All Classes for All Races
We know through an interview with Holinka that the plans are to work on unlocking all the classes for all the races. Some people aren't pleased with that direction, but in order to make that inevitable transition more fluid and appease that group of players I feel it necessary to provide the developers with suggestions on how to make it work. The main argument against this occurring is that there are simply some combinations which either don't make sense or are impossible within the confines of the lore. My goal in this thread is to work around those and provide appealing justification in order to both satisfy those that want restrictions to be dismantled and those that would prefer things stay logical. The intent is to have a thread focusing on one class, and examining each race missing said class.Paladin Lore
Gettting too much into specifics will simply lead to a massively long story for only a small piece of this thread. In very quick summary however, all a Paladin essentially is is an individual that took the style of a Warrior and the teachings of a Priest and combined them into one. This has typically been expressed through the means of the Holy Light.
All currently playable Paladin races comply with this traditional standard of a Warrior of the Holy Light. While this style will work in fulfilling the Paladin class for some races, it will not for others. This is where alternate themes come into play, and I will get into that once it's necessary. Allow me to go through the races that are missing access to Paladin and explain how it could and should be done to make sense in the lore.
Races
Gnome
We know that the gnomes have had an interest in the Light ever since they had first joined the Alliance, although for a while they were spending far more time on advancing their technology and retaking their home to study it nor did they feel the Light was all that necessary to them. It wasn’t until the Cataclysm where they began learning from the dwarven Priests and Paladins of Ironforge the importance of having followers of the Light in their ranks. This newfound interest in the Holy Light even led them to advancements in Light-based Technology.
How do we take this to them getting Paladin? That’s quite simple, on top of their interest in the Light in general which led them to becoming Priests it likewise created within them a desire to become Paladins after seeing how valuable they were after watching the effectiveness of Dwarf Paladins. Their more unique application of the Light and its ability to protect them from diseases would likely be very fascinating to the Gnomes since for a long time they’ve had to deal with the disease that caused the Leaper Gnomes.
No lore would need to be added for this, as nothing would really change by giving Paladin to Gnome. You can safely consider it a retroactive addition (in terms of freshly made Gnome Paladins in the Cata/MoP timeline of their starting experience) without it messing with anything. Technically speaking, this combination should have come into existence at the same time as Priest since their justification is identical.
Obviously their mount would be some kind of Paladin themed Mechanostrider which I could see as quite interesting given that we know the Gnomes have been working on merging technology and the Holy Light.
I’d like to also note that Hearthstone has a Gnome Paladin character (Commander Rhyssa) who could act as the class ambassador. Her card even has her riding on a unique Mechanostrider which inspiration could be drawn from for the class mount.
Night Elf
Night Elves have priests due to their worship of Elune. Elune as an entity isn’t necessarily granting the Night Elves their power, but rather it’s their faith in her that is an accidental proxy for faith in the Light. To access the Light, they need to have faith in it. Although the Night Elves don’t worship the Holy Light directly, it is satisfied by their faith in Elune and grants them access which they then attribute to Elune.
Night Elves have always had access to Warrior and Priest, and thus technically speaking should automatically have access to Paladin. This is even more so the case because there are logical reasons the Night Elves would have wanted them in their forces. The Night Elves have a history of fighting against both Demons and Undead, which Paladins are very effective at dealing with compared to other classes. We also know that in Legion, actual Night Elf Paladins were retroactively included into the story and thus there should be more out there. Even before Legion, there was a character before the Cataclysm expansion (Arko’narin) who was best friends with a Human Paladin that ended up getting tortured to death. She avenged him and took up his sword which continued to radiate Holy Light energy. This could be implied that she could utilize the Light, and being that she was a warrior that would automatically make her a Paladin.
Arko’narin and Delas Moonfang (Delas being the newest Night Elf Paladin from Legion) would be the two class ambassadors. Because the Night Elf starting zone exists in the Cata/MoP time period, Arko’narin could easily return to that location and train new Night Elf Paladin players. Nothing would necessarily change lore wise, as giving Night Elves access to Paladin would just require Arko’narin to have some dialogue about returning to Shadowglen after being rescued in Felwood.
In terms of a class mount, that would obviously be some kind of Paladin themed saber.
