Turalyon actually used a hammer originally. The sword he has now is Anduin Lothar’s broken blade, reforged with Light. As for the spinning magical hammers, you have to look at the history and progression of Blizzard games. A lot of Blizzard’s ideas on Paladins and Spinning Magic Hammers, comes directly from Classic Diablo 2 where a spec called “Hammerdin”, (so named because it maxed out Blessed Hammer and used all it’s synergies); was one of the most popular.
That Paladin also employed Aura Spells, many of which were refitted for WoW.
Lastly, you’d be wrong on Knights always wielding swords, and never wielding hammers. Swords were used, but mainly against unarmored enemies. If you wanted to damage someone who was also in a suit of plate armor? You went with a mace or a war-hammer. Why? The blunt force impact would carry through the armor and break bones.
Is that a sword?
Luxury!
Is that a horse?
Sloth!
Is that a helmet?
Vanity!
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“TOUCH ME NOT, FOR I AM CHASTE!!”
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This is a very lore-appropriate take. I like it!
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Yes the lore take from AD&D on why certain Priests and Paladins could use certain weaponry representative of the god they served rather than the traditional weaponry. What I shared was a kind of excerpt from why Paladins of a certain god used Hammers exclusively had to do with the gods sphere of influence, building and war 
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In the end, Warcraft Paladins have had no issues with using swords. But that’s not really the point, is it?
This thread is supposed more about magic that is shaped like a hammer or sword, right? The Light doesn’t need to be shaped like a hammer, nor a sword, but Blizzard decided to do that for thematic reasons. Does it really matter? No. Would it be cool to have other options, say via glyphs or some other sort of spell customization? Absolutely. Will that ever happen? Doesn’t seem likely.
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the Ashbringer is a sword.
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It’s been an age since I’ve been to museums (the armoury in Leeds was really good from memory) but did people ever actually use hammers/mauls that even looked slightly like Wows cinderblock-ona-stick?
I always remember the warhammers I saw being skinny, lighter things that just put a smallish puncture hole in your armour/body to totally smite your day up.
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Consider that a medieval war hammer rarely exceed five pounds and it is easy to see why given how many swings one might take in a duel, tournament or battle. Basically, tie a brick to the end of a heavy stick and see how many times we can accurately swing it with conviction, let alone parrying actions. Even giant two handed swords averaged about five pounds total. The bigger examples of maces, hammers and swords were almost always ceremonial or for show.
Other than versions on a pole, hammers and maces were almost always back-up weapons rather than primary weapons. Contrary to most myths, well constructed plate armor was quite effective against blunt attacks as the armor’s construction spread out the impact energy. This is especially true when mail or a padded armor (gambeson) was worn under the plate as most knights did.
The advantage of a mace as a back-up weapon as swords and lances did break was that in the heat of combat, one doesn’t have to worry about “edge alignment”, that is, is the sharp side facing the opponent when we take a swing? In a really bad situation the mace can be pulled out and used very quickly without having to think about it.
In realty, other than lances or pole weapons, one did not try to penetrate plate armor but rather maneuver to thrust a blade into places the plate cannot effectively protect such as the armpit, back of the knees and elbows, crotch, palm of the hand or the visibility openings in the helmet. There are not a lot of nice ways to die on a melee battlefield.
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There used to be a rule that religious people couldn’t spill blood or something so in dnd clerics could only use blunted weapons. So the cleric would always use a mace (hammer). This probably carried over to paladins because they’re priests in armor or whatever.
AS a palli player i use a sword…i dont care what you use…i will use a sword. that being said. the sunblade is a sword clerics can use to fight undead in D&D…so blah