The Knights of Luna’s Grace

- A Shadow Lord Elder, speaking to a foolish cub

When first chivalry came about, the Garou scoffed and shook their heads at the foolishness of humans. "It will never last," they said. With the formation of the knightly code, knightly orders, and the knights themselves, the Garou were proven wrong. Most Garou simply ignored chivalry, waiting for it to pass into the annals of human history as foolishness. A few did not, however. It began in the tribe of kings, the Silver Fangs, in their House of the Gleaming Eye. They claimed to have given humans the idea for knighthood, and it was then, in secret, that the Knights of Luna's Grace formed.

At first, the group was small; comprised of a few elder Garou and several of their students. Unlike the humans, they gave their good graces to all the auspices, so Theurge stood shield to shield with Ahroun. Outfitted in gleaming coats of mail, with huge Frankish destriers beneath them and superb swords and shields at their sides, the beginnings of the Knights of Luna's Grace were somewhat clumsy. It took much practice to control the horses beneath them, and to learn to use sword and shield in concert with the Crinos battleform when on foot. Eventually, it was decided that the shields were too unwieldy, and had to be redesigned or simply eliminated from the group's outfit. For the time being, however, the young group had larger problems on their hands.

The members of the Knights, amidst human society, were well known to be great warriors, and as such, the King of France called upon them for service when the rallying cry for the First Crusade went up. The elders who had formed the group, being older men, and keepers of several households, were left at their homes in France, while their young proteges rode out with a following of kin and normal men-at-arms to do battle against the Saracen hordes. All bore as their heraldry the full moon shining down upon the land.

For months, then years, the elders of the Knights anxiously awaited the return of their students from the wars in the East, and with such amounts of time they called for students of other houses and even other tribes to come and foster with them. Houses Crescent Moon, Winter Snow, Conquering Claw, Austere Howl, and Unbreakable Hearth answered the call, as did the Fianna, Shadow Lords, and one family of Warders that wished its youngest son to learn the ways of the Garou from the lords of them all. For two years, the elders trained their fosterlings, secretly introducing those they deemed worthy to the precepts of the Knights of Luna's Grace. For those who were inducted, tribal enmity was put aside in favor of chivalric brotherhood. Even the other fosterlings were amazed at the camaraderie of the small group of Knights-to-be - squires, they would be called - exhibited. The elders were proud of the shining flower of chivalry they had trained. And then their first students returned.

The First Crusade had tempered the righteous ideals the first Knights had borne over to the East with pragmatic fire. They had discarded their unwieldy shields, opting instead to display their sigil on their knightly cloaks. In the dark nights of combat near Antioch and Jerusalem, they had fought vampires and ghouls, and not all had returned to speak the tales. The elders honored their first students by granting them Squires from the students that had been tutored during the war.

Together, the three small groups, teachers, Knights, and Squires, hammered out the ideals that the Knights of Luna's Grace would follow until their disbanding.

• The Knights shall speak not of their existence but to those they find most worthy, for their duty is a sacred one.
• The Knights shall remain loyal, one unto the other, student to teacher, and to the whole of the Nation Garou, for without loyalty there is no trust.
• The Knights shall deal with all they meet honorably and compassionately, save for those of the Dark Spiral and those whose stench is of the Wyrm most foul.
• The Knights shall never let their prowess, in combat or otherwise, slacken, for their safety and the safety of those they guard depends on the strength of the Knights.
• The Knights shall be generous unto their servants, granting them all that which they need that the Knights can provide.
• The Knights shall thwart the forces of evil wherever they might be found, whether they be of human or subhuman origin.
• The Knights shall not amass wealth of their own, for the only wealth they need is that which Luna provides.
• The Knights shall adhere to the Litany, for therein lies their salvation from the forces of evil.
• The Knights shall make it their holy duty to seek out the enspirited objects of the Garou, those that have been lost, and purify them.
• The Knights shall follow the code inscribed above until the day of their death, or else forfeit their soul to Gaia and be lost to the grasp of the Wyrm forever.

(As a note to the reader, after taking an active part in every major Crusade, not to destroy Muslims but vampires and their servants, the Knights of Luna's Grace were betrayed in 1431, by a mad Silver Fang Theurge in their ranks. Astute historians will also note that this is the same year that Joan of Arc, hero of France, was burned at the stake. The Theurge did not outlive his betrayal long, but the damage was done; the Black Spiral Dancers that the mad one had betrayed the Knights to all but annihilated the order. In 1460, the last two members, a Knight and an elder, disbanded the order, going their separate ways.)

The Knights of Luna's Grace are bound by a strict code.

They have two quests above all, and they believe that these quests have been given to them by Luna, and through her Gaia Herself. These quests are the destruction of evil and the recovering of the spiritual objects of the Garou.

