Ethereal Knights

The **Ethereal Knights** are an antagonistic group of Riders fought in *Monster Hunter Stories Ultimate*.

## Description

The Ethereal Knights are a sizable army of human Riders dedicated to the cause of exterminating Elder Dragons with the exception of those that naturally harness Aether energy, as well as violently subjugating anyone they deem as "impure" for what they believe is the greater good. Members of both sexes primarily wield weapons that utilize the Aether Element and largely don armour sets derived from monsters that utilize Aether, with higher-ranking members wearing equipment derived from Elder Dragon-Level Monsters and Aether-based Elder Dragons. The Ethereal Emperor is the leader of the group, and sets himself apart from his subordinates by donning equipment partially modeled after Myo Galuna.

## Personality

Extremely dedicated to the Ethereal Emperor's cause of creating a new world where technological advancement and human prosperity are encouraged above all else and seeing it as necessary to bring order, civilization, and peace to the world and protect the innocent from Elder Dragons, the Ethereal Knights are willing to go to extremes to achieve this goal, up to and including kidnapping, murder, slavery, and even genocide. Their members harbor an immense hatred of Elder Dragons save for those that utilize the Aether Element and seek to exterminate them all and perform experiments on the survivors out of the belief that they are nothing but vermin that bring disaster wherever they go, and that driving them to extinction will improve life for humanity as well as the environment. In addition, many of them hold non-human races in contempt, seeing Wyverians, Sea People, and Troverians as primitive and having too miniscule populations to make a difference for the world the Emperor wishes to create outside of enslavement and viewing Lynians as weak, worthless pests that do nothing but parody and hold humanity back and deserve to be wiped out for it, and work towards turning people against them by claiming that they're to blame for the woes civilizations have endured since the Elder Anomaly took place; however, not all of them possess this level of hatred and contempt, seeing them as ordinary people and viewing the idea of killing or enslaving "civilized" races as akin to a war crime, and the majority of members who objected to the violent campaigns against these races were branded as traitors by their former comrades, with them occupying a territory known as Anxopolis and forming a truce with the Knights following a civil war. Many of the Knights also express a sense of arrogance pertaining to them seeing themselves as "saviours of humanity", boasting about their individual accomplishments and acting dismissive around outsiders with the exception of those they consider worthy allies or adversaries.

Despite their brutality, a large number of members choose to act in a pragmatic manner, sparing settlements instead of destroying them to allow for resources they can utilize and allowing the towns and villages they occupy to maintain their cultures and customs as long as they give the Emperor tribute, which lessens the chances of these settlements turning against him, and sway people to his side by promising that he will provide them with order and safety so long as they do everything he says; sure enough, the territories he owns are noted to be relatively safe from monster attacks and criminals, and are provided with stable equipment and clean food and drinking water so long as residents pay their taxes, which can be rather high. They will also refrain from actively antagonizing other Riders and Hunters when out in the field in order to avoid unnecessary conflict, only attacking if attacked first, if the Rider or Hunter is associated with Draconis Automata or Conquerors of the Void, or if they notice a Lynian or Elder Dragon within their team. They also have very little tolerance for deserters or traitors of any kind, with one of their captains, Ivory Gryphon, being exiled for an attempt to usurp the throne from the Emperor, and are willing to turn against a player who sided with them if they were initially antagonistic to them.

## Background

Founded by the Ethereal Emperor following a horrific Elder Dragon invasion within the Paladin's Eminence that massacred his beloved people and destroyed the kingdom he worked so hard to build along with the one he initially called home, the Ethereal Knights were survivors of the invasion who were personally trained by the Emperor himself following the reconstruction of the kingdom he lost, signing on with the hopes of preventing tragedies like the one that befell them from happening once more by any means necessary and expressing a desire to protect the innocent from the harm they had to endure. To prepare them for the violent campaign he wished to enact against Elder Dragons as a whole as retribution for the tragedy, the Emperor ordered them to collect data and materials from outside nations so they could expand their own and developed new tools and weapons for them to use against Elder Dragons; these weapons and tools included a portable Demolisher that would unload intense Dragon energy into a target, a handheld Dragonator that fired spears designed to pierce through rock-hard scales and inflict deep wounds, a fine mist akin to the kind emitted by Vases of Tranquility that bolstered metabolism and adrenaline and was stored in intricate vases called Dawn Vases, and an alloy that was stronger than titanium while being lighter than aluminum. The Knights were subjected to discipline to ensure that they would always be prepared for battle, yet were praised whenever they accomplished what the Emperor wanted from them, and they would train by sparring with each other and testing their new gear out on the local monsters, and after enough time passed for them to be a sufficiently coordinated army, he put his plan for extermination into action.

