Blood Knights - What are they?
Submitted by Saviero on August 16, 2010 - 5:03pm
Just curious how you all roleplay your blood knight. Are they stuffy knights or corrupt guardsmen? Do they enforce the lawl or are they equivalent to special forces? Are they just fancy soldiers?
Wowwiki doesn't have much to say about them except they're an order of paladins.
Anyone know more?
(( Thank you for the
((
Thank you for the wonderful opportunity, I wanted to discuss exactly this; my next story will be about exactly that topic. Simply marvelous, you have my gratitude.
))
The Blood Knights used to get
The Blood Knights used to get their power from a dying Naaru, now that the Sunwell's been cleansed, however, they're pulling it from that once more.
Ace doesn't follow the Knighthood by the "book" persay, the Knights taught her how to use latent energy from the Sunwell to heal others and defend herself and she goes to their functions and heals for them when they need her to do so. Other than that, she's a business woman and a mother. That's about it.
Well, though my own Blood
Well, though my own Blood Knight is almost defined by his lack of adherence to what a Blood Knight should be in my mind, I do have a few ideas to put forth on that.
To begin, I see each major Paladin order in game to be representative of one of the three Talent specs. The Silver Hand specializes in Protection, the Draenai order (Vindicators? the term escapes me momentarily) specializes in Holy, and likely the Tauren will bounce between the two come cata. And the Blood Knights?
Retribution.
It's a key concept to the Blood Elves. They've been wounded, hurt BADLY, nine in ten of them dead, their civilization blasted and their pride damaged to the point where most would give in to despair. Not so the Blood Knights. They are passion given form, righteous retribution made into a spear streaking at anyone who dares to raise hand against their people again. They're defenders, after a fashion, but in my mind, Blood Knight training is a lot less about defense and much more agility, precision and aggression - look at Prince Nuada from Hellboy II for my idea of how a Blood Knight looks in combat.
As to their function in society, they are in my mind an elite military order - not unlike Knightly Orders such as the Templars and Hospitallers in the Crusades. They have specific duties, and a degree of autonomy, but they are strongly tied to their particular mission (in this case, defense of and retribution for the Blood Elves), and as a result gain the reputation of elite warriors as well as being noted by everyone as being dedicated to the Sin'dorei. Yeah, they may be dicks on a person-by-person basis, but so were the Templars in particular, and even they were historically regarded as charitable good guys among the people they protected.
That's about where I see the Blood Knights being involved. A pseudo-independent knightly order that's both seperate from and slightly elevated over the average city guard or soldier.
((Interesting concept. I
((Interesting concept. I haven't played a belf paladin since the release of TBC. If I recall correctly, weren't they somewhat looked down upon at the beginning of TBC? I saw them more as enforcers of the State Order. The last thing you wanted showing up on your doorstep. Things have probably changed since then tho.
Tauren paladins, I think, will be something else entirely. More druid then the paladins that we know right now. ))
((I think that tauren
((I think that tauren paladins will be not very druidic, more a warrior brotherhood like the silver hand but less militaristic than the blood knights.))
(( Well, I'm not in the Beta
(( Well, I'm not in the Beta so I could be way off, but the lead in to them from the conversation on Eldar rise I take them to be more the other half of the Druid order there. The tauren druid follows (somewhat) the Night Elf teachings that worship the Moon. A tauren paladin's powers flow from the Sun. I'm really looking forward to playing this because you can't have one without the other. They're two halves of the whole. .. Could go either way I guess but I still see there being some druidic aspect to their teachings. Looking forward to learning more about them.))
The Knights are looked down
The Knights are looked down upon by the Farstriders, which I see as largely a conflict of old vs. new and the kind of competition you see between branches of the US military. The Farstriders are the Army Rangers, the BKs are the Marines, that sort of thing.
