#3E-Patience

[inaconstantstateofchange]

Hi!

I'm so glad i found your blog, your deep dives are making my brain tingle in the best of ways! It's so difficult to really find all the info your curious about with the many different editions and histories of everything so you are an absolute lifesaver for understanding all these intruiging lore aspects.

I've been very curious about Asmodeus for a while now but am kinda struggling finding out more about him, I know he's very strong and apparently a large snake?? But I was wondering if you at some point feel the motivation to if you could tell me some about him, he seems so interesting to me and I just wanna know more about who and what he is.

Again, you are so awesome and I vow to devour all your writing!

Asmodeus: An Origin

Thank you so much for the kind words - and for your patience as I worked on this one. If there's any question you had about him that feels like it's not wholly answered here, feel free to let me know! There's still a lot that I was not able to include.

As ever, these writeups will align with current 5e lore, and draw from 3.5e for additional supporting information. On rarer occasions – and always noted – I will reference 1e and 2e, but with the caveats that there is much more in those editions that is tonally dissonant with the modern conception of the Forgotten Realms, and thus generally less applicable.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more succinct introduction to Asmodeus himself than in the following passage, from 3e’s Book of Vile Darkness: 

Asmodeus the Archfiend, the overlord of all the dukes of hell, commands all devilkind and reigns as the undisputed master of the Nine Hells. Even the deities that call that plane home pay Asmodeus a great deal of respect.¹ 

As to his current position, 5e’s Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide features Asmodeus among the list of gods, naming him the “god of indulgence”, and crediting to him the domains of knowledge and trickery. His symbol is “three inverted triangles arranged in a long triangle”, as seen in the image below.² 

While his active circle of worshippers remains small, he is one of the gods habitually turned to by those in need, particularly those who have done something to earn them the displeasure of another god:

After transgressing against a god in some way, a person prays to Asmodeus for something to provide respite during the long wait. Asmodeus is known to grant people what they wish, and thus people pray for all the delights and distractions they desire most from life. Those who transgress in great ways often ask Asmodeus to hide their sins from the gods, and priests say that he will do so, but with a price after death.³

Asmodeus is particularly appealing to those who fear what awaits them after death, or have arrived to find the reality does not match their hopes. For these souls, even the hazards of Baator might be preferable to long centuries of solitary wandering on the Fugue Plane. 

All souls wait on the Fugue Plane for a deity's pleasure, which determines where a soul will spend the rest of eternity. Those who lived their lives most in keeping with a deity's outlook are taken first. Others, who have transgressed in the eyes of their favored god or have not followed any particular ethos, might wait centuries before Kelemvor judges where they go. People who fear such a fate can pray to Asmodeus, his priests say, and in return a devil will grant a waiting soul some comfort.³

The worship of Asmodeus attracts staunch individualists, who desire a future unaligned with the domain of any of the other gods, and are willing to choose self-determination in any form that might approach them.

The faithful of Asmodeus acknowledge that devils offer their worshipers a path that's not for everyone — just as eternally basking in the light of Lathander or endlessly swinging a hammer in the mines of Moradin might not be for everyone. Those who serve Asmodeus in life hope to be summoned out of the moaning masses of the Fugue Plane after death. They yearn for the chance to master their own fates, with all of eternity to achieve their goals.³

Asmodeus achieved his current official status of godhood during the Spellplague, which lasted from 1385 to 1395 DR. After this, for reasons he has unsurprisingly chosen not to reveal, he performed a ritual to alter the metaphysical categorization of all existing tieflings, giving them features that highlighted this connection.

Due to this shift, tieflings are often perceived with wariness by those who believe that Asmodeus is able to exert control over these newly-determined “descendants” of his. While this is an unwarranted suspicion, as tieflings are no more bound to his will than any other individual of another race, the mistrust remains unfortunately pervasive.⁴ 

The true origins of Asmodeus, particularly from 3rd Edition on, are kept rather ambiguous, seemingly quite by design. This is both for Watsonian reasons – that a supreme being of evil such as Asmodeus would not carelessly leave information about his origins (and, potentially, weaknesses) floating around – as well as Doylist: it is a more elegant solution than eternal retcons, and leaves it up to the individual scholar or DM which explanation they ascribe the most veracity to.⁵ 

On the charge of Asmodeus’s true form being a giant serpent, we have Chris Pramas to thank for that bit of lore, stated in 2e’s 1999 Guide to Hell, but rarely mentioned - and not in any definitive manner - from 3e onward.⁶ 3e’s Manual of the Planes, published in 2001, does reference this account, but as a whispered and shadowy theory about the Archdevil Supreme, rather than objective truth.

Brutally repressed rumors suggest that there is more to Asmodeus than he admits. The story goes that the true form of Asmodeus actually resides in the deepest rift of Nessus called the Serpent’s Coil. The shape seen by all the other devils of the Nine Hells in the fortress of Malsheem is actually a highly advanced use of the project image spell or an avatar of some sort. ... From where fell Asmodeus? Was he once a greater deity cast down from Elysium or Celestia, or is he older yet, as the rumor hints? Perhaps he represents some fundamental entity whose mere existence pulls the multiverse into its current configuration. Nobody who tells the story of Asmodeus’s “true” form lives more than 24 hours after repeating it aloud. But dusty scrolls in hard-to-reach libraries (such as Demogorgon’s citadel in the Abyss) yet record this knowledge. Unless it is pure fancy, of course.⁷ 

One can see from the framing of the above excerpt that there is no attempt made at certainty. Perhaps it is mere conjecture, or perhaps a secret, hidden truth that few may know. It is impossible to say for certain. 

Another story of Asmodeus’s possible origin is found in 3e’s Fiendish Codex II. This text, again, does not frame the information given as universal truth, but rather takes pains to emphasize its ambiguity. 

The best way to understand devils and their ways is to listen to the stories they tell about themselves. The most famous of these tales have propagated as myths throughout all the worlds of the Material Plane, becoming familiar to mortals of all sorts. But as is often the case with legends, contradictions abound. For example, the tale of the Pact Primeval is the accepted version of the multiverse’s creation. But an alternate story claims Asmodeus as the fallen creator of the universe.  Countless cultures have their own versions of the Pact Primeval legend. The names of the deities featured in it change depending on where it is told, but the names of the devils are always the same. Perhaps this fact is what inspired Philogestes, the accursed philosopher of evil, to pen his famous proverb: “The gods exist in multiplicity, but Asmodeus is unique.” As is the case with any myth worthy of the name, the following tale is true — whether or not it actually happened.⁸ 

In this account, Asmodeus began as a celestial embodiment of law, formed from the concept itself to fight against the embodiment of chaos — demons.⁹ Over time, as he and his followers became more akin to the enemies they were facing, those celestial beings not engaged in the fight grew leery of what they were becoming, and took him to trial, to account for himself. The god of valor spoke first, laying out the concerns of those gathered against Asmodeus. In response: 

Asmodeus smiled, and the smoke of a thousand battlefields rose from his lips. “As Lord of Battle,” he pointed out, “you should know better than any that war is a dirty business. We have blackened ourselves so that you can remain golden. We have upheld the laws, not broken them. Therefore, you may not cast us out.”⁸

Despite their efforts, the gods were able to find no laws that Asmodeus had broken. Unsurprisingly, as he himself had helped write them. This conflict between Asmodeus and his host and the remainder of the unsullied gods continued on, with the gods unable to get rid of him, and free themselves of the constant reminder of the Blood War.

With time, the concepts of “good” and “evil” entered the world alongside law and chaos, and Asmodeus was able to argue for dominion over those souls that chose evil. The gods loathed the reminders of this fact, however, and when Asmodeus volunteered to move to the empty plain of Baator, they enthusiastically agreed. It was only years later, when the number of souls arriving at their own planes after death began to sharply decrease, that they thought to travel to Baator themselves, where they found a robust operation based around encouraging mortal souls to take to the path of evil. 

“You have granted us the power to harvest souls,” replied Asmodeus. “To build our Hell and gird our might for the task set before us, we naturally had to find ways to improve our yield.” The war deity drew forth his longsword of crackling lightning. “It is your job to punish transgressions, not to encourage them!” he cried.  Asmodeus smiled, and a venomous moth flew out from between his sharpened teeth. “Read the fine print,” he replied.⁸ 

While the recorded story implies a simple act of one-upmanship, a later section of the Fiendish Codex tells us that Asmodeus’s split from the other celestial deities was not so amicable. 

Once he had committed himself to residing in Baator, the deities physically cast him out of the upper realms, and he fell — and fell, and fell. Upon reaching the plain of Baator, he plunged through the nascent layers he had begun to shape. (In some versions, his fall created the layers, breaking the formerly featureless plain into nine pieces, which then arranged themselves into floating tiers.) At last he hit solid ground but continued to fall, spiraling through rock and soil. The protesting earth of Baator tore at his flesh, opening scores of gaping wounds. Still he fell, until he could fall no farther. The point where he finally stopped was the deepest part of Baator — the Pit.  The wounds that Asmodeus suffered in his dramatic fall have never healed. Though he manages to appear blithely unperturbed by his injuries, they still weep blood every day, and he has been wracked by constant pain for millennia.¹⁰ 

This casting down and its associated injuries is corroborated in other texts as well, including 3e’s Manual of the Planes. 

5e’s Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes seemingly follows on from the Fiendish Codex’s account, sharing one conception of the fallout of Asmodeus’s stratagem, positioned as an in-universe account penned by the aasimar bard Anodius in a work titled “The Trial of Asmodeus”.

At some point after Asmodeus broke from Celestia to rule Baator, he was brought up on trial for unspecified crimes and trespasses. Asmodeus claimed the right to speak in his own defense, and a court was gathered, arbitrated by Primus, a being intrinsically aligned with Neutrality and Law. From Asmodeus’s recorded arguments in his own defense, we can surmise that those on Celestia had accused him of acting outside of the law in actively working to turn mortals to evil. 

The case stretched on, with neither side ceding ground, for weeks, until finally Primus declared his judgment. While Asmodeus could not be convicted of any true crime – for he had acted within the law in all things – he was to take an artifact, the Ruby Rod that is synonymous with his position, which would “guarantee his adherence to law”.¹¹ A quote from Anodius’s in-universe text is helpfully provided by Mordenkainen: 

“I literally sit beneath eight tiers of scheming, ambitious entities that represent primal law suffused with evil. The path from this realm leads to an infinite pit of chaos and evil. Now, tell me again how you and your ilk are the victims in this eternal struggle.” – Asmodeus addresses the celestial jury, from The Trial of Asmodeus¹¹

In a manner similar to his contested origin, Asmodeus’s appearance is described in several varying ways — a fact that seems in line for a principal schemer such as himself. This seeming discrepancy could also speak to varying uses of aspects or projection spells.

The Fiendish Codex II in one instance paints him as “a horned, red-skinned humanoid with a tall, lithe frame” who “dresses in splendid robes and understated but elegant accoutrements.”¹⁰ A later section in the Codex corresponds to this description given in the Book of Vile Darkness: 

Asmodeus stands just over 13 feet tall, with lustrous dark skin and dark hair. He is handsome in the same way that a thunderstorm is beautiful. His red eyes shine with the power of hell, and his head is crowned with a pair of small, dark red horns. He dresses in finery of red and black; a single garment of his might cost what an entire nation spends in a year. Of course, he is never without his Ruby Rod, an ornate piece of unparalleled jeweled finery and vast magical power.¹ 

Regarding his personality, he is most often described as “a soft-spoken, articulate, chillingly reasonable fellow who is confident in his status as one of the multiverse’s most powerful entities. Even when surprised, he reacts with supreme poise, as if he were already three steps ahead of his adversaries.”¹⁰ The Book of Vile Darkness notes correspondingly that: 

The actions of Asmodeus are often mysterious to outside observers, but that is due to the short-sighted and dim-witted view most beings have. Asmodeus’s manipulations are labyrinthine and insidious. They work on a grand scale, although when it suits his needs he is willing to focus his attention even on the status of a lowly mortal soul.¹

¹ Book of Vile Darkness. 2002. p. 165-6.

² Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2015. p. 21.

³ Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2015. p. 24.

⁴ Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2015. p. 118. 

⁵ “Watsonian vs. Doylist”. Fanlore.org. 

⁶ In general, I try to stay in-universe with these lore writeups, but in this case it did feel like some out-of-universe context was necessary. 

⁷ Manual of the Planes. 2001. p. 123.

⁸ Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells. 2006. p. 4-5.

⁹ While the description of these events found within the Fiendish Codex is too long to transcribe here in its entirety, I highly encourage you to read the full account for yourself. 

¹⁰ Fiendish Codex II. 2006. p. 73-4.

¹¹ Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 2018. p. 9-10.

[kyrstin]

some more miscellaneous genshin fic recs

dearest wanderer, by caniculeo (kazuchilde, t, 10k)

Kazuha is still grieving Tomo, but he forges a relationship with another foreigner in Liyue.

my lady (your unbinding), by labitgray (ayalumi, g, 3k)

Lumine fights for Ayaka’s hand in order to remain by her side.

Credit Where It's Due, by kuromandick (albeqiu, e, 8k)

Xingqiu seduces his alchemy professor.

patience and pain, by twilight_ish (kazuxiao, m, 3k)

Kazuha and Xiao share their first kiss. Xiao reacts predictably.

I Just Wanna Be With You (Doing What You Do, Always), by LONEMOON (chiscara, 3e, 20k)

The Wanderer reunites with Childe five years after giving birth to their son.

Obligation and Affection, by Grimalkenkid (scaralumi/dottoscara, e, 4k)

(Trans) Scaramouche’s past relationship with Dottore and his much happier one with Lumine.

[leblogdemarinaetjeanmarie]

MARDI 17 AOÛT 2024 (Billet 1 / 3)

Nous allons sûrement retourner à Grégolimano (Grèce – Île d’Eubée) l’année prochaine et ce pour de nombreuses raisons. Mais la principale, c’est le logement que nous choisissons. En effet dans ce Village du Club Med on nous a dit qu’il y en avait 17 sortes différentes. Le Village est très étendu (heureusement car il peut accueillir un peu plus de 1000 personnes en pleine saison), comprenant un hôtel qui lui-même est divisé en 3 parties, à côté duquel, à droite et gauche, sont disséminés des petits bâtiments dans la pinède, abritant plusieurs chambres, au rez de chaussée et à l’étage.

Quand on tourne dos à la mer, sur la gauche, le long de la plage, il y a 17 bungalows. C’est dans l’un d’entre eux, le même, que cette année nous avons été logés pour la 3e fois. L’immense privilège de ces bungalows, c’est qu’ils sont quasiment les pieds dans l’eau.

Sur la première photo, la petite flèche rouge indique la situation du nôtre et la seconde, son entrée principale, côté pelouse.

Ces quelques lignes servent d’introduction à un compte-rendu de lecture d’un livre que JM a dévoré avec délice sur la plage. Un peu de patience, nous y venons…

Ci-dessous, pardon, la photo a été prise au petit matin et le lit n’a pas encore été fait. Mais, juste derrière la baie vitrée il y a une petite terrasse avec 2 transats et quelques marches sur la droite pour descendre sur la plage. A 2 pas, les 3 transats que nous réservions pour la journée… et 2 pas plus loin, LA MER !!!

En dehors de nos baignades, notre principale activité sur la plage a été de tourner les pages des livres que nous avions emportés. Marina a d’abord terminé le livre de Pierre Bailly « Le roman de Jim » qu’elle a beaucoup aimé (et préféré au film qui en a été tiré, même si ce dernier ne l’a pas laissée indifférente), puis s’est plongée dans le dernier ouvrage de Melissa Da Costa « Rester debout » qu’elle a fini à Paris. Une histoire très dure mais qui l’a passionnée. Elle devrait écrire un petit Billet prochainement à son sujet.

JM, quant à lui, a terminé le gros livre de Siri Hustvedt, la femme de Paul Auster, « Tout ce que j’aimais ». Marina l’avait bien aimé, JM, même s’il a trouvé l’histoire intéressante, n’a pas été tout à fait emballé tout en reconnaissant le talent de l’auteure.

Et nous arrivons au thème de ce Billet : vous dire LE PLUS GRAND BIEN du livre qu’il a lu ensuite, « MES NUITS SANS BARDOT » de Simonetta Greggio (écrit en français – Albin Michel – 320 p.)

LA 4e DE COUVERTURE :

« On a cru me connaître parce qu'on m'a vue nue. Mais personne ne sait qui je suis vraiment. » Une femme s'installe à Saint-Tropez, tout près de La Madrague, afin de percer les mystères qui entourent la star flamboyante et secrète. Leurs voix, leurs histoires se répondent, mettant en lumière les multiples facettes de Bardot - de la fillette disgracieuse à l'amoureuse passionnée en passant par l'adolescente perdue et la militante de la cause animale -, et font ressurgir du passé de grandes figures artistiques : Colette, Vadim, Brando, Trintignant, Yourcenar et Gainsbourg... À travers un troublant jeu de miroirs, se recrée sous nos yeux le mythe BB, un être d'une stupéfiante modernité.

