Imperial Knights - Tradition and Ritual: Since the dark days of the Horus Heresy, the Knight Worlds have continued to establish themselves as an important and loyal part of the Imperium.Feared in battle, and almost unswayable once they have given their word, they are welcomed as powerful allies by Imperial commanders whenever their services are available.It is only the relative scarcity of the surviving Knight Worlds, and the rigid, hidebound society they have developed, that limits the impact the Imperial Knights have on the galaxy.Daily life within the Knights' strongholds is bound by ancient traditions and rituals that can date back, unchanged, more than ten thousand standard years, and which the Imperial Knights feel themselves honour-bound to adhere to.This immense awareness of tradition manifests itself in rituals that can dominate and suffocate all other aspects of life within the stronghold.Days are almost wholly consumed tending to the obscure and esoteric tenets of tradition and with honouring household traditions or important ancestors from thousands of standard years ago.For example, in House Hasburg, at the dawn of every day the entire court must gather to hear the reading of the names and deeds of every ruler of the house, dating back to its foundation millennia before; there are hundreds of names, and the process takes up most of the local day.The only escape from the smothering ennui of courtly life lies in conflict; both the heroic challenge of the field of battle as an Imperial Knight, and the more ignoble but no less enthralling political contests that take place between the knightly houses.The first of these is solely the preserve of the first or second sons of the aristocracy, for only they are allowed to pilot suits of Knight armour.It is difficult to imagine the sheer freedom and sense of power that donning a suit of Knight armour brings to its wearer. At court, the Noble's every move and action is dictated by ancient traditions and rigid social rules; once the armour is donned, all that is forgotten; they are free to act as they see fit, unconstrained by anything but their own moral compass.This being the case, it comes as no surprise that Imperial Knights fight with such ruthless and joyful ferocity, or that they are willing to endlessly practice the techniques of battle such that their prowess is only matched by the Adeptus Astartes.When unable to justify wearing their armour for training or battle, Nobles organise contests between themselves to prove who is the bravest and most skilled, and in truth they are only truly content when arrayed for battle and piloting their armour.However, there is also a darker side to the character of the Imperial Knights, one which drives another form of behaviour that allows for an escape from the traditions and rituals of courtly life. The same mental conditioning wrought through their neural link to their Thrones Mechanicum that imposes a strong respect for hierarchy and fealty upon the Nobles has the side-effect of making them endlessly ambitious.In short, they are all compelled to outdo their peers and be acknowledged as the mightiest of all. In part, this drives the Nobles' obsession with contests of skill, but it also reveals itself in an equally intense obsession with political intrigue.The courts of the knightly houses are riven with political factions, each trying to outdo the others in any way possible. These political intrigues are not the sole purview of the Nobles themselves.All Nobles have a high-born consort, it being considered vital that the Noble has sons to inherit their name and titles, and daughters to marry as consorts to other knightly families in order to cement political alliances.A Noble's consort can have considerable influence, and political intrigue offers them just about their only escape from the drudgery of courtly life.Many a Noble has risen to high power thanks to the intelligence, cunning and ruthless ambition of his consort, while the Noble himself has found his pleasures on the field of battle.The result is that plots and schemes abound among the highest ranks of a Knight World's society; often these will be inconsequential and only result in one faction or another gaining prestige over their rivals, but at times, such as when the ruler of a knightly house dies, they can become deadly serious.It is not unknown for factions to come to blows, or even to arrange the assassination of a particularly hated opponent.Most infamously, on the planet Patronis, a dispute about which rituals should be carried out when members of the different houses visited each other escalated into a centuries-long conflict that devastated the planet and eventually led to the demise of both houses.