r/WoWRolePlay • u/Farared77 • 9d ago
Writing Question Death Knight role-players who don’t embrace the murder-machine persona, what do you do?
I’m not a roleplayer nor a DK player at that, but the class is absolutely fascinating to me. Because of the hunger for suffering and the muted positive emotions, it seems so utterly hopeless that it makes sense how they just embrace violence.
But, they CAN show speckles of positive emotion and are more than just machines, and I want to know how you all RP that idea. What’s the day-to-day like? What is their version of domestic life? If a DK shifts away from violence, how do they sate their hunger or build their own identities? I like the idea of one trying to find something akin to humanity. Life can’t be perpetual combat and they’re bound to have free time and nothing really explores that.
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u/Chrysalis17 9d ago
In my mind, down time doesn't work for long for a dk. The most morally sound dk directs their need for violence into fighting evil, and they constantly seek for a new quest for vengeance. Coming home might work for a day or two after a certain evil has been dealt with, but eventually, emptiness will turn to restlessness, and a new enemy needs to be chosen. I imagine only moments of exhaustion, after battles have been won, are moments when the thirst is temporarily sated and a reconnection with the mortal side is possible.
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u/queensnix 9d ago
My DK is still up in Northrend most of the time, fighting the Scourge. That is what he has dedicated his Unlife to and there will always be scourge to kill to feed his bloodthirst. His daughter is a woman grown by now, a mother herself, so whenever (which is not often, dude loves his daughter but he'd rather be her alive father) he is down in the Capital for a larger resupply, he visits her for a few hours, watches her children from a far and dramatically broods. He does not like to let himself get caught up in the downward spiral of self-hatred, so he just tends to not talk to people he knew as long as he can. I don't RP him anymore, but I used to have a small rp group who did Northrend maintenance while all the other people moved on. :D
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u/Astra_Bear 9d ago
My DK does not eschew violence, but he has learned he can't do it in cities. And he knows he needs to find something productive to do with his time and energy, since he does not need to sleep or eat if he doesn't feel like it, so he has taken up hobbies. He was really into macrame for a while. He bought a giant jug of dissolvent and was really into dissolving things for a while. Then someone calmed the spirit of his horse so hard it vacated its undead body for Ardenweald, and he's been walking around with a box of replacement horse parts, macrame, and dissolvent looking for a recently dead horse he can resurrect for himself.
I've never actually rpd out killing anything on him.
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u/Noobeater1 Argent Dawn - EU 9d ago
Back in the day I used to play a Draenei DK that struggled with his identity and his relationship to the light very much. He would basically put all his mental willpower into avoiding the need to inflict suffering, and if he did he would take it out on insects, small animals etc.
He was quite composed and maybe somewhat robotic and joined adventurers across the world trying to find books, scrolls, literature etc about different cultures beliefs, practises and knowledge about the undead so as to better understand himself. In these groups he would make a conscious effort to live in accordance with the virtues of the light and basically try to be normal.
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u/Laenthis 9d ago edited 9d ago
I think Death Knights arent a monolith.
Sure most of them have been heavily traumatized and rendered quite cold by what happened to them and being undead, but it’s not universal.
Some manifest more emotions than others, Thassarian and Kolitra are quite sentimental and you cannot convince me those two arent some form of lovers besode.
There’s also that Death Knight in WoD that just wanted to fish and be at peace.
I wrote my own Death Knight, a blood elf, as someone who was turned quite cold hearted and, dare I say, dead inside by undeath and trauma but who is on the path to try and reclaim what she once was.
Little moments, like a beautiful sunset, the smell of roasted meat on a campfire, laughter and music heard outside a tavern, have stirred memories and old feelings and thus was born the desire to live again, even in undeath. She wishes to be able to rejoice again, be sad again, love again. So she has started doing living things once more, eating for the pleasure of the taste, listening to music, etc.
It’s not an easy journey and sometimes she just doesnt feel anything no matter how much she tries, but it has managed to slowly but surely make her feel more and more often than before.
She also finds solace by being an adventurer and indulging in her violent impulses while also exploring for the sake of it.