L’AVIS D’UN LECTEUR (trouvé sur le site Babelio et en parfaite adéquation avec ce que JM en a pensé) :

Enfin un roman captivant que je n'ai pas lâché durant 3 jours !!! Ça faisait longtemps que je n'avais pas été passionné à ce point par un bouquin ! Je dois dire que celui-ci est une vraie pépite ! J'ai été addict à l'écriture de l'autrice et au déroulement de l'histoire, qui n'est pas une biographie, mais où l'on apprend tout de même beaucoup de choses sur BB. C'est truffé d'anecdotes croustillantes de la star internationale, depuis ses débuts dans « Et Dieu... créa la femme » en passant par des navets dans lesquels elle a joué, tout en parcourant ses histoires d'amours sulfureuses avec Roger Vadim, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Charrier, Samy Frey, Serge Gainsbourg, Gunther Sachs et tant d'autres... pour arriver jusqu'à son parcours de militante pour la cause animale. L'auteure a planté le décor en imaginant une femme qui vient séjourner à Saint-Tropez, tout près de la Madrague où vit Brigitte Bardot, afin de percer les mystères autour de la star. Cette femme, visiblement fan de BB, garde malgré tout quelques réserves sur certains sujets non gratifiants de l'actrice. Elle va commencer un dialogue épistolaire à sens unique, en laissant des petits mots et des lettres sous un caillou à l'entrée de la Madrague, afin que Brigitte Bardot puisse les lire et lui répondre. Elle sera dans l'attente de réponse de la part de BB durant des jours et des nuits entières, d'où le titre du roman. Je ne veux pas en dévoiler plus, car il y a tant de choses à dire, mais j'ai réellement aimé ce roman, qui je le rappelle encore une fois, n'est pas une biographie mais bien une fiction. Cependant, certains passages sont extraits des deux autobiographies de BB, ainsi que d'archives et de différents documentaires. Comme Marylin Monroe, Brigitte Bardot fascine, intrigue, dérange parfois... D'ailleurs, quelque part, c'est un peu la Marylin française (il y a un passage de leur rencontre à toutes les deux à Buckingam chez la Reine d'Angleterre qui vaut le détour). Jamais quelqu'un n'aura déchaîné autant de passion, d'adoration, de haine. « Mes nuits sans Bardot » de Simonetta Greggio, plein d'humour et d'affection, fort bien documenté, très bien écrit (un peu façon « Sagan première époque »), est très agréable à lire, je vous en conseille vivement la lecture !

Le Prix :

Les jurés du Prix du Livre de Plage des Sables-d’Olonne, présidé par Jean-Christophe Rufin de l'Académie française, ont choisi pour sa 4e édition de récompenser la romancière italienne écrivant en français, qui imagine la vie recluse de l’actrice du « Mépris ».

Et après les plaisirs de la lecture (« La lecture, ce vice impuni », une citation de Stéphane Olry), de longs moments passés dans l’eau puis la « communion » avec le soleil (mais point trop n'en faut, juste le temps de sécher les maillots…).

[darklordazalin]

Azalin Reviews: Ankhtepot

Domain: Har’Akir Domain Formation: 551 BC Final Score: 💀💀💀 💀 ⚫(4/5 Skulls) Sources: Ravenloft Source book (3e), Domains of Dread (2e), Darklords (2e), Touch of Death (2e Adventure; part of the Grand Conjunction series - a personal favorite of mine.)

The domain of Har’Akir is shadowed by former glories with one small village with barely more than 300 souls making up its entire living population. It is a small patch of burning desert with rolling dunes and a few oasis. It’s hot, dry, and tedious just like Ankhtepot.

Ankhtepot, a priest of Ra in life, became a Darklord because of his obsession with immortality. Not for any noble purpose, such as continuing ones just rule of the land like my own, but for fear of death. He conducted countless experiments on living subjects in attempts to extend his own life, but he lacked the intelligence and patience required for such arcane studies. I find very few talented enough in this regard.

Being lazy and impatient, Ankhtepot turned to his “God”. I use the term “God” loosely, for who’s to say what powerful entity chose to answer his call. I suspect the Dark Powers, myself, but folktales from Har’Akir insist it was their sun deity punishing Ankhtepot for his many crimes in life.

Granted immortality at last, but failing to understand what he was, Ankhtepot ended up killing his family and servants simply through touch. You would think he would learn after the first or second time this happened, but the fool kept on touching people.

When his wife returned to him as a shuffling corpse, he began to finally realize what he had become.The Domain of Har’Akir is shadowed by former glories with a single village barely containing more than 300 souls accounting for its entire living population. It is a small patch of burning desert of rolling dunes and a scattering of oasis. It is a hot, dry, and tedious place, the perfect reflection of it’s Darklord: Ankhtepot.

In life, Ankhtepot was a Priest of Ra. He developed an obsession with obtaining immortality for he feared death above all else. He conducted countless experiments on living subjects in an attempt to expend his own life. You know, I actually invented a spell that does just this...The benefits of the arcane over the divine is one can rely upon their own creativity instead of the whims of a unseen deity.

After his inevitable failure, Ankhtepot turned to his God. Folktales of Har’Akir tell how their sun deity punished Ankhtepot for his pride and narcissism in his quest for immortality, but it far more likely that our tormentors answered his desires and granted him the immortality he asked for, but not the immortality he desired.

Not understanding what he became, Ankhtepot killed every single member of his family and his servants by simply touching them. One would think he would have learned after the first or perhaps the second time this happened that his touch had become deadly, but the fool kept on touching people only to be continually shocked by the results.

When his wife came shuffling back to him as a corpse, he finally realized what he had become. I admire the fact that he began to raise undead servants quickly, though he needlessly killed many to do so when there were already plenty of fresh corpses for him to utilize. Wasteful.

Ankhtepot wasn’t exactly discreet about his new found abilities and was eventually slaughtered by an uprising led by his once loyal priests. Ankhtepot is considered to be a “Greater” Mummy and has vast control over life and death. He still maintains many of his priestly abilities he had in life. He is a somewhat powerful undead cleric that can control lesser undead at will. A prideful man who desired eternal youth and a vast empire to rule has been reduced to a bandaged corpse with a small hamlet to lord over. Next week I shall examine the ‘rebooted’ version of Ankhtepot if the mummified fowl leave me in peace along enough to allow for a post. 

[thetruearchmagos]

Swift Seas And Whirlwinds

An Excerpt: Bristling Skies [Part 5]

Well, it's certainly been a hot minute since SSAW got an update! This is a bit plucked straight from my "Cutting Room Floor" Doc, which is to say I'm still undecided as to how it should look. Comments and critique is welcome, since it's still solidly a First Draft!

Tagging @lividdreamz @dogmomwrites @marinesocks @sanguine-arena @athenswrites @ceph-the-writing-spook @theprissythumbelina @thatndginger @jamieanovels @the-stray-storyteller @muddshadow

Over The Aukati Sea

The two Fauchers of 3e PA(E) were not the only ones up that morning. Two further patrols, far to their north and south, had been put in the air, just in case. Each of the six massive propeller driven maritime patrol craft, converted bombers themselves derived from some crude airliner, was packed to the gills with the finest tools their country had yet devised, and crewed by men with years of experience as the high flying wardens who kept vigil over these waters. Highly sensitive antennae lined each aircraft's nose, tail, and wingtips, and like the snouts of hounds they sniffed at the air for electronic odours. They would find them, eventually, and with that the ships and aircraft that were their source. Then, with the care of an artisan, they would track and chart their targets, shadowing their scent and forever staying beyond their detection ranges.

Operating as they were on full internal stores and with drop tanks strapped under their wings, the patrols could have taken off at midnight and come home in time for lunch, with a little fuel to spare. And having received no sign at all of his quarry, Traver was beginning to think that might end up being the case.

Then, it seemed as if some higher power had heard that thought. A call came through from Danette, and Merle's voice was a static-hazed cocktail of calm professionalism and barely hidden excitement.

"Contact, Capitaine! We are receiving emission signatures indicating one airborne and one surface carrier emission sensor, both Commonwealth Navy pattern."

Traver almost lept out of his seat, and around him the crew were similarly jolted into focus. 

"Bearing and range, Lieutenant!"

Traver swore he could hear Merle mile through the airwaves as he replied.

“Patience, Capitaine. Triangulating now.”

Traver strained to keep his mind level, thoughts racing as his own air crew checked and rechecked their instruments, while board the Danette Merle worked his own panel like a grand church organ.

"Southeast, Capitaine, bearing one-three-zero approximate and with low signal strength. I'd say they're far out still, recommend we change course to parallel theirs to the southwest, but keep the distance."

Seconds later, his own technical officer confirmed the report. The air inside the Adelle's crew compartment was beginning to warm up, as every man present slowly took in the enormity of their situation.

He checked his own plot, then moved to personally inspect the readouts on the technical officer's sensor displays. Things were moving fast now, and Traver rattled off his instructions to Merle as he worked. For once, he wished he had his inch-thick files on foreign instruments, because for reasons he couldn't quite place a finger on, something about his current tracks rubbed him the wrong way. Traver was the senior man in the patrol by barely a year, and he hadn't become a Captain at his age by not checking twice.

"Understood, Danette, course change authorised after we get the word out west. Prepare to broadca---"

He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes seeing something his mind couldn't quite understand. There was something wrong with the display, and for a brief second the cool professional drew a blank.

"Répéte, Capitaine?"

Traver almost thought he might have finally snapped. But he checked the readings, tuning dials and instruments for every scrap of information he could get. At such a distance as this, even his own sensors were hard stretched to detect anything in much detail, but as he recorded, manipulated, ripped apart and stitched back together the electronic song he was tuning into, he began to realise it was just a little bit off key. If only the decrepit old Instructors at the Technical Institute could see this!

"Danette, our target is not, repeat, not an enemy carrier! The electronic signature for their airborne control aircraft match what we know, but the supposed ship's readings do not by the barest margin. Patrol, shift heading to one-four-zero and keep at current speed. They are not our target, but I believe they will help us find them."

"Bien reçu, Adelle. Adjusting course now."

Merle's voice was no less steady, but his commander could sense the pressure building underneath, like fire in the belly of the world. He was a good aviator, and a fine commander, and neither of those qualities engendered a fondness for being wrong, especially where it counted. But Traver was sure that in this case, he was, and that sooner or later they'd all know for certain.

His answer would come sooner than he would think.

[blogdimanche]

Évangile de Jésus-Christ selon Saint Luc 24,35-48

 

En ce temps-là, les disciples qui rentraient d’Emmaüs racontaient aux onze Apôtres et à leurs compagnons

« 35 ce qui s’était passé sur la route, et comment le Seigneur s’était fait reconnaître par eux à la fraction du pain.

36 Comme ils en parlaient encore, lui-même fut présent au milieu d’eux, et leur dit : « La paix soit avec vous ! »

37 Saisis de frayeur et de crainte, ils croyaient voir un esprit.

38 Jésus leur dit : « Pourquoi êtes-vous bouleversés ? Et pourquoi ces pensées qui surgissent dans votre cœur ?

39 Voyez mes mains et mes pieds : c’est bien moi ! Touchez-moi, regardez : un esprit n’a pas de chair ni d’os comme vous constatez que j’en ai. »

40 Après cette parole, il leur montra ses mains et ses pieds.

41 Dans leur joie, ils n’osaient pas encore y croire, et restaient saisis d’étonnement. Jésus leur dit : « Avez-vous ici quelque chose à manger ? »

42 Ils lui présentèrent une part de poisson grillé

43 qu’il prit et mangea devant eux.

44 Puis il leur déclara : « Voici les paroles que je vous ai dites quand j’étais encore avec vous : Il faut que s’accomplisse tout ce qui a été écrit à mon sujet dans la loi de Moïse, les Prophètes et les Psaumes. »

45 Alors il ouvrit leur intelligence à la compréhension des Écritures.

46 Il leur dit : « Ainsi est-il écrit que le Christ souffrirait, qu’il ressusciterait d’entre les morts le troisième jour,

47 et que la conversion serait proclamée en son nom, pour le pardon des péchés, à toutes les nations, en commençant par Jérusalem.

48 À vous d’en être les témoins.

Texte biblique tiré de « La Bible — traduction officielle liturgique — AELF »)

(Illustration du site Apprenez-nous à prier)

Commentaire Lc 24,44

« Voici les paroles que je vous ai dites quand j’étais encore avec vous : Il faut que s’accomplisse tout ce qui a été écrit à mon sujet dans la loi de Moïse, les Prophètes et les Psaumes. » (Lc 24,44) Voilà la phrase de ce texte qui nous parle d’accomplissement. Ce thème de l’accomplissement court dans toute la Bible ; on pourrait comparer Dieu à un sculpteur qui a conçu un bronze avec des collaborateurs : l’œuvre, après bien des efforts, des fatigues, tous enfin, peuvent enfin dire « oui, il fallait » bien tout cela pour en arriver là ! Le dessein bienveillant de Dieu qui se réalise dès « avant la fondation du monde », comme dit Paul, est bien plus grandiose qu’une œuvre d’art, si belle soit-elle ! Et on peut lire tout au long de la Bible, l’histoire de ce projet en marche : la longue patience de Dieu à travers le temps, les étapes et les débuts de réalisation, les échecs et les recommencements, les collaborations. Dire que le dessein bienveillant de Dieu s’accomplit dans l’Histoire de l’humanité, c’est dire que notre histoire a un « SENS », c’est-à-dire à la fois une « signification » et une « direction ». Les croyants sont tournés vers l’avenir (l’à-venir) et non vers le passé ! Dans le Notre Père, ils disent : « Que ton règne vienne, que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel », en d’autres termes, « que s’accomplisse ton projet ». Comme notre sculpteur, Dieu cherche des partenaires pour son projet : la Bible nous dit que, depuis toujours, Dieu propose à l’humanité de collaborer à son grand projet : il y a eu Adam, Noé, Abraham… et le choix du peuple d’Israël pour être le partenaire de Dieu au service de l’humanité tout entière. Ce choix de Dieu qu’on appelle l’élection d’Israël reste valable encore aujourd’hui. Puis le Christ a pris chair au sein de ce peuple élu, et enfin, il a transmis la mission à tous ceux qui veulent bien entrer dans son Église. « Comme le Père m’a envoyé, moi aussi, je vous envoie », dit-il dans l’évangile de Jean (Jn 20, 21). Bien sûr, à force de parler de projet de Dieu, on peut se demander ce que devient notre Liberté. Or, l’une des découvertes d’Israël, c’est que Dieu ne tire pas toutes les ficelles, l’être humain a une responsabilité dans son histoire ; il n’y a pas un scénario écrit d’avance. Au contraire, Dieu respecte la liberté de l’être humain ; et, d’après Saint Pierre, c’est justement parce que Dieu respecte la liberté de chaque être humain que le projet n’avance pas plus vite ! « Le Seigneur ne tarde pas à accomplir sa promesse, alors que certains prétendent qu’il a du retard, mais il fait preuve de patience envers vous, ne voulant pas que quelques-uns périssent mais que tous parviennent à la conversion. » (2 P 3,9). Quand le Christ dit à ses apôtres « Il fallait », il leur apprend justement à reconnaître sous la surface des jours et des millénaires la lente mais sûre maturation de l’humanité nouvelle qui sera un jour réunie en lui. C’est cela « l’intelligence des Écritures ». (Note du P. Mario Doyle, C.Ss.R. : Ce commentaire reproduit largement celui d’une bibliste bien connue des catholiques de France : Marie Noëlle Thabut)

[aladaylessecondblog]

Severed Destiny, Chapter 5

An-Deesei, 3E 425

The Hist does not explain itself.

We would never have thought to tell our Haj-deek of her true identity as early as we were directed to do. We would never have thought to burden a child with destiny. Yet we knew we must...and all we can do now is be there to support her, as we have always been.

I have read the prophecies that Sadara carried among her possessions, and indeed our Haj-deek does fulfill some of them.

Dragon-born--Ebonheart is a distinctly Imperial city, the seat of the emperor's representative in Morrowind.

Far star marked--she has the influence of the sign of the Atronach.

Stark-born, to sire uncertain...we of the mission have worked very hard to ensure no one knows of Haj-deek's parentage. The story we spread, and that everyone seemed to believe, was that she had been left at our door. Whether the father knows of her existence is itself uncertain.

She took to lessons in the Goutfang style quite well, and that strange sailor friend of hers learned alongside her. She has learned that and the art of hand to hand combat, how to move swiftly, and how to fall, from me.

From Onasha, she learned the way to deceive through speech, how to wield a dagger effectively, to sneak, and how to be safe in battle without armor.

From Im-Kilaya, she learned the arts of magic. Mysticism, Alteration, Illusion, and Destruction.

From Ukawei she learned alchemy, restoration, and general medicine.

From On-Wan she learned suffering.

Our hidden slave is safe as can be expected in the circumstances, but now and then still wakes up afraid she is in chains again, and in danger of being whipped or mutilated. We did not know how Haj-deek would handle the sight of it--we often have had her aid us by causing a scene in some way or another to move and hide slaves, but none have stayed with us as long as On-Wan has. She had heard of the horrors of slavery, but not until this point did she see the effects up close.

It discomforted her to see anyone afraid of her, and she set out to make On-Wan more at ease in her presence. It took nearly a year, and patience I thought beyond the years of one so young, but this was managed.

-------------------------------------------

I was bringing the morning's breakfast down on a tray when I overheard the two of them speaking.

"I may be sent home soon," I heard On-Wan say to Haj-deek, "But the bracers--the bracers, they will not come off. No matter where I am, no matter where I go, I will always be a slave."

