Not allowing high elves to be paladins would be like not allowing orcs to be hunters. While it isn’t their most iconic class, making it available to them would just make sense. A hell of a lot more sense than say, tauren or zandalari paladins.
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Simply disagree. Kul Tirans, Night Elves neither have paladins, nor do gnomes, even while they have priests and do follow the light in some manner, even when there have been paladins of some of those races.
People tend to forget there is a specific cultural synergy that allows for Paladins, and the HE paladins we have seen have been on the context of human organizations.
Troll Paladins make 100% more sense since it literally built their own unique order of Holy Warriors in prelates, and made them a very important part of troll culture. How can you even compare the 2 Alliance High Elf paladins to that?
I am not against HE paladins, truly, but people overblow their relevance to the HE issue when the 2 Alliance High Elven paladins we have had in game have been utterly irrelevant.
Not really for void elves. it would erase one of the things that make them distinct.
You realize prelates are far more ancient than the human paladin order, yes? They are the paladins that were paladins before it was cool.
I just figured that one half breed race for another half breed race only makes sense.
I mean… They’re not the same type of Paladin though. They get their power from a bargain with a loa that apparently has ties to the Light.
Human Paladins, and the other races involved during the time when they got Paladins, gain their power more directly from the Light… or possibly from Naaru dreams but I’m not sure thats canon anymore. lol.
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The thing is, the nature of “The Light” it’s always been ambiguous, so who is to say that the Loa (even if not all of them, I’m thinking Bwomsandi) are not tied to it?
Technically the LFD were the original paladins when trolls were crawling out of the muck.
Perhaps some of them, but when their leader looks just like a regular high elf it’s just obvious Void Elves look like that for the sake of looking different to Blood Elves, which by itself is a decision many people just disagree with it, to tie identity to such a basic and limited palette possibility.
It just feels way too questionable when the lore behind its so flimsy and it’s just so obviously a design choice. It just doesn’t feel organic. And yeah, again, I gues why, I just think the reason is ultimately silly.
I have to agree with Midare here I thought part of the reason Zanda Paladins were so asked for is because there was the Prelate thing and lore wise it made sense. But the second they got added now everyone scoffs at them as not making sense / being random it’s rather confusing but they make sense to me 
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Oh Nothing At All.
But most Loa don’t have paladin followers. 
Rezan is the only one confirmed to be this way. (Nevermind hes technically dead? maybe?) So its likely given the age of their Empire and the Loa they work with that only Rezan had a strong enough pull with the Light to grant such power.
While it is ambiguous its still a different kind of paladin. Light might be the source but if it is a Naaru/The Light itself giving power to humans, dwarves, high elves (before the sunwell corruption), and what have you the Paladins will be based on that.
Zandalari Paladins still follow a Loa granting them the power of the Light.
Human Paladins still follow a “church of the light” not the loa.
They make plenty of sense. Just a different source to them… but that Source pulls from the Light… I assume. lol
Lightforged Draenei would have come after the regular Draenei. But yeah they would technically be the eldest paladin race.
I have been asking for half elves since vanilla. But now don’t really want them. I would rather have a cat race for alliance. Probably wouldn’t make one, but that is what I think should happen.
We need 2 more to complete the 6. High elves and undead elves/san’layn. Then we are done. No more elves to add unless blizzard themselves invents new elves to add in which case blame blizzard.
also people say “no more elves” but what else are they supposed to add? Many say they want “new and interesting” yet they can’t name anything because it doesn’t exist yet and “new and interesting” so far hasn’t worked out for alliance allied races.
void elves remain popular solely because it is the blood elf model. Dark iron dwarves are where they should be for what they are and they were asked for. The others not so much.
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I assumed with Rezan gone they still have the tools to pull on the light / have faith in their Empire and Queen now more than ever, I see the argument now that Rezan is gone very often
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I can see that. And thats fine with what I was saying. They were being granted their power from Rezan then he dies and those strong enough are able to pull directly through their connection to the Light itself.
Thats a great bit of lore actually as one of the prelates states that most of them can’t do it anymore, but some can. Theres even some unease about it she says.
EDIT: Darn it… now I want to go start a Zandalari Pally.
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Yeah I recall that text, and took it the same way that those who are left are more devout then ever and ready to protect Talanji and their Empire so if anything they make the most sense as a paladin accessible race.
SAME only I hate mdps so I would be confined to healing, so I’m leaning towards Zanda Druid as I can flip flop between healing and Balance (I think thats the ranged spec or it can be idk)
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I mean, while not canonical to WoW, in Hearthstone, Shirvalla also has Prelate followers.
Still, light is light, and many Loa’s do grant such power to their followers, and the Prelateideology still exists with Rezan gone, and as such, the remaining Prelates continue in Rezan’s name, this still wielding the light even if they don’t have an active loa.
I don’t think this bit is accurate. Before being corrupted, the Sunwell was just an arcane font, why would High Elven paladins draw power from it? Most Helven priests were described to have gotten their faith passed from humanity and thus wield Light in the same manner, only modern Blood Elves have drawn power directly from the Sunwell after it was reignited with a Naaru core.
I forgot bout that bit. Same thing over all though, whether its Shirvalla, Rezan, or another Loa. The power went through them first then to the Paladin. And as we said above here those after that loss still likely draw power from the Light itself.
I really just meant that the Paladin orders are shaped by where their power was being delivered from. Humans have their paladins colored by their views. Loa color the views of the Zandalari. They’re not the same orders over all.
But you’re right, Light is Light regardless of how you get it. They’re using it as Paladins. So simply from that they are the first Azerothian Paladins. Draenei are the first known player race that was Paladins. yada yada.
I withdraw my assertion that they were not the first Azerothian Paladins.
Sorry I didn’t mean to indicate that they got their power from the Sunwell. I meant they seemingly lost their connection to the Light for the most part when the Sunwell was corrupted. Blood Elves pulled the Light from the captured Naaru and maybe High Elves were still able to retain their connection. But it wasn’t until their Sunwell was restored that they started Drawing Light from it.
Before the corruption of the Sunwell they gained their Light alongside the Dwarves and Humans in the same way.
Yes. What blizzard should do is make human elves. Fat humans was soooooOooOOOO popular and i’m sure human elves will be too.
/s
Then it is settled, they are the OG paladins.
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I think the larger issue is that people continue to have a VERY human centric view of “Paladin” as a human thing when all that wow has done is expand the idea of the Holy Warrior across different cultures. I really don’t get why it does cause that much pushback tho, and thus, we still have people saying “Zandalari paladins make no sense”
If we take Liadrin as an example, Blood Elves didn’t lose their connection to the light, they lost faith on a higher power because of the trauma of the decimation. Which is very very understandable.
Yet another group of High Elves, the highvale, seemingly took it in stride, and in their isolation grew closer to the light and instead stopped using arcane.
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Why wouldn’t they make one, they did foxes. I’d love a cat race in the game, it would be awesome, imo.
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