In the World
Two traditions that barely acknowledge each other.
Light. Stormwind Cathedral and Northshire Abbey, the halls of Ironforge, and the kaldorei Sisterhood of Elune — who would object to being grouped with the other two, since Elune is a goddess and the Light is a philosophy. All three heal, and all three are currently short-staffed.
Shadow. Forsaken and troll practice, drawing on the same source from the other side. The Light's clergy regard it as an illness rather than a heresy, which is somehow worse. Forsaken shadow priests will tell you, without much patience, that the Light physically burns them and Shadow does not.
At Level 1
You are an acolyte. You can close a wound and steady a frightened person. You have not yet been asked to do anything harder than that, and you have opinions about what you would do if you were.
Specializations
| WoW Spec | 2024 Subclass | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discipline | Cleric — Discipline Domain (WoW book) | ✅ Direct | Prevention over repair — shields, absorbs, damage that heals. |
| Holy | Cleric — Life Domain | ✅ Direct | Disciple of Life and Blessed Healer are Renew and Circle of Healing. |
| Shadow | Cleric — Shadow Domain (WoW book) | ✅ Direct | Void damage, mind-affecting, self-sustaining. |
Alternate builds
- Holy, as a priestess of Elune — Cleric (Light Domain). 🔄 Shared role, different god. Radiant and moonlight are the same colour at the table.
- Shadow, as something that happened to you — Sorcerer (Shadow Sorcery, Ravenloft). 🟡 Close. For a Forsaken whose Shadow is innate rather than studied — they did not choose it and cannot put it down. Different character from a Shadow Domain priest, not a worse one.
- Shadow, as an outside voice — Warlock (Great Old One). 🟡 Close. Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch as Dissonant Whispers and Mind Sliver, and the Old One framing fits troll and Forsaken practice more honestly than anyone in-world would admit.
Species Pairings
- Forsaken — the Light burns you now. Shadow doesn't. You have had to build an entire theology around that fact.
- Night elf — a Priestess of Elune, whose goddess has been notably quiet since Nordrassil burned
- Human — Northshire, and increasingly aware that your Abbey's letters to the crown go unanswered
- Troll — voodoo, which the other priests call superstition and which works
- Dwarf — Ironforge's clergy are few, practical, and extremely hard to shock
Playing One Here
The priest is the only class that has to decide what it believes before level three. Light or Shadow is a mechanical choice in WoW and a theological one here.
Why someone takes orders
None of these depend on your species — pick one, or collide two.
- You were raised in it — an abbey, a temple, a village shrine. Faith was a chore long before it was a conviction, and on bad weeks it is a chore again.
- A prayer got answered — once, unmistakably, at the worst moment of your life. You have spent every year since trying to reproduce the conditions.
- Somebody has to bury them — The Third War left more dead than rites. You learned the words because the person who knew them was among the bodies.
- Medicine, not theology — you wanted to stop people dying and this was the only training on offer. What you actually believe is between you and nobody.
- The comfortable answers did not survive — you looked honestly at the world in Year 29 and something else answered. The Forsaken call it the Forgotten Shadow, and its great weakness is that no two of its priests agree on what it teaches. You are expected to work that out alone.
- You are arguing with your god — you took the vows to get close enough to ask why. Elune has been quiet since Nordrassil burned, and Northshire's letters to the crown go unanswered too.