And this child...I watched her hold the weeping woman. She seemed uncertain of what to say at first, but she asked, "Who holds the key to your bracers?"

"One of those who works for the D...duke's brother," On-wan said, "He may carry one himself, I do not know."

"And do you know what it looks like?"

"It looks like any other key on the keyring they use. I saw it only once, when they put the bracers on me. But it felt enchanted. Like some evil magic was coursing through it."

Haj-deek stood and walked past me, before I could say anything or warn her against what she was obviously planning to do.

This child will be the death of me, I swear. She may have a hard time deciding what is best, but when she does decide, nothing will dissuade her from her chosen course of action.

----------------------------------------------------------

*Haj-deek*

"You little n'chow!"

She ran, the bag clutched in her hands. Behind a Dunmer man chased after her, though he quickly lagged behind. She ducked under some heavy thing a couple of East Empire workers were moving. Breathing hard, she passed between the two warehouses and made her way through the crowd.

The Southern tower was just ahead, and she rushed into the door right behind a Fighters' guild member.

Right up ahead, standing with two guards of his own--

A satisfied smirk spread across the face of Orvas Dren, in front of whom she finally stopped. She was still trying to catch her breath as she stuck her hand into the bag and pulled out a note.

"Something of interest, then?" he asked.

Haj-deek nodded, and handed him the note.

The Dunmer man chasing her caught up just as Orvas was unfolding it, and grabbed her by the shirt collar. Then he looked up at Orvas. "This little brat thinks it's funny to steal from us. I hope you've got something particularly..."

His sentence drifted suddenly off as he looked up and his eyes landed on the note.

"Yes, that IS quite serious," Orvas said. He looked at Haj-deek and asked, "Did you steal from my hired sword?"

"I did," she admitted it quietly, and kept her voice meek.

"You are quite sure it was this one you stole from?"

"Yes, serjo."

"Hmm, well..." Orvas gestured, and three guards she hadn't seen on the way in moved up suddenly behind the one who'd been chasing her. "This note looks rather important. Let me see here...'A hundred thanks to you for the information regarding the skooma shipment. This will greatly hinder the spread of that foul poison in the future."

His head snapped up, and Haj-deek saw the satisfied expression shift to one of silent fury.

"...signed...V." The note was instantly crumbled in his fist. "I gave you the opportunity of a lifetime. A foothold in my organization. And you spit in my face by double-crossing me?"

Orvas looked past the man and jerked his head upward. Two of the three guards moved forward, each taking one of the man's arms.

"SHE wrote that! I had nothing to do with it!"

"You've been very helpful," Orvas ignored him and turned to Haj-deek, "And I reward those who make themselves useful. But I've got a great deal to take care of...so perhaps I can simply owe you a favor."

Haj-deek nodded. "A favor from you could be very useful."

"Smart girl," he gave her a grin, "Keep this up and perhaps in a few years you could find yourself in a quite lucrative job."

Again she nodded, and at another gesture of his she headed back out the door. Not until she was nearly at the Six Fishes did she take the bag back out. There were a few gold in it, a stick or two of scrib jerky, a random chunk of onyx, a common amulet...

...but at the bottom was what she was truly after.

An iron key with a slight shimmer over it.

"There you are!"

She stiffened suddenly on hearing a voice behind her, but relaxed when she realized who it was. When she turned she saw--Khev. The fear she'd felt only a moment before faded slowly, but she gave him a smile nonetheless.

"Khev...I didn't know you were in Ebonheart. I thought surely--"

"Well, sometimes the ships move more quickly than you expect," he replied. "I won't be here long, in fact I have to be going tonight...but I remembered that your birthday was tomorrow, and thought I'd drop by and hand over the gift I've been saving for you."

"You didn't have to get me anything, but...I won't say no to whatever you've got."

From the bag at his side, Khev drew out--

"A boiled netch leather helm?" Haj-deek, having expected almost anything, did not expect this. "It's not like I'm ungrateful! It's just..."

"I only want to say this," Khev's voice, usually happy, turned suddenly serious, "I've read up on what...you being what you are means. Having a helmet that covers your face will be handy."

"Because of the ash and blight storms?"

"Well, that too, but..." His expression was suddenly...strange. Like he wanted to say something, but at the same time he didn't. "...eventually, you might come to meet Almalexia. If you never show her your face, she won't remember it."

"But she'd still know that I was..."

Something felt off. Haj-deek felt a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't telling her everything. He must've noticed, because he quickly added, "I didn't want to tell you this. But...I spoke to a fortuneteller a few days past for my own...amusement, and she had a few things to say about you."

Now he just looked sheepish.

"Like what?" she moved closer, and watched his face.

"I can't remember all of it," he replied quickly, "But I remember one thing in specific, I assume you'll know what it means better than I do. Exactly this: There are perhaps ten people alive in Morrowind who know the face she wears. The goddess is one of them.'"

Haj-deek stiffened.

"So you DO know what she means?"

"...maybe," Haj-deek replied. "I...I'll have to think about it."

Khev nodded, and handed her the helmet. Then he drew something else out--a pocket watch, it looked like, but it was shaped almost like a gear, and had a number of similar designs on its back. He popped it open, and she leaned over it to see what the inside looked like.

It was transparent. There was nothing in it that was not made of the brassy (Dwemer?) metal, and she could see through the clock face itself. The inside lid, however, was solid, and had a swirling design broken only by two words that had been inscribed along the outer edge: from odros

"Where'd you ever find this? It's amazing!"

"Oh," Khev smiled weakly, "From someone in a port I no longer visit."

He hurried off soon after, and Haj-deek herself went on back to the Argonian Mission.

----------------------------------

You must depart two years hence, Azura had said to her. Today was her birthday, but tomorrow would be the real start.

She didn't want to go at all, but...it wasn't as if that was an option. For better or ill, the Moon-and-star marked her as the Nerevarine.

Just before she had entered the Mission, Sunchaser had caught up with her. She had named the cliffracer for its tendency to want to fly out in the direction of the sunrise on the mornings after the nights it spent sleeping inside. It followed her in, and though Im-Kilaya had never grown happy about having it there, he would tolerate the beast.

"Is that yours?" Im-Kilaya spoke after looking away from the cliffracer, and was indicating the bag in her hands.

"No, but--and no, no one's going to come after me. The one that stole this double-crossed somebody else."

"And you...told them about it?"

She nodded.

"If it's one of those Camonna Tong people...you know they're dangerous, don't you? They're not people you want to get mixed up with."

"I know, I know! But...I found something On-Wan might be interested in." She reached into the bag, and produced the key. "It might not even be the right one, but he worked for--look, it's not important. There's nothing to worry about."

She hoped so, anyway.

With Sunchaser following close behind she went down the stairs, and opened the door to On-Wan's little room. The runaway lifted her head from the lunchtime bowl of stew she was eating.

"Is this your key?" Haj-deek asked, lifting the iron key. "I can wait until you're done eating if you'd prefer."

But On-Wan put the bowl aside immediately, and rushed over. Haj-deek slid the key into the lock of the left bracer. She jiggled it a bit--it turned--

And the left bracer fell to the floor. In awed silence did On-Wan wait as Haj-deek repeated it with the other bracer.

"Seizo...you have done it..." On-Wan shakily looked down at both her hands, free for the first time in a long time of those hateful bracers. "You did not have to."

"I did," Haj-deek said quietly. "No one else could, if I didn't."

"May the Hist bless you, child. Free...I can be truly free now."

They shared a smile then, and a second later, a hug.

-------------------------------------------

"Tomorrow, you will begin your journey," An-Deesei said, "And while we would prefer you did not need to begin it at all...we know that you must."

She and Im-Kilaya seemed to have decided to be the ones to give her this last talk.

"And so we have gifts for you. All of your mother's possessions will be yours now...and we are certain you will need them at some point or another."

Their gifts were sentimental ones. The stuffed guar she had loved so well as a babe that it no longer had either of its button eyes, and whose legs had been patched too many times to count. A clay print of her foot as a baby. The copy of The Sleepy Little Nix-Hound she had read so often that the spine was falling apart.

She smiled at the sight of each one, and tucked them all gingerly away.

"We know," Im-Kilaya said, "We know what you seek from this journey."

"We have done our best for you, but we know..."

"You're still my family," Haj-deek said quickly, "Even if he is my father, even if I make...if I'm able to...you're still my family. You always will be."

Im-Kilaya looked momentarily misty-eyed, so it was An-Deesei who spoke next.

"We could give you weapons or armor, but your mother had several of each which are now yours. We would have given you an amulet, but..."

"It's alright that you didn't," she said. "What is some urchin from the streets of Ebonheart going to do with a pretty bauble?"

"You are MORE than that, and you know it. So our final gift to you is not a weapon, a piece of armor, or trinket of any sort. Our final gift to you is something far more valuable."

An-Deesei turned to Im-Kilaya, who was wiping his eyes. He took from the front pocket of his robes a vial, which he handed to her, and which was then given to Haj-deek.

The vial was relatively small, full of a thin, watery golden liquid.

"Hist Sap?" she asked.

"You already know the rules," An-Deesei said to her. "No more than one drop at a time, and no having it more often than three or perhaps four times a year at the most. You know the dangers of a non-Saxhleel ingesting the sap. But this is our gift, and the Hists' as well. We are not blood, but we ARE your family. Through love...and through the Hist."

Haj-deek smiled, and came forward to hug both of them.

(Im-Kilaya could no longer hold back the tears.)

[tlaquetzqui]

So the OSR, “everything needs to be open table murder hobos like in the 1970s” types are “grognards”. Which means grumblers and refers to veterans of the Imperial Guard, in Napoleon’s army.

And therefore one of the “got in because of Critical Role” 5e children should be a “Marie-Louise”, the enthusiastic young recruits—it’s Napoleon’s second wife, i.e. “married to the emperor”.

And then people like me, 3e/Pathfinder 1e players who see no need to go back to before fucking Dragonlance but also have no patience for dumbing down the rules to appeal to Zoomers, should be “pousse-cailloux”, pebble-pushers—the rank and file grunts, not the Old Guard but also not the wide-eyed children.

[alexlacquemanne]

Septembre MMXXII

Films

Johnny English (2003) de Peter Howitt avec Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller, John Malkovich et Tim Pigott-Smith

Le Secret des Incas (Secret of the Incas) (1954) de Jerry Hopper avec Charlton Heston, Robert Young, Nicole Maurey, Thomas Mitchell et Glenda Farrell

Peau de banane (1963) de Marcel Ophuls avec Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jeanne Moreau, Claude Brasseur, Jean-Pierre Marielle et Gert Fröbe

Le Visiteur du futur (2022) de François Descraques avec Florent Dorin, Enya Baroux, Arnaud Ducret, Raphaël Descraques, Slimane-Baptiste Berhoun, Mathieu Poggi, Lénie Chérino et Assa Sylla

Bons baisers de Hong Kong (1975) de Yvan Chiffre avec Gérard Rinaldi, Gérard Filippelli, Jean Sarrus, Jean-Guy Fechner, Mickey Rooney, Clifton James, Shan Kwan Ling Fung, David Tomlinson, Huguette Funfrock et Jeane Manson

Johnny English, le retour (Johnny English Reborn) (2011) de Oliver Parker avec Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya et Richard Schiff

Le Faux Coupable (The Wrong Man) (1956) d'Alfred Hitchcock avec Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Charles Cooper et John Heldabrand

L'Homme d'Istambul (Estambul 65) de Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi avec Horst Buchholz, Sylva Koscina, Mario Adorf, Perrette Pradier, Klaus Kinski et George Rigaud

Johnny English contre-attaque (Johnny English Strikes Again) (2018) de David Kerr avec Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller, Olga Kurylenko, Jake Lacy, Emma Thompson et Matthew Beard

Le Tigre et le Président (2022) de Jean-Marc Peyrefitte avec Jacques Gamblin, André Dussollier, Christian Hecq, Anna Mouglalis, Cyril Couton, Astrid Whettnall et Lola Naymark

À fond (2016) de Nicolas Benamou avec José Garcia, André Dussollier, Caroline Vigneaux, Charlotte Gabris, Vincent Desagnat et Jérôme Commandeur

Les Oiseaux (The Birds) (1963) d'Alfred Hitchcock avec Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright et Suzanne Pleshette

La Corde (Rope) (1948) d'Alfred Hitchcock avec James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier et Douglas Dick

Séries

Détective Conan Saison 2

Le Kidnapping de Conan Edogawa - L'Anniversaire de monsieur Hotta - Le Masque de beauté - Meurtre en montagne - Affaire de haut-vol - Meurtre d'un diplomate : 1re partie - Meurtre d'un diplomate : 2e partie - Meurtre à la bibliothèque - Meurtre au club house - Le Démon du monastère - L'Affaire de l'arme mystérieuse - La Mystérieuse organisation - Itinéraire impossible - Poisson lune - Sur les traces de Sherlock Holmes : 1re partie - Sur les traces de Sherlock Holmes : 2e partie - Une première fatale - Une dessinatrice pleine de talent - Le Vaisseau fantôme : 1re partie - Le Vaisseau fantôme : 2e partie - Un monstre peut en cacher un autre - Les Trois Empreintes - Les Crabes et la Baleine - Meurtre dans l'obscurité - Coup de théâtre - Le Mystère du baron noir : 1re partie - Le Mystère du baron noir : 2e partie - La Fin du mystère du baron noir : 3e partie - Filature ratée - Un meurtre pour trois - Meurtre sur l'épave - Le Mystère de Jinnai - Meurtre d'un créancier - Conan contre le Kid Cat Burglar - Un mariage jeté au feu : 1re partie - Un mariage jeté au feu : 2e partie - Cambriolage à la banque - L'Artiste clochard - L'Enlèvement : 1re partie - L'Enlèvement : 2e partie - Meurtre sans cadavre - Vacances à la neige : 1re partie - Vacances à la neige : 2e partie

Affaires sensibles

Les origines de James Bond - Le mystère de l'Arche d'Alliance - La chute de l'URSS - L'affaire Clinton-Lewinsky - Ukraine, novembre 2004: La Révolution était orange - 2014, Poutine annexe la Crimée

Doctor Who Series 13

L'Apocalypse d'Halloween - La Guerre des Sontariens - Il n'était pas une fois - Le village des anges - Le réveillon des Daleks - La légende des démons des mers

Kaamelott Livre I

Merlin et les Loups - Le Cas Yvain - L’Adoubement - Arthur et les Ténèbres - Le Zoomorphe - La Coccinelle de Madenn - Patience dans la plaine - Le Oud - Le Code de chevalerie - Létal - Azénor - Le Sort de rage - Les Nouveaux Frères - Enluminures - Haunted - Le Secret de Lancelot - Le Serpent géant - Guenièvre et les Oiseaux - Le Dernier Empereur - Perceval relance de quinze - Le Coup d’épée - La Jupe de Calogrenant - Le Prodige du fakir - Un bruit dans la nuit - Feu l’âne de Guethenoc

Les Enquêtes de Vera Saison 11

De mère en fils - A vol d'oiseau - Urgence médicale - Au gré du vent

Rex, Chien Flic Saison 1, 2, 3, 4

L'attentat - Apportez-moi la tête de Beethoven - Étrange voisinage - La morte de Schönbrunn - Danse au-dessus du volcan - Les bas-fonds de Vienne - Traces de sang - Séduction mortelle - L'assassin de vieilles dames - La mort est au bout de la route - Sous le signe de Satan - Témoin aveugle - Coup monté -Les cobayes - Destins croisés - La dernière enquête de Stöcki - Qui a tué Sabine ? - Les diamants - Tricher n'est pas jouer - Peur sur la ville - Le masque de la mort - Sur les toits de Vienne - Itinéraire meurtrier - Le complot

The Grand Tour Saison 5

The Grand Tour présente les contrées sauvages de Scandinavie

Spectacles

Jazz à Vienne : Ben l'Oncle Soul & Monophonics (2014)

Livres

Dis bonjour à la dame de Frédéric Dard

C'est beau mais c'est triste d'Antoine de Caunes

Chaud les glaçons de Ian Fleming

Détective Conan : Tome 1 de Gôshô Aoyama

[ajthembtinerd412]

Nancy Drew (2019): Nancy Drew: ENTJ 5w6

Myers Briggs: ENTJ

Te: Nancy is logical and takes a step by step approach to solving mysteries. She always searches for evidence to prove her hunches correct, and is objectively logical and detached from her own emotions when working on a case. She is practical and has little patience for irrelevant emotional expressions and is instead task oriented.

Ni: Nancy is extremely intuitive about people and relies heavily on her hunches to figure out what’s really going on. She is analytical and good at making connections that allow her to find the culprit of a crime. She has a strong vision for her future before she loses her mother and needs to take a break to recover.

Se: Nancy can be very impulsive at times, but her actions always help her achieve her greater goal. She is aware of her physical environment and knows how to push people’s buttons.

Fi: Nancy is closed off and distant, fearing emotional connection after losing someone so important to her. She does, however, love her friends and family very dearly. She’ll do anything to protect them, like solving Lucy Sable’s suicide to save Carson Drew or lying that the Hudsons are innocent to save Ace, while still feeling guilty and not her authetic self.

Enneagram: 5w6

Nancy keeps to herself and is very closed off. She is very secretive and relies on her knowledge of the world around her to solve her problems. She is curious and inquisitive. Nancy distrusts people and has a counterphobic 6 wing. She faces challenges head on so that she and her loved ones don’t get hurt. She comes to rely on her friends for support and security when she learns to let people in again.

