D&D Origin Month IV: The Paladin and the Squirrel

So we now get to my High School years.

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I shall leave the description of my experiences like that.  Okay, it wasn't THAT bad all the time.  Some days had good things happen; some, nothing bad ever happened at all.  These were interesting times.

It was also around this time I finally began playing D&D in a group setting, and that lead to me wanting to make a character.  But what kind of character should I play?  Well the groups usually already had a fighter and a cleric and such, and I didn't fully understand my nuances for playing non-combat characters, and so the Paladin seemed to be a perfect choice.  He's a cleric/fighter mix who also was similar to my worldview at the time.  While I had left Evangelicalism behind, some of the morality lingered on: a deep sense of morality and law-abidingness, but in a more Deistic sense.  The Paladin seemed perfect for me.  And so Cole was born.

The above image in a sense reflected my vision of Cole.  Cole is a wibbly-wobbly etymology (read: probably not accurate in the least bit) of my own name.  He fought valiantly for Heironeous, the God of Valor, and defended the weak.  He stood for truth, justice and the American Campaign Setting Way.  He was also, to simply state it, Lawful Stupid.  He also fit the stereotype of the celibate holy knight.  He would save fair maidens and princess and slay all evil including even the common thief stealing a turnip.  He was, quite simply, an asshole.  This partially had to do with my inability to understand the finer points of Alignments, and also a bit of exploring my own morality.  Problem was, as soon as I was done exploring my morality, playing Paladins (until Amadeus), was quite pointless, I no longer saw myself as Lawful Good, but as Neutral Good, and that started to show.  Suddenly, Cole the Paladin started to exhibit signs of slacking off on the job

My personal worldview change from Lawful Good to Neutral Good was in some ways major.  It was a freeing of my own mind and thoughts from the previous weltanschauung and towards where I am today (I still consider myself Neutral Good).  Gone was the idea of an imposed morality and entered the philosophical ethics that followed a more natural feel for me, based on Virtue and a personal code of conduct.

Suddenly, you feel the presence of the man known as Charlemagne enter

the chamber.  The ghost then speaks, "eh, guess that does make him a

paladin in my book.... I guess...."

So then where does the squirrel enter?  Well, the DM at the time, whom I kind of looked up to as an older brother in a sense, decided to just randomly give my Paladin a squirrel, a squirrel that my Paladin defended to the last.  It was link Minsk and Boo, except there was no chance Cole would think it was a miniature Giant Space Squirrel.  While it was more of a plot device that followed me around, it kind of morphed into a sort of animal companion.  Cole would go to the extreme of even having his Alignment change to defend the squirrel, and thus ended my playing of Paladins until Amadeus.

So where do I stand on Paladins in my setting?  Well, it has certainly evolved, if you read back on some of my Table Stories and such.  Amadeus is not the stereotypical maiden-saving, dragon-slaying, rent-paying Paladin.  None of the Paladin Groups in my settings are like that either, well, except for one group or two, but in general, they were more like the Night's Watch of Game of Thrones, except some could take wives, hold lands, and father children.  Also, Paladins do play a somewhat larger role than in other settings, due to there probably being more in mine due to not having to be celibate Jerry Falwels wielding broadswords.

But with Paladin-hood out of the question, a new hero emerged, and a legend born (play appropriate theme music here).

Next week, the Final Chapter