Stickacian Knightood

How important is the idea of knighthood on Stickacia?
The name of Stickacia comes from the Old Albleoran phrase “Sticca Kacia,” which roughly translates to “A Union of Knights” or “united knights.” It has been used as a battle cry for centuries throughout Albleoran history. It was supposedly used by the mythical King Perren of Cor, and was revived by King Leo the Great, the first king of Albleora, when he fought the Battle of Clover Field. It has since been used as the motto of the Albleorex Dynasty, the ruling dynasty of first Albleora and then Stickacia. This simple phrase contains within it a rich history of knighthood and chivalric literature, and helps demonstrate one of the primary cultural values of Stickacia, that the ideal for every Stickacian is the knight. Throughout the nation, children are raised on stories of King Perren and his band of knights, and are educated to emulate knights. Classes on kacian values and history are taught in all schools, the literature of and about the Kacian(Chivalric) Ages(the period of time from roughly 500 CE to 1500 CE, known in other nations as the medieval period) is widely disseminated, and Stickacians are fiercely proud of their post-classical past. The idea of knighthood is a cornerstone of national culture, with books, movies, television shows, video games, art, architecture, sculpture, and music all steeped in the Kacian Ages. Among the many popular sports in Stickacia are still included Kacian-style tournaments complete with melees and jousting, and festivals and holidays across the nation put on reenactments of the historical period. And, most important of all, membership in the Upper Houses of the National, Regional, and State Legislatures, as well as many government offices at the Royal and National Level, are restricted to those who bear the title of knight.

What is knighthood then, and why is it important to Stickacia?
Modern knighthood, in the one sense, is a title granted to those who have earned officer’s commissions, one that carries with it a certain set of privileges and responsibilities. In the other, more metaphysical sense, it is a mix of martial prowess and personal virtue. The Stickacian knight is expected to follow the code of chivalry and demonstrate the desire to perfect himself and become a perfect gentleman and warrior. The modern system of knighthood is a synthesis of many ideals, and comes from a desire to maintain tradition and rule by a specialized class of “ideal men” who are both excellent warriors and virtuous leaders, while at the same time raising up the common man and restricting the power of the aristocracy. It is closely tied to the idea of nobility in Stickacia, both in the sense of a class and a virtue. The goal is to have a class that displays nobility as a virtue, one that is able to possess the virtues required for ruling, while at the same inspiring other classes to act similarly. As one author put, albeit rather sentimentally, “Knighthood is the call sent out to all men to rise up and become heroes.”

A Brief History of Knighthood
The knighthood system of Stickacia has existed in its current structure more or less intact since 1811 CE, the birth year of the modern state of Stickacia, and the passage of the Act of Union, National Army Creation Act, National Peerage Restructuring Act, and National Knighthood Act. Under the National Knighthood Act the new system, based on the Albleoran system, established that the title of knight would only be granted to those who had earned an officer’s commission in the new Grand Royal Army. Knights were expected to maintain a level of dignity and character, and knighthood could be removed upon certain circumstances. This is more or less the model that exists in contemporary Stickaica. The tradition of knighthood, however, dates back to the Kacian Ages that were born with the fall of the Auctoran Empire, saw the rise of kings and lords, and are home to the mythical stories of the legendary King Perren of Cor. King Perren, supposedly the greatest Sacrumist king in Fluminar, ruled a large kingdom that controlled all of modern Albleora, Kaladni, and parts of Prionsa. The stories of him, his knights, and their adventures are the model for all Stickacians and the basis of the code of chivalry. While King Perren supposedly lived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries CE, however, the birth of knighthood occured in the 8th century CE. The early knight was simply a warrior who exchanged military service in exchange for land. What became known as the code of chivalry was simply a code of conduct that regulated combat and behavior between knights. However, from the 11th to 15th centuries, developments in literature and court etiquette, along with the association of knighthood with religious war, romanticized the idea of a knight as a gentleman who upheld the church and the crown, protected the weak and innocent from predation, and was respectful and courteous to his peers and women, all the while being the model of a warrior. The legacy of knights continues on, as officers continue to emulate the kacian knight, as do ordinary citizens.

Knighthood in the Early Kacian Ages
In the late 5th century, the Emperor of Auctor was deposed by the Ostdelu, and what was left of his declining empire destroyed, ending the classical age. In its place rose petty kingdoms, ruled by barbarian tribal kings and powerful landowners.This was the beginning of the Early Kacian Ages(500 CE- 1000 CE), which saw the feudal system develop due to a lack of central authority. Under this system, powerful landowners would give grants of land and promises of protection to vassals in exchange for service. The early knight was merely a warrior, who, in exchange for a grant of land, swore an oath of loyalty to provide military service for his liege. The strongest power in Fluminar at the time was the Orguilian Empire, based in Kaladni and under the rule of the Orguiles, a tribe of Prionsan origin. Under Charles I the Great, armies became increasingly composed of cavalry(as opposed to the heavy infantry of the Auctoran Empire), to further the empire’s conquests. The invention of the stirrup made mounted combat more viable and in turn hastened the shift from infantry to cavalry.

