Cavaliers Club

TYPE: Social Club
ALIGNMENT: LN
JOINING: Must be noble or upper class (10 000 gp in coin or capital).
FAVORED CLASSES: Knights, Envoy
PRESTIGE CLASSES:
ASSOCIATED SKILLS: Diplomacy, Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nobility), Ride,
PRESTIGE AWARDS: Mounted feats
WEAPONS & ARMOR: Martial weapons and Heavy Armor

Culture

Not all Knights of the Cavaliers Club devote their entire being to upholding the Chivalric Code or undertaking noble quests. A faction of arrogant and boastful Knights of the Cavaliers Club known as Champions or Warhounds, seem to be as interested in perfecting their skills as warriors and gaining notoriety as they are in putting those skills to good use.    Both Courtiers and Crusaders frown on Champions as undisciplined brawlers and jocks who are losing sight of true knighthood. To the Champion, such derision is misplaced. After all, the cavaliers job is to combat evil, and he can not do that if he doesn't keep his skills in top shape.
A Cavalier club member can recite the Chivalric Code all day or go on some roundabout quest, but in the end, it all comes down to being able to put one's enemy down for the count. And in that moment of truth, the only thing that really matters is who is the better fighter, or so the Champions say.
It is the burning drive of every Champion to never be on the losing end of a fight to the finish. Sadly, the law of averages usually catches up with these warriors and sooner or later they take on an opponent who outclasses and prematurely "retires" them. Before that happens, however, Champions spend their time as any other Knights, looking for worthy challenges.
For Champions, however, it is most important to defeat strong opponents with noteworthy reputations. This way, when a Champion defeats such a villain, he might add the fallen foe's name to his own list of victories. This is how these dedicated warriors spread their name and reputation — through battlefield valor and good publicity. However, even more than the Courtier, a Champion only wants the truth, not exaggerations or incorrect stories to circulate about him.
First, this discredits his real accomplishments. Second, it might also encourage old opponents to seek out the Cyber-Knight to settle the "truth" or to seek revenge for embarrassing falsehoods. Third, Champions are surprisingly vain glory hounds who cherish their reputations and want no falsehoods or even the suggestion of impropriety to tarnish them.
This leads many Knight Champions to contend they are "keepers of truth and honor" (at least as it applies to their exploits). To keep the record straight, many Champions select a few towns they are fond of visiting (and have helped out at some point) and charge them with keeping their personal history.
Thus, anybody who wants the straight story on what a particular Champion has accomplished need only visit one of his host villages or towns and ask around. Sometimes a Knight Champion will need to show his battle record far away from a host town, so as evidence, most of these Warhounds keep battle trophies from their most important victories.
The logic goes that if a Knight Champion keeps trophies from his top five to ten victories, nobody will question the thirty or forty lesser victories he also lays claim to, but can not prove. These war trophies are most often collections of weapons, pieces of armor, emblems, or other such souvenirs. In the case of monsters, a piece of the creature (such as a claw, tooth or skull) might be kept as the trophy.
All of this is a little redundant, however, since Champions are Knights of the Cavaliers Club and supposedly do not lie (and Warhounds are famous for being absolutely honest when it comes to their exploits).
Still, many Champions are anal-retentive and fiercely competitive, especially with each other. After all, each Champion strives to be the greatest warrior the Knights of the Cavaliers Club (or anybody) has ever known (or at least, one of the greatest), so they feel compelled to have proof of their triumphs. Knight Champions do not question the authority of knights in higher generations than they, but they do expect Knights of the Cavaliers Club of a lower generation to defer to them. Where things get sticky is concerning Knights of the Cavaliers Club of the same generation. By way of hierarchy, they are "peers."
But the competitive spirit of the Champion is not satisfied with this, so these Warhounds must find a way to prove who among them is the better Knight (to themselves if nothing else).
More level-headed Champions will merely compare their battlefield records and come to an amicable agreement as to who is the more "storied" knight. Sadly, most Champions are too hot-headed and competitive for such a sensible approach, and demand to meet their rivals in contests to prove who is the "superior" warrior. These contests are known as tourneys and still resemble their ancient medieval predecessors.
Any Knight unwilling to participate (because they see it as pointless or a waste of tune and energy, or just don't feel like brawling) will have to endure the Champion's boasts that he or she was too "frightened" to engage the Warhound in an armed contest, or that the knight declined because he or she "knew who the better Knight was and didn't want to face the embarrassment of losing."
Something the haughty (and often overconfident) Warhound can most certainly understand — especially since the Champion would agonize over a defeat if he was in the other knight's place. It doesn't matter that this is not really true, because to the Warhound, if a challenge is not met (even a stupid one) the opponent or rival who declines automatically acknowledges "the truth" (i.e. the Champion is his better) by default! At least, that's how these warriors choose to see things.
Such antics can sometimes create lasting resentment, rivalries, derision and feuds between Knights of the Cavaliers Club, but nothing can shake the Champion from this practice.

CAVALIER CLUB LOGO

Type

Military, Paramilitary/Militia

Capital

CASTLE HAWKMOOR

Training Level

Semi-professional

Veterancy Level

Experienced