Instictual Variant: sp/sx

Nancy is independent and self reliant. She keeps to herself most of the time and prefers to work alone, refusing help from others in the beginning. She forms intense one- on- one bonds with certain people, like Nick. She can be very impulsive at times and quick to anger. She is so- blind and sometimes not aware of what the group wants and has a tendency to go rogue to protect her friends.

OSPP Temperament: Melancholic Choleric

Nancy is a perfectionist who cares about the truth. She wants to solve cases because she is interested in the truth and doing things right. She is analytical and detail oriented when solving cases, and discovers things the police miss. She is also pragmatic and wants to accomplish goals. She is detached and cold, and does not show emotion.

Attitudinal Psyche: LVEF

1L Confident Logic: Nancy believes in a logical explanation for everything. She has a hard time believing in the supernatural until confronted with evidence she can’t deny. She is methodical about finding evidence for Tiffany Hudson’s murder and Lucy Sable’s suicide. She can become frustrated with people when they are not being logical.

2V Flexible Volition: Nancy is a good leader, but can be flexible with her friends and not too pushy. She has no problem telling everyone else what to do, but also doesn’t mind if someone else takes charge. She is efficient and good at organizing her friends in order to accomplish a goal.

3E Insecure Emotion: Nancy has a hard time expressing her emotions and is very closed- off. She is prone to outbursts and has poor regulation over her own feelings. She generally prefers to rely on logic over her own feelings and is skeptical over her own emotions.

4F Unbothered Physics: Nancy isn’t overly concerned over her environment and has a very messy room. She isn’t very focused on her physical senses.

[mfslg]

Chères concitoyennes, chers concitoyens,

Ma réélection approche. La mandature présidentielle ne dépasse pas cinq ans, mais peut être renouvelée à l’infini quand on sait s’y prendre avec la Constitution. Cette dernière date de plus d’un demi-siècle. Il est temps de la moderniser.

Je vous donne le plan de campagne de mon deuxième mandat :

Suppression de la Sécurité sociale (pour cause de trou), nous allons pouvoir toucher du doigt le rêve américain grâce à la gestion des hôpitaux d’Olivier Véran. Le système de santé de l’oncle Sam est à nos portes, encore un peu de patience.

Suppression de la monnaie, remplacée par une carte bancaire universelle sous condition vaccinale mensuelle avec possibilité de coupler votre opérateur SFR, Orange, Bouygues. Cette démarche activera une remise de moins 5 % sur votre abonnement.

Suppression de toutes les mairies au profit des préfectures et, dans un deuxième temps, des préfectures au profit des ministères, à supprimer ultérieurement,

Suppression des communes au profit d’une grande communauté solidaire de toutes les communes (dirigée par Moi),

Suppression totale des retraités au profit d’un maintien intégral des retraites avec augmentation de 3 euros pour compenser l’augmentation de l’électricité de 120 €.

Face à ces réformes révolutionnaires, les ennemis de la France passent à l’attaque. De ce fait, je tiens tout d’abord à mettre fin à une opération de déstabilisation de l’État. La République est attaquée de tous côtés et je veux vous rassurer. Non, Jean-Michel Trogneux, disparu en 1991, n’est pas Brigitte. Que ma tendre épouse chausse du 44 ne fait pas d’elle un homme. Ces attaques transphobes ont courageusement été dénoncées par les journalistes d’investigation de Closer face aux ignobles journalistes antisémites-homophobes-racistes de Faits & Documents. Les heures les plus sombres de notre histoire resurgissent par derrière, le bruit des bottines se fait entendre. Ce n’est pas simplement Brigitte qui est attaquée, ce sont aussi toutes ces femmes qui ont compté dans l’histoire contemporaine, que ce soit Amanda Lear, Caitlyn Jenner ou encore Conchita Wurst. Il faut que ces pseudo-enquêtes cessent pour éviter un confinement des Français, je dis ça, je dis rien…

Revenons à plus de sérieux, à la politique politicienne. Pour les fêtes en distanciel, que je vous souhaite joyeuses, mais raisonnables, des mesures sont rendues nécessaires par la vague fulgurante des cas. La cinquième vague de virus qui précède la sixième, juste avant la septième est en effet plus que jamais active, particulièrement aux jours de fête où la vigilance se relâche. C’est un appel à la raison que je lance. Il est donc important de garder un œil sur les enfants contaminateurs, à l’exemple de votre Premier ministre Jean Castex, qui a dû faire face courageusement à sa contaminatrice de moins de 12 ans, sa fille Léa. Heureusement, Jeannot — comme on le nomme affectueusement avec ma femme Jean-Michel — a courageusement dénoncé la chair de sa chair devant la France entière et le refera avec la petite dernière d’un ami au moment de la vaccination des moins de 5 ans.

Françaises, Français, vous devez vous montrer responsables : la troisième dose est disponible dans toutes les stations-service, les hypermarchés et maintenant chez KFC. Si la marque Pfizer vient à manquer, Moderna peut faire l’affaire, même périmé, il est encore bon, s’il n’y a pas eu rupture de la chaîne du froid. J’entends les inquiétudes des uns et des autres et je peux vous assurer que le mélange des vaccins de nos sponsors Pfizer et Moderna est sans danger. Une étude en triple aveugle, faite par « Orangina, secouez-moi, secouez-moi ! » publiée dans le très célèbre The Lancet, archivé et disponible dans 80 ans, prouve son efficacité. La directrice de l’ANSM, Christelle Ratignier-Carbonneil, veut rassurer sur la 3e dose : « Nous n’avons pas de corrélats de protection. J’espère que nous les aurons… un jour. » Incha’Allah !

La troisième injection n’est qu’un deuxième rappel. Le terme « dose » est désormais interdit par la Haute Autorité de Santé et remplacé par « rappel ». La dose est une addiction irresponsable aux plaisirs des sens, mais le rappel est un mot d’ordre citoyen. Il est d’autant plus nécessaire que, si on le renouvelle, l’effet du vaccin peut dépasser parfois deux mois !

Françaises, Français, les chiffres sont alarmants. L’Organisation mondiale de la Santé avance le chiffre de 2 milliards de morts en Europe d’ici février, car « Omicron se trouve probablement dans la plupart des pays, même s’il n’a pas encore été détecté ». L’alerte a été donnée en Grande-Bretagne. Le Premier ministre Boris Johnson lui-même annonce déjà un mourant, mort et décédé de Omicron. La victime, très jeune, dans la force de l’âge, allait souffler ses 96 bougies malgré son cancer de la prostate, du poumon et du colon, tous en phase terminale… Malheureusement Omicron l’a achevé.

Le plan Blanc, à la couleur de l’hiver, va se dérouler de façon à ce que les vrais malades du covid, c’est-à-dire les personnes vaccinées, puissent avoir la priorité pour les soins palliatifs d’urgence. Nous rappelons évidemment que nous vivons en démocratie et que jamais nous ne rendrons la vaccination obligatoire. Et c’est dans cet esprit démocratique que le test de dépistage va légèrement augmenté, dès demain, il passera à 666 € et sera valable 1h15. Pensez à prendre vos dispositions.

Chers compatriotes, la jeunesse française est le moteur de notre beau pays et c’est dans cette optique que le sixième rappel donnera l’équivalence d’un master et le septième rappel la mention « Très bien », s’il est accompagné d’un listing de fraudeurs à la vaccination. Chaque dénonciation fera gagner un point à l’oral.

Le pass sanitaire ne dispense pas du masque, des gestes barrières, du gel hydro-alcoolique, sans oublier les restrictions des rassemblements — boîtes de nuit et bars avec dance floor — et cela jusqu’à l’Épiphanie (6 janvier, jour de la fête des Rois). Les bisous, la danse, les repas entre copains, c’est terminé ! Il en va de milliards de morts avant février. A partir de février, les survivants pourront peut-être s’embrasser à travers leurs masques. La vente des chansons de Patrick Sébastien sera interdite, afin d’éviter toute tentation de danser la chenille. Les Antillais ne pourront plus s’adonner au zouk love ou autre bachata/kizomba, considérés comme actes terroristes par frottement spontané. Le twerk sera toléré. Le respect de la distanciation est primordial, tout manquement à ces règles, en dehors des poursuites civiles et pénales auxquelles elles peuvent donner lieu, entraîne sanctions et punitions.

Ainsi, chères concitoyennes, chers concitoyens, nous retrouverons le monde d’avant et la France continuera à assumer sa part d’universel.

Emmanuel Macron, Président de la République démocratique de France.

Ah, qu'elle est bonne cette allo-cul-fion ! 🤣

[burnedbyshoto]

I have two! Not sure if youll get the first one if u havent seen the anime. 1.)The students in class 3-e from the anime assassination classroom have a much better dynamic than the students in class 1-a. 2.) BNHA is a good starter anime for people wanting to get into anime, but i feel those new fans overlook, put down even, other good animes without giving them a shot :/ (this is just me stressing over the upcoming anime awards ahaha)

i’ve seen assassination classroom! cried like a little bitch in it at the end 💀

1) I thought class 1a was brighter and more lively than 3e tbh. I couldn’t remember any names or faces past the main 5 characters but 1a was the first were I wanted to know everything about everyone

2) hi! you’re actually talking to a new anime fan ;-; bnha is a great starter anime, tbh it’s semi sorta my first anime??? I watched naruto in 3rd grade and stopped once I couldn’t find episodes on youtube 😂 but for a long time since I was 8 until I was... 18? I didn’t watch anime. that being said imma say, as someone who is new to anime still but has watched a fuck ton of recommended content, I haven’t found anything I like more than bnha. sorry, not sorry. now I can’t speak for any other novice anime watchers, but I can say as someone who has literally done nothing but say bnha is my favorite anime and have many, many people tell me to my face that it’s only my favorite because I haven’t watched anything “good” or “true anime” i’m not keen on playing nice. bnha ain’t perfect, I know that, and I never needed it to be perfect because the way it is is perfect for me.

my issue comes in when I watch these suggestions because people rave about them & I don’t find them to be the same impact as bnha did to me. trust me, I know you might believe it’s because I might feel close to bnha or whatever and don’t want to abandon it, but I watched kny right afterwards & I loved it!!! I love kny so much and I read the manga after finishing the anime and it still didn’t clutch its claws into my heart like bnha. I watched fma brotherhood, I watched ac, inuyasha, fairy tail, tokyo ghoul, mob psycho, naruto, bleach, sao, yoi, love is war, millionaire detective, devilman crybaby, hq, tpn, and so many more. the point is i’ve watched everything ever recommended to me (except one piece, I absolutely refuse to watch that simply because it’s way too long & I don’t have that attention span) and nothing has passed bnha to me. & when I admit that to people who become vicious and rude because of an OPINION THAT IS MINE AND NOT THEIRS the next 200 times i’m asked and get the same reaction all 200 times, i’m not inclined to feel the same patience the first time around. i’m well aware that I might come off as rude to people when I don’t want to open up after revealing to others that bnha is my fav anime/manga but people trying to tell me i’m wrong just doesn’t fly when it comes to content that’s about entertainment.

[highjusticiar]

Dossier

BASIC INFORMATION:

Full Name: Lylindilaran Glandramil

Pronounciation:

-Ly (Lie)

-Lin

-Dil

-Aran

-Glan

-Dra

-Mil

Nickname/Alias:

-High Justiciar

-Lyl (Pronounced Lyle)

-Meaning:

Lylindilaran: Bringer of Light

-Glandramil: Leviathan

Title(s): High Justiciar

Gender: Male

Gender Role: Masculine.

Orientation: Bisexual. Has no preference for gender.

Real Age: 1254

Age Appearance: 627

Birthday: 1st of Morning Star, 3E 70

Birthplace: First Hold, Summerset Isles.

Astrological Birthsign: The Mage

Zodiac Sign: The Serpent

FAMILY AND RELATIONSHIPS:

Biological Mother: Eararie Korbinder

Biological Father: Naemmiondryn Glandramil

Lylindilaran is the only child of Eararie Korbinder and Naemmiondryn Glandramil. As a child, he showed remarkable aptitude for spells and learning, impressing his mentors and tutors that his parents hired for his education. LIke his father, he excelled in Lightning Magic that the Glandramil’s are known for.

Wife: Gialelinwae Lillandril

Children:

-N/A

Lyl’s Guards - Sworn to defend him with their lives and the best of the best; skilled in magic and mettle.

-Voririllian Tahromaerith

-Arrathnertil Laretheus

-Linrurgderion Anaedthius

-Tilmrionamion Elsinkaender

-Ormimaillin Silloniuth

-Itherllithil Loraethan

Maritial Status: Married to Gialelinwae Sillonlock.

PHYSICAL INFORMATION:

Species: Elf/Mer

Ethnicity: High Elf - Altmer

Blood Type: O Negative

Preferred Hand: Ambidexterous

Facial Type: Sharp and angular with refined, elegant features. Well-defined cheek bones and brow ridges and a strong chin. He has a somewhat narrow nose.

Eye Color: Bright amber, but he usually has a cold expression, which makes his eyes appear almost icy.

Hair: Platinum blonde. Rather short and always combed neatly back. He also possesses a short, neatly trimmed stuble, that is almost a beard.

Skin Tone: Pale gold.

Complexion: As a skilled and talented mage, he is rather young-looking for his age, with smooth skin, and he does not have any scars due to the fact that he prefers to keep his distance in combat.

Figure/Build: Medium-Light build, very tall with a decent amount of muscle usually hidden beneath his robes. He is rather broad in the shoulder and chest, with narrow hips, long legs and arms, and larger hands and feet.

Height: 7'0"

Weight: 250 lbs

Scars: Some scarring along his hands from destruction spells.

General: Very good. He is strong, healthy, and in good shape.

Energy: In good physical and emotional states.

Memory: Has an almost photographic memory and is able to remember things. He has a knack for spotting small things and noticing things about people and environments.

Posture: Proud and regal.

Gait: Generally walks with his head held high and shoulders back.His walk is powerful and purposeful, noble and self-assured. He has a graceful air to him.

Style of Dress: Intricate, regal, and noble. He generally wears his Thalmor robes most of the times, but will generally also wear other robes and tunics that are well made and beautiful.

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Nature: Cold, calculating, and ruthless, Lylindilaran will do anything to kepe the Aldmeri Dominion in power and to stomp out Talos worship and ensure the Thalmor’s goals are achieved. He is generally reserved and aloof in his speaking and mannerisms and is not prone to rash actions.

Positive Attributes: … Uhm.. Patience? Maybe. Intelligent. Resourceful and ambitious.

Negative Attributes: Has gone full asshole. Vain, prideful, arrogant, believes himself superior to humans.

Phobias: None.

Mental Disorders: Might be a bit sociopathic and not able to connect to people emotionally.

Religion: Believes in the Eight Divines. Absolutely despises Talos.

Political Party: The Third Aldmeri Dominion -/- The Thalmor.

Skills/Talents: Destruction (Lightning/Storm element), Speech, Military Tactics, Reading, writing, and planning.

Accent: Heavy Altmeri accent, mostly originating from Alinor, the Capital of Summerset.

Voice:  Charles Dance

PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION:

Occupation: High Justiciar to the Aldmeri Dominion.

Rank: High Justiciar

Income: 200,000 Gold a month

Wealth Status: Top 1% in Summerset wealth.

Organizations and Factions: Organizations and Factions: The Third Aldmeri Dominion -/- The Thalmor.

Education: Arcane University in Summerset

Languages:

-Native Language: Altmeris

-Spoken Languages: Common Cyrodiilic, Altmeris, Ayleid, and Aldmeris.

Location: Lylindilaran resides primarily in Alinor, Summerset, ruling over them with an iron fist and with his council of justiciars, determining how to achieve the Dominion’s goals.

[libertineangel]

Introducing my second HoK OC: Marius Delitan

Marius Delitan is the young, idealistic son of a noble family, deeply unprepared for his destiny.

Born in 3E 412, Marius Claudius Lucius Delitan was the youngest and most troublesome child of a minor family in Cyrodiil's aristocracy. While his eldest sibling, Regulus, was a studious and driven accountant who had a highly promising career in Imperial beauracracy, and his sister Flavia was a Legion officer in Skyrim, Marius grew up around the Empire's steadily accelerating collapse and quickly became thoroughly disillusioned with it. His parents, and the tutors they hired, did their best to educate and train him as a proper member of upper-class society but all efforts were in vain, for he took very poorly to martial training and was extremely uncooperative with political and stewardly lessons.

Instead he preferred the arts, specifically the arts as used for social commentary - he and a group of other young nobles of similar beliefs formed what they hoped would be a kind of subversive artistic collective, producing all manner of work cleverly critiquing the Empire and championing the rights and causes of the people; Marius himself wrote poetry, or plays, or painted, or whatever else happened to take his fancy at any given moment. Well-intentioned as this was, capacity for meaningful satire is limited among aristocrats no older than 25 at the most who paid for their supplies and space with their parents' money and largely never had the patience to develop true talent at any one art form, and in truth they were largely just a minor nuisance for the Imperial City's guards and theatre managers.

One morning they were staging some kind of protest over something they thought deserved to be loudly challenged, and as their shouting and pamphlets were roundly ignored by everyone passing by, Marius thought he would attract some real attention by throwing a tomato at a member of the City Watch. This worked, earning him not only attention but a blow to the head and a night in the Imperial City Prison.

