I mentioned before that I really had a strange fascination with this traitorous kingdom, despite not having much content of it.

But much like Stromgarde that received its own focus of the sorts, I would LOVE to see Alterac reclaimed, either Horde, Alliance or Neutral it doesn't matter, I want some development for the suppose Legion pawns.

Pull out Beve Perenolde (non-canon) or Isilien Perenolde (canon, backed by Genn) either one. I want to see the black falcon crest emblem blazed on that sweet orange tabard.

What do you think of the way Stromgarde's lore and story in World of Warcraft and its expansions, as well as what happened to the kingdom after Warcraft II, have been handled by Blizzard writers?

How do you think that the story of the kingdom and its people should have been written in WoW and its expansions instead of how Blizz did it?

Personally, I can't say I am a fan of how the kingdom's downfall has been handled and described. Sure, it was interesting for Stormgarde to have seceded from the Alliance of Lordaeron, with more sympathetic and understandable reasons than Gilneas and Quel'Thalas, with them having supported the Alliance to the fullest since the beginning and played a key role in saving the Alliance during the Second War, with them suffering a lot, only for them to not reap any reward from it, with Terenas Menethil having denied Thoras Trollbane the right to annex Alterac and Stromgarde holding several of the internment camps despite Thoras' opposition to them.

But laying the kingdom's fall entirely on the Syndicate and Boulderfist Ogres sure felt anticlimactic. And that's not talking about how long it took for the kingdom to be restored in WoW, with Danath staying in the Outland and not returning to restore his kingdom until BFA. Nor the dreadful story with the Mag'har and Red Dawn afterward.

I think that the fall of the kingdom should have been in part at least because of the Scourge and/or Burning Legion during the Third War, even without Arthas attacking Stromgarde, with the Plague having reached Stromgarde, even if to a lesser degree than in Lordaeron, and Thoras Trollbane and his army having withstood and suffered terrible casualties trying to defend their kingdom from the endless waves of undead, which left the kingdom weakened and vulnerable to internal strife and the Syndicate's schemes.

Also, I would have made Danath and his troops return to Stromgarde to begin the reconquest and restoration of Stromgarde at the end of TBC, though he would have temporarily left again to help lead the Alliance's forces in Northrend against the Lich King in WOTLK, and the Cataclysm and increasing Forsaken threat looming on the horizon would have made things even more complicated in Cataclysm, though with still significant progress in the restoration of the kingdom thanks to loans and support from Ironforge, Dalaran (thanks to Khadgar), and the Wildhammer Dwarves.

The Battle for Stromgarde against the Horde would have happened by the end of Cataclysm or during MoP time, with Stromgarde army, the Sons of Lothar, armies from the three Dwarven clans, and Gnomes from a recently fully retaken Gnomeregan taking on and defeating the Horde forces composed mainly of the Forsaken, Blood Elves, Forest Trolls, and Ogres led by Sylvanas.

In the starting zone, there's lore saying that Skyborne being born with blue skin are a recent development. Currently only about 3 out of 10 Skyborne are born smurfs, but with each passing generation more and more appear. This is considered by them a "blessing of the winds".

So, we know from their lore that the wind spirits that previously blessed the Skyborne and took them to Skywall have mysteriously vanished. Do you guys think this will cause the smurf mutation to stop happening? And what of the high order Skyborne who are now looking to arcane magic as a power source instead of wind elementals? Will they keep having smurf babies? And what of the ones who decide to leave Skywall permanently and settle on Azeroth? What do ya'll think?

I know there are no definitive answers for any of this as of now, but I wanted to know where you guys are at when it comes to this topic. It's why I marked the thread as discussion instead of question.

A few days ago I made this joke thread claiming that the Forsaken were basically "tsundere" for the Horde.

Some people tried to point out that the Forsaken always planned to use the New Plague on the entire world including the Horde. Which actually sounded about right. My "tsundere" argument was only half serious to begin with and it even matched what it said on the Warcraft Wiki page.

But I got curious about exactly when that was established so I started looking through the Wiki's citations and there was nothing that actually confirmed it verbatim. So then I went over pretty much every quest mentioning the New Plague from Classic through Wrath and things got weird.

Pretty much every time the intended targets came up they specifically identified the Scourge and Humans. In A New Plague, Apothecary Johaan explicitly identifies the Scourge as the target. Then A Recipe For Death expands that to include Humans.

