In my head, paladins can't be rulers. I can't tell if this is because separation of church and state is that deeply ingrained into my psyche or if I consider each job far too specialized with insufficient overlap (how can you personally fight battles according to the wishes of your God/dess/e/s if you need to make sure your people don't starve?). I've also discovered that I think of paladins as being devoted to a single deity (even in a polytheistic society they pick one to serve) despite having very much enjoyed The Deed of Paksenarrion - but even there a paladin who serves more than one of the deities is unique.

I'll have to think about it more.