Explanation: Warlock

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Pellandria
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Explanation: Warlock

Post by Pellandria »

Not only in the past years, but as well as in the recent months some staff member and basicly a lot of player have shown next to no basic understanding of the term Warlock ig, of course if its based upon the chars I got to teach and represent, this "guideline" might not count for everyone.

So what is a warlock?

Well to answer that question we first have to establish another fact, because to understand what a warlock truly is, we need to understand what a mage is.
In its very basics a mage is simply someone who can use the ancient arts, meaning rune as well as ritual magic a mage is as such not described by race, appearance, education, age or other features, it is simply "someone who can cast spells" so its very similar to the fact that a verb, a noun, an adjective and all the other word groups are still just "words, so one could say "mage" is a rather rough definition, just like calling a noun simply a word instead of a noun.

Now that we know what a mage is we can work out the differences in between a mage and a warlock, of course lets start with the similarities, as we already found out a mage just has one and only one definition and this definition also fits to a warlock, a warlock will be able to use rune and ritual magic just as good as mages, so now lets clear up some misunderstandings first, before we dive deeper into the explanation.

Warlocks are battle mages.

That pretty much is the worst statement I always hear, because its completely wrong, I personally do not even know what a battle mage is supposed to be, but a guess would be, that a battle mage normally is someone rather keen on fight or in this case rather educated in fighting, seeing how a lot of mages are almost seem to be par with fighters in matter of fighting skills, the conclusion is that a lot of mages are simply battle mages, but battle mages have little in common with your usual warlock. A warlock however is taught in fighting and magic skills, but this isn't simply for "being a mage with a sword".

Warlocks have mage and fighting stats

Well this is a paradox in itself, because its simply not possible to create a char who is just as good in fighting and in magic, at least as far as I know, I'm sure we had to ask some of our main power gamer here to find out, if it is possible, I think the main reason Warlocks seem more balanced is because the players of these chars dislike the fact of abusive min-maxing chars, this however doesn't mean that a warlock has to have just one stat configuration, because a warlock is not something stat depended nor technical focused, thus even a maxed char might be a good warlock. Thus this accusation is only half true warlock stats are usually more balanced out for rp and player as well as logic reason.
Well I cleared two questions up and somehow forgot the others I wanted to explain, but I guess I will have the time to explain more later on.

Warlock- the life philosophy

Well and here we are finally, what is a warlock, what makes a warlock a warlock and why do cakes taste...ohh wait wrong topic.

Well as the title is suggesting , being a warlock is simply a life philosophy, warlocks believe in the true balance and no not the face "I'm calm and collected and all good must prevail and all evil must be killed" and so forth, balance means that there is evil as well as good, both however could and should never be able to "win" fully, its simply impossible to reach a state of pure evil as well as pure good, this this means that the main goal for every Warlock is, that he or she is supposed to hold up the balance, right the wrongs as well as exterminate and correct wrong doings, as I mentioned no on the usually doing just good way, that many mistake for some kind of "balance", balance that simply bases itself on calmness will never create perfect harmony, just as pure destruction will never reach its goal and will probably destroy itself in the end.

The balance includes the warlocks body and mind, which is the reason warlocks normally know how to defend them self with weapons as well as with magic. So there you have the very very basic run down of what a warlock is, its a by far not all what is to know about them, but it should clear off some misunderstandings with this annoying battle mage argument, its simply a view of magic and life in its very basics, certaint views that are supported by certain characteristics of the char itself.
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Llama
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Post by Llama »

Proposal: Change the title to "Warlocks 101"
the main goal for every Warlock is, that he or she is supposed to hold up the balance, right the wrongs as well as exterminate and correct wrong doings, as I mentioned no on the usually doing just good way, that many mistake for some kind of "balance", balance that simply bases itself on calmness will never create perfect harmony, just as pure destruction will never reach its goal and will probably destroy itself in the end.
So from what I understand

"A warlock is a druid who casts rune magic and whacks people with sticks"

I don't understand how 'balance' and all that explain why warlocks use weapons and armour.
Last edited by Llama on Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Korwin
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Post by Korwin »

It this supposed to be in character or not? It seems to be straddling the boundary between the two.
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Llama
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Post by Llama »

Korwin wrote:It this supposed to be in character or not? It seems to be straddling the boundary between the two.
I bet this won't make 1 page before it gets locked due to that reason.