The destruction of evil is not, at first, as easy as it might seem to a beginner. All Knights believe that they know what evil is, but sometimes it’s hard to judge. Is a man who beats his wife evil? Is a lord who taxes his peasants to near starvation of the Wyrm? Thus it behooves a Knight who has taken up the quest to eliminate the Wyrm from the land to first look into the problem. A lord who taxes his peasants heavily may do so out of malicious greed - or because he needs the money to hire soldiers to protect the peasants from outside forces. A Knight who rides out and smites instantly those who he sees as evil, whether they are or not, will suffer Gaia's vengeance shortly, for the order does not want loose cannons. In many cases, a knight's quest is advised and watched by an elder of the order, and those who abuse the power they have been given suffer for it. In some cases, packs of Wyrm-hunting knights are formed, composed mainly of Ahrouns, Philodoxes, and Ragabash. Ahrouns are obviously included for their combat skills, which are inherently better than most, and the Judges are included in order to discern true evil. Ragabash are odd choices for such a group, at first glance, but as questioners of the ways, they have in many cases saved Philodoxes and Ahrouns from destroying lives they had thought were Wyrm-tainted.

The second of the Order's quests, the search for lost Garou objects, is quite possibly the more difficult of the two. Many Garou objects of heritage and fetishes have been lost since the First Days, and the Wyrm corrupted many more. Many tribes have recovered objects they had thought lost for centuries, with no knowledge of how they returned save for the soft moonlight shining on them when found again, most often near the heart of a caern. A Knight who searches after such objects must know many rites, and must also never let his prowess in battle flag, for each death in the order is another small victory for the Wyrm. Thus searchers often gather together in packs to find items, and these packs are usually made up of Theurges and Galliards; The Theurges are most often those who can find the objects, and the Galliards know the tales of old that speak of ancient, lost treasures. The composition of these groups can easily change, for searcher packs have much need of Ahrouns when they must venture into the lairs of Wyrm-beasts to find lost items, and hunters have use of Theurges and Galliards to help find the true evil of the land.

The Knights are a temporal group, just as many others, and are forced to continue to recruit constantly, for the ranks are often depleted by losses to the Wyrm. Even some Elders must be replaced, and only those elders who are most rigorously tested will ever take their place amidst the elders of the Knights. Only two elders have ever come from outside the ranks of former Knights.

The Knights of Luna's Grace are chosen in an extremely painful manner - only those who can survive a potentially deadly quest set forth by the Elder Knights may be inducted into the order. Although the nature of the test is kept secret, many of the Knights bare scars of their ordeal. (Storyteller note: It is best to devise a test that fits the campaign and character concept.)

The elders have devised a unique Rite for those being inducted into the order; a variant of the Rite of the Honorable Oath in modern days, it requires all Knights to be loyal unto death to the order. The code of the Order is imprinted upon their flesh in ancient symbols over their heart. Those who betray the order never survive long, for the symbols flare up and eat through the flesh of the Garou's chest, consuming the heart in a matter of minutes. Only by writ of all the Elders of the Knights can a Knight be cast out or the order disbanded. After this ceremony, the Knight is given his knightly equipment - dedicated armor of shimmering chainmail, a sword forged in steel by a klaivehammer, so that it will never break or rust unless the knight does, a trained Frankish destrier, and the order's cloak, now emblazoned with the order's heraldic emblem, the full moon shining down upon the land.

In the final days of the Order, the elders believe there will be 130 Knights, 10 from each Gaian tribe of Garou, and all will band together and lead the Garou Nation to final victory over the Wyrm. By the mid-12th century, there were 37 Knights, up from the original number of 14. There have been numerous other Knights, 24, to be exact, but all have either fallen in battle or to old age, or become elders of the order. There are no other members of the order, save for two kinfolk of the Silver Fangs assigned to each Knight; the individual Knights may have a Squire among the upcoming Knight candidates, or their own men-at-arms, but none are officially servants to the order. The elders judged it too dangerous to have easily corruptible mortals surrounding the Knights. The two kinfolk may serve in any position the Knight chooses, but most often the kinfolk are given the positions of steward of the Knight's household and scribe. The Knights judge the kinfolk too valuable in the mortal world to come along into the bloody reality of a Knight's quest.

The Knights of Luna's Grace hold a number of strongholds, but first and foremost is their headquarters in France. The order holds a castle in Compiegne, nominally one belonging to House Gleaming Eye, but in reality the only ones who possess the castle are the order and its servants. Most of the servants in any given order stronghold are kinfolk, and loyal to the Garou of the order. This castle, in Compiegne, is never bothered by the English occupation, and all the Knights visit or send reports to the castle on a regular basis.

The order also has holdings in Avignon, Ravenna, Kiev, Geneva, Kolding (In Denmark), Bristol, Glasgow, Arad (in Transylvania), and a small countryside castle in Ireland. Members of the Knights have gathered all of these holdings; most were deeded to the elders of the Knights when the original owners passed away. This varied assortment of property gives the order a very wide range, from England to Russia. It has avoided searching for holdings farther east and to the south, most notably in Spain, because the members of the order sent into those areas have never returned. The Elders suspect a number of vampires still hold a grudge against those knights of the order who fought in the First Crusade (and the others, afterwards) and have yet to amass the strength they believe they need to destroy these foul creatures.

