ski_king3

For one, I don't really appreciate trying to invalidate my opinion by stating that I've not been involved for a while, given that most of the past year you were pretty much absent from playing your paladin as well. The only person who has consistently played their paladin for the past year is Numirya, though that's beside the point. I won't comment on the forced rewrites, as that's an issue that needs to be addressed privately. As for the rest, my response goes for the both of you. I'm reasonably certain that most of the paladins support this, but my hope is to dissuade that. For one, this rewrite definitely increases the capabilities of paladins and makes them notably stronger, which definitely isn't necessary. But more importantly, older paladins would be fundamentally incompatible with this rewrite. The Paladins, formerly the Order of the Golden Lance, were a holy order with roots in dragon slaying who focus on serving as guardians and preserving order in the world. This usually took the form of combating the greatest "evil" presence out there and ruthlessly trying to eliminate them, but capable of focusing on lesser threats if nothing warranted all of their attention. They had three "sects" (though it was never quite so explicit), those most capable with the sword, holy magic and voidal magic, though this may have been partially done away with even in the Golden Lance era. They were a pragmatist holy order differing sharply in motive and desire from the clerics who, if there were no great threat, would find other matters to attend to, other groups to protect and smaller threats to combat (not necessarily dark ones), whilst they fortified themselves in wait. The order I stepped into eighteen or so months ago was quite a bit different. There was a much greater focus on order and lesser focus on guardianship. Their healing had become second tier, rather than a fundamental part of the pillar that had been de-emphasized, and shortly thereafter it was made that paladins could not use voidal magic and the paladin's holy magic (ironically, in order to make them more like other holy groups, even though there is no aspect of deity lore that makes the two fundamentally incompatible). While they had changed, they still clung to this core tenant of a pragmatist holy order, and it was really cool, even if it was different than what I had envisioned. Their focus was still on helping others, albeit the focus had shifted to make them more aggressive, they were very much morally inclined. You served Xan by dedicating yourself to protect others and root out those who sowed disorder through the world. Yet you differed from the clerics in a number of ways, the two greatest being the emphasis on order, and the idea that delving in the dark did not automatically condemn you in the eyes of the paladins. Both of these views led to the butting of heads between paladins and clerics, nearly to the point of violence between these two groups that, to outsiders, seemed almost the same. But this rewrite isn't compatible with that of a principled holy order, the original version or the version I stepped into when I took the lead, or the one that existed as I sporadically involved myself up to six or so months ago. These dragon crusaders buff the magic, make one half of it essentially useless despite how important it has always been in the lore and the values of the paladins, and take away a lot of the nuance that made the paladins so interesting to play. If my character Garion were still alive and this change suddenly happened, he'd kill himself, because the paladins wouldn't be paladins anymore, and I truly can't see any of the paladins I remember RPing with being consistent characters and undergoing this. The fact of the matter is I understand that there's a desire to differentiate the holy groups (even though they are already quite differentiated), but that should be done without destroyed the foundations laid by the group before. Healing is a super important part of the magic and the values paladins have always upheld. Focusing their attention upon a single group contradicts the entirety of the paladin's past, and will exacerbate the issue of the past where the paladins went inactive because there was nothing to fight (I know Mth has a drakaar now, but once he stops playing his, who's to say there will be ET/LT around to actively play dragons and give the paladins something to do. Don't make them largely staff reliant for their key function). Change can be good when it's needed, but I don't really think it's needed, and there are a lot of expansions or changes that can be made that don't fundamentally change what paladins are. This lore does that, something I've never felt about the many changes made to paladins in the past (with the exception of the void change), and that's why I take such tremendous issue.

I won't lie, if I were still involved with the paladins, I would really dislike this change in direction or the change in the lore. I know I once meant to take them in a dragon-hunting direction, but this seems too far, and the changes to the magic deviate sharply from what they were meant to be. If most of the current paladins prefer it, then so be it, but as the original writer I wouldn't feel any connection to it whatsoever. The paladins already have super solid lore, and some of which is currently totally unused, and I much prefer that to this mess. Likewise, this takes a step away from the very interesting dynamic the clerics and paladins have had over time of being thematically similar, with certain key differences that could lead them to be diametrically opposed. I just think this hurts the dynamic of those two holy groups and rewrites the paladins in a pretty negative way. Sorry Tsu, I know you worked hard on it, but I just... really dislike this.

Victory for the War Uzg.

Self-Denied.

holy **** yes

Not a fan of Foretakers. Also, doesn't seem to change much, save that.

Someone shouldn't have their character fucked because they need to step away from the server. If someone goes inactive, just remove them from your skype chat and treat them as not being a member of your group. It's not hard to treat the inactive people as if they don't exist, and causes far fewer issues.

This lore has been Accepted. Just don't make this into a lightsaber meme. Please. Thank you for your submission!