In medieval times, we often hear about the heroic knight who takes on the dragon and saves the princess. Now, a lot of people have gotten a bit tired of this character archetype, but sometimes, it’s fun to go back to basics and write about character styles from older tales. The heroic knight archetype tends to come out of medieval history and legend, with a noble quest typically at the center of the story. I personally love stories with knights and dragons and wizards and all that, so today, I’m going to teach you how to write a heroic knight for your medieval fantasy story!
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Understanding the Knightly Archetype
Historical Context
In order to understand the idea of the knight, we need to take a small trip into history. Knights were an extensively important part of medieval feudal society. They often came from noble families and would lead troops in battle. Knights had important roles in medieval society, and they even held land as a part of the feudal system, which I’ve included a diagram of below:
As you can see, knights were just below nobles and at the same level as vassals, who were land-owning wealthy men in medieval society as well. I’ve also included an infographic I made below to help explain the different tiers a little better:
From a young age, future knights trained as pages and squires before kings dubbed them as knights. Much of their training revolved around practicing rigorous combat, sword fighting, horsemanship, etiquette and more.
Knights also lived by the code of chivalry, which was a code of conduct and a set of rules that knights had to uphold. Chivalry included bravery, honor, courage, and respect for the women around them. Of course, this was more of a guideline than something that was actually followed by most knights.
Knights in Old Tales
Knights, even if reality was not so romantic, were often portrayed in a fantasized way as being courageous, heroic, leaders of battle, protectors of women, and slayers of evil. Understanding this allows for us to understand how we can build our own heroic knight!
Building the Heroic Knight’s Character
Core Traits
As I mentioned earlier, a heroic knight will have several traits that they are built around. Of course, you can easily add onto these things, but these are what you should be honing in on to make your knight a heroic figure:
- Honor: A knight who is heroic will likely have a strong sense of honor as well, guiding their behaviors and their actions around others.
- Bravery: A heroic knight will be brave enough to face whatever challenges come his way.
- Loyalty: A big part of the knight archetype is the concept of loyalty where the knight
- Compassion: A heroic knight should be compassionate towards others, despite their prowess and ability in battle.
Personal Background
As with any character, adding in a detailed background story helps to contextualize the character in the overall plot. A background story helps to show why a person would turn out the way they are in the present day of your story.
Consider your knight’s origin story. Maybe they were born into nobility and wealth from a young age or came from humble beginnings and worked their way to becoming a knight. Maybe they witnessed something in their youth that made them want to become a hero of the people, facing any and all peril along the way. Your knight needs to have motivation alongside their origins. Maybe the knight is heroic because he seeks glory or he wants to be remembered for his deeds, idolized forever in legend and lore. Maybe it’s vengeance for something he lost. Whatever the reason may be, spend time developing this part.
You should also ensure that, despite your knight’s heroism, they still have some level of flaws in their personality. Nobody is without flaws, and it helps to create a higher sense of realism for your character. Flaws can be things like struggling with pride, doubt, or past mistakes. These flaws should be relatable to your average reader, even if the context or setting is not.
Relationships
A lot of stories about knights and their heroic feats often include characters around that knight that help to shape the knight’s personality, characteristics, and life. Most of the time, stories about a hero include things like mentors who helped shape them into the person they are today. Oftentimes, a knight travels alongside a company of other knights.
It could also be interesting to explore more misfit type characters around your knight, like mercenaries, wizards, or something similar. It could add some more flair to your story!
If you’re also going for a romantasy story, having a love interest can help give your knight more characterization. This should add to your knight’s story though and not just be an afterthought, especially if you’re writing a romantasy story.
Your knight is also going to need adversaries and enemies; these should serve the story and the overall progression of the knight’s story. If you’re trying to figure out what enemy and what conflict structure your story will take, check out these two articles:
- Top 12 BEST Villain Archetypes Found in Literature
- The 7 Literary Conflicts and How to Implement Them
Crafting the Knight’s Journey – The Hero’s Quest
A lot of stories about heroes and heroic characters are based around a story format from Ancient Greece known as the hero’s quest. This story structure starts out with a character who may not seem like a hero, but they are called to an adventure, undertake a massive quest, and eventually save the day. It’s a classic structure that we have upheld in literature to this day.