The Ethereal Knights went on a violent purge towards Elder Dragons with the whole exception of those which utilized the Aether Element, an element that the Emperor admired for its natural properties, and started with the dragons that lived within the mountains and plains of the Paladin's Eminence. The Knights and the Emperor invaded every Elder Dragon nest in sight in search of eggs belongng to those that didn't utilize Aether, using notes given to them by the scholars to differentiate them from the eggs of monsters like Aetheo Alqueda, and on his demand, they smashed every single Elder Dragon egg in sight and slew the hatchlings with impunity so as to lower their numbers as fast as possible, and any Elder Dragon that drew too close to the fledgling empire, including those that utilized Aether, would be slain on sight, with survivors being subjected to painful experiments, like the testing of nerve agents. Their brutal and merciless campaign against the Elder Dragons in their region led to all but those that utilized Aether becoming eradicated and soon drew international attention, with some praising them for making the region safer for humanity and other monsters alike and allowing advanced technology to prosper, whereas others condemned them for eradicating entire species and potentially triggering another Great Dragon War like the one that wiped out the Ancient Civilization ages ago. Regardless of what anyone said, however, the Emperor and his Knights continued to pursue their goals, believing that they would allow for human technological advancement and bring order to a world that needed it, and he and his loyal soldiers would continue expanding their empire.

Over time, the Ethereal Emperor and his Ethereal Knights would venture all over the world, ranging from the rest of the Ijotria region they hailed from to the Old and New Worlds, and were ready to share their visions of human prosperity and technological advancement with the world no matter what anyone said, and were content to resort to violence and subjugation to any region in sight if they felt it was necessary, earning them a reputation of being imperialists, and while some were happy that there were more people around to help fight off the Elder Dragons that threatened humanity for years, others, such as the Hunter's Guild, were furious about their presence, for the Knights had little consideration or respect for the Guild and the laws they enforced and wished to bring in their own form of law and order, viewing the Guild as a corrupt and obsolete organization that did more harm than good for a variety of reasons, ranging from them not telling civilians about the presence of Elder Dragons near their settlements to their role in the creation of the Contaminated Wasteland. Not helping matters was that the Emperor and many of the Knights had expanded their focus from simply hunting down Elder Dragons to subjugating all non-human civilizations and exterminating Lynians as a whole, viewing Wyverians, Troverians, and Sea People in contempt for being primitive and unable to make a difference to them outside of servitude in their eyes due to their small populations compared to humans and wanting to wipe out Lynians due to them being seen as pests to many human settlements and the Emperor believing that their civilizations were mockeries of humanity and that animals could never be equal to humans, with him using their weakness and status as second-class citizens in most societies as excuses to wipe them out. Their refusal to discern benign individuals from hostile ones, preaching about human superiority, and willingness to use force to get their way earned them much scorn from communities all over the world, though some were willing to cut them some slack due to the Empire providing subjugated citizens with clean food and drinking water, stable equipment, and protection from monsters and criminals alike and allowing them to continue practicing their cultures and customs in exchange for them paying tribute to it, with non-humans and their sympathizers having to pay higher taxes. Things came to a head when a number of Ethereal Knights who were unhappy with having to oppress and kill friendly and benign non-humans and would have preferred to stick to the original goal of eradicating Elder Dragons started pushing back against the campaigns, leading to a civil war among them that ended in these defectors leaving to form a civilization of their own within the mountain spire of the Paladin's Eminence after forming a truce with the Emperor, with this one being known as Anxopolis. And things would continue to become more extreme from there.

A year after the Ethereal Emperor initiated his expansion campaign, a catastrophic event known as the Elder Anomaly took place worldwide, with Elder Dragons going berserk and invading areas non-stop, and believing that his campaign had to get tougher to thwart the threat and any other like it, he and his Ethereal Knights became increasingly violent and tyrannical towards any that would oppose their rule or get in the way of progress, enacting campaigns like clearing out Naubaka Island and all its residents to make room for their own territories and stealing old blueprints for EX Monsters from Dr. Manelger and Itsy-Bitsy, who both died from cyanide poisoning after refusing to go along with their plans for conquest, and after striking a deal with a corrupt sect of Guild officials known as the Dengeki Triad, who promised to give the Knights the materials needed to make more EX Monsters in exchange for money and valuable goods from the Paladin's Eminence, they went to work on creating an army of subjugated monsters for the Emperor, even creating new types of EX Monsters like the Flurros EX, the Cereukas EX, the Ferogul EX, and the Flurreligar EX, with them serving as guards for his territories and soldiers for use against anything he would consider a menace; however, they disavowed the experiments conducted by the Ancient Civilization despite their beliefs being similar in nature, with them seeing the Ancient Civilization's acts of creating new life to be too impractical and costly when they were already achieving success with what they had. Their actions would soon catch the attention of an Elder Dragon-worshipping cult known as Draconis Automata, who held the Emperor and the Knights in contempt for their violent campaign against Elder Dragons and invasive modifications to other monsters, threatening to instigate another Great Dragon War if they persisted, and an omnicidal army of torturers and human traffickers known as the Conquerors of the Void, who wanted all life wiped out and saw the Knights as an obstacle that needed removing, and the three would be involved in frequent clashes with each other for supremacy. Word of a mysterious sighting within the Labyrinth of Paradise also piqued the Emperor's interest, with the Knights making plans to investigate the labyrinth, though because the peace treaty with Anxopolis forbid members of their separate nations from entering, he settled for having his scouts appear around it in the hopes of finding leads, only acting if he was sure that what he was looking for was there. Nonetheless, they proved to be a rather successful enemy, holding off the Guild and the rival groups alike from territory the Emperor considered his and his alone and helping him gradually step closer to his goals of complete conquest, though one particular outsider could either prove to be the key to a complete victory, or a complete loss.

