Paladin Vocabulary (Introduction)

One area that has always impressed me about World of Warcraft is the way the Developers created a true sense of character to each class. One of the tools they used to accomplish this was in creating what I like to refer to as the vocabulary of the class. In the skill, talent and spell names, you’ll see certain words and phrases repeating themselves over and over again reinforcing in the reader’s mind what that class are all about.

Let me give you one example.

Cheap Shot, Ambush, Cold Blood, Dirty Deeds, Dirty Tricks, Honor Among Thieves, Kidney Shot, Malice, Master of Deception, Murder, Mutilate, Prey On The Weak, Ruthlessness, Surprise Attacks, Unfair Advantage.

Even if you never played a Rogue or even World of Warcraft, the meanings and connotations of those words and phrases would give you a really strong impression of what the Rogue class was all about. You would expect a sneaky thug who didn't want to 'fight fair'. That's the essence of a Rogue.

In talking and writing about Paladins, you’ve used this vocabulary of words hundreds, maybe thousands of times, but have you ever thought about what these words mean.

This will be the beginning of a multi-part post where I’m going to examine the vocabulary that Developers have used to describe the Paladin and look at the meaning and connotations of those words. We will be taking an in depth look at some of those ‘Paladin words’ that aren’t really a part of our vernacular anymore.