#knightly order

[taritoons]

Designed some heraldic emblems and regalia for the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart, based on some background details from Baldur's Gate 2. The holy symbols and the Ilvastarr shield designs are taken from official material. All blazons composed by me.

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[alpaca-clouds]

What is a Templar? (Or: The Knightly Orders of the Crusades)

(Well, only kinda. But let me explain.)

Something that has surprised me ever since I have entered the Castlevania fandom is the fact, that people do not know what the heraldry of the Knights Templar is. People know they existed, but even with them showing up in a lot of English language media (especially treasure hunting adventure stuff), a lot of folks apparently do not know that in general a red cross on white ground means Knights Templar. Maybe this is to be expected, though, because in the end of course those adventuring media does not really go into the Templars outside of the mythology and conspiracy stuff that folks later on associated with them.

So, let me talk about the Knightly Orders of the Crusades.

First on, I talked about the crusades earlier today. But a quick rundown once more: Muslims were in control of Jerusalem. But while they happily allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the city, political reasons made folks in Europe try to take Jerusalem, which created a very, very chaotic first crusade.

One of the reasons why it was so chaotic, was that there were basically three kinds of folks participating: Pilgrims, just normal folks riled up, and knights. Now, it should be kept in mind: There were few people at the time who were educated in battle. Because most kings did not have a standing military. And because those people participating in the crusades being a bunch of chaotic folks who did not know what they were doing, things... went so chaotic.

So, in came the Knights Templar. So, let me explain the five Christian Knight Orders.

Okay, let me quickly explain the picture above.

We have the Sepulchers (founded in 1099). What we have here as the "Malte", are the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St. John (founded in 1099). Then we have the Knights Templar (founded in 1119). Then the Order of Santiago (founded in 1170). And finally the Order of Teutonic Knights (founded in 1190).

It should be noted that there were some other Knight Orders associated with the Crusades, but those five are usually considered the most influencial.

But, okay, let me step back. Why were those orders founded?

Mostly to protect the crusades and the pilgrimages that followed. They provided a plethora of services to the pilgrims and crusaders, which might include fighting - but did not necessarily do so.

Let me start with the Knights Templar. Not because they were the first one or the most important one, but because they are just the ones most well known. People have all sorts of ideas, what they did. But mostly they acted as two things: Bodyguards and bankers. They arose from the monk Order of Christ. The idea was basically as following: Both those rampaging bands of crusaders and the pilgrims took a lot of risks to get to the Holy Land. Because this was the middle ages, and there were wars and bandits and all other things on the way. So, when you went to visit the Holy Land, you might actually not want to carry your valuables on you. Because they might get stolen (and you might get killed for them). So the Templars basically invented modern banking. You gave your money to the Templars where you started your journey, they gave you a ledger, on your way you could visit other Templar Monasteries and get your money from the ledger. Against a fee, of course. And if you died, the Templars kept the money. Which was part of the reason they became so rich. Now, did the Templars also pillage? Yes. Did they participate in crusading battles? Yes. But it was not their main goal. This was also the reason, why they had to get very creative when it came to making their money, after the main crusades had ended. It is also why they officially disbanded in the 14th century. Though I say officially for a reason, as the Knights Templar just merged back into with the Order of Christ, and it took a long while, until there was nobody around wearing the colors and heraldry of the Knights Templar. So, while technically disbanded, they did in fact participate in colonialism for a while. (And yes, this did include slavery. Both of white slaves from Eastern Europe, as well as later on non-white slaves from Arabia and Africa. Mostly because they had strong ties to Portugal, who were a leading force in early slavery.)

After this, let's go through the orders by years of founding.

The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre have a simple, yet complicated history. They are tied to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where there was a monk order living. Now, in the early 11th century, there were religious conflicts within Jerusalem, that ended with the original church being destroyed. Just a bit later the Calif allowed it to be rebuild. But... then the crusades happened and religious fevor and when Jerusalem was taken, they decided they should defend some of their holy sides. As during the crusading battles some monks were knighted, they turned this... into a thing. These Knights first existed to defend the holy sides, then Jerusalem. They later participated in some of the battles. I should note, too, that a variation of them is still around today.

I talked about the Knights Hospitaller before, so I make this quick: They existed mainly to offer hospitality and medical services to crusaders and pilgrims. Like all of the knights they would, however, still participate in some battles.