Worgen
Worgen believe in the Holy Light because they were Humans of Gilneas and the Church had a presence in their kingdom. Because Worgen have access to both Warrior and Priest, this by default should grant them access to the Paladin class.
I will say that one reason people claim Worgen should have Paladin is that there were some Gilnean forces that left to fight in the Third War that could have joined the Silver Hand and become Paladin. However, while that may be possible that doesn’t change the fact that by that time the Greymane Wall would likely have already been closed shut and therefore any potential Gilnean Paladins wouldn’t have made it back inside by the time of the starting experience.
That’s why the proper explanation would simply be that Gilneas was already inventing their own Paladins within their kingdom. It would be logical as Gilneas would have needed strong soldiers of both combat and healing to manage the Worgen curse ravaging the citizens. Additionally, they’d have been potent at combatting the Scourge that were invading. This would prove useful later when the Forsaken would attacked. So logically speaking, the Gilneans had no excuse not to have Paladins and thus the class should have always been available.
Hearthstone has a Worgen Paladin card called (Lightfang Enforcer) which by not being a specific individual implies the existing of multiple of these Lightfang Enforcers. The Lightfang could even be what the Worgen Paladin order could be referred to as.
The class mount would likely be the same as the Human Paladin, although it could perhaps have inverted colors. The golden variant being what could have been considered the mount mount ambitious new Gilnean Paladins rode, but after years of fighting against the savage Scourge and Worgen it lead to them changing their attitudes and making their more powerful steeds a Silver to match the somber nights and light of the moon.
Kul Tiran
I’m repeating myself but this race too has always had Warrior and Priest. There are also a few Kul Tiran Paladins that we know of. Not only are there some NPCs that seem to depict Kul Tiran Paladins, there is also a gravestone of a Kul Tiran that was a Paladin of the Silver Hand. On top of that, Daelin Proudmoore had one as his Chief Petty Officer. So clearly they’ve already always existed which by default is logical enough to grant them the class. They should have always been available since their introduction, and nothing would realistically be changed by adding them in retroactively.
Their mount would obviously be a horse, although theirs would be one of the horse models from BfA.
Mechagnome
Here is one that is a bit tricky to justify. We don’t quite know why Mechagnomes can be priests, but they do have access to it along with Warrior. On that basis alone, they have the capacity to become Paladins. We can replicate similar reasons for their interest in the Light that was given to standard Gnomes. Given that they are implied to have been on Mechagon since before Cata, we can assume that rather than deciding to learn it from the Dwarves that they instead may have discovered it on their own. Perhaps they had such faith in their king that the Holy Light shown itself to them as a result of that faith, or perhaps they were experimenting and accidentally discovered it and sought to learn more from there. Regardless, once they discovered it they would without a doubt want to learn more about it and find ways to utilize it.
The same Gnome Paladin ambassador could be the one to help train new Mechagnome Paladins. Nothing would necessarily change by retroactively giving this race access to the class. It can be logically concluded that technically the class should have always been available for the reasons provided.
Pandaren
We know that the Pandaren have a form of faith that ties into a sense of worship of the August Celestials. Through this faith they would naturally gain the favor of the Holy Light. We know that the Pandaren have a powerful enough faith to gain access to the Light by the nature of them already having Priests. On top of that, we know that some directly worship the Light as many Pandaren Priests make reference to it. In addition to Priest, they have always had Warrior which in tern automatically fulfils the requirement of what’s needed to become a Paladin.
Yalia Sagewhisper is one of the main Pandaren Priests and could make for a good class ambassador if she were to become a Paladin. It would make for good story on Pandaria and would help establish Wandering Isles Pandaren which is what Pandaren Players are. Because Paladins are potent in fighting against the Void, and because the Sha and other Old God creatures are comprised of Void energy, there could be some additional story of small Black Empire forces still remaining and needing to be stopped. The Pandaren would be struggling and some of their Priests would learn to become Paladins to bolster their strength and succeed. On that journey, they’d discover a forgotten past about how Pandaren Paladins had originally existed on Pandaria but went extinct after the Sha threat vanished and their power no longer needed. Before they went extinct on the mainland however, some would have joined the Wandering Isles were they would have survived.
That’s just a possible explanation but ultimately my point is that Paladins would have been logical for the Pandaren to create as a way to fight against the Black Empire and Burning Legion before the Sundering. Since it should have always been a combination, nothing would need to change to implement them as no lore would be damage.
