Guide - How to Roleplay a Death Knight

 Under Construction - Please stand by

Foreword
This orginially started out as an informative comment to a question posed on the WoW forums, but turned into a whole guide on the matter. I checked the sticky and found no guide on the matter, so I decided I would post this as its own thread.

From there, I got comments (on the forum and in personal whispers ingame) recommending I post it on the wikia, so here goes.

Facts About the IC Class
When you roll a Death Knight, there are a few things that need to be considered.

You are Undead
No running around claiming to be alive and well, or anything other than a Death Knight. Also, scratch any ideas of just claiming it in character to make people more at ease around you. Even if you are well preseved and your skin still has some color to it, your icy, Scourge eyes, your characteristically hollow echo of a voice and your undead, unholy aura will give you away in 2 seconds flat.

You are a Death Knight. An Undead Necromancer Knight.

You are a Third Generation Death Knight.

 * First Generation Death Knights were the spirits of Orc Warlocks placed within the corpses of fallen Alliance Knights from the First War, raised and used in the Second War by Guldan.


 * Second Generation Death Knights are primarily fallen and corrupted Paladins. Arthas himself was one of these. They are bound to their specific runeweapon. Take it away and they are powerless.


 * Third Generation Death Knights are the most versatile, able to pick up and use any weapon off the battlefield, obviously more proficient with the weapon if they runeforge it, which must be done personally at a Runeforge.

You wield rune magic
Rune magic is a form of Arcane magic, accessed by more natural means. It is what powers all your spells. Moreover, Death Knights and the Scourge use a form of runic magic taught to them by the Vrykul. It is a form of the art that even the most experienced wizards find unfamiliar.

Through this magic, they wield powers of Frost, healing Blood and Unholy necromancy.

How is a Death Knight made?
There seems to be two ways to become a Death Knight.


 * 1) The first is the simple, straight forward method. You are killed - you are raised. Nothing more to it than that.


 * 1) The second is a little more complex, involving a slow corruption over time that eventually turns you into an undead Death Knight, but without a specific moment of death. This is a method of turning undead that applies to many necromancers, as well as a fair few Death Knights, including Aurius Rivendare, and most likely Arthas himself. They never died, as such. They just slipped over from living into undeath at some indeterminate point. But make no mistake, though, they are fully undead after that point.

Eating, Sleeping, etc.
Eating - According to "Corpulous' Mess Hall Rules", a book in Acherus, Death Knights seem to be capable of eating and drinking. How much they actually need to is not specified.

Sleeping - According to Phase 3 of "The Death Knights of Acherus", a book in the phased starting zone of Acherus, Death Knights are capable of sleep, but are not permitted to by the Scourge, suggesting they do not need to.

Hygiene - According to "Guide to the Side Effects of Reanimation", a book in Acherus, Death Knights can continue to decay, but that good personal hygiene can slow, if not even halt this. The book suggests it might be an idea to cultivate a more rotten look, but not to go overboard as you don't want an arm falling off in combat.

Other Needs - Death Knights need to inflict pain and suffering. It is something the Scourge likely built into them as a means to keep them working for the Scourge, and to keep them from turning good.

If they do not sate this need, they will become wracked with pain and eventually turn into a mindless killing machine.

If you wish to have an actually playable character within the Ebon Blade and the Hode/Alliance, your character needs to find a way to sate this need without succumbing to it. The best solution is probably to pick your targets, direct your need toward a common enemy, such as the remaining Scourge, the Twilight's Hammer cultists, the opposing faction...

This need does not stack with the Blood Elven mana addiction, but rather replaces it. However, it is possibly quite a bit worse than the mana addiction.

It is not specified if the target must be humanoid or intelligent or if 15 minutes of tormenting a spider can "take the edge off."