Did Kael'thas Sunstrider (MU) become a Warlock?

[Deleted]

Yes he was. Warlocks in Warcraft lore are mages, shamans that practiced arts of summoning demons from the twisting nether. There are very few characters in Warcraft lore that were trained as Warlocks from the let go. Even Gul'dan, the most well known Warlock was a Shaman. Kael wasn't your typical Fel Magic Warlock like orcs became, but he was still aligned with the Legion and summoned them. Abilities don't define Warlocks per se, it's more of allegiance with the Legion and using them to achieve your pesonal goals that make you one.

[Notshauna]

Honestly, in canon the difference between a Mage and a Warlock are probably not well defined. It's very likely a Warlock is simply an advancement upon the Mage/Shaman's magical techniques, but gameplay wise Warlocks are limited to purely demonic energies to allow mages to exist.

[Deleted]

a warlock is just a mage than has gone too far or in the case of the orcs a shaman

OT: IMO kael'thas was a warlock at the very end of his life

I mean he tried to summon Kil'Jaeden

[Adunai]

Yes he was. Warlocks in Warcraft lore are mages, shamans that practiced arts of summoning demons from the twisting nether. There are very few characters in Warcraft lore that were trained as Warlocks from the let go. Even Gul'dan, the most well known Warlock was a Shaman. Kael wasn't your typical Fel Magic Warlock like orcs became, but he was still aligned with the Legion and summoned them. Abilities don't define Warlocks per se, it's more of allegiance with the Legion and using them to achieve your pesonal goals that make you one.

That's the point I tried to underline. Kael'thas has never summoned a single demon in his life. Even though he aligned himself with the Legion.

a warlock is just a mage than has gone too far or in the case of the orcs a shaman

OT: IMO kael'thas was a warlock at the very end of his life

I mean he tried to summon Kil'Jaeden

Except it wasn't Kael'thas who summoned him. Hands of the Deceiver did.

[Kellorion]

He was in the end a Fel Blood Mage. Summon demons, pyroblasts, new Lt. of KJ, corrupting a naaru. Oh yea, he went into Lock waters pretty hard.

[Super Kami Dende]

He's pretty much a Warlock.

Just how Blood Knights were pretty much Paladins.

[nightfalls]

Yes he was. Warlocks in Warcraft lore are mages, shamans that practiced arts of summoning demons from the twisting nether. There are very few characters in Warcraft lore that were trained as Warlocks from the let go. Even Gul'dan, the most well known Warlock was a Shaman. Kael wasn't your typical Fel Magic Warlock like orcs became, but he was still aligned with the Legion and summoned them. Abilities don't define Warlocks per se, it's more of allegiance with the Legion and using them to achieve your pesonal goals that make you one.

Right, class changes are possible (unlike in game). That said Kael'thas never really became a warlock. Your allegiance does not define whether you're a warlock, rather, it's your abilities you use. Kael'thas did not use fel fire, curses, or demon summons, he used arcane and fire magic. Hence mage.

When mages turn into warlocks, they literally give up their fire/arcane magic practice and go to fel magic. Shaman give up their connection with the elements and instead commune with demons. Paladins/priests abandon the light completely.

[Adunai]

Right, class changes are possible (unlike in game). That said Kael'thas never really became a warlock. Your allegiance does not define whether you're a warlock, rather, it's your abilities you use. Kael'thas did not use fel fire, curses, or demon summons, he used arcane and fire magic. Hence mage.

When mages turn into warlocks, they literally give up their fire/arcane magic practice and go to fel magic. Shaman give up their connection with the elements and instead commune with demons. Paladins/priests abandon the light completely.

That's a sound look at the issue. After all, even in our time, there are Eredar Magi using Arcane-based Polymorph.

[Haytham]

He's Hots description says he is a fire mage. Though that's probably because the Kael'thas we get to play as in Hots is him before going evil.

[Adunai]

He's Hots description says he is a fire mage. Though that's probably because the Kael'thas we get to play as in Hots is him before going evil.

I agree, he has never been explicitly called a Warlock (if a Blood Mage doesn't mean it). But then again, his description has "Quel'thalas" instead of Quel'Thalas. Blizzard don't know their stuff.

[Tenjen]

I think the difference here would be while fel magic is being used, warlocks would dabble more in curses, fel fire, demonic summoning and other such matters.

While blood mages and fel mages mainly focus on casting the same mage-type spells but by using fel magic as a resource to be more effective.

The lines blur heavily none the less.

Theres a rather interesting paragraph in the Journal of Antonidas, a book that spawns in dalaran sometimes

"As I have said before, I am becoming increasingly disturbed by the dangerously vast potential of certain schools of magic, and the contrasting amount of laws and boundaries that should be set to limit them. Furthermore, comprehensive research on these volatile schools shows a trend of decreasing academic prerequisites yielding increasingly powerful outcomes.

