" He rode to the cave and did battle with the Daemon. He did not emerge for three days, but when he did he came sporting the bloody black horns of the beast and claimed the cave as his own."
From the legend of Georges d'Korbina
An ancient order founded by the former-templar Georges d'Korbina to support his campaign against the ghosts and monsters which held sway over the lands during his lifetime. Those monsters have long since been vanquished and these days the Horned Knights are an order primarily dedicated to the protection of the trade routes that run through the lands of House d'Korbina.
At present (1875) the order is militarily part of the the 6th cohort of the Legio I of Paras (May be spoken of as the first hellsmouth cohort depending who's talking) and boasts approximately 50 full knights. The tribune of this cavalry cohort remains a horned knight. This page has greater military detail: imperial-colonies-of-the-west
The horned knights are now part of the vir sidus empire and the empire does not practice knighthood. They have been grandfathered into the forces of the provincia but should not expect to hold the same level of respect elsewhere within the empire. Most horned knight traditions, expectations and behaviors are still very aequorian in flavour. It is a time of upheaval and uncertainty for the order. d'Korbina and Hellsmouth retain a very high level of respect for knighthood.
Each horned knight receives a distinctive open faced helm decorated with a pair of horns along each side. The horns are tailored to the individual by the lord commander These horns are usually constructed from bullshorn but there are always one or two who bear ramshorns instead.
Knights are equipped with a set of segmented partial plate , a war trained light charger, lances, a melee weapon, kite shield and a ranged weapon of their preference. Many knights also have a set of full plate and a warhorse or destrier for war use. They wear a yellow cote with a black sash and black trousers. Since this is not technically a uniform there are a lot of variations in individual presentation. Every horned knight also has the horned helmet which identifies their station. These helmets are almost always open faced (much like the hussar helmets) and the horns sweep back from the visor-ridge rather than sideways (more antelope-like than cow-like).
A huge amount of every horned knights time is spent patrolling the roads and any areas where bandits (or other threats) are rumoured to exist. When hhe herds move (which happens several times a year at least) the patrol routes also change making it impossible for guardhouses to be established in many cases. Patrolling is typically done by a single knight, his squire(s) and a number of lancers (depending on anticipated danger). As a result they all spend a fair amount of time sleeping rough.
The order is aware of Ludovic d'Korbina's status as a sorcerer and does not consider sorcerers to be 'unnatural creatures' as a result.
The sigil of the order is the black d'korbina bullshead upon a white background crossed with yellow. The motto "suffer no beast" is a direct reference to the first oath.
The order shared close ties with the Lightning Brigade prior to the events of 1875 and it is common for Horned Knights to have spent time serving within the brigade.
Due to the nature of their oaths (The third oath in particular) the entire order never (nor should) leaves the boundaries of the paras provincia. This is because they must always maintain a local force of sufficient strength to maintain the highways.
All commanders have been nobles (or noble bastards) to date and all high commanders have carried the d'Korbina name through marriage or birth. However the order dies tend to make few distinctions between hedge and noble knights outside of this, especially now that the order is part of the vir sidus empire.