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Paladins? Gladiators? I'm not exactly sure.


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Hello, you all are always extremely helpful so I wanted to see if I could pick some brains for lore and opions again.

I took a look around for lore myself but I can't seem to find anything on this particular subject or how its handled so here I am.

 

We know Ishgard has several classes within her walls during the war but one thats caused me a lot of confusion is the sword wielders. Originally I assume they were just Paladins nothing to worry about, but noting the Knights use Holy magic I'm not a bit curious on how most people handle this. I personally was thinking of having my character be a sword wielder but I was curious about just how far lore wise that can be pushed. I know of the Sultana Sworn and the Paladins there and the Free Paladins, and I know that it is easy to garner a soulstone from these places, but what about Ishgard? Are they using Holy magic, do you suppose there are soulstones for sword wielders there? Are they just weaving other magic into their fighting styles to seem like they are using Paladin like skills? I know the game has its limitations and having Ser Adelphel use other abilities (assuming their are not Paladins) would have been a bit much but I simply am not sure if that is or isn't the case.

 

I want to use skills from the Paladin repertoire on my own character, but in your opinions; would it be better to simply put a spin on them as a Gladiator? Or is it safe to assume their are Paladins in Ishgard as well, and they are just maybe handled differently then Uldahn Paladins?

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At work atm, but the short answer is that "Paladin" in ffxiv specifically refers to Ul'dah's Sultansworn. Likewise "Gladiator" refers specifically to the Bloodsands fighters of the Gladiators' Guild. 

 

Ishgard's knights are neither of these, but their own version of swordsmen/knights/etc. Some are trained to perform magic as well as swordplay, some are not. Some dragoons use swords. When looking at the members of the former Heavensward, many of them were trained in magicks at Ishgard's Scholasticate before they became knights.

 

Hope that helps. I can come back later and post more lore sources on this.

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I'm sure Sounsyy will correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't need to be specifically a Gladiator or Paladin to wield a sword. You also don't need a soul crystal. You can just be some person who fights using a sword and a shield and learned it in whatever way fits their background.

 

A soul crystal, except in certain cases like BLM and MCH, is not necessary to use that job's abilities. It just makes it easier. A soul crystal is basically a semi-autonomous portable instructor you carry around with you. When you acquire a certain minimum level of skill, the soul crystal teaches you new techniques automatically. Once you master those techniques and become even more skilled, you're taught more advanced techniques. Any skills you invent yourself while carrying the soul crystal are stored inside it, and will be automatically taught to your successor - that's why they're handed down from generation to generation.

 

But there's nothing preventing you from learning sword techniques from an actual person who teaches you how to use a sword, with no crystal involved whatsoever. You don't need to fight in the arena or pledge yourself to a code of honor either. This is true of most classes and jobs - take Conjury, for example. Learning the class in Gridania, you are taught a specific way of communing with nature and borrowing power and blah blah, but there are plenty of bandits and thieves and poachers who use Conjury abilities and likely do none of those things. They were taught a different way.

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It depends how closely you're adhering to game mechanics and calling it lore. Realistically, anyone can pick up any weapon and swing it around. But for the sake of game balance each profession is limited to what they can wield. The classes were given specific names and lore behind them, but that only covers Eorzea (and the East for a few).

 

"Gladiator" and "Paladin" are names for very specific training styles taught in Ul'dah. But that doesn't mean they are the ONLY way to learn how to use a sword & shield. After all, people have been using these weapons and techniques for centuries, if not eons. What we know today grew out of styles that had been passed down and spread across the lands a long, long time ago. Do you think, say,  bandits or Garleans go into Ul'dah to become Gladiators before going back to their regular lives? Of course not.

 

The lore you get from each class as you level them up rarely makes sense on a larger scale. For example, how could there be so many White Mages running around, when the lore makes it clear the tradition was kept within an exclusive circle, and the player represents the first and ONLY outsider it's been taught to? Sometimes you just have to know when to ignore the lore.

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The only soul stone that is utilized by any of Ishgard's official forces is the Soul of the Dragoon, which has it's own nasty string of requirements and limitations ((Mainly because SE decided and it would be fun to arbitrarily take a single job and attach a number to them while usually remaining vague on such details)). As for your standard rank and file Temple Knights, they are pretty much ordinary people just fighting with swords, bows, spears, and the like. The majority of these don't really do anything special, but as others have said there are those in the ranks of the Temple Knights that are recruited from the Scholasticate which is the magic institution for Ishgard so there is even more opportunity.

 

As far as trying to explain Paladin like skills? Well you wouldn't say they were Paladin skills first off, and there is no need to. Most Paladin skills are simple sword strikes, and for the ones that aren't they are pretty much sword strikes enhanced by aether. So there are plenty of ways to spin that off that makes sense in the lore of the story, there is no need to feel tied down to a job name because that not only limits you, but requires you to jump through hoops to explain the why. One way could be just being a swordsman who knows a smattering of thaumaturgy and has a gem focus in the hilt of their sword to allow them to channel aether into their blade. Have fun with it and use the lore to your advantage.

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