Roleplay a good death knight?

[Tyze]

So I decided I want to get a character on a RP server. But I really dont feel like leveling so much and a DK is closer to 90. I do want to rp a Paladin, but considering a DK, is it possible for me to roleplay as a good guy? With a vengence but still know what right and good? I want to give people peace because all the harm done while being under the curse of Lich King. Or is this stupid and ennoying? Because the reason I want to join a RP server is because the community is so nice and I love to chat with them and I am very polite and friendly. Dont know much of the morale as a DK, they seem like hard "no feeling" character.

Oh and its going to be a Draenei male.

Sorry im a bit tired have try to figure out some answers on google.

[Koryn123]

Well, Death Knights have a physical and mental need to cause pain. If they don't cause pain, they go into a crazy bloodlust haze that makes the Orcs' bloodlust during the 1st and 2nd Wars seem like they simply got into their parents' medicine cabinet and drank three bottles of their 5-hour Energy's.

Ebon Blade DKs direct their addiction to violence toward Scourge in the Plaguelands, while Ebon Blade DKs serving under the Horde and Alliance direct it at the opposite faction for the sake of their former peoples.

You could maybe perhaps be a Death Knight that undergoes great pain as a Draenei, who have a close relationship to the Light (Light hurts undead, even if it's a healer), was perhaps blessed by some Naaru, or found a fragment of a Naaru somewhere in Outland when he was sent with some Vindicators to herd the Draenei in Outland to Azeroth because Velen sensed that something dangerous was going to happen soon that would leave them stranded there forever (the IH changing how the Dark Portal worked), which somehow was absorbed into him, causing great pain pretty much constantly, but alleviating the worst of the Scourge's corruption (the need to cause pain).

You could also simply role-play as perhaps an Auchenai Draenei. They have undead Draenei in Auchindoun.

It's just kind of hard to be "good" as a DK. I think it would be pretty interesting for him to do everything he could to help out his people, but they only see him as some cursed creature like they see the Broken and Lost Ones as.

[Mormolyce]

I think it's hard to envisage a DK as truly "good", the playable DKs direct all their hate and energy to their chosen life (originally, vengeance against the Lich King, these days I'm not sure what exactly), but they are completely single-minded creatures of pain and violence at heart. They turn their efforts to an overall good cause through great exercise of willpower.

[Koryn123]

The best that one could logically hope for without making their character seem too unbelievable would probably be to give them an anti-hero complex. They are the guy that does what is needed to get the job done with little heed to the consequences, is ridiculed for it, while those who persecute them benefit from the anti-hero's actions.

We see it with Arthas, Illidan, Fandral, Kael'thas, and the Scarlet Crusade.

Arthas did the only thing that could be done by purging Stratholme.

Illidan was a double-agent to the Legion during the War of the Ancients and used fel magic as a demon hunter against them, made the Well of Eternity because he believed his people needed magic, was imprisoned for 10,000 years, came out of it and the first thing he did was save Azeroth by killing the Legion in Felwood so Archimonde didn't get his reinforcements and was destroyed at Hyjal, was banished for it, came back, saved Tyrande's life, was told "Screw off, cheesefart!" by Malfurion, tried to destroy the Lich King, was sabotaged and hated by Malfurion for it, then tried to kill the Lich King again with the Illidari, and was killed by the Alliance and Horde 5 years later in order to liberate some cursed Broken prisoners.

Fandral grew Teldrassil as a new World Tree to benefit his people. They chided him for it, saying that it was unnatural. He asked the Aspects to bless the tree for them like they did Nordrassil. They called him arrogant. He actually cared about the Night Elves, and they weren't having any of it. When Malfurion returned, he was all judgmental of Fandral, basically, for acting in the best interests of his people, when Malfurion would have simply slept. In Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, Malfurion doesn't use the Cenarion Circle (or at least just the Night Elf members) to fight back the Horde and retake Ashenvale, because they're apparently above the war, and their only duty is to protect nature (and it seems that the orcs clear-cutting Ashenvale doesn't damage nature or anything).

Kael'thas was sent on suicide missions by Garithos. He accepted help from the Naga in order to survive the missions. Garithos and the Alliance imprisoned and nearly executed him for it. They escaped to Outland and eventually employed the use of fel magic to feed their addiction. Kael'thas sent Rommath and a few magisters charged with these energies, along with M'uru and plenty of fel crystals to sate his people in Quel'Thalas' addiction. His people appreciated him, however. Unfortunately, raiders wanted to kill notable characters for their phat lewts, so Blizzard threw Kael'thas to the dogs (along with Illidan and Vashj) when none of them were villains.

