Champion of the Undead in the first place?


This is a problem i see with several DKs that spring fom Humble Origins-they go from being Bob the Baker to an Acherus Knight and then Back to being Bob the Undead Baker.