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I always figured shadowpriests and shadow magic to be a copy of the followers of Shar from Forgotten Realms. But even the Forsaken aren't that devoted to nihilism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHf-LzT77mU Here's something i put together that may help you understand it better

What little I do know:
I read somewhere that Priests sometimes wish to explore all aspects of the light, and so some feel they must also explore the darkness as well.
I know it's popular amongst the Forsaken because, even if they were the best priest ever in life, in undeath the light burns them. They can still use it, but it hurts them to wield it, so light-wielding Forsaken have an extremely high threshold for pain and a very strong will.

02/07/2012 08:39 PMPosted by Draelik

A shadow priest is just a generic thing.

In the original design of WoW, the idea was that all Horde priest races were actually different kinds of shadow priests. Trolls worship the Loa but for some reason they were considered Shadow priests. Forsaken believe in their cult.

For the Alliance races it's more or less a fall from grace idea.

A shadow priest is just a priest that believes in destruction rather than creation.

Exactly this Omega > Alpha or like devotion to Shiva or Kali in Hinduism

Holy and Shadow... oh boy.

Holy requires a faithful adherence to authoritative religious structure.

Shadow requires a devotion to a cult of necromantic (soul magic) practitioners.

I don't see a difference really, is that the disciplined answer?

For Trolls they're priests are Witch Doctors, so shadow for them is another form of voodoo.

The lack of lore, is almost a relief for me. I RP here and there, but I also keep a story, weaving it in and among Blizzard's own. If there was a solid history of lore, I'd be inclined to follow it, to work with it. Every instance of Shadow magic being used by mortals, involves a form of corruption, and the priest's ability to over come it.
The Light is forgiving, The Shadow is not.
Light gives, Shadow consumes
If you master the Light, you become a Paladin or a Priest, you are righteous, you are holy.
If you master the Shadow, you become a Shadow Priest or Death Knight.
It might seem odd to think of it like that, but Shadow Priests have much in common with Death Knights. Many of their attacks focused on pain and torment. But where your corrupted Paladin history is written, you get to choose how your Priest gets corrupted.
As far as my stories are concerned, it was Yogg Saron. Maybe it's another Old God, the Lich King, the Twilight Cult, or even the Sha. The lack of a history makes it more fun. Everything that happened in Shadowmoon Valley in WoD, Ner'zul, all the work of the Shadows, the Void, the Nether. Mastery over this darkness gives you power, failure to master it gives you Insanity.

08/07/2015 03:58 PMPosted by Rezo

The lack of lore, is almost a relief for me.

Can you not, like, necro threads?

What no one is mentioning is that they are undoubtedly connected to the old gods. This will become increasingly clear as they get meta specific aspects like the insanity resource pool coming in the legion expansion. My gm and I were talking about this and it seems that they will get lore if an old God expansion is introduced. I hope this does happen I think they've thoroughly hammered out the warlock/ demon/ fel energy stuff overdo many patches.

Interesting rash of necro's we've had, or in this case, the double necro. (It's so beautiful, double necro)

In light of Priests new 'insanity' mechanic, I hypothesize that Shadow Priests have all listed to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album backwards and at half speed.

11/08/2015 10:31 AMPosted by Buuluu

What no one is mentioning is that they are undoubtedly connected to the old gods.

Because this is an old thread before shadow priests became insane old god worshipers. You know, back when shadow priests encompassed a variety of things like the cult of forgotten shadow and auchenai soulpriests.

I feel Tuulani needs to change her class/spec now.

11/09/2015 03:20 AMPosted by Lena

Because this is an old thread before shadow priests became insane old god worshipers. You know, back when shadow priests encompassed a variety of things like the cult of forgotten shadow and auchenai soulpriests.

I feel Tuulani needs to change her class/spec now.

They're still not Old God worshipers. Read the preview, they "derive their power from the Void, straying dangerously close to the domain of the Old Gods." Emphasis mine.

Or in other words, literally nothing has changed. They've always used the Void. That's what shadow magic is.