There are some lines that could imply they had bigger ambitions. Johaan mentions plaguing the world but it's not clear how literally he meant that. He also calls his concoction "a taste for what the Dark Lady has planned for the rest of Azeroth". But again how literal are we being here? Does "rest of Azeroth" mean literally everyone on Azeroth or just our enemies on Azeroth? Keep in mind that this is a questline any Horde player can do regardless of race, so apparently he doesn't consider this information damning enough to keep it from the rest of the Horde. In fact, none of these quests are undead exclusive.

All that being said, there's no shortage of evidence that the Forsaken were perfectly willing to screw over other members of the Horde. There's a quest in Classic where an apothecary straight up murders a tauren who came to him seeking medical treatment by using her as an unsuspecting test subject. Which is evil as fuck, obviously, but casually murdering a person because she happens to be a convenient test subject doesn't prove intent that they planned to do the same to her entire race.

And then there's Wrath, where some of the apothecaries start making very poorly disguised statements about their intentions toward the living. The problem is that by Wrath, Putress' conspiracy was already in motion. So how much can we actually assume about the original intentions of the Forsaken leadership from the words and actions of apothecaries operating in Northrend is hard to say.

Now while I wasn't able to find anything conclusive in-game: The RPG does have something pretty interesting. The 2006 Horde Player's Guide actually does describe the Forsaken as developing a plague intended to eliminate all living races. However it also hypothesizes that their time spent with the Horde may make them change their mind about using it universally. But the RPG is no longer canon so while this would have been conclusive in 2006 its now a Schrodingers Cat like everything else from the RPG that hasn't been directly contradicted yet.

So I'm genuinely starting to wonder: Could this be a Mandela Effect where a reasonable assumption gradually became accepted as canon? Does anyone actually know of a canonical source explicitly establishing that Sylvanas and the Forsaken leadership intended to use the New Plague against the Horde? Because I can't find one and there's a difference between developing a weapon capable of killing your allies and actually planning to use that weapon against your allies from the beginning.

EDIT: So some people have alerted me to an easily missed questline called Nothing But The Truth which is incredibly damning for the Forsaken. What happens is a human infiltrator discovers something before being captured by the Horde. Some Apothecaries concoct a "truth serum" for you to interrogate him with, but it turns out to be poison and the prisoner is only able to get out: "I believe the Forsaken are misleading the allies of the Horde...." before dying. While this doesn't specify the New Plague exactly it does make it extremely hard to discount the idea that the Forsaken were doing something that they didn't want the rest of the Horde to learn about. Which makes everything else I tried to downplay much harder to give the benefit of the doubt to now. That being said, this operation was overseen by Varimathras not Sylvanas so there's no guarantee she was in on it, but I'm splitting hairs at this point and I probably shouldn't let hindsight bias overwrite that Sylvanas was privy to most of his activities.

It's not conclusive by itself, but a bunch of coincidences in a row is called a "pattern".

So there's two different questions now:

Q: Was it ever explicitly stated that the Forsaken planned to use the New Plague on their Horde allies?

A: Not outside of the RPG.

Q: Did they plan to use the New Plague on their Horde allies at one point?

A: Most evidence points to "yes". But it's possible many were beginning to reconsider and/or not all of the apothecaries were on the same page to begin with.

Curious to hear thoughts. Wonder if the shamans would get along with Tauren. From the lore we know so far (the stuff from Dire Maul) they also seem quite keen on reconnecting with nature, and Malfurion even aided them. So maybe Night Elves are friendly with them even though they are quel'dorei?

I know Illidan later had his character restored to something more closely resembling Warcraft III in Legion, and Kael’thas and Vashj later returned in Shadowlands, but I’m still interested to hear your thoughts given the number of “Kael’thas did nothing wrong” or “Vashj did nothing wrong” arguments I’ve heard.

They have magic over the nature and can ask the elements for help their people and the forsaken, elves and trolls are very knowledgeable about Alchemy. They have Goblins to craft machines to help them out.

making durotan a much better land to inhabit would be great for inhabitants of orgrimmar. Why they never done anything like that?

I always tought its a form of self punishment for the many crimes they commited under the influence of Gul'Dan for example but after decades it makes little sense. Especially when they were ruled by Garrosh.

Something that's stuck with me is specifically what Xal says at the end of that cinematic: "There you are. Not the Titans, nor the Old Gods, nor all the mortal races, could keep you from me. Soon we shall become one, and then everything that could ever challenge my supremacy will be devoured."

The thing is, the one enduring truth of the often retconned Void Lords has been that they exist to devour things. That's their entire shtick. Dimensius was the "All Devouring." And the Void Lords are the only thing that really gets talked about as being singularly focused on devouring everything.