## Abilities

The Ethereal Knights specialize in the Aether element, utilizing a variety of Dragon-based equipment and Aether-elemental Monsties, with Elder Dragon-Level Monsters being frequent among them. They display a knack in craftsmanship and mechanics, creating new forms of EX Monsters, artificially-enhanced monsters controlled through modified Kinship Stones, and using them as tools of war, and utilize weapons designed with the purpose of destroying Elder Dragons, such as portable Demolishers and handheld Dragonators; this carries over into battle as well, with Elder Dragon Monsties taking massive damage from these weapons. They also craft tools known as Dawn Vases, medicinal tools that raise all allies' stats.

## Tropes that Apply to Them

* Armies are Evil: They're an established military within their kingdom, and while their goals are well-intentioned and initially benign, their extremism and willingness to do anything to achieve their goals firmly marks them as an Evil-aligned faction.
* Berserk Button: Unless they naturally use the Aether Element, the Ethereal Knights absolutely despise Elder Dragons, seeking to eradicate them all and immediately becoming hostile if they notice one within the player's team. Should the player use them while part of their team, they'll begrudgingly allow it due to the Emperor permitting their use in order to advance his cause, but state that they should be put down the instant his goals are achieved.
* Bigotry Exception: They permit the existence of specific Elder Dragons like Aetheo Alqueda and Myo Galuna due to them naturally harnessing their beloved Aether Element, though they're also willing to kill them if they become too much of a threat to their occupied settlements.
* Combat Pragmatist: When fought, they'll directly attack the player despite Riders not being allowed to directly attack each other outside of moves that hit multiple targets at once (in that case, it's due to loophole abuse), and have no qualms with calling for backup.
* Cult of Personality: Due to his ruthless efficiency and desire to maintain it, a large number of the Knights formed a cult of personality towards him, with them treating him as infallible and even revering him as a god. Unlike many dictators, however, the Emperor doesn't enjoy the cult of personality he formed around himself, being fully aware that it could potentially send his empire into anarchy if he dies or is overthrown, and insists that he's simply their emperor as opposed to a god in efforts to quell it; in addition, the idea of him being a god clashes with the science-based ideology he promotes and reminds him of the Elder Dragons he despises, causing him frustration.
* The Dragonslayer: They wield tools designed to inflict massive damage onto Elder Dragons, such as portable Demolishers and handheld Dragonators, and a player who has the misfortune of facing them while they have an Elder Dragon as their current Monstie will find it fainting in no time flat. If the player sided with them, they too can reap the benefit of these items, making Elder Dragon fights considerably easier.
* Egomaniac Hunter: Their members can be quite open about their accomplishments as dragon slayers, with them mounting the heads of slain Elder Dragons on their walls and boasting about the number of Elder Dragons they've killed.
* Enemy Civil War: They despise Draconis Automata due to their goals of eradicating civilization to make way for a world ruled by Elder Dragons, and also dislike the Conquerors of the Void due to their one true goal being the eradication of all life as opposed to just specific sorts of life, attacking both factions on sight and making a point about eradicating them as soon as possible.
* Even Evil Has Standards: They despise cannibalism and rituals involving human sacrifice, finding them barbaric and disgusting, and these are among the reasons why they hold Draconis Automata and the Conquerors of the Void in contempt.
* Equal-Opportunity Evil: Downplayed; they only allow humans into their ranks, but treat men and women equally, with a sizable number of their members being female, and unlike the kingdom they originally hailed from, which was heteronormative and anti-intellectual, they're more open-minded in regards to sexuality and intellectualism, even offering begrudging respect to non-human intellectuals.
* Evil is Petty: Among their list of crimes is putting up posters claiming that Wyverians, Troverians, Sea People, and Lynians are the result of zoophilia, and thus, they along with their supporters are automatically impure and not worth anyone's time or respect, with them also using the former two's respective titles of "Dragon Tribe" and "Earth Dragon Tribe" against them.
* Fantastic Racism: They have a poor opinion of non-human races and civilizations, viewing them all as unsightly creatures and burdens on humanity that need to be enslaved or eradicated for its betterment, and Elder Dragons (with the exception of those that utilize Aether, which they view as holy), wanting them all exterminated due to seeing them as mindless, worthless brutes that don't deserve to exist, citing their attacks on human settlements and them throwing the environment out of balance at times as justification for their extinction. According to individual Ethereal Knights and NPCs in Anxopolis, their refusal to allow non-human races into their ranks stem from Wyverians producing very few children and often being too old to buy into their propaganda, having lived for centuries, Troverians and Sea People having such small populations that they wouldn't make a difference outside of enslavement in their eyes, and Lynians being seen as mockeries of humanity and being held in contempt for their weakness in comparison to the other races.