Now, the Order of Santiago is a bit of an odd one out. Because they were not founded for the crusades but rather to fight the Muslims on a different front. As their name suggests: They tie back to Spain. And as I have talked about several times before, a good chunk of the Iberian peninsula at the time was in fact under Muslim rule. And yes, this order of church ordained knights originally fought the Muslims here. But they also quickly became drawn into the crusades. Other than protecting pilgrims, they also were ordained to provide any of the religious services pilgrims might need. (And yet, they were the odd one out between the Orders, because their vows were different. But about that in a bit.)

The Order of the Teutonic Knights was also a bit of a weird one. They started out as a religious fraternity, then did a bit of crusading, founded their knightly order in Jerusalem and then... preceded to Christianize the Balcans. As the name suggests, they were German in origin. And other than the other four orders, they actually had a big focus on fighting during the crusades (and later the "misionary work" in Eastern Europe).

Something to understand about the Orders is, that they were not knights, who lived a monestary lifestyle, but rather monks, who were knighted. As such many of these knights would actually start out early as monks (again, back in those days teenagers and at times kids would already enter the monastery life for all sorts of different reasons), make their vows and then train in fighting to take up the mantle of the knight.

But as parts of those religious orders, they usually gave the three main monastic vows: A Vow of Poverty, a Vow of Chastity, and a Vow of Obedience. The one exception was the Order of Santiago, who did not give a vow of chastity and were in fact allowed to marry and have family.

And... I think that is it for now. This one turned out pretty darn long.

If you wanna know anything about the other knightly orders, just write a comment or let me know otherwise. I will... do a write down if there is any interest.

[janamensch]

Ilmera knight OC!!! This is Ser Valerie, she’s a knight errant from the Suncrest Isles!

[bonefall]

twig and lily found family actually means sm to me especially since canonically shes her foster parent and recognizes lily as her mother in squirrels book so even if its not canon here they somehow still find each other,, in my head bonefall!lily is the arbitrary role model that got attached to this random kid (think lin and korra from LOK)

I always try to preserve the "emotional core" between characters with my reduxes! Even if they stop being related or don't end up as the foster or mentor, I try to shuffle in a way where they're at least friends.

BB!Lily is getting some odd differences, because I am swinging a machete at canon's tendency to set "nice mom" as the default personality of background women. So instead, my Lilyheart has no kits, and she has a personality that's more reserved.

She's a bit "sharp." Aloof, seems cold, but under that, it's because she has a tendency to blame herself. Lilyheart never really got over how Seedpaw died saving her.

If she'd been stronger, hadn't gotten tangled up, if she'd said something about retrieving stupid, useless shit from the camp, Seedpaw would still be here. Her dad Dustpelt had just died saving them. Seedpaw died helping her. Ferncloud's holding her tighter and it's all her fault.

(Changes: Jay's stick is a living tree so they were not fetching the stick of the fallen. Lily's parents got swapped because Bracken died in BB!Po3)

But she's not as ruthless as her sharp eyes suggest. Lily is actually very sweet and cares a lot about people. I'm coming to view all the Dustfern kits as having a bit of a "safety crew" vibe because of their dad, and a "sit up straight dear" one from their mom.

So! Lilyheart being Alderheart and Twigbranch's buddy is very fitting for her. The poor, anxious guys can hide behind her and she stick up for them.

[anarchotolkienist]

The genre of a fantasy game/tvshow/film deciing to have a minstrel type figure do characterisation of their Epic Hero through song and then having it be pop lyricism backed by a lute played like a guitar needs to end. If you want a heroic lay, then fucking write a heroic lay using actual metre, or don't bother.

[fishermcn]

// my old undead / curse bearer fixation doesn't seem to be loosening its chokehold now that hodrick is making appearances into sam's ds3 story rofl

[fabricatedgeek]

Writing out character's heraldry feels equivalent to writing code.

Point and case--

Per pile sable and argent A claymore inverted sable A hare salient argent reversed in dexter base A lion rampant argent in sinister base

[knightoflodis]

@nightbringer24 why did we have to have that conversation about knights being nobility and standard soldiers being called men-at-arms? It’s going to bother me now while reading my light novels. Especially when I know with this one light novel in particular that the crown prince recruited some of his “knights” from the “slums” of his capital. Like. They are called imperial guard. But are also called knights a lot. And now I want them to be called guardsmen, soldiers, or men-at-arms instead. Woof this is going to eat at my brain.

