Input appreciated - Paladin with criminal background

Hello, I’m having a little bit of trouble writing this silly idea of mine well enough.

  • I describe him as “Struggling with his inner lust for pleasure and violence”, explain it stems from being raised in the slums of Old Town.

  • I want other people to be suspicious of his actions, but at the same time, I also want it to be a bit believable that this guy is a Paladin.

  • Do you think this is possible? I enjoy where I’m taking him so far, and what i’m writing.

  • He’s burly and muscular, suspiciously eyes money opportunities in front of people (noticing people’s coin pouch), and has a shark-toothed grin he accidently reveals every now and then.

  • He’s a bit of a jerk, and cracks jokes at everyone’s expense. If someone mucks up, he says something on the line between acceptable and harsh.

Transmog not appearing yet on my profile.

Thank you for your time, take care.

I would believe such person would later ‘redeem’ himself and become a Paladin it’s more plausible, given how Paladins are driven by virtue and in order to become one you are to pass certain stuff.

Unless he later fell to more darker paths? I recommend to see for yourself how and when your character has became a Paladin.

Good luck!

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A paladin is someone knighted through the church, essentially.

The Light does not judge your character, it grants you power if you truly believe that your path is correct, so, with that in mind…

If your character sleazed his way to convince the church that he was a respectable guy, he could’ve become a paladin!

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Doesn’t the arthas novel go into some specifics of a paladin’s anointment and how they’re not worthy if they think they are?

I mean, sure, your paladin might have a spotty past but if they’re currently a paladin they’ve gone though some specific tests of character and humility.

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Sounds like a brilliant excuse for a redemption arc, if you ask me.

If I were you I’d:

  • Contact a guild about recruitment.
  • Explain you want to have your character attack/steal from/kidnap one of their guildies in a fit of desperation.
  • Then when the guild retaliates, your character begs for mercy, and asks to serve said guild as a mercenary/layman.
  • The whole guild should/could treat your character like a dog, but hot damn, would it be fantastic role-play.
  • Eventually you’ll save key members in the guild during combat events.
  • Make unlikely friends.
  • And redeem your character naturally, rather than forcing the change one day 'cause you’re understandably sick of him being a bad lad.

That’s me two cents!

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Kump, Burt, Levey, and Barbour, thanks a lot for the input. I gotta think about all this. I really appreciate it! Much love! Take care everyone!

But now it was all formality, incredibly hot armor, and a nagging sense that he didn’t deserve the honor that was about to be bestowed upon him.

In a rare moment, Arthas had spoken of his feelings to Uther. The intimidating paladin, who, since Arthas was old enough to remember, had been the very image of rock- solid steadfastness to the Light, had startled the prince with his reply.

“Lad, no one feels ready. No one feels he deserves it. And you know why? Because no one does. It’s grace, pure and simple. We are inherently unworthy, simply because we’re human, and all human beings—aye, and elves, and dwarves, and all the other races—are flawed. But the Light loves us anyway. It loves us for what we sometimes can rise to in rare moments. It loves us for what we can do to help others. And it loves us because we can help it share its message by striving daily to be worthy, even though we understand that we can’t ever truly become so.”

He’d clapped a hand on Arthas’s shoulder, giving him a rare, simple smile. “So stand there today, as I did, feeling that you can’t possibly deserve it or ever be worthy, and know that you’re in the same place every single paladin has ever stood.”

It comforted Arthas a little.

You are correct

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This is actually not entirely correct. Paladins aren’t just mere light wielding dudes in plate who fight for the church. They go trough a ritual to have their entire body fused with the light essentially. It isn’t exactly something you can fake.

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Some Paladins do.

Not convinced Blood Knights did.

Not to mention Tirion Fordring thought he had lost his powers by being excommunicated for helping an orc, however that turned out to just be him doubting himself to the point he couldn’t manifest his powers and not because the Silver Hand had magically cleansed him of Light.

Well yeah. Sadly we are once more chained by the lack of information on many things. Like we have no idea what it takes to be a Prelate or how do Sunwalkers exactly work.

Old Town doesn’t feel very slums-y, I’d say. It’s kind of just the same as the rest of Stormwind with slightly shabbier roads.

Yeah! There’s something about the anointment ritual too which reminded me of lightforging.

Stormwind is far, far bigger than presented in-game, though. I’m sure it’d have a slums somewhere.

Yeah it’s hard to make come across like I want to, and not everyone is really on board.

I mean the stockades exist and stuff.
And when you think about it, you literally behead the bosses in there, at least pre-cata, to hand in the quests.
I’d also think with the amount of bandits in Elwynn Forest and Westfall, there’s a real problem with the Defias Brotherhood. Like thieves and bandits everywhere.

But I dont mean to force like a grim dark tale on people, I just like the idea of the character.

yeah, they’re called westfall

Varian and Anduin moved all the poors out of their gleaming city of white so as not to dirty up the place.

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I think if the stockades exist, and at times the inmates literally break out and push the guards back off the entrance, and that one alleyway in the middle of old town for that rogue quest exists, I think it’s a cool idea to have a pretty harsh place.

The game’s atmosphere and stuff aren’t meant to be taken seriously, but lots of people use very realastic RP ideas.

I mean some people RP being prostitutes, there’s assassins.

The game has you killing hundreds of bandits.

But anyway I’m rambling, just throwing ideas back and forth!

Like, there’s a lot of dark things in the lore that gets overlooked if you translated it into real life. ok ima shuddup cos i ramble super much

We call it the darnassian refugee camp.

It’s pretty much a place criminals go to disappear. Wasn’t it protocol to formally read them their crimes against the realm and strike firm to be done with it?

A lot of it, clashing with the kid friendly squeaky clean image. The societal implications of both horde and alliance outsourcing law enforcement to mercenaries aren’t very good for anyone involved.

That said, paladins are held to a standard in the context of the state approved silver hand. The five remaining scarlet paladins in the world probaby run on radically different protocols.

It’s okay, Blizzard taught me that hobos aren’t real people.

My understanding is that the powers of the Light come from the idea of belief itself. Not necessarily belief in oneself (though that may impact your belief in the Light if you thought yourself unworthy, for example), but belief in the Holy Light. In fact, if we examine the likes of trolls, night elves, and tauren, it may not even require a belief in the Light, but rather some sort of faith in a higher power through which they are able to channel abilities from the realm of Order.

As such, I think it could be entirely possible to portray a paladin who is, in fact, a bad person, though is unable to recognise it. We’ve seen that believers/practitioners are definitely capable of falling victim to their own ideas of righteousness (it’s being suggested of Turalyon, Uther’s kyrian form may indeed be guilty of it in the afterlife, as well as many members of the Scarlet Crusade).

In essence, I think it would be difficult for a paladin to behave in a way that is malicious, where they are intending to cause harm unless they believe it to be in line with their cause, that they can justify it as an act of good in some way. I don’t think they can just be shady for the sake of it. You could easily have a paladin that finds joy in causing suffering to those he deems an enemy of the Light, in a way that is perhaps wholly unhealthy.