The first mention of Knights was way back in White Dwarf issue #126, June 1990. 22 issues and 2 years after #104 (1988), where we had Imperial Robots, so I guess I'm doing this chronologically? The Emperor works in mysterious ways, indeed. Anyway, back then, it wasn't just Imperial Knights but also Eldar Knights. I believe this was the first time we had hints that would one day lead to the development of the Wraithknight. I believe the Wraithknight was released for the first time in 2013, during the publication of the 6th Edition Eldar codex, but you can already see the similiarities.
But we are not here to talk about the perfidious xenos. I'm a human, so I'm going to focus on the Imperial Knights or at least Knights piloted by humans instead.
So basically, in the old fluff back in 1990 - and I believe this was an article written as an accompaniment to the old Space Marine (later changed to Epic) game - Knights were found primarily on feral worlds and agri-worlds to herd Megasaurs. It's pretty wild. The Eldar, specifically the Exodites, remained on their maiden worlds, where they coexisted with "docile brontasaurus-like herd beasts called Megasaurs." These Megasaurs were created by Eldar Knights (yeah, really, I'm not kidding), as protein rich food source, and they in turn fed off the vegetation in primitive jungles found all over these maiden worlds. Wild times, indeed. Anyway, the Knights shepherded herds of Megasaurs, protecting them from predators.
Then the humans came.
During the Dark Age of Technology, humans colonized these maiden worlds and ended up clashing with the Eldar there. They copied Eldar farming techniques (why, though?), and when cut off during the Age of Strife, became feral worlds and developed human aristocracy. Human nobles enforced a feudal system, and they had Drovers shepherd herds, though Drovers pilot weaponless Sentinel walkers as opposed to Knights. In fact, there's a mention of the Sentinels later, where the Imperial Guard copied Drover suits and gave them weapons. Heh. Anyway, the Drovers might be the precursor and inspiration for Armigers and Bondsmen that will later emerge in new Imperial Knight lore.
For now, though, it seems that the noble houses could field armies of men akin to Planetary Defense Forces or Imperial Guard units, except that they didn't have as many heavy weapons, and most of them are either foot soldiers or horse-mounted cavalry (Rough Riders - so you can pretty much create your own Household Militia both in 40K and Heresy with Rough Riders and infantry on foot).
Here, we also have the first mention of the Warden, who would later manifest as the Questoris Knight Warden, the chassis with the Avenger gatling cannon and a melee weapon that we all know and love. In 1990, though, the Warden were retired Knights who defended the Keep or protected the (unarmed) Drovers. And the Defend the Realm Vow.
We also get the first mention of the Sacristans, who are a group of artificers and technicians who maintained and repaired the Knight suits. Here, they are a unified group of priests who mediate conflicts between Knight Houses and ensure they didn't wipe each other out in bitter feuds. Apparently, this necessitated the development of chivalric codes and values to settle disputes, so honor was a big thing. That's once again another reference to the modern Chivalric Code we have for Imperial Knights today.
Knights also had to fight against Carnosaurs and other monstrous mutated beasts that spawn whenever there was violent warp activity. This would form the basis for later Imperial Knight lore.
After that, the Imperium rediscovered these Knight Worlds and brought them back to the fold. They were first encountered by Rogue Trader Jeffers - and you want to take note of his name, because he's very important. Remember, Rogue Trader Jeffers. Anyway, Jeffers found agriworlds filled with Knights, and he persuaded the Imperium the importance of bringing them back to the Imperium because of they served as rich resources of food and the Knightly virtues of the warriors in there for the Imperium's burgeoning armies.
Apparently, 2/3 of the originally settled worlds were still occupied by humans existing along very similiar social lines, while the remaining 1/3 were planets that were still being fought over by Eldar and Human Knights or solely occupied by Eldar Knights with links to Craftworlds.
Many Knight Worlds would then be affiliated with Titan forge worlds, providing food for it, while Sacristans would fall under the perview of the Adeptus Mechanicus (the Mechanicum didn't exist back then). Many other Knight Worlds would maintain a degree of autonomy, and the Imperial Cult would make use of Chivalry to convince the Knights to ender a Crusade where they fight alongside the Imperial Guard or Titan Orders.
Interestingly enough, they mention that Knights would form "family units," and I think this was what later gave rise to the whole pseudo Latin or High Gothic names of Questoris Familia or Knight Households in Horus Heresy book 3: Extermination. So yeah, that's where the whole thing came from. Blast from the past, eh?
