Imperial Knights - Knights At War: When the Titan Legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus march to war, contingents from the Knight Worlds march beside them, and knightly houses will also send detachments of Knights to fight alongside other allies when they feel it is their duty or obligation to do so.Traditionally, each knightly house sends one or more detachments of household Knights to fight when a Titan Legion musters for war.The exact number of Knights in a household detachment varies considerably; when the call to arms is made, the representatives of the Forge World where the Titan Legion is based will request that each house provide a certain number of Knights. Knightly houses are honour-bound to obey such summons, and will only fail to comply in the most dire of circumstances.Forfeiting such a commitment is a source of great shame and unlikely ever to be forgotten, either by the house itself, or their peers and rivals.Because of this, it is almost always the case that the full quota of Imperial Knights appear at the rallying point designated by the tech-priests, ready to be transported away to join the Titan Legion. Arriving at the war zone, the eager Knights will quickly be hurled into battle.Usually, they are either tasked with fighting directly in support of the Legio's larger Battle Titans, or operating independently as fast-moving scouts and protecting the flanks of the Legio's slower-moving war machines.For almost all Imperial Knights, the call to fight as part of a Titan Legion is met with a burning enthusiasm. Knights from different household detachments vie with one another in acts of valour and heroism on the battlefield as well as through the spectacle of the banners and individual heraldry emblazoned on their suits.The chance to earn glory while at the same time escaping courtly life not just for solar days, but for standard years or even solar decades, is considered the greatest reward they are ever likely to receive.Occasionally, the Adeptus Mechanicus will decree that a household detachment must remain with the Titan Legion permanently.When this is the case, the Nobles will change their vows of allegiance and heraldry from their house to the Titan Legion they now serve, and will be given an honorific title by the master of the Legio to better reflect their new status.Knightly houses will also fight alongside Astra Militarum, Space Marine and other Imperial forces whenever they feel it is their duty to do so.Sometimes this will be in return for help they received when defending their homeworld against alien invasion, as in the example seen in 456.M38. The 832nd lord of House Hawkshroud received aid against Drukhari raiding parties from the Mordian Iron Guard. The Mordian troops, under the command of Colonel Vargrif, helped defend the Hawkshrouds' stronghold against the Drukhari, foiling an attempt to kidnap Lord Hawkshroud's consort in the process.Since that day, the Hawkshrouds feel honour-bound to provide aid to any descendants of the Vargrif line, should they be called upon to do so.Knightly houses also send household detachments to take part in off-world campaigns if they feel that their honour has been impinged in some way. Knights are proud warriors, and cannot stand to let any slight be ignored, as many an aggressor has found to their cost.It is not unheard of for a knightly house to hunt down and destroy an enemy that has invaded their homeworld, or for a house to send household detachments to help their allies defeat a hated enemy.This was something that the T'au Commander Shadowsun discovered when her emissaries so infuriated the ruler of House Terryn with their veiled threats and over-bearing attitude, that he led several household detachments of his Knights to help the Imperial defenders of Agrellan.Although Agrellan was eventually overrun, the Imperial Knights proved a formidable opponent for the T'au Empire, forcing Commander Shadowsun to deploy the newly designed XV104 Riptide Battlesuit to help counter them.Unfortunately for Shadowsun, the defeat on Agrellan has only deepened High King Tybalt's loathing for the T'au, and he has decreed that the honour of his house will not be satisfied until the upstart xenos invaders have been driven back across the Damocles Gulf.