The Origin Story
A lot of longer fantasy epics tend to take their time in getting to the adventure. If you want to write a larger, epic fantasy, then you’ll want to start when your knight is still either a child or something like a squire. Basically, you’ll want to set your story before the knight is about to undertake his adventure. This is optional though, as you can start your story just before the call to adventure.
The Call to Adventure
The call to adventure is basically the true beginning of the hero’s quest. This is when the hero, or in this case, the heroic knight, is called on a quest that will challenge his abilities, skills, and test his virtues. Most of the time, this takes on the form of the traditional quest structure we see in things like video games. You have characters who are tasked with something major like getting an artifact, rescuing someone, or saving the world from a terrible malevolent force like a villain.
Furthermore, the quest or adventure needs to have some sort of personal stake for the heroic knight. Why would this particular knight want to go on the quest in the first place? Maybe the villain is someone from his past. Maybe the person he has to rescue is the woman he’s in love with. Whatever the stakes are, you need to make them clear and let the reader see that, as it will make the motivation more believable and realistic.
Conflict!
Another big part of the knight’s journey is the idea of conflict. Now, there are a lot of ways you can deliver conflict–in fact, there are 7 identifiable ways in most literature pieces–but beyond just conflict, you need to create the atmosphere of peril. You need to let the reader feel like the character will actually be tested or placed in positions of danger.
Even if your main character is overpowered with insane magic abilities, you still need to pit them against difficult foes that may have similar levels of strength or you may need to nerf the magic abilities in a way that causes it to have physical limitations. This could also be great to set up epic battles, and if you want to learn how to write a great battle, check out this post.
Alongside epic battles of magic and swords and shields, you need to consider moral dilemmas. A knight who is a hero may have to make difficult decisions that align with their worldviews. However, if you’re willing to stray a bit from the heroic path, maybe your knight will have to make decisions that seem morally wrong, thus setting you up for having a morally gray knight after all. Just an idea…
Friends and Enemies are Important
Having a story of a heroic quest often involves the main character making friends or creating alliances along the way. I know this is a pretty silly movie, but Shrek actually does a great job of this. Sure, Shrek isn’t a knight or anything, but he becomes friends with Donkey and in the second movie, Puss in Boots. Thus, you have an alliance and the three journey together in a way that was interesting and fun for viewers.
This same principle applies pretty much to any story with a hero at the center. Creating alliances with other characters allows for more diverse voices to be heard and allows for more interesting plots to form.
Enemies are also important to any story. The heroic knight will likely encounter villains, bandits, and assassins along the way. Some may end up being allies (or lovers, enemies to lovers is totally valid too) or may remain enemies, but it should have an impact on the characterization of the heroic knight and the plot of the story.
Focus on the Climax and Final Act
The climax of the story will basically be when your knight’s skills are truly put to the test. In this defining moment of the plot, the knight will likely have to face their greatest challenge, make a difficult, but necessary choice, or something similar. In essence, the climax is when the story will branch into the ending, or the final act, and then the resolution.
The final act is basically the ending portion of your story. In this act, your knight will likely have something like a final showdown with his enemy, or will be further tested in a way that will impact the resolution of the story.
The resolution is the definitive ending of the story. In this very final portion of the story, conflicts and plotlines should be finished up and the impact of the knight’s journey on this quest should show. It needs to be clear to the reader that your character has changed and grown with this journey.
What About the Fantasy Elements?
Medieval fantasy stories, although based on medieval worlds, are still rooted in the idea of fantasy. As I’ve mentioned before, writing a good fantasy story typically involves many elements–namely world building.
Beyond world building, there’s also magic systems, mythical creatures, different cultures and languages, and more.
Be sure that, alongside some level of accuracy to medieval times, you still involve the fantasy elements to make a medieval fantasy story work.
Examples of Heroic Knights in Literature and Media
If you still want to see what a heroic knight would look like in action, then there are several examples that you can look for that really portray the knight archetype well.
Sir Gawain from “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
Sir Gawain is a prime example of a heroic knight archetype. He exhibits the traits of bravery and honor and follows his code of chivalry. It’s also the perfect medieval-era story to look for as a reference because it literally comes from that era.
Aragorn from “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
Aragorn, though not a knight in the traditional sense that we think of, still exemplifies the qualities of a heroic knight. He’s one of the best examples of an honorable character in fiction and is genuinely one of the best “knight” style characters in fantasy stories out there.
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