Death Knight Origins

I was chatting with Clariana/Volo the other day and in the course of conversation we got to talking about character origins and endings. Specifically about how our characters became Death Knights and what happened to Volo's characters after the WoW subscription lapsed.

Volo the player has several characters, all with different ends. Clariana lives out her days as a tailor. A shaman stayed in Dalaran for intellectual pursuits. The rogue retires and lives out her life in Orgrimar. Ildiavolo himself put out the rumour that he died in the Firelands so that he could spend the rest of his days meditating on a rock in Orgrimmar. Because he was really messed up in the head after being undead and a death knight servant to Arthas.

This led to discussion about how our DKs became DKs.

Me: So what is the story in your head for how Ildiavolo turned into a death knight?
Volo: He was a rogue that died fighting Illidan. One of his glaives sliced Ildiavolo's jaw off. And when Arthas was gathering bodies he was revived. He was human to start, he died when Illidan and Arthas fought in Warcraft 3.
Volo: How did Mornara become a death knight?
Me: She started out as a warlock. In my head she never actually died, she was just tortured until her mind broke and Arthas used his sword to suck her soul just enough to bind her to his control.
Volo: That's brutal
Me: She'd been a warlock questing around with a certain pally of Kuan's and they split up. Morn went off to the plaguelands to fight the scourge, but it didn't work out so well.
Me: Well she didn't lose her jaw or anything like that!
Volo: I had to explain it somehow!
Me: ;D Wounds from Illidan are cool
Volo: I saw Ildiavolo as being a casualty of war.
Me: I thought of Morn along the same lines, but more along the Roman lines, where the defeated were sold into slavery

But this got me to thinking. I'd never really considered Mornara's origin all that brutal. I mean, yes, she was tortured and then enslaved, so it wasn't a picnic. But she didn't *die*. Her head was majorly fucked with, but she's still alive. She can recover from that. With many scars yes, but still not out of the fight.

Then again, death isn't that great a barrier in Warcraft anyway. There are all sorts of mechanisms for ressurrection. And if that fails there are a bunch of different ways to get zombie-fied. And regardless of zombiefication or torture you're still going to be messed up in the head after it is done.