Warlocks are cropping back up in Arcadia, and nobody knows why.
They haven't been seen since the fall of The Age of Might, but even at the end of that age they were pretty rare. Warlocks had their heyday deep in history and faded from prominence as time rolled on.
So let's talk about Warlocks. What are they?
What is a warlock?
Different game systems will have different interpretations on this class, but the common thread that runs through them is a character who gains magical or supernatural powers from some outside source that is not a standard god. Getting magical or supernatural powers from a god makes you a cleric, paladin, monk, or something else. Warlocks are specifically getting their powers from an "outside power". Often times this is described as an extraplaner entity, a god from a different world, some eldritch power, or a very powerful creature.
How do warlocks fit into Arcadia?
Arcadia doesn't have a multiverse. It has a very clear power structure where the gods sit at the top, and everything else is a product of their creation. All of existence was created by the gods.
[Note: Much about the gods is shrouded in mystery. Have there always been the same number of gods? Did there used to be more? Can gods die? Can a mortal become a god? This post is not meant to answer these questions.]
For our purposes, a warlock is someone who gets their powers from a creature or entity other than themselves or a god. A caster who draws upon the natural magic of the fabric of reality wouldn't be a warlock, but a caster who draws upon the magic of a red dragon, a beholder, or an ancient fey spirit would be. This makes "warlock" a term as broad as "divine caster". We don't have a specific class for "divine caster', we have many. "Warlock" by extension could cover multiple different classes.
What is the warlock supergroup?
As we enter into this new age of Arcadia (The war for Arcadia ended the Age of Iron and is bringing us into the Age of Empires), we are seeing some new developments - like warlocks. The first reappearances of these classes we're going to call "warlocks" for simplicity sake. If things continue down this path, and they might not depending on how the campaigns go, we might see multiple classes emerge from the "warlock" supergroup.
These future subclasses could have a wide range of abilities. They could use divine spells, arcane spells, some other class of spells, or even other types of magic not seen in a long time.
What about the current warlocks of Arcadia?
There have been 3 or 4 major warlocks encountered.
In Rise of Drekis, an Akuban human named Eid-ryeah who gets his power from Brimstone the red dragon. He functions according to
In Dicing with Death, a Mistryan human named Fenix who gets his power from Radium the gold dragon (also known as Shine). There have also been other warlocks seen hanging out with Fenix and Radium, but they haven't been given much screen time.
In Gnomes, Tomes, and Catacombs, a Drekissian half-elf named Kumo who got his powers from an unknown source. (I know the source, but it was still unknown to the players and viewers when that campaign ended).
In Tides of Death, a Drekisian human named Saol who got his power from a mysterious and unknown entity known as Rho-he. However, Saol was classed as a cleric, and functioned mechanically very similarly to a cleric. There is no known god who goes by the name Rho-he, so either Saol was a subclass of warlock with cleric spells or he was an actual cleric to an actual god. Maybe it was Malkis (isn't it always Malkis?) who hid his true nature from Saol? Maybe it was a fabled winter god? The source of Saol's magic is obscure enough that he deserves mention on this list, even if he isn't actually a warlock.
Why are warlocks showing up now?
Ah.
The story of Arcadia is multilayered. A campaign may tell a story about some adventurers, while there is a background story about what is happening to a region, and also clues about what major powers are up to. If you string multiple campaigns together, you can see the bigger story of the whole world. The question of "why are warlocks showing up now" is one of those big picture stories that we might get a glimpse of if we're tracking multiple major storylines. It's what we call "the deep lore" - the fundamental nature of (this fictional) reality that our individual characters and NPCs are oblivious to.
The deep lore is a tough nut to crack. The more the viewers "solve" the deep lore, the harder it is for players to go about their character's stories. Let's take the infamous "winter gods" for example. The primary fan story out there is that there were extra gods but they were killed. If this were true (it's not), it would mean that gods can die, and knowing that for certain would certainly impact high level campaigns.
My job is to let the world play out according to the deep lore, and let the players and viewers make their own inferences about the fundamental nature of reality. If ever any sections of the deep lore get solved, there will need to be a mechanic for this information to be widely disseminated in game so that it is sensible for our player characters to have this information.
How much can we trust what you've said in this post?
I've made no false statements, but I've also chosen my wording to present a current understanding of the shape of warlocks without verifying details. For example, in Arcadia there "haven't been any warlocks seen since the end of the last age", but that leaves the door open for the possibility that there were minor warlocks who rose and fell and never made it into the history books. Or perhaps in Rabara (far from the island of Arcadia) there are dozens of warlocks just hanging out.
I'm here to give an overview, not spill the beans on the deep lore.
Just give me real answers, I want to know.
no.
Are we going to see warlocks in upcoming campaigns?
Quite possibly. I've been kicking around ideas for the next Save or Die campaign as a group of 4 spell casters. But like Paladins, a warlocks service to a specific creature does require the plot to revolve somewhat around that relationship. That would mean the campaign would center somewhat around the warlock's relationship with their patron, or that we'd have a party of 4 warlocks all working together.
I think warlocks, paladins, and necromancers make for great single player campaigns, but not so great multiplayer campaigns. Let's keep our eyes peeled for the next solo game.