I'm gonna point out that there are certain paladin lines that do seem to imply worship of a god, it's even almost stated to be Tyr during the whole Anders quest. So that just makes me think there's more there that we haven't seen, one way or another.
Apparently this is leftover dialogue from the datamined stuff when Paladins had Tags for all of the same gods clerics did. Supposedly you can get references to paladin's serving a 'goddess' under certain circumstances-Lolth IIRC-I think it's if you choose Lolthsworn since they have a default religious option? IDK. It's pretty clear from its current implementation that at the very least *player* paladins are divorced from the concept of religion, and that this is an about face from the initial plans.
Anyways, all of this stuff about 'making an oath without being religious but a god notices anyways and chooses to be your patron without revealing themselves in any way' seems incredibly niche and unlikely. Certainly more appropriately an outlier rather than the norm?
First of all, what even is a non-religious 'oath of devotion' or 'oath of ancients' paladin if there is no religious doctrine guiding them, yet they very clearly have a specific code of ethics governing their actions-who is defining all this? It certainly isn't the paladin's themselves, because one 'oath of the ancients' paladin has the same creed as every other. 'Paladin' isn't some a'-la-carte 'pick your grabbag of oath stuff' it's a package deal. Several different-themed packages, but distinct packages nonetheless. This indicates organization, a creed passed down and taught from one paladin to another. And at that point, I ask myself why religiously neutral paladins instead of utilizing the existing religious structure of paladins in Faerun. Why cowboys and superheroes but not the Order of the Radiant Heart?
And what even is an 'oathbreaker' if breaking an oath doesn't indicate a betrayal of an organization or even identify you in any way and the only distinguishing feature is that you get your divine powers no-strings attached? Makes sense if you are a member of a paladin order. Who is holding you accountable for 'falling' and shanked a goblin that one time if anyone can become a paladin and falling is a moral failure and a personally-defined one at that which doesn't indicate a betrayal of an organization, heresy, or crime, etc. Falling/turning oathbreaker just doesn't mean a whole lot there.
IMO there should have been religious paladins, and the oathbreaker should have been a quest to either regain your paladinhood after falling or proving yourself worthy to join as a paladin of a different relgion. There should have been evil paladins as an option to start as. Falling should not have been a matter of choosing to pay a small fine or keep all of your powers anyways.