The lore goes on to mention that young Knights don't have their own armor, train in their fathers' armor instead, and are given their own armor when fighting in a Crusade that are constructed in forge worlds. When they return home, they get to keep their armor and form their own houses, which is a pretty cool thing when you think about it. I wish that we could incorporate that in Crusade - returning from a crusade and founding your own Knight House? Nice!
Often fielded by Titan Orders and the Imperial Guard, they fought on both sides of the Horus Heresy, and even now, they are usually seen fighting in large groups, often comprising of units from their own House. And when they return home, they are rewarded with loot and new armor! Cool! They also bring their own armies with them, often converted into Imperial Guard regiments or Titan Order Secutarii/Skitarii, for example replacing their horses with bikes. That's really amusing, when you think about it. Rough Riders on bikes, basically.
There's also a brief mention of Wraithknights and probably the precursor to the explanation about piloting them with spiritstones.
However, here's one of the obsolete, retconned lore - it used to be that human pilots imprint their own personalities into their throne. You will notice that there are plenty of details that would later form the lore for the Throne Mechanicum - young noble pilots who try to plug into the thrones would be haunted by the old personality. There is also the prototype for the Ritual of Becoming, where noble pilots imprint their personalities on the Thrones, which would exaggerate dominant aspects of the noble's personality, and the imprint will basically be the Knight's machine spirit's personality for the rest of its existence.
There is a highly impractical piece of fluff that states that nobody else will be able to use an imprinted throne, and these thrones would be stored and kept in the family's sacristy. Right...after 10,000 years, I'm sure you'll run out of space to store all those thrones. Furthermore, it'll also necessitate the construction of countless thrones, which is...frankly, a waste of resources and time, not when you have a perfectly maintained throne sitting inside your family's cellar.
The Drovers are mentioned again, and there's something about a simple mind-link used on a Dreadnought - and keep in mind, back in 1990, I don't think the Dreadnought was the same Dreadnought we know and love today. Back then, I believe even ordinary humans could pilot Dreadnoughts - they were more like exosuits. That's something you should ask Arbitor Ian, heh. Anyway, here's the mention of the Sentinels I mentioned earlier - they are a copy of the Drover suits, just with weapons. Now, I'm mentioning this little paragraph because it appears that the Drovers are prototypes for the Armigers. Simple mind-link that's not the same as the throne? Check. This is the basis for the simpler Helm Mechanicum we see in Armigers today.
Also, hilariously enough, all Knights are armed with visor-mounted lances, allowing them to "kill with a single glance." Uh...right. The lances are powerful enough to jolt Megasaurs, and I think it ended up forming the basis of the shock lance for Cerastus Knight Lancers about 20 years later.
We also get rules on how to field Knights in Space Marine/Epic, and this is where the first instance of "each detachment must only contain one class of Knight" shows up, which probably ended up repeated in Knight Household Army rules in Adeptus Titanicus. Each detachment has 3 or more Knights, which again, manifests in the Knight Banners in Adeptus Titanicus. Apparently, you're encouraged to field 6-8 Knights in games, though you can field up to 30 to represent a large House mustering in strength for war (welcome, Knight Household Army). There are also ranks of Knights here, divided into Squires, Knights and Lords, with Lord-ranked Wardens being known as Seneschals. Familiar, eh?
We also have banner bearers and Warden (Seneschals) that serve as rallying points! All of which are brought back in Adeptus Titanicus. Too bad we don't get that for Legions Imperialis, but maybe future supplements and rules will look back at this and put back some rules like that.
There are also mentions of Knight Houses, ranging from Hawkwood, Beaumaris, Arundel, Mortimer and Warwick. Unfortunately, none of them return in the modern fluff, but you can see that a few of them are...renamed. I'm pretty sure Hawkshroud is a reference to Hawkwood, and Mortan sounds suspiciously close to Mortimer...
However, these Houses return in Adeptus Titanicus: Loyalist Legios. House Hawkwood and House Mortimer are allied to Legio Astorum and apparently have ties to Lucius, House Arundel is allied to Legio Honorum and may now be located on Stygies VIII, House Beaumaris is allied to Legio Defensor, but there's no sign of House Warwick.
We also have prototypes of the now revered ion shields. While Eldar shields work by inflicting hit modifiers (making them harder to hit, the same disruptive holo fields we know in 8th, 9th and probably 10th edition), human shields are powerful directional generators that produce power fields across a 180 degree arc...wait, where did we hear that from? Legions Imperialis. Huh. Anyway, this returned in 6th and 7th edition, where Knights have facings for ion shield saves.
