I know they were in Vanilla so I’m not questioning why they are playable as pallies but what’s their history?
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Blizzard gave the “Officers” a couple of paladin abilities, probably because those abilities make sense for “leaders” to have. There’s no history or lore behind it.
Dark Irons can be paladins to maintain consistency with an off-the-cuff decision made by a random blackrock depths content designer.
That’s it. It’s certainly possible that they’ll backfill some actual story in this space at some point, but for now it’s nothing more than what it seems.
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Pretty much this. Dark irons were off doing their thing when the silver hand was founded, so there’s just not much on them being pallies or priests.
Glad they are though, the dark iron pally mount is the best of the bunch.
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So the same reason Zandalari can be paladins, then. NPC gets tossed in with paladin-esque abilities and people go, “Yep. Paladins. We want paladins. Give us paladins.”
There’s something to be said for force of belief (a la the Scarlet Crusaders) and the whole Dark Iron focus on order and “justice”. Them having paladins makes sense with the idea that paladins don’t need to be truly just or virtuous to channel their powers, only to believe that they are. Fineous Darkvire is the main example of this, in that he has several paladin abilities (Devotion Aura, Holy Light, Holy Strike, Seal of Reckoning) rather than just 1 as the Officers do (Divine Shield).
It’s also worth mentioning that the Dark Irons have mingled with the Bronzebeard Clan and their Paladins for several years so they could’ve refined what were poorly-understood standalone abilities of faith into fully fledged Paladinhood. All in all, not at all far-fetched.
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Also i like the idea that Paladin’s are just a catch all term for the abilities shared by these beings, and not them all being apart of the same holy order. Blood Knights, Sunwalkers, Prelates, and the Dark Iron ones should all be unique.
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(Speculative): Dark Iron Dwarves have also been a part of the Alliance for a few years now, so it’s not unrealistic that they could’ve picked up a few tricks and skills to round out the Paladin spreadsheet.
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At its base a Paladin is either:
- A priest of the Light who took up a martial tradition
- A warrior who augmented their training with the Light
The paladins of most races (including humans) began as the first option. I would argue a Dark Iron is most likely to be the second option.
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That’s what I assumed. Like how the Wildhammer taught Bronzebeards to be shamans.
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These aren’t your D+D Paladins. There’s no good-goody two shoes requirement, just intense devotion to a faith, cause, or nation.
In Charlemagne’s day, the word referred to his most worthy companions, two of which interestingly enough, were women. Since Charlemagne was a Holy Roman Emperor, his companions were depicted as paragons of virtue, but the Paladin term referred strictly to their bonded loyalty to him.
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Does Edwin “Our Cause Is Righteous” Van Cleef qualify then?
His cause itself may be, but his dealings with the criminal underworld and cynical manipulation of Westfall’s innocents to do it suggest Van Cleef was probably enough of a pragmatic realist to recognize that he was doing immoral things, albeit in service to what he considered a moral cause. He was probably just willing to live with knowing he did really bad things for an ultimately good reason. Knowing the acts are themselves bad - even if deemed necessary - would likely conflict in a paladin with that mindset enought to prevent them calling the Light.
Twisted paladins like the Scarlet Crusade arn’t really the same situation; they can use the Light not just because their misdeeds are in service to what they consider a good cause, but because they convinced themselves that the cause actually made their increasingly heinous actions virtuous. They were past the point of “hard choices for a greater purpose”; they were outright justifying the murders and the torture and the prejudice as good things in and of themselves, rather than necessary sins perpetrated toward a more righteous end.
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I don’t know how exactly, but i have something interesting to add.
The Horde version of the champion of the Light boss fight in the BOD raid is a Dark Iron Dwarf, she has some quotes, and it seems her belief in the light is basically the same as the humans/dwarves, so basically Silver Hand style.
So is not a different type of faith like the sunwalkers, but vanilla paladins.
The reason I was questioning Dark Irons and not Zandalari or Tauren is that Dark Iron Pallies seem to be more like real Paladins that serve the Light.
The Zandalari are just zealous defenders of the Loa and are Paladins for gameplay purposes.
I guess I’m largely curious about where did the Dark Irons get their connection to the Light from.
The Light responds to personal conviction. It does not seem much to matter exactly what that conviction is in, just that you have it: Scarlets used the Light just fine while murdering away, as did the Lightbound off on AU Draenor.
Dark irons are a people of great personal conviction even if it is only in their own ability to defend what is theirs from those that take it from them, or who would tell them who they should be. It not surprise me if that translated into an ability to call upon the Light in an almost burning crusade era blood elf mentality. Which is to say: The Light is bent to serve them, they do not serve it.
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Am I the only one who is now lookin’ at the Scarlet Crusade as Blizzard’s poor man’s version of the Imperium of Mankind? Like, they have all the dogma, the righteous zealotry, the xenophobia, and the absolute hatred for the “undead” (basically a stand in for Necrons)? And not only that, but parts of 'em turn out to be corrupted and manipulated by a Dreadlord (basically a Chaos Daemon)?
Just sort of dawned on me.
Not really? They’re both zealots, so of course there’s some parallels to be made, but it’s a radical stretch to claim that one is a “version” of the other.
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I’ve always figured some of them may have been Ragnaros worshippers in the past.
Could worshipping Ragnaros give you the Light? Or does the object of worship actually have to be divine to get the Light?
Gotta be honest, no.
Scarlet Crusade are clearly just crazy zealots, it’s a common fantasy trope. It’s hardly something the Imperium of Man codified, they just also took a basic idea and ran with it.
I like the Imperium of Man, but it’s not a unique concept.
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Humans began as a mix of both. Some of the first knights of the silver hand were priests who took up the sword, (Turalyon, Uther) others were Knights who took up the light. (Gavinrad the Dire, Tirion Fordring).
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An understandable mix up, but Uther was a Knight of Lordaeron before being recruited into the Silver Hand.
Back in WCII, Turalyon was a Knight before becoming a Paladin, and Uther was a Priest.
Weirdly, the two back stories got reversed at some point. Now Turalyon was a Priest and Uther was a Knight.
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Dark Iron dwarves take on less of a faith oriented on the Light, but the power in flame and the will to overcome any obstacle. As the Light and Holy magic manifests by the strength of will; Dark Iron Paladins utilize their will and philosophy of flame to overcome their enemies.
The Light favors the devout, which means they don’t care for good or bad. Seeing how Scarlet Crusaders and Zealots can control the Light for nefarious purposes. A Dark Iron paladin falls on the spectum of zealotry or devout soldiers.
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