A student of mine asked me today, "Why are there so many limitations on traditional portals, when Fel portals can be made twice as large and last ten times as long?" The student was not yet educated in the abstraction of what is practical versus what is achievable, yet the question held within me a certain duality: What future is there for the established practices of magic when so many wild variations threaten to overshadow them?

I do all I can to stifle studies of Fel magics and necromancy here, yet I find myself both disturbed and enthralled by their potential. I refuse to believe that that their efficiency so soundly trumps the common criticisms of being unstable or "evil" that these schools hold the monopoly of avenues for magical progress. Yet when witnessing the massive infernal for one's self, or seeing acres of land blighted at the wave of an hand, I fear my beliefs may soon shift from gospel to dogma in the minds of my peers."

[Imnick]

Lore characters don't obey the rules of classes and debating who is which is a waste of time.
In Lore, the difference between a mage and a warlock is paper thin and characters often frankly dance between both sides of the line.

[KhazzahK]

In Lore, the difference between a mage and a warlock is paper thin and characters often frankly dance between both sides of the line.

no.

/10chars

[Imnick]

no.

/10chars

Ah but did you consider this:

Yes!

[Deleted]

no.

/10chars

Yes

/10char

[KhazzahK]

Yes

/10char

please explain how pure arcane and fel magic is a paper thin difference?

[Imnick]

please explain how pure arcane and fel magic is a paper thin difference?

Because people often use both, they're both addictive, and one is considered a gateway drug to the other. Demons can subsist on both, which is how Illidan was freeing them from Legion control in the Black Temple.
Khadgar has performed spells which utilise fel energy through artefacts, but is not a Warlock. Kil'Jaeden is one of the greatest arcane casters who ever lived, but is not a Mage.

Classes exist in lore only as factional groups, in practice one magic user cannot easily be separated from another in any useful way.
Kael is an former Kirin Tor arcane caster who later used Fel Magic, but also continues to use chiefly abilities alloted to the "Mage" class.
Fel Magic is reportedly magic that burns life, but Blood Magic (which does the same) is regarded as an Arcane invention.
Most Warlocks started out as either Mages or Shamans. Water Elementals summoned by mages are sometimes Arcane constructs, but Shamans are still able to exert control over them. Necromancy is a school of arcane magic described by the Kirin Tor but used exclusively by Death Knights (though it was formerly a power of Orc Warlocks) and introduced to Azeroth by the Burning Legion. Fire Magic is used by Warlocks, Shamans, and Mages, and doesn't necessarily have to be fel powered in the former case.

Every school of magic in WoW overlaps somewhere with another, and lore characters don't care about player classes because those are a game mechanic, not something that actually canonically exists.
Many Warlocks are also Mages, it's not an either/or thing.

[Tenjen]

Illidan fell to the same addiction to magic. he was addicted to the arcane and fel was just the next easy step to switch to. All with the justification of it being for "his people", etc etc.

With arcane, its not "naturally corruptive". Its neutral that way. But people who use it get addicted to its presence and the power it gives them, you can gain a physical dependence on it after along enough (like the high elves do). Weak minds easily twist themselves apart to this addiction. Think sugar or cigs.

Fel magic can produce many times or higher quality results that other schools provide, often much more easily. Which makes it very attractive. Albiet at cost to yourself, much more severe addiction (and side effects) and it usually needs souls, blood and sacrifice. Fel is more like cocaine and LSD.

Unlike the arcane, fel magic IS absolutely corruptive and brimming with negative and evil energies that will twist you. Only a very powerful will can subvert it, and most of the time the bearers of such a will are evil anyway.

[Imnick]

The fact that Arcane Magic is interchangeable with other kinds is actually a central story point for Blood Elves.
They're addicted to Arcane Magic and need to find other sources to survive. Kael and his Outland expedition turn to Fel, the survivors on Azeroth temporarily survive on Holy magic before the Sunwell is restored, which then becomes a font of both Arcane and Holy power.

[Adunai]

Fel Magic is reportedly magic that burns life, but Blood Magic (which does the same) is regarded as an Arcane invention.
Most Warlocks started out as either Mages or Shamans. Water Elementals summoned by mages are sometimes Arcane constructs, but Shamans are still able to exert control over them.

...aside from the facts that:
1)
a) blood magic has absolutely nothing to do with Kael'thas (even though you're likely to be not about it);
b) blood magic doesn't necessarily burn life, it depends on runes;
c) Health Funnel belongs to the Shadow school;

2) Magi don't summon Water Elementals, they conjure them.