Paladin (DOTSverse)

The Paladins are the main focus of the DOTSverse, being the heroes of light that protect Juno from Eris' darkness and chaos. They were originally created by Iris as a result of Selas teaching her about human virtues, separating her chaotic mix of colors into a group of creatures. Paladins are typically separated into two categories, the original Paladin creatures and the modern Junoan Paladins.

Description
Despite being separated into two categories, the Paladins have consistent similarities to each other.

There is only 8 paladins every 100 years, representing the colors Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Violet, and Pink/Magenta. Unlike other Junoans, the Paladins are the only ones whose souls persist after death, as they seek a new "host" each generation. Both sets of Paladins are able to fuse, a trait specific to the Paladins and not to the rest of Juno or even the Gods. The Paladins also share physical traits with their previous counterparts with little difference, with certain traits being specific to a Paladin of a certain color.

Original Paladins
Unlike the modern Paladins, the Original Paladins are considered creatures. They can be considered demigods or nymphs, but are at the bottom of the godly hierarchy and are not considered deities. As creatures, the Paladins still have physical needs to tend to.

Each Paladin has a soul as a core, and their bodies are purely made out of light. A Paladin soul is considered the strongest out of any soul in Juno. When cut, their blood matches their soul color. Due to being purely light, Paladins do not have any bones but the illusion of bones, such as their teeth and being unable to completely bend limbs as if truly boneless.

Paladins also each have a light-based ability differing depending on soul color. They are also able to summon weapons from deep within their soul, which applies to all Paladins. Their diet consists of flowers and light. Paladins tend to sunbathe a lot and hibernate during cloudy days, as it helps regain their light energy. Due to this, Paladins cannot swim in deep water as the dark depths will eventually starve them of light. Their consumption of flowers also helps regain light energy, especially when eating flowers matching their soul color. However, they will occasionally drink herbal tea. Despite their herbivore tendencies, non-plant items won't harm them, but would be considered empty calories to them. It is also most likely that Paladins have an altered sense of taste compared to humans, where a Paladin finds flowers tastier depending on how well they match their soul color.
 * Red: Pure Light, Sword/Shield
 * Orange: Light Absorption, Scythe
 * Yellow: Fire, Whip
 * Green: Aurora, Bow/Arrow
 * Cyan: Ball Lightning, Twin Daggers
 * Blue: Lightning, Longsword
 * Violet: Ultraviolet Light, Javelin
 * Pink/Magenta: Light Holograms, Spear

Their true form could be considered their soul, which is heart shaped. As newborns, the Paladins appear as a ball of light with a Kirby-like face glowing their particular soul color. They make typical baby noises, such as "buh!" or "bwuh!". Baby Paladins are smaller than normal babies, and are always covered with a cloak attached to a soul-shaped button. Their vocabulary decreases in this state, only making chick-like "peep" noises. As children, they all wear a t-shirt with a soul pattern, scarf, boots, and leggings. They are completely mute in this state, and express little emotion. As teenagers and adults, they develop their own sense of clothing style, have a full vocabulary, and gain an obvious personality.

There have only been 8 Original Paladins, as most were destroyed during the age of the Hyperion Blast.

Modern Paladins
In the future beyond the Original Paladins, Modern Paladins are able to pass as a Junoan humanoid (called huemans). They are still considered a sort of demigod, but more grounded in humanity.

Modern Paladins still have their soul as a core, much like all huemans. However, they are made of stardust as well as light, but have a higher concentration of light than normal huemans. Their anatomy acts similarly to normal huemans.

Modern Paladins still have the same ability and weapons as their original counterparts, though most Modern Paladins have to unlock their element before being able to use it. They are able to unlock this element (as well as a light-based weapon) by developing the virtue of the Original Paladin they are based off of. Due to Solarians only having the ability to summon weapons, only Solarian Paladins are able to summon them. However, Lunaran Paladins tend to be drawn towards the weapon their Paladins used.
 * Red: Determination unlocking Pure Light
 * Orange: Enthusiasm unlocking Light Absorption
 * Yellow: Bravery unlocking Fire
 * Green: Balance unlocking Aurora
 * Cyan: Clarity unlocking Ball Lightning
 * Blue: Serenity unlocking Lightning
 * Violet: Individuality unlocking Ultraviolet (Occasionally can be Pride)
 * Pink/Magenta: Love unlocking Light Holograms (Love can range from romantic love, platonic love, or love for the world)

History
During the war between the Solar Empire and Lunar Terrain, in the grief of the Stars abandoning Plant Juno, Helios and Selene created an attack called the Hyperion Blast. The light power of this blast was so great that it created the deities Selas (god of light), Iris (goddess of rainbows and color), Arke (goddess of the faded second rainbow and colorlessness), and Eris (goddess of darkness and chaos).