Marius wondered whether his parents would be more honoured by the visitor that released him than embarrassed that, of all the family, said visitor ended up meeting him.

[qm-vox]

Let The World Never Falter - Playing Paladins in D&D

(Pictured: Anastasia Luxan, Knight of the Tainted Cup, one of only two people in her friend group that are not evil-aligned. Her wife Aisling is not the other good-aligned person. Characters are from my novel Mourners: Scum of Shatterdown; art credit goes to J.D)

Paladins are one of Dungeons and Dragons’ most striking, and most controversial, character classes. Few character classes and character concepts capture the imagination as quickly or start arguments of such ferocity. I’ve been in this game awhile - I remember when D&D 3e was released - and paladins have been one of my most loved and most hated parts of D&D and its legacy systems that entire time. So here I am again, about to write a long-ass article offerin’ my perspective on paladins through the ages (hopefully highlighting the strongest parts of each vision of them), talk about their pitfalls and problematic elements, and offer some advice on bringing your own paladin to life.

While this article draws on my long experience with D&D and will be citing specific sources, it would not be possible without the help of some other people in my life. I mention Afroakuma a lot in the context of D&D, and our friendship has once again been invaluable here. @a-world-unmasked , also one of my oldest friends, has long been a source of ethical discussion and debate, especially about thorny questions of justice & mercy, amends, redemption, and punishment, and provided information on D&D 4e’s paladins and paladin-like classes. SSG Jacob Karpel, United States Army, brought a Jewish perspective on paladins and their themes into my life and has borne questions of faith, dogma, and tradition with remarkable enthusiasm and patience. @swiftactionrecovery provided further perspective on D&D 4e, and her current paladin (”paladin”; it’s complicated), Aurora, is a great example of a non-traditional take that is at the same time very on-brand. Emerald has long provided the service of beating my ass when I start getting stupid about my own values and beliefs, and @ahr42p‘s fascination with fantasy ethics has informed a lot of my own thoughts on the same. None of this would be possible without you folks.

This article’s title is drawn from Maverick Hunter Quest, written by Cain Labs & Hunter Command. It appears as the motto of the 10th Urban Unit; dedicated soldiers whose specialty was preserving lives, preventing collateral damage, and steering disasters away from the innocent.

None of my articles are quite complete without Content Warnings; the following will contain mentions and descriptions of violence (including state-sanctioned violence such as executions), mentions of high crimes such as slavery and forced conversion, discussion of religion in both fictional and non-fictional contexts, and discussion of fascism and fascist ideology. It is also the end result of more than 20 years of both passionate love for paladins and equally passionate hatred of the same. If you’re wondering what some of that has to do with paladins...well, you’re in for a ride.

So, without further ado, let’s get into...

The Order Of The Kitchen Table - Paladins Through D&D’s History

I hope you like walls of text because I am about to fuck you up with some.

D&D and Pathfinder have a long history with paladins, and they’ve changed a lot through the ages. The following is an overview of the different editions of paladins, what each introduced, and their strengths & weaknesses as a vision of paladinhood. Though the advice in this article is weighted towards 3.PF and 5e, it should in theory be applicable to any of these editions; I should also note that while Pathfinder 2e has its own version of paladins, I am not familiar enough with its vision of paladins to be able to speak on it in good faith. Let’s start with the oldest first, shall we?

AD&D 1e & 2e: Rise A Knight - 1e and 2e were fucking wild. The original incarnation of the paladin showed up as a sub-class of the cavalier, a warrior-group class which had an aura of courage, rode a horse, and had other ‘knightly’ abilities. Paladins had to be a cut above and beyond cavaliers, but unless they also violated the code of the cavaliers in addition to the paladin code, they would become cavaliers when they Fell rather than fighters, which was a bit of a better spot to be in. These paladins were very specifically part of the military arm of a feudal state, with all that entails, and had restrictions on what they could wear and what weapons they could use that were rooted in their social status. In point of fact, in 1e? Paladins couldn’t use missile weapons at all; bows, crossbows, and their kin were for “peasants”. These paladins had to tithe 10% of all income to a ‘worthy’ institution (usually a Lawful Good church of some kind, but other examples include hospitals, charitable initiatives, orphanages, and monasteries), had sharp limits on how many magical items they could own & of what kind, and were beholden to a strict code of conduct rooted in medieval feudalism & romantic ideals of chivalry. While the very original paladin had many of the iconic powers associated with them today (laying on hands, curing disease, an affinity for holy swords), it was not until AD&D 1e proper that paladins developed the ability to cast spells for themselves.

AD&D 2e’s vision of paladins was similar in many ways; they had the same powers, similar ability score requirements, and were similarly rare and elite. They had wealth limits, had to tithe from their income, could only own certain numbers and kinds of magical items, and had to be of Lawful Good alignment. Where things get interestingly different here is who becomes a paladin, and why. In both editions, only humans could be paladins, but where 1e required paladins to be drawn from or else become nobility (because they were derived from cavalier, which was all about status), 2e opened up many origins for paladins. The majority of these can be found in The Complete Paladin’s Handbook, just under 130 pages of nothing but paladins. Reading that book is a fucking trip; it was published in 1994, and while I am not gonna pretend that it’s woke or unproblematic, it has some stunningly modern takes. Do you expect to open up an old D&D supplement about paladins and find it defending poly relationships as valid? NEITHER DID I.

It’s important to note that in both of these editions, paladins lacked magical avenues of attack entirely; Smite Evil was a later invention, and paladin spells, in addition to coming online late in their career (9th level), were sharply restricted to a specific list that included no offensive magic whatsoever. Therefore, any paladin origin had to explain from whence one’s martial skills came, since you are in many ways a warrior more than anything else. There’s some expected ones; religious patronage, which ignores social status but requires an organized church that’s permitted to raise men under arms. Government sponsorship, generally conducted in urban areas where you can actually retain recruiters. Inherited title, if you wanna run a paladin that really hates Mom for forcing them into this. Mentors, for running paladins that are just straight-up shonen protagonists, and my personal favorite, DIVINE INTERVENTION, where one day your god starts talking to you but instead of filling your soul with martial skill she makes you sew training weights into your clothes and miraculously makes a bear live in your house so you can learn courage. It’s fucking amazing.

From those origins, anyone who manages to swear their oath and become invested with the power is essentially part of the nobility from then on; paladinhood marks them as an exemplar of noble ideals, which even in a non-romanticized culture sorta grabs the bluebloods by the short hairs. It’s a bit hard to argue divine right if you try to throw the embodiment of your supposed ideals out of your house. Since these paladins were often, though not necessarily, members of militant organizations they were generally expected to have superiors to whom they answer, a chain of command of which they are part, and to eventually construct a stronghold of some kind and put its services at the disposal of that organization in addition to utilizing it to serve the needy and defend the weak. 2e was a lawless and strange time in D&D, in which building such a stronghold and hiring followers was a class feature of warrior-group classes, and one of the paladin’s key benefits was the opportunity, but not the promise, to acquire some manner of holy sword, which which she gained powerful protections against evil that let her stand toe-to-toe with powerful spellcasters.

Tying all of this together was an in-depth exploration of the most complex and probably the most nuanced code published for paladins in any edition. Though the default was a rigid and inflexible code which defined acceptable behavior, associations, and even employees for the paladin, The Complete Paladin’s Handbook introduced an alternate method of handling code violations that ranked infractions by their severity & intent, and assigned penalties accordingly. Was it perfect? No. Not even a little. The Code was, is, and probably forever will be the most trash part of paladin. But it was a damn sight better than basically any incarnation before it, and most of them after. This code was broken down into (in order of importance), Strictures, Edicts, and Virtues. Strictures are the things a paladin must do and have simply to be a paladin; they must be Lawful Good, they must tithe to a worthy institution, they must abide by their wealth limits, and they must not associate (here meaning ‘serve, be friends with, or knowingly hire’) with evil people. Edicts are the commands of those to whom the paladin is sworn to obey; often this will be a church, a government, or both, but a paladin might instead or also swear to obey edicts given by their family, their mentor, their secular philosophy, or even their wider culture. Military commands and orders are edicts, but so are daily practices such as keeping a kosher diet, maintaining a family burial ground, or obeying a system of formal etiquette. A paladin freely chooses the source of her edicts, but once she’s sworn to obey she cannot selectively turn down a given edict unless it would conflict with one of her Strictures (for instance, if her king orders her to beat a helpless prisoner) or with a ‘higher’ source of Edicts (in general, a paladins religion or philosophy takes precedence over her liege or mentor, who in turn takes precedence over family or culture).

Virtues are where we get real interesting. Lemme quote The Complete Paladin’s Handbook, page 32:

Virtues are traits exemplifying the highest standards of morality, decency, and duty. They comprise the paladin’s personal code. Although not specifically detailed in the PH definition of a paladin, a paladin’s virtues are implied by his strictures as well as his outlook, role, and personality. Just as a paladin must obey his strictures, he must also remain true to his virtues.

Though most paladins adhere to all of the virtues described below, exceptions are possible. For instance, a paladin from a primitive society may be so unfamiliar with civilized etiquette that including courtesy as part of his ethos would be unreasonable. All adjustments must be cleared by the DM at the outset of a paladin’s career.

No system was attached to virtue ‘violations’, because they weren’t oaths to keep as such. Rather, virtues represented commitments to a paladin’s ideals and worldviews; they were the behaviors and values which someone serious about being a paladin would live by because that’s the kind of person they are. They were very Christian and very European in nature, tied up in Catholic ideas of knighthood from which paladins as a class were originally drawn, but there’s definitely a point to be made here. If you don’t walk your talk, can you call yourself a paragon? We’re gonna get into this specific topic more later in the article, when I start discussing other the virtues extolled by other kinds of warriors, but the ones listed and expanded on in this book are as follows:

Fealty - A paladin swears loyalty and service to, at minimum, a faith or philosophy that is lawful good in nature. This forms the foundation of her convictions and informs the kind of good she tries to do in the world. A paladin remains conscious of the fact that she is seen as an embodiment of those ideals, takes joy in her service, and pays respect to those to whom she has sworn her troth. Notably, this is not classic feudal fealty; a paladin swears service to institutions, not people, with some exceptions (generally in the form of paladins who swear fealty to their mentors).

Courtesy - Paladins strive to show respect by following social customs, being polite and well-mannered, and treating even enemies with dignity. A paladin responds to insults with grace, considers the feelings of others, and does not stoop to insults or slander. Remember the Kingsmen gentleman rules? That. This is just that.

Honesty - A paladin speaks the truth as she knows it. She is free to withhold information (especially from enemies), and may state that she would prefer not to answer when asked questions - or that she is ordered, enjoined, or otherwise required not to answer, if that is the truth - but does not intentionally mislead or deceive others. If you ask your paladin friend a question and they say they would rather not answer, think real hard about how bad you want their opinion.

Valor - Paladins display courage in battle. Given a choice between many enemies, a paladin chooses the most dangerous. If someone has to take a risk to defend the innocent, cover a retreat, or ensure the success of the mission, the paladin volunteers for that risk. A paladin only retreats from battle to fulfill a higher part of her ethos.

Honor - A paladin conducts herself with integrity even when no one is watching or when it is of no benefit to herself. She shows mercy, refuses to inflict undue suffering even on such wretched beings as demons, does not cheat or cut corners, and does not compromise her principles. The description of the virtue of honor contains the rawest line in the entire book: “It is an admirable act to comfort a dying friend, but an act of honor to comfort a dying enemy.”

The above are the ‘universal’ virtues a paladin is meant to embody. The book briefly touches on the idea that a paladin might also choose to uphold other virtues and work them into her Code of Ennoblement, the ceremony by which she is invested with the power of a paladin...or isn’t. The sample ‘bonus’ virtues provided are humility, chastity, celibacy, and my absolute favorite, industry, in which you swear to have no chill at all, ever, until the day you finally die, and instead spend all of your waking moments in some effort of self-improvement or work such as reading, building houses for the needy, repairing tools & equipment, and otherwise being completely incompetent in the art of self-care. It’s great, I absolutely love it.

Together, this code and the paladin’s abilities present a vision of classical knighthood, something like, oh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35GUTY_Gr14

That. A defender and paragon of medieval virtues, who lives to help others.

“Alright Vox, surely you’re reaching the end of AD&D 2e now?” you ask. “We’ve been through the mechanics, we’ve been through the vision of paladins as members of feudal states who are figuratively and legally ennobled by righteousness, we’ve even gone into more detail about the code than was strictly necessary. 3e time right?” AFRAID NOT, MY WILD RIDE DOES NOT END. AD&D 2e didn’t have feats, didn’t really have spell selection in this context, and while it had a sort of skill system (the Proficiency system, greatly utilized and suggested by The Complete Paladin’s Handbook) that was hardly a way to make one paladin feel mechanically distinct from others. So how did players do that? Ability score rolls and loot drops?

Nope! We had Kits.

Kits modify a class or multiclass combo (not relevant to this article, but as a f’rinstance, the original Bladesinger was an elf-only Fighter/Mage kit found in The Complete Book of Elves); they give it additional features and additional restrictions. They could, but did not always, have ability score requirements above and beyond the typical ones for their class, and they might also have backstory or roleplaying requirements. A kit might who your character is in the society of the game world, the abilities they brought to the adventuring party, or both. Like Pathfinder’s Archetypes, some kits would strip abilities from the standard class, but not all of them did so.

So what did paladin kits do? In short, they changed the kind of knight you were. An Errant, for instance, is kept on a long leash by their liege and does not often have to fulfill edicts - but in exchange, she’s on her own and cannot expect funding from the state. Ghosthunters, who specialize in the destruction of the undead, gain the power to dispel evil, immunity to paralysis, turn undead just as well as a cleric does, and get access to a holy sword a minimum of 2 levels earlier - but they can’t lay hands, cure disease, cast priest spells, or enjoy immunity to disease. Inquisitors (I know) are paladins who see magic as a good and benevolent force, which is corrupted - profaned, even - by the practice of evil magic; they’re similar to ghosthunters in a lot of ways, but also represent an organized philosophy. The Complete Paladin’s Handbook has 22 pages of kits for standard paladin alone, which you can mix and match to create your own unique take on the concept, plus information on “demi-paladins” - non-human fighter/clerics who slowly gain paladin powers in addition to their own. This was back in the day when certain races just could not be good at certain classes due to level restrictions or being unable to take those classes in the first place, but here was the first glimmer of D&D confronting some of its own bullshit; before this book, the implication was that no non-human race was moral enough to be a paladin.

There’s so much more in this book but I’m not gonna get into all of it or this article’s just gonna be a review of one supplement; if you can get your hands on a PDF or even a hard copy, I highly suggest it as a read. It’s not that I endorse its vision for paladins as being the best or as being objectively correct, because I don’t; the potential of paladins is much broader than this narrow vision of Christian feudalism. It’s that no other book, before or after, has paid such loving attention to who paladins are in the game world, including thought given to details like their mortality rate (paladins that manage to survive to 40 are forcibly retired in the hopes that they can teach the youngbloods to do the same), the economics of knighthood, meta-commentary about how the class’s aesthetic and presentation is built to enhance themes about the game and the setting, and even a chapter on weaving faith into your game world and thinking about your paladin’s relationship to her own. The great strength of AD&D 2e’s paladins is that they, more than any others, have this loving care devoted to them that makes them feel like a real part of the worlds in which they live, and their great weakness is a vision that is more narrow than it wanted to be. You can see the author grasping for something broader, something more inclusive, only for it to slip between his fingers.

D&D 3.5: Up From The Gutter - Ah, D&D 3.5, the demon that will not die. This game spawned a million spin-offs and heartbreakers, love for it contributed to the rise of Pathfinder, and it remains incredibly popular and played. It’s also garbage, but c’est la vie, c’est la morte. Its vision of paladin is not as detailed as AD&D 2e’s was, and its main innovations were mechanical in nature. However, 3.5 did offer some in-depth explorations on what it means to be Good-aligned that previous editions did not, and given the context that’s about to be important to talk about.

3.5′s vision of paladin mechanics was remarkably similar to 2e’s, with the most notable change being race selection (anyone can now be a paladin as long as they’re Lawful Good) and the addition of Smite Evil, which can be used a certain number of times per day to gain more accuracy and damage when attacking evil-aligned creatures. Paladins are still warriors, they still cure disease, lay on hands, detect evil, and own a horse; in other words, they barely changed. Unfortunately, the game changed, and this left paladins high and dry. I’m not gonna mince words: for most of 3.5′s run, paladins lagged so far behind in terms of combat prowess, skill selection, and general utility that they were essentially unplayable, including and in some ways especially against classic foes such as demons and dragons.

I’m not gonna get into why, because that is a separate and much angrier article that will spark a lot of controversy due to people who run their ignorant mouths like they know what the fuck they’re talking about, not that I’m bitter. The relevant part of this is that over 3.5′s run, paladin did in fact slowly improve. The Serenity feat, published in Dragon 306, (and much more easily available to you in Dragon Compendium) helped clean up the dizzying amount of attributes upon which they were dependent. Battle Blessing (Champions of Valor) made it easier to incorporate their native spellcasting into their play (though nothing ever quite solved their sharply limited spell slots), and Sword of the Arcane Order (Champions of Valor again) both opened up an alternate vision of paladins as a different kind of magical knight & offered broader utility in paladin’s spell list. The Prestige Paladin in Unearthed Arcana converted paladin from a base class to a prestige class, which let you build it off of more mechanically viable classes - further enhancing your ability to customize your paladin, especially since as a PrC you could stop taking Prestige Paladin at any time you felt you were sufficiently knightly. Access to these and other options eventually made paladin, if not good, at least viable, able to be played in most campaigns and pre-made adventures without undue worry or getting chumped out of basic encounters.

