The Edelweiss Knights

[Thrace]

Official Name: The Sovereign Military Order of the Edelweiss/ Der Souveräner Militärorder der Edelweiss, also known as the Knightly Order of the Edelweiss/ der Ritterorden des Edelweiss, or the Order of the Edelweiss Knights/der Orden der Edelweiss Ritter, commonly known simply as the Edelweiss Knights/die Edelweiss Ritter.
Demonym: Edelweiss Knights/die Edelweiss Ritter. Alternatlively, they were also known simply as the Knights/die Ritter, but such a name would lead to a confusion with the Axiom Knights/die Axiom Ritter, the infamous knights of the Axiom Church, and as such, they are also called the White Knights/Die Weißen Ritter, both from the main color of their uniform, white with black accents, and also from the name of the flower they use as their symbol, the Edelweiss, which can be freely translated as Noble White.


Group Type: A Military Order, defined by a chivalrous and noble nature.


Leader(s):  The Edelweiss Knights are led by a person known as the Grand Master/der Hochmeister


Allegiance: Only to their Order and their Ideals.


Galaxy: The Milky Way.


Territory: The Order holds around 600,000 systems in the Milky Way, and more and more planets are asking to be put under their protection.


Influence Rank: 3.5. Although it is not the Order's intention, through protecting the innocent from the darkness of the universe, they have come to wield an important influence in certain parts of the Milky Way.


Headquarters: The world of Voital, known as the Castle/das Schloss.


Members: Roughly around 30 trillion of sworn members.


Technology Rank: 8.3. The Order mainly uses former Colonial and Terran technology, but has managed to develop some technology on its own, with the help of many scientists who have fled to the safe world of Voital.


FTL Travel:  Shockjump Drives

Spoiler

The technology behind Colonial FTL systems is such that, providing the relevant data is known, ships can jump with a high degree of accuracy, allowing ships to rendezvous in space and even "park" in a synchronous orbit directly above a given point on a planet's surface. Advanced  FTL drives  even enable ships to arrive in crowded areas, such as the middle of an asteroid field or other ships, without the risk of collision and damage.The drives are based on the use of Superstring Theory and M-Theory that essentially enable the "jump drive" systems to "fold" space, reducing the distance between any two points by creating a "corridor" through space that links them together. The ability to process that data is dependent from the computing capacity of the ship using it. At least in theory, the Colonial FTL drives should not have any range limits, but the capacity of the computers limits it considerably. Even the most advanced Acruani AI's would stop at a certain point, where the calculation involving the data contains too many errors. Practically speaking the further one attempts to Jump, the calculations involved become more complicated, and the variables that have to be taken into equation increase. All computer systems known will stop at a certain time, where the number of errors is too high for the jump to be considered safe, that is the so called Red Line, an an imaginary sphere enclosing a vessel which denotes the maximum safe limit for an FTL jump.


The other limit of Colonial FTL Drives is the energy. Colonial FTL Drives are powered by Nuclear Fusion Reactors, fueled by Highly Refined Opilium. Opilium is a material found in many worlds, but useless in its brute form. The Colonies have developed a highly secret refinement process. Its result, the Refined Opilium, is highly volatile, but used in reactors, it can provide an enormous amount of energy, the energy necessary to support the drives and the entirety of a space vessel. The output of the reactors also limits the range of a FTL jump. The use of Refined Opilium also makes the reactors and the drives highly prone to explosions if damaged.


"Spooling up" a Colonial FTL drive takes some time when the drive has been offline, although the advancements of the recent years have considerably reduced that time. Even so, because of this, when ships enter dangerous situations, they keep their FTL drives "spun up". Drives cannot be kept spun up indefinitely, as system crashes or serious damage to the drive will occur. A "cooldown" time is required after a jump for new jump calculations, so a ship that has jumped into a new location cannot jump to another location for a brief period of time.

Exceptional Technologies: The Paladin Knightly Armor/die Paladin Ritterrüstung. Although ultimately derived from the Colonial Battle Suit, the Paladin Armor is very different from the original suit or many other suits derived from it. It is much larger and heavier than any of the nanosuits used by the Colonial Armed Forces, and it has become the basic equipment of an Edelweiss Knight, sacrificing speed and stealth for a huge resistance and strength. Unlike other similar battle armors however, the Paladin Armor is modular, and as such, Knights can drop off parts of it, sacrificing that resistance if necessary, much like an ancient knight could have dropped parts of his armor. The resemblance doesn't stop there as the armors themselves are designed to look as much as possible to knight armors, giving the Edelweiss Order its characteristic look. Even at full capacity though, the Knightly Armors aren't as heavy or protective as other foreign battle armors. Instead, they rely on the Flower Shield/der Blumenschild for protection. A strong metallic shield with veranium components, with the basic design of a Edelweiss, the Shield can act as a portable shield generator, generating an energy shield or an anti-gravity shield that be used by its wielder for protection much like a normal shield. It's size, while a disadvantage, it allows the existence of a generator inside of it, and it can usually protect a fully armored knight if used correctly.However, the most important part of it is that in the case of formations made by multiple knights, the shields can be synchronized forming something akin to a phalanx formation, which is especially useful in close quarters combat or when facing a numerically superior enemy.


The main weapon of an Edelweiss Knight is the Lion's Lance/ die Löwen-Lanze. A personal weapon designed as to look as an old lance, the Lion's Lance can be used perfectly in combination with the Flower Shield, and has become a well known part of the image of a White Knight. Its insides contain all the necessary mechanisms for it to be used as a laser weapon, a plasma weapon, a personal kinetic weapon or a rocket launcher, taking cue from the modularity of the Colonial weapons, by replacing the tip with the necessary modules.


