Knights in Shining Armor

There is no world in which that isn't awesome to see.

And that would be a terrifying sight to see charging at you.

What can I say? I've always loved knights on horseback. Even when I was a kid, there was something about them that stirred my heart. Maybe it was because I wasn't big enough to be one. Maybe it was their code, the code of honor that was meant to guide them to be better men than just big brutes swinging weapons at each other.

Whatever it was, I still do love them. It's the idea, I think. The idea that we can be something more, something noble. Sure, it's cheesy by today's standards, but really, when you think about what the knights stood for, we could use a lot more of that today. I recently read a series about the code of chivalry and its origins, and about its relevance today for Catholic men. It was a great, inspiring series. I've read some of it to my son; I'm going to read the rest of it to him as well.

When you think about it, knights (or at least the ideal of knights) were the superheroes of the Middle Ages. Big, strong guys in armor strong enough to turn away the best weapons of the day, riding huge horses that could trample just about anything in their path, wielding a tree trunk as a weapon...yeah, they were superheroes.

Paladins were always my favorite class when I played D&D. Even in other games, I would play characters who followed some kind of code of chivalry, even when it wasn't really genre-appropriate. I can't help it; it's something that really speaks to me. Sometimes I wish it spoke to more people.

And when the cavalier class came along in Unearthed Arcana in 1985, oh, boy. I had found the perfect character to play: the new, improved cavalier-paladin. Sure, they were overpowered as hell, easily outstripping their companions right off the bat with their superior equipment, improving ability scores, and loads of special abilities. Reams of paper and magazine articles were filled with ways to nerf the class, but I loved it as it was. My second-favorite class was the illusionist, but the paladin always got my attention.

And no, it wasn't because it was a power-gamer's dream, but because it was exactly the kind of character I always wanted to play. The barbarian class was just as overpowered, and high-level wizards were insanely powerful, but the entire notion of the paladin or knight in shining armor just worked for me. I can't imagine gaming without them.

And of course, I brought that forward into my writing, with my first fantasy book, Arrival, the first book of the Chronicles of Meterra. The Crusades might not be popular in polite society today, but they definitely inspired my writing. I even got to write about knights fighting a dragon. How awesome is that?

Now that Crystal Lilac is available (e-book only, for the moment), I'm going to finish a Cameron Vail book that's been percolating for quite a while. But after that, it's time to go back to Meterra and write about another knight in shining armor. Why? Because knights are awesome, that's why.

Here's my first book about knights in shining armor; there will be more, I promise.