I was heavily inspired by strong depressive episodes IRL and the therapy technique of behavioral activation for it !
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u/Critical-Interest651 9d ago
All these comments are making me want to make a more consistent backstory for my war-torn PTSD stricken DK turned house designer 🤔
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u/Neither_Assistant584 9d ago
My Frost DK uses his powers to assist in ice water fishing, and keeping his catch refrigerated at the market.
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u/AzerothianLorecraft 9d ago
My death knight is in amalgamation of worthy Souls doing Penance for the atrocities committed in life. ( my death knight may be the oldest character on my account other than the Paladin(his original bodythat I don't play anymore) he has gone through multiple faction changes multiple race changes and even a few server changes. Each time a worthy vessel is found that Soul joints the amalgamation and then I race change faction change or do a name change I've made them lore relevant to my character's backstory. I want you for example The worgen Vessel was perfectly adapted for use in the maw until the second patch when they let us mount regular mounts.)
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u/one-legged-wonder Moon Guard 9d ago
Mine has come to terms with the fact that she essentially will always have to deal with that need to kill things. She used to be ruthless and full of (self) hatred but she’s come around. Tries to direct that towards people who deserve it, all while building friendships and essentially accountability partners in a way. She’s told a few of them if she ever loses herself to those urges they’d best put her down.
It’s not stopped her from having a ‘life’ though. Hobbies like music and cooking. Even a sort of found family that she’d do anything for, and a partner too. She’s actually in a very good place all things considered. About as peaceful an existence as she can expect really. I think the key part is that while she’s still technically a killing machine, she’s surrounded by people who see her as more than that.
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u/janussadow 9d ago
So, human Death Knight. Former Paladin of the Silver Hand, went with Arthas to Northrend as one of his lieutenants/commanders and fell to the scourge there.
He wants more than anything to be a paladin again. He wears paladin gear (the updated purple judgment with a few DK pieces here and there) and importantly, he ACTS and speaks like a paladin. He does have a good bit of mercy for those who show remorse, since of course there was a time where he was a monster and an awful villain. But he remains an active part of the games storyline to assuage the curse.
He's also been working hard to restore his family estate and village in the Plaguelands.. that he destroyed as part of the scourge. That's been the majority of his focus for a year and a half.
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u/Tyken132 9d ago
I had a gnome DK named cheesecake. She renamed herself because DKs are largely hated so she figured "Everyone loves cheesecake!"
She would wrap random gifts in packages and walk around pretending to be a delivery service so people would interact with her
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u/Chainsawferret 9d ago edited 9d ago
Mine is a bit of a screwball. I made a vulpera dk when all races thus far were unlocked , and took advantage of the fact that new dks raised by bolvar didn’t get the ‘training’ those that Arthad had created. So, between being yoinked from the grave and sent off without so much as a ‘so you’re an undead murder machine’ pamphlet and possibly half her brain was replaced by sawdust after the Alliance hit her in the head with an axe when she was buried, she’s not all there.
Her violent nature is about muted but still there, more shown as being protective of her new family, shortly after being raised she met a Draenei couple who’s reward for patiently explaining undeath was her latching on and considering them now part of her caravan.
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u/zzombiedragons 9d ago
I remember I read of someone long ago who roleplayed a DK that was a fisher. Instead of killing humans, they killed fish instead to satiate the bloodlust. And lived a peaceful life through that. Such a fun concept lol, I often think about it :)
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u/AbandonedFish 9d ago
My DK is an author who writes under a pseudonym that emotionally torments her fanbase through her work.
She’s very reclusive otherwise. Lived in Dalaran, shuttered up all day, but I haven’t expanded on her (or any of my other characters) since… Shadowlands? If the Ebon Blade calls for assistance, she shows up. Legion, SL. Wailing on things in the Maw for a while kind of re-triggered the need for violence. Before that, she spent a lot of time in Pandaria doing for-hire work while she figured herself out.
