Lore Speculation for Priests in Legion - with emphasis on Old Gods.

[Deleted]

Hey everybody. With the discovery of lots of the upcoming Legion talents and spells, I've decided to start a thread on the evolving nature of the Priest from a lore standpoint. Remember, this is all my own interpretation and my own theories, so feel free to disagree.

With that out of the way, let's begin. For the sake of simplicity, I need to clarify a few things. Firstly, I see priests as having two major ways in which they invoke what defines them - Faith.

- Shadow is the parallel to Light as a concept. It is a viable alternative way in which to harness faith as power. The Priest's "Shadow" magic is actually a catalyst. When a Priest uses a Shadow spell, they are indirectly drawing power from the Void.

- Light is the parallel to Shadow as a concept. It is the "mainstream" way a priest invokes their faith as power. Let me be clear that in referring to "Light", I mean it as a concept, an opposite to Shadow. I do not mean "The Light" which is a religious power of the Humans, Dwarves, Draenei, etc. When a Priest uses a Light spell, they are indirectly drawing power from a deity or any other God-like, mostly benevolent force.

Essentially, a Priest draws power from the Void indirectly via Shadow magic. These are two different kinds of magic. A Priest draws power from a God indirectly via Light magic. Both of these types of magic - Light and Shadow - are powered by the Priest's faith, and they allow them to access alternate sources as power. Let me emphasize that the Void and deities are already powers in their own right. However, Shadow and Light magic allows a Priest to "borrow" some of that power indirectly. Without a Priest, Shadow and Light magic cannot occur. Let me emphasize neither the divine power of a deity or the Void are inherently benevolent or malevolent - Old Gods (A part of the Void), destroy, but without them, creation would cease to exist. They are needed, to some extent. In the same way, divine forces/deities is also not inherently "good". Just look at how the Scarlet Crusade slaughtered innocence in the name of their religion.

I'll also add here that, from a gameplay standpoint, the three specialisations appear to emphasise different parts of what I've just explained.

- Holy Priests strictly use Light magic to indirectly draw power from their God or a higher power they otherwise worship to heal and protect.
- Shadow Priests strictly use Shadow magic to indirectly draw power from the Void to destroy and punish.

So where do Discipline Priests come in? Well, notice that with Legion's currently previewed spells, Holy and Shadow - the two specialisations that devote themselves to one kind of magic - are actually able to transcend that indirect link of Light or Shadow magic. They go beyond these catalysts of faith.
Through Apotheosis, Holy Priests become an avatar or vessel of their God directly.
Through Voidform, Shadow Priests become an avatar or vessel of the Void - directly.

And yet, Discipline, to our knowledge, has no such "avatar state", a state of ultimate power directly linked to their source of it. Archangel could possibly be redesigned to become it for Discipline Priests, but even if it were, Discipline would be left as the only Specialization that does not have a way to directly invoke either source of power. Because they already do have one. That source of power is themselves. They build upon something that is already there.

The Priest as a class is about Balance. Specializing Holy or Shadow, however, leans you in one direction, and therefore makes you able to reach out and harness the source of Light or Shadow directly. But a Discipline priest relies upon their own strength of will and soul - if you don't believe me, just look at all of the names of their talents and spells throughout the years. A Discipline priest draws power indirectly with both Light and Shadow magic from the divine/a deity or the Void, but never actually immerse themselves in either power directly.

Think of how a Priest draws power from a God or the Void indirectly. Their magic, the Light and Shadow, is -made of faith-. Without their faith - whether it's in themselves, their God, or the Void, the Priest cannot invoke any of their spells. So their faith is a catalyst to invoke power. But Holy and Shadow Priests, respectively, go beyond indirect power, and harness their source for great strength. Just think of how a Shadow Priest's spells become Void themed when in Voidform, because they are no longer using Shadow. They are using the power of the Void itself. A Holy Priest, in Apotheosis, would likely have their magic incredibly enhanced as well, although they use it strictly for creation due to the healing buff.

The main reason for what made my theory solid enough for posting (IMO), however, was the discovery of the Shadow Specialization spell "Surrender to Madness."

Surrender to Madness: Surrender to the Old Gods, sacrificing your soul for ultimate power.
All your Insanity-generating abilities generate 300% more Insanity, until you exit Voidform, then you die. Requires Voidform.

Essentially, it makes you -incredibly powerful- and completely filled with the power of the Void, as you actually give your soul to the old gods. But after the spell ends - you die. The way I interpret that, that spell is us letting go of the Shadow magic that keeps us sane and connected to being a priest. Just as how Shadow magic allows us to reach out for the power of the Void, it also keeps us held back.
But with this spell, we completely give ourselves to the void. We become incredibly powerful, but afterwards? Well, our character would, lore-wise, be no more than one of those old god puppets. So instead, we die.