Knights also have lances, which deliver powerful electric charges at short range, capable of fusing electronic components and burning living tissue. And the more Knights you have firing the lances together, the more powerful they become. They can even strip void shields or power fields from Titans and Gargants. Only Wardens don't have lances, for some reason.
Also, you can field your Knights as part of an Imperial Guard army. Those were good times, really.
Also, you had a bunch of different Houses that may or may not be inspiration for the modern houses. I mean, House Hawkshroud is mostly yellow, and so is Hawkwood, which is yellow and red. Coincidence? I think not.
Human Knights used to have lascannons, multi-lasers (which return on the Questoris Knight Preceptor) and other stuff too. You'll notice the Knight Paladin with his battle cannon making a return in modern Knight lore and codex, so not much has changed for him, but the Lancer...well, at least he got to keep his shock lance.
So this was the Imperial Knight lore in 1990. As you can tell, a lot have changed over the years. Though there were a few additions to Knights in the early 1990s, as the game systems developed and evolved - as Epic fell out of print, and 3rd or so editions rolled on, the Knights were completely written out of Warhammer 40,000 fluff. They weren't mentioned at all, not even once. You still have Titans, of course. Titans always existed as part of the lore, but Knights were pretty much retconned out of existence in a similar manner to Squats. They didn't even exist in novels. Titanicus, by Dan Abnett, made no mention of Knights even though Legio Tempestus and Legio Invictus were supported by Skitarii.
Fortunately, Knights made a comeback when Graham McNeill's Mechanicum was published in December 2008. This was the first instance of Knights appearing in a Black Library novel or fluff in almost 2 decades. Graham McNeill introduced House Taranis of Mars, the foremost Imperial Knight House, with Raf Maven being one of the protagonists in the Schism of Mars. Maven piloted Equitos Bellum. Verticorda piloted a Paladin-class Knight, Ares Lictor, which was described to be nine meters tall, was painted in deep blue, and possessed "a fearsome array of weaponry beyond even the strongest of the Terran Emperor's Astartes to bear." Preceptor Stator's Knight unleashed laser-fire, which is a reference to the Knight Preceptor's las-impulsor and multi-laser (well, back then, we didn't have such a thing until the Knight Preceptor appeared in the 2018 Imperial Knight codex). Raf Maven's Equitos Bellum possessed a cannon, though it never specified what cannon it was, and a warblade, so it could be anything from a Cerastus Knight Castigator (with its Castigator cannon and Tempest warblade) to a Cerastus Knight Acheron (with its reaper chainfist and Acheron flame cannon), but I suspect it might be a Knight Castigator...especially since that's the cover of The Lightning Hall.
But really, the definitive Imperial Knight lore and information did not exist until March 2014, with the release of both the 6th edition Imperial Knight codex and The Imperial Knight Companion. And yes, this was when I collected my first Warhammer 40,000 army (actually, December 2014). The Imperial Knight 6th edition codex is the first ever Warhammer 40,000 I bought and collected, and I still have the copy somewhere in Singapore. That's why I say Imperial Knights are my first and primary army, and they will remain so for eternity.
Now this is going to be a very interesting dive into history. While most of the Imperial Knight fluff and background were solidified during this period, laying the foundation for the faction, a lot of the information was expanded upon later and became out of date. I'll point out the obsolete information as I elaborate on the new lore and background of Imperial Knights in this expansion. But first, the definitive source of Imperial Knight lore, which remains unchanged (except for all the different Knight classes, which I'll get into later), is The Imperial Knight Companion, released in March 2014 and the same time as the first ever Imperial Knight codex in 6th edition.
As usual, we get the same old "Knights are a marvel of the Dark Age of Technology" stuff, which falls in line with the old White Dwarf article in 1990. What's interesting here is that we already have mentions of other Knight classes besides the two Questoris patterns that will remain a mainstay for the faction to come. "The forge worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus produce numerous marks of Knights, from the swift and deadly linebreaker known as the Lancer" - which appears later in Horus Heresy book 3: Extermination with its own rules, and its own resin model sold by Forge World - and "the ponderous, heavily armored gun platform that is the Knight Crusader." Funnily enough, the Knight Crusader later turns out to be another Questoris Knight pattern, and this was probably retconned to the Dominus Knights or at the very least, the Knight Castellan.
Of course, they would go on to talk about the two most popular designs - the Paladin and the Errant, which...uh, is because that's the only model range for Knights at the time. Not including Forge World resin, of course, because the Knight Lancer was released at the same time (though for Horus Heresy). I think they had rules for 6th edition too, though.