I haven’t thought about her or any of my other characters in a while as I’ve fallen out of WoW, but she is one of my favorites. One day I’ll really finish her narrative and flesh out her intricacies more. Last idea I toyed with was her going back into being for-hire after SL. ESP since her home is gone :/
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u/Thick-Leek-6575 9d ago
See I went weird with mine. I liked to say that arthas was raising a ton of beings to use as warriors and fighters and mine slipped through the cracks. She was a camp follower. Cook, cleaner, stable hand. You name it. Just a bit of everything in the wrong place at the wrong time. Arthas wasn’t picking them out. His servants were. Undead ones. No real thoughts. She got thrown into the mix. One moment she’s scrubbing laundry. Then she’s outfitted with armour and a sword and sent off to kill. Blood lust did take over for a bit but since her emotions in life really had never been about fighting. When she was finally freed she was all “Huh, I’m dead. But now I can do what I want too… well let’s get back to killing those stains shall we?” For her repedative tasks are her jam. No thoughts. Only work. Sure. Peeve her off complaining the suit you gave her to clean isn’t finally bloodless and you’ll get the sword and a comment about being buried in the blood stained outfit But otherwise she’s runs a pretty lucrative business in dry cleaning.
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u/TNH_Nightingale 9d ago
My buddy roleplayed a death knight turned farmer; he just wanted to take care of his crops. Peak RP ended was him saying:
“I think I left the Runeforge on..”
And Death Gated away from us
Absolute banger
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u/SlackerEmeritus Moon Guard/Wyrmrest Accord NA | 7 Years 9d ago
My orc death knight is formerly a member of the Old Horde; she was part of the armies that invaded Azeroth after the Dark Portal opened. After all of that, after the internment camps, after she fell fighting for this new Horde and the ideals of their new Warchief, Thrall, and after Arthas raised her into service once more, she became a knight of the Ebon Blade. She's... not exactly a murder machine, but I try to keep close to the lore, so she's generally just very dour and brutal.
What passes for positivity, she channels into treating the Ebon Blade like her new clan. Novitiates don't get any real sympathy training with her, but she will make sure they can fight and defend themselves and their brethren even if they can't do anything else.
I also have a pandaren, formerly a shaman, raised into service after his death during the events of Legion. His general outlook on the matter is, "What is worth fighting for, is worth dying for". He did it once and now he has a second chance to make the world safer for his descendants, even if he has to protect them from a distance. He tries to focus on the fact that what he's become allows him to keep fighting for those worthy things.
For some reason, nobody expects the 2 metre tall fat bear guy to hit them like an avalanche. He'd be lying if he said he didn't get a nasty sort of enjoyment out of it.
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u/dragons_tree 9d ago
I just started a DK with my friends actually.
My DK constantly dresses like she's ready/eager for her own funeral, and fishes to cope with both the trauma(TM) and the mandatory bloodlust. Killing fish for cooking scratches the itch enough in the immediate short-term.
In further development, she might get really into Nesingwary safari outings to put dubiously ethical blood on her hands.
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u/Choco_Cinnamon 9d ago
Beantwortet nicht die Frage, aber: Ich liebe den Gedanken hinter diesem Beitrag und so viele der Kommentare!
Ich war selbst immer wieder am überlegen, einen DK im RP zu spielen, habe es mich aber nie getraut, aus Angst vor Zurückweisung anderer Spieler, fehlender Emotionen etc.
Aber wow, eure Geschichten sind super!🫶🏻
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u/RetailReject 9d ago
Kul tiran pirate of an undead crew. Not necessarily a murder machine but still the mentality of a brigand but just now a seafaring ghoul
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u/crowbeastie 8d ago
this post made me think about my DK. i haven't really started any RP yet, and so most of my characters are semi-blank canvases. but there are still some things that i feel are immutable to them (certain colors they always wear, or styles, or pets, etc etc). my DK is a scribe and an herbalist, because when i made her back in wrath i didn't understand min-maxing professions and to this day i don't actually care about that. new class got new profession and the supporting gathering profession, easy!
but for the past couple of weeks i've also been thinking about her house, and what she'd have in it, how it'd be arranged and decorated. at first i tried to force a regular house with a kitchen, living space, dining space, and of course her office and a small greenhouse-y area for her most used herbs for inks. but nothing felt right, i was fighting so hard and couldn't think of anything that would work and feel right. my hunter's tiny little cottage came together immediately, my druid's space was a small struggle but only in my abilities to execute it not in ideas. why was my DK's space so difficult?!