Despite the power of Charles the Great, most kings still lacked sufficient power to control their realms, which allowed raiders from northern Prionsa, Kejelo, Tahuryia, and Orman to devastate Sacrumist kingdoms in Fluminar. In 864 CE, Charles II, King of West Orguilia (which later became the modern nation of Kaladni), issued a call for every able-bodied man with a horse to join the army, to better respond to these raids. As Orguilian knights spread their fame across Fluminar, more kingdoms adopted their model, and soon the knight became the standard for kingdoms all across Fluminar. The knight provided his own arms, armor, horse and equipment, and, if he were a landed knight, swore to bring troops to the lord’s campaign. As horses became more expensive and primarily tools of war, this meant that the military class and the aristocratic class became synonymous. Over time, a code of conduct that regulated the rules of combat between knights developed, and became the basis for what would later be known as the code of chivalry. Many of these rules were rules that ensured honorable conduct between knights, such as not striking a defenceless foe, and taking surrendered knights as prisoners for ransom, rather than executing them. Above all, the chief virtues expected from knights were bravery in combat, and loyalty. Though rudimentary in its beginning, the knight would soon grow to become something greater.

Knighthood in High Kacian Ages
Religious Impact on Knights
As the period transitioned to the High Kacian Ages (1000 CE- 1300 CE), knighthood was influenced more heavily by both the clergy and the literature of the period. For most of their early existence, knights were little more than brigands who, while courteous to members of their own status, were frequently brutal to civilians, men and women alike. Calls for reform mainly came from the clergy, who saw knights as servants of the Devil. Wanting to see the end to conflict in Fluminar between Sacrumists, The Bishop of the Auctor called for a crusade began designed to reclaim territory lost to the encroaching Qwanis Empire, including Sanctalem/Apagelem, the holiest city in Sacrumism. Other crusades were launched against non-Sacrumist kingdoms in Orman, Tahuriya, and pagan tribes in northern and eastern Prionsa, with the triple motivations of religious fervor, territorial expansion, and checking threats to Sacrudom. The crusades directed at Orman were specifically designed to retake holy cities in the Enhause, the birthplace of Sacrumism and its founder Salus Sacrumcor. While these crusades were largely failures, the western crusades successfully pushed Tahuryian power back across the River Chevalier, and the northern crusades succeeded in completely eradicating paganism in Fluminar. These crusades had a profound effect on the idea of knighthood, tying it to the idea of religious war. Many religious orders of knights were created during this period which connected knighthood with monasticism as well, and created the idea of knights as ‘soldiers of god’.

Literary Impact on Knights:
In addition to these developments in religious war, secular culture had its own contributions to make. Literature evolved from the heroic epics and “songs of deeds” of the early Kacian ages, which primarily glorified bravery in combat and loyalty, to the Chivalric romances of the High Kacian Ages, which extolled the deeds of heroic questing knights-errant. Rather than focusing on war and conquest, these stories placed an emphasis on love and courtly manners as well, though they continued to include many heroic feats of arms. Over time, the popular view of the knight changed from a mere armor-clad warrior who sacked and burned at his lord’s command, to that of a noble hero who was noble to his king, upheld the laws of God and pursued the love of a beautiful lady as his chief objective. Regardless of how this view corresponded to fact, it became the defining image of the knight and remains as such in Stickacia to the present.

The Development of Chivalry
These additions to the knight’s expected duties created three strands of chivalry, which overlapped and merged into the Code of Chivalry known today. These are warrior chivalry, religious chivalry, and courtly love chivalry. According to warrior chivalry, the first of these strands to blossom, a knight's chief duty was to his lord, as well as to his countrymen and fellow Christians: this contained virtues such as mercy, courage, valour, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor, and in the servant-hood of the knight to his lord. This also brings with it the idea of being willing to lay down one's life for another's, whether he would be giving his life for a poor man or his lord. Religious chivalry, in which a knight's chief duty was to protect the innocent and serve God, focused on duties to God: this would contain being faithful to God, protecting the innocent, being faithful to the church, being the champion of good against evil, being generous and obeying God above the feudal lord. Finally, courtly love chivalry, in which a knight's chief duty is to his own lady, and after her, all ladies, encompassed duties to women. This would contain what is often called courtly love, the idea that the knight is to serve a lady, and after her all other ladies. Most especially in this category is a general gentleness and graciousness to all women.

