ArvickCorpsebane

I was thinking about that, though I really don't want to give people the idea that they should walk around with their Death Knight, having "X generation Death Knight" in their titles. I might add it there for extra clarity later on. Since considering the basic nature of the guide, people should at least know what the hell I'm talking about.

You technically aren't wrong. But most of Gul'dan's Death Knights are by now Liches, dead or spirits. As you mentioned, we had two examples in Burning Crusade. (Which was more than a decade ago in the timeline) Regardless of them, you shouldn't RP one unless you really know your shit. 1st Gens are so freaking rare that the chance of there being more than three or four (from the original hundreds, who already were few and far between.) is technically impossible to think about. I see people all too often trying to act as if they are roleplaying a Death Knight (1st gen) "right." Which ends in tragicomically bad roleplay. This is why I advise against roleplaying them.

Nevermind. You just happen to remind me about one of their officers who kept spelling Death Knight as Deathknight.

I don't see how any of this detail is relevant to the general idea of Death Knight roleplay. If you want to RP one, it goes without saying that you should research the lore of your Race/Class combo you are playing. I also have a whole section dedicated to the Generations dilemma above. More or less, this guide is just made to make sure people grasp the basics of what it entails to RP a Death Knight in general, rather than being a very specific, detailed lore guide. For the record. Are you associated with Return of Sargeras and the guilds from their phase? BTW, it is Death Knights, not Deathknights. <3

Of course, that's a thing to factor in. This falls under the category where I explain Death Knight RPers shouldn't feel grumpy if they are denied access to certain places, if they are attacked or if their characters are simply disliked by the surrounding people. Especially considering what you mentioned. Death Knights these days are feared and hated like they weren't since WotLK. Or that's just my interpretation... Really, this is left to the players to decide.

Thank you. I really appreciate that there are people who understand that Death Knights can be more than just ERP toys for necrophiles and power fantasies for little kids.