As for enforcers of the state order - I certainly see them being used as a mailed fist in that regard, but the real folks you never want to see on your door IMO are the Magisters - see the protest incident in the Bazaar on that one. The Blood Knights are wielders of great and terrible power, but the Magisters will make you forget you were ever you.
(( ah, true.. I forgot about
(( ah, true.. I forgot about them. ))
I see the Blood Knights as
I see the Blood Knights as heralds. The general populace looks up to the Blood Knights, they want to be them, they are the elite, best of the best of the Sin'dorei's warriors. With the Sunwell restored many more elves have access to it, not just the few who could use the light through natural ability or bending of Naruu's power. That being said it wouldn't be highly impossible all blood elves (except warlocks) begin to use the Light as their source of power, but only because they see the Blood Knights using this source of magic, blood elves could've just as easily turned to shamanism or even druidic sources of power if the situation had permitted it.
The Blood Knights were the elves who wanted something better than fel who wanted to be known as something besides a fel-user. They have the go-get-it-done attitude and that's what has made them popular and powerful.
"To sing of finger bones and purple flowers."
Except the Blood Knights
Except the Blood Knights still use Fel, or they wouldn't have green eyes. And Blood Elves are unlikely to follow Shamanistic or Druidic practices for several reasons - the primary ones being that Blood Elves, and the High Elves before them, do not supplicate themselves before higher powers. They dominate those powers and bend them to their will. If anything that's the raison d'etre for the original Blood Knights, and the ongoing reason Blood and High elf magic users are so potent - they CONTROL, they do not BARTER or SYNERGIZE as Shamans and Druids do.
ALL BLOOD ELVES TAP FEL. Fel is like a combination of food and a pack of smokes for Blood elves, talking about Fel like the very substance is evil is missing the point.
All blood elves -used- to tap
All blood elves -used- to tap fel - or at least, use fel powers to tap mana. With Wrath of the Lich King the Sunwell was restored and the Blood Elves no longer need to mana tap (that's the official reason anyways). Their previous habits, however, have tainted them in such a way that they do have fel green eyes that may remain that way for hundreds of years - a brand that stamps them as ones who once flirted with demonic powers.
Now -many- Blood Elves still do tap mana (in roleplay anyways, though I've seen hints of it in quests as well) because the rush is addictive. They do this through crystals (some which are quite demonic in nature) or other arcane things. But not all do this, and they don't HAVE to do it to survive like they did before the Sunwell was restored.
(You also have to remember
(You also have to remember the game is limited by game technology, Blood Elf paladins could very easily have gold or white eyes if Blizz wanted to program it in.)
"To sing of finger bones and purple flowers."
DKs all have blue eyes, High
DKs all have blue eyes, High Elf NPCs have blue eyes. Obviously, they could do it and they chose not to - and I see the idea of the gold/white eye glow to be a little silly unless your race has been so infused with the light that they're bleeding glitter (like the Draenai).
Night elf druids supposedly
Night elf druids supposedly have different eye color than other night elves but they aren't represented so in game, high elves are their own race with their own voice clips and model coloration. Death Knights come with custom skins and are suppose to be visually different from their living counter parts, but paladins are one of the standard class.
I'm not saying they should have gold eyes, I'm just saying that somewhere in the future it could be possible, especially if the paladin only relied on the light as his/her source of magic.
"To sing of finger bones and purple flowers."
Yes, different eye color.
Yes, different eye color. They supposedly have Silver, I believe? Eye color does not necessarily mean glowing eyes. The irises of eyes are small enough on character models that they can, with reasonable expectations, be overlooked in detail. As for having the glowy-lights in gold, I seriously doubt it. No Orcish Shaman has elementally glowing eyes from nature, no High/Blood Elf priest ever had glowing eyes because of the Light, regardless of their faithfulness to it.