That's not something Xal'atath has ever really focused on either. Yes, there's been survival of the fittest, and yes her army is literally the Devouring Host, but her shtick was never as explicit as devour.

Is this a hint that Void Lord is what happens when you corrupt a World Soul with enough void?

I see some people say theyre super fast like blurring speed, but if thats the case how did Illidan get hit by Arthas? I know blur and fel rush are abilities but i dont think theyre like blurring speed type level. Its just gameplay mechanics at that point. But i could be wrong thats why i want to know.

This is one of those expansions that had an amazing premise but suffered badly in terms of execution, so this is a list of some of the biggest changes I’d make. Feel free to your thoughts!

1. Eliminate the idea of the Jailer being behind everything. I would keep the idea of Zovaal being connected to the Lich King in some manner, but he feels way too omniscient as an antagonist - like they tried to demonstrate his importance in the cosmology at the cost of what came before. The whole anima situation would probably be more opportunism - exploit the recent crises to drain more anima into the Maw to bolster his own power at the cost of Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald and Revendreth.

2. While I am glad the expansion didn’t bring back every dead character for the sake of fanservice, there were some notable characters that I feel were missing from those who did return, or whose return could have posed some very interesting developments. Varian Wrynn feels like the biggest missed opportunity - while his death was comparatively more recent due to having died in Legion, I’m surprised they never had the Jailer and/or Sylvanas use Varian’s soul as a means to break Anduin and turn him into the Jailer’s champion. Because even though Anduin came to terms with his father’s death in Legion, having his soul presented to him feels like something that would have been devastatingly effective psychologically.

3. Okay, from a narrative standpoint this sounds insane, and I have a feeling I will be downvoted heavily for this, but… as a consequence of Shadowlands and the alterations of the system triggered by Zovaal’s actions, the Forsaken and other undead experience a change in their relationship with the cosmic force of Death. They don’t become alive again, per se - that would rob the Forsaken of what makes them who they are - but it sort of stabilises the bond between the living soul and the dead body into something more internally generative. So they develop some traces of Life while still being dead… and the Forsaken learn they can bear children. Why am I suggesting this? Because for so long, Sylvanas’ goal was to ensure the survival of the Forsaken and the continuation of their people, through increasingly drastic means. She literally tried to help Zovaal break the system of death itself… but now that it has been repaired, and reorganised, the Forsaken have gained a future… just not in the way she expected. Maybe this is too happy or implausible of an ending… but I think if done right, this could spark something truly meaningful, and be a fitting end to the crisis that has plagued the Forsaken since their creation.

Been raised worshipping Elune?

I have been doing some Archaeology on Night Elven history, from Teldrassil (which has problems?)
Bel'ameth
Dire Maul
Azsuna / Nazjatar
Suramar

The pre Tyrande era version of Elune's Kal'dorei seem to be Greek architecture with rotunda domes. But very stone in resource.
Then as Tyrande took over the reins of the Kal'dorei she seems to have a completely different Elune inspiration all together taking into account Japanese Pagodas, Shinto Torii Gates, and twisting branch and leafs, and all the druidic things.

Oh the reason Teldrassil has problems is that the Greek Column buildings are on top of a 5 year old tree which either means they were there before the Tree was raised up or something else happened.

Shaman feels like an obvious pick due to all the wind elemental stuff. But for the Alliance they're basically pitching Mage as the runner-up, but even then it feels sort of forced.

Let's not even begin to discuss Hunter, Druid, Rogue or Warrior?

It really feels like the Elf Shaman race, and if you play Alliance then you're out of luck.

Feel free to prove me wrong, as I'd love to play one.

Before he start purging stratholme, he said: "better these people die by my hand than serve as your slaves in death". I mean WTF? If arthas killed them, they would just be raised the same way if mal'ganis did it. What's the point of arthas killing the people if they would be raised anyway?

How would everyone feel about a what if style adaptation to current lore? I had this thought earlier today and thought it would be pretty cool as a raid style story over an entire expansion. For example, Lets say Arthas wakes up before the Dark Portal opens and we go there first.