Do you remember the "Human Shields" above? Well, that has now been changed to an "ancient ion shield generator." Apparently, these "priceless relics of technology project flat plane ion fields intended to deflect enemy fire, dissipating blasts of laser energy and robbing the force from solid-shot projectiles as they strike the shield." The thing, though, is that back in 6th and 7th edition, Knights could only project an ion shield on a facing. Meaning, front, rear, left or right. If you choose a specific facing, the other sides all are exposed to enemy fire without giving you a 4++ invulnerable save, which sucks especially if your opponent drop pods several squads of melta tactical marines around your Knight and alpha strike you off the board.
Fortunately, they changed that to a simple 5++ invulnerable save in 8th edition, and I think the game's better for it. Knights still had that in Horus Heresy 1.0, which sucks, but in 2.0, it's changed to a 4++ at the front and 5++ for the sides...with the rear not getting an invulnerable save. Ouch.
Anyway, there are some...interesting numbers, because the Imperium can apparently call upon entire Knightly households that number from dozens to even hundreds of Knights. The numbers fluctuate all the time, which is...yeah. House Raven had at one point of time over a thousand Knights when fighting on Metalica (no kidding), yet in the Loyalist Legios Adeptus Titanicus book, Primaris Grade Knight Houses like House Taranis had 600+ Knights at their prime. Then again, I suppose it would be weird for House Taranis to have thousands of Knight suits, so never mind.
The origins of Knights are similar to the 1990 White Dwarf article, where human Colonists spread across the galaxy during the Long March, during the Age of Technology. Colony ships were cannibalized into settlements, and the colonists had to fend off monstrous predatory beasts or sentient alien races on already inhabited planets. Fortunately, they had Standard Template Constructs that allowed them to produce bipedal exo-suits that came to be known as Knights. As STCs have become a predominant thing in the fluff at that time, I suppose they needed a way to weave it into the narrative - so Knights are constructed by STCs! Makes sense, and makes them a lot more Warhammer 40,000-ish! Yay!
The integration software that allowed pilots to bond their Knight suits instilled notions of honor, nobility, duty and fealty into their psyches, which in turn transformed them into Nobles and ruling classes, which led to the whole feudal system thing you saw in the White Dwarf. But at least there's now an in-universe explanation that makes sense.
This same notion made Knights conservative and inward-looking, so they ended up eschewing technology except their own Knight suits. This helped in the Age of Strife, so they escaped the worst of what plagued humanity, including evil sentient Men of Iron and Terminator-esque Artificial Intelligence. They also persecuted psykers and mutants, so Knight Worlds were well protected. They were also insular and self-sufficient, and the craftsmen and artificers who repaired and maintained their Knight suits rose to prominence.
Then the Great Crusade came.
Do you guys remember Rogue Trader Jeffers from earlier? Guess what...he's back! Rogue Trader Militant Jeffers - yeah, he's been promoted to Militant this time - was the first to discover and reestablish contact with Knight Worlds. There's expanded fluff this time - the first Knight World to be rediscovered was Chrysis. For Knight players, I'm sure you recognize this as the homeworld of House Krast! Once again, Jeffers recognized the potential of Knight Worlds and their chivalric society, as well as military assets, and emphasized the importance of bringing them back to the Imperium. A definite nod to the original fluff in the 1990 White Dwarf article, expanding on that little background and adding more details.
For example, Knight Worlds are rich in resources, being treasure troves of archeotech and mechanical wonders, and rich with the marvels of the Dark Age of Technology. This led to a subtle struggle within the Imperium, with the Mechanicum striving hard to seize the Knight Worlds for their own. Fortunately, Knightly Nobles were cunning politicians, and while many agreed to be subservient to forge worlds, many more maintained their autonomy and relative independence, swearing fealty to the Emperor instead.
As the Mechanicum established hundreds of forge worlds, they found out that many of their forge worlds lay in close proximity to Knight Worlds. The Mechanicum could offer assistance in repairing, replacing and upgrading the systems of damaged Knights, allowing the Knight worlds to regain their former glory. They inducted the craftsmen and armorers of these worlds into the Cult Mechanicus, and this is once again yet another reference to the past - these would become the Sacristans, indoctrinated by the Martian priesthood and wielding political power. Many of the Knight Worlds traded away their freedom and autonomy to the Mechanicum, binding them to the tech-priests of Mars, and these will become the Mechanicum-aligned or Questor Mechanicus.
On the other hand, you have worlds where the Sacristans remain as vassals, which allowed them to remain independent - these would be the Questor Imperialis, the Imperium-aligned Knights whose vows are to the Emperor rather than the Mechanicum. But yeah, you'll see that the Sacristans make a return in the background, and even had their roles expanded upon. Power plays between the Imperium and the Mechanicum and all that.