The Light, IMO, does not enhance your appearance. It's austerity, not ostentatiousness. Fel, Shadow, Arcane - those things change your looks, threaten to alter your mind and change you towards one mindset or another. Overindulgence in the Light to me would do little to change appearance, but would strip someone down to a caricature or strawman of what they are, representing a pure concept, lacking all identity or originality.
If anything it's what I believe the Naaru to be - a race in the extreme stages of addiction and alteration by the Light. They're so one-dimensional because that's the only thing they care about any more thanks to being so suffused by the Light. Darkness consumes you, makes you it - Light becomes you and makes it you. It's an interesting dichotomy between them and knowledge that both basically wind up with the same thing - one, a consuming blackness, the other a puppet hollowed out to its least complicated form.
True - I concede the point
True - I concede the point about no longer needing to, at least within Quel'thalas. I still maintain that the Sunwell in its nascent present state is not yet up to speed, at least to the point it previously was, necessitating mana tapping and such outside Thalassian borders (and also leaving the High Elves high and dry). Frankly I view every magical source as having side effects, whether Light, Shadow, Arcane, Nature, or Fel, and no one of them is "good" or "evil," they're just energies, unable to have a morality.
Their previous habits,
Their previous habits, however, have tainted them in such a way that they do have fel green eyes that may remain that way for hundreds of years - a brand that stamps them as ones who once flirted with demonic powers.
((Pretty much the same reason Azerothian orcs still have green skin. I like that explaination.))
I'm gonna toss out here what
I'm gonna toss out here what I think about blood knights, with the understanding that some of the lore will be updated with Cataclysm. This is more about the faith of the blood knights than who and what they are in Silvermoon society, but I kind of think the two are connected.
Blood Knights began as angry and disenchanted Sin'dorei who were utterly loyal to Silvermoon and the continuation of the Sin'dorei race. Unlike Paladins who hold fast to the Three Virtues of the Light to guide their actions, the Blood Knights actively stole the Light from a creature of Light and literally cast aside the Holy Light (that many felt forsook them) in favor of weilding the sheer power of the Light for what it was - more power, and more strength for their people.
But after Kael'thas' betrayal and the revelation that the naaru were totally helping the belves to give them strength to face what they eventually had to face, Lady Liandrin and many of the Blood Knights had a change of heart. They cast their lot in with the naaru and the Shattered Sun, worked to fix the Sunwell, and became faithful to the Light once more. Now, much of the Blood Knight order is as faithful to the Holy Light as their paladin counterparts.
Now, MY PROBLEM is that... uh... it's kind of unrealistic to think that the ENTIRE Order of EXTREMELY ANGRY AND VENGEFUL WARRIORS would start out sucking Light out of a windchime one moment, then decide the next moment that windchimes are great and they like the Light after all. Sure, SOME of them could have a change of heart, absolutely. But the Sin'dorei are a very angry and were a nearly wiped out people. And just because Kael'thas is a jerk, just because some aliens decided to be nice and help fix the Sunwell, that doesn't mean that the entire Order should suddenly forget the fact that their families and friends were decimated, their lands crushed, their city in ruins, and where was the Light for them then? That windchime fixing the Well doesn't bring back a wife and five kids that are wandering around the Dead Scar in ghoul form.
The point is, while I think the idea of the Blood Knights turning to the Light once more is plausable and understandable, I really hope they don't suddenly decide that ALL Blood Knights did that. Because such rage and helplessness and the passionate feeling of betrayal one would feel at the idea of the Light abandoning them doesn't get fixed overnight. And even though my Priest character tries her damnedest to bring her people back to the Light, realistically that's a hard task considering the enormity of what the Sin'dorei have gone through. Seeing that the Blood Knights are some of the angriest, most vengeful of those Sin'dorei, I could see them being the more difficult to convince (and the ones who play that like Hamlen and Revanthas and others totally get a thumbs up from me despite frustrating my character). Hell, my own Blood Knight character doesn't know what to think but she does know one thing - she doesn't have much faith in the Light, she has faith in herself. And seeing as the developers have said that the Light is basically power from the force of one's own will, I don't see why that would be unrealistic. The Blood Knights have been taught how to use the Light outside of faith. Doesn't seem to be a reason that would suddenly go away just because some of them decided to change their minds.
