New Paladin Races & their lore

So in terms of the classes many have a particularly unique cultural value, significance or overall backstory to how they connected to their respective race.

This thread is to either provide justification or explanation towards how each race bellow fits into the Paladin order / vice versa. :slight_smile:


:sparkles: :crescent_moon: Night Elves

Lets all for a moment ignore the ‘Delas Moonfang’ ordeal who became a basic paladin in Legion via the mundane human tropes & speak more on the level of something centrically more Night Elf themed …

  • As we know, originally in Night Elf lore – Their priests & divine order tend to follow the order of Elune. You could probably have a Night elf priest attempting to teach their ways to another only to find the divinity they attempt to channel to be more held within, and yet erratic.
  • Later you could have it that the priests, sentinels and others amongst their culture could see an opportunity in these individuals & attempt to establish this lot into an order “The Knights of Elune” — Those who use their unique nature with Elune’s light to harness the power in a way unseen amongst their people before. This order will be dedicated to protecting their people, preserving their future and upholding their ideals.

:panda_face: Pandaren

At Krasarang Wilds in Pandaria — from the Horde questline, you encounter the Pandaren ‘Kang Bramblestaff’ who was impressed by the Sunwalkers’ fighting style and intended to learn from them. :bookmark_tabs:

  • So it’d be cool for Kang Bramblestaff to make a reprisal return as a Pandaren Sunwalker, who learned the way of the Sunwalkers & taught those ideals, techniques and ways of wisdom to Pandaren all around (Horde & Alliance alike). :fist:
  • Given the Pandaren lore, you could potentially combine & extend it with the August Celestials too – Having their monks & priests of their respective temples teach the new order of Paladins various virtues and ways towards tapping into divine power. :pray:

If not Kang, then perhaps a handful of Pandaren whom Kang had taught what little he learned to others at a few temples — Who all then refined it with their sacred teachings, mingled with other temples & shared their teachings with one another and ultimately birthed a new order amongst their peoples.

:robot: Gnomes & Mechagnomes

Now I know what you’re thinking (for some of you at least) – “Gnomes!? But they’re … Well, gnomes?!” — but alas you also forget that the gnomes already have priests, so Paladins aren’t too much of a far step from such.

  • That aside I feel a good lore connection to their paladin order would be — Order itself:smirk: The Titan-kind of order.
  • After all — We see a handful of Titanforged using abilities that looks like light, but is harnessed from order.

Thus you could potentially utilise the gnomes wit & ingenuity from gleaning over Titan technology gathered from Titanforged Facilities all around Azeroth from over the years — and having learned how to harness some powers & magics of order towards the ends of using the light cleverly in a whole new cluster of unique ways!

Trolls! :troll:

I feel like the trolls should pull a page from the Zandalari trolls original design for paladins, as prelates of the loa! :t_rex: :lion: :eagle: :spider:

  • Zandalari paladins later however had their lore changed into “Oh no we get power just from Rezan’s teachings, not so much the loa” – which I felt was kinda lame & sort of homogenized them with the other typical paladins. :unamused: Lets not do that

It’d be cool for trolls to get more oomph in troll lore (especially the loa) and have an order amongst them that tap heavily into various powers of the collective loa themselves :muscle:

:fire: Orcs :fire:

For Orcs, I thought utilising their connection to the elements would be a good way to go. How do I mean some may ask?

  • Within Chronicles Volume 1 – It states:
    “The cataclysmic birth of the cosmos also flung shards of LIGHT throughout reality. These shards suffused the matter of myriad worlds with the spark of life, giving rise to creatures of wondrous and terrible diversity. The most common forms of life to appear were elemental spirits — primordial beings of fire, water, earth and air.”

You could state that the elemental spirits hold various small degrees of light coursing through their beings at their core — Then perhaps have the elements reach out to those who hold a poor connection to the elements themselves, yet still hold a reverence for their spirits and see a new potential within them … The ability to utilise other various powers.

It could be depicted that the elemental spirits knew that although these individuals did not hold an affinity for the elements themselves, they knew the light they shared could be harnessed uniquely — Thus pooled their power together to gift those they considered worthy. And from these gifts of the elemental spirits, birth a new order of paladins.

