The Arms and Armour of a Knight | Notes About the Setting

  To all those who behold the knights of the Northern Kingdoms, the most distinctive aspect of these warriors is their armour. Alone among the vying powers of humanity across the continental region, the forces of the Northern Kingdoms all clad themselves in suits of heavy, thickly-armoured plating which are too massive and weighty to be carried by the wearer's strength alone. Amplifying the occupant's own movements, whirring motors and hissing, pistoned joints will drive the armours motion to transform them into a metallic titan with strength and resilience beyond human possibility. This enhanced might does not allow for laxity on the part of the knights; skill, endurance and reflex are all qualities which must be honed to bring forth their armour's fullest potential, and it is these attributes which make the knights greater than the armoured brutes that might otherwise be considered their match.

  A number of technologies go into the creation of a knights armour, but the true strength behind the resilience of this equipment is taken from those counted among their foes. The metallic hides and carapaces of the monstrosities machina possess an innate degree of toughness that has consistently proven itself superior against attempts to create a synthetic alternative. Therefore, as circumstances allow, the knight orders will routinely collect trophies from their encounters with these creatures and return from expeditions with the resources needed to supply the growing ranks of the orders. The process by which this material is sheared and sculpted to fit the (typically smaller) humanoid form is a closely guarded secret which remain reserved for those rare, vaunted forges appointed to serve the knights directly, for it could spell the end of the knights entirely if the secret to unmaking their protection were to fall into the wrong hands.
  The protection afforded by a completed suit is twofold: shield generators secreted within the shell project a defensive field outwards from the studs spread throughout its structure, deflecting and dispersing ranged attacks as they draw towards the wearer, and in close combat the resilient layers of armour and supplemental mail serve to withstand tooth and claw alike. Although both groups of the kingdoms' protectors make use of the same armour, only the knights will ordinarily receive full plate, while an assortment of helms, breastplates and other individual components are distributed to be shared among the ranks of the guards.

  At the time of the Northern Kingdoms' unification, the knights were few in number and many were gifted with bespoke suits intended for a specific way of combat, but as the ranks of the knights swelled and new orders were founded, opportunities for personalisation were reduced in favour of streamlining the process to increase the forges' output. By the end of the Dragon War, the process and designs had become standardised to a few, uniform subsets of armour, and only the eldest and most senior knights would continue to be seen in uniquely crafted warplate.

An example guard helmet; Captain variant featuring
enclosed mouthpiece and local comms array.

 

  The history of the knights' armaments, and by relation the guards', is similar to their armour, with a variety of individualised equipment having been created early on, before shifting towards a more standardised construction by the time of the founding of the second generation. The mainstay of both forces is the caster: a long, slender weapon with a pair of arcing arms which stretch outwards from its tip. When powered, a kinetic slingshot is stretched backwards from the end of each arm, then snaps forwards to accelerate diamond-hard projectiles to incredible speeds.
  While such a contraption lacks the velocity and, at larger scales, the potency of equivalent energy weapons, it is far sturdier and better suited to brutal, close range battles that fit the knights well. In addition to its standard design, a number of variants for the caster have been devised: slingcasters balanced for wieding with one hand, salvocasters which fire rapid flurries of bolts, and heavy volleycasters which launch large, stake-like bolts in a barrage across the farthest distances.