I agree strongly with you,
I agree strongly with you, Aelberyn, but I also feel that the issue I've created with my character Ari needs addressing - what happens with the Shattered Sun men and women as they're rotated off duty at the restored Sunwell and back into Silvermoon life? Here are people who likely began as Scryers in Outland; disillusioned Kael'thas followers who heard Voren'thal's revelation and willingly sought to serve A'dal in Shattrath. Those same people heard Liadrin's reaction and change of heart upon M'uru's removal by the traitorous prince to the Sunwell, and were forged into a unit with Draenei faithful as the Shattered Sun, sworn to restore the most important site in their entire culture.
This is the conversation that takes place when Liadrin meets with A'dal in Shattrath.
Now, consider the sermons which Grand Anchorite Almonen gives constantly at the Tier of Light in Shattrath, and the attendant seated Sin'dorei and Draenei. I'm copying them here:
Speaking to the troops of the Shattered Sun Offensive:
So too have our Scryer brethren held such ambition.
Speaking to Shattered Sun initiates:
The Sin'dorei who become faithful, returning to a variant of their pre-Third War belief in the Light under Draenei tenets, seem to be those who are then stationed as fervent devotees on Quel'danas. So what happens when they come home after tours of duty? How do their altered beliefs affect the mass culture of their shaken people, who've undergone radical change after change after change?
I truly think the intermixture of Draenei faith should be strongly considered alongside new versions of faith for the Sin'dorei, and by extension for the Blood Knights. Whether they react violently to alien worship of the Light connected to a Naaru's destruction and redemption which may make some of them feel privately guilty.. or whether they, like Liadrin, have an ecstatic conversion to the Draenei view of the Light.. I think it should be considered as a factor in the emerging new Sin'dorei culture.
And given the new Quel'delar questlines, it suggests that the Sunwell is becoming (if it wasn't already) an object of worship or pilgrimage, with Liadrin a prophetess of kinds, encouraging those who travel there to repent. I think we have to consider these events carefully, and how modern Blood Knights would handle the change in their leader's approach, and the piety she espouses. I think that might be a fascinating counterweight to what you I think accurately note as the rage the most extremist Sin'dorei rightly feel given their losses.
Well I think that such
Well I think that such individuals - including Blood Knights who -do- turn to the Light - will mix and mingle with the populace of Silvermoon and the dichotomy may very well create some tensions between those who are still angry and those who have re-embraced the Light. Even Aelberyn, who had been faithful to the Light throughout even at her most angry, has faced resentful and apathetic Sin'dorei of various types - some who react more viscerally than others. And I think that's the way it must be. It makes no sense for an entire people to be generalized into one role, back and forth, so immediately. For instance, as the little scene in the Bazaar shows us, no matter how pissed off the Blood Elves were as a whole, there were still a few who did not like the idea of turning from the Alliance, and did not approve of the direction the people were taking in general. The fact of the matter is, Quel'thalas is still rebuilding a broken culture. There's gonna be a lot of growing pains to that. And people who have returned to the Light will clash with people who continue to reject it.
I do see the Sunwell as a
I do see the Sunwell as a holy object for the Blood Elves. If anything, I think the mutual Sun connotations may finally be a link between the Belves and the Tauren that they can both grow from - hell, I've gone through the moment Seb first sees the Sunwell again a thousand times, each one, the feeling in him I can only describe as someone who's looked on the very face of their god. The Sunwell was the life of their people, something made acutely clear in the course of the trauma that was its original destruction, and now, it's basically the saving grace of their people. That's about as close of a definition as it gets to holy.