In all of their forms, these paladins still had a code. Observe:

Code of Conduct

A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all class abilities if she ever willingly commits an evil act.

Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.

Associates

While she may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, a paladin will never knowingly associate with evil characters, nor will she continue an association with someone who consistently offends her moral code. A paladin may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful good.

Ex-Paladins

A paladin who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all paladin spells and abilities (including the service of the paladin’s mount, but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any farther in levels as a paladin. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see the atonement spell description), as appropriate.

Like a member of any other class, a paladin may be a multiclass character, but multiclass paladins face a special restriction. A paladin who gains a level in any class other than paladin may never again raise her paladin level, though she retains all her paladin abilities.

You know all the horror stories you’ve read of DMs maliciously making paladins Fall, or miscommunications in groups leading to alignment arguments? The ones about youth-pastor paladin characters sucking all the fun out of a party? Meet the culprit. 3.5 did not have The Complete Paladin’s Handbook’s discussion on same-paging with your group to prevent these problems, and this vague code wording paired with immediate and extreme consequences didn’t do it any favors. That’s not to say that this code is unworkable, exactly, but trying to sit down and agree with 4-6 other adults on what ‘gross violations’ actually means is essentially the world’s shittiest round of Apples to Apples and your reward for it is resenting the character you just built.

And that’s the paladin part, which means we have to get into the “being good-aligned” part. Lemme tell you about Book of Exalted Deeds, a historically significant garbage fire of a book that is somehow both the best supplement released about Good and the worst supplement released about Good at the same time.

For those of you with the fortune to have never played 3.5, its books are like that a lot.

So, bad parts first: all the mechanics. Just all of them. The prestige classes? Bad. The feats? Generally bad. The redemption rules revolving around Diplomacy? Sloppy. Magic items? Bad. Spells? Look up an online discussion about sanctify the wicked and then get back to me on that one; they’re bad too. Ravages and afflictions (good-aligned poisons and diseases) were a bad idea that were also a case of stunning hypocrisy from a book whose stance was that dealing ability score damage is ‘needless cruelty’. Even the write-ups for the planar NPCs kinda make them into these basic bitch pushovers, which, you guessed it, is bad. There’s a lot to say against this book and you can find someone saying it in most open web forums if you want to take a journey into the godawful design of the liminal space between 3.0 and 3.5.

But the good stuff was real good. D&D had/has long been stalked by ‘ethical dilemmas’ such as the so-called Goblin Baby Problem, where players would ask if it’s good to let goblin children live since they would only grow up to become goblin adults. Book of Exalted Deeds was the first D&D publication to make a hard stance against racial genocide (hell of a sentence, I know), and it doubled down on The Complete Paladin Handbook’s implied stance that all forms of romance and sexuality are valid as long as they’re between consenting adults that respect one another. BoED strove to define Good not just as the avoidance of evil (”The utter avoidance of evil is, at best, neutral.”) but as actively striving to respect life, practice altruism, and make the world a better and more just place. While its take on ideas like forgiveness, redemption, and justice were not necessarily perfect, it went out of its way to try to offer nuanced takes on those ideas and to note emphatically that practices such as slavery and racism do not become good just because certain historical cultures thought they were at the time.

The other notable thing that Book of Exalted Deeds did for the idea of a Good alignment was firmly state on the record that NG and CG are just as valid and Good as LG is. The existence of paladins and their alignment-locked nature had long implied that Lawful Good was the “best” Good, or the “most” Good, but Book of Exalted Deeds didn’t just introduce material for characters that were paragons of other Good alignments, it provided examples of such characters in action. D&D is still somewhat stalked by that “Law is Good and Good is Lawful” problem, but BoED and other books in its niche (notably including Heroes of Horror - I know, it doesn’t sound like it but trust me - and Champions of Valor) helped push back against that problem and open the floor to other heroes.

I wouldn’t be wholly done talking about 3.5 paladins without mentioning Unearthed Arcana, which introduced the paladin of freedom (CG), paladin of tyranny (LE), and paladin of slaughter (CE). Their hearts were in the right place here, but all three of them were...better ideas than executions, as it were, without much to talk about for them. Still, they make good examples of 3.5′s great strength in paladins: breadth of concept. Ideas that were previously impossible as paladins became commonplace, including paladin-like characters who were not members of the class and which I would absolutely consider paladins myself. It didn’t stick the landing on the mechanics, but that’s just 3.5 for you; if you weren’t a dedicated spellcaster, chances are you were gonna have some manner of bad time. This idea of paladins from all walks of life, from all levels of society and all peoples, has become a cherished part of the popular conception of paladins and it absolutely should be brought forward to other editions.

Which, honestly? It was.

Pathfinder 1e: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back - Pathfinder 1e’s baseline paladin release was essentially 3.5′s in many ways. The key mechanical differences were a revamped Smite Evil (which finally made it effective against its intended targets), the aura line of abilities that begin adding additional effects beyond Aura of Courage at 8th level and up, and Mercies - riders for the paladin’s Lay on Hands ability that cause it to also cure status effects, which in turn greatly enhances the paladin’s utility as a support class. Pathfinder also cleaned up some of 3.5′s attribute problems by orienting all of paladin’s magical abilities to Charisma instead of splitting between Wisdom and Charisma. Another small but significant note is the alteration from ‘gross’ violations of the code to any violation of the code. “Gee Vox, that doesn’t sound like it would really help code problems,” you say, to which I reply: it absolutely fucking did not.

Once we leave core, we get quite a few quality-of-life improvements. Though Pathfinder 1e lacks Battle Blessing, it replicates some of its effects by having many swift-action spells in-house for paladin, notably including the Litany line. Pathfinder’s archetype system for class customization offers options for the paladin that further customize its concept, though on the balance it’s harder to mix and match archs than it was to do so with kits. Archetypes always trade something, so in taking an arch you will lose some part of the base paladin kit and gain something which replaces it.

Narratively, things get more specific outside of core as well. Paizo’s one-and-only setting, Golarion, is one in which paladins must swear fealty to a specific god they serve above all others, and their power is derived directly from that god, who can grant or withhold it as they see fit. These gods (generally LN, LG, or NG in alignment, though certain specific CG deities sponsor paladins who must still be LG themselves) offer their own codes of conduct, which their paladins must follow. A paladin may be obligated to oppose ‘heresy’ as vigorously as chaos or evil, which is an awkward fucking feel, and paladins in Golarion’s setting can be found working for organizations such as the Hellknights, or in the armed forces of nations that practice slavery and forced conversion. That’s not to imply that they’re not also depicted in unambiguously good contexts, but when it comes to establishing paladins (or, well...anyone...) as good-aligned people Paizo has a bad habit of dropping the ball.

Like 3.5, the great strength of the Pathfinder 1e paladin is customization, and in this case a more solid mechanical base in comparison to the rest of the game. Pathfinder similarly flounders in that its vision of paladins is narrow and not fully realized in the game world.

Discussion of Pathfinder 1e’s paladin wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Anti-Paladin, the only “alternate class” to see mechanical support beyond its initial publication. Baseline anti-paladins must be chaotic evil and have abilities that are the inverse of the baseline paladin; similarly, anti-paladin has archetypes available that change it to different kinds and methods of evil. It has its fans, and in terms of playability it’s as good, if not a little better, than paladin, but on the whole I tend to break on the side of thinking that Good and Evil are not mirror images of one another, and thus an anti-paladin is inappropriate as an idea. At least, one done in this way, as an explicit reaction to a supposed paragon of virtue, as things are about to get real interesting in...

D&D 4e: The Knight Unshackled - D&D 4e built off of the foundations laid down by the Book of Exalted Deeds and Unearthed Arcana by completely removing all alignment restrictions from both paladin and its counterpart class, blackguard. This section will also need to talk about cousin classes to paladin; specifically, the Avenger and the Invoker. Let’s start from the top, shall we?

Paladins in 4e are predicament dommes defenders; they use their abilities to place Marks on enemies, who then suffer damage if they choose to engage someone other than the paladin (all defenders in 4e force choices of a similar nature, though the penalty for failing to make the ‘right’ choice is not necessarily damage). In 4e, paladins are not granted their power by gods, nor are they empowered by their faith in righteousness alone; in point of fact, 4e paladins have no restrictions on their alignment whatsoever and are the first paladins to be open in this way. Instead, a paladin in D&D 4e is invested with power in rites kept secret by individual churches. Once invested, that’s it, no take-backs; the paladin remains a paladin even if they forsake that church entirely. The other classes I’m gonna talk about - avenger, blackguard, and invoker - are similarly invested, with invoker being the exception in how they get invested, but not in their no-takebacks status.

So, what powers a paladin after that investiture? Virtue; specifically, caring about others in some way. An LG paladin empowered by their belief in justice might be a classic knight in shining armor, defending her allies in righteousness’s name, but an LE paladin empowered by the same virtue might easily turn totalitarian, determined to establish justice no matter who has to suffer and die. In this model, evil-aligned paladins are those who care too much about something, to the point where they trample and harm others to see it fulfilled.

Paladin’s inverse, blackguard, is a striker class focused on direct damage. They gain their power through vice, inward-facing desires such as greed, selfishness, lust, or five pounds of nachos in one meal (don’t @ me). Blackguards are also not restricted by alignment. A classically selfish blackguard, out for their own power and safety, might be an amoral mercenary who kills because they can’t be bothered not to, but a good-aligned blackguard who’s selfish is, well, Tiffany Aching: protecting the world because it’s her world and how dare you fucking touch it.

Avengers have more in common with barbarians than paladins, but are notable here for their commonalities with paladin as a divine warrior concept, and also for having bones in with the later Oath of Vengeance concept in D&D 5e. Avengers are invested to smite the enemies of their church; they tap into their power by swearing an oath against specific enemies, and then dissociate until those enemies in particular are dead at their feet. Are you really into Alexander Anderson from Hellsing? Do you want to explore the terrible consequences of power, consequences that might not have been clear when you signed up to become an avenger? This could be for you.

Lastly we have invokers, the odd duck out. They are ranged controllers who fight with pure divine power. Invokers are created directly by gods, but unlike the previous three have no associations with churches; instead, their job is to look out for threats to all of existence and make sure that they don’t happen. Even evil-aligned gods create and tend to respect invokers, because you can’t conquer the world and rule it as its Dread Master if there’s no world left to rule. Because invokers are invested by gods directly, they tend to have a lot in common with the divine intervention paladin origin mentioned waaaaay up there in the 2e section; you’re minding your own business when one day God goes “TIME TO LEARN HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD” and that’s just your life now.

D&D 4e’s paladins and paladin-like classes fully realize the breadth of concepts and characters that paladins could fulfill; they offer intriguing possibilities for roleplaying, engaging character and plot hooks, and mechanically distinct interpretations of divine power. In unshackling paladins from alignment, 4e opens them up to questions of heroism, conviction, and belief that were in many ways previously closed, especially because paladins in other editions were often made to Fall for asking those questions. Their big weakness is, well, being in 4e. It’s not that D&D 4e is a bad game - in many ways it’s the most honest edition of D&D, and certainly the most tightly-designed - but rather that 4e’s context is highly specific. It can be hard to find players or DMs familiar with it, might be frustrating to gain access to its books, and once you do adapting its material requires significant narrative changes if you remove it from the context of the Points of Light setting.

D&D 5e: This I Vow - D&D 5e’s paladin is, in many ways, a combination of and refinement upon previous elements. Like 4e’s, it is not restricted by alignment (though the three Oaths in core do suggest particular alignments). Like 3.5′s paladin, it combines magical power with martial skill, though 5e’s paladin is both more overtly magical and gains access to better spells, faster, than its predecessor. Though the paladin gains some warrior-type abilities (notably including their choice of Fighting Style and the Extra Attack feature), the majority of their abilities are supernatural in nature, including Lay On Hands (in the form of a pool of hit points that can also be expended to remove poisons and diseases), immunity to disease, an array of defensive and utility spells (as well as the Smite line for bursts of damage), a Divine Smite that trades spells for damage directly, and native auras that protect the paladin’s allies as well as herself. Their defining feature, however, is the Oath they select at third level, which defines what sort of paladin they are.

Your selection of Sacred Oath nets your paladin 2 utility abilities at 3rd level, an additional aura at 7th, a strong upgrade of some kind at 15th, and a capstone at 20th that neither you nor any other living being will ever see because 5e campaigns barely get to 14th, God forbid 20th. Each Oath also provides a set of tenets that you are meant to live up to, but unlike previous incarnations of a Code of Conduct 5e’s relationship to these tenets is more...human. The following passage is from the Player’s Handbook, page 83 (”Creating A Paladin”):

As guardians against the forces of wickedness, paladins are rarely of any evil alignment. Most of them walk the paths of charity and justice. Consider how your alignment colors the way you pursue your holy quest and the manner in which you conduct yourself before gods and mortals. Your oath and alignment might be in harmony, or your oath might represent standards of behavior you have not yet attained.

Emphasis mine.

The baseline assumption for 5e’s paladins are believers in righteousness, whose faith in virtue empowers them to protect the weak, but more than any other edition, 5e recognizes that paladins are still people, who have flaws, strengths, and ambitions. Its Background system helps flesh out your character both mechanically and narratively, and material presented both in the Player’s Handbook and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything encourage you to think about the things that drive and oppose your paladin. Importantly, though the books say that evil paladins are rare, no actual alignment restriction on paladins exist, which opens up some interesting possibilities in terms of character creation. We’ll get more into that down the article a bit, when I talk about same-paging and refluffing.

Because Oaths come with both mechanics and an ethos, there is a strong incentive to create new Oaths for 5e if you want to embody a new ethos, but this may not always be strictly necessary. Additionally, the Player’s Handbook implies that paladins who flagrantly fail or abandon their oaths might become Oathbreakers (Dungeon Master’s Guide, page 97, under “Villain Options”), but this too may not be the correct move, especially in cases where a paladin abandons one set of high ideals for a different, but no lower, form of belief. We’ll get into that later too.

5e’s paladins are in the best mechanical position they’ve ever been in; they’re one of the strongest classes in the game line, easy to build and play, and difficult to fuck up. They have strong thematics with their abilities and especially their Oaths, and the way 5e encourages you to make your characters helps you realize them as people in the game world. The great weakness of this vision of paladins is customization; 5e lacks player options in many senses, and quite a few of those options are gated behind rules that may not be in use (such as Feats). It can be difficult, in many cases, to make two paladins of the same Oath feel different when the dice hit the table.

And at long last, we have finished the establishing-context section of this article, and can move on to the actual fucking article. I did warn you, way up top, that you were in for a ride.

Raise Thy Sword - Paladins At Your Table

The following section is meant to help you in making and fleshing out a paladin concept to play or even to use as an NPC. Most of the advice will be edition-agnostic; advice that isn’t will be marked as such. Also covered herein will be the related topics of same-paging, refluffing, and the common pitfalls that paladins have fallen into over the years (and how to avoid them).

Same-Paging - In Which We Communicate Like Adults

Same-paging is the practice of talking to your group in a way that helps set mutual expectations, and it’s something every RPG group should strive to do regardless of the system they’re playing in. You’ve probably done this to an extent before, as part of being pitched a game (”We’re going to do a dungeon crawl through the deadly halls of Undermountain”), during character creation, and the like. In the specific case of paladins, you want to talk to your group and DM about topics like alignment & alignment restrictions, your code of conduct or oath, and whether or not the group wants to handle things like ethical dilemmas and moral quandaries. Though paladins are famous for those last two, they’re certainly not a requirement; you can just as easily play a paladin in a campaign like Expedition to Undermountain or Princes of the Apocalypse where there is a very clear bad guy who needs to be stopped with enormous applications of violence and guile. However your group wants to play it is fine, but you want to be sure everyone’s on board for it and that you’re ready to rock. If your group signs on for a kick-in-the-door dungeon crawl and then the DM decides to make you pass a series of ethics tests, that DM is an asshole; likewise, if you agree that you want to explore the morals at the heart of your paladin’s ethos and then you just don’t do that, you’re causing the problem.

Who Is Your Deity, And What Does She Do? - Making Your Paladin

Once you and your group have communicated your expectations to each other (and, again, same-paging is something all groups should be doing regularly, not just ones in which you want to play a paladin), it’s finally time to start sketching out your concept! There’s many ways to start this, and while I personally tend to start at the roleplaying end (with ideas about who they are as a person and the themes I want to explore with them), starting with mechanical ideas, with questions, or even with specific dramatic scenes in mind, are also viable. That is to say, “I’m interested in how Aura of the Guardian (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, page 39) can help me play a damage mitigation tank,” is just as valid as, “Kass, my character, was lifted from a life of crime by a paladin who reformed her neighborhood and campaigned against a corrupt system, and she’s striving to become a paladin in his image.” That said, if there’s one thing D&D and its related communities are good at it’s mechanical guides, so I’m not gonna try and write one here. We’d be here all day; instead, the following questions are things to consider for fleshing out your paladin’s backstory, personality, and goals.