Unlike many knightly orders, the Knights of Luna's Grace have to search very little for money and equipment. Many of their members are notable Garou, and many are from wealthy Garou Houses. As such, they draw their income from the various order strongholds or from the tribes who supply the Garou candidates for Knights. They also, in times of less than plenty, can supply themselves by selling treasures looted from slain creatures.

Most characters will not start off as members of the Knighthood. Instead, they may start off as squires and fosterlings of the Knights, or may be invited by the Knights from elsewhere across Europe. The Knights are far-reaching, so virtually any Garou in Europe is fair game, though the order is still leery of Garou from tribes such as the Black Furies, Bone Gnawers, Children of Gaia, Fenrir, and Silent Striders. Such candidates must work twice as hard as those from the Silver Fangs, Fianna, Warders, or Shadow Lords, as these four tribes are some of the original tribes from which the Knights drew their members. Red Talons are never candidates, as they are believed to be incapable of grasping the concepts of knighthood. Only Garou who adhere to the principles and virtues of knighthood (loyalty, honor, largesse, franchise, and prowess) will ever be considered if they are from outside the order's teachings. No Garou of less than Rank 2 will be considered, either, since any Garou with less rank will not have the experience the Knights require. Also, any candidate for knighthood must have at least three dots in Melee, Ride, and Etiquette, as well as any one other ability linked to the Garou's Auspice (Athletics for Ahroun, Performance for Galliard, Leadership for Philodox, Rituals for Theurge, and Enigmas for Ragabash). The requirements are harsh, but it should be noted that the life of any Garou is harsh, and the skills will be used often. If The Ashen Knight is available, the new Talent: Franchise, new Skill: Chivalry, and new Background: Heraldry might also be useful. The Garou must have a Willpower score of at least 7, as this reflects the will of the knight not to be drawn into the evil he (or she, in very rare cases) seeks to destroy. The character must have three permanent Honor renown. Then, as a final test, the Knight-candidate must undergo the test of the Elder’s choosing, and be subject to the Rite of Luna's Grace. If the candidate has any Wyrm-taint at all, they will be immediately disqualified and slain for treachery to Gaia. It is not at all uncommon, with the stringent requirements of Knighthood, that a Garou hold off from becoming a Knight until rank 3 or higher; one of the most successful Knights, one Phillip of York, did not join the order until rank 4.

Note: Characters, unless in a higher-powered chronicle, should not be allowed to start as Knights of Luna’s Grace. It is a hard-won honor, and hard-kept. And, while Knights of Luna’s Grace can be in packs with others who are not Knights, it is not recommended for inexperienced players.

As the first benefits of knighthood, the new Knight receives his equipment. First is the armor. Treat it as heavy armor from Werewolf: The Dark Ages; it provides three dice of protection, but it is specially made, so does not hinder movement or perception, unless the Knight chooses to wear a helm. The chianmail is dedicated to the Knight, regardless of the number of dedicated items the Knight already possesses. Next is the sword, a steel longsword; treat it as a broadsword from Werewolf: The Dark Ages, save that it can be used as a slashing or stabbing weapon. It also cannot break unless the Knight breaks a part of the Knightly code. Then the knight is provided with a Frankish destrier; if the Ashen Knight is available, treat this as an exceptional warhorse. Last comes the white cloak, emblazoned with a full moon shining down upon the land. This cloak confers no special abilities, but if an observer recognizes the cloak (not as the order, but simply if the observer has seen or heard of these Knights), the wearer receives a + 1 to their Social rolls.

Finally, the Garou is taught the Gift: Lambent Flame when he joins the order; this Gift has proved useful time and again with the order, revealing hidden evil and lost treasure, and the elders have a number of Falcon-spirits ready to teach the Gift to any new members. This Gift is learned at no experience cost, as the elders feel that the new order member has already proved his worth at least in a small way by being accepted.

NOTE: While the benefits of knighthood may seem extreme, there are drawbacks to becoming a knight; the Knight must follow the code set before him, and there is very little rest for one such as this. Factions of his own race fight them, because they remember the actions of those who bore the sigil of the Knights. Wyrm creatures hunt them, for they are a danger to the horrific sanctity of the Wyrm. And only those who the order deems worthy, which is painfully few, may be told of the order. If the Knight disobeys, he will be dealt with harshly, disbanded from the order and possibly killed. It is a hard, lonely life; there must be a few advantages.

Only the elders of the Knights of Luna’s Grace know the Rite of Luna's Grace. When this rite is performed, the words of the code the Knights follow are burned into the flesh of the new Knight in ancient symbols, above the heart. These symbols cannot be removed, save by the Garou leaving the order or dying. If a Garou betrays the order after receiving the Rite of Luna's Grace, the symbols will burn through his flesh in a matter of minutes, consuming the heart. This cannot be held off except by direct intervention of a Celestine or higher power.

System: due to its high level and exclusive usage, treat the rite as if it always succeeds.