#me trying to remember if there's a 5th chevalier like that scene of gandalf counting the dwarfs

[faimrpg]

sorry if this is silly to ask, but i was wondering if you guys could explain a little bit more about how chevaliers have to have "patrons" (specifically re: the dynamic between the duval family and medraut)?

Anonymous asked: How does one get recruited into becoming a Chevalier? Do they need to be invited, do they sign up? Ty!

So, first things first, Chevaliers don't have to have patrons, in the sense that is not a requirement in either their training or their service once ordained. However, it is very much a tacit expectation from Empress Calandre, and indeed from most Emperors that came before her. Because the Chevaliers are more than mere warriors of skill, their Knight order is about symbols and spectacle (i.e., tourneys, parades, championing for noble houses or wearing their colors) as much as it was ever about actual manifest power (i.e., catching assassins or marching off to war). In a way, the Chevaliers are the glory of Calandre’s reign, not just the iron fist of it. They are, like anything else under her service, an extension of what the Empress wants to be seen and believed. It’s why championing for noble houses is important not just for a Chevalier’s (or a Chevalier-in-training’s) career, but also for their chances to enjoy court at its highest degree, rather than be shipped off to some border garrison.

It is up to each writer & character how they decide to portray this duality about the Chevalier’s duties, with some loose direction being given in their skeletons. We know Adraste has doubts about it, while others veer between extremes of honor and resentment (hello, Matthieu!) or a more casual, pragmatic detachment. This last bit could be Medraut - they championed for the Duvals because they knew it would help boost their reputation, both financially (patrons are also sponsors) and theoretically, via connections to a noble house.

Anyone can volunteer to be a Chevalier !! However, because the training is so arduous, long-lasting (with years up to decades of being ordained at last) and the “captain” of a recruit regiment has essential power of life and death in dictating over them, very few people who aren’t either extremely talented or backed by a rich and/or noble family can make it through. There are no ranks to speak of: if you survive the Chevalier ordeal, you are as good as any veteran knight. Experience, of course, and accomplishments in both tourneys and battlefield, still matter as much as in any hierarchy. 

- Venli