New Paladin Races Megathread

[Taethelan-malganis]

At this point it seems like the only class that has real stipulations to being able to wield and use their magic are druids. Everyone else just seems like “bro I read this book and got a connection to this power.”

Other than void because apparently they blow up when Light and Void meet.

[Tovi-moon-guard (Tovi)]

Calia was raised by good people that didn’t want to control her. The paladins I mentioned were risen by evil necromancers. Very, very powerful ones.

The only reason the Forsaken broke free is the Lich King lost his grip on some of the undead not in Northrend. I think they have Illidan to thank for that.

[Tovi-moon-guard (Tovi)]

Whoa what happened?

[Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord]

@Lore-herod

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.

Love the huge breakdown! Gnomes really should have been allowed to be paladins a long while back now. Either because they were just studying the light or because some of them chose to become paladins. They’re not unaware of it and their close relationship with Dwarves and sorta humans should have put them at the forefront an age ago.

Or at least when they got priest.

@Lore-herod

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.

This one already exists in the lore as of Legion and should just be added along with a skin for Elune paladins.

@Lore-herod

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.

I do strongly believe that the Gilnean’s did have paladins as back when worgen first came out Blizzard scrambled to come up with the idea that they couldn’t because the curse broke their connection to the Light so they weren’t able to anymore.

Either way it would be easy for them to get paladins now, either as the regular Silver Hand variety or a group who began to follow Elune or even the Void Knight concept.

@Lore-herod

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.

That they don’t have them is just… odd…

@Lore-herod

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.

Since they were trying to return to the Titans design and the Titans often use the Light they easily could have begun study of it from that and just naturally led into priest and paladin.

Either way now I can see them make use of the concept of a paladin since they now know plenty of them.

@Lore-herod

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.

I really like the idea of Forsaken Paladins that just use the Light because they’re trying to make a point that they are still just as worthy to use it so what right do the Scarlets have to hunt them sort of deal.

But I also love the void knight option for them and their Church of Forgotten Shadow. Its such a nice concept that they have for their church that doesn’t get used nearly as much as it should.

@Lore-herod

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.

I think given Vol’jin is becoming the Loa of Kings I think the Zandalari concept is the best way to add paladin to darkspear.

@Lore-herod

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.

I very much want to see a void knight concept for Void Elves and beyond that and the lore for void elves following the void I don’t much mind what other options we have. Ideally any class skin would be available to other races as well, but void elves would start with it.

I also don’t immensely mind the concept of Twilight Paladins as long as the lore that explains it works well.

Arator Becoming the “Twilight Knight” or some setup like that seems interesting to me but I’d still prefer Void Elves canonically use the void to be paladins.

@Lore-herod

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.

For Mag’har and Orcs I’d love to see them use the Shadowmoon concept for their paladins. Thus giving them a void knight concept as well. Though I also think that there is a fair enough chance for some paladins among the Mag’har that learned from the Lightbound before they started forcing people to convert.

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I rather love the paladin class (my current main is one) and would be excited to see it expanded to all races.

Even better if we get Class skins (For more than just paladin mind) allowing both more options for power source and some amount of racial identity.

[Milynde-malygos]

@Lore-herod

There’s no logical explanation as to why Void Elves don’t already have access to Paladin.

There definitely is, but you’re going to purposely ignore it like the rest of the void elf paladin crowd.

@Lore-herod

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.

Paladins are not priests. There is no Void aspect of the class whatsoever, there is no order of Void paladins, and the average blood elf paladin logically wouldn’t have been studying the Void along with the rest of the exiles, or be interested in joining them after seeing Alleria being used as a conduit for the Void to attack the Sunwell.

Adding Void paladins with their own visuals would be enough of a pain for the people who have to model and code such a thing, but it’s nigh-impossible for it to fit into the story. Their Class Hall in Legion is a place devoted to the Light, not one devoted to both the Light and the Void; that’s the priest hall. Their artifacts are imbued with the Light and would probably burn in the hands of a Void-infused individual. Their healing spec is called Holy, their second resource is called Holy Power, when they use Avenging Wrath they grow angel wings, etc. Narratively, the fantasy of them being Light-wielding fighters is hardcoded into them.

@Lore-herod

Nothing would change by retroactively giving Void Elves access to Paladin

Other than stripping them of yet another thing separating them from blood elves and pushing them further toward the community’s romanticized high elf fantasy.

@Lore-herod

as it logically should have always been available from the start.

No, it really shouldn’t have, and it wasn’t because even Blizzard realized how stupid it would’ve been.

@Lore-herod

and their Class Ambassador could technically be Arator if he were to join his mother in becoming a Void Elf.

When we saw Arator in one of the Visions of N’Zoth, he was being forcibly pulled into the Void because Alleria wanted to “reeducate” him. Turning him into a copy of his mother for the sake of propping up a new race/class combo after that would be a total narrative 180, even if it was only a possible future and not actually something in reality.

Call me spiteful, but I genuinely hope that if they stay true to their word and open up paladins, shaman, druids, and DHs to new races, they’ll still not add void elf paladins, Lightforged DHs, or any other combos that would require completely warping the class’s theme to make the combo work.

[Anadisong-moon-guard]

IDC what mount velves get, I just want to look like a high elf pally!

[Foxhound-fenris]

Everything for Paladin Vulperas.

