Knighthood

"Knight" is a broad term encompassing many stages of a warrior culture that pervades every fabric of Westerosi society. Peasants and farmers, soldiers and priests, knights encompass countless ideals of chivalry, honor, and outstanding behavior. They stand to be paragons of virtue in the eyes of smallfolk and the kind of man every lord seeks for their sons to become.

The reality, as in most things, is far from the legend. Knighthood is a status that can simply be claimed by any man and used as an excuse to be considered trustworthy and has been diluted and polluted by centuries of false knights and rotten soldiers. While some men become knights to uphold the knightly code and values like the knights of old, the vast majority simply seek an excuse to move up the ladder of power that creates the foundation of Westerosi nobility.

Knights vary from baseborn men looking to gain status, lordlings looking to prove themselves worthy in their father’s eyes, or even thieves looking to get a few moments of trust from an innkeeper before they rob them. Whereas Nobility is hereditary, Knighthood gives every man the chance to strike out and make his own destiny.

## History of Knighthood

Knighthood is an ancient tradition in Westeros. Originally it was an Andal concept, brought over in the form of their mounted cavalry and rooted deeply in their religion. In the centuries since it has spread to nearly all corners of Westeros even those nearly untouched by Andal culture. At its core a knight is simply a holy armored warrior on horseback, but as with most things each region has its own flavors and ideas about what a knight truly is.

## The Church and Knights

The vast majority of knights in Westeros are steeped in the ancient religion of the Seven, first brought over with the Andal Invasion. The Seven is a religion that believes that God is a single entity with seven faces, each representing a facet of humanity, and knights are meant to uphold the values and virtues these faces represent.

* The Father - Judgement and Justice
* The Mother - Compassion and Mercy
* The Warrior - Strength and Courage
* The Maiden - Protection of the Innocent
* The Smith - Labor and Willpower
* The Crone - Wisdom and Guidance
* The Stranger - Death and the Unknown

Most pious knights pray to the Father, Warrior, and Smith particularly for their day-to-day challenges that they may encounter, but longer prayers may encompass the entire pantheon particularly during ceremonies.

## Chivalry and Code

In their adherence to the tenants of the Faith of the Seven, a knight is charged with upholding and being a standard all men seek to embody. They should protect the smallfolk and the downtrodden of the world from tyrants and monsters, they should be willing to risk their lives for a true and just cause they believe in, and they should always value truth, loyalty, and honor above all things. A knight does not lie or deceive, and does whatever their lord wills.

The best knights live by this code and creed and derive every solution from their knightly tenants. The worst knights break this code day in and day out and some even twist the expectation of knightly duties as a valuable trick to worm their way into places and situations they wouldn’t otherwise have rightfully earned.

It is vitally important that “good” knights follow these codes as well as they feasibly can. Truly not all men are perfect though, and it is understandable that a man may stray from time to time, but a knight should at least be consistent in their honor or dishonor.

## Ceremony

While any man can claim to be a knight, to become a true knight is a relatively simple process. To become a knight a man must simply be knighted by another knight or lord. Most knights are uplifted soldiers who have fought bravely in a lord's service or performed some great feat, others are squires or pages that have trained under a knight for an extensive period of time and are finally worthy of becoming a knight on their own. Some men feign knighthood and lie about being knighted by some unknown soldier or minor long-dead knight on a battlefield decades earlier, in this day and age there are many ways to avoid confirmable facts but many lords take such statements with concern and suspicion wisely

The amount of ceremony varies extensively with knights. The simplest knighthood ceremony might be a sword tapping both shoulders and a small prayer while the more extensive ceremonies might be thrown by lords to celebrate their son’s ascension to knighthood in the Great Sept with a crowd and a large priesthood presence. There are as many rituals and ceremonies as there are banners for a knight to find himself fighting under and as it is a defining moment in a character’s life if it is to be played out the player should make it something important and notable in their story.

## Variations of Knights

As mentioned previously, knights come in many, many flavors and variations. All throughout Westeros a thousand plated warriors pretend to fight for hundreds of colored banners for their own reasons both fabricated and otherwise.

### Hedge Knights

The lowest form of knighthood, and some believe the most humble, is the Hedge Knight. These are men with no master or home, who wander the land fighting in tournaments and seeking employment. Their name derives from their typical housing being the “hedges” outdoors and as such they are more common through the more temperate regions as opposed to the colder or warmer lands.

### Robber Knights

Many hedge knights cannot handle the pressures of homelessness and the humility of being poor and resort to using their martial skill for unscrupulous banditry and robbery. Many prominent bandits have started as hedge knights and because of this the hedge knight has an ill reputation among many smallfolk.

### Sworn Swords

When a knight has finally found a man or cause worth dedicating their sword to, they become known as a Sworn Sword. Their master provides them food and shelter in exchange for their services until they are no longer needed. Many lords employ large numbers of hedge knights in their armies for longer campaigns.

### Household Knights

Some more trusted Sworn Swords become personal bodyguards for a Lord or his family and after extensive periods of service may become known as Sworn Shields or Household Knights. These men traditionally will serve their entire lives under their lord and some may find themselves elevated to other positions such as master-at-arms, captain of the guard, or even a castellan.

### Landed Knights

A knight who has served his lord or lady well enough may even someday earn themselves a small keep somewhere with their own holdings. This is the dream of every knight, to one day own a plot of land and have a few villages and peasants to call their own. While a Landed Knight may even hold more land than some lords, they cannot deliver law or justice to their own lands and must appeal to their liege-lord to do such.

### Heretic Knights

The vast majority of knights are strict adherents to the Seven and follow the teachings of the Seven-Pointed Star, however there are a number of knights that exist as worshippers of other religions. The most common of such are the knights of the houses of the North, who worship the old gods but uphold knightly traditions, and they are still rather rare.

While there are surely knights who worship many of the other pantheons of the world, it is most likely in the best interest of any knight to at the very least feign adherence to the Seven lest they be viewed lesser in the eyes of lords and nobles.

### True Knights

More of an ideal than an actual title, True Knights perfectly uphold the values of knighthood and the Seven. Very few men in the histories can be attributed such a title and such men exist mostly in the legends and tales of smallfolk. The few that do however usually gave their lives or risked them in some great feat that perfectly represented what it meant to be a true knight. Many knights who entrench themselves in the beliefs of the Seven hope that some day they may be remembered as True Knights in the histories.

### Other Knights

It can sometimes be forgotten that knighthood was not born in Westeros it was brought there. The Andal people originated in Essos and thus their ideals and traditions were created and inspired by others. The same can be said in contrary as well, as Westerosi knights have inspired other lands and fill their tales and legends.

As such there exists a number of plated warriors from other kingdoms and cities that might take the title of “knight” with their own codes of honor and chivalry. These warriors hold none of the true titles or status that knighthood brings in Westeros, but bring their own unique flavors of the knightly experience. Be they a Silken Knight of Lys, Blind Knight of Lorath, or a Blazing Knight of Volantis, there is a lot of potential to create a great knight-esque character from an exotic locale.