Knights

The **Knights** are at the same time the military and the ruling class of Caerville. Their primary job is guarding the city and the iron mines from Witches attacks, and to prevent/punish crimes inside Caerville. Additionally, since the Conspiracy of the New Human Circle, they are also the only class deciding the law and taxes for the city and its Villagers. This power of the Knights is sometimes contested, though mostly by the trading fraction of the Villagers.

Knights are armed with typically medieval weapons : an iron/leather armor, and 2 weapons (sword, axe, mace, bow, shield, etc). Though in order to compete with Witches, they often complete their equipment with magical items and totem witches. Most of the time, a knight's totem witches usually are shrunk witches kept inside the soldier's home.

## Appearance

The knights are the elite of the city,nobles chosen to fight and defend the city. usually they wear their armor across the street but when off duty they wear fancy chlotes and usualy hang out in the castle since the village is seen as a dirty place for their kind of people.

since they are well feeeded andn trained their body is sure fit to be a knight, in contrast with the villager one that are skinny and fragile.

that though dont prevent to some lucky villager to be enough strong and brave to try to become a knight.

## Equipment

Knights mostly use typical medieval military equipment : various iron armors, bladed weapons, (cross)bows, and cannons. Though in order to restore a proper balance of power against Witches, they also often carry and use the few magical items they can get.

### Weapons

Knights can use a wide range of weapons for their missions : *daggers/knives, swords, axes, maces, bows, crossbows, and shields*. All these are freely available in the weaponry of the castle, knights being allowed to take everything they see as necessary for their missions.

Though each knight is specialised in only 2 of the available types of weapons. It means that they are well trained for the use of their 2 speciality weapons, though incompetent for all the other weapons. For example, a knight specialised in swords and bows is good at aiming and fencing, though tends to hurt themselves while fighting with daggers and often miss crossbow shots. In contrast, a knight who specialised in daggers/knives and shields will have hard times controlling the weight of an iron sword.

Knights use to always carry 2 weapons with themselves.

### Armors

As for the weapons, multiple kinds of armors are freely available for Knights. The choice of armor for a mission depends on two characteristics of the gear : its shininess and its thickness. Each characteristic leaves 2 possibilities to the knight/roleplayer, each one with advantages and disadvantages. Thus there are 2 x 2 = 4 possibilities of armors.

#### Shininess

* A **shiny armor** reflects most of the light it receives. This implies that the sun (and the moon) makes the wearer visible from a far distance, preventing surprise attacks. However a shiny armor is very efficient against Light Witches since it also reflects most of the light of their attacks. For example a shrinking beam hitting a shiny armor will shrink the wearer by just 30 cm (-1 ft), when the caster Light Witch will be shrunk to the size of a mouse. Furthermore the centre of shiny armor breastplates is decorated with a small mirror. It gives the wearer knight the possibility to make a Mirror Witch bind to the armor (using the common method to shrink Mirror Witches), and to use her as a totem witch in addition to the witches of their totem holder.
* A **dark green armor** in contrast makes a knight lurking in the dark of the woods almost invisible from a far distance.

#### Thickness

* A **thick armor** protects the wearer from many physical attacks. It totally counters weak weapons like knives/daggers or scarecrows, and reduces the damage caused by powerful ones. Thick armors however have 2 drawbacks : noise and agility. First when the wearer doesn't move stealthily, the metal sounds easily reveal the presence of the wearer. Next the rigidity of these armors prevents the wearer from doing movements such as jumping over a fence or climbing a tree.
* A **skintight armor** is a light equipment that doesn't have all the drawbacks of the thick armor. Wearing it, a knight can move as if they didn't have the gear. Though this armor gives almost no protection against sharp objects.

#### Possible combinations

 Dark green **thick** armor
 Shiny **skintight** armor

Only the *dark green skintight armor* is made of leather. This makes this armor quite uninteresting for Witches mostly attracted by iron. Though using animal leather can piss off enough a Tamer Witch to cancel an affection effect. Leather though has the advantage to shrink and grow with its wearer like a regular piece of cloth, in contrast with iron armors.

### Magical items

As the only way normal humans can compensate Witches powers with magic, magical items are very important for Knights. They use these for various purposes : gaining strength, shrinking witches, restore their own size, and more.

Because of their potential, Knights are usually ready to give a lot for magical items. One of them rarely leaves a Witch house before having looked everywhere for one of these items. The guards can easily be corrupted by somebody proposing a few of them. Some knights hunt Witches only to get their magical items.

## Missions of Knights

In Caerville, Knights are the state. Their leaders decide the law, they make it apply, do the necessary to keep order inside and outside the town, and collect the taxes to make this system keep working.

In the first place, Knights are the people who fight Witches. They guard the boundaries of Caerville, escort the convoys on the road to iron mines, and even go to the woods to directly hunt witches. Among the inhabitants of Caerville, they are the most exposed class to Witches. Though the width of these missions against Witches also gives Knights a freedom of movement villagers don't have.

Knights also rule inside the town. They enforce the law, including the ban on magical beings and items and the illegality of publicly criticising Knights. They're also the people who collect the high taxes of Caerville, using force on the reluctant villagers.

## Relations with the other classes

Inside Caerville, Knights have the highest social rank. As the protectors of the town, they use to see Villagers as needing to be governed to take 'responsible decisions'. This effective domination allows Knights to live comfortably on the back of the other inhabitants of the town, who mostly agree on this exploitation situation in exchange of the protection against Witches.

Though a part of the Villagers tends to question the power of Knights : the merchants and artisans. This causes some tensions between Knights and this category of Villagers, although the Knights tend to not be too aggressive towards them since illegal merchants are their main providers of magical items.

Finally the way Knights use to see Witches is more complex, Witches being at the same time their enemies and valuable beings. On the one hand, Knights are hostile to Witches for the threat they are for themselves and Caerville, Knights being supposed to be the protect Villagers. On the other hand, shrunk witches are rare and very useful. Among the Knights class, owning witches is a sign of strength, prestige and wealth. A shrunk witch is something to show off. Furthermore Knights can make many uses of a shrunk witch, from entertaining themselves to using her as a totem witch and exploiting her medicinal knowledge.