The Scarlet Crusade are dedicated to the eradication of the Scourge and Forsaken. They weren't fond of the other non-human races, but probably wouldn't have gone on crusades into Quel'Thalas to kill the Elves or traveled south to Ironforge to kill the Dwarves. The Argent Crusade and Dawn wanted to fight the Scourge with "honor" and thus lost many troops for nothing. The Scarlet Crusade were the only ones with enough guts to do what had to be done (following Arthas' lead in making certain that nobody who could be infected with the plague could be allowed to live) in order to contain the Scourge more effectively. They are what would have been considered (from Lordaeron's perspective) anti-heroes.

All of these characters were anti-heroes until they turned evil (badly written into being Saturday-morning cartoon villains, in Kael'thas and Illidan's cases).

That would also build on your Death Knight doing everything he can to protect his people and their interests, while they only see him as a monster. That could be a basis for your character turning evil in the future if you wanted.

[Tyze]

I can act like a Warrior type, be brutal but still know my limits or something Thanks you guys alot of good read

[Koryn123]

Just make sure to have some flaws. Perfect, flawless characters with no weaknesses or shortcomings aren't fun. It's why they had to make Kryptonite for Superman, back when the only evil the superheroes thwarted were bank robberies and their arch-nemesis blowing something up.

Also, don't act all self-righteous about stuff. Malfurion, Uther/Jaina, Tirion, certain Alliance posters that say Kael'thas was evil for consorting with Naga (I haven't seen them in a while, yay), etc. act very self-righteous and are very judgmental of the people that decided to act in the best interests of their kingdoms.

Malfurion was judgmental of Fandral and has since done pretty much nothing of import to benefit his people since he woke up. Uther and Jaina ran away to tattle to Terenas about Arthas, while Arthas contained the Scourge for a while longer by purging Stratholme. Tirion is just annoying. Alliance posters that say Kael was evil are also dumb, though seem to be in fewer number nowadays.

The High Elves at Quel'Lithien Lodge (before they turned into Wretched) hated Lor'themar and the rest of the Blood Elves for taking mana from vermin like mana wyrms and other creatures driven mad by their own addictions, when the Blood Elves only did it so that they could better protect Quel'Thalas (you can't do much when you're shivering on the ground).

From Lor'themar's Journal in his short story: "He and Aurora can sleep soundly, knowing they have never compromised their ethics, but if they deny that they prosper in the wake of those who have, then they delude themselves as much as I."

It's very interesting and fun to do everything you can to save people and be hated by them in turn. It happened with Batman and Spider-man a lot, too.

[Deleted]

The community might be mainly nice on an RP server, but in my experience just as RP servers have some of the best of the Wow community, we MOST CERTAINLY got some of the worst too. Incredibly touchy people and RP elitists that are so annoying to deal with it's crazy. I'm just warning you ahead of time, as it was these people that made me quit WoW completely, but hey you might be much luckier on the people you meet than me, so really don't see me as trying to scare you off.

Anyways, in accordance to your question... OF COURSE it's possible for a Death Knight to be a good guy, they aren't emotionless monsters... Well not completely. They have feeling they're just not as strong as that of the living (with souls), and that's both good AND bad emotions y'know. Anger, Hatred and Sorrow as well as Happiness, Love and Something third that's a good emotion. Death Knights still have certain needs, the Acherus Death Knights as an example has been "encoded" with this need to cause pain, it's not a general Death Knight thing, other death knights does it because it's fun for them, but the Acherus ones directly NEED to cause pain, which is very easy in their line of work as soldiers after all, because... What else are they good for really? But despite all this, it's completely possible for a good death knight to exist in either Horde or Alliance, one who protects innocents and saves children from burning buildings and gets an old lady's cat out of a tree. It's perfectly possible.

[Aqueous]

I think DKs are some of the most interesting characters to RP. And of course you can make them good, heck even in the DK starting quest there are overtures of your character turning from the Lich King because of what he or she is forced to do.

To be honest, IMO, they're probably the most heroic characters of all because every fibre of their being is crying out for them to commit heinous acts and yet, they direct themselves to do what they perceive as good deeds through pure strength of will. It's easy to be valorous as a Paladin when the Light is by your side and you get a warm fuzzy feeling from helping people.

I would probably suggest you make your character gain a strong connection to his or her previous life before they became a DK. If it was something valorous then they try to become what they were again, perhaps someone dear to them in the previous life yet lives etc. think of it like the comic book anti-hero Spawn.

[Ashiraya]

Roleplaying benevolent Death Knights is perfectly reasonable. Ormus the Penitent and arguably Mograine himself are both far from emotionless killing machines.

Death Knight is my favourite class to roleplay (hence I have seven) because they are so extremely adaptable. They can be anything.

[Ironscroll]

Thassarian had plenty of emotional depth too. There's quite a few compassionate, not mindless killing Machine DKs. Sure all of them are conflicted, and that's part of what makes RPing a DK fun, the internal conflict.