So, you want to Roleplay a Death Knight, huh? Well, you are in the right place to learn some basics of Death Knight roleplay. In this guide, I will explain how to deal with baseline character traits, development, and storyline of your Death Knight. I will also illustrate some pitfalls new DK RPers make in the form of Billy the Deathlord, who wants to learn the intricate mastery of Death Knight roleplay. Please take everything in this guide with a grain of salt. First and foremost, it is supposed to be more lighthearted and is by no mean the objectively RIGHT way to RP your Death Knight. This is just me being a silly bean and suggesting some info to enforce quality on Epsilon. Death Knights: Personality Alright. Despite the popular assumption that Death Knights are cold, heartless monsters as if leaping from the mind of a 16 y/o DeviantArt edgelord, they are actually much tamer than that. Your character won't be wallowing in their pitiful sorrow 24/7, they won't be murdering people 24/7 and they aren't going to break local rules just because they can. Here, Billy the Deathlord failed completely. Unknowingly, he walked into the town of Whogivesafuck. Despite reading the local rules, Billy decided that he will commit a heinous crime against the local populace by spitting on the street. This earned him the attention of the local guardsmen, who immediately decided to punish him for his deadly transgression. - Of course, Billy doesn't care because he is the Deathlord and he can do whatever the fuck he wants. This is why you shouldn't be like Billy. Death Knights rarely ever have reasons to break local guidelines, wherever you might be. As a Death Knight, you must understand that your character is viewed down upon by the public. There live people in the world whose families died at the hands of Arthas and came back as vile undead. This gives them the justification to dislike you, hate you even. Never forget to reflect this on your character in a way that doesn't cause needless conflict. Nobody likes party poopers. So. We already established that Billy definitely cannot be grumpy all the time and that he isn't above the law. Seeing the mistake in his roleplay, Billy decided to give his character more flavor by assigning positive character traits. Happy, Friendly, Social... And here is where Billy is wrong again. Death Knights can feel positive emotions, and by all means feel free to add them to your character. They can feel joy, they can feel anything a living person can. The main problem with expressing these emotions is the fact that Death Knights who showed positivity or regret during their training were executed. Scourge indoctrination renders the Death Knight a cold shell of his former self. - So yes... you can feel good as a Death Knight, nobody says you can't. The problem is conveying those happy moments in a way that doesn't contradict the DK lore. Now Billy the Deathlord knows that he cannot just slap random happy-go-lucky traits onto his character without thinking. Great! Death Knight: Sex No. Death Knight: Power Alright. Now we have a decent personality for Billy the Deathlord. He is a Death Knight that doesn't care for the lives led by the living. He is distant, reluctant to talk, but he knows how to behave and cares deeply for his comrades. But what's this? Billy the Deathlord can summon a giant Frost Wyrm, he can Death Grip a platoon of soldiers and summon Ghouls wherever and whenever. All of these powers at his whim. Now it's time to not be like Billy again. Death Knights are generally a very powerful class, but they aren't unkillable. They have limits and their powers still cost them much effort. You cannot just go on a one-man crusade against the power of Friendship. You cannot just crash into Stormwind and demand Anduin hands over his crown. (If he had any...) - Neither is your Saronite indestructible. Sure, it provides protection against Light and Nature, is lighter than steel and can deflect blows from Arcanite. - But have you ever considered that it doesn't do much else? Saronite won't protect your from Arcane Magic and WILL send your allies and enemies down the path of madness if you are around them too much. So reconsider before you use this very strong metal... It is a very eccentric thing to wear, especially in populated areas. Some cities might not even let you in with it equipped. To sum it all up. Please be considered of other roleplayers. We get it that the fantasy of the Death Knight class, in essence, is overpowered, but mute it down a little. Nobody wants to fight your hulking mass of necrotic energies if there isn't even a chance to harm it. And vice-versa, do you enjoy to pummel through everything in your path? - Do you really want to play a game where there is no risk or challenge? I think not. Death Knight: Backstory Everyone loves a good story. Even Billy the Deathlord likes stories. A well-made backstory is one of the key traits of your character, Death Knight or not. Almost every single character you can think of has some story. If you want your Death Knight to be immersive and compelling, you gotta make sure to have a story planned out before you even hit that "Enter World" button on your character screen. A good story is essential. If you have problems thinking how to shape your backstory, ask yourself what events influenced your character. How did he become a Death Knight? Where was he born? Who did he love? Who was the person in that Saronite armor before he died? - General questions like this can really help you get some creative thinking going. Now, let's return to our homie Billy. Billy is the Deathlord, former Scourgelord and Grandmaster of the Ebon Blade. He is also the bastard son of Arthas and Jaina. He might no longer be super-OP or merciless freak, but there is still plenty wrong with Billy's character. His story is full of stereotypes, bad tropes, and snowflake material. Let's dissect it all up. Association with Lore Characters: Don't ever associate yourself or place yourself in the position of an important lore character. This includes people like Jaina, Thrall or Garrosh. I'm telling you to not do this because there is a thick chance you are going to end up with a character that breaks the lore and is very uncompelling because they are associated with someone very powerful if they aren't that person themselves. Avoid this at all cost. It happens too often that people forget this. Deathlords, Grandmasters, Conjurors: Yeah, yeah... We get it. You played retail and got a little handy Order Hall of yours. it's nice and all... But have you, or Billy, ever considered that you are both Deathlords, owning the very same Acherus? If you didn't, you should probably re-read this guide twice and get a basic grasp of Roleplaying in general. Very much like associating yourself with Lore characters, you can't always be the Hero of Azeroth. You can't be the champion that killed the Lich King. You can't be one of those that rode on the spine of Deathwing and you definitely cannot associate yourself with the likes of the Order Hall champions unless you REALLY know what you are doing. Snowflakes, Snowflakes everywhere!: A Special Snowflake is actually a very funny oxymoron as far as the terminology used to describe them in the roleplaying community goes. A special snowflake is someone who attempts to stand out so much, he fails to do so together with millions of other special snowflakes. Each of them is unique in a completely horrid and abominable way, yet they all have the same shortcoming. And still, it is so easy to avoid this by using just a little bit of common sense. Does your character wear really striking colors to stand out like the shining rainbow he is? Is he super-powerful Mary Sue that can do no wrong? Does he stand out from the norm because he defies all definitions of his role and/or class? If that's so, you are a Special Snowflake... To avoid becoming one, just remember that a well-balanced, flawed and down-to-earth character can and will be much more interesting than a special Mary Sue. Death Knight: Progression Alright. By now, Billy is all set to roleplay. He no longer is the Deathlord, he has a decent personality for his character and he knows that he cannot bang Sylvanas or destroy a whole city on his own. But suddenly, Billy is left without a purpose for his super-awesome Death Knight. He is bored because this guide told him that Death Knights need good reasons to be places, that they cannot just waltz wherever they want. - Well, that's true. Very true. You can't and never should go with DK somewhere where he doesn't need to be. But fret not! - This doesn't mean you are doomed to sit around the OOC zone all day, unable to roleplay your awesome DK! You just need to find a dedicated group/phase/guild where your Death Knight could be implemented efficiently. Scourge plotlines are very popular with public phases and guilds. Maybe if they have one going on, you can try to have some involvement in it for the better or worse. Usually, you will always find someone who shares a keen eye on this sort of roleplay. Take me for example. I met a lot of my friends by simply roleplaying a Death Knight with them. - And due to Death Knights not being a very popular class in upper echelons of the roleplaying community, we just had to stick together. You can always think of great stories and plotlines with friends! Take inspiration from real lore events and characters. Think of the struggle they had to overcome or the darkness they fell to. This way, you can always ensure to have an interesting plotline going on. It all just takes to be a little bit more social with people online. Roleplaying is, after all, a collective work, where communities come together to interact and have fun in the environment of their favorite universe. If you have an appreciation for that, even an undead freak can become a lively and diverse character. Death Knight: Generations Before I end this, there is just one thing people need to know. The Death Knight generations, which we otherwise use as an OOC categorization for the different kinds of Death Knights, do not exist ICly. A Death Knight is simply a Death Knight to the average people of Azeroth. It does not matter if he is Gul'dan's Necrolyte or a corrupted knight. He is still a Death Knight to them. Now, this, of course, does not give you the right to just jump the horse and make a First Generation Dk willy-nilly. No. Before you do that, you have to understand fully that you are roleplaying something extinct and that you are still just a Death Knight regardless. Arguably, even less powerful than an Ebon Knight or a 2nd Gen. (But that's all up to speculation. A can of worms I really don't want to open.) Just don't use roleplaying a different generation as an excuse to be more powerful than your Ebon Blade counterparts. Chances are you will end up with a broken and unsatisfying character, which will give you a lot of smack from other players. Final word of advice: So. You somehow managed to read the whole wall of text and you think you are ready to make your own Billy. That's great... Death Knights are an awesome thing to play, especially when you know what you're doing. They are a very fun class, just also very hard to get into. It may take you some time to get used to your Death Knight... Just don't give up on them after one night of unsuccessful roleplay. Of course, if it isn't fun, don't play it. Death Knights are hard to pull off right. They are even harder to master. If you are really new to this roleplaying shtick, you should consider picking a less difficult class first. With that out of the way, I sincerely hope you will enjoy playing your character.

