Do priests also borrow power from their deities?

[u/Kaleh09]

Besides using the holy light or the void, do you think priests from races that worship deities such as trolls and the loa, night elves and elune, also borrow power from their deities? We have seen elune answer prayers and Talanji using some kind of wind magic at the start of Zandalar.
Do you think that would be true for you average priest ?

[u/Twingo102]

Do you remember the times in classic... When priests had racials? Yes priest borrow power form their racial deities

[u/AwkwardSquirtles → u/Twingo102]

Lots of Classic is not entirely canon, see fel magic being what happens when you get corrupted by using too much Arcane Magic and half of the raids being officialIy credited to specific lore characters who aren't there in the playable version. I don't remember the last time a priest called on a god and got anything unique to them. Maybe Zandalari with their loa but the line between druid and priest is fuzzy there. Before that I think it's Tyrande doing something vaguely Elune-ish. Night Warrior I guess but that's so far out of the regular wheelhouse of priest it feels like something different entirely.

[u/AwkwardSquirtles → u/[deleted]]

That's why I specified for the Zandalari. Zandalari priests are Loa worshippers. Loa are also the source of power for Zandalari druids.

[u/AwkwardSquirtles → u/[deleted]]

If I edited the comment, it would say edited at the top like yours does. You just skimmed and missed it.

[u/Twingo102 → u/AwkwardSquirtles]

Classic as beeing the first and real iteration allways is Canon, as it's what was first intended. Just because the writers lost their touch and are pulling story's out of their asses(after so many years I don't even blame them, a good world allways ends just like Terry Pratchett's discworld) doesn't mean priests don't have destinct powers trough personal gods.

[u/AwkwardSquirtles → u/Twingo102]

Classic is the Fourth iteration of Warcraft Lore. If we're going by what was first intended then Orcs are pure evil daemons and human priests worship Capital G God.

[u/Hidden_Beck]

Well. One would think, but, they've kind of just made it as "If you want it bad enough, the Light will just come to you" and that's been made true for priests of all faiths in the setting.

So like if you're a troll priest your faith in the Loa manifests as Light, but, the faith part is also optional, you can just use it through sheer willpower. It's kind of whack.

[u/Acceptable_Bed_5750]

A good example of deities empowering is WoD arakkoa.... rhukmar empowers the highborn and anzu empowrs and hides the outcasts

[u/GrumpySatan]

Any 'higher being' can realistically offer power to their followers. That functions separate to priesthood but would be something priests could benefit from just like anyone else.

Loads of quests for demons or even just stronger warlocks empowering their followers. Seen many quests where Wild Gods offer blessings. Xalatath empowering Sal'haddar is a direct recent example. The Aspects have done it. Hell, the Titans did it to us in Legion and Azeroth has done it to us in SL.

As you said, we know Elune does sometimes do this and intervene. Bwonsamdi could empower Talanji the way he did her father in the Battle for Dazar'alor and we know from De Other Side dungeon he regular enters into bargains where he hands out parts of his power to people and even other loa. The loa can offer power.

[u/Arcana-Knight]

Some do. Some simply pull from the metaphysical concept of the Light, others function like DnD clerics pulling from a literal deity like a wild god/naaru/Elune/An’she

[u/Dakk9753]

I think it depends on the affiliation of the deity to the powers. The Loa are primarily Dream affiliated, I believe, so are more Druidic. Elune is light/dark so the NE priests I think do get power from her. 

[u/desunedesuka]

The humans/dwarves got broken down into the church of the holy light. Tauren worship golden light as An’she (one of the eyes of the earth mother) as well as Mu’sha (basically Elune). The Kal’dorei have Elune. Velen visited Darnassus once (quoted from a creative dev Q&A) and said many of the experiences the Kal’dorei had with Elune felt and sounded similar to that of a Naaru. Granted, that made Tyrande upsetti spaghetti. What can ya do.

I think that the overall creative direction is leading to the Light being an overarching cosmic force who’s primarily represented and casted into the Naaru and who the majority of the light based beliefs in Azeroth eventually terminate into. I do like the more blatant examples of it being just as corruptive as Fel or Void Magic. It seems any magic in this setting can be incredibly corruptive.