The Paladin: one of the most commonly reviled or mocked character classes in Dungeons and Dragons, a Paladin is a warrior who fights for the sake of their deity, gaining certain mystical abilities from their god in return. Often depicted as the classic Knight in Shining Armor, Paladins in RPGs often were played as either Lawful Stupid (so goody-two-shoes that they could be easily suckered into lethal confrontations), or as arrogant Knights Templar, well-intentioned extremists willing to go to ANY lengths to accomplish what they believed were their goals and commandments from their people. "Munchkins", of course, would play them simply for the sake of their Special Powers and ignore all the restrictions and requirements of the character class.
Such depictions often damaged the character type's reputation with gamers; the proper way for such a character to behave is to be a representative of wisdom and good, using their armament when diplomacy fails. But there were precious few old books, and no new novels, depicting this…
… until Elizabeth Moon wrote Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance, and Oath of Gold, which together comprise the trilogy of The Deed of Paksenarrion.
Deed of Paksenarrion follows the eponymous sheepfarmer's daughter, Paksenarrion (known more familiarly as Paks) from the time she runs away from her home to avoid a stifling arranged marriage and a grinding life of farming, through her initial adventures as part of the military and her slow discovery that she has, somehow, been Chosen by Gird, one of the gods of her world, to become a Paladin. We see Paks learn to fight, to survive, to understand her world… and find a place in it she never expected.
Elizabeth Moon writes much of Paks' early military experiences from her direct knowledge; she was in the United States Marine Corps for four years and is a student of history, and her depictions of the military are accurate and fascinating as we see them through Paks' eyes.
When I had the fortune to carry on a short email conversation with her some years ago, she confirmed the fact that what triggered the creation of Paks was hearing people playing D&D and playing a Paladin "wrongly"; she didn't go into detail but my guess would be either Lawful Stupid or Opportunistic Bastard (munchkin). This caused her to think "the chosen warrior of a god would NEVER act like that", and from that, naturally, to think about what such a character would be like.
Paks is an extraordinary character in many ways. One of the most obvious is that there is, essentially, no "romance arc" in the book. There are a few people obviously attracted to Paks, and one point where she could easily have married for both love and high station, but she finds herself more drawn to the mission itself – to be a Paladin, a warrior who rights wrongs, seeks out injustices, and is the first on the lines in the defense against evil.
Again, as in many of my reviews, I am trying not to spoiler things too much, otherwise I could say a great deal about Paks and her journey. Paks goes through the wringer multiple times, including one so terrible that it very nearly breaks her forever. She also has many Crowning Moments of Awesome, as she slowly comes to demonstrate that she is as extraordinary as anyone might expect, and so humble overall that she almost never admits her superior capabilities.
As the novels had their genesis in a reaction against badly-played RPG paladins, it is not a surprise that the books have elements from RPGs present in them; it was obvious to me that part of "playing fair" with the Paladin concept was to take the defining elements of the RPG paladin and make them WORK in the context of a living, breathing world. The world Elizabeth Moon designed has all the standard elements in them, but – at least in my opinion – she takes all those elements and makes them her own, breathes a life into them that makes her world seem more solid and real than many other fictional worlds; in some ways, it seems more realistic than Tolkien's Middle-Earth, because she addresses some parts of the world (military, support/supply and trade, for instance) in a manner that makes sense and emphasizes that this is a universe filled with real, living people who love, and fight, and die, sometimes painfully.
It is inevitable that I sometimes think of Paks in connection with Kyri from Phoenix Rising, since both of them are, in RPG terms, Paladins – holy warriors of their gods. I invented Kyri a couple of years after Paksenarrion was first published, but I was unaware of the existence of the book until several years later, so there's no actual direct connection. But they do have that parallel, both born in one way or another of RPG roots, both attempts to show a holy warrior for a god in a logical, effective role that makes them neither arrogant, self-aggrandizing pricks nor eternal nice-guy suckers. I can only hope, in my case, that Kyri springs from the page half as well as Paks, because for many years Paks was what I would point to whenever someone asked "What do YOU mean by 'Paladin'"?
