I wanted to create a topic to sort of aggregate all the knowledge we have on the light and light blinding so far. So in the opening quest of midnight, we see our first instances of it, Arator goes lightblind very briefly while fighting void born, shaking his faith in the light as it feels very similar to what he believes mortals corrupted by the void feel like, his faith his further shaken when a lightblind turalyon cuts him down in a beserk state. This leaves arator uncertain both of the lights intentions with him and of his father’s.
This further leads us to the quest with alonsus foal and arator, with alonsus trying to solve his crisis of faith. Arator confides that its not just the fact that his father cut him down but that his eyes were shining with the light when it happened, He can only see the light as a weapon as that is all he was trained to see it as, Blaming foal for creating the order as well as the very teachings that has led him to this path. Foal agrees saying he is reminded of his failings every time he channels the light and it burns him.
The quest then takes you to lights hope where many holy artifacts are kept, its there foal reveals that he intended the order to not just be weapons but that war made them become just that, However some insight in shown here in the artifacts shown, Uther’s holy artifact is his healers kit showing healing was more important to him than fighting, Lena’s stormpike’s relic is book of tavern songs showing she cared more protecting home than vengeance. This shocks arator that none of these holy relics are great weapons.
Now come the scarlets Alonsus hear tells us that the light “responds to conviction” and does not distinguish between good,evil, love or hatred. The light hasn’t blinded them to be evil bigots, they already were and the light just answers to that anyway. Alonsus himself stating that crusade was misled into hatred of the other. Meaning it is not the light that makes them think this way. But the very teachings they hand down. The end of this part saying the crusade will always just choose another head and that morals and ethics don’t come from the light but rather the individual.
None of this ofc helps arator’s crisis of faith as he has just learned his very religion isn’t cosmically moral or even good, So Alonsus takes him to the arathi highlands to meet dezco, Who’s order was not summoned to the sunwell and has instead been spending their time cleaning up. Its here we see arator actually make some progress as he learns the sunwalker way of being a paladin, which is no task is beneath them if it helps, they don’t just swing hammers but rebuild, heal and are blacksmiths and so arator learns a bit about smithing, and that while alonsus intended his paladins to be closer to this ideal, War changed them. In anshe’s light no ray of light is too small, no task unworthy if it helps prevent suffering.
Here we get to the final part of the questline, helping the sons of lothar fight off the dark horde in the blasted lands. Its here arator is told of the fall of anduin lothar and the first time turalyon gives into rage and hatred and becomes lightblinded killing hundreds of orcs. Arator finds his fathers shield from his Prot Days and reforges it using the skills he learned from the sunwalkers, However his father is too ashamed and believes himself beyond redemption, leaving the shield to him. Sounds like he wants to set an example of what he believes a paladin should be, a protector not a weapon. “vengeance should not become part of what we do”.
So that is a lot of text but I’ll sum it up, what we now know.
- the light does not give morals.
- It responds only to whatever is in the users heart already.
- Only those paladins who have rage in their heart and view the light as solely a weapon seem to be open to lightblinding
- Lightblinding itself is not extensive mind control but rather an episode of beserk rage that comes and goes with the moments.
Now only paladins seem to affected and only paladins who followed alonsus’s school of thought at that. meaning horde paladins atleast from what’s been shown are safe since their teachings are wholly different.