Also, the greatest change to the lore was the Ritual of Becoming. In the White Dwarf article from 1990, you can see that the nobles were required to imprint their personalities on their Throne, but this has been massively retconned in the newer background (I say newer, but it's 10 years now...holy Terra, time really flies). Basically, pilots now control their Knight suits like how Princeps control their Titans - through mind impulse control links. The interface is done through the Throne Mechanicum, which is a reference to the old Throne in the White Dwarf article.
Instead of imprinting their personality on the Throne Mechanicum as the old background had them do, pilots would go into the chirurgeries found within Sanctuaries - enormous structures at the heart of every Knight stronghold - and get surgically implanted with skull sockets and neural interface plugs. Then they enter the Chamber of Echoes, also inside the Sanctuary, to undergo the Ritual of Becoming, where they are essentially plugged into a Throne Mechanicum and have to bond with it. It's supposedly dangerous because they have to overcome the echoes of the past and the ghosts inhabiting their Throne Mechanicums. Once they succeed - with a 10% casualty or failure rate - the newly matured men have their dominant personality traits exaggerated. Wait, where did we hear that from again? Blast from the past. Yup. At least we don't have the whole "nobody can pilot this Throne Mechanicum again" BS from 1990s, because that would be highly impractical. Instead, the pilot will have to deal with the ghosts of his ancestors haunting his Throne Mechanicum whenever he rides his Knight suit to war.
There's also this hilarious bit about a Communion Dome where the Throne Mechanicums are stored, and the nobles would sit in them, only to be plunged hundreds of meters into the Vault Transcendent in the Sanctuary where their Knight suits are stored, their Throne Mechanicums sliding perfectly inside and fixing into the armor before they ride to war. Er...there's a reason why this isn't ever mentioned again, because it's highly impractical.
1. Imagine having to do this every time you are off world. I don't think the ships or temporarily constructed bases have the whole elevator like set up where your Throne Mechanicum falls inside your Knight.
2. It's a waste of time and resources.
Each Knight world has a castle or fortified keep that are built atop the landing sites of the Long March, and these fortresses can support garrisons of household militia, boast arcane weapon systems that date to the Dark Age of Technology - and this is where you can customize your Household Militia during the Horus Heresy. That's why my Household Militia are equipped entirely with volkite weaponry - Armory of Old Night - it's to represent this segment of the lore where Knight worlds maintain their own arsenal of Dark Age of Technology, and their Household Militia are better equipped than most other worlds. Or something like that, anyway.
Each castle is the heart of a web of mines, agriplexes and breeding paddocks, which allows the Knight worlds to remain self-sufficient. This does make Knight worlds rich in resources and thus tempting targets for xenos predations, piracy and Chaos cult infiltrations, and thus Knight houses are experienced in combat.
There's also a mention of Knight houses allied to the Adeptus Mechanicus being obligated to provide a quota of Knights to support them in their wars. Knights also march alongside Titan Legions, and also Imperial Guard and Space Marines. When fighting alongside Titans, they serve as scouts, flanking troops and reserves. Sometimes, entire Knight Households become subordinated to Titan Legions, which you'll see become expanded upon in the Adeptus Titanicus game later.
All Knight Houses also trade with the Adeptus Mechanicus, who provide new Knight suits, replacement components, freshly manufactured stockpiles of fuel cells, ammunition, rarified chemicals and freshly trained (and indoctrinated) Sacristans at least once a year. In return, the Mechanicus grab minerals, ores, food stocks, lumber and many other resources, as well as fresh recruits for Sacristans. Knight worlds affiliated to the Mechanicus get more technologically advanced Knight suits and stuff, but there are way more Knight worlds who remain independent, having cowed their Sacristans by force.
We also have a bunch of crazy rituals and traditions that sometimes require hours of listening to names being read out or something, and nobles are excused from such rituals if they go to war, which is why they're so eager to rush to war whenever the Imperium calls. They also have competitions to decide the dominant House on a world or something.
Also, this might be outdated, given that the current lore depicts a lot of female pilots of Knight Houses, but it used to be (10 years ago) that only men would pilot Knight suits. This was a huge detail in Graham McNeill's Knights of the Imperium, where women were not allowed to pilot Knight suits. This was detailed further in The Imperial Knight Companion, where noble sons - particularly the first and second sons of each noble bloodline - were the only ones allowed to pilot Knight suits. War was a men dominated thing, Knight Houses tended to be patriarchal in nature, and each Noble would have to take a highborn Consort as his wife. These consorts are politically astute ladies who are instrumental in empowering their Knight Houses through diplomatic means.
