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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 2470175" data-attributes="member: 1125">I understand your point that this need not be a Paladin variant and I think the main reason is because I was looking at the standard paladin class and tihinking how it could be adapted to a Polynesian seting. Also UA features both the Paladin of Tyranny and P~ of  Slaughter as Evil versions of the Paladin, showing that Paladin can be envisaged that don't  "fight for good and justice". Also the beast spirits aren't in any way evil just 'dangerous' (and reflect a different understanding of good and evil in Polynesian culture)Anyway I accept that some of the class abilities might not be approaporiate (like Detect Evil) and after looking through the UA Paladin variants might adopt some of their abilities (eg Debilitating Aura) instead.The Issue of AlignmentPolynesia did not have a well developed notion of good and evil and as such the standard alignment system may not be appropriate. Neither did goo and evil apply to the Spirits for in Polynesia all spirits were dangerous but some could be appeased and even 'managed' so that they provided benefit to mortals. The only spirits one could rely on were your own ancestors.Mortals were also viewed in much the same way and as such practices which other societies considered evil might be acceptable in Polynesia (or unacceptable but tolerated in some cases eg wonton cannibalism (as opposed to ritual cannibalism).Far more important in Polynesian thought were notions of Social Norm somewhat conforming to Lawful (adhering to social norm for the benefit of the group) and Chaotic (challenging the norm,unpredictable , disrupting the group) but again lacking moral force so for instance the great culture hero Maui was chaotic whereas the other great hero Tafaki was Lawful Anyway if Alignment is use only the Law - Chaos Axis ought to be used (and Good and Evil dropped)Interestingly it has been proposed that prior to their arrival in SE Asia (some of) the ancestors of the Polynesians also originated in the area of the Aryans. Speculation is that Sindhava is the origin of the name Havaiki and that the place name Irihia (mentioned in some old legends) refers to Iria (Iran).Another possibility (which might confirm your sunken continent theory) is that the proto-polyensian 'Austronesean' peoples originated in Sundaland, the submerged landbridge which is now the Indonesian islands. (ps the Austronesian peoples are the most widley dispersed of prehistoric peoples who settled Polynesia (reaching South America) back across SE Asia and thence to Madagascar (the Malagasy people speak an Austronesian dialect). That some may have traveled from Africa north to Europe isn't too farfetched<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Heres a link to a book called <a href="http://www.ethnomath.org/resources/tregear1885.pdf" target="_blank">Aryan Maori</a> first published in 1885 which discussed the Aryan-Maori link.</blockquote>

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