Armiger Pattern Knights are smaller than their cousin Imperial Knights and fight at the flanks of their larger kin, like packs of hounds hunting with their medieval lords.[1]
Description
Despite being the lightest class of Imperial Knight, each Armiger is still an imposing war engine capable of destroying entire squads. They possess exceptional speed, able to outpace most battle tanks and transport vehicles when moving at a sprint and react almost as quickly as an organic warrior. Moreover, to compensate for their comparatively smaller size, Armigers are typically deployed in packs of two or three. However they are not fitted with a full Throne Mechanicum, as the larger Knight classes are. Instead they are controlled using a more compact device known as a Helm Mechanicum, which is significantly less prestigious. This is compounded by the fact that, while Armigers can operate independently, it is traditional for their Helms Mechanicum to be neurally slaved to the command impulses of a larger Knight, known as a Bond-liege. This in turn, renders the Armigers' pilots to be subordinates that are known as Bondsmen.[2]
Bondsmen
While accepting such mental serfdom is certainly no mark of dishonor, it is far from glorious. For these reasons, the piloting of Armigers falls to those from the lower social strata of Knight Houses. Some give this duty to distant relatives, minor offshoots of the Houses' established Noble bloodlines,[2] aspiring nobles, the bastard children of Barons and High Kings[1] or the survivors of a Knight House that has fallen upon hard times. Others elevate the finest common-born warriors they can find, which can come from a Knight House's Household Guard, their Planetary Militia Forces,[2] or even low-born commoners with a knack for war.[1] When this is done, the standing of these commoner Bondsmen's families are raised from mere peasantry to valued and respected meritocracy. Still other Knight Houses maintain specialist sub-orders of favored retainers who are fated from birth to be Armiger pilots. Such is with the case of House Griffith's Order of the Hound.[2]
For many Bondsmen though, the mental imperatives transmitted through their Helm Mechanicum feel unnatural and invasive. It is common for new pilots to feel a sense of resentment or upset at having their desires and opinions directed remotely, by the Nobles who command them. Some Bondsmen rebel and become Freeblades rather than endure the mental dominance of another. There are also Bondsmen who do not have the requisite mental fortitude to withstand these feelings and lose their grip on their sense of self. In order to ensure none of this occurs, it is common for Knight Houses to have newly created Bondsmen train at the side of a Knight Preceptor, before they fight beside their chosen Bond-liege. By doing so, the Bondsmen have time to view the dutiful and heroic examples set by their assigned Knight Preceptors. This in turn, plants a firm aspiration in their minds to do their duty and live up to the examples the Preceptors have set for them. In time, this will cause the Bondsmen to accept their subservience and eventually the will of their chosen Bond-liege.[2]
During their conditioning, though, the Knight Preceptors, are also assessing the Armiger pilots' abilities. Most Bondsmen begin piloting from the helm of a Warglaive, for its weapons and role are both relatively straightforward. Those pilots who demonstrate a cool nerve and a marksman's eye, however, are soon recommended for a promotion by the Knight Preceptors, which will have the Bondsmen command a Helverin's ranged firepower.[2]
Types of Armiger
See Also
Sources
- 1: Warhammer Community: New Codexes, Models, Heroes and More
- 2: Codex: Imperial Knights (8th Edition), pgs. 58-59
- 3: Games Workshop (last accessed 10/7/2020)