The Pandaren Paladin mount would obviously be a Paladin themed turtle.
Goblin
It’s unclear as to why Goblins have access to Priest but the fact of the matter is that they do on top of already having access to Warrior. As usual, that should be enough for them to gain access to Paladin.
One logical reason that Goblins have access to the Light and thus the Priest class is because they have a very potent worship of money and that was enough for the Holy Light to grant them its power. They then likely would have had a desire to keep that power as it could make them money, especially since one particular goblin NPC (Sister Goldskimmer) implies that they use their position as a Priest to make some coin.
To further that objective, I could very well see a Goblin Paladin order having been made as a way to create holy individuals that could take on more profitable tasks for other Goblins apart of their church or form of church.
Because such a logical explanation exists for why the class could have always existed, it therefore could be retroactively implemented without changing anything.
The Goblin Paladin class mount would obviously be some kind of Paladin themed bike, likely using a form of Light-based technology that the Gnomes would have invented but with a unique Goblin twist.
Undead
This one is a bit controversial, but I will say right now that there has never been anything wrong with Undead Paladins. The Undead have not abandoned the Light, and they still regularly worship and teach it in their priesthood to this day albeit to a lesser extent. Undead wielding the Light doesn’t actually cause physical damage to the individual, they simply feel negative side effects like painful sensations but their bodies aren’t actually being harmed.
Aside from the obvious that Undead have had Warriors and Priests since the beginning, there’s no doubt that some of those being risen into undeath were Paladins in life. It’s incredibly unlikely that you can have countless Undead Priests willing to return to their usage of the Light but not the same case for Undead that were Paladins in life. So simply by the fact that there are Paladins that were risen into undeath, there must also be some that have returned to those ways in undeath.
With all that alone, this is proof enough that Undead technically should have had Paladin since the very beginning. Because of this, nothing would change lore wise if you were to retroactively grant them the class now.
If people aren’t satisfied with Undead being defaulted as the traditional Light Paladin, which again has no canon foundation, then an alternative option is to make them Void Paladins. I’ll explain further on this classification in its own section at the bottom, but the basis for Undead Void Paladins is that in undeath some Paladins wouldn’t be strong willed enough to handle the negative side effects of wielding the Light while being a creature of Death. To continue their ways and avoid those issues, these Paladins would use the teachings of the Cult of Forgotten Shadows to repurpose their Paladin techniques from utilizing the Light to utilizing the Void.
In terms of a class mount, it would obviously be a Skeletal Horse with a Paladin theme.
Nightborne
This one is one of the trickery ones to justify Paladin, but I’ll make the effort. Obviously be default since Nightborne have access to Warrior and Priest that equates to them having the capabilities of becoming Paladins.
I would argue that a more fulfilling explanation as to why they’d have Paladins is because as scholars they would certainly have discovered the existence of the Holy Light. We can already conclude that they have given that they do have access to Priest. We can further this logic by agreeing that the Nightborne aren’t fond of Demons and obviously have a bad history with them going all the way back to the time of the War of the Ancients.
It stands to reason that after all that time within Suramar, the Nightborne should have wanted to bolster their military forces to be more efficient against demonic threats. Paladins being one of the most effective units would justify a desire to create a Paladin order within Suramar.
Their class mount would be a Paladin themed Manasaber
Highmountain
I will say that it’s quite odd that Highmountain hadn’t shipped with Priest & Paladin from the very beginning. We know that they were able to be trained in the ways of the Monk by Pandaren in a very short timeframe between helping them in Legion and recruiting them into the Horde during BfA. This same teaching and training should have been applied to Priest as well, especially since they’d have gotten this from members of their own species.
We know the Highmountain worshipped An’she and had an interest in progressing that worship. The Tauren logically would have told them about how they progressed that faith and how it resulted in them gaining the powers of the Holy Light (albeit to them they’d attribute it to An’she himself although it’s technically the Holy Light being satisfied with their faith in general). Thus there’s no reason for why during that in between period before getting recruited that they hadn’t developed a priesthood and Paladin order.
Nothing would need to change lore wise if they were retroactively granted Paladin, as it should have been available on day one. Again, they were able to becomes Monks in such a short time and they would certainly have a bigger drive to become Priests and Paladins during that period.
