Genevieve’s Paladin Oath

A custom oath I’ve written for a D&D campaign I’m playing (inspired by the Oath of the Ancients ⟨dnd5e.wikidot.com/paladin:ancients⟩). Sub-bullets (in italics) are not actually part of her oath; they’re my clarifications and elaborations on elements of her oath.

  1. I will, to the best of my ability, minimize harm to sapient life as a whole.
    • Thus, if someone threatens to set off a doomsday device that could destroy all sapient life, she is duty-bound to stop them by all means necessary, up to and including lethal force. This oath also obligates her to try to stop atrocities like genocide, war crimes, and mass murder.
  2. I will, to the best of my ability and where this does not conflict with my first oath, minimize harm to sentient life as a whole.
    • This includes not just humans, elves, and so on, but also animals. (Thus, she is vegetarian.)
  3. I will, to the best of my ability and where this does not conflict with my first two oaths, minimize harm to life as a whole.
    • So, plants and fungi and so on.
  4. I will, to the best of my ability and where this does not conflict with my first three oaths, minimize harm to sapient individuals.
    • This does not prevent her from fighting or taking the lives of those who are threatening others’ wellbeing, but she cannot and will not attack anyone without provocation.
  5. I will, to the best of my ability and where this does not conflict with my first four oaths or Nature Herself, minimize harm to sentient individuals.
    • She can’t do anything about animals preying on each other, but she is duty-bound to prevent acts like poaching; in fact, she has a specific loathing of poachers.
  6. I will, to the best of my ability and where this does not conflict with my first five oaths or Nature Herself, minimize harm to individual non-sentients.
  7. I will, to the best of my ability and where the following does not conflict with my first six oaths, preserve art, culture, science, philosophy, and knowledge – our sources of light, joy, knowledge, beauty, and meaning. My word is my bond, and I will neither break it nor lie unless I must do so to preserve innocent life. I will be a beacon of light in the darkness, a source of shelter in a storm. Where there is need, I will seek to fulfill it. Where there is despair, I will seek to bring hope. Where there is injustice, I will seek to correct it. I will be fair and impartial, and I will listen to others’ perspectives before I act or speak. I will treat others not as I wish to be treated, but as they wish to be treated. I will not nurse grudges, abet hatred, or tolerate intolerance. I will embody the behavior I wish others to emulate. I will be frank about my flaws and seek to correct them, but I will forgive imperfection in both myself and others, so long as they seek to improve, and I will find beauty in imperfection. I will swear no oaths that contradict the above; they will remain my highest duties.
    • This is a “living oath”: when the campaign starts, she has only sworn its first sentence and its last. She’ll swear more of them as she gains abilities. The oath is known well enough in the setting that paladins are widely known to be unable to, e.g., intentionally deceive others for purposes short of, e.g., preventing a war or other loss of innocent life, even if they haven’t yet sworn that part of the oath.

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