The Shadow specialization in Legion appears to be growing further and further towards drawing its power directly from the Void, more than ever before. And yet, despite all of the spells and magic we'll use in it being Void-themed already, our Priest remains sane and stays true to our heroic role in the game through willpower. Even in Voidform, when we immerse ourselves completely in Void magic, our faith - which is harnessed as Shadow magic - keeps us connected to sanity. Remember that Shadow and Void magic are two different things as I discussed earlier. But "Surrender to Madness" specifically states;

Surrender to the Old Gods, sacrificing your soul for ultimate power

That soul, which we enhance through our Discipline spec, remains as the core of what it is to be a Priest. Even if you aren't Discipline, your soul and the faith you command with it is what allows you to reach out to both the Void and divine/deities indirectly through Shadow and Light magic respectively. Sacrificing the soul, which makes you you, a Priest, completely disconnects you from what it is to be one. Given the extremely powerful but costly effects of the Surrender to Madness, I'm assuming it'll only be used for a last ditch effort to burst down a mob, since we'll die at the end of it. That desperation that we'd surely only justify using it for translates beyond us as players, it is literally our Priest giving a last attempt to achieve victory. They're sacrificing what makes them a Priest to try to win the fight.

In some ways, this theory supports the idea that the Shadow Specialization won't make us "evil" lore-wise for dabbling in the Void as players. I personally don't think it'd make sense for player characters to have access completely evil specs. Even Death Knights and Warlocks, despite their traditionally evil abilities, use them for good. They're anti-heroes. And the same is of Shadow Priests.


Whoa, that was a lot to type up. I hope I've explained my theory and speculation regarding the future of Priests lore-wise clearly. Remember, it's all my own personal opinion and ideas, so I'd love to see criticism or disagreements for discussion. Even if I'm completely wrong and a massive idiot for having wasted my time typing this all up, I love the fascinating direction Priests are going in.

Thanks so much for reading! Here, have a Lightwell to recover.

[RsinRC]

Yea I can totally see what you mean. I guess the old gods are the deity that use power from the Void and thus is maybe what/who we follow with the new lore for priests.

I kinda wish they just made it that we follow the Void instead of 'old gods'. But what is the Void without the Old Gods..

[Deleted]

Cool writeup, I'm mixed on the new void stuff. In my eyes shadow should have evolved to be more about death, darkness and sorrow rather than going towards the great Cthulu in the sky

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

"Naaru Lightshift: Saa'ra teleports the caster to the Netherlight Temple.
Casting Lightshift while in Netherlight Temple will return the Priest back to near their departure point."

^ Our class hall.

Nether, void

[Deleted]

Interesting. My interpretation of the nether is that it's "space" in the WoW universe.. It's completely beyond Azeroth.

The fact our Class Hall is "transcendant" beyond our world, and the influence of both Light and Shadow is quite fitting, IMO.

[KrakHed]

Interesting. My interpretation of the nether is that it's "space" in the WoW universe.. It's completely beyond Azeroth.

The fact our Class Hall is "transcendant" beyond our world, and the influence of both Light and Shadow is quite fitting, IMO.

Shadow isn't a type of magic in Priestly terms. There is only Light, Void, and the interaction of the two which could be called "Shadow".

The Cult of Forgotten Shadow uses the term "Shadow" to refer to the world and reality itself. From their perspective, there is no "Shadow Magic". Also, Light and Void are both omnipresent throughout the Warcraft Universe. It doesn't have to be taken from any deity, because the magic was literally already in your heart/soul all along.

Shadow Priests simply use Void Magic, as the recognition of Void Magic as a natural and necessary force is what inspired their creation. They focus on its study because the Light already has plenty of followers and doesn't need more.

The impression I'm getting from our Old God connections in Legion isn't that we're necessarily taking power from the Old Gods, though that option is available to us, but that we're getting too attuned to the Void and everything in it. We're not growing tentacles because the Old Gods are reaching through us or anything. We're growing tentacles because we're becoming too much like the Old Gods ourselves. We begin to understand and see things like they do, and that's not going to seem too sane from the perspective of most people.

In short, we've delved so deep into the Void that we've practically gone native and have almost become true void creatures ourselves. It reminds me of the old RPG lore where the goals of the Cult of Forgotten Shadow were to ascend to become Divine beings of darkness and transform ourselves into gods. This is just what can be expected when we're a step closer to realizing that goal.

In even shorter terms, we're not serving the Old Gods. We're becoming things like them.

[XangXu]

KrakHed has it down.

Like he said, Shadow Priests just know much more on the nature of reality itself. These things are so groundbreaking, so terrifying, so disturbing to what a "normal mortal's" reality is, it has the power to drive men insane.

That is why Shadow Priests walk a line.


Consider Shadow Priests like.... Evil.... Stoner... Gurus...

[Deleted]

That's a very interesting idea. As already stated, I see priests as more like... Reaching outwards and drawing power from the sources - those being Light and the Void - through their spells. I hadn't considered the perspective that Shadow Priests are actually becoming like the Old Gods.

I absolutely love all of this new info coming in on the spec. Gives the Spriest and the Priest in general so much more depth than just the two-dimensional generic cleric character in an rpg.

[Deleted]

Shadow isn't a type of magic in Priestly terms. There is only Light, Void, and the interaction of the two which could be called "Shadow".

This is somewhat incorrect.
Shadow is drawn from the void and holy from the light, combined they become twilight.

[KrakHed]

This is somewhat incorrect.
Shadow is drawn from the void and holy from the light, combined they become twilight.

Eh. It really depends on which terminology you're using. It's kind of inconsistent throughout all of the different sources.