Sorry for reposting, but didn’t get many answers last time so gonna try in general discussion instead… I’m still confused.
I’m trying to understand the difference between protection and the other paladin specs.I understand that these were the human knights (protection warriors???) infused with the light?
What’s the class fantasy of the protection paladin?
How are they represented in the game? Characters?
What’s their equivalent irl?
What’s the hierarchy among the paladin specs?
I’m thinking of let’s say the Scarlet Crusade as retribution paladins, but I know Draenei have vindicators. I’m thinking holy paladin goes with Draenei too? What are the Lightforged draenei? I don’t mean “they can be this or that”, I mean what’s the archetype/ideal?
So, now I play a human protection paladin. What’s the difference between her and a city guardian? Like, what would her “job” or mission be"?
It’s about how one responds to the callings of the Light.
Do you respond by showing mercy, and mending the wounds of those whom have them? Ultimatley preferring peace? Holy.
Do you respond by agreeing to protect the weak by standing in front of them to shield them from harm? Protection.
Do you respond by going out of your way to hunt down the things that harm the innocent? retribution.
HOLY paladins undo the work of evil.
PROTECTION paladins safeguard others against evil.
RETRIBUTION paladins hunt down sources of evil.
regarding other races, there is no “spec hierarchy”. All paladin “specs” have their representation in common interpretations of the Light, be it the Virtue of Compassion or Tenacity.
Same for Draenei, they may all be called “Vindicator” but that doesn’t mean they;re all retribution Paladins.
I would argue if we look at LORE, each race probably has a slightly higher amount of certain paladins than others, but it doesn’t make the others unusual.
Humans I would imagine have more protection paladins, as paladins chiefly served as protective captains and wardens over the weak during the Third War, and well as protectors of their armies.
Dwarves, hard to say, probably similar to above.
Draenei probably have more holy paladins due to having a great faimilarity with the Light, but also because they’ve spent more time fleeings/fighting the legion, and trying to undo their work.
Lightforged probably have more retribution paladins are they more so than any other race make it their mission to hunt down evil directly. However these armies still need captains and medics, so i’d argue retribution paladins are more like “soliders” for Lightforged than heroes.
So the following is just my opinion based on what I’ve read and should under no circumstances be considered THE ANSWER its just an Answer.
When looking at human paladins its important to understand why they are what they are. The early alliance noticed that after the first war the Northshire clerics who were the alliances did not fair to well on the battlefield, as an answer to this they recruited knights and taught them how to use the holy light and recruited clerics and taught them to fight, the result was the order of the silver hand which is like the prototype for paladins (well the dwarven and human kind) that we have now.
So as to what paladin’s mission or job should be I would say that you are like a priest of the holy light with the added dimension that you know how to fight. So if the faith is in anyway threatened you are the person who will stand up fight and protect it. I wouldn’t say there is a hierarchy of paladin specs they’re all pretty equal but they do different things although even then there is going to be an overlap in what they do. Protection paladins would be about defending the innocent, Retribution Paladins are more about punishing the guilty and Holy paladin’s deal with more of the spiritual aspect of the light, but that doesn’t mean a Retribution paladin wouldn’t defend the innocent or a Holy paladin wouldn’t see it as their task to punish the guilty, or that a protection paladin is not interested in the spiritual aspects of the light, its just not their focus.
As to their IRL equivalent the religious knightly orders from the middle ages would be a good IRL example, there are also a lot of examples of medieval clergy taking up arms when they had to.
To try and surmise about protection paladins. You are a priest but you are a priest who knows how to fight and should something threaten you and your congregation will protect them from that threat
Edit: example of a paladin in the lore would probably be Uther I’d post a link but I get a message saying I can’t but search him on Wowpedia