The Knights of Campion

It is jousting day in the Land during the harvest equinox and the Campion Knights have gathered together at their jousting field much like the gatherings of the Guardians at the rituals of Stonehenge. The Knights and their adversaries have met on this field this day to compete for Regional Honors between each other in order to strengthen and to lay claim to the richness of their Brotherhoods. No blood of any consequence will be spilled on this day.

Day of Chapel for all Knights and Guardians is the day after jousting day. In the Chapel, a Table draped in linen recapitulates the Place in the Guardians Keep for Someone Else. Blood on this day is not spilled but faithfully shared between all in Chapel and all blood shared on this day is of Great Consequence. On this Day, Knights with their shields spend time on knees with heads bowed in silence, thought and prayer. In the Land, the Chapel represents the Body and Spirit of Someone Else, and the Knights are in Chapel to renew their pledge to protect and serve the essence of Someone Else and the Land.

Other days in the Land, the Knights live their lives in study, competition and contemplation alone and with each other. The Knights begin these days at an early hour of the day amid blaring sounds and seminal pain typical of a child's birth. After breaking of Fast, the Halls of Learning await their presence with typically one Guardian to a small group of Knights culled by intellect and discipline but not by potential. Totally outmanned, the Guardians often rely upon guile and intimidation to instruct and train the Knights under their tutelage. The Knights often challenge the Guardians strength and guile and intimidation but always the Knights succumb to their authority. Yet in order to attain their individual Quest, each Knight in the Land must fully realize their own strength within the Brotherhood of Knights, and especially their own strength directed against the Guardians themselves.

In the Home of the Knights, the Knights are quartered as four cohorts in three gatehouses strategic to the Land and the Guardians Keep. All Knights are kept close in their Homeland but with a measured distance from the Guardians.

The youngest of Knights constitute Cohort I and live in the Eastern gatehouse nearest the Chapel and visit in Chapel every day of the week at the midday break from their studies. They visit as One without shields and without the Guardians but one. It is in Chapel that Beliefs in Someone Else and in the Land begin to live well within the youngest of Knights. The youngest of Knights, some only a handful of years off their mother's breast but all in conflict with their father's strength and domination, were crucial to the Land. The Guardians recognized this extreme loss of Mother and the extreme gain in leverage against the Father to Teach and to Train the youngest of Knights in the ways of the Guardians and the Land. Once arrived in the Land, the youngest of Knights were immediately quartered, fed and placed in training with each other such that influence of the youngest of Knights would now be in the hands of the Guardians. The lives of the youngest of Knights were now destined to become the same so that the youngest of Knights could begin to coalesce into One. Their lives would become the same but with each young Knight becoming more distinct in many and meaningful ways during their years in pursuit of their individual Quest.

The Guardians immediately began to train the youngest of Knights with sword, shield and lance and every day the youngest of Knights were placed in Challenge amongst each other that was overseen by the Guardians. Loss of blood and gain of pain almost always preceded their daily evening meal. Other times of each day the youngest of Knights were in study and introduced into Someone Else, into the Knighthood and into the Land. The Guardians would hold sway over the youngest of Knights until the Knighthood would fully enter their lives.

Even though the youngest of Knights would live, study and train together, they would meal with the Knights Elite each day at morning, midday and evening hours. It is this blending of the youngest and the strongest of Knights in both mind and body during sustenance that would engender a special camaraderie within the Knighthood. It is sustenance of more than food and drink for the body. It is sustenance provided by the Knights Elite to nourish the youngest of Knights in strength, courage and maturity for battles both bloody and unbloody that would need to be fought for themselves, each other and for the Land. It is mentorship by nearness in space and time - a net movement of Knowledge streaming from Knights who Have to Knights who Need. A diffusion gradient described by Nature and its described effect sought out by the Guardians. The bond forged between the youngest of Knights and the Knights Elite would be strong and would feed both their loyalties to the Knighthood and to the Land.

Two cohorts of Knights live in the largest gatehouse, Lucius Mater, which rests adjacent to the gatehouse housing the youngest of Knights. These two cohorts are distinct from each other but still maintain a unique bond between themselves. They live, meal, challenge, and study together so that their individual lives and the valor of each cohort are determined by each other to the greatest extent. In numbers, strength and speed, Lucius Mater is the core strength of both the Knights and the Land, and it is Lucius Mater that will always be in the Front Lines of battle freely willing to lose lifeblood to protect the Land and the Knighthood. In the Land, it is the losing of one's blood that is but one and important measure of the life of a Knight.

In Lucius Mater, there exists a hierarchy of the two cohorts, Cohorts II and III. Cohort II, scarcely older than Cohort I, is comprised of Knights still early in training but possessing the necessary skills for pitched battle. These skills are first taught by the Guardians but honed by life in Lucius Mater, by life within the Brotherhood of Knights, and by the Land itself. In engagement with the enemy, Cohort II will always set the edge on both flanks for the attack and set the edge on both flanks in defense of the Land. The Knights of Cohort II are advanced both in their studies of Someone Else and in their studies of the Natural World as believed in and as taught by the Guardians. As such, the Knights of Cohort II have been Learning and have begun to examine their place in the Knighthood, in the Land and in the World. They are collectively known as The Sophius.

The Juvenus, Cohort III of Lucius Mater, are even Less Young than the youngest of Knights and The Sophius. The Juvenus are battle-hardened and highly skilled in the art of conflict and in the art of reason. Their loyalty to Lucius Mater, the Knighthood and the Land live in their scars of battle and in their depth of Learning. The belief that the Juvenus have in Someone Else is steadfast but they are highly Learned in the fundamentals of Natural Law and in fundamentals Not of Someone Else with much of these Learnings coming from the Guardians themselves. The Juvenus have received the temporal training and experience able to Question their belief in the fundamentals of the World and in their belief in Someone Else. Still, the Juvenus Question neither the Knighthood nor the Land and many of the Juvenus are prepared to join the Knights Elite when so chosen.

The Knights Elite, the Ultimate cohort and the Final Meaning of The Knights of Campion in the Land define the Knighthood but not the Knights themselves. The Knights Elite are the Great Strength of the Knights when the Knighthood, the Guardians and the Land come into conflict with the World. The Knights Elite have Trained and Learned well to protect and serve the Knighthood, the Guardians, the Land and All the World with their Strength and Beliefs being vital to their Lives. The Knights Elite truly evolved unto Themselves and have become Teachers to The Guardians and the Knighthood. The Knights Elite have greatly strengthened the Guardians and the Land forever.

Once The Knights of Campion have achieved their individual Quests and have left the Land, the Mission of The Knights is to prosper in other lands, to Teach and Protect these lands and to save the World around Them and Beyond. This Mission lives deeply and strongly within All Knights of Campion. Hence, the Knights must leave the Land in order to fulfill their Final Quest and give leave for the Guardians to renew their Promise to other young boys in need of the Land and in need of the Guadians. Thus, the Knighthood will be replenished and the Land and the Guardians will be sustained until they are no longer Needed.

Wisely, The Guardians and the Fathers and the Mothers always believed that the Final Meaning of The Knights of Campion would not be defined in the Land. They knew that the True Final Meaning of The Knights of Campion, their young boys, would be defined Outside the Land with the Knights living in all the lands in All the World. The Knights of Campion were always destined to Surround All the World with their Strength and Beliefs for All the World to be Saved.

For The Knights of Campion, it will always be "another day, and yet another destiny".