Evolution of the Knight
As knighthood changed, so did the knights placed in society. The roles of page and squire developed, as the children of knights received their own education to be one, and took on more responsibilities in regards to taking care of their master knight and his equipment. A distinction between knights and men-at-arms also came to be drawn. While the term “man-at-arms” simply denoted an armoured cavalryman, which included knights, the title of knight came to denote a social rank, of which a certain level of behavior and manners were expected. In addition, a candidate for knighthood would have to undergo the ceremony of the accolade, in which they would officially be invested, or dubbed, as a knight. These changes led to the golden age of the knight, the Late Kacian Ages.

Knighthood in the Late Kacian Ages
Beginning in the 12th century, but especially in the Late Kacian Ages(1300 CE-1500 CE), noblemen and knights attempted to model themselves after the cultural ideal. This period marks the zenith of knighthood, and is the source of the “knight in shining armor” image, as developments in technology saw the widespread use of plate armor by knights. Ironically, this period also saw the decline of the knight in warfare, as armies became centered around infantry. Well-disciplined forces of infantry, armed with weapons such as pikes, halberds, longbows and crossbows, began to be able to hold their own against forces of knights. From the 1400s to 1500s populations increased, power became more centralized, and the increase of trade and growth of towns created more revenue for governments, allowing kings to raise larger professional armies or hire experienced mercenary bands based around infantry. The death-knell for the knight was the introduction of the gunpowder weapons as the arquebus and cannon, which made his armor and castle obsolete. Though the knight’s traditional military role faded, however, the ideal remained, along with the expectation that the leading military class should uphold the values of faith, loyalty, courage, and honor. Tournaments and duels continued their popularity, and the aristocracy continued to dominate positions of military leadership, allowing the ideals of knighthood to be transmuted to the modern day.

Knighthood in the Early Modern Period to the Present
The officer corps continued to be drawn from the nobility and landed gentry into the early modern period(1500 CE - 1800 CE), and those officers that were commoners by birth did their best to emulate their better-bred comrades. Having the officer corps tied to the nobility aristocracy helped enshrine a value closely related to chivalry, that of noblesse oblige. Noblesse oblige is the idea that nobility is not just a title conferred, but that those who possess that status should display virtue befitting that status and lead the lower classes by example. This view pervaded the aristocracy and the people’s view of it, and remained while the officer corps began to be drawn from lower social classes. Increasing republicanism and liberalism encouraged the development of a meritocratic system of officer corps. However, continuing into the Drakmean Revolutionary Wars, reforms to the system desperately needed to be made. While possessing lofty ideals, the officer corps was rife with flaws. The main one was the purchase system, which allowed anyone with enough money to buy their way up the ranks. While this served the purpose of limiting the military leadership class to the aristocracy, as they were often the only ones who could afford it, it did not guarantee competence, as men were fairly quickly able to purchase commissions as lieutenants and make the jump to high ranks in a few short years. The system was reformed in the late-18th century to instate a required time limit of serving in each rank before moving up to the next, before being abolished in its entirety in the mid-19th century.

When Stickacia was created, the newly forged nation’s army was based around the Albleoran Army(as it was the House of Albleorex, the ruling dynasty of Albleora, that became the rulers of this kingdom), and the kingdom’s peerage and knighthood systems were carried over to the other countries. In 1960 the Royal Responsibility Act, and Citizenship Service Act were both passed. The latter created the Royal Citizenship Service and(initially) limited citizenship to any who served in the military, while the former increased the responsibilities placed on the royal family by establishing that all members of the royal family must be knights(male) or citizens(female) to inherit the crown or any other titles. This act was followed up a year later by the Noble Responsibility Act, which established the same rules for the nobility. Knighthood was extended to women in the Female Knighthood Act of 1989. The title of knight was also officially codified in the 1850 National Army Creation Act, which firmly established knighthood as an office only to be granted to officers in the Royal Stickacian Army and Navy(later extended to the rest of the armed forces), detached from the nobility, made it a title unable to be inherited, and restricted membership in the National Senate to those who possessed the title, under the new National Constitution. Later legislation made officer ranks easier for lower classes to attain, though they would still have to meet certain standards of education and character. The Royal Knighthood College was established in 1876 to regulate and examine the character of knights. As the nation continued to modernize, more non-aristocratic citizens were allowed to become officers. However, these new officers inherited the idea of knighthood from their predecessors despite their common birth, choosing to accept their own definitions of knighthood and nobility; not merely that of a class of landowners and warriors who inherit or are granted titles, but rather that it is a virtuous ideal to live up to, and that those men who such prestigious titles should carry themselves with honor, bravery, generosity, loyalty, and honesty.