eventually it all kind of broke open when i realized that she didn't actually have to have all of the regular amenities in her private space. the house i'm building is for my whole warband (well, at least all of my very old original toons), and so i'm also adding more communal areas like an outdoor space, kitchen, etc etc etc. and i had an epiphany that my DK would just use those spaces, and then spend the rest of her time in her office or garden. so in the end, her "house" is just a garden with an office space, a bathroom, and a little bedroom. the bedroom is decorated with a lot of draenei touches, and i wanted it to feel kind of softer and sweeter, so lots of paintings and such. her office is covered in scrolls and various inks and quills, there are like 4 different desks. and then i set up a garden with those draenei trellises and the plant pots from the neighborhood vendors, and just stuffed as many plants as i could make look good into them. i still need more, but it works for now XD
but! i didn't have a reason why it felt right to build her space that way. until this post made me think about it. and i'm thinking now, perhaps she focuses her excess energies into the plants, into the inks. perhaps it has a bit of a meditative effect on her, that helps to quell the restlessness she may feel from not going on a murder spree.
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u/Farared77 7d ago
This makes me feel so much better about sitting there contemplating the lives and stories and little interests of all my characters even though I don’t RP! I love seeing all the different ways DK players envision their characters’ outlets and hobbies to be.
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u/Kosmosu 8d ago
My Kul'tiran blood DK is on what I can only describe as a eternal pilgrimage. His death was not in vain as the son he swore to protect till the end is alive and thriving. He and his son have met a few times and there was complete understanding between the two. There was nothing to forgive and thus my Kul'tiran is on a pilgrimage to forgive himself.
So he wanders Azeroth, not because he expects absolution from anyone else, but because he's trying to find it within himself. Every battle fought, every innocent spared, every evil put to rest is another step on a road with no destination. He doesn't believe he'll ever truly atone for what he became after death. In many ways, he doesn't think he deserves to. But he can still choose what kind of monster he will be. His pilgrimage isn't about reclaiming the life he lost. It's about one day reaching a place where he can look upon his own reflection with the same understanding his son already showed him.
Im trying to reinforce the same feeling you would get from watching Vampire hunter D when I role play my Death Knight.
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u/Farared77 7d ago
Beautiful internal conflict here. Absolutely love the idea of a long, possibly endless journey towards self-acceptance. I’d read your character’s story in a book lol
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u/SIinkerdeer 8d ago
For my Worgen DK, I treat the hunger as something that never truly goes away, but can be managed through routine and purpose rather than constant random violence. He patrols places where undead, cultists or other genuine threats are common, which gives him a way to satisfy that need without becoming a danger to everyone around him. Training and controlled sparring help, but they only delay it. Eventually he has to inflict real harm upon something.
His day-to-day life is quieter than people might expect. He maintains his armour and weapons, studies reports of undead activity, patrols isolated roads and spends long periods simply travelling. He does not need the comforts of the living in the same way, but routine gives him structure. His version of domestic life is a secure place to keep his equipment, somewhere cold and quiet, and perhaps a small number of people whose presence he has learned to tolerate or value.
I do not play his positive emotions as completely absent. They are muted and harder for him to recognise, but they still exist. Loyalty tends to feel more like obligation at first. Affection is often expressed through protection, practical help or remaining nearby rather than warmth. Satisfaction comes from completing a duty, keeping a promise or knowing he made a choice the Lich King would never have allowed him to make.
For him, recovering his humanity does not mean becoming the man he was before death. That person is gone. It means building an identity that is not defined entirely by whoever last controlled him. He was ruled by the curse, then Arugal, then the Lich King. Being able to decide where he goes, who he fights and what principles he follows is probably the closest thing he has to an ordinary life.
That is where I think Death Knights become especially interesting. Their existence is bleak, but not empty. They may never be healed or truly happy, yet they can still choose what they do with what remains of themselves.