11/09/2015 03:20 AMPosted by Lena

Because this is an old thread before shadow priests became insane old god worshipers. You know, back when shadow priests encompassed a variety of things like the cult of forgotten shadow and auchenai soulpriests.

I feel Tuulani needs to change her class/spec now.

Yeah, I was actually really getting into RPing a Soulbinder. Then the Artifact came out as the claw of an Old God. Void Form was talked about, and tentacles got mentioned. So yeah, I may race change to... well, idk, something not a Draenei though.

11/09/2015 06:06 AMPosted by Reignac

They're still not Old God worshipers. Read the preview, they "derive their power from the Void, straying dangerously close to the domain of the Old Gods." Emphasis mine.

Or in other words, literally nothing has changed. They've always used the Void. That's what shadow magic is.

The spriest Artifact is an Old God chunk and by using it they are fulfilling the Old God's plans...

Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire
This terrifying dagger was made from the claw of an Old God eons ago, and dark priests used it for ritual sacrifices during the height of the Black Empire. After the fall of the Old Gods, Xal'atath was hidden away by cults. It has surfaced from time to time over the course of history, inevitably associated with some horrific ritual or disaster. The blade has a will of its own: it uses powerful Void energies and mind magics to warp everything around it for some nefarious purpose.

11/09/2015 06:06 AMPosted by Reignac

They're still not Old God worshipers. Read the preview, they "derive their power from the Void, straying dangerously close to the domain of the Old Gods." Emphasis mine.

Or in other words, literally nothing has changed. They've always used the Void. That's what shadow magic is.

The next sentences are:

To truly understand such ancient, corruptive influence is to be driven mad. This is the state in which these dark priests thrive, embracing insanity and feeding off of the minds of their opponents to reach terrifying new limits.

They're already insane, stepping over that line seems likely.

11/09/2015 06:07 AMPosted by Galenorn

Yeah, I was actually really getting into RPing a Soulbinder. Then the Artifact came out as the claw of an Old God. Void Form was talked about, and tentacles got mentioned. So yeah, I may race change to... well, idk, something not a Draenei though.

I'm not sure where Soulbinders sit anymore. I guess they're going to be another NPC only class like Priestess of the Moon and Shadow Hunter.

11/09/2015 06:12 AMPosted by Lena

I'm not sure where Soulbinders sit anymore.

Discipline Priests.

Alternatively, just never built insanity to 100% and enter Voidform.

Edit: In fact, these changes pretty much already existed if you chose Insanity in the third talent row.

11/09/2015 06:12 AMPosted by Lena

I'm not sure where Soulbinders sit anymore. I guess they're going to be another NPC only class like Priestess of the Moon and Shadow Hunter.

I mean, I guess it kind of works. If any Auchenai survived MU Auchindoun, they'd probably be at least a little addled. We know Maladar lost it, though he doesn't function like our Shadow Priests.

11/09/2015 06:27 AMPosted by Galenorn

I mean, I guess it kind of works. If any Auchenai survived MU Auchindoun, they'd probably be at least a little addled. We know Maladar lost it, though he doesn't function like our Shadow Priests.

I guess, but they never really had anything to do with old gods, it was the influence of a void state naaru.

Maladaar is a paladin though. Which made him a little bit of an odd choice for leader of the soulpriests.

11/09/2015 06:29 AMPosted by Lena

I guess, but they never really had anything to do with old gods, it was the influence of a void state naaru.

I know. I'm really hoping and praying for some minor glyphs to cut back on the Old God stuff. I really dislike how it's taking up more and more SPriest lore. It's almost like whats-his-name from the Ancient Aliens series (and later, memes) is writing the lore for it, only now he's fixated on Old Gods.

The way I'm currently seeing things is that Shadow Priests use the Void, which is what the Old Gods also use. The Old Gods don't control the Void, seeing as it is a primordial force.

It's also hard to imagine the Old Gods as 'gods of the void' when there are entities that are seemingly entirely unrelated and literally named 'Void Gods'.