Void Elves! :space_invader:

Now then :face_exhaling: There’s been a LOT of discussion with void elves + paladins, so here I go …

  • Recently in the new Dark Heart questline, they had a Void Elf “Knight of the Eclipse” who was a sort of Paladin using concencrate, so I’d argue they’re in the making with their own unique lore to help justify it — Probably to the degree that it’s not a complete affront to the lore.

However, for these “Knights of the Eclipse” if they added void-visuals to all their spells & gave them unique spell-visuals to emphasise the void-aspect, and created some ‘Void-Knight’ lore — That’d be sick! :star_struck:


:diamonds: Personally I’d love if we could encounter a void-god (Void-Naaru) — Who is said to be far more powerful than L’ura (the void-naaru that Alleria consumed).

This unique Void Naaru being one who surprisingly wants to live in harmony with the cosmos other than others of their kind who seek to simply corrupt, consume and dominate it … After such we could use them as a benevolant & wise naaru, but one of such who is situated with the void than the light – and teaches their ways to their respective followers and ‘Knights of the Void’.


:new_moon: Mag’har Orcs

Honestly if they do the void-god idea as per above :point_up_2: I feel it could probably be a fitting match to do “two birds with one stone” there :person_shrugging: Have the Shadowmoon Clans revere the void-god & perhaps tell stories of a prophecy from their days of old (You could potentially do this for both variants of orcs)

  • Having an order of Void Knight orcs – especially those who follow a Void Naaru, would be fitting for the alternate universe orcs too, given their gripe with the light :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

However alternate universe orcs aside, it’d be good all round – Something new & refreshing. :dracthyr_nod:

:wolf: Worgen

For Worgen, I feel focussing more on their Gilnean culture than their wolf nature would be appropriate. Given they have their own cathedral & all, it’d be fitting for them to be inspired from their other human & Draenei allies and ultimately form their own unique order of Paladins.

You could have all sorts of new cathedral armour that have unique patterns to that you see on their stained glass and after such also combine it with unique claw features (as a reference to their people who are worgen). Personally I think making such gear merely available to ALL Alliance & not just worgen would be fitting, as it would allow some to roleplay their humans as Gilnean, yet not transformed to Worgen.

Nightborne

For the Nightborne, I feel you could do one of two ideas.

  1. Embracing the order of Elune once more – Afterall the tomb of Sargeras has been cleansed of demons, and was once the grand Temple of Elune (and is like … right there) then giving them a similar deal to what’s presented to the Night Elves (perhaps having them form a treaty for negotiations? Temple visitation rights ← for → Elune teachings restoration & shared knowledge).

or

  1. Having their shared connection with the Sin’dorei for assistance to form their own order of Paladins, separate from the Nightelves yet potentially dedicated to the Elune and forming their own unique order + culture from it.

Needless to say, I’d wager that the second would probably be more popular.


And more …

That’s all I’ve got for now, as I don’t want to make the thread creation-text too long.

  • Enjoy! :smiley:

… However, feel free to post your thoughts on the thread upon how to extend bellow, perhaps ideas you have for the other races and your own unique ideas to add onto what’s been presented above! :partying_face:

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Hell yeah, love these kinds of posts! I feel like paladins have shifted a lot thematically in recent years to focus on not just light, but fire. I think that opens them up a lot more.

For pandaren, I always felt like Chi-ji specifically fit as a kind of focal point for a paladin order. Lots of fire going on there.

Orcs and mag’har, I actually made a post a while back with my own idea. I think they should be a reformed and redeemed burning blade clan. Maybe even work in some worship of Rukhmar as well.

Kul Tirans. The order of embers. That one is easy.

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A buddy in my guild baked in a whole fan-theory and fanon about night elf paladins. You can see it here: https://silvercircle.shivtr.com/forum_threads/3116625

Hope to see them playable sometime soon. I know I’d enjoy the heck out of playing one.

Unwavering faith / belief in gold. No force is stronger than a Goblin’s love of, and dedication to Gold. Paladins are that of unwavering faith and dedication, not what is good or bad, but how much faith they have into what they believe in.

Plus Goblin Paladin Class Mount be rocking…

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You know how Blood Elf Paladins are called “Blood Knights”?

A Void Elf Paladin should be called a “Disco Knight”.

Because Priests that use the Void and the Light together are Disco Priests, so that’s that.

And an Undead Paladin should be a “Knight of the Living Dead”.

