The Knight Orders of Baltimore

The Founding: During the year 14 PA, the Baltimore City-State was visited by a group of Cyber-Knights, intent on destroying some unknown threat in the Monster Zone. Baltimore quickly volunteered several platoons of soldiers to accompany the Cyber-Knights. After several battles, the combined forces defeated the threat and returned to the city. The returning soldiers brought back with them tales of the bravery and focus of the Cyber-Knights. The Mayor, with the backing of the City Council, asked the Cyber-Knights to teach and train their most promising youths in the ways of the Cyber-Knight. While the other knights moved on, 6 knights stayed behind to train 30 of the city's most promising youths. Ten years later, their work done, these cyberknights also moved on. While those 30 youths did go out adventuring for several years, they eventually returned to the city to teach what they learned in their adventuring. The surviving 25 knights formed the core of the three orders of Knights.
           Baltimore began a massive and complicated testing process that separated its psionic and magical youths into three schools of training. The ten most technical of the knights went to Polytechnic and began training their students in the use of their natural magic and psionic abilities to build, repair, and modify technological devices. These students would become the Techno-Knights. The ten most psionically powerful of the knights went to City College and began training their students how to use their minds to overcome obstacles and enemies. These students would become the Black Knights, named after the school's mascot. The remaining 5 knights had a combination of magical and psionic abilities that didn't put them in either of the other two schools. They would refound the school of St. Francis to train youths who didn't fit into either of the other two schools because they had a similar mix of psionic and magical abilities. In the year 35 PA, the Orders of Polytechnic, City, and St. Francis were formally founded with their first graduating classes.
           Besides their duty to the Commonwealth, the first graduating classes also had an obligation to come back to their alma maters and pass on their experiences to the up and coming classes. Much like their teachers did before them, the new Knights began adventuring and performing missions wherever they were needed. Unlike their teachers, the new Knights were equipped for fighting the menaces that threatened the Commonwealth with the Squire Knight's Armor. The Squire, the first of Baltimore's powered armors, was designed to be as strong as its wearer. As the Knight wearing it gained experience and ability, the strength of the armor also increased. However, even with this added advantage, the new Knights suffered a horrendous death toll as their inexperience in dealing with some of the menaces they faced caused some of them to make reckless or foolhardy mistakes. The new Knights suffered 25% casualties in their first year, and almost 75% casualties by the end of their third year. When they came back to assist in the training of the young knights, they instituted many changes in the way the knights were trained and how they were graduated.

The Reformation: The first basic change they made was to change the living conditions of the young knights, now called squires. In their 14th year of age, all squires were relocated to dormitories on the campuses of their schools. While squires could freely visit thier former homes with permission from their teachers, the dormitories became their homes. By doing this, the Knights wanted to ingrain a certain sense of comformity onto their charges. They also wanted their charges to form the kind of reliance on each other that could be trusted on the battlefield. The second change they made was the age at which the squires could begin using their abilities. Since most of the children tended to begin exhibiting their abilities at age 14, the decision was also made to forbid usage until age 15. During this year of temptation, it became the teachers' responsibility to ensure that the ban was enforced with strict discipline. The last basic change they made was to give the squires practical knowledge of how their abilities can and can't work. To do this, each Order began an extensive four year training program that emphasized its ability specialization. For the Techno-Knights, their training involves protecting and maintaining the Jones Falls TW Power Generators. For the Black Knights, their training involves extensive wilderness training outside of the City Wall. During their final year in school, this wilderness training takes place in the outskirts of the Monster Zone. The Knights of St. Francis' training program is basically an offshoot of the Police Academy. They are trained to investigate crimes, examine clues, and track down perpetrators. As part of their training program, they are responsible for investigating actual crimes that occur within the city. As a change of pace, during their final year they are given the same wilderness training the Black Knights are given outside of the City Wall.
           The two changes that were made in the graduation process go hand in hand. The first change was more practical than anything else. Since the Squire Armor is powered by TW energy, said energy only had a constant usage life of about two weeks before it needed to be recharged by a Techno-Wizard. Since almost all of the Techno-Wizards are assigned to a specific city, and very rarely go outside of that city, some young Knights had been caught in the middle of a fight with a power-drained Squire. It became imperative that the Knights find a way to recharge their Squires while out in the field. A special charging spell was created so that any Knight (Techno, Black, or of St. Francis) would be able to cast it. The only problem is that in order to charge a Squire Armor for its maximum time period, at least 150 PPE and/or ISP must be pumped into the charging spell at one time. Since most Knights don't have enough ISP and/or PPE to cast the spell until at least 5th level or higher, newly graduated Knights were teamed up with an Errant Knight until they were experienced enough to not let their Squire run out of energy before they got back to a city. That two year apprenticeship provided the final seasoning the new Knights needed to survive on their own.

Present Day: Now, more than 60 years later, the Knights are the elite force of the Baltimore Commonwealth. With more than 2500 active duty knights in each of the three Orders, a Knight is the first and last person many an offender will see. The Knights were originally formed to be an organization that was a cross between the U.S. Army Rangers and the U.S. Marshals. They are given extraordinary powers to enforce Baltimore's laws anywhere within the Commonwealth, and are intensively trained to use their natural abilities to do that. As such, a visiting Knight may be the closest thing to a lawman that some of the outlying communities will see. While Knights do have to fully account for all of their actions, in those areas in which there isn't a local garrison, a Knight can be considered as judge and jury when it comes to matters of criminal law. While the execution of his verdict is left to the people of the community, in extreme circumstances, a Knight can also be executioner.
           During the course of their careers most Knights will have one of five different titles. All young Knights, regardless of age, are called Squires. They keep this title until they turn the age of 21, upon which time they can begin using the title of Knight. The title of Errant Knight is only given to those Knights who have enough natural ISP and PPE to cast the charging spell for the Squire Armor. For some Knights, this is an easily achieved title, while some others never achieve it during their careers. The last two titles are given to those who decide to serve their Orders, with no particular achievement necessary to gain them. The first title of Master Knight is given to all Knights who leave the active service and decide to teach the new Squires. The last title of Lord Knight is only given to the leader of each Order. A Lord Knight is chosen to succeed by the previous Lord Knight. In the event that the previous Lord Knight dies before choosing a successor, the Master Knights decide who will lead the Order. As choosing a successor is usually the first duty of a Lord Knight, the Masters have only had to choose a new Lord Knight once.

If you see anything interesting e-mail me at Devillin @ Geocities.com for more information.