So you have clearly defined gender roles in the old Imperial Knight background. Of course, in more recent times, Games Workshop decides to be more inclusive and push for gender equality and more diverse representation. Even as far back as Dawn of War 3, you have a female Knight pilot by the name of Solaria. Lady Solaria pilots Drakaina, a Questoris Knight armed with dual Avenger gatling cannons. More female pilots like Baroness Sordhen of House Terryn appear in the fluff (Psychic Awakening: Engine War), and you even have a Knight House ruled by a High Queen in the Dawn of Fire series (The Iron Kingdom by Nick Kyme). Queen Orlah Y'Kamidar who rules over Kamidar. In fact, even as early as Andy Clark's Kingsblade and Knightsblade, you already have female pilots alongside the male nobles for House Draconis and the rest.
Personally, I think that's a good thing. No more consort politicking nonsense, and hey, there's no reason women can't pilot Knights. This is an example of a good change to the lore, and it would be misogynistic to deny Knight suits to women, especially when you have a growing number of female gamers in the hobby. And it's not as controversial as say, female Space Marines or whatever, so I'm all for it.
Additionally, there are still not so solidified lore in the Imperial Knight Companion. For example, House Taranis was said to have large numbers of the rarer configurations like the heavy Crusader and Castellan patterns. Hang on, what? Obviously, this has been retconned somewhat because with the release of the plastic Knight Castellan (Dominus class), every Knight houses have a lot of them, and the Crusader himself is basically any common Questoris Knight with two ranged weapons. Like, c'mon. However, we still have glimpses of this "Mechanicus aligned Knights have access to rarer patterns" in the modern, updated lore of Knight Houses, particularly in Horus Heresy and Adeptus Titanicus, where House Sidus and maybe House Taranis have more of the rarer configurations such as the Questoris patterned Styrix and Magaera, the Cerastus Knight Atrapos, and Acastus patterned Knights. So Acastus Knights like the Porphyrion and Asterius, rather than Crusader and Castellan, would be appropriate for House Taranis (and House Sidus, if it still exists in the 41st millennium), as well as the Styrix, Magaera and Atrapos. Long story short, background is always in flux and remains fluid and subject to change.
Speaking of which, the old Knight Houses such as Hawkwood and Mortimer got...uh, retconned out of the lore. Instead, these nine or so Knight Houses would form the mainstay of future codexes to come:
Imperium-aligned Houses:
House Terryn
House Cadmus
House Griffith
House Mortan
House Hawkshroud
Mechanicus-aligned Houses:
House Taranis
House Raven
House Vulker
House Krast
That said, many more Knight Houses would appear in campaign books and lore, and I myself have my own homebrewed Knight House. You all know me by now - House Yato of Ryusei.
Knights would get one further update and expansion in Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! where the focus is now on the Knight world of Alaric Prime, with several Knight Houses as they prepare for an onslaught from a massive Ork Waaagh!. Allied with Cadians, the Knight Houses of Alaric Prime fight against the Ork hordes, and I think we have a formation known as the Adamantium Lance that allowed your Knights to reroll failed invulnerable save rolls as long as they are within 3" of each other. Oh, and you can also reroll charges and inflict D3 Hammer of Wrath attacks. Pretty cool, eh?
We also have the Steel Host for the Imperial Guard, but that's a story for another day.
At the same time, and though you'll notice that the Imperial Knight Companion only has Paladin and Errant patterns despite mentioning the Lancer, Crusader and Castellan, Forge World released their own resin Knight - the Cerastus Knight Lancer. He has rules in Book 3: Extermination, and his rules are further updated in book 4: Conquest.
While you could field a Knight army in 6th and 7th edition, technically you couldn't do that for Horus Heresy...yet. As you could only field one of them as a single Lord of War in the usual Force Organization Chart, even in book 3: Extermination, which was released a couple of months later in May 2014. Fortunately, six months later - in November 2014 - book 4: Conquest was released, along with rules on how to deploy a primary Knight army.
Called the Questoris Knight Crusade Army List, you basically gave each of your super-heavy Knight Household Ranks, which would then categorize them in the appropriate battlefield role. For example, paying 50 points to promote your Cerastus Knight Lancer into a Seneschal would make him a HQ choice (filling the mandatory FOC requirement) and also gives him +1 to his BS, WS and ion shield save, and you can make him your Warlord. For Troops, they are free, but they would have the rank of Scion Martial and are considered Scoring, while you have other Household ranks that cost points and upgrade your Knights while placing them in Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. I have an article on that if you're interested in the details, but sadly, they're obsolete and replaced by Horus Heresy 2.0 rules (again, I have another article on that).
