Knights are larger-than-life figures of romance and steel that spark the imagination and encourage dreams. Now you can bring them to life for your d20 System campaign. NOBLE KNIGHTS features information on famous knightly orders. From the Teutonic Knights to the Knights Templar to the Knights of the Garter, history's most famous orders come alive with facts, legends, and tips for adding them to your campaign. Rules for creating your own knightly orders are also included, and over 30 new knightly magic items round out this essential guide to chivalric adventure.
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"Noble Knights is a source of amazing information on historical knightly orders." -- Jeff Ibach, GamePlayNews.com
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpted from "Part 1: A Brief History of Knighthood"
Our images of chivalry and knighthood are of men in sterling armor, jousting on a tournament field or saving damsels from high towers. Knights wear emblazoned surcoats with red crosses, ride massive steeds with iron hooves, and live a life of nobility and gentility. These are stereotypes fostered by the age of courtly love, by those who remained at home during the Crusades and who created tales of honor and chivalry to pass the dark nights in front of the fire. Knights, truly, are much more – and much less – than their legend.
The word descends from the French word for "horseman" – "chevalier." The term denoted a man of great standing and noble lineage, someone who is capable of equipping himself with a warhorse and following in the footsteps of his king. Their oaths, sworn upon the badge of their nobility and on the blade of their weapon, call them into noble service in all parts of the world. Chivalry is more than a birthright: it is an order, a chosen path that must be achieved and granted by an authority figure that inducts each member according to worth.
Chivalry cannot be divorced from the martial world, nor can its warlike implications be ignored. It is not an order of tailors or courtiers but a sovereign corps of fighting men ready and willing to give their lives for their faith. Their duty was to defend the medieval Church, its clergy, and the faithful parishioners from the evils of the Muslim world. Because of these duties, chivalry became transformed from a secular and militant order into a religious one – still asked to fight and defend but on a basis of faith rather than by the command of kings.
Several poems, texts, and manuscripts were written about knighthood and chivalry, ranging from the historic documents of the Holy Land and the Crusades to the flowery poetry of England and France, glorifying war and battle. One of the most important and revealing works is the Libre del Ordre de Cavayleria written by Ramon Lull in the 1300’s. The book opens with an account of chivalry’s origins (both real and imagined). According to this work, when evil entered the world after the Fall, the virtue of chivalry was added to the world by God’s own hand in order to restrain and defend the people. One man in every thousand was chosen by God to hold forth this banner. Those individuals were chosen because they were the "most loyal, most strong, and of most noble courage." The horse, "most noble of beasts" was given to this man in order to aid him in his fight, and the other men were tasked to create food and weapons so that the knight could defend them with his battle-prowess.
It was further the duty of every knight to train his first son in the ways of chivalry so that the practice would not die out. This included training in horsemanship, battle, and courtesy as well as the normal education received by a child of noble birth. Chivalry was respected and idolized, and even the lesser sons of kings dedicated their lives to knighthood, both out of faith in the knighthood’s purposes and because of the position of prominence within the Church and the State that was granted by joining such an order.
In the 11th and 12th Centuries, the Crusades in the Middle East called forth enormous armies from all over Europe in order to invade and "reclaim" the Holy Land. These men found themselves released from the constraints of feudalism, and they bonded together in organizations called "knightly orders," designed to be both military and religious orders of chivalry. The earliest of these orders were fraternities of like-minded men gathered to serve a particular purpose – the Templars swore to defend Jerusalem, while the Hospitallers vowed to serve the poor, sick, and wounded. All of the knights of these orders were men of noble birth, drawn from a particular social class and bound together in a common purpose.
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