I've been writing this post for a long while, attempting to do an Abraxas or Straits of Anian style post. The change to 5e has made this easier because instead of having to create my own equivalent to warrior societies, I can just use the already extant subclasses and say what goes with what.
A note on gender: I use "man" and "men" throughout this post for stylistic reasons. Men refers to the race of man, i.e. humans, in the World of Nightwick. There are more women knights in the World of Nightwick than there were historically, though there is nothing close to gender parity. The Realm of Man and the other kingdoms of the West use the same sorts of "well men means everybody except when it means just males" doublethink common in our world, but the presence of heroic prowess or supernatural agency means that some women are undeniably "worthy" of the title of knighthood even to the sexist societies of the World of Nightwick. If a woman can Lay on Hands who are you to say the God of Law is false? It will generally be true that NPC knights, with some notable exceptions, are male but this should in no way inhibit the ability of a female PC. A full study of gender in the Dark Country is forthcoming.
It is a well known lie that the race of men is divided into three categories: those who work, those who fight, and those who pray. Unfortunately for proponents of this view, there are vast arrays of human experience that lie outside these three categories, and men who were born workers may become fighters or clerics and men who were once fighters may be enslaved to work in the fields. Perhaps the three orders are what life would be like under the total influence of the Law, though the Book of the Law proposes several classes and subclasses of men.
Despite the existence of nuances which belie the entire system, it is certainly true that there are classes of men who are born, raised, and live to fight. Not mere mercenaries or reavers, these men are, of course, knights. In the West, these knights are placed in charge of land and the serfs which belong to that land in the hopes that the surplus generated will allow them the ability to equip themselves (and a perhaps a number of followers) for war. The relationship is similar in the Dark Country, but due to efforts to attract migrants the peasants of that benighted country are not tied to the land. Instead, knights must create incentives for peasants to come work their fields or do task in their cities.
Most of these secular knights are fighters and the vast majority of them are of the cavalier archetype. Some few are champions, particularly in Karse, where horsemanship is not so well esteemed. Battlemasters, those brave leaders of men, are seldom knights, for knights are more interested in their own personal prowess than the leading of others.
These men running protection rackets are not the only ones called knights. There are men, born into the same class, who instead join holy orders so that they might serve the Law. They are called paladins, but knights they are still. A few of the most famous orders in the World of Nightwick are described below, along with the oaths that they take.
The Sword Brothers were once such an order, but they fell into darkness as discussed elsewhere. When they lived they took the Oath of Conquest.
The Knights in White Satin dedicate themselves to protecting the weak. This most often takes the form of protecting noble women of great beauty for psychosexual reasons ill-suited for discussion in this post. Tradition dictates that they must adorn their armor with a bit of their chosen lady's garment, preferably something white. Stories tell of how these garments never stain with blood nor dirt no matter how much fighting the knight in question does, but stories are often wrong. Their main chapterhouse is located on the island of Cuccagna, from which many strange things issue. Members of this order take the Oath of Redemption.
The Holy Order of the Sphere sets itself no lower goal than to follow the Law completely. This task is nigh impossible for the flawed beings that live and breath in the World, and as such their numbers are quite few. Its chief chapterhouse is in the capital of the Realm of Man, and all lesser sons of the Emperor of Man are forced to take their oath. That oath is the Oath of Devotion.
The Order of the Elk, led by the infamous Paladin Lord Fitzgerald,* is considered heretical by many but is as yet still endorsed by Pope Palpatinius. They believe that knights of the Law must protect both Lawful men and pagans against the forces of darkness. Those who claim they are heretical say that their powers come not from the God of Law but from the Old Gods. Indeed, no one knows who grants them the power they gain through the Oath of the Ancients.
The Knights of the Dragon are paladins who seek to engage in redemptive violence on behalf of the Law. In some ways they serve as an (as yet) untainted successor to the Sword Brothers, and they are the most common sort found in the Dark Country. Their main chapterhouse is in the land of Vulgary, once known as the Iron Kingdoms. The dragon in their name refers both to the physical embodiment of sin in the World that are described below and to the Dragon of Hell, for they are equally found fighting demons and their ilk. They take the Oath of Vengeance.
No discussion of knights would be complete without a discussion of their mortal enemy: Dragons. Dragons in the World of Nightwick are physical manifestations of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. Dragons so embody these sins that knights of both the secular and religious sort seek them out to slay them in order to overcome personal failings. If a paladin should lose their powers as a result of committing a grave sin, they may regain their powers if they participate in the slaying of the appropriate dragon.
Dragons of lust a disturbingly phallic and turgid - purple veined and large of head. They breath fire upon their enemies and captured fair maidens to keep locked in dark towers. Varieties with and without wings exist but seemingly both varieties may fly.
Bloated, fleshy, and lacking in scales, dragons of gluttony eerily resemble a cross between a human child and a large salamander. They gulp up streams and hoard cattle and attack bread carts. Their breath is foul and can kill a man with its reeking miasma.
Dragons of greed are the very ideal of a dragon - green or red, scaly, winged, breathing fire, and hoarding gold.
Dragons of sloth are sorrowful creatures with huge, unblinking eyes. The bury themselves deep within the earth for fear that they will be found and mutter and meep to themselves about the goings on in the world above and how it is better to rest in the earth. If such a dragon can be bothered with a hoard, it is usually made of fine silks, feather beds, and soft pillows; however, items which have a preternatural association with fear may also be found in their collections. Despite their pathetic demeanor, they are formidable in combat, breathing both fire and sleeping gas.
If one were to see a dragon of wrath asleep, one might think it was an enormous statue or blasphemous art instillation. Their claws and fangs appear literally as swords, their scales seemingly ancient shields fused together by unknown agency. They heap about themselves weapons of great puissance and when sleeping on their hoard they are effectively indistinguishable from it. Dragons of wrath breath fire.
Great serpents with gleaming green eyes, dragons of envy were believed to be sacred to the pagan tribes that existed before the Lady revealed the Law to the First Emperor. They have the most eclectic hoards, preferring to take the possessions of other dragons when they can or, more commonly, from the richest person in the nearby area. When taking from a person, the wealth will be subject to cultural context (cattle for pastoralist tribes, gold from merchants, etc). They spit acid and stalk their prey for days or even weeks. They may fly on diminutive wings, and will often retreat only to stalk again and wait for a better time to strike.
Dragons of pride are wonderful to behold - great gleaming red-gold scales and breasts of glittering diamonds. Lonely are they, for they drive out other dragons as a matter of course, but in the absence of their kin they have no one to gloat over. While their hoards very, those that have lived for many years tend to collect symbols of authority - crowns, orbs, scepters, etc. They have a fondness also for sleeping on the bones of men who have tried to slay them. When attacked, dragons of pride spit lightning from their mouth or shoot it from strange, crown like horns on the top of their head.
Some campaigns may wish to eschew having player character knights, hoping instead to frame the feudal system of the West as a villain akin to, if not on par with, the Demons of the Pit. These campaigns may focus on pagans fighting for their right to worship, Merrie Men attempting to do good by the poor and downtrodden, or even the normal rakes, rascals, and murderhobos who happen to be on the wrong side of the Law. The standard stats for a 5e knight npc should work for knights as enemies, but one might wish to make them a large creature in order to draw a starker contrast between normal people and the sinister military elites. I would recommend adjusting their hit-points to reflect this larger size.
*Paladin Lord Fitzgerald was created such that his initials matched the initials of the Pagan Liberation Front, making Yim Yimsley's allegiance more muddled.
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