And a Night Elf Paladin should be a “Night Knight”.

Etc :smiley:

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Void Elf Paladins would be ushering in a New Wave, of dedication, to all that is Siouxsie.

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I didnt read the post, but thats a fancy post

Orcs could be really interesting.
:thinking: Honestly it presents a unique opportunity to fleshen out & extend their lore more within Azeroth — So it’s not just human potential hogging up ‘shining moments’ in every class category, but give orcs some wiggle room to have some more of their own too.

That being said you could do a combo-mix of a few :open_mouth: Such as:

  • The knights of the void & follower of the noble Void-Naaru :sparkles:
  • Maybe creating lore where in the original Draenor (now Outland) there were orcs who were actually surprisingly given refuge by the Arakkoa in dark times both before and after the fall of their world & reach out to them in Outland – Having a questline towards restoring both Rhukmar and Anzu.
  • The gifted light of the elemental spirits
  • Redeemed Burning Blade Clan, perhaps using the ‘light of elemental spirits’ to help form such an order? :thinking: … Burning Blades with light gifted from elemental fire spirits could be interesting.

You could use the ideas of:

  • Rhukmar into teaching the orcs how to communicate with the elemental spirits & her own divine power combined for empowering the light within them :muscle:

and

  • Anzu, with his unique connection to the void (from consuming Seethe) yet with remained sanity due to his own original godhood in the Arcane — to help the orcs connect to another void being who has retained sanity & benevolence (eg. Void Naaru), so they may tap into their powers along with Anzu’s for a Void-Knight concept.

Given Rhukmar had a crush on Anzu, you could create a cool dynamic between the light & void orders – By helping them reunite in a wild god / loa romance story, then having the orcs unite the orders together in their society, for their people … It’d also be great having Arakkoa with story relevance again. :grin:

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Whatever kind of lore they give us, I’ll be RPing as a burning blade. It just works with so many paladin abilities. Ret paladin specifically. Wake of ashes of course. Divine storm does a spin, a bit like bladestorm. They have a literal burning blade come out of the ground. They’re skilled swordsmen and templar strikes is the only ability that gives you some semblence of skilled, combination attack.

So yeah, that’ll be my guy. Now if blizz could just get a move on and make them playable…

I’d be happy if they just did it, opening up paladins to everyone and for those who don’t have the long, drawn out racial/cultural backstory, they can all just say “I seen the light!” and BAM! they’re paladins.

That’d be enough for me.

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Hearthstone has Paladin Worgen Order called “Lightfang” I think that be perfect for them to write up and introduce them into WoW.

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That’d be stupid for some races though.
Like undead & void elves.

Not to mention its a spit in the face to everyone who enjoys the lore & story of the game.
Having best of both worlds is where everybody wins.

  • New quests, content & potential rewards.
  • New classes with unique sets of flavour & customisations
  • New story elements to help push further content down the road

It helps build the game up.

Many tend to enjoy the warrior-fantasy of the Burning Blade, so it’d be cool to have two distinctive groups within the Burning Blade Clan too — One of warriors and the other of Paladins, who use unique techniques & secrets of their clan to tap into and display their power. :fist:

thats already happened in-game, its only a matter of time until the players get them too

Yes, I know — I mentioned that in the creation-thread text too :slight_smile:

:point_down:

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I don’t think so. I think it’d be funny.

They probably won’t do it because there’d be too many tears over it but I still think it’d be funny.

Everyone doesn’t always win though. Not in anything. Ever.

Delas Moonfang and Legion came out how long ago?

“Most people” win then … Or at least more would than that without.

:person_shrugging: I mean hey, if you want “all classes = all races” with a complete disregard for story & lore; along with future content for them — You’re more than welcome to create your own thread upon the forums :pray:

You misunderstand. They won’t do what I suggested because there’d be too many people upset over it.

That’s all I meant. Be well.

I’m glad :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
Thanks for clearing it up though. :slight_smile:



I mentioned that in my thread too, in the first sentence right under the first race on the list ‘Night Elves’ →

Lets all for a moment ignore the ‘Delas Moonfang’ ordeal who became a basic paladin in Legion via the mundane human tropes & speak more on the level of something centrically more Night Elf themed …

As much as I loved class-fantasy becoming relevant again in Legion — The thing I, along with many others didn’t like was how they homogenized the classes into a singular categorisation.