Dalaran ports to the wrath gate, we get the big battle there but Putricide doesnt have his poison ready and the armies of both factions haven't been seriously depleted in Outlands yet. So we can see what it would look like if Bolvar and Dranosh both live. We haven't found Garrosh yet either. The dragonflights show up and actually help push Arthas back instead of having to put out poisons.

the raid can be us up top sabotaging gates or buildings while the massive army makes its way to ICC down below. After Arthas dies a fully powered up Bolvar takes the helm and is able to 100% control the undead, so when Sylvanas dies she isn't brought back or maybe she is up top with us and gets that kill she has been after so doesn't kill herself. Could even be two different raids, one alliance side and one horde side. Dranosh becomes the new hero of the horde like Garrosh was and Thrall starts grooming him as the new warchief or Varok takes over since he wont be in ICC cleaning up with his kid alive. We get to avoid that whole "Horde are always the bad guys" trope that Garrosh brought.

Malygos doesnt die.......yet. But he is bat shit crazy still. We never really investigate Northrend, but maybe Brann stays out there setting up a raid with a juiced up Yogg later on.

Since our armies are busy up north Kazzak takes the opportunity to open the Dark Portal and decimiate the Blasted lands. We come back to demon hordes almost making it to Stormwind and we have to push them back as an event. But instead of our armies going in we have a juiced up Bolvar to send in the zombie hordes that lay waste to tempest keep and Serpentshrine. I am imagining something like the armies of the dead in LotR here lmao. Falling short of taking over the Black Temple so we have to step in, queue up another Dalaran port in front of the Black temple we enter it and roll the place over.

Blasted Lands decimation wakes up Deathwing and since Malygos hasn't been killed he can take his revenge!

So we could see ICC and Black Temple as raids and have a new story told through those raids but not have entire expansions.

That is as far as I got in my head lmao. Doesnt have to be exactly this but I thought it would be cool if we got a glimpse of past expacs as different stories.

I still think it's Kael'thas, he got tight connection to both Arthas and Illidan. Nearly all the important female characters in WC3 interacted with him. And he was a good person in TFT. As well as the leader of the blood elves. His characterization got a lot of potential. Making him a villain was a huge waste.

Vashj and Kel'Thuzad also didn't get treated well, they are so cunning in WC3 but got little to do later.

I'm not sure if it's because of quality writing, or because they have a more interesting setting to work with, or perhaps a bit of both.

This campaign was a great story to flesh out the existing universe, fill in blanks, and give new and existing characters time to shine. (I've missed Putress!). All without treading on the original canon too much (with a couple exceptions).

I've felt completely disconnected and indifferent to wow lore post shadowlands. Forsaken Kingdom has given me some hopium that Blizzard actually has still got it.

I just have no idea why we dont see this level of quality in current wow. And no, I don't buy the "it's because it's harder to write in an MMO". Writing for MMOs presents a unique set of challenges yes, but other MMOs have been able to pull it off (and WOW also used to do it well in some previous expansions).

We have seen a couple of other cases of non-orc races drinking pit lord blood and being afflicted by the blood curse - the Sargerei, the Felblood elves, the Sethekk arakkoa - but I’m more talking about the main playable races. Some peoples would probably be more likely to have members that would drink Mannoroth or another pit lord’s blood compared to others - night elves would be especially low in number given their history with the Burning Legion, though the existence of satyrs is worth noting even if it’s not quite the same thing. But let’s say we’re talking about the other major races - playable and non-playable - across Azeroth, Draenor and other worlds. This includes physical appearance and specific changes in behaviour, since I’m not convinced the blood curse would affect other peoples in quite the same way it did the orcs.

Thoughts on my RP character’s backstory. He is a Tauren Hunter.

Before he was haunted by the end of days, Apocalypz was known as Lorekeeper Redcloud, a respected chronicler within the Elder Rise of Thunder Bluff. He spent decades buried beneath heavy tomes, leather-bound scrolls, and the oral histories of the tauren people. While other young braves trained with totem and spear, Redcloud studied the Great Sundering, the scars of the Cataclysm, and the cyclical nature of Azeroth’s wars. He believed that to understand the past was to protect the future. But history is a cold comfort when the earth itself begins to whisper secrets it was never meant to share with any living soul. 

Drawn to the whispers that only he could hear at the Pools of Vision, Redcloud spent three days and nights meditating beside the sacred waters. On the fourth night, the water did not reflect the cavern roof or the stars; it boiled then became still, revealing images of Kalimdor and beyond burning. Was thus prophecy or delusion?

In a terrifying, blinding vision, he saw the final days of Azeroth. He saw skies ripped open by ancient horrors, the oceans boiling, and the world reduced to silence and ash.  The vision made it unmistakably clear: the world would end, and he would live to see it. But why had he only receive this vision?