Why did you become a paladin? The origins of your paladin will probably color how they think of their virtues, as well as how they think of evil. A beaten-down girl from the slums understands that kicking the shit out of muggers doesn’t give the downtrodden food, medicine, or roofs that don’t leak, while the third son of a noble family is in a position to understand the damage done by corrupt leaders and faithless lords. In addition to your background and home life, think about what motivated your character to become a paladin specifically. Were they mentored by an older paladin who saw potential in them? Recruited by the militant arm of a church? Did they grow up with stories of paladins and yearn to become the sort of person those stories were written about, or were they, perhaps, seemingly called to paladinhood without much conscious understanding of what it was?

Where did you learn to fight? Paladins are warriors, and even a paladin that Falls (for those campaigns that use Falling as a concept) remains a warrior. 5e paladins, the most overtly magical of all the available options, still spend a lot of time randomizing the atoms of evil with sharpened metal, and that’s a skill you only get through training and dedication. Who taught your paladin to fight? What’s their relationship with that teacher or organization, and how did it shape their ideas about violence? We all catch things off of our teachers, and your paladin’s instructor in combat will, for better or worse, be as big an influence on their life and ideals as their faith and family are. Don’t be afraid to get wild here; AD&D 2e had full-blown godly training montages where the voice of a god ran you through drills, and paladins join warlocks and sorcerers for being fertile ground for some of the weirdest shit. Did you fight daily duels against a stained glass knight only you could see? Did you find a scimitar in the gutter and pick it up to defend your friends from gangs? Were you bankrolled by an old man who later turned out to be a lich, whose motives you still don’t understand? Live your best Big Ham life if that’s the life you wanna live, this is the class for it.

How do you imagine good and evil? What does your paladin’s vision of a Good world look like? What is the face of wickedness that comes to mind when they’re asked to think of Evil? A knight from a kingdom plagued by portals to the Abyss is going to think of both of these things very differently from a gutter rat whose ascension came with a prosthetic hand to replace the one she lost to gangrene, to say nothing of differences in ideals when one factors in Law and Chaos. Your paladin doesn’t have to be perfect, or even, honestly, correct. Your classic ‘noble, but kind of a dick’ paladin (such as Corran d’Arcy in the novelization of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, who we’re gonna talk about more later because he’s a weirdly great example of an adventuring paladin) thinks of evil as evildoers, who must be Brought To Justice, which while not entirely wrong is lacking in important nuance. He may conflate manners with virtue, or allow his prejudices to color who he does and doesn’t think of as ‘good’, but that doesn’t change his fundamental desire to Do Good - a desire that could be the catalyst for personal growth. A flawed understanding of virtue and wickedness could be a great character arc for your paladin, especially if it dovetails with the themes of the campaign.

What do you enjoy? Paladins are still people (shocking, I know) and people tend to have hobbies, preferences, and goals. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything has some nice material to quickly flesh out some of those aspects of your paladin (a personal goal, a vice that tempts them, a nemesis that dogs their footsteps), and I highly encourage you to think about such things as well. Does your paladin crave glory, wealth, or revenge? What sort of things do they turn to when they want comfort, or to have a good time? Do they still practice a trade from their youth, such as painting or blacksmithing? The archetype of a knight looking for their true love (or at least a series of whirlwind romances that always seem to end in someone’s bedroom) is a staple, of course. These things don’t necessarily need to be sinister temptations that lead you away from justice; they can just be nice things you like, or comforts that sustain you in your long fight against evil.

How do you relate to your faith? Many settings (notably including Forgotten Realms & Points of Light in D&D, and Golarion in Pathfinder) explicitly link paladins to churches and patron deities, and even in ones where this explicit link does not exist you see paladins who fight in the name of their faiths, serve in the militant arm of their churches, and otherwise seek to live their lives in accordance with their religion. D&D’s history is also full of paladins whose relationship to their faith is more distant, more questioning, or even outright rebellious. In Eberron, for instance, a paladin might dedicate herself to the Kraken - an evil god embodying sea monsters and catastrophes - with her understanding of that faith being preventing monster attacks and protecting the innocent from hurricanes and tidal waves. A paladin might be retained by the Church of St. Cuthbert as a barometer for their own morality, trusted to leash his peers when their retribution grows out of hand & play the devil’s advocate against them, or a knight might simply try to live their lives in accordance with the ideals of beauty, joy, and wonder espoused by Sune Firehair, without being for or against the actual church. What or whom does your paladin believe in, and why? Remember as well that not all, or even most, faiths are particularly similar to Christianity, and as a result your paladin’s relationship to that faith might just be business as usual. A Jewish paladin arguing with God is Judaism working as intended; similarly, a paladin dedicated to the Aesir doesn’t get to act surprised when they come home one day and Freya is chilling in their bathtub with a glass of wine and a ‘small request’.

You Wouldn’t Download A Class Feature - Refluffing & You(r Paladin)

So: you’ve come up with your concept, you’ve asked yourself all the relevant questions, but damn, some things just seem to not be fitting. What do you do? It may be the case that refluffing - changing the flavor of a mechanical option to better fit your campaign or setting - may be the right move for you. Refluffing gets a lot of pushback from a certain school of tabletop gaming that believes the flavor of an option is part of its mechanical balance. These people are wrong and I encourage you not to associate with them, in particular because the first party publishers often refluff material for similar reasons. For instance, the setting of Eberron has ‘anything published in D&D has a home here’ as one of its meta-tenets, and in the process of giving many of those things a home it changed their identity. Those hordes of angry ancestor-worshiping elves? That’s refluffing elves. In 3.5 you can see explicit discussion of refluffing in Oriental Adventures, which...well...it’s a book that exists, let’s leave it at that. Oerth having an entire alternate Material Plane where all the mirror of opposition copies come from? Refluffing.

So, when do you refluff? An obvious example is when your group is comfortable with an option being on the table, but is not playing in the setting that option comes from (for instance, the Sword of the Arcane Order feat from Champions of Valor when you are not playing in the Forgotten Realms). Refluffing is also great for when the narrative you’re building for a character implies or requires certain mechanics, but the flavor of those mechanics does not fit that narrative. In the ancient past I briefly GMed a game where one of the PCs was a ‘barbarian’ - a mean-streets kid looking to make a better life for himself, whose Rage was just the fight-or-flight kicking in from living in the garbage parts of Waterdeep. The important things to keep in mind when you choose to refluff an option is to stay on the same page as the rest of your group, and also to not replace the original fluff with nothing; mechanics do help define flavor (they’re the tools with which you interact with the game world), but you still need some reason that your paladin casts wizard spells, or has the abilities of the Oath of Vengeance when the original version of that Oath doesn’t exist in this setting. A very common school of refluffing is changing the origins of one’s power; rather than pure faith, for instance, a paladin’s powers might come from her innate spiritual energy, or from the favor of kami rather than gods.

Refluffing is also great for playing paladins that don’t have levels in the class named paladin. This option is especially relevant in the context of 3.5 and Pathfinder, when it may be more suitable to the needs of the campaign for you to be playing a more powerful or versatile class. In this context, clerics especially make very competent ‘paladins’, as do wizards (you wouldn’t think so, but I’ve seen that campaign played), inquisitors, crusaders, and even druids depending on how your concept is. You don’t need Fall mechanics to follow a code, after all.

For What The World Could Be - Defining Your Paladin’s Ethos

More than almost any other aspect of the class, possessing and following an ethos has defined paladins through the ages. For many years, this was a very specific ethos based on European ideas of chivalry and Christian virtue, and there’s something to be said for it when done well (certainly the Arab warriors from whom Europeans acquired the code of chivalry were lauded for their honor and virtuous conduct, so at a bare minimum one set of folks following these ideals in the real world absolutely nailed it). This is not, however, the only set of high ideals to which a paladin might cleave or aspire, and many fine homebrewers, players, and dungeon masters out there have chosen to craft their own, or to represent their own beliefs in the game world. Many cultures throughout history and all over the world have retained elite warriors held to high standards of conduct, and those traditions are rife for representation as paladins.

I fully intend to provide some specific examples of ethea (evidently this is the plural of ‘ethos’, no I didn’t know that before I started writing this, yes it looks wrong to me too) beyond the ongoing D&D default, but before I do you may want to consider how your paladin relates to those high ideals. After all, these are virtues that your character holds dear, but not everyone does so in the same way. Does she believe that everyone would be better off if they tried to live up to her standards, or does she believe that only certain people should (or must) do so? Does she consider her virtues an impossible ideal, something to strive for rather than fulfill, or does she not harbor such doubts? Is your paladin an idealist, who believes in the power of Good in itself, or is she more cynical?

The answers to these questions don’t necessarily make your paladin less Good as a person. A warrior who believes that there’s always a selfish bastard reason to do the right thing, who sees Evil as suboptimal, could still be a paladin if they work to bring Good into the world. An idealist who still needs to learn about the real consequences of barging into complex problems in a morally complicated world is equally valid, to say nothing of just...playing a genuine in-the-bones Hero, here to Do The Right Thing. Each speaks to a different kind of virtue, and a different life that has led them to these choices, and each deserves their day in the sun. You might have a lot of fun playing someone whose view of what Good is, and why, is different from yours!

Some specific examples of ethea (god that looks so wrong) follow. For the sake of convenience I’m gonna skip anything that’s actually showed up in a paladin entry before, or I’m gonna be here until I die. I am also very much not a member of just about any of the cultures and/or religions I’m about to talk about, and while I have sought the advice and review of those who are, I’m not about to claim that I’m an expert. Any errors in what’s presented are mine, and not those of my friends & readers; I welcome correction and discussion.

Irish Celtic: Blood & Troth  - The ancient Celts were not a people shy about death, and excellence - skill, improvement, and genuine growth - in all of your crafts was one of their high virtues. In addition to excellence, a Celtic warrior was expected to be honest (to never tell a direct lie, and to keep all promises given), hospitable (to be a gracious host & and honorable guests, and defend the sanctity of the home), to be charitable with their skills and their worldly possessions (to give to the needy, defend the weak, and fight for the helpless), to display loyalty to their family, clan, and gods, and to be courageous. That last virtue is an interesting one, because it dovetails with excellence; it’s less about acting in spite of fear, and more about enjoying fearful situations and the call of battle. A paragon of Celtic warfare should love her job, perhaps even revel in it; she relishes combat and the mayhem of the killing fields. Paladins following these virtues are likely to be Chaotic in nature, skewing towards Chaotic Neutral as D&D thinks of these things, and prone to contemplation on concepts of obligation, truth, and the nature of political violence. The crows know that there is always a final answer to injustice.

Irish Celtic paladins are likely to look towards Fionn Mac Cumhaill as a role model; as warriors with magical powers of protection, defense, and healing, they would be valued as keepers of lore, wisdom, and art, more warrior-poet than berserker. If your paladin is part of a wider culture from which she derived this ethos, she was probably expected to both learn knowledge and pass it on to others, and to restrain more eager warriors in favor of cunning plans and clever tactics. Imagine the look on your party members’ faces when they meet your family and realize you’re the sane one; that’s the exact emotion you wanna look to create if you really want to bring this out in the classic vein.

Jewish: We Shall Serve The Lord  - Judaism places a lot of emphasis on the sanctity of life, restorative justice, and doing the good you can do here, and now, with what’s in front of you. Though there is no tradition of elite Jewish warriors in the vein of knights or samurai, Jewish citizens tend to serve under arms slightly more often (about 5% more often) than their countrymen, and defending the innocent & helpless is certainly one way to do good now. A Jewish paladin would be expected to uphold the sanctity of life (preservation of life is the highest calling; a Jew may do anything except deny God in order to preserve life), to practice the principle of Tikkun Olam (’repairing the world’, working actively to make the world around them a more just, peaceful, and pleasant one), to show compassion and generosity to others, to uphold and defend hospitality, to know the Torah and the Law, and, where necessary, to practice intelligent and purposed dissent and skepticism. In the context of D&D, such a character is not likely to be particularly scholarly (paladins haven’t needed a decent Intelligence score at any point in the class’s evolution), but they’re probably conversant in the techniques of reading and research, critical thinking, argument, and debate, if only through exposure. Jewish paladins are most likely to be Good, leaning Lawful, as D&D thinks of these things.

The Jewish ethos describes a set of minimum standards for a righteous person, the Noahide Laws, and greatly encourages you not to associate with any person or culture that can’t meet that standard. They’re honestly not hard to meet either; you basically have to not be a dick about God (don’t try to stop folks from worshiping, don’t spend your time mocking and blaspheming their faith), know that lying and murdering are wrong, don’t be a sexual predator, don’t eat animals that are still alive, and bother to establish a system of laws for self-rule. Though Judaism lacks an elite warrior tradition, you might look to people like Joshua, Judah Maccabee, or Solomon as inspirations for a Jewish paladin character; warriors known for their wisdom, determination, and and in many cases, self-sacrifice. Solomon is also notable as an example of someone who swore the Nazarite Oath, a promise to God to fulfill a mission or task, and to not rest until one has done so. Nazarites are held to higher standards than their peers, notably including the expectation that the object of their oath becomes their only goal until they get it done or die.

As stated before, I am not Jewish and while this information was provided to me by Jewish friends, it is far from complete. @oath-of-lovingkindness might be by to expand on it, if they’re comfortable doing so.

Kemetic Pagan: The Power Of Truth - It’s difficult to talk about how the ancient Kemetic faiths were practiced; there was a lot of strife between the various cults of the gods, sometimes backed by pharaohs who were willing to revise history to get their way about thing, and then the English got a hold of the records. The English getting a hold of your culture’s history rarely ends well for just about anyone. The modern practice of Kemetic worship places great emphasis on service and identity as a member of the community, the promotion and preservation of knowledge, learning, and education, opposing is/fet (’chaos’, here also very much including the breakdown of social bonds and the systems which sustain life), and truth. A Kemetic paladin would be expected to oppose chaos by sustaining or creating such systems (funding schools, founding a neighborhood watch, finding or creating jobs for the poor), defend the defenseless, further her own education and knowledge & teach the ignorant, to be honest and forthright in word and deed, and value strength and justice. They are likely to be Lawful, skewing towards Good, as D&D thinks of these things. For a society to be just, it must first be a society; preservation of the order (both natural and artificial) which sustains human lives comes first.

Kemetic paladins are unlikely to be priests or even to be formally part of a religious heirarchy, again because they have traditionally had issues being scholarly people; instead, they uphold ma’at (what is true, what is just, what is necessary; ma’at is the principle that establishes a community, that relates one person to all other people and defines obligations between them, and opposes chaos) by fulfilling roles that assist their community. Such a paladin might look to one of their patron gods as an example of both the behavior they wish to emulate and their role in the community. A defender and guardian who supports the rural folk might look to Sobek, whose great strength guards the Nile; a would-be hero who craves power and the glory that power might buy her could instead look to Set, who guards the sun-barge and tests the established order so that it can grow strong. This is an ancient faith with quite a few gods, and I haven’t even gone deep enough to say I’ve scratched the surface; if they’re comfortable doing so, @merytu-mrytw may be by to expand on this topic for those interested in learning more.

Samurai: Reaching For Heaven  - You knew we were gonna go here eventually. As famous as knights, and perhaps even more known for their strict code of honor, the samurai were the elite warriors of feudal Japan and members of its ruling class. A samurai was expected to be a warrior, to cultivate an appreciation for high arts such as calligraphy, poetry, and sculpture, to be a scholar or patron of scholars, and to otherwise serve their lord and establish justice in that lord’s name. Today the samurai ethos is often called Bushido (”the way of the warrior”), but that name and conception of their code of conduct is actually a relatively recent invention, dating back only as far as the 20th century. It has its bones in with a 12th century dramatization of a war between two proud clans, and the ideals embodied by the warriors of those clans. Notably, these ideals were considered unattainable; something to strive for, and in striving grow as a person, but not a realistic expectation for a living human in a physical body. I’m gonna go ahead and quote the breakdown of this code that was given to me, because I feel the long form is going to be helpful here. These were the things to strive for, if one wished to call oneself a samurai:

Your duty calls on you to die if necessary. Your honor is more than your life; to live in shame is worse than death. You are expected to be righteous - to have integrity, sincerity, and honesty. To display heroic courage - to be intelligently aware of risks, but to face them boldly, not rashly or foolishly. To be benevolent and compassionate - for you have strength of arms that others cannot fathom. To show respect, even to your enemy. Cruelty, mockery, showboating, boasting, these are against the samurai code. Your strength and stature come through how you stand in adversity, unyielding. To understand that there is no such thing as a promise, or "giving your word" - you do not speak unless you mean what you say. Meaningless words are for shameful people. To safeguard your own honor, for you are its judge - and you will know what will cause you to live in shame, which as noted above, is worse than death. To show loyalty and be dutiful - if you give your service to another, it is theirs to command, and if you set someone's life above yours, you cannot keep honor if you live and they die. To demonstrate self-control - excesses and wants are openings to great shame. Moral character lies in the desire being sublimated toward the better self and higher standing among men.