However, what is of interest is that you get way more options than just the Questoris Knight Errant and Questoris Knight Paladin (who have updated rules here, yay), but also rules for the new Forge World resin models like the Questoris Knight Magaera and Questoris Knight Styrix, as well as updated rules for the Cerastus Knight Lancer. The Cerastus Knight Lancer is joined by the Cerastus Knight Castigator and Cerastus Knight Acheron, both of which have their own resin models released at the same time, thus expanding our Knight roster by almost four times. Good times, except that resin is awful to work with. I'm not sure, but I believe Forge World released rules for them for 6th and 7th edition as well, and since Horus Heresy was using the same ruleset, well, it was easy to port them over.
As for the 41st millennium, Imperial Knights had a further update about a year later, when the 7th edition Imperial Knight Codex dropped.
This saw the introduction of three new classes for the Questoris Knight - who also received an updated box for the plastic kit. The Knight Crusader mentioned several times in the Companion, as well as being an entirely different class in the old Space Marine/Epic game, is now basically a Questoris Knight chassis with two ranged arm-mounted weapons and no melee weapon at all. They were also given carapace weapons - a nice callback to the old bird-legged design of the Knight Lancer back in 1990. Ironstorm missile pods, Stormspear rocket pods and the Icarus twin autocannons to give them much needed Skyfire.
Honestly, at this point, just call them Questoris Knights and give them weapon options, instead of categorizing them into five different Knight classes...then again, in 9th and 10th edition, these different configurations were later used to give a diverse number of Bondsman abilities, but it just really inflates our roster. We also get a bunch of new Formations for the Knights, but...let's not go there. Okay, the Adamantine Lance has been upgraded into the Baronial Court, and if you're within 6" of each other, your Knights add 1 to invulnerable saves. There's also the hilarious Skyreaper Lance that attempts to make up for their lack of antiair, but yeah.
Then Las Vegas Open 2018 happened.
The Armiger Warglaives, first introduced in the box set, Forgebane, come in pairs, and are smaller Knights that serve as escorts to our bigger Knights. Piloted by bondsmen - drawn from lesser nobility, distant cousins and even commoners recognized for their skills - they serve as both scouts and escorts, guarding the flanks of the Titanic Knights or ranging ahead to slay potential threats.
As the Imperial Knight codex was revealed, along with a cool new trailer, Games Workshop unveiled more models, including the Armiger Helverin and the Dominus Knights - the Castellan and Valiant. The Castellan has finally received a model ever since its first mention in the Imperial Knight Companion in 2014 (about 4 years later), though I believe it existed back in the 1990s when they expanded the types of Knights for Space Marine/Epic. But as you can see, the Knight Castellan - which has always been hinted upon in the background - finally received its own model and a solid background. I believe this was based off the older iterations of the Crusader "as a heavily armored weapons platform." The Crusader has been retconned into a purely ranged Questoris Knight, while the heavily armed Castellan makes his entry as the guy with the Titan-killing volcano lance and powerful plasma decimator. Not to mention quad meltaguns. Just wow. How far we've come, eh?
Yes, I bought the collector's edition for Imperial Knights in 8th edition. Love the cover, and it was beast. Anyway, that's where they introduced the Armigers and Dominus Knights for the first time, as well as the Questoris Knight Preceptor and the lore for Canis Rex and his pilot, Sir Hekhtur Cerberan. Anyway, the lore remained mostly the same, except the addition of Bondsmen. We also had Sacristan Forgeshrines, which were...uh, kind of written out of our army from 9th edition onward. Don't ask me why.
Armigers are now the lightest class of Knights, and the Bondsmen who pilot them do so through Helm Mechanicum instead of Throne Mechanicum, which doesn't require the Ritual of Becoming for neural interfacing. They are usually mentored or commanded by experienced pilots of Knight Preceptors.
Dominus Knights have dual plasma cores and are slow, ponderous and heavily armored Knights with extremely powerful weaponry. Sounds familiar? Yeah, they're the old Knight Crusader and Knight Castellan mentioned in both the 1990s White Dwarf and the Imperial Knight Companion in 2014. Like the Armigers, they come in separate kits, but like the Armigers again, they get combined into a single box later down the line. Why, I have no idea. But, as with all Black Library novels, they kind of get retconned inside the lore after their release. They used to not exist, so you only have Questoris Knights and maybe the odd Cerastus Knights in the old Horus Heresy and 40K novels - even Kingsblade and Knightsblade by Andy Clark only featured the plastic Questoris Knight models, with the Acastus Knight Porphyrion pulling a surprise appearance at the end of Kingsblade as an enemy. Then suddenly the Armigers show up in Assassinorum: Kingmaker by Robert Rath (he's an amazing author). They also show up in Mortis by John French, in the Siege of Terra series. They don't even show up in Titandeath by Guy Haley, published in December of the same year that the 8th edition Imperial Knight codex was released (that probably explains why).