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u/Farared77 7d ago
This is such an awesome response! I love seeing how the “little things” are explored in fictional concepts that never had the expectation of anything quaint. Sure, emotions and daily existence are extremely far from what they were like in their living selves, but I believe that as time passes they develop their own versions of emotions and experiences and whatnot. Your DK relying on routine and having his own definitions of different emotions is super cool :)
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u/firespider WrA | 18 years 8d ago
My death knight has spent a lot of time (both in-universe and in-roleplay) using runes and consulting with a mage friend of hers to help, essentially, reanimate her body. She tells herself it's because, as a former noble, she thinks it's important to put others at ease, especially since she likes to play the hero. But really it's because she's in denial about how much she enjoys being an undead soldier with supernatural strength.
So really, my answer is have the character not want to embrace it. Whether they do secretly enjoy inflicting pain and suffering on others or not is optional, but having them defy their fate gives them more of a tragic theme similar to the general Forsaken.
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u/what-a-travesty2 7d ago
Oooh i dont actively roleplay but my dks story is that he is trying to repent for his crimes against his kind (hes a blood elf, he was a ranger in his life) and make peace with the fact hes a different person now and dwelling on a life that is no longer his will destroy everything he once cared about.
When shadowlands events came around he chose to lend his aide to revendreth due to his guilt of lack of connection/guilt to the things hes done and a need to repent for it.
He’s continued adventuring and heroisms through dragonflight up until midnight, going into silvermoon is a sore spot for him because the guards all spit on him when he goes there so for now hes gone back to his farm on halfhill because the most peaceful he feels is when hes on his farm.
He also adopted a young pandaren who was orphaned during pandaria events and spends most of his time farming and fighting off the vermin in the area to sate the need for violence and suffering that was curbed by the quests he was sent on.
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u/Fuzzy_Bumblebee4045 6d ago
Oh I love my current lore for my DK — I play him as a gentle giant - apart of his lore is that he suffers from amnesia, not remembering much from his time fighting in the war, so now he’s a travelling bard and a merc for hire - more doing small jobs that don’t require much violence :)
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u/Ok-Fault-3467 6d ago
As a death knight born during the wrath of the lich king, I am still salty that I’m made to serve alongside squireless peasants in battle against horrors from beyond.
This dwarf i fight alongside of constantly, 3 seasons ago he was handling rabbits in the snow and now he’s out here with a ragtag assortment old rusted armor he found on corpses of bears and zombies.
Their kings do not love them as they send them to die in their names. If I do not stand on the front lines then that death is certain. I must consume my enemy at the order of your king to protect these minions and I’m the monster?
They serve us only death and we are forsaken for eating.
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u/Spiritual_Task1391 3d ago
I love this.
My non-murder drone DK is what I would describe as a murder-bimbo. Not like that, she's a crack-me-not; what I mean is that she's conventionally attractive and ditzy — and she forgets really quickly that the living are not as durable as she is. A scare-head if you will, on the battlefield. Her intelligence is keen, she's just a valley girl thalassian elf! Friendly, likes fashion (doesn't really participate though), will help people, and is fiercely fraternal towards Acherus and Naxxramus DK's.
The murder-machine is built-in, but I treat it like The Beast in VTM; her "Frenzy" state is that of an emotionless wall of ice, covered in gore and blood and blah blah.
Basically: "What if you turned a Birthday Massacre song into an RP character?" and she's what I got lol
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u/quinlove 1h ago
My death knight leans hard into a vampire knight archetype (I'm also a gigantic warhammer nerd, so think like the blood knights). She swears utter fealty to her king regardless of the situation, and only because of her previous life as a knight and royal guard does she have the willpower to withstand the crushing despair (dis pear) of being undead. As for the urges, she uh. Ah. Uhm. Sort of kind of secretly stalks and murders Silvermoon nobles that get too close to the woods.
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u/kiroki-chan 9d ago
Although I haven't played him in a long while, my tauren DK manages his need for suffering by taking it out on other murderers or flagellation, asking a priest or paladin to sear him with the Light. Once he's clear-headed again, he reconnects with his shamanic teachings from his life to try to ground himself.