Class mount is obviously a Paladin themed Moose.
Vulpera
This may be one of the hardest races to justify since we don’t quite know why they have Priest. While none have been seen practicing priesthood, it can be assumed that Vulpera Priests are akin to Troll Priests in that they are worshippers of Loa. In their worship of a Loa, in the eyes of the Light that is a proxy for worshipping it and thus they are granted access to the Holy Lights power.
Because a Vulpera can be a Warrior and a Priest, you should understand by now that this is a default unlock for them being capable of becoming Paladins. Surely the Vulpera would have seen the Zandalari Prelates (which are the Paladins of Zandalari Trolls) and likely would have wanted to gain that power to protect themselves given how their small stature puts them at a natural disadvantage and the occupants of Vol’dun put them in danger if the Vulpera can’t compete against them.
Therefore, it would have been natural for the Vulpera to form a Paladin order to combine the strengths of their warriors with the Light to bolster the strength of their individuals.
Their class mount would be a Paladin themed Hyena.
You might be wondering why these four races in particular have been separated. I’ll be sure to clear that up in their outline.
Troll
Trolls have had Warrior and Priest since the beginning, and this by default opens them up to being capable of becoming Paladins. Unlike those above, with the exception of Undead due to them having two possible paths, Trolls and the rest in this bottom section would be Paladins of the Void rather than Paladins of the Light.
Darkspear Troll Priests aren’t worshippers of the Light. Trolls worship the Loa, and Darkspear in particular worship primarily Bwonsamdi. Although a generalized worship of something does satisfy the Light and thus it will grant the individual its power, it’s implied that the Trolls aren’t touched by the Light which could be attributed to Bwonsamdi having claimed them first. For this, we can assume that all Darkspear Priests are Shadow Priests which in turn means that a Darkspear Paladin would be a Paladin of the Void.
Why would the Darkspear have Shadow Paladins? Quite simply, it’s because given how long the tribe has been around and how the Zandalari had wound up inventing their own Paladin order it stands to reason that the Darkspear could have and should have come to the same idea eventually. Logically, there’s no reason for why they wouldn’t want to have prelates of Bwonsamdi in their society akin to the prelates for Rezan. It would give them stronger Warriors capable of fighting for their Loa rather than just standard Warriors.
Nothing would change if you retroactively gave Trolls access to Paladin.
Their class mount would obviously be a Paladin themed Raptor.
Void Elf
I’m repeating myself here but hopefully it’s hammered down that because a race has access to Warrior and Priest that automatically means they’re capable of being Paladins. Void Elves are such a case, but are incapable of wielding the Light which is why their Priests are exclusively Shadow Priests.
There’s no logical explanation as to why Void Elves don’t already have access to Paladin. Whether or not there were Paladins in the group of original Void Elves doesn’t entirely matter, the information that does matter however is that we do know that there are High Elves and Blood Elves joining the Void Elves. Because there were Priests interested in joining and those Priests would have originally been Priests of the Light, it stands to reason that some Paladins of the Light also would have been interested. Because those Paladins of the Light would be incapable of practicing the Light after becoming a Void Elf, they would have modified their techniques to using the Void instead.
Even if you want to assume that zero Paladins of the Light are joining the Void Elves, by virtue of the Void Elves knowing about Paladins they would have created an order of Void Paladins on their own to have a more diverse unit of soldiers.
Nothing would change by retroactively giving Void Elves access to Paladin as it logically should have always been available from the start. Former High Elf and Blood Elf Paladins wouldn’t have abandoned their calling after joining the Void Elves, they would have repurposed their abilities.
The class mount would be a Paladin themed Hawkstrider, and their Class Ambassador could technically be Arator if he were to join his mother in becoming a Void Elf. This individual also would open the way for a new form of Void Elf that in turn would be a new form of Paladin for them:
An alternative/additional Void Elf Paladin option would be that of a Twilight Paladin. While the Light and the Void can’t mix without exploding, you could create a Paladin of the Light while still a Void Elf if the Void within the Void Elf was extracted and utilized as an external force. They’d still be a Void Elf in that they’d be studiers, worshippers, and manipulators of the Void but they’d be doing it from the outside rather than within. We know magic extraction is possible, so the Void within them would be removed and they’d keep it close in various forms like orbs orbiting around them. They’d then manipulate that to use the Void and could also independently use the Light without issue as the Void would no longer be within them. Arator could be such a Paladin in terms of being a Void Elf that uses the Light and Void separately from one another.