While Selas had recieved most of the Blasts' power, the extra power given to Iris and Arke created them into winged, bird-like gods. Iris was an aggressive goddess, to which Selas sought to make her into something wonderful. Through their interactions, Iris developed emotion and empathy. Each virtue Selas taught Iris caused her create each of the Original Paladins, raising them as her own children. Selas is not considered the true father of the Paladins, but after creating the Pink/Magenta Paladin of Love, Iris and Selas had a non-Paladin daughter, Violetta.

The Paladins were raised by the three gods, though Iris slowly abandoned them for Violetta to care for as their healer. They were given only one task; to get rid of the creatures of darkness and colorlessness.

However, the goddess Eris managed to kill off all of humanity, shrouding Juno in complete darkness. In order to save Juno, the Paladins sacrificed themselves (using up all the energy in their soul) to defeat her. It only succeeded in subduing her, though the Paladins' sacrifice allowed Iris, Helios, and Selene to rebuild humanity. Iris' power was key in recreating humanity, and according to legend Iris made the deal to have her Paladins reincarnate every 100 years to further protect Juno. Ironically, despite being viewed as creatures by deities, Paladins were used as the basis for rebuilding humanity. It is also said that Violetta disappeared during this time and took up a new identity, Lavender Ultra-Viola, who acts as mentor to the Paladins after Iris disappears.

In the centuries to come, the Paladins would reincarnate every 100 years such as the deal said. The most prominent eras in history of the Paladins include: The story of District of the Stars: Danger Rally focuses on the latest generation of Paladins, in an era matching Earth's 2000's to 2020's.
 * The Era of Conquest, the age of the first Modern Paladins
 * The Dark Ages, the near-millennia struggle of the Black Plague and the weakened Paladins
 * The Renaissance, the rise of professional fighting and strengthening Paladins

In Universe
While the original Paladins were created by Iris in her journey of learning to express human emotion, modern Paladins are seemingly "reincarnated" every 100 years.

Due to each Paladins' shared soul, the making of a Paladin includes Iris seeking out a suitable host for the Paladin soul to have. Iris uses a sort of future-vision mixed with multidimensional clairvoyance in order to see what a certain hosts' future would be. When she's satisfied with what the future holds for that host, Iris "plants" the Paladin soul within their eventual parents, so the host will keep that soul and be molded to the Paladins' features. The only exception is the Violet Paladin, whose reincarnation is overseen by Violetta/Lavender.

Development
Throughout Mana's constant cycle of creating stories based on recent interests, Mana had created two stories at some point, District of the Stars and Defenders of the Universe. DOTS had more development at the time, though was still very bare-bones compared to Mana's other stories. When tasked with completely revamping one of her main stories, Mana ended up fusing the two stories into the early version of the modern District of the Stars.

During the early stages of the DOTSverse, the story was heavily inspired by Mana's recent interest at the time, Voltron: Legendary Defender. Both stories had a set of heroes called "Paladins", mostly set to represent a certain color, which Mana decided to turn into the full light spectrum. The Paladins of DOTS: DR were the first set of Paladins made, with the original concepts for the Green Paladin originally being for the Yellow Paladin and the Yellow Paladin concept originally for the Orange Paladin. Mana had also initially made a Black and White Paladin, with the very first Black Paladin taking inspirations off of now-scrapped versions of the Orange Paladin and the White Paladin eventually being the basis for Yang Blake.

While not much is remembered from the early world-building of the Paladins, Mana does remember that each Paladin would've unlocked a white-light transformation called a "Shiro" and could have also possibly been able to fuse together when the Shiro was in action. The idea of the Cyan Paladin and Blue Paladin had been a long-time concept, developing from just a simple concept of the Blue Paladin seeking a disguise to the idea of fused souls throughout generations.

Known Paladins
In the DOTSverse, there are about 16 Paladins with an explicit focus, split into both DOTS: 5x5/Primordial and DOTS: DR.