You forgot to not put Romance/Death/Injury in your OOC. - It's annoying and it only serves to make the TRP bigger. Those things have their own tab.

Oh god, yes. Definitely.

sage Just kidding. Your shit's nice fam.

Granted, but you summon it by vomiting. (Also that corrupted wish made me really scared... Y u do dis) I wish Pandaren were replaced by a more acceptable race.

Granted, but you now cannot blink. Your eyes are forced to wither away as you cannot muster the muscles contracting your eyelids to move... On the plus side, you will win every staring competition. I wish there were more DK RPers.

This is indeed a very gay introduction. Welcome! Almost as gay as myself.

I'm just here to say Forsaken RP sucks is the best thing since sliced bread. I'm totally not saying this because a Deathguard is holding a blade at my throat while I'm writing this. Alright, now seriously. Regardless of my past experiences with the infamous Booty Bay Deathwatch and what people say, I wouldn't mind some minor involvement with the guild. I just don't really have a particularly good idea for an undead char that I would enjoy ATM.

Welcome. Reason: Bye

Can you center the formatting? - It looks really bad. Besides that, I'm actually looking forward to this.

Dralggish... That sounds familiar. Destruin also sounds familiar.... Mhhh... Weren't you in Demonfire once? Anyways, welcome.

T R O L L

9/10 very rhythmic and enjoyable. Don't like the lyrics too much... But satisfying. I know, this is weeb trash.

Ayy. I also started out my RPing on Argent Dawn. Nice to see you are giving private servers a try. Welcome!

Welcome from the other SIIIIIIDEEEEE!

Make sure to not break your legs this time.

Arvick is gonna kick some demon ass... Is that story not compelling enough to you?

"Night Elves are my favorite race." Anyways, welcome!