Orc
You’ll notice that both Orc races are similar because fundamentally they are the same.
As usual, they have always had Warrior and in Dragonflight they now have Priest. This is odd considering that they should have always had Priest from the very beginning of their introduction.
It’s implied that Orcs can’t use the Holy Light due to them having been afflicted with the Red Pox which originated from a curse (that cuts those that come into contact with it from being able to use the Light) which originated from a curse (that also cuts those that come into contact with it from being able to use the Light).
However, Orcs should have always been Priest because they would canonically be Shadow Priests coming from the Shadowmoon Clan.
How would all this lead into them being justified to have access to Paladin? There’s two reasons: For starters, it’d make sense that since the Orcs would have had experience fighting against Draenei Paladins of the Light and seeing how effective of a force they are that they would want to replicate that with an opposite force to combat those Draenei Paladins. Secondly, it’d have been logical for them to create such a Shadowmoon Paladin order because of how effective it’d make their Warriors in battle against their foes in general.
For the same reason that nothing changed by retroactively giving Orcs Priest, nothing would change by retroactively giving them Paladin as it should have always been available.
Their class mount would obviously be a Paladin themed Wolf.
Mag'har
You’ll notice that both Orc races are similar because fundamentally they are the same.
As usual, they have always had Warrior and Priest.
It’s implied that Orcs can’t use the Holy Light due to them having been afflicted with the Red Pox which originated from a curse (that cuts those that come into contact with it from being able to use the Light) which originated from a curse (that also cuts those that come into contact with it from being able to use the Light).
However, Orcs have Priest because they would canonically be Shadow Priests coming from the Shadowmoon Clan rather than being Priests of the Light.
We know Mag’har don’t use the Light because none have been seen doing so other than the Lightbound.
Thus, because Mag’har are Priests of the Void due to the Shadowmoon Clan how would that then lead into them becoming Paladins of the Void? That’s quite simple and you’ll see that they should have always been able to be such. The Mag’har fear the Lightbound, and having knowledge from the Shadowmoon would know that Void is a very effective weapon against the Light. After coming to Azeroth, they would be scared of the Lightbound ever finding a way to them. With that in mind, they would have had no reason not to train stronger Warriors that would use the ways of the Shadowmoon Priests to form a strong Shadowmoon Paladin order to protect against the Lightbound.
Since they should have always had the class, both for the listed reason and also because the Shadowmoon (like in the standard Orc reason) should have also likely already invented Paladins of Void even before the Lightbound faction emerged, nothing would change by given them Paladin retroactively.
Their class mount would of course be a Paladin themed Direwolf.
Special Mention:
Dracthyr
For now, I’ll be leaving this empty as it’s the only one that needs new brand new foundational lore and can’t simply be given Paladin at the flick of a switch like the others. They have neither Warrior or Priest and don’t necessarily have a faith that could grant them access to the Light. We would need a slightly altered starting experience for them to show that not all playable Dracthyr were capable of becoming Evokers and that they instead took on other roles (classes). Perhaps include an archive with their starting zone that they locate and learn about the history of the world and in it they learn about other forms of magic and the Light is one of them.
Glyphs
Because everyone has their own preferences and glyphs aren't technically canon, there should be options for people to not be stuck in the default form of Paladin they start out as. Some people prefer the Light and others prefer the Void, and some of course prefer neither. For this reason, there should be Glyphs of other cosmic forces for players to change their ability appearances to the color they prefer. This way, you can be a Void Elf using the Light because you don't consider your character a Void Elf at all or be a Nightborne that has chosen to replicate being a Paladin but with Arcane instead. There's countless reasons and possibilities, the point is that the options should be available.
Conclusion
I spent two nights making this thread and it would have taken much longer if I included all the sources corresponding to each claim I've made. I wanted to get the thread posted as soon as possible, so I had to skip out on adding sources in general. I will be sure to keep an eye on this thread to correct for any mistakes I may spot later, and I will commit to providing sources and justifications for anything people have a problem with through replies. Lastly, I plan to make more of this type of thread with the goal of covering each class that isn't universally available across all races. If you have a suggestion on which I should cover next, feel free to let me know.