As the politics and culture of Japan evolved through the years, so too did attitudes towards, and understanding of, this code of conduct, but most dramatic and romantic depictions of the samurai ethos root back to something a lot like this. A paladin dedicated to this ethos is likely to be Lawful Neutral, bending towards Good, as D&D thinks of these things; it emphasizes the virtues of loyalty, duty, and the obligations of both lord and vassal to one another. It is particularly appropriate for characters who see high ideals of virtue as being an unattainable goal to strive for anyway, or for character-driven campaigns looking for high drama that comes from tensions between personal desires and societal expectations (you can see it used for this to wonderful effect in the Legend of Five Rings RPG, most recently published by Fantasy Flight Games).

There are of course many other potential sources for a paladin’s ethos; check out D&D 5e’s homebrew materials and the DM’s guild for just a few. If I didn’t include something here, I promise you that it’s because I’m either ignorant or not confident of my ability to speak on it even in this limited context, not because I was trying to deliberately leave anything out. As I said above, any errors here are mine, and I welcome corrections. I’m also eager to hear about other ethea and how they might be adapted for paladins, so if you’ve got some thoughts there, please, slap ‘em on! I’m quite literally begging to read your paladin takes!

That said, remember that these are real beliefs, that real people follow. If you’re looking to explore an ethos from a culture that is not your own, you should do so with respect and especially with consideration for others that might be affected. It’s one thing to realize 12 sessions into a campaign at your own house that you’ve been accidentally blaspheming someone’s religion; it’s quite another thing to realize that if you’ve been playing in a public place such as a library or a gaming store. Ask folks from the culture or faith in question about it if you can at all do so, and just...if you wouldn’t want someone to be depicting you in a particular way? Don’t depict them that way.

The Trolley Problem And Other Forms Of Psychological Torture - Paladins, Falling, & Alignment

All editions of paladins except 4e have some kind of rule for Falling; losing one’s paladin status and powers, generally because of violations of your code of conduct or a failure to maintain your alignment. 5e sorta-kinda has those rules in a “well if the DM says so” way, which is, in some ways, a worse situation to be in since it leaves the matter unclear. In particular, many editions of paladins require that you have and maintain a Lawful Good alignment, and completely strip you of all powers if you ever change alignment for any reason. If the above sections of this article didn’t make it clear already, I tend to break towards 4e’s school of thought and support unshackling paladins from both alignment and Falling mechanics for general play; they certainly haven’t been powerful enough in the meta to mechanically justify additional restrictions.

This isn’t to say that you can’t use Falling or the threat of Falling for interesting stories and excellent character moments, just that I personally feel that it’s not as necessary as some schools of thought seem to think it is. If you want to incorporate this idea into your campaign, make sure you bring that up when you’re same-paging with your group; it’s definitely one of those topics everyone wants to have a clear understanding about. From there, it’s on the DM to not be a dick about things. Using paladins to explore ethical dilemmas can be very rewarding, but putting one in an ‘impossible’ scenario is rarely any fun. For some great examples of using ethical dilemmas as a form of character growth and to explore the concept of morality, check out The Good Place if you haven’t already. Remember: it’s a game. The goal is to have fun, yeah?

Genocide Is Not An Ethical Dilemma - Common Paladin Pitfalls

This is the part of the article where I get very angry about things.

As I alluded to before, there have been some common pitfalls when it comes to paladins both in the history of their formal writing and in the way the fanbase has chosen to play and relate to them. This section is going to discuss those and what you can do about them, so without further ado:

Fascism  - Paladins have some unfortunate bones in with fascist ideology, particularly the Third Reich’s obsession with ‘will’, as well as the fascist preoccupation with the Crusades, the Crusades themselves, and with being members of social classes which are often oppressive in nature. You really do not have to go far to find some jackoff posting DEUS VULT memes about their paladin, and that’s a problem, first because fascists are bad, and second because that definitely misses the fucking point by a country mile. All editions of D&D and its legacy systems have struggled with this, but a shout-out goes to D&D 5e for publishing the Oath of Conquest, because we definitely needed to respond to this problem by creating an option that gives you heavier, more ornate jackboots to put on people’s necks.

So, what do you do about this? Well, for one thing if you find a fascist at your gaming table you throw them the fuck out into the street, and beyond that mainly you just...try not to play a fuckin’ fascist character. This isn’t really a problem you can solve at the table level, since it’s buried into the writing; all you can do is be aware of it, and not play into it. It shouldn’t be terribly difficult to not make a paladin who’s into kicking poor people and undermining the rights of sapient beings, yeah? Paladins tend to fall into these sorts of problems when they’re depicted as supporting strongmen, or as being the Special And Exalted People to whom the rules do not apply - basically the same situations that give superheroes as a genre their ongoing fascism problem. Keep a weather eye out.

Genocide - The two-for-one combo! Paladins have had a genocide problem as far back as AD&D 2e, where several had racial or religious genocide in their backstories. Sometimes those paladins Fell as a result, sure, but a disturbing amount of them didn’t. We also have such gems as, “A local paladin has started a crusade against half-breeds” (a plot hook published in Draconomicon for 3.5), that greentext story about the paladin and dwarf ‘bros’ who spend their free time murdering orc children, and everything that’s ever been written about how drow are characterized and treated by others. Now, in fairness to paladins, Dungeons & Dragons itself has problems with the themes of race and with its depiction of the morality of genocide, and paladins could be merely caught up in that. On a basic level, solving this issue is easy; don’t endorse genocide, don’t make edgy racist concepts to see if you can ‘still be good’. Even if that wasn’t already tired and worn, someone else already took that concept and went pro with it.

For more information about fantasy’s troubles with race and racial coding, I highly suggest this article & its sequel, as well as Lindsay Ellis’s Bright video.

Youth Pastor Syndrome - This one’s not as dire a problem as the other two; there’s a tendency to play paladins in a way that sucks the fun out of the rest of the group, either because you’re being a judgemental asshole in-character (and possibly out of it), or because they’re constantly having to tiptoe around you to get things done or do what they want in the campaign. In theory, same-paging should help solve this problem before it starts, and it honestly mainly stems from the various ‘association’ clauses in paladin codes through their history. An uptight paladin isn’t necessarily a bad concept, but make sure it’s the right concept for your group before you just go there. Your desire to run a particular character is not an excuse to shit on everyone else’s fun.

Sir Dumbass the Just - So this topic isn’t so much a ‘pitfall’ as something that doesn’t get talked about a lot. There has not been a single incarnation of paladin that is rewarded for investing in Intelligence; instead, they tend to crave Strength or  Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom and/or Charisma (depending on edition and build). Once your main three are solved, Wisdom is the next-most important ability score for an adventuring paladin, because it directly relates to detecting threats, seeing through illusions, and resisting mind control, which leaves Intelligence in the dust next to whichever one of Strength or Dexterity you didn’t pick. This means, more often than not, that paladins are going to struggle in scholarly pursuits, be bad at Knowledge-type skills, and otherwise be uneducated in many ways, which most assuredly influences both their internal culture and the sorts of people who become successful paladins. Give the matter some consideration when you’re making your own.

Lady Natasha Pointe-Claire of the Dust March - Paladins as NPCS

Related to what was discussed just above, not all paladins are necessarily adventurers. Though the image of the paladin as a knight-errant, wandering the world in order to defeat foul plots and punch demons in the asshole, is both valid and probably very relevant to paladin player characters, there are other roles that a paladin might fulfill in your campaign setting. Such paladins are still members of a warrior class, and will thus have things in common with player character paladins, but their different roles will encourage investment in other kinds of abilities and skills which might not lead to a successful adventuring paladin, but will lead to a pretty good life in the other job. The following examples are by no means exhaustive, but they should provide a good place for a DM to start if they wanna incorporate paladin NPCs into their games in roles other than fellow (or rival) adventurers. Mentor - Probably the most straightforward; this paladin was a successful adventuring paladin who ended up retiring due to age, injuries, or just to enjoy time with their loved ones/family/children rather than getting mauled to death by undead birds. Take a normal paladin build, ratchet them up into Middle Age or Old Age, call it a day. Such paladins are likely to be a lot calmer and more pragmatic than the younger set, with a combination of painful experience and perspective guiding the advice they give on how to fight evil and how to dodge the fireballs that evil be throwing.

Knight-Hospitaller - Hospitallers are healers, caretakers, and guardians of the sick, injured, and infirm. Such a paladin might help maintain a home for those who have been traumatized (abuse victims, soldiers, people laboring beneath magical curses), be employed at or run a hospital, or maintain a temple dedicated to a god of healing and medicine. Hospitallers tend to choose options that enhance their Lay on Hands ability, memorize more healing spells than attack or defense ones, and value Wisdom and Intelligence more highly than their peers, often at the expense of their Strength or Dexterity (or even their Constitution; paladins, being immune to disease, can afford to be surprisingly frail of body in this role).

Fortress Knight - These paladins have a lot in common with adventuring paladins, but are for one reason or another posted in one spot from which they do not leave. They might be the guardians of a frontier village, soldiers watching over a sinister portal, the personal bodyguards to a powerful noble, or any other role in which they take on a defensive, reactionary stance rather than actively seeking out new and exciting forms of evil. Fortress knights need a higher Wisdom and to invest in Perception-type skills, and will tend to focus on utility-type spells with a strong subtheme of attack; they need to be able to rouse the alarm, dispel magic on their allies, and keep an enemy pinned down.

Example Paladin - Corran D’Arcy

I promise you, your long journey through my article is almost over. I wanna talk about a specific paladin to kinda tie things together, as an example of some of these principles and ideas in motion and because Corran d’Arcy is just weirdly legit when he has absolutely no fucking reason to be. Corran appears in the novelization for Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, written by Carrie Bebris. The book is based on the videogame of the same name, which in turn was made to celebrate the release of D&D 3.0. “Should I play this game?” you ask, to which I reply: absolutely fucking not, the game was a rough ride when it came out and it has not aged remotely well. 3.0 was rapidly updated to 3.5 because of deep and wide mechanical flaws that made the play experience almost physically painful, and converting it to a CRPG did not help that experience at all.

The book though? Excellent. Legitimately one of the best D&D novels. Spoilers for it follow, but I’d still suggest reading it if you get the chance.

The novel is told from the perspective of Kestrel, a petty thief trying to raise enough money to quit her life of crime and, ideally, die in bed of old age rather than of blood loss in some gutter. A series of poor and alcohol-related decisions leads her to volunteer to guard an evil pool of soul-stealing water, which is where she meets Corran d’Arcy, a paladin of Tyr and the third son of a noble family. The two get on like water and oil; to Kestrel, Corran is a pompous, classist piece of shit who judges her without knowing her, and to Corran, Kestrel is the exact kind of criminal and evildoer he so often fights in his day job. When another team opens a portal to beg for help while they’re being slaughtered, Corran quite literally throws Kestrel through it when she’s trying not to go, nearly killing them both.

This puts their professional relationship off to a bit of a distant start, as you might imagine.

Corran’s prejudice, as well as Kestrel’s more-justified-but-still-unhelpful resentment, hinder the party as they attempt to survive in Myth Drannor and defeat the Cult of the Dragon’s schemes there. Corran’s life of privilege has left him unfamiliar with Kestrel’s skills, and he consistently misuses those skills or forgets to ask for her opinion and expertise - to the detriment of the group. This painful oversight aside, however, Corran proves surprisingly practical; he works with the party’s wizard to create effective combat tactics, utilizes invisibility for surprise attacks against powerful foes, and coordinates well in the heat of battle; after all, the Cult of the Dragon is not taking requests for formal duels, and the fate of the world is at stake. Corran is polite even to his enemies, and openly negotiates with the minions and allies of the Cult in order to avoid combat - notably including drow houses that have made their homes in Myth Drannor. Through the course of the novel, he and Kestrel go from being openly antagonistic towards one another to developing a newfound respect, starting when Kestrel calls Corran out for endangering the party by refusing to retreat. Corran, in turn, forces Kestrel to confront the fact that she has been unhappy living her life with no purpose other than to die another day, a revelation that shakes her to her core.

Things come to a head when one of Corran’s decisions gets a man killed. Kestrel calls him out on it, accusing him - correctly - of hurting those he’s trying to protect by misusing her skills and ignoring the advice of his companions. Seeing his genuine anguish over these events softens Kestrel’s rage towards the paladin, enough that they essentially start their relationship over from the top with genuine change from both of them. A scene late in the book where Kestrel helps Corran find the confidence to attempt divine magic (a gift given only to ‘truly worthy’ paladins) cements what has finally become a trusting friendship.

Corran d’Arcy is an excellent example of a classic paladin archetype with life and humanity breathed into it. He has prejudices and insecurities; he feels pressured to live up to a long legacy of knighthood that intimidates him. At the same time, the virtues he lives up to reward him over and over again, from his bold valor (which sees to the defeat of many evildoers) to his courtesy and honor in social situations (which wins him unlikely allies in a ruined city overrun by wickedness). Though he starts out as a dick, Corran is not malicious, and it’s his genuine desire to do good by others that motivates the change in his behavior; when he learns that he is hurting his friends, he knows that he must change.

That’s the end of the article proper! I hope you found it informative and, more than anything, helpful in creating paladins for your game and campaign setting. I absolutely welcome questions, comments, critique, additions, and the like; my Ask box is open, and the Reblog button is right there.

That said, if you’re interested, Mister Vox’s Wild Ride is not yet over. I got bit by the homebrew bug halfway through this damnable thing, so here’s a paladin oath based on a family from my first completed interactive story, Dungeon Life Quest. Constructive critique of this material is also very welcome!

Oath of the la Croix (D&D 5e Sacred Oath)

(River la Croix, journeyman necromancer and demonologist, ex-mercenary. Character is from Dungeon Life Quest, art provided by Domochevsky.)

The la Croix family have been necromancers for longer than they’ve been the la Croix; they laid down much of the foundations of modern necromancy, and have, through the ages, been tyrants, villains, refugees and, these days, heroes. To be a la Croix is not a matter of blood, but of commitment to the family’s ideals; one must be willing to help those in need, to serve the community, be a level head in times of trouble, to show respect for death and the dead, and to make hard choices with a calm heart.

Though most la Croix are necromancers, alchemists, healers, or summoners of various kinds, every now and again a paladin-like warrior emerges from the ranks of the family, often by adoption. Whether or not such cousins are ‘real’ paladins is a subject of languid internal debate in the family - no la Croix has ever fallen to the point where she lost her powers, but a few have managed to go mad enough with that power to end up hunted down by the rest of the family. The question doesn’t really need answering, but it’s fun to argue about after three cups of wine.

Tenets of the la Croix The high standards expected of la Croix paladins are also expected of anyone who chooses to bear the family name. You can give up the name at any time, but most la Croix children - by adoption or by blood - try to wear it with pride.

Life is for the Living, Death is for the Dead. No one chooses to be born, and very few people choose to die. Respect these truths. Take life when you must, but not cruelly, and never for personal gain. Remember that you, too, are alive, and deserve the chance to enjoy that life as all people do.

Your Name is ‘Somebody’. If there is a call for help, you are the one to answer; when you hear ‘somebody do something’, ‘somebody help me’, you are Somebody, child of Anyone. If you can’t help directly, do everything you can anyway. None of us deserve to be alone.

Serve, Not Rule. A la Croix’s place in her community is service to that community. We are not nobles, tyrants, or generals; we dwell among the common people to protect and shelter them, and to remind ourselves of all the ways in which we are alike. Our power makes us different, not better.

They, Too, Are Victims of Life. You do not know the struggles others go through, just as they do not know yours. All are condemned to live and to die, and deserve your compassion even when you are moved to strike them down for the greater good. Bury your enemies and give them their last rites as if they were your own family.

Oath Spells You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

3rd - bane, false life 5th - darkness, gentle repose 9th - bestow curse, fear 13th - phantasmal killer, shadow of Moil* 17th - danse macabre*, planar binding

*appears in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Channel Divinity When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.

Ancestral Protection - You can use your Channel Divinity to call upon your la Croix ancestors for protection. As an action, you suffer damage equal to your paladin level; this damage cannot be prevented or reduced in any way. Then, you and all allies within 30 feet of you gain a bonus to armor class equal to your Charisma modifier for 1 minute.

Balefire Blast - You can use your Channel Divinity to scourge an enemy with death-in-flame. Make a spell attack against a creature within 30 feet. If you hit, that creature suffers necrotic damage equal to your paladin level, plus fire damage equal to your paladin level. If it dies within 1 minute of being hit, it counts as dying of old age in addition to its actual cause of death (usually meaning that it is much more difficult to bring back from the dead).

Necromancer’s Aura Beginning at 7th level, you radiate constant necromantic wards that protect you and your allies. You and allies within 10 feet of you have resistance to necrotic damage and radiant damage, and you make saving throws against effects which would kill you outright with advantage.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Friend of Death Starting at 15th level, you regain 1 spell slot of 3rd level or lower whenever a creature within 30 feet of you is reduced to 0 or less hit points. You can regain a number of spell slots this way equal to your Charisma modifier; once you reach this limit, you must finish a long rest to use this ability again.

Aphrael’s Chosen At 20th level, you gain the ability to enter a state of heightened necromantic power, in which you can channel far more sorcery than usual. As an action, you suffer damage equal to your paladin level, then begin channeling raw death magic for 1 minute. While in this state, you gain the following benefits:

- You are immune to all effects which would kill you outright - Whenever you cast a paladin spell, you can make a weapon attack as part of casting that spell. You are not required to make this attack. - Creatures make their saving throws against your spells with disadvantage.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.