In the World
Fel magic. Illegal in every jurisdiction on Azeroth and practised in all of them.
The Cleft of Shadow beneath Orgrimmar operates openly enough that Thrall must know and has chosen not to look, because the Burning Blade would be worse underground. Quiet cellars in Stormwind's Mage Quarter do the same work with better manners. The Shadow Council never stopped existing; it simply stopped announcing itself.
Everyone knows it happens. Nobody wants to be the one who says so in a room where it can be minuted.
At Level 1
You are someone who made one bargain, for a reason that seemed sufficient at the time, and has not yet found out what it actually cost. Your imp is insulting and probably smarter than it lets on.
Specializations
| WoW Spec | 2024 Build | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Destruction | Fiend Patron + Agonizing Blast | ✅ Direct | Eldritch Blast reskinned as Shadow Bolt is the single cleanest reflavour in this vault. Immolate and Conflagrate exist by name. |
| Demonology | Fiend Patron + Pact of the Chain | 🔴 Gap | You get one familiar. Demonology's fantasy is a field of demons, and 5e deliberately limits summoning for table-speed reasons. Pact of the Chain gets you an imp and nothing else. |
| Affliction | Fiend Patron + Pact of the Tome | 🔴 Gap | 5.5E has almost no damage-over-time. Corruption, Agony, and Unstable Affliction are a stacking-DoT rotation, and the core rules have perhaps three such spells. Curses and debuffs land; the spec's engine does not. |
The demons
| WoW | 5e |
|---|---|
| Imp | Imp (Pact of the Chain) |
| Voidwalker | Quasit, or a reskinned Homunculus |
| Succubus | Sprite reskinned, or a Summon Fiend at higher levels |
| Felhunter | Pseudodragon reskinned, or a Find Steed variant |
Alternate builds
- A warlock who was corrupted rather than contracted — Great Old One Patron. Better for The Old Gods than the Legion, and it makes the character's power something that happened to them.
- Destruction, as raw output — Sorcerer (Draconic Sorcery) reskinned as fel. Drops the pact fiction entirely; use only if the player wants the damage and not the story.
- A warlock who thinks they are a mage — Wizard (Evoker) with the fel-flavoured spells. Excellent for a gnome in denial.
Species Pairings
- Orc — your people were enslaved by exactly this power within living memory, and you took it up anyway. Every orc who learns will have an opinion.
- Gnome — you did it out of curiosity, which most people find more alarming than desperation
- Human — a bargain struck to save something, and you would do it again
- Forsaken — you are already damned by most reckonings. It clarifies the risk calculation.
Playing One Here
The warlock is the party's liability and knows it. That is a role, not a problem — but it works only if the other players are in on it.
Why someone makes the bargain
None of these depend on your species — pick one, or collide two.
- Something was dying and you had one night — the offer was not tempting. It was the only one on the table.
- Curiosity, which frightens people more than desperation — you wanted to know whether it worked. It did. That is the entire story and it satisfies nobody.
- You were recruited, not driven — the Shadow Council and the Burning Blade are patient, flattering, and very good at finding the one person in a room who feels overlooked. The one who found you kept a shop, or a pew, or a ledger, and never once had to raise their voice.
- Power immediately, on credit — a mage studies for twenty years. You were angry now, and the terms were explained honestly enough. Even so, nothing arrived free: every demon that answers you is a rite you had to pass first.
- A revenge no lawful power would grant you — the courts would not, the Light would not, and something in The Twisting Nether would.
- You did not know what you were signing — a book in a cellar, a name read aloud, a translation you trusted. Some warlocks are made by consent and some by carelessness.
