Originally Posted by LurkytheDwarf
Wow. That is like almost exactly what happens in Conan the Barbarian (1982).
Not sure if you were being sarcastic here or not. I was making those suggestions based on Mesopotamian history. Renegades did sometimes come out of nowhere and seize power in a city-state, although their "empires" tended not to outlive them.

Originally Posted by LurkytheDwarf
I am waffling back and forth on paladins because while I do like the idea of them being enforcers for the city-state temples, there's just something about the pure Lawful Good shining knight which has always appealed to me.
Well, there’s no reason why one or more of the city-state temples couldn’t be devoted to a Lawful Good deity. And while the city-states are each devoted to a specific god, they don’t own that god, so it’s likely that one or more LG deities would be worshipped around the entire region. There’s plenty of leeway to have paladins both as temple agents as well as independently roaming instruments of divine will.