"Inb4lock"
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Re: Explanation: Warlock

Post by Kranek »

Pellandria wrote:Well as the title is suggesting , being a warlock is simply a life philosophy, warlocks believe in the true balance and no not the face "I'm calm and collected and all good must prevail and all evil must be killed" and so forth, balance means that there is evil as well as good, both however could and should never be able to "win" fully, its simply impossible to reach a state of pure evil as well as pure good, this this means that the main goal for every Warlock is, that he or she is supposed to hold up the balance, right the wrongs as well as exterminate and correct wrong doings, as I mentioned no on the usually doing just good way, that many mistake for some kind of "balance", balance that simply bases itself on calmness will never create perfect harmony, just as pure destruction will never reach its goal and will probably destroy itself in the end.

The balance includes the warlocks body and mind, which is the reason warlocks normally know how to defend them self with weapons as well as with magic. So there you have the very very basic run down of what a warlock is, its a by far not all what is to know about them, but it should clear off some misunderstandings with this annoying battle mage argument, its simply a view of magic and life in its very basics, certaint views that are supported by certain characteristics of the char itself.
So....its for your char ok then to poison hundreds of soldiers? Ok.....have fun...
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Post by Rhianna Morgan »

As I understood it now, warlocks are battle mages who deem themselves better than usual battlemages due to a life philosophy they don't live. No Pell, you don't. I watched you playing some times now with different chars and how is participating in a quest and changing its way *keeping the balance*???

As Llama guy said so greatly, yes, you only try to get druidism too. Great job. Made my day, still laughing.
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Llama
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Re: Explanation: Warlock

Post by Llama »

Kranek wrote:So....its for your char ok then to poison hundreds of soldiers? Ok.....have fun...
No Kranek. You misunderstood him. Tut tut, stop twisting words around!

Its ok to poison hundreds of soldiers if you poison hundreds of non-soldiers, so there will be balance ;)
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Post by Faladron »

Excellent post that could be converted into an IG Book holding a THEORY on what a warlock COULD BE.

But don't try telling everyone "That's the way *I* think it's done and that's the only truth there is." it'll only get ugly.

Frankly people will disagree with this opinion given and have different views on what a warlock is.

Will you beat them on the head then for not agreeing with your point of view?

And to voice my own answer (just a theory though):

Warlocks exist to "explain" why your character ("your" not adressing anyone in particular!) is learning crafts,
fighting AND rune magic all at once while being fairly good at all of it ("Jack of all trades" Defensio). :wink:

I just realized "druid" is in the mix too, so add that up there.
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Post by Rugh'toh »

PO Pellandria, thanks for your personal point of view concerning the topic Warlock.
Please allow me to add some more point of views:
  • Warlocks is a non-official term used by a few players/characters IG.
  • Since anyone who can cast magic can also call him/herself a Warlock, there is a large variety of the Warlocks - good ones and bad ones, arrogant and friendly ones, balanced and unbalanced ones.
  • Similar to mages, warlocks are a very powerful by themselves and hardly need to fear anything or anyone IG.
  • From Rugh's perspective, there absolutely is no difference between mages and warlocks and never will. 8)
  • Some POs of Warlocks have too much free time :P
Take it easy & cheers :D
PO Rugh
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Post by Nitram »

There are no warlocks.
There are just some mages who think its cool to call themselves different. As you may noticed "Warlocks" are not really supported by the game and there is no background about those fellows. You like to call yourself "warlock"? So be it. No problem. But do not pretend there is anything "official" about that.

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Post by rakust dorenstkzul »

I always thought that warlock was code for "should be on the sex offenders register".
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Post by Pellandria »

Hadrian_Abela wrote:Proposal: Change the title to "Warlocks 101"

"A warlock is a druid who casts rune magic and whacks people with sticks"
Well this is a misunderstanding than, because as I said the views of balance are rather different from the rest of the "usual" balances its neither the "natural" view of the druids, nor the "calm" view of the greys, of course you would need to know both to understand the difference, as I mentioned the "true" balance is something depending on the outweigh of forces, mostly something of a bigger picture, instead of solution for small time problems, knowing what triggers what and what step makes another possibility available is the key here.
I don't understand how 'balance' and all that explain why warlocks use weapons and armour.
After all we are in a rather aggressive "game" as such, of course warlocks will need and use every way to contribute to their "goal" and they should be able to defend themselves from beings that are working against their "balance".
Korwin wrote:It this supposed to be in character or not? It seems to be straddling the boundary between the two.
Its an ooc-explanation about the things that my char..herself and myself understand under "warlock", I several times came across people who asked me ooc to explain it...this is an explanation, which gives a little bit detail and insight on the basics on what ~I~ think is a warlock, of course credit goes to Athian, who originally used the term and produced the lore around it.
Kranek wrote: So....its for your char ok then to poison hundreds of soldiers? Ok.....have fun...
Depending on the situation as well as the possible outcome ..yes it might be possible.
Rhianna Morgan wrote:As I understood it now, warlocks are battle mages who deem themselves better than usual battlemages due to a life philosophy they don't live. No Pell, you don't. I watched you playing some times now with different chars and how is participating in a quest and changing its way *keeping the balance*???
Before you accuse me of that...and I'm slowly used to your constant unrelated accusation coming form your side, I ask for an example or..now that you claim that you know my chars from different others you are free to go and name several examples even, so we can see where your misunderstanding lies, I actually have no idea which quest you talk about, because I just remember one quest I had to play with you and which resulted in Pella being take out in the middle of it, which was my own decision at that point based on the things that happen beforehand. So please enlighten me.