[mnmovdoom]

Thanks for the tag, @musewrangler!!

A book I want to reread:

Oh god, there’s plenty of them, buuuut... Ivanhoe!

Any books you reread every two to five years:

I used to do this with The Silmarillion/The Hobbit/LOTR when I was 14-17, but I don’t have the energy for this anymore :’)

Any books you reread once a year:

Not anymore.

The book you reread within the shortest turnaround time:

The Teutonic Knights - A Military History, Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, Chronicle of the Land of Prussia :’)

The book you've reread the most times:

The Rule of the Templars and The Rule and Statutes of the Teutonic Knights (but I’ve had the one about the Templars since I was 13 so I guess the Templars win)

Tagging nobody, feel free to steal this!

[nightingaletrash]

Lakana: how do I reach heaven through violence?

Owyn: it's called a crusade and you need permission from the pope

Lakana, fighting Umaril: instructions unclear, dick stuck in headlock

[crudely-drawn-ben]

"What's the name for someone who has taken religious vows but also fights?"

"That depends on how orientalist you want to be."

People who treat D&D's classes as like being in any way representative of fiction outside of D&D are my nemesis, I just saw a post that was like "remember the difference between a Sorcerer a Warlock and a Wizard is this" and treating like those words as if their very D&D specific meanings were like universally accepted I'm going to start taking hostages

[sir-reinhardt]

*shows up after a month of radio silence* hey. yeah. sorry i'm back. it still hasn't warmed up enough for me to attempt Tris's faceup(+i am scared af) so. i still feel weird posting him. i made him a new shirt so if i ever actually catch a moment when the suns out will try and take pics -_-)

anyway. i was stalking imomo/s weibo and this product photo has me so tilted. I should have ordered a Tiamat head instead of an Apsu. fuck it looks so good. posting it just for like. reference. if things really don't work out with his current head i will get a Tiamat next time.

[alpaca-clouds]

Okay, let's go a bit more into Mizrak's probable origins

Okay, after my post-yesterday I saw in the reblogs and comments a couple of things where people get their history a bit mixed up. So let me try to clear this one up.

The world did not look like it does today in 1792!

As I said, there is quite a bit of dialogue that implies that he comes from Jerusalem. Which makes sense, because the Knights Hospitaller are from there. (For a quick explanation about what's up with the Knights Hospitaller, have a look here.) It also makes sense with his name.

Now, his name is a bit more complicated as some people make it out to be. While the name Mizrak today is most common in Turkey, it is actually a bit controverse where it originates from. There is some argument saying it came from the Slavic name Mizlav, but there can also be an argument made that it comes from the Ethopian name Misrak. Both still kinda make sense with it being so common in Turkey these days, because... Welp, the Ottoman Empire was freaking giant.

And in the late 18th century, Jerusalem was in fact part of the Ottoman Empire.

(This is the closest date in maps I have found to the setting of the show, but the bigger changes would not come until Napoleon did his thing in the late 1790s.)

Now, the show also mentions Malta in relation to the Abbot and his knight-monks. So how does that fit in?

Fairly simple.

There was a bit of a conflict happening between the religions in Jerusalem in the late 1770s. Now, please keep in mind, that in general Muslims were for most of history a lot more chill about other religions being around, than Christians historically were. But never the less: Some of the Knightly Orders and the local Kalif got into issues, there was fighting. It ended up with a lot of the Knightly Orders leaving Jerusalem.

The Knights Hospitaller moved their headquarters from Jerusalem to Malta in 1779.

We do not quite know how old Mizrak is. But I assume he is in his early 30s. So, yeah, good chance he joined the order in Jerusalem and then accompanied them to Malta and from Malta to France.

[educationaldm]

World-building prompt: Does your world have Knightly Orders?

What do they stand for?

Is there division within their ranks?

[supreme-leader-stoat]

Nah, not especially.

I have a very rough idea in my head that I don't think I can clearly articulate beyond "And that concludes tonight's reports on German air forc—WHAT'S THIS? IT'S KING ARTHUR WITH A STEEL CHAIR"

[potatoesandsunshine]

me @ me hey are you good? you’ve been listening to your post-campaign healing playlist for the last five hours