The fear of a homogeneous class fantasy coming from Tyr and the Silver Hand is a concern of many, myself included. Specially related to the Horde and how the writers had to Pivot from their first take on Priestly Orcs before the Lok’osh. Many people do wish for culturally sensitive takes for holy-warrior figures within their race templates.
Following my own Vulpera Paladin - Duneblessed post, I decided to make a post to accumulate the different takes I’ve been seing so far for something more fitting for each race given the (probably inminent) addition to paladins-for-all.
This is a collection of takes seen in Twitter, In-Game and forum ideas previously discused.
Some of these can already be found here https://www.wowhead.com/es/news/goblin-paladins-fan-designed-paladin-skins-and-lore-for-non-paladin-races-324234
ALLIANCE
Night Elves
For long it’s been requested, and I don’t think it requires much discussion. The usual takes always imply something related to moon warriors, adding warden themes, imagery or armory in some cases. Talking about the latter, though, there were worries related to the Sun Warden Armor that will eventually become available. From what I’ve personally seen, the idea of Sun-related Night Elves is greatly reviled, and it’s not a good way to go.
Gnomes / Mechagnomes
Beans, the local Argent Dawn Gnome paladin has managed to write a sort of syncretism between the Silver Hand and Gnomish-related Ingenuity. To work from their own setup of rising ideas and perfection being tied to their progress and inventions could, and has been shown to work in previous examples (Lightforged Technology, IRL parallelism of reconciliation of Faith and Reason). It could be easy to start from the Silver Hand, given the Dwarven and Human takes of it, but it would be preferable in my opinion to keep an intellectual flair to them.
It has been pointed out to me that there are existing techno-priests and battle medics that could serve to fill this role.
In the case of Mechagnomes, we could extend it to the search for flesh and machine perfection, and tilt it towards a sort of mecha-paladin on lore. The option of making them mecha-origination freaks is something I’ve also discussed and observed previously.
Worgen
In addition to an otherwise quite general Human Faith, there could be an interesting take related to nationalism and Gilneas as a motivator for taking the Light against the Forsaken once more in tandem with their Worgen forms. They were known to already worship the Light, I do not believe it would require more, but the discussion is open as I’ve not precisely researched this one much further.
Kul’tirans
Order of Embers is the first idea to come, and their fight against Witches already echoes the fight against Death and the Scourge. The Tidemother water paladins was also a possiblity, one I feel still tilts too much towards Shaman. Either way, given their faith with their Tide Sages tilts that way, it wouldn’t be an absurd idea in my opinion, though the demand of class skins would come alongside this.
Void Elves
Void Paladins or manage to create some sort of Discipline-Related paladins with a theme of uneasiness and great effort, akin to the Forsaken. The previous WoWhead post already includes a specific take of them, alongside Silver Hand High Elves, which aren’t precisely the object of this part.
HORDE
Orcs / Mag’har
We already have their Priestly Lok’osh and their Song of the Heart as a basis to work from. An idea to mix with this in terms of Martial Prowess would be the fusion with the Spirit Champion class from the RPG and Blademasters, given they already connect to the Spirits and Spirit the same way the Lok’osh do, to make a Lok’osh-Lok’tra (Song of Heart - Song of Battle) Blademaster or warrior would be a logical outcome from this idea. It is also not explicitly a path of Light, but more of Spirit, so it wouldn’t create problems with the Mag’har in general.
" A spirit champion is a mighty warrior who embraces the spirits, to assist him in his battles. He strengthens his spiritual connection until he can feel the spirits flowing within his body and thoughts, strengthening his arms and quickening his mind. Whispered fragments impart insight into battle as ancestors speak of ways to overcome all foes. The spirit champion ceases to fight for his own reasons; he battles to honor the spirits and to further their wishes. Often these wishes coincide with his own, but occasionally the spirit champion embarks on a path for reasons that are unclear to him. He does so faithfully, trusting in the spirits to point him in the right direction."
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Spirit_champion
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Trolls, Darkspear
Many of you may already be familiar with the JTiger Paladins that Hearthstone brought with their take of Shirvallah. I believe this should be simply copied straight from there, it creates a good echo to the Historical Mayan Jaguar Warriors and given the inspirations of Trolls in general, I believe they would be a good fit. Rezan still remains a loa too tied to the Zandalari in this case, and the cultural differences are enough to actually just concede a holy loa of the Darkspear in this case.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Shirvallah
Some people also consider the possibility of relating this to Vol’jin having gained the essence of Rezan and his potential rise as a Loa of Light. This would seem the direction they’re currently taking, if anything.
Forsaken
There are many fears related to the inclusion of Calia being a pathway towards this. The WoWhead post tackles both a Holy Warrior for the Forsaken, and the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow related take. I am biased towards the later, for they were already very set on their motives of shadow and/or discipline with the practice of these arts. I believe that a shadow paladin akin to one of the potential void elves could be the best way to go. Alternatively, we can draw from the Undead Scarlets found in Cataclysm to perhaps include the possibility of Undead Zealots that would refuse to abandon the Light even in their rotting bodies.
Goblins
Goblins derive their faith from Greed and Gold as specified with their Air Priests. In this case, a personal idea is for them to become Ultra-Mega-Capitalists that incarnate the will of economic growth and golden motives. Another take could be more technologically sensitive in this case, becoming more cyborg-like, but I believe this could clash with their current way to call upon the actual cosmic Light, and within this Economic Faith they already include some technology related quotes and puns.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Airborne_Goblin_Priest
Nightborne
A tricky case, this one, because it would be easy for them to be accepted within the ranks of the Blood Knights if such take was to be replicated during and after the development of Suramar’s Lore. I believe, though, that it could also be wise to include their arcane spellblades as a way to start from, and maybe derivate into a sort of Light and Arcane syncretism the same way they did Arcane and Nature, perhaps already drawing from the forementioned Blood Knights. I am personally biased against making a carbon copy of Blood Knights for them, and I’d really welcome new ideas on this.
The idea of something related to Astromancers, as drawing power from the Stars or from specific planets is also possible, given the recent comments.
High Mountain Tauren
I would simply go with the usual Sunwalkers here, given that I’ve not seen much divergence from the belief of the Earthmother and An’she. If anything, I’d love if they included something related to the legacy of Huln and their historical figures to avoid an immediate carbon copy of the original Tauren Sunwalkers.
Vulpera
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/vulpera-paladin-take-the-duneblessed/462394
The discussion is already ongoing there, alongside my take. TLDR: Sand-devoted Holy Warriors. No Loa. Some shamanistic motives here and there.
PANDAREN
It is mentioned in MoP that Chi-ji holds some sort of similarity to the Light, and I believe Crane Warriors would be the best to both introduce the holy warrior archetype to the Pandaren, and continue this line of thought. I’d combine it with the usual motives of anti-slavery uprisings and their monk inspiration. They could basically be Monks of Chi-ji within the lore. This is already included in the previously linked WoWhead post, alongside the Golden Lotus Valewalker as an alternative take.
DRACTHYR
Before making any suggestion, I’d prefer to wait for their current story to be finished. But from what I can already see, it could perhaps tie to their own identity as independent peoples beyond the nature of their magic. I believe, either way, I am unable to currently do or find anything related to this, precisely.