Between 2014 and 2018, before the addition of the Armigers and Dominus Knights, Knights began featuring more heavily in the lore. Andy Clark's Kingsblade and Knightsblade, as well as Graham McNeill's Knights of the Imperium, aside, they also show up regularly in Horus Heresy novels. I already mentioned Mechanicum in 2008 as the first time Knights ever appeared in a novel, but they also showed up in Vengeful Spirit, also by Graham McNeill, in May 2014. Banelash, piloted by Raeven Devine, was a Questoris Knight with his melee weapon replaced by...tentacles. Or whips. Baroness Jaya D'Arcus and her House Vyridion appear in Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Master of Mankind in November 2016, and she piloted a Cerastus Knight Castigator. Devram Sevik also piloted a Cerastus Knight, if I'm not mistaken too. The sequel to Mechanicum, The Lightning Hall - also by Graham McNeill - was released in December 2020 as a short story, and like I said, it's highly implied that Raf Maven pilots a Cerastus Knight Castigator - Equitos Bellum.
Fortunately, most of the novels after 2018 begin adding Armigers and Dominus Knights into the stories. Not only Mortis, but also Assassinorum: Kingmaker and The Iron Kingdom. Authors began taking note and incorporating the new additions into the lore, pretending that these chassis have existed all along the entire time.
Apart from Assassinorum: Kingmaker by Robert Rath, published in April 2022, which features House Stryder and House Rau of the Knight world Dominion, we also have The Iron Kingdom by Nick Kyme in February 2023 that has the Knight world of Kamidar, ruled by House Kamidar (yeah, okay...). The Knights of House Taranis are making a comeback in the lore too, first appearing in the Beast Arises series - The Beast Must Die released in July 2016 - with Sir Valek piloting the Knight Warden Red Warrior when House Taranis supported the Imperium's attack on the Beast's forces in Ullanor. They also show up in Guy Haley's Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work in September 2019 where they functioned as security for Belisarius's terraforming teams as they seek to restore Sotha. More recently, the Knights of House Taranis feature prominently as several of the main characters in the next Belisarius Cawl novel, Genefather, by Guy Haley in October 2023, with Scion Magnus Baron Roosev Maven Taranis, pilot of the Cerastus Knight Acheron, Iurgiumi, receiving a huge role. For the full list of Knight pilots in the novel, you can check out my post on Genefather here. Hopefully, we get to see more of Roosev in the future! Needless to say, this is probably the most definitive Knight representation yet, with Cerastus Knights, Armigers, Questoris Knights and a single Dominus Knight Castellan all showing up. Even in Kingmaker or The Iron Kingdom, it's mainly the plastic Knight kits, and the Cerastus patterned Knights don't really show up much. Fortunately, with the announcement of their plastic kits and the release in summer, it seems that Cerastus Knights are making a comeback in the lore as well! This can only be good news for us Knight fans!
At this point, I think it's safe to say, the 8th edition Imperial Knight codex laid the basis for modern Imperial Knights and will remain the same for the rest of the editions to come. I doubt we'll get any new models or units soon, and our roster has been buffed further with the addition of Imperial Armor Knights - in other words, the Cerastus classes, the Acastus classes, the Armiger Moirax class, as well as the Styrix and Magaera. Even better now that the Cerastus patterned Knights are now available in plastic! So we have a lot of options now! If there's any new lore or background for Knights, I'll cover them in a future article, but I think it's really safe to say the whole history of development is pretty fascinating to follow. How decades of fluff change - in fact, even in just the span of a year, we have seen retcons. From a male-dominated patriarchal society with court intrigues carried out by female consorts, we have evolved into gender equality Knight Houses ruled by both High Kings and High Queens. In just 10 years (less than that, given that female Knight pilots appeared shortly after 2015 or 2016). We have seen massive changes, retcons and updates to the designs of Knights such as the Lancer, Paladin, Crusader and Castellan. We've seen the Forge World models moved from resin to plastic, and still feature rules for 10th edition while remaining prominent in Horus Heresy. I think it'll only get better from here for us Knight players.
Anyway, whenever there's new information on Knights, you can be sure that I'll cover it. Till then!
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