This is the first of many articles on the Knightly Orders of the Empire. The information I have gathered here has come from many, many sources on the web. (Special thanks to all the original posters. I will try to give credit where I found them.)
I will begin with the Knights who have a presence in Nuln. The first one being Knights of the Blazing Sun. (Because that's the order I am doing for my army.)
The Knights of the Blazing Sun
A relatively small order, the Knights of the Blazing Sun are also known as the Templars of Myrmidia because of their devotion to the Estalian warrior deity Myrmidia. Largely unknown in the lands of the Empire, it was only through the strangest of chances that the Order’s worship of her began at all.
During the wars against Araby, threescore Knights from the Empire lent their aid toward the recapturing of the temple of Myrmidia in Margritta, the southern seaport of Estalia. During the fierce fighting around the temple, a violent earth tremor shook the building and dislodged the vast bronze statue of Myrmidia that was fixed on its topmost steeple. The statue fell to the ground, smashed into a thousand fragments, and flattened Emir Wazir the Cruel and his Black Scimitar Guard. With their leader slain, the Arabian hordes abandoned the temple and left it in the hands of the Knights. Whether this incident was actually divine intervention has been widely disputed, but to those Knights who fought in the temple, it was unquestionably Myrmidia herself who intervened. Upon returning to the Empire, the veterans of that battle founded the Order of the Blazing Sun and built a shrine to Myrmidia in the heart of Talabheim. Though many folk mistrust them for courting strange foreign deities, the Knights of the Blazing Sun have unceasingly fought with distinction against the enemies of the Empire and are held as a prized ally by many Elector Counts. - Games Workshop website
Templars of the war-goddess Myrmidia, the Knights of the Blazing Sun were founded during the Crusades in 1457. In a street battle against the Arabians in Estalia, a group of knights were saved from certain defeat when a freak earth-tremor dislodged a huge statue of Myrmidia from a temple roof. It crashed to the ground and landed on the enemy general and his bodyguard, killing them instantly. After the battle, the survivors banded together and formed the Order of the Blazing Sun in Myrmidias honour”. –Warhammer Chronicles.
The Knights of this order are located deep in the South of Middenland.
They are a small but much respected order with a distinguished history. They were the
first of the Knightly Orders from the west to travel to Nuln and join with Magnus. The
knights take great pride in their weapons and abilities. They can often be seen charging on
the battlefield in their highly polished and resplendent armour of black and gold.
The Order has developed a technique using their polished mirrored shields to focus
sunlight onto the enemy’s face as they charge. This disorientates and dazzles the poor fools
just before they are charged down.
Using the Knights of the Blazing Sun in your games of Warhammer
Blinding Light: +3 points per model. (+8
Inner Circle)
Before you charge with the Knights roll a d6.
A roll of one means there is no sun (it’s
raining or overcast) and so the Blinding Light
cannot be used this charge. Any other result
means there is enough sun light for the
Knights to dazzle their enemies as they
charge. The enemy unit being charged which
opts to stand and fire is at an additional –1 to
hit due to the light being directed into their
face.
(Source Games Workshop)
A note on Myrmidia
Myrmidia Myrmidia is the goddess of strategy: of the science and art of war. She is popular throughout the southern Empire, but is most widely worshiped in Tilea and Estalia. In The Empire, her largest temple stands in the city-state of Nuln. There is much mutual dislike between the cults of Myrmidia and Ulric – both deal in conflict, but their methods are wildly different. This rivalry manifests itself as a desire for followers of the two cults to try to outdo each other on the field of battle. Myrmidia’s priests wear white robes with red trim, and blue cowls. Her symbols are a spear behind a shield, and the Pegasus.
(Source Warhammer-empire.com)
NOTE:
Although Myrmidia's preists normally wear white robes w/ red trim and blue cowls, the preists in Nuln have adopted red robes w/ black cowls and trim, as there is a movement among the heirarchy of the cult to make Nuln the "official" city of Myrmidia, and to dedicate all of the people of Nuln to her, after all, this city is the home to the largest Temple to the godess in the Old World. So the wearing of the different color robes allows the priests to be more acessible to the people (most of whom are either covered w/ black soot, or wearing black.)
(Not to mention, it allows me to tie the priests in w/ the rest of my army white would stand out too much in a all black army.)