DOTS: 5x5/Primordial focuses on the original Paladins, such as: DOTS: DR focuses on the latest generation of Paladins, in a modern setting such as that of Earth's early 2000s - 2020s, including: Outside the two stories focusing on the DOTS verse, Mana believes that the Paladins of the Dark Ages constantly shared the same names each generation. No surnames are confirmed. This is due to the prominence of heraldry in real medieval ages, giving perfect medieval Paladin names, including:
 * Rubra (Red Paladin)
 * Aurantiaco (Orange Paladin)
 * Auri (Yellow Paladin)
 * Viridis (Green Paladin)
 * Callaina (Cyan Paladin)
 * Azureus (Blue Paladin)
 * Violae (Violet Paladin)
 * Rosea (Pink/Magenta Paladin)
 * Ruby Raleigh (Red Paladin)
 * Jacinthe Helenium (Orange Paladin)
 * Blaze Saffron (Yellow Paladin)
 * Rina Midoriya (Green Paladin)
 * Turquoise Sky (Cyan Paladin)/Cobalt Zaffre (Blue Paladin), could also be considered the Azure Paladin
 * Amethyst Violetta (Violet Paladin)
 * Rose Morganite (Pink/Magenta Paladin)
 * Gules (Red Paladin)
 * Tenny (Orange Paladin)
 * Aurelia (Yellow Paladin)
 * Vert (Green Paladin)
 * Ciel (Cyan Paladin)
 * Azure (Blue Paladin)
 * Purpure (Violet Paladin)
 * Amaranth (Pink/Magenta Paladin)

Symbols
Due to the Paladins being descendant of a known deity (Iris), the Paladins are worshiped like gods in Modern day.

The Paladins are present in both the religious worship of Iris herself, as well as the religious worship of themselves. The Paladins share certain symbols with Iris, such as the soul, the soul with wings, and rainbows. However, phoenixes are considered a symbol of solely the Paladins. This is due to their regenerating ability after their deaths, much like the Paladins arising each century. The Greek phoenix is also a symbol of the Paladins due to their apparent vibrant coloring.

Throughout the centuries, certain months have been dedicated to the Paladins, albeit out of the "rainbow order" in which the Paladins are listed. The rest of the months are dedicated to the deities of the Hyperion Blast, and the Paladin months are listed as: Ironically enough, the Paladin Months are not exactly the birth dates of the Paladins. While the Original Paladins' birthdays are unknown (only known to have been born in rainbow order), the DOTS: DR birthdays have the Blue, Cyan, and even Red Paladins be born in December. The Violet Paladin in DOTS: DR is also born in February, not May. The Green Paladin has an unconfirmed birthdate as of now, but will most likely not be in March like her month. However, the Orange Paladin of the era is born in November, matching their Paladin month.
 * February (Pink Paladin)
 * March (Green Paladin)
 * May (Violet Paladin)
 * July (Red Paladin)
 * August (Yellow Paladin)
 * September (Cyan Paladin)
 * November (Orange Paladin)
 * December (Blue Paladin)

Despite December being dedicated to the Blue Paladin, the last 8 days of the month are meant to celebrate each Paladin (in rainbow order) with a light festival entirely dedicated to them. New Year's Eve to New Year's are symbolic of their triumph against Eris as well as their constant reincarnation.