When he finally emerged from his trance, the quiet life of a scholar was forever shattered. The ink on his parchment looked like blood; the history he had spent his life recording felt like a countdown clock. He spent the next few years telling the elders and spiritwalkers of his visions but none could confirm and others began to call him Apocalypz because it had consumed every aspect of his life. To everyone he had ever known, he had become lost to reality. Realizing that preparing for the end required more than reading about the past, Redcloud embraced the name Apocalypz and laid down his quills, packed away his robes,and picked up a hunter’s rifle and tracking gear. 

He retired his title among the historians of Thunder Bluff and embraced a nomadic existence. He needed to master survival, learn the untamed corners of the world, and understand the strength of the people who would ultimately face the whatever laid ahead during the last days of Azeroth. 

Today, Apocalypz roams Azeroth and beyond—from the shattered fragments of Outland to the shadow-drenched valleys of the Shadowlands and Dragon Isles. He does not seek glory, and he no longer obsesses over trying to stop the unstoppable. Instead, his burden has made him remarkably grounded and compassionate. For even he doesn’t know anymore it it’s prophecy or delusion. 

Knowing how fragile existence truly is, he cannot walk past someone in need. Whether he is tracking a lost caravan, hunting a beast terrorizing a remote farmstead, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers against a sudden threat, Apocalypz offers aid wherever he runs across it. He is a gentle giant with the sorrow of a thousand future deaths locked behind his eyes, using his final days to ensure that, when the end finally comes, he leaves behind a world a little kinder than the one he saw in his nightmare.

Prophet or not, he ventures into the darkness.

Let me preface this with the fact that I realise this theory is botderline schizoposting and I am aware that there are multiple issues with reconciling what we've been shown in Xal'Atath lorewalking and the Xal'Atath <-> Salhadar cinematic where she explains her "origin" to him.

That being said, I think we can all agree that if Blizzard is good at anything it's asspulling lore and tying in plot threads in a way that doesn't necessarily make logical sense as long as "the rule of cool" is achieved.

We know that in the upcoming 12.2 Eclipse patch Xal'Atath's goal is to merge with Azeroth, becoming her.

We can also see that the actual worldsoul present in the Worldcore is mostly golden with very faint specks of blue, and that Sargeras' sword seemingly broke one of the rings of the mechanism containing the worldsoul, seemingly leading to the events of BFA where Azerite started manifesting on the surface.

Azerite very clearly has the exact same colour pallette as a soul split in two, as seen in the cinematic showing Uther's soul be split in two by Arthas using Frostmourne.

By breaking the outer ring of the containment mechanism, Azeroth's golden half of her soul could have started reacting to Xal'Atath's presence on the planet - partially getting infused with her blue soul energy. This could explain why Azerite seems to be mostly golden with a blue accent rather than the split being 50-50. However, for the merging to complete Xal'Atath needs to be in physical proximity to the Worldcore containment device and likely needs to disable it entirely in order to achieve her goal.

This could also explain why Xal'Atath seems to believe Azeroth's worldsoul is rightfully hers - because it literally is her other missing half.

I find this very interesting to think about and I think it could be the actual direction they go in with the story despite the bending of existing knowledge required to make everything fit. Thoughts?

Shard of Azerite - mostly golden, faint blue hue

Worldcore

I played Warcraft III's campaign when I was a kid and absolutely loved Arthas' story. Now, replaying it as an adult, there's one part of his downfall that I don't think I fully understand: what were Arthas' actual motivations after taking Frostmourne?

I understand his motivations before that point. He's obsessed with stopping Mal'Ganis, becomes increasingly ruthless, purges Stratholme, abandons everything to pursue him to Northrend, and eventually takes Frostmourne despite the warnings.

And I understand that Frostmourne "corrupts" him and claims his soul.

But what does that corruption actually mean from Arthas' point of view?

Why does he suddenly become willing to murder his father, destroy Lordaeron, slaughter his own people and serve the Lich King?

Does Frostmourne basically remove his free will and turn him into a puppet? Does it twist his personality and morality while leaving his agency intact? Does Arthas genuinely become loyal to the Lich King? Or does he develop a desire for power and actually want what the Scourge offers him?

Basically, when Arthas walks into the throne room and kills Terenas, what does Arthas himself believe he is doing, and why does he want to do it?

I'm especially interested in the Warcraft III interpretation, but lore from the novels or later games that clarifies his state of mind would be great too.

So I do have a bit of a theory, but I do kind of think that xalatath will die, get completely absorbed or won’t merge fully into Azeroth, and it will backfire into being a complete disaster.

