Will Death Knights Still Be Created After Shadowlands?.
Death Knights existed since the orcish invasions. However, with the Lich King and Arthas, they became a really big deal but slowly throughout the expansions, they have been losing more and more significance. Some recruits, as well as the Four Horsemen, were raised during Legion but now with the destruction of the Lich King and us venturing into the Shadowlands, what is the future of the death knights? As we go to death itself, will they continue to be created or will they just become a relict of the past? Originally death knights were an entirely different beast.
They were created by Gul'Dan through infusing his warlocks to the corpses of Stormwind knights. They share the name and some abilities but they are much different to what we call death knights today. Really the DKs as we know them were first created by Ner'Zhul with Arthas being one of the initial ones.
When the prince of Lordaeron took over the throne, he truly perfected this art and started really pumping them out, as literally the special forces of the Scourge. He raised the strongest warriors and put them through an incredibly brutal trial to get the best and most ruthless servants.
Arthas even went as far as developing an eternal sadistic hunger inside them by tying them to the shadows that would constantly torture them if they did not inflict pain. It was a terrible mechanism that still exists, where a death knight would have to commit some form of sadism or they would just lose their mind.
Well, eventually death knights broke free, the Lich King was defeated and Bolvar came into power. For a while, they were almost completely irrelevant and as far as we know no new DKs were being created. Then in Legion, it was their time to shine - they reconnected with Bolvar forming a very strange on the edge type of an alliance where they would serve him in return for Bolvar providing them with power and bolstering their order.
Most notably, the new 4 horsemen were raised and then the death knights utilized the casualties from the Broken shore to recruit some new followers. These actions strengthened their numbers but they weren't that significant. So now in the Shadowlands death knights are once again playing an important role.
As we have all seen Bolvar was defeated by Sylvanas and the Lich King ceased to exist. However, as opposed to most on Azeroth, Bolvar probably had the strongest connection to the Shadowlands and he was aware of what was going on behind the scenes. In preparation the Lich King began creating new death knights from all possible races, bolstering his strength and maybe even anticipating what was about to happen.
As he definitely knows who the Jailer is it wouldn't be outrageous to say that he probably expected to lose and he knew what Sylvanas was capable of and that he didn't stand a chance. Now in the new expansion, Bolvar is sort of the playing the role of Khadgar, leading us throughout the Shadowlands as he knows all the intricacies.
However at this moment, as we go into the realm of the dead and we eventually defeat the threats, seeing that there is no longer a Lich King are the death knights just a thing of the past? How are they going to be created and will they eventually just go extinct? This is very interesting to think about.
Despite us being able to create a death knight character at any point, death knights weren't constantly pumped out. You sort of time travelled to the past and then returned to the current point. It is very similar to demon hunters, they aren't made in the millions and are a small elite order.
Even though we received some new lore and we will no doubt find out a lot more in the Shadowlands the reality is that we don't know for sure how death knights are actually created as in the specifics of the ritual. We know the Lich King plays a big role here, however, he doesn't need to do it personally as long as he empowers his servants.
A big thing that really contradicts this point is the fact that death knights existed before the Lich King - sure they were different but the mechanism was similar. Many would say these were more necromancer-knights but do we really know where the line is between a death knight and a necromancer.
This means that a warlock is able to create a death knight and most likely a necromancer as well. How connected these were to the void or the shadow realm we can't really tell. I'm expecting us to really learn the mechanisms of how a death knight is created within the Shadowlands as they are 100% tied to it, seeing that most of the Scourge originates from the realm.
My opinion is that death knights have kind of overstayed their purpose. Originally they were tragic characters, heroes that fell in battle and now were psychologically messed up and forced to endure this constant state between life and death. When the newer Legion dks were created, Bolvar was pretty immoral and forceful about it and it was more of a we will do anything to defeat the Legion even to endure this new state to get a second chance to fight.
However now what would even be their point, why would anyone willingly want to become a death knight. Seeing that the Lich King no longer exists and the line between life and death has been broken they won't even have a new way to exist and bolster their numbers, at least not with the current powers they possess.
Either something will happen in the Shadowlands that will shift the balance and turn us to fight against the void which will create a new need for this class or we will learn something new which will give us a chance to create death knights, but more as resurrected heroes and not really tragic, psychologically tortured characters as originally designed by Arthas.
Until then death knights will no doubt play a role and I expect this expansion to really be the peak of their story. Thank you for watching. Check out what we are going to do with the sword in Silithus by clicking on the screen and also check out my second channel for videos on real-world history and science.
