No one in Ravenloft simply decides to become a paladin. They are extremely rare, the chosen ones of divine forces, selected for their spiritual purity. These divine forces imbue paladins with holy power, appointing them to champion the meek and deliver justice to the forces of darkness. Paladins tend to see good and evil as living, elemental forces that should be easily divided into black and white. Of course, true paladins understand the difference between the pure, unremitting evil of a vampire and the misguided wrongs of a drunken bully, and they react appropriately. Paladins blinded by hubris quickly become the servants of the Dark Powers.

The divine forces that grant a paladin their special abilities are as faceless as the Dark Powers, in fact, they may well be the Dark Powers. Evidence exits, however, that paladins are an aberration in the grand tapestry the Dark Powers have woven for themselves. Paladins possess extensive, powerful gifts in their personal life-quests against the forces of evil, but in many ways, the decks seems stacked against them. The Dark Powers may seek to destroy paladins in their realms, or it may be that the Dark Powers are enraptured with the potential paladins hold, and they simply provide them with fitting challenges.

Paladins native to Ravenloft usually ascribe their divine powers to the prevailing deities of their homeland. They almost never adventure simply for the pursuit of lucre or personal gain; they seek out and battle evil because they know it's the right thing to do. It's the rare paladin indeed who dies of old age in Ravenloft; many become fatalistic as they proceed through life, knowing that the examples they leave after their deaths are as important as the actions they took in life.