That being said, I think there's going to be a number of "religious" divides in the Belves. Seb in particular is going to start viewing Liadrin as more insipid and the Scryers as more slavish to the Naaru than he's comfortable with as time goes by, possibly even culminating in him viewing Liadrin as having been somehow brainwashed by Velen and the Naaru at the moment of the Sunwell's resurrection. As said - Blood Elves do not supplicate, they do not appease, they do not submit. They control.
Thank you for collecting all
Thank you for collecting all that in-game info for us! The Blood Elves have been set up by BC and WtLK to be incredibly diverse and conflicted. In fact, I think the Blood Elves have one of the most difficult histories/recent histories to play/portray in the game.
Players were introduced to the Blood Elves as these ruthless, indomitable, jerkwad, perfectly-delectable villains. And then, within the course of TBC, the whole race is jerked left and right, presented with an opportunity for redemption, and set on its merry way.
Blood Elf players are left asking, "What is the norm, now? Where does my character fit on that spectrum?"
It doesn't help that certain in-game quests continue to perpetuate the disjointed timeline, and thus, a disjointed approach to the Blood Elves and the Light.
Take a look at the text of "Claiming the Light," a quest for beginning Blood Elf Paladins; although they've updated the quest to show M'uru's absence, the quest designers haven't revealed that the Sunwell is rekindled and radiating power, once more.
To make matters more complex, the writers have told us in the Lore Q&A that the Light apparently needs no "source;" that channeling the Light's energies is a matter of will.
So what purpose does the Sunwell serve, then? Is it to be considered more of a food source that fills some physiological need for the Belves?
I think the most likely approach is what's being distilled in the various comments, here; there is no "norm" at the moment. Blood Elf culture is so divided and diverse that factions and splinter groups are likely to arise and butt heads over philosophical and political choices. It makes it hard to find one's footing, but it also allows for a pretty diverse palette of perfectly plausible character choices and mindsets.
I'm really looking forward to Cata for some answers to these ambiguities, though. I'm a creature of comfort, and the disjointedness makes it difficult for me to approach Belf RP.
Alts: Arcwik, Hezak, Qoruul, Terwin, Umbuya, Xelarus
The Sunwell is a power source
The Sunwell is a power source for Quel'dorei (that is, Blood Elves AND High Elves. Just cuz those uppity dudes get to keep their blue eyes doesn't mean they didn't have magic addiction - they just dealt with it in different ways... without telling their friends and family how to do it without using fel powers... friggin jerks...). It is the source of all their magic, and yes, in a very real way it is a source of arcane sustainance for them. After all, thanks to Queen Azshara and the Legion futzing with the Well of Eternity, the Highborne got a delicious taste of arcane goodness. It was like crack - they had to have it after that. That's why Dath'remar created the storm in Ashenvale that ended up getting the Highborne kicked out of the Kaldorei for good: he was way too proud to admit that they were jonesing hardcore for magic, and Malfurion's decision to forbid it was making it hard for them to get by.
The Quel'dorei really are an addicted people. It's a part of their race now - they HAVE to have arcane power to sustain themselves. It's the tragedy of their race. There's no way to really cure it, but at least the Sunwell's curing has made it so they don't have to suck magic from stuff. Well. They don't HAVE to, anyways...
So yeah, the Sunwell is really a physiological need for the belves, and the naaru understood that, which is why in their infinite compassion they helped the Quel'dorei get it back. It's become more than that - it's a general power source, a symbol of cleansing and Light to many, but at its very core, the Sunwell is like silo at a farm ;op
You must construct additional
You must construct additional (sunwell) pylons!
Alts: Arcwik, Hezak, Qoruul, Terwin, Umbuya, Xelarus
Bah. I'm still hoping the
Bah. I'm still hoping the High Elves get more and more unhinged in their pursuit of magic and show people what hypocritical purity sues they are.
(Edited post, redoing.
(Edited post, redoing. Sorreh. ^^;;)