Knight

### Stormwind

**Knights** in the Kingdom of Stormwind are the recipients of a knighthood, received either via traditional (usually military) service or through membership in one of the many recently founded Chivalric Orders of the Kingdom. Recipients are usually, but not always, nobles of one degree or another, but to an increasing level the new Orders admit non-noble members of particular distinguishment and there consequently exists a growing divide between 'traditional' knights (and the handful of traditional military orders) and the 'Chivalric' knights based both on social standing and lack of mutual respect.

## Traditional Knighthood

The so-called 'traditional' knights are those who received a knighthood via a recognized service to the Crown, often military. The most common such knights are those who previously served other knights as squires, and this class of individuals occupy an ambiguous position in the Stormwind Peerage, being recognized as nobility but lacking voting rights or the other privileges accorded to the bulk of the peerage unless otherwise entitled to them by blood, life peerage, or special dispensation from the Crown. These knights are often unaffiliated with any greater order, military or chivalric, but through the history of the Kingdom a number of orders were formed from them, including the much-vaunted Brotherhood of the Horse and the post-Orcish Wars Order of Lothar.

## Chivalric Knighthood

By contrast, 'chivalric' knights are those who receive a knighthood as part of their admission to a chivalric order. While many of these orders are militarily inclined, there is a significant difference: There are no squires among chivalric orders, and the terms of the oaths given may vastly differ from those administered to 'traditional' knights. As a result, chivalric orders have a greater membership base and membership in them is routinely extended to non-military figures of status, wealth, or dignity. Life peerages are sometimes attached to the higher tiers of the Crown's own chivalric orders. Examples include the royally sponsored Order of Stormwind and Order of the Dove.

## Order of Precedence

When presenting knighted individuals at formal affairs or when referring to them in writing where denoting their decorations is appropriate, there exists a formal order of precedence practiced by the Herald's Guild of Stormwind. This order is partly customary and partly by Royal decree, and is as follows, with those higher in the order being listed before those lower (certain exceptions exist for Grand Alliance military orders and awards, e.g. the Alliance Legion of Valour):

1. Grandmasters of the Brotherhood of the Horse and the Order of Lothar
2. Knight of the Brotherhood of the Horse
3. Knight of the Order of Lothar
4. Grandmasters of any Stormwind-based Silver Hand order
5. Grandmaster of the Sable Brotherhood
6. Grandmaster of the Order of the Inner Chamber
7. Knight of the Sable Brotherhood
8. Knight of the Order of the Inner Chamber
9. Grandmasters of the Order of Stormwind
10. Grandmasters of the Order of the Dove
11. Grandmasters of the Silver Hand (any affiliation)
12. Knights of the Silver Hand (any affiliation)
13. Knights of the Order of Stormwind
14. Knights of the Order of the Dove
15. Grandmasters of any other Chivalric Order
16. Knights of any other Chivalric Order
17. Foreign Grandmasters
18. Foreign Knights, where appropriate.