An Ontology of Warcraft

[Krascara]

An Ontology of Warcraft
Here’s an attempt at making a cohesive model of the Warcraft universe, from the most fundamental forces, how it makes up reality and how magic becomes an extension of this ontology.
The Fundamentals
At the most basic we have the Light and the Void. These we might describe as positive and negative in the magnetic sense of the word. The Light is a pushing force and the Void pulls. There is nothing inherent in these forces as being good and evil in themselves, but sentient beings attribute these abstract concepts to these forces for cultural reasons. At the beginning of everything there was only Light, but as Light by its nature pushes it can never stagnate in its pure state, it always pushes and flows, this causes pockets drained of Light that becomes Void and Void hungers to be filled (metaphorically). Eventually, in the Churning of Eternity, these pockets become substantial enough to balance out the Light, close to overtaking it. At the exact point of this precarious balance being equal, the conflict between these two forces react catastrophically (or fortunately depending on your point of view) and result in an explosion that clears a pocket that separates the realm of Light and the realm of Void. This pocket is reality (or realities) in which Azeroth exists. Closest to the point of expansion where the Light and Void reacted catastrophically the Light and Void bleed most violently against each other and this place, or plane, is called the Twisting Nether. On top of this twisting core residues of Light and Void null each other out and create the stable Great Dark.
Order and Chaos
The nature of the Light and the Void that make up the fundamentals of reality force the Great Dark into two fundamental behaviours. The Light nature of reality pushes towards Order and the Void nature of reality pulls towards Chaos (or disorder). The natures manifest themselves in the Great Dark as these two forces and from them interacting, what once was only energy starts to coalesce into physical matter that starts to behave based on complex interactions between the two rules of the game.
Life and Death
The rules of the Great Dark taken to their most extreme can be found in the concepts of Life and Death. These concepts are merely the descriptions of complex clusters of order that work incessantly to ward off being disordered and the constant entropy that works incessantly to untangle these clusters. We could say that Life and Death are manifestations of the rules of the Great Dark in the purest and most adamant form.
The Emerald Dream and the Shadowlands
The clusters of life, which we here shall call Nodes (each node being a living thing), are all connected via the rule of Order, which is built on a framework of Light. I am not saying here that all living beings are only Light, they are physical matter which is a balance of both. However, the Light in them is what pushes towards Order which clusters into Life that animates that physical matter. All life in the Great Dark make out a giant web consisting of nodes of Life and this web of Life we call the Emerald Dream. Likewise, all Death in the Great Dark make up a giant inverse web of Entropy made up of nodes of Death. Because where every node of Life exists, an equal node of Death gnaws away at Life. This web of Death we call the Shadowlands.
The Elements
The Elements are different outcomes of the Great Game that only has two rules. Sometimes, Order and Light gains more influence over the balance. If it only has a slight advantage, it manifests as Earth, if it gains some more influence it manifests as Water and the most powerful manifestation, that which is the prerequisite for Life, manifests in Spirit. On the other hand, if Chaos and Void has a slight advantage it manifests as Fire, some more advantage and it manifests as Air and at most advantage, the prerequisite of Death, it manifests as Decay.
Magic
All of these manifestations of the Great Game can be tapped in their most fundamental form by both Nodes in both Webs. A side-effect of the interplay between Order and Chaos within the Nodes is a Mind and a Will. The influence these Minds have on their inner microcosm manifests in what Azerothians call Mana. Mana is not of any particular nature within the Nodes, but rather a manifestation of the interplay of all of them. The Mind can, with practice, use their Will to move the Mana in a particular direction, which opens them up to a flow of any of the particular energies allowing them to Channel this energy and direct it. Channelling Life manifests as Nature Magic, channelling Order manifests as Arcane Magic, channelling Light manifests as Holy Magic. On the other side, channelling Chaos manifests as Fel Magic, channelling Death manifests as Necromantic Magic and channelling Void manifests as Shadow Magic. It is important to note that these channellings are not always exclusive to each other, and that different taps can blend just as they do in the Great Dark to achieve various outcomes. Naturally, it is difficult to blend those which are two sides of the same coin, and most likely the outcome would be experienced as quite painful to channel. It should be noted that Nature Magic and the abstract concept of Nature are different things, and that Death and Life are equally part in this culturally developed designation. Likewise, Nodes also have an inner supply of both Spirit and Decay, which are manifestations of their Life and Death, which they can channel and utilize in order to commune with or subjugate the Elements in their raw forms.
Rune Magic
Just like Nodes are powerfully dense patterns of the different rules and energies of the Great Dark, these rules and energies also form greater patterns throughout the entire universe. These patterns can be observed most commonly in the landscape on planets. On Azeroth, the patterns of Order have due to it being a Titan formed so densely that they resemble rivers which mortals call Ley-lines. But the patterns branch in all directions and come in all shapes and sizes. Nodes who observe these lines and understand how the rules and energies of the Great Dark flow through them can replicate the patterns themselves and achieve the effects the patterns were originally formed to do. Using more complex coordinations of patterns, the inscriber can achieve more complex effects and then activate those effects by directing their Will to reach into the pattern with their Mana to set the energies in motion. This happens outside of the Node instead of inside and it is what mortals call Rune Magic.
Blood Magic
Some mages utilize the volatility of the border between Void and Light, Order and Disorder, Life and Death by allowing their channelled Dark energies to consume the dense Order that exists in the Life-energies of blood. Just as in the first catastrophic clash, when these energies touch they release a powerful chain-reaction that can be directed by the channeller into supercharging their intended magical outcome.
Fel Sacrifice
Some consider Fel stronger than Arcane, and this is not necessarily true, but Fel does have an advantage due to its fundament being built on the rules of Chaos. Just like Blood can be used to supercharge magic, souls can be used to do the same with Fel. A corporeal Node that still has its soul, its corporeality makes its Order too stable to be consumed by the Chaos of Fel. However, if killed and its soul released, the energies of the soul are not stabilized by a body which opens it up for Fel to trigger a catastrophic disordering that can be utilized by the Fel in casting. A skilled practitioner can also shatter the soul doing this and force motes of soul into crystals that work as substitutes for a body to uphold the soul-shard’s Order stability for easy transport. The practitioner then shatters a crystal on need and allows Chaos to consume the Order within.
Elements and Emotions
It should not be surprising when these elements are the basic building blocks of the world that a Node’s corporeal body is comprised of these elements as well. Culturally, the elements are associated with a duality of emotions and this has some truth to it. While the elements generally are balanced in a Node’s body some of the elements weigh a bit more heavily within them than others. Hence those with a surplus of Fire tend to be more passionate and furious. Those with a surplus of Air tend to be more cunning and mad. Those with a surplus of Earth tend to be more stable but also more stubborn. Those with a surplus of Water tend to be more tranquil and indecisive. In addition to the body being comprised of these elements, the body also has a balance between Spirit and Decay. Those with a slight advantage of Spirit tend to be brave, but also naïve. Those with a slight advantage on Decay tend to be efficient, but also ruthless. It is important to note that the composition within a person’s body can change over their lifetime or in special circumstances as when communing with the Elements and allowing them to influence one’s body. It should be noted that the philosophies of the Huojin and the Tushui were originally influenced by their practitioners having a surplus of Fire and Water respectively.


