So I’ve been leveling a zandalari paladin, or “prelate”, and I’ve been wondering something. They draw their power from the Light, but they channel the Light through the power of a loa. Until Rezan’s death, it was him they pledged themselves to. But with his death, I’ve been curious about where they get their power from?
My personal theory is that Vol’jin has become the loa of kings, given his appearance and the fact that Zalazane basically comes out and says he’s become a loa. That’s a pretty common theory, from what I’ve seen. My prelate is currently calling on Kimbul for help channeling the Light, but I’d really love for Vol’jin being Talanji’s loa to become a real thing.
What do your guys’ prelates do for their abilities? And what do you guys think about the whole absence of the loa of kings?
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I think it’s just “the light of the Loa” now, which is Blizzs way of saying that they have more generic unspecialized light powers based on their faith to their loa in question.
Basically an easy way to give them the generic selection of Paladin spells without any customization.
EDIT: You’re right that Voljin was brought back by a holy spirit (Tyr? Uther?) but I don’t think he has anything to do with the prelates here.
One could argue that all Paladins are powered by self-confidence, with any invoked deity being their cultural basis of identity and faith. I’ve generally assumed that any loa with arguably Light-compatible virtues would work just fine.
(Devouring your enemies counts as a form of crusade, right?)
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One of my personal theories was that Prelates who still retain their powers are drawing from what remains of Rezan’s power; essentially meaning they operate on borrowed time. Another one I had knocking around was basically what Laurensa wrote.
A very cynical part of me suspects the most likely answer, if an official explanation were to be given, would be something along the lines of Shaolean’s post; though admittedly there is no way to truly be sure.
Given that Loa often tend to return eventually, and also how it’s more or less been presented that they gain power from the devotion of their followers, one could speculate that their presence never really leaves as long they have living faithful; therefore those granted power through their devotion might still retain at least a portion via that power of faith. Since faith/conviction is pretty much all you need to use the Light it seems like one of the better explanations one can give for this situation, excusing my obvious bias of course.
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they get it from loa powers
The light has always been attracted more to strength of will and faith than any one particular source. While the light of the Naaru, for example, is considered by many to be the ‘source’ of light, they’re really just the most powerful beings that utilize it.
The light will follow anyone or anything with a powerful conviction that what they are doing is for the sake of faith, order, justice, or righteousness. The Argent Crusade is probably the easiest and oldest example of this, so I would say that the prelates probably never did nor ever will lose their power so long as they fill this criteria.
I remember hearing Blizz was planning on the questline to unlock the Zandalari having something to do with restoring power to the prelates, but I wonder if the ‘twist’ would have just been them discovering they only lost it because they believed it to be tied to Rezan. It’s an interesting mechanism for light magic that I wish was explored a little more often in questlines, since it could delve into deeper topics such as faith versus conviction, or how one’s wavering sense of justice in wake of what they’ve done can change the strength of their own powers, and how that fading strength can lead to a faster loss of it due to the deep mental struggle of keeping your ideals and beliefs alive in your head, even in the heat of battle.
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my zandalari praises the sun
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