These heroic warriors epitomise the warrior virtues of the Knightly Orders and they have accomplished mighty feats of arms, slaying their foes on countless battlefield. The Order's veteran knights form its inner circle. As the warrior attains honour on the battlefield and proves his worth, he will ascend through the ranks of his Order and forge himself a warrior's name. The Knightly Orders of the Empire are organised along strict lines of hierarchy, with every novice trained in martial virtues and the chivalric code until he is ready to take up the mantle of a fully-fledged knight. Whilst every Knightly Order will have a primary temple in one city-state or province, most will also maintain subsidiary temples across the length and breadth of the Empire. These are often referred to as knights templar, and they include such orders as the Black Guard of Morr and the zealous Knights of Sigmar's Blood. Other orders restrict their membership to devout worshipers of a particular god. Some are small in size and their members are recruited from the local aristocracy, such as the Knights Griffon and the Order of the Broken Sword.

There are many of these brotherhoods throughout the Empire. To become a member of one of the Empire's select brotherhoods of Knightly Orders, a noble must forsake his feudal responsibilities and rights of inheritance and then pass a rigorous rite of initiation. As the knights thunder onwards, they are likened to an avalanche of steel and muscle, and those enemies not spitted on the end of sharpened lances are crushed beneath the trampling of iron-shod hooves. The sight of a regiment of knights charging full tilt at the enemy is a terrifying prospect for the Empire's foes to face. Knights are magnificent figures, clad in gleaming suits of heavy Plate Armour and armed with weaponry of the finest quality. The noble-born warriors of the Empire do not form part of any state's standing army, for to do so would mean to rub shoulder with the common soldiery.

Knights of the old empire