Knights Hospetalier

The Knights Hospitalier, rendered fully as the Worshipfull Companions of San Hera the Hearthkeeper, are a Chivalric Order headquartered in High Hearth, and found throught the rest of Bastonia. As a chivalric order in the Bastonian system of knighthoods, they perform important paramilitary and religious functions throughout the kingdom, and are famous for their patronage of travellars upon the roads, especially pilgrims journeying to cathedrals and other holy sites. Their order is nearly as old as the Kingdom and they have the distinction of being the most numerous order of knights - due in part to counting their full numbers rather than merely the knighted.

The commanding officer of the Scholarly Order is known as its Knight-Commander and is elected from the surviving ranking officers on the death or retirement of their predecessor. Peculiarly given their cheif quarter being between the cities of Whiterock and Boischateau, the fealty of the knights is to the Duke of Estmarch, whose ancestors founded the order and in whose territory most Knights Hospitalier are deployed.

The blazon of the Knights Hospitalier is Argent, a pale sable, making them superficially simmilar to the Militant Order of San Lukas at first glance. High Ranking Officers, especially those who have been knighted, are further entitled to an additional blazon: 'Party per pale Argent, Sable, a beacon gules.

Individual companies of the Knights Hospitalier occupy minor fortifications at major crossroads throughout the kingdom, and their squadrons patrol the ajoining roads, providing such mercies as are needed to those who travel upon them, and ferriting out bandits and the like. Special attention is paid to major thoroughfares whose tributary roads bring rural pilgrims toward holy sites such as the cathedrals in the major cities.

In particular the Knights Hospitalier get along well with the various worshipful companies that honour San Lauren, such as the Bavonian Order, as they have overlapping portfolios, and together make up the principle backbone of order and safety within the Kingdom. The absence of well-constructed roads in the Frontier Counties mean the Hospitalier are usually absent from those areas, and that absence is sorely felt.