Note
Now, this ontology of the Warcraft universe carries with it implications for all kinds of magic in Lore, and it is possible to extrapolate what it means in that regard. For now however, I’ll leave it at this and you guys can rip it to shreds as you please. I am just offering the way I make sense of the universe’s Lore. I also apologize for capitalizing so many words in my text, I used the logic that the words for all of these magics are proper nouns for specific things separate from their cultural concepts of life, death and light etc.

Regards,
Krascara

[Deleted]

You are amazing. I love these kind of posts. Well done!

[Krascara]

Thank you! I thought it was appropriate to post something other than "Who would you rather die in BFA?" I have also worked on this abstraction in my head for quite a while as I like to make sense of the fantasy worlds I explore. I feel this model has some cohesive explanatory power for the universe without too many things being contradictory.

[Sojourner]

I'm loving it. This, or something very like that, should become canon.

[Velshin]

Really awesome job I really love it. About Fel and Blood magic don't you think they are very similar?


Other than that really well done and thank you.

[MechaCThun]

Keep up with these posts.

It sparks conversation and positive debate.

[Krascara]

Really awesome job I really love it. About Fel and Blood magic don't you think they are very similar?


Other than that really well done and thank you.

Yes, I do agree they are very similar, but from the little we know about blood magic in Lore, that Fel sacrifice and Blood magic utilizes the same fundamental concept but going about it slightly different ways makes a lot of sense. Consider for example the Sin'dorei. It would make sense for their blood mages to take easily to fel magic once the Sunwell was unavailable to them. Consider also why demons would want their hands on the Well of Eternity. Certainly, the powerful force of Order would be extremely useful to mages as a heavy leaver to force through their magical effects with arcane magics, imagine the power potential for somebody allowing Fel to feed on the Order of the well and supercharging their magic with that kind of juice. Now, we all know what the Waters of the Well are, the blood of a Titan. It would make sense for sacrifice, be it blood or souls, to be the same type of magical concept, just with different names based on the power-source. It also makes sense that the blood of living things holding a lot of Order, just not nearly as much as a Titan.
It would also make sense for Ghuun in Battle for Azeroth to want boatloads of blood, as Ghuun being a creature made of the same as Old Gods would utilize powerful Void magics, the fundament of disorder and the more blood Ghuun drinks, the stronger it will exponentially become.

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Really awesome job I really love it. About Fel and Blood magic don't you think they are very similar?


Other than that really well done and thank you.

Secondly, just as a sidenote to this, why would Arcane be vulnerable to Fel? Well, consider that the Order of Arcane is a powerful cluster of Order which is resistent to Disorder or Chaos, to a point. Imagine when Fel rains down on Arcane long enough, the Disorder that is caused within the Arcane reaches a critical point of no return where it falls apart in Chaos, unable to uphold itself. If you've seen Carl Sagan's explanation of entropy, if you want to upkeep an ordered structure, you have to continually insert energy to keep its state, if you slack for one bit the order will eventually fall apart and into disorder or entropy. That's how we could imagine the relationship between Arcane and Fel, Arcane to protect itself must focus its energies inward and drains itself to uphold itself while Fel's disorder tears it to pieces until it is unable to uphold itself and is torn to shreds. All things being equal, Arcane can uphold its order while Fel rips at it at an equal rate, but give Fel a slight advantage and Arcane is screwed.

[Kwento]

And voodoo that includes all of it!

[Krascara]

And voodoo that includes all of it!

That's actually an interesting observation. Because, yes, I think we can describe Voodoo as a pragmatic and non-sectarian practice of utilizing any magic that works to achieve the desired effects from communing with loa spirits strongly associated with Life to consorting with the entropy of Death. We can interpret it as a monistic sorcery philosophy that doesn't make value judgements but acknowledges it all as necessary parts of the whole.