Trivia

 * The reason why there is debate on Pink Paladin vs Magenta Paladin is due to the Paladins being based off of the light spectrum, where Pink/Magenta is not truly a "real" color. Mana based the Paladin off of the Additive Color Wheel, where Magenta is listed as a mix of Blue and Red light. Despite Magenta referring to the actual additive light color, the Paladin is commonly referred to as the Pink Paladin rather than the Magenta Paladin.
 * There is no debate of Violet Paladin vs Purple Paladin, as Violet is the more common term to refer to light, especially in terms such as ultraviolet light. Purple is also considered the name of the color between Red and Blue in the RYB color model, not the RGB light spectrum that the Paladins are inspired by. Occasionally Mana will refer to the Paladin as the Purple Paladin for simplicity or silliness, though the technical term in-universe is Violet Paladin "because it sounds cooler".
 * Despite Magenta being in-between Red and Blue in the Additive Color wheel, the Red Paladin's and Blue Paladin's fusion will always be violet-colored "because it looks cool".
 * Ruby's name matching up with her original counterpart, Rubra, was complete coincidence. Ruby was named after the Steven Universe and RWBY characters with the same name. Rubra however, has gone through various name changes. She originally went by Auburn and Alpha (in reference to her first initial as Auburn), before Mana decided to name them after the Latin words of the colors.
 * It could be said that the Paladins' name doesn't come from the typical definition of Paladin, but is instead a pun on "palette"-din, referencing their close connection to colors and the light spectrum.
 * Mana had wanted to give the original Paladins fangs to add onto their creature aesthetic, but realized she dug herself into a hole when she remembered that Paladins are herbivores and wouldn't have a practical use for sharp teeth.
 * Original Paladin clothing is technically made of light as well, and will disintegrate immediately if a Paladin takes them off. While not intensely attached to their bodies, Paladins shedding clothing would be similar to cutting hair; technically painless, but still removing a part of the body. Thankfully, all Paladins choose to stay fully clothed.
 * While not explored in canon, Mana believes that "Paladin underwear" would include a sarashi around the chest, meant to protect their soul.
 * Mana believes that the "pet blanket burrito" trick would work on the original Paladins, no matter how old.
 * Despite Ancient Juno being solely Greek-inspired, the Paladins go by Latin names. Mana felt that as creatures, the Paladins would have names only vaguely related to the Ancient Junoan language, or as we call it, Greek.
 * There was a moment Mana thought of naming them after the Greek terms for their colors, though according to Google Translate, Cyan would roughly translate into "Kyanó", which Mana knows she would make Keanu Reeves references with.
 * The Blue Paladin roughly alludes to Iris' twin sister, Arke. Both of them are melancholic, serious, and share blue color schemes.
 * This is especially prominent in DOTS: DR, where both Arke and Cobalt are amputees.
 * It is unknown if the Yellow Paladin will allude to Iris herself, due to Iris' golden wings.
 * The Violet Paladin is the only Paladin where each generation of them will vary in appearance, and even gender.
 * However, the original Violet Paladin Violae is a pale-skinned woman with short black hair.
 * Originally there was going to be a White and Black Paladin, before Mana realized that it added too many main characters and would be better for Iris to create the entire color spectrum as the goddess of the rainbow.
 * Violetta can be considered a mid-point between deity and Paladin, as she has the body and powers of a God but the light abilities and soul of a Paladin.
 * Violetta and Lavender are considered Gods, alluding to the goddess Circe. However, they are the only Junoan deity to be born with a soul, as Iris created her own as well as Selas'. Arke is said to have stolen a soul out of jealousy. Eris does not have a soul at all, as souls are made out of light but she is made of pure darkness. Higher-tier Gods like Helios and Selene either don't have souls or have a divine, Asterian soul.
 * Original Paladins are pretty indestructible, and injuries are only more fatal when closer to the chest area where their soul is kept.
 * In Modern day, souls exist in another plane of existence inaccessible to mortals, including the Modern Paladins. However, they are still attached to one's physical being and can be seen by the body choosing to bring out a model of their soul, or if taken out by powerful magic.
 * Each of the Original Paladins have Iris' symbol on their weapon, a heart with wings. In Modern Paladins, Solarian Paladins gain this symbol when unlocking their element.
 * Due to the twin sibling nature of the Cyan Paladin and Blue Paladin, they are the only Paladins to fuse throughout entire generations. This phenomena is known as an Azure Paladin.
 * When sacrificing themselves in Ancient Juno, the two Paladins' soul was destroyed while fused. This caused them to be united as one person in the next era of Paladins.
 * Iris decides whether or not to keep the Cyan and Blue Paladin as separate beings or one being through her future vision, with her decision depending on what the generation would work best with.
 * An Azure Paladin is typically known to switch between the Cyan Paladin being dominant, Blue being dominant, and very rarely being an equal mix of Cyan and Blue.
 * Cobalt Zaffre of DOTS: DR is considered Blue-dominant, but has soul halves of both the Cyan and Blue Paladin. Blue's dominance makes Cobalt referred to as the Blue Paladin, rather than an Azure Paladin.
 * While not every generation has an Azure Paladin, Azure Paladins are considered paragons due to their dual soul power. This is prominent in Cobalt Zaffre's title as a prodigy, as his dual soul grants him the abilities of two Paladins rather than one, as well as boosting his fighting stats.
 * The Blue Paladin is typically the only male Paladin, with Azureus being the only male of the Original Paladins.
 * There has been the joke that the other Paladins had mostly feminine qualities due to Iris' preferences, before eventually basing the Blue Paladin after her husband, Selas.
 * There are more non-binary Paladins than male Paladins, as the Orange Paladin typically uses they/them pronouns and the original Cyan Paladin identified as genderfluid.
 * However, the Azure Paladin phenomena has the Cyan Paladin identify as male whenever Blue is dominant.
 * The Original Paladins are impacted by catnip in a similar way to actual cats.