Dropping my Warrior like a sack of rocks and going straight fur the light.

lmao.

[Khyberian-wyrmrest-accord]

Gnoll Paladin when?

[Vengie-emerald-dream]

@Anadisong-moon-guard

IDC what mount velves get, I just want to look like a high elf pally!

Or Half Elf Pally! Look at my mog, look at what I had to do…I’m a warrior.

[Lore-herod]

It’s likely that the new precedent will be that all new races will immediately have access to all class.

[Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord]

@Milynde-malygos

There is no Void aspect of the class whatsoever, there is no order of Void paladins,

So… They can make one.

Shadow priests just learn martial skills apply void.

Works well for more than just void elves too.

[Ariannas-malygos (Ariannas)]

I’ve been wanting Night Elf Paladins since forever. The the Paladin Order hall showed us it’s clearly possible and I’ve been waiting ever since.

It’s TIME. I would love a glyph or something that would make the abilities silver like Moonlight, that would be cool.

Just thinking about a Paladin themed moonsaber mount, oh man that would be amazing…

[Lore-herod]

Given the direction we’ve seen of the 1 primary Night Elf Paladin and the implied/obscure potential Night Elf Paladin from pre-Cata, I think the direction will be the standard Holy Light Human variant of Paladin by default. But as I specified, there would 100% be glyphs available for alternate forms like Arcane for the Moon theme.

[Adaia-moon-guard]

It’s a good idea, and I appreciate your nods to what the lore is, but sadly I think that’s a losing battle.

Homogenization is only good when it makes a tasty drink. Everywhere else in life, it’s just not good. The differences between races and cultures are what made Warcraft such an engaging universe when it was conceived. It was a fantasy setting, but the viewpoints and stakes felt real and believable at one time.

Part of that uniqueness is barring aspects of the game from one another. Shamans, Druids and Paladins are attached to major cultural moments for the races of Azeroth. It should remain that way instead of being opened up to every last race in the game.

[Attimis-moon-guard]

@Maizou-proudmoore

There’s nothing saying a Void-Based Paladin can’t exist.

Except the cosmology map of Azeroth that everybody in this cursed thread seems to forget. Let alone not know of.

Light and Void are opposites. I’ve lost so many brain cells to this clown show.

I will never understand this idiotic bandwagon that keeps emerging on this forum. “Hey! Let’s make Night Elf Paladins!”

“… but like, didn’t they come from the Emerald Dream or something? What does the Night Elves have do to with the Naaru?”

[Thôr-silver-hand (Thôr)]

Yea blizz already took a dump on that with cali post sl quest light dark none of it matters necro magic is anything everything.

@Attimis-moon-guard

Except the cosmology map of Azeroth that everybody in this cursed thread seems to forget. Let alone not know of.

Light and Void are opposites. I’ve lost so many brain cells to this clown show.

I will never understand this idiotic bandwagon that keeps emerging on this forum. “Hey! Let’s make Night Elf Paladins!”

“… but like, didn’t they come from the Emerald Dream or something? What does the Night Elves have do to with the Naaru?”

See the above even blizz doesnt care anymore lol, and night elves palies was put in for the azshara endtime dungeon and they have priests so yea.

[Tovi-moon-guard (Tovi)]

@Attimis-moon-guard

I will never understand this idiotic bandwagon that keeps emerging on this forum. “Hey! Let’s make Night Elf Paladins!”

“… but like, didn’t they come from the Emerald Dream or something? What does the Night Elves have do to with the Naaru?”

I don’t understand the point you’re making here. Night elves did not come from the Emerald Dream, they came from dark trolls, and became something more once they started hanging around the Well of Eternity and worshipping Elune.

All paladins don’t come from a naaru so I don’t get that statement either.

[Mustachio-eredar]

Weren’t demon hunters net new with Illidan?

It’s not like they can’t make new lore to support anything. The question is will diehard lord fans accept it. My guess is no. Not with the current writing team at least.

[Tovi-moon-guard (Tovi)]

The Zandalari figured out the ritual without Illidan’s help. They would make an excellent second Horde race.

[Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord]

I am eternally surprised whenever I see paladin threads or threads about new classes or this class being added to this race, by how astonishingly hard and fast people want to stick to the status quo.

Its not even just staying true to the lore at this point. Many folk just seems to want nothing to ever change or update or be advanced.

People ask for void elves to get a void based knight based on paladin and folk pretend that some ancient covenant has been breached. That this will somehow change what a paladin is.

When in reality its just using the paladin toolset to make a void knight because thats a lot more sensible than just adding a new class all of a sudden. Plus it lets some folk rp as their high elf paladin that they want. I really don’t get why thats a bad thing?

Like the paladin is a holy warrior sure, and we’ve only seen them used for the Light before, ok. But like… Tauren and Zandalari don’t use the same setup as a human or draenei even if they’re using the same power. They’re still holy warriors combining the martial skills of a warrior with the abilities of a priest in combat.

So what of the Cult of Forgotten Shadows? Or Void Elves with their voidy interests? Why can’t they have their shadow priests take up martial abilities and use the void along with it? How is that not the same thing as a Holy warrior for the Cult or Void Elf people? How is it a problem?

I don’t get this fear of adding to existing lore, or the prevalence of calling it a destruction of the lore. Nothing is changed from what was. Its added to.

Anyhow thats just a rant from me at 5 in the morning. I’m gonig back to bed.