Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people refer to Sunwalkers as paladins?

[xensorlol]

Lulz. Okey-dokey.
EH. Vol'jin is the only Shdaowhunter. Shadowhunter is like some spiritual name given to trolls....
Okay. Whatever. Still. Only ONE Shadowhunter! You need a GOOD reason for your shaman to be one, right? Or can it just be a title...
/cries in frustration I DON'T KNOW OMFG!

[Temp name]

they're paladins, i dont see your problem

[Darnassian]

(Clever, cow-related name) Level 85 Tauren Paladin <Insert Guild Name Here>
is what I see mousing over them. They are Paladins. Night Elves need the class as well.

[xensorlol]

Night elf paladins would just be stupid. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard did that, lol.

[Arlyist]

Now, I know it would be annoying. However you must realize the following is the general mindset of most players, either:
A) Dafuq is a sunwalker?
or
B) All sunwalkers are paladins... But not all paladins are sunwalkers... MINDFUCK

[Thirteen]

Well, you are actually a paladin. You're also a member of the Order of the Sunwalkers (ie a Sunwalker), but you are a paladin. Asking people to call you a Sunwalker, and not a paladin would be like me asking people to call my Forsaken (not undead!) priest a "Cultist of the Forgotten Shadow", or calling a draenei priest an Anchorite. Sure, it's not technically wrong. But then again, neither is the other term, and it's more widely preferred.

[The Madgod]

Yet Sunwalkers ARE paladins.... so, yeah, sorry mate, you are alone, lol.

Sunwalkers are not paladins in terms of lore. They don't use the holy light, which the rest of the paladins do, they use the energy of the sun. However since both paladins and sunwalkers use these different powers essentially the same way, they're classified as paladins for gameplay's sake. Paladins use divine magic, sunwalkers use nature magic.

That having been said, I don't get bent out of shape about it unless people bitch about how it doesn't make sense in lore. I would call my sunwalker a pally if I talked about her out of character for simplicity's sake, though I know that's not technically accurate.

[xensorlol]

"Light is Light, whatever the source."

[The Madgod]

You should probably reference quotes.

And it does matter that every single group considered a paladin by gameplay standards gets their power from the holy light in some way except the sunwalkers. There's a difference between divine magics, which paladins use, and nature magics, which sunwalkers use. How they use their powers is how they get their in-game classification, but where they get their powers tells us that in lore, they are not paladins. Paladins wield divine magic, sunwalkers do not.

[xensorlol]

If you insist, as clearly I must.

World of Warcraft: The Shattering, A Prelude To Cataclysm by Christie Golden. Chapter Twenty-Seven, Page 338. During the conversation between Anduin and Baine, Baine says, "Light. My people do not think the darkness is evil, Anduin. It is a naturally occurring thing, and therefore right. But we, too, have our own Light. We honor the eyes of the Earth Mother, the sun, and the moon-An'she and Mu'sha. Neither is better than the other, and together they see with balanced vision. I feel in this weapon a kinship to them, even though it comes from a culture very different from my own."
To which Anduin replies, "Light is light, whatever its source."
Anything else before I leave for work?

[The Madgod]

Nothing more, you've given enough of a reference. However he says that it's a kinship, a similarity. We already know this. It still isn't a divine magic. It would be as much a divine magic as the source of tauren druid's magic (IE: Mu'sha).

"Light is light, whatever its source." explains the outcome, hence why the sunwalkers are considered paladins in-game.

However, paladins do not wield nature magic. They wield divine magic. Sunwalkers do not use divine magic, they use nature magic.

[Cariboulou]

Nothing more, you've given enough of a reference. However he says that it's a kinship, a similarity. We already know this. It still isn't a divine magic. It would be as much a divine magic as the source of tauren druid's magic (IE: Mu'sha).

"Light is light, whatever its source." explains the outcome, hence why the sunwalkers are considered paladins in-game.

However, paladins do not wield nature magic. They wield divine magic. Sunwalkers do not use divine magic, they use nature magic.

Even though they use nature magic and not holy magic, they're still paladins.

[The Madgod]

Even though they use nature magic and not holy magic, they're still paladins.

That is a contradiction that I have already explained.

[xensorlol]

Yet, if they use nature magic, they would have their own set of unique spells. I haven't seen anyone read up on this stuff, nor have I seen someone RP a Sunwalker, but from what I can tell, they wield the same powers a paladin does, if from a different source.

[Aquamonkey]

That is a contradiction that I have already explained.

Nature can still be "divine" from the goddess Elune.

[Dellis0991]

you are a paladin.....deal with it

[Sal the Shieldhog]

Yet, if they use nature magic, they would have their own set of unique spells. I haven't seen anyone read up on this stuff, nor have I seen someone RP a Sunwalker, but from what I can tell, they wield the same powers a paladin does, if from a different source.

Lorewise their powers are of a slightly different sort, but they're close enough to label them in-game paladins.

Nature can still be "divine" from the goddess Elune.

Elune-granted power is actually Arcane, if memory serves.

[Aquamonkey]

Sunwalkers get their divine power of the light from the Tauren sun god, An'she, according to http://www.wowwiki.com/Sunwalkers

[Squirreludecker]

That is a contradiction that I have already explained.

I find it odd that you insist on role playing flavor, but you do not know what is and is not Divine magic.
There are 2 kinds of Magic: Divine and Arcane. Divine Magic is magic that is powered by a force external to the self. Most commonly a Deity of some form or flavor. (The Light, Elune, Etc) Arcane Magic is magic powered by forces within the self, whether it is personal study of magical theory, force of soul, or others.

Magic has multiple different styles: fire, frost, holy, arcane, nature, etc. These are styles, not types. These styles give flavor and description to magic, but are not separators of type of magic. Therefore, Tauren Sunwalkers magic being powered by their nature deity makes it no less Divine than Human Paladin magic being powered by The Light.

[The Madgod]

I find it odd that you insist on role playing flavor, but you do not know what is and is not Divine magic.
There are 2 kinds of Magic: Divine and Arcane. Divine Magic is magic that is powered by a force external to the self. Most commonly a Deity of some form or flavor. (The Light, Elune, Etc) Arcane Magic is magic powered by forces within the self, whether it is personal study of magical theory, force of soul, or others.

Magic has multiple different styles: fire, frost, holy, arcane, nature, etc. These are styles, not types. These styles give flavor and description to magic, but are not separators of type of magic. Therefore, Tauren Sunwalkers magic being powered by their nature deity makes it no less Divine than Human Paladin magic being powered by The Light.

I was using "holy" and "divine" interchangeably. I'm sorry you thought I didn't know the difference. Since everybody knows that paladins use holy magic, I thought I was being rather obvious when I was using "divine" instead of holy, when comparing them to sunwalkers and their nature magic.

Yet, if they use nature magic, they would have their own set of unique spells. I haven't seen anyone read up on this stuff, nor have I seen someone RP a Sunwalker, but from what I can tell, they wield the same powers a paladin does, if from a different source.

As Shadow-Cleave said, and as I have been saying... paladins use holy magic, sunwalkers use nature magic. They achive the same outcome, but because of where they draw their power, they are not one and the same. But, because of that same outcome, they are classified as the same in-game due to the need to keep things organized.