If I were a selfish power-hungry Warlock, and I heard how well the Druids were tended to during their hibernation, I would demand equal treatment for one so powerful as I.

Imp! By the powers of the Twisting Nether, I command you! CLEAN MY BODY!!"

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Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Part Three

Sponge bath is best bath. Should probably give the job to your Succubus, though.

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I'm not sure I follow Arm's thinking exactly. The post is based on the premise that all magic that Warlocks call upon are drawn from other people, and that without other "normal" spellcasters practicing their own arcane arts, there would be no power for the Warlocks to grab.

Could you explain your reasoning for this more in-depth? This way of thinking makes sense in other universes, such as Magic: The Gathering, and it's black magic, but I do not see how it makes sense in the World of Warcraft setting.

What, for an example, would prevent the Warlock from simply casting normal arcane spells, assuming he or she is learned in in the more conformal schools of magic? And what would prevent this warlock from tainting this magic with demon blood, turning it into fel magic? Why is the Warlock reliant on other magicians in order to weave his spells?

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Then s/he'd a nonpracticing Warlock wouldn't s/he? Or a Mage with Warlock potential (like every other Mage). Or a reformed Warlock.

A Warlock isn't a calling like a Shaman or a Mage but a choice made by Shaman or Mages. One isn't intrinsically a Warlock, it's the fact that they do not choose to restrict themselves to conformal Arcane or Nature magic that makes them Warlocks.

I kind of agree with this. Is there something about demonic magic that's inherently parasitic?

He'd still be "stealing" power from someone or something else in order to empower himself, in this case by using the blood of a demon to fuel his magics. It'd still be a parasitic relationship, even if the basics from which the warlock casts his magics come from the Arcane.

It's not only "people". It's the magics themselves. Nature and the elements in particular - the latter of which plays a big part in the openly destructive side of warlocks' magics - are known to be semi-sentient forces of the universe which shamans ask for aid. Warlocks force obedience from those forces. It's the whole reason the orcs pursued warlock magics when the elements ceased to answer them; they were essentially making the fire obey after it stopped doing so by choice. As a result, they damaged the landscape over time, sapping its vitality as they continued to practice warlocks magics that ripped the energies from the land and forced them to act contrary to their nature.

And perhaps most importantly, doing so saturates the land with more fel, preventing the life from coming back naturally. There's a reason large concentrations of fel magic tend to result in a living rot permeating the flora and fauna and at times even create pools of green muck all over the place; fel magic latches onto what it's used to control, accumulating from repeated use and drawing further strength from its "host", which prevents the land from healing.

The knowledge and practices that make a warlock a warlock aren't just a matter of being a shaman or mage with a vial of demon blood in his pocket. It's the soul siphoning, the life tapping, and mana draining that fuel their powers, and the use of spells that force compliance from the magics of the world around them without putting them back the way they were.

Presumably a warlock still retains the know-how to use ordinary magic, but it's the pursuit of the practices enabled by fel energies such as demonic summoning and enslavement, the affliction of agony and corruption, and the compulsion of elemental forces that makes them parasitic. They further their causes by causing harm, whether it's by calling creatures to the physical plane who don't belong there, causing pain and corruption where it woudlnt' otherwise appear, or seizing the magics of their surroundings and forcing them to act outside their nature.

Though its addictive potency suggests a connection, fel magic isn't just super-concentrate arcane energy. If it were then places of extreme arcane concentration like the Well of Eternity and the Nexus would have been generating their own fel energies from the sheer quantity of arcane condensed in one place. Yet they don't, because fel maagic contains something else; that "something" which comes from the demons themselves, or from whatever fundamental agency of corruption and chaos within the Twisting Nether led to the creation of the first demons back before or during Sargeras' original tenure smacking them down whenever they invaded the titans' Reordered worlds.

Arcane addiction leads to the pursuit of more arcane magic, but fel addiction is shown to engender a more generalized hunger for magic and power beyond itself, even to the point of lessening its own lure to those sufficiently corrupted. Demonically corrupted beings increasingly seek out and devour all magics, be they arcane, druidic, elemental or otherwise. Moreover fel magic seems to almost come across as losing its own capacity for satisfying those addicted to it; most demons live either in the Twisting Nether or amidst rampant fel corruption, yet aren't sated by the chaotic energies in either place, so they seek to devour the native magics of the physical plane there. In a way it's almost like once one becomes addicted to fel, the fel itself ceases to satisfy while other magics become increasingly tempting, leading the addicted to spread froom the source of corruption in search of other energies to consume. Hence places with magical "spillage" like Maraudon, Crystalsong Forest, etc. tend to draw such beings' attentions and lead to populations of satyr and the like taking up residence to feed off the ambient magics.

Yet wherever fel magic is frequently used and amassed, the environment begins to wither and lose the potency of its natural energies (as seen in Draenor/Outland especially, and places like the Felwood), leading to the ones responsible getting less and less satisfaction through their own addictive magics saturating the land there and seeking out new, fresh sources of other magic to manipulate and thereby corrupt, thus perpetuating the sequence of fel magic causing its users to reduce their surroundings to wastelands of seething fel corruption while ever seeking new surroundings in which to do the same. The stuff's practically like a built-in tool of demonic recruitment, driving those who indulge to increasingly pursue new lands and life to feed upon while leaving in their wake a scorched hellhole suffused with fel energy to lure in and corrupt additional mortals to further spread its influence. Instead of simply wallowing in the most corrupted areas feeding off each other, beings heavily affected by fel magic are twisted and driven to pursue other magics beyond their own to consume, almost creating a mechanism for perpetuating fel corruption that continues with or without the immediate presence of demons from the Nether itself.

In short, fel magic seems to carry a certain attribute that leads to those who use its power and become corrupted by it gaining an additional "high" from the dissolution of other, less chaotic magics that isn't necessarily present if they simply indulge in their own fel magics over and over again.

That's the parasitic agent: the impetus that leads fel magic (and its users) to routinely seek out other magics and their advocates to feed and change into more of itself. The fel draws power and strength by turning other magics into more fel. In that vein, so too does a user of fel magic ultimately gain power by converting such magics into more fel for his or her use, and so heavy users of fel magic congregate in places where it's densely concentrated, allowing them to corrupt other magics that much faster by having access to a greater amount of fel for empowering their magics in doing so.

After all, even if a spellcaster is just using demonic blood to amplify their power, by what reasoning would the corruption of that blood just go away? It has to go somewhere, whether it corrupts the caster in its use, takes root in the victim of the spell, or hitches a ride on the magic itself to corrupt the environment it was drawn from.

B-b-but it's wrong to criminalize them for what they believe! You wouldn't ban Shamanism over a few wackjobs in the Twilight's Hammer, would you? It's intolerant!

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“Weakness and ambivalence lead to war.” - George H.W. Bush

This discussion reminds me of a book I found in Skyrim about necromancy.

You.

Yes, you.

Shut up.

Real-life political agendas are that way ------------->

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