* Holy Hand Grenade: They predominantly use the Aether Element in battle.
* Keystone Army: Without the Ethereal Emperor leading over them, the Ethereal Knights and the Ethereal Kingdom they preside over will fall into a state of anarchy and civil war due to rampant infighting and clashing ideas on how to run the kingdom, with the cult of personality the Emperor unintentionally built around himself making it very difficult for a successor to claim the throne, and this will eventually spell their doom.
* Knight Templar: Some members believe that they are the ultimate authorities on what constitutes as right or wrong and are willing to go to extremes to accomplish what he believes is best for humanity, including genocide against non-humans and wiping out entire species of monsters, no matter how benign they may be. Others, however, are more nuanced in comparison, admitting that what they're doing is extreme and not taking pride in it, but arguing that it's necessary to make the world a safer place.
* Motive Decay: They were originally founded with the purpose of protecting people from Elder Dragons, but as the Ethereal Emperor's goals shifted towards subjugating and exterminating sapient races and creating excuses for the brutality they faced, so did theirs. Many Knights who joined with the intention of protecting innocents from dragon attacks soon grew disillusioned with the Emperor due to his refusal to differentiate benign non-humans from hostile ones and willingness to use force to get his way, with them leaving to form the settlement of Anxopolis following a civil war and decrying what the Knights and their Emperor have become.
* Repressive, but Efficient: Played with. Although the Ethereal Emperor and his Ethereal Knights are ruthless, brutal tyrants, their territories are noted to be quite safe for civilians (particularly those that were not enslaved for being non-human), providing clean food and water, stable equipment, and protection from aggressive monsters and criminals alike so long as residents pay their (very high) taxes and obey his curfews, and due to this aspect of them, some civilians will vouch for them in spite of their evil actions. As a consequence of this ruthless efficiency and his desire to maintain it, however, he unintentionally built himself a large cult of personality that would easily lead to anarchy if he died, and individual guards and higher-ups aren't above taking bribes from the player.
* Unwilling Roboticisation: Similar to Dr. Manelger before them, they capture wild monsters, augument their abilities, and give them organ implants, all while using modified Kinship Stones to keep them them in control. Unlike Manelger, however, they rarely, if ever deal with malfunctioning controls due to their greater focus on quality control, with the few times it happens being the result of their major supplier intentionally giving them faulty materials to work with in an effort to destroy them from within. Their army of EX Monsters consist of individuals both old and new, ranging from the Aptonoth EX, Uroktor EX, and Barroth EX to the Cereukas EX, Sicarapax EX, and Zarai Mawara EX.
* Visionary Villain: Their ultimate goal is to reshape the world into their own image, creating a worldwide empire that encourages human prosperity and technological advancement, with humanity reigning supreme above all others and enjoying a world free of Elder Dragon attacks, and they proclaim that the worldwide empire they wish to create will be even greater than the Ancient Civilization.
* Well-Intentioned Extremist: They believe that enslaving or wiping out anything they view as a detriment to humanity, Elder Dragons in particular, and conquering other nations are all necessary to save the world from the Elder Anomaly and bring about a new age that promotes human and technological advancement.
* Would Hurt a Child: With the exception of eggs from those that utilize Aether, they smash every single Elder Dragon egg they come across and kill off the hatchlings, stating that the best way to get rid of "weeds" is to pull them up from the roots.

## Notes and Trivia

* Choosing to have members of the Ethereal Knights killed off in *Monster Hunter Stories Ultimate* does not deplete from the game's Karma Meter, showcasing just how far off the deep end they are. Some characters may become wary of the player after they finish the act, however.
* The Ethereal Knights serve as one of the major villain factions in Low-Rank and G-Rank, with them violently subjugating a number of lands within and outside of the Ijotria region and attempting to release Myo Galuna from its confines so they can use it as a tool to bring in the new era they wish to create, no matter what the cost may be.