Faladron wrote: But don't try telling everyone "That's the way *I* think it's done and that's the only truth there is." it'll only get ugly.
I just wanted to give my opinion about the way I play, I never said that this is a way one has to do it, because of course my way differs greatly from Athians for example..and it will differ from everyone else, as you mentioned.

For future reference...and no idea why this pops up, I never said that a warlock has to be good in crafts or druid crafts...magic of course is his "main" weapon and knowing how a lot of magic users,who claim them self to be mages, have a lot more fighting skills than Pella possess even the fighting argument would not count. So yeah I didn't got the druid stuff with llama boys comment I don't get it now, explain please.
Rugh'toh wrote:PO Pellandria, thanks for your personal point of view concerning the topic Warlock.
Please allow me to add some more point of views:

Warlocks is a non-official term used by a few players/characters IG.
Completely true and so is templar, priest, a lot of other professions and might I even dare to say chief ;)
Since anyone who can cast magic can also call him/herself a Warlock, there is a large variety of the Warlocks - good ones and bad ones, arrogant and friendly ones, balanced and unbalanced ones.

Similar to mages, warlocks are a very powerful by themselves and hardly need to fear anything or anyone IG.
Yes they could call them warlocks, but I haven't seen a lot of them, simply because a lot of them do not even understand the concept..not even after explaining it to them, as evidence shows in the previous posts. Lucky enough the most stand their ground on being mage.

To the comment on fear I hope its just based on ig mechanics and engine..because at least my char is afraid of several things.

To the last two comments I give a heartily "jubba".

@Nitram: I never claimed its official, but as to mention above, a lot is barely official in the game, we got no priest system..so priests are non existent, we got no bard system..so there is no one who can sing..we could drag this along for a long time. Saying something doesn't exist smply because the engine does not support it,than we should ban everyone who emotes something that cannot be seen in the client.
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Post by Flux »

Pellandria wrote:I just wanted to give my opinion about the way I play
To be honest, Pella, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, I'm not sure anyone really cares.

I don't think you're going to change anyone's perceptions about what the term "warlock" means. In fact, people are just going to argue with you about the way you present it so "matter-of-fact"ly.

Really, you're achieving nothing from this thread about from potential flaming.

With that in mind, would you like me to lock this thread?
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Post by Faladron »

Make an IG book about it, put it on the right shelves and before long you might have new characters agree with that theory,
accepting it, aspiring to become warlocks themselves and then it might start to become part of the lore.

That will certainly help your cause more than, as Flux above pointed out the reasons above, a thread like this.
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Post by Rincewind »

I want to see more Shamans IG. 8)
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Post by Achae Eanstray »

I would think an interesting RP story discussing your view of warlock history may be just as effective.
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Post by Maximilian »

Ich hätte da mal eine Frage als vor allem deutschsprachiger Spieler.
Würdet ihr Warlock ihm deutschen als einen eigener Begriff verwenden oder es einfach als eine Übersetzung für das Wort Hexer, Hexenmeister benutzen?
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Post by Mesha »

Faladron wrote:Excellent post that could be converted into an IG Book holding a THEORY on what a warlock COULD BE.

But don't try telling everyone "That's the way *I* think it's done and that's the only truth there is." it'll only get ugly.

Frankly people will disagree with this opinion given and have different views on what a warlock is.

Will you beat them on the head then for not agreeing with your point of view...and try and convince them of the truth of your theory (or name-giving to your specifical class of people with certain magery and weaponry training?). Yes you will!

And to voice my own answer (just a theory though):

Warlocks exist to "explain" why your character ("your" not adressing anyone in particular!) is learning crafts,
fighting AND rune magic all at once while being fairly good at all of it ("Jack of all trades" Defensio). :wink:

I just realized "druid" is in the mix too, so add that up there.
And locked, because of amazing amount of truth in this post. If you want to spread your views on warlocks and their name-sake, convince people ingame. Also, Nitram's post holds true as well, be sure to catch it when reading this thread!

*goes back to house-maintenance*
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