It’s happened three times this expansion where a character trusts a promise of power and safety and gets punished for it, typically in connection to xalath

\- salhadaar fights on his own, then submits to xalath and subsequently dooms his people cause of it, in his fight he turns into a being of pure void energy, becoming what he was using
\- Zul Jan submits to malacrass and dooms himself because of it, in the process turns into a snake, becoming what he was trying to use for his own advantage
\- morduum chases after the promises and whispers of xalatath, becoming a leader and then subsequently falling apart and getting disintegrated

In the theory of fractals (pyromancers theory, that wows story is a story of repeating cycles, such as sargeras then Arthas then garrosh then Zul Jan, Zul Jan broke a cycle with giving the dagger back to Zul’jarra (as opposed to moving forward as Arthas/garrosh etc did) , but he also continued one with the promises of power for the need of safety, this happening back to back makes me think it’s going to happen one last time

In midnight, and honestly through most of wows story, Anyone who has a single minded path spells doom, xalath in the cutscene is starting to crack, the closer xalath gets the more her mortal side comes out. Her sucess with dimensius imo had a direct reasoning as to why she cracked infront of salhadaar . Watching us gave power to herself to admit shes mortal and now she’s cracking more and more, talking about her past /her own anxiety. However, I believe that now that desperation is now leading her on a one track mind, she won’t have a back up plan this time around, she won’t be thinking of one as I speculate her emotions will become all over the place come patch 12.2, and that will lead to her downfall.

Meanwhile the heroes, look at all different possible outcomes. Umbric/romanth duel sides, the elves working together, Zul jarra using the loa instead of gurilla warfare, everything Arathor

“If the light dosent have the answers maybe the void will”

And big picture wise, and the tragic thing about her character in connection to all of the characters

The ironic thing with xalath is that the heroes of Azeroth all work together to achieve a common goal, as is the theme of midnight, the light and void cannot work together and therefore harm the world, just like two people who can’t come together can harm everyone around them (Zul jarra and Zul Jan, even though jarra tried her best and Jan saw the light by the end). All the villians, salhadaar, Jan, Mor’duun did this Alone. Salhadaar thought he could bring back Dimensius and rule on his own, mor’duun abandoned, and because of that had to survive on his own.

Except Xalatath

Untill now anyway

Xaltaths whole motive has been to survive so she never has to feel afraid again. The thing is, she clearly HASNT been afraid, she’s been fine. Why? Because in her own way, she’s with allies, she has “friends” at her side. she’s capable of jokes “my favorite mortal”, she opens up to them (salad). She has all the answers infront of her, she could not have succeeded on her own, only when she when she worked with others. And was able to come together with them, light and void clashed but xal/alleria could put their differences aside. It’s all going to be for nothing, as her abandoning everyone on the path to not feel afraid is going to cause her to feel those very feelings.

“It gets lonely at the top”

Levelling an undead Paladin makes the lore seem somewhat strange on this, considering NPCs say different things.

Some say that whatever type of injury they have, nothing can be done about it. So they need to stitch the flesh together with animal leather even or to replace lost limbs with other limbs they gather etc. But it cannot really be healed, nor can the undead "recover" from injuries, and through time their bodies also decay to some extent, and so does their mind and they are bound to inevitably go insane. Even Sylvanas earliest drawings seem to corroborate this, her face was stitched together from different parts even but it was later changed.

That said the light does work and heals them, even if insanely painful, but how would that even work when their flesh is dead? Does it restore it back to what it was supposed to be? Even with different body parts? According to that logic they could be healed till becoming alive again. Idk seems a bit contradictory to me. And after vanilla the whole "they keep rotting and their minds go insane and they become mindless" seems to have been quietly dropped, according to that logic the only way they could "survive" long term would be to becoming lightborn like Calia, aside from that they would be bound to go extinct, it would be as if everyone was unable to reproduce and had a disease that would kill them in a few decades at most, the nihilism would be insane. Would anyone even care to live or build a society? Some of them do seem to have emotions but most seem to live just to get revenge, Sylvanas for instance was the latter and even killed herself after getting her revenge.

Maybe I am just overthinking and the lore is not supposed to be so "deep" but even if really cool the forsaken seem to have a bunch of stuff that couldn't really work out with a bit of logic. Are there explanations for these?

I think the biggest problem was the chessy costume, design and casting. Then they should have chosen Arthas' story, or at least Tide of Darkness to begin with, WC1 is never a popular choice.