Culture: Since they are formed by various races and members from all across the known universe, the Edelweiss Knights don't exactly have a culture. They are however connected by their ideals, described in the Code of Honor/der Ehrencodex, which puts a lot of focus on the ideas of the medieval knight on the Old Earth as they have passed through legends and myths, actualized to the situation of our universe. The Edelweiss Knights replace the religious parts of the old creed with a secular, rational belief and ideology that upholds the core values of reason, science and secular progress over the older traditions of religion, superstition and faith. The Knights believe that in order for peace, prosperity, and happiness to be achieved, and for the races of the universe to come together, all religion and ideologies which promote hate must be ended and removed, putting science and progress at the core of everything, similar to the secular and atheistic movement which developed in the Federated Colonies ever since the First Secession War. This has put them at odds with the religious Axiom Knights that fight for the Human Colonial Alliance. Still, the Edelweiss Knights must hold to their honor, follow the Codex, and do anything for the Order, while protecting the weak, the innocent, and the suffering. With a noble and chivalrous nature, a member of the Order must be more than a simple person, it must strive to become an ideal Knight.


Structure: The Edelweiss Knights are organized as a knightly military order. The leader is the Grand Master/der Hochmeister, chosen upon the death of the last by the Knightly Council/der Ritterrat, formed by officers known as the Großgebietiger, as follows:

• Spoiler

  The Großkomtur(deputy of the Grand Master)
  
  [*]The Treasurer/Treßler
  
  [*]The Spitler(responsible for all medical affairs)
  
  [*]The Trapier(responsible for armament and logistics)
  
  [*]The Marshal/der Marschall(responsible for the military forces)

The Order itself is divided into Circles/Kreise, each led by a Circle Master/Kreismaster. The Order is largely built as a military organization, and as such, it has ranks on its own for all of its members, and follows a strict hierarchy. An administrative part of the Order also exists, which acts similarly to how a national administration would work. This is the ranking system used by the Order:

• Spoiler

  Squire/Knappe
  
  [*]Companion-At-Arms/Begleiter-bei-Arme
  
  [*]Sergeant/Feldwebel
  
  [*]Knight/Ritter
  
  Knight of Grace/Ritter der Gnade
  
  [*]Knight of Justice/Ritter der Gerechtigkeit

Spoiler

[*]Knight Lieutenant/Ritterleutnant

[*]Knight Commander/Ritterkommandant

[*]Prior

[*]Knight Grand Officer/Ritter Großoffizier

[*]Grand Prior/Großprior

[*]Seneschal

[*]Marshal/Marschall

Military:As a Sovereign Military Order, the Order of the Edelweiss Knights exists as a mostly military organization. Each of its members is armed and can fight when needed, but the main military force of the Edelweiss Knights is the Knightly Force/der Ritterschaft. Mainly formed as an infantry force, the Knightly Force is well known for its elite status, being formed by the best knights that the Edelweiss Order has, an using the best technology and weaponry that the Knights have. Trained to fight both in space and on planets if so necessary. the Knights are highly idealized and act as elite soldiers, especially those of them who are aliens or Genome users. The Order also owns a small space fleet known as the Knightly Fleet/die Ritterflotte, that is mainly using modified Colonial and Terran equipment. Even if it would never reach the level of a nation's space fleet, the Knightly Fleet is more than enough to ensure the defense of the systems under the control of the Order, and to make conquering them a problem even for the bigger powers of the galaxy.


History: The Edelweiss Order is quite an ancient institution. Even if many records concerning the early period of the Order have been lost during the Long Night, most scholars agree that the Order was created on the Old Earth under the guidance of the Light, as a secular alternative to some of the religious knightly orders that used to exist back on the planet from which Mankind originated. In one form or another, the Order has existed ever since. even if it became lost and split during the Long Night, it was remade during the First Secession War, when it joined the Federated Colonies as a special entity that had the same status as a Federal Nation. The Knights took part in the Intergalactic Wars mostly indirectly, by helping, assisting and protecting civilians from all across the galaxies, but they were forced to relocate from the Andromeda after the Treaty of Luna. They remained mostly neutral in the internal turmoil that the Federation had to face, keeping close relations with the Holy Empire of Luminaris, relations united by a common sense of respect. With their systems being some of the safest among the Outer Colonies after the coup d'etat of the Axiom Church, the Order proclaimed its sovereignty and independence, not recognizing the Provisional Government or the Human Colonial Alliance as the successors of the former Federal Government. Under its present Grand Master, the Order has expanded considerably, protecting many planets and civilians from rouge factions in this part of the galaxy, and remains a force to be reckoned with, protecting their ideals despite the darkness all around them.


Goals and Hooks:

• Continue to protect the innocent in the face of all rogue factions like bandits and mercenaries.
  
• Keep the ProvGov and the HCA, but especially the Human Colonial Alliance.
  
• Find a way to pacify their region of the galaxy
  
• Try to the restore the peaceful status quo ante.
  

Misc. Notes: Despite their willingness to accept anyone regardless of race, gender, or origin into their ranks, the Edelweiss Knights do not accept criminals into their Order, except for those that are deemed recoverable by the Grand Priory, those who must repent. However, the races and groups associated to the Keltaken Empire, the Acruani Collective, and the Dothvalian Confederacy are forbidden to join the Order, and it should be noted that while they opposed the Extermination Edict over the Keltakens that was proposed in the Federal Diet during the First Intergalactic War, the Knights were among the strongest supporters of declaring those above mentioned races and groups as Enemies of the Federation, and they maintain their tradition, believing that the ones guilty of xenocidal actions, or the ones guilty of supporting nations that have been guilty of such acts can never repent and should never be allowed into the Order.