If you haven't read The Deed of Paksenarrion, please, give it a try. The first part – Sheepfarmer's Daughter – is available from the Baen Free Library, here: http://www.baenebooks.com/p-587-sheepfarmers-daughter.aspx
Watch, as a young girl – whose only dream is to become a warrior – becomes a legend.
I read this series well before I started playing D&D, and it always struck me as the right way for a paladin to act. Self-sacrificing, very humble, yet at the same time very aware of the position she is *and* from whom she has gotten her duty/quest.
It is still one of the most “realistic” portrayals of what the paladin is written to be in D&D, and as what it is rarely played as.
About ten years ago, my ex’s father sent an old, beat up copy of the Deed of Paksenarion to my ex as a birthday present. I don’t think he ever opened it, but I devoured it. D&D has never been my game, and I doubt I would ever write a story in a D&D inspired world, so I would never have made the connection myself. That said, have to agreed – Paks is exactly what a paladin SHOULD be, and Moon (as always) did an awesome job making her world come alive.
It being one of the games I’ve played for over 30 years, the D&D refs spoke loudly to me. Of course, I’ve done the same thing, in that sense, with Phoenix Rising.
Love this series… The new (mostly) Paks-Free books are good, too, as were the prequels, but the first trilogy was just awesome.
She was a paladin of Gird, like in ‘Ermahgerd’?
I always thought of it as Gird, as in fasten or secure.
Oddly, the “ermagerd” meme is said to be very recent, yet it seemed to me as soon as I saw it that I KNEW it — I’d heard “ermagerd” used just that way *YEARS* before, as in probably during the 80s. Can’t think of where it was, though.
I always have liked Paks. She is solid reliable and yes very much what the best Paladin’s should be. I think between her and Sparhawk my view of Paladins was firmly shaped.
For me, it was Paks and Captain America who were my go-to examples for “THAT is a Paladin”.
Although he functions more as a Bard, I’d add Manly Wade Wellman’s John the Balladeer as far as conduct goes.
Agree on John the Balladeer – despite his music, very much a classic paladin: brave, helpful, honest, reverent, personally modest, unconcerned with money, and apparently able to focus the attention of a benevolent deity on the powers of darkness to defend the helpless.
Captain America – well, I never really “got” him. Maybe I didn’t read his books at a formative age the way I did Iron Man, Thor, or some of the other Marvel and DC heroes. I always thought that both he and Spider Man would have been a lot better off if they could have adopted a little of the other’s mindset. C A wasn’t – quite – Lawful Stupid – but he seemed one of the shallower heroes in deed and motivation.
The movie “gets” Cap. He’s precisely, perfectly portrayed in that movie. If you don’t “get” him from the movie, then he’s not for you. For me, he ends up DEFINING “hero” — which is why in the end EVERYONE follows him, even the Thunder God, the berserker rage incarnate, the assassins, and the arrogant rich guy.
I’ll have to see the movie – my impressions of Cap are from decades-old comics, not anything recent. I never disliked him – I just didn’t “get” him, the way I did some of the others. My favorite, both Marvel and DC, was probably Batman – smart (“the world’s greatest detective”), with understandable motivation, and successful due to his intelligence, focus, and endless practice rather than being born or gifted with random super-powers. Now that I think about it, in many ways he comes close to the “Paladin” ideal himself.
By some definitions, he definitely fits Paladin, though not the definition that says “squeaky clean”.
In fact, Kyri/Phoenix in _Phoenix Rising_ originated as my own attempt to design a Paladin character who was explicitly described to the GM as “Batman as a Paladin”.
Mhmmm~ It’s true that Paks is a slightly different but pretty accurate rendition of a paladin.
Unfortunately, that lead to my complaint that she’s too dry, emotionally. True, that is an aspect of paladin: celibacy. Still.
Though in my case I never like Paladin that much. Playing games, there’s one in my group to make use of the quests built for such, but not that close and for dang sure never the real leader of the group. My favoured character would be the wizard.
Celibacy is one aspect of one type of Paladin. It’s a fairly classic view, yes, and I understand why Paks had to follow that path, but it’s hardly a necessity when playing them.
I play Paladins fairly frequently, and they’re all pretty different from each other.