Despite all the temptation to do wrong, regardless of all the malignancy and cruelty in the world, there is one type of person whose moral code of conduct guides him to protect the innocent and defend virtue: the Chevalier, the Ritter, the Gallantuomo. A Knight is one who strives for the unattainable ideal, for the perfection of body, mind, and spirit, for the unending quest to be virtuous and honorable. Through guard of his countrymen in righteous combat, by assisting and offering generosity to those in need, with valiance and fortitude in the name of justice, by being cordial and respectful and understanding to others, and through the very courage to do good, a Knight forever strives for the impossible dream.

The primary death of the Knightly soul, the way in which he can most easily be tainted forever to vice, is through conceit, the hubris of pride and self-exultation. This is the most wretchèd occurrence for a cavalier, for first and foremost in his conduct is humility, to be acquiescent and unassuming when there is no need for conflict, to give others the benefit of the doubt, to be modest and respect to all people. True pride, not the fortitude and defense of that which is familiar and kindred, will bring a man to self-determined superiority and arrogance, and cause wholly his downfall to death or worse, especially of his soul. All the wisdom in the world, every bit of knowledge and fact and aspect of the mind, is morally useless without virtue there to guide it, to give it purpose, a higher purpose; for when knowledge or intelligence is used only for those things beneath it, as in with deceiving others or in manipulation of factuality in order to gain equally base pleasures, it becomes an ethical liability more than a virtue to be so skilled, and is the disgrace of any man.

Like the most musical tympani drumming away in his core, the virtuous song that drives the Chevalier to do all that is moral and artful, passion is the Knight’s source of creativity and romance, of zeal and dedication, with vigor and valor that comes bursting forth from the heart. This vitality and desire, this expression of the self, comes in the forms of romance, music, art, and poetry, and all other things aesthetic or inventive. Without this virtue, a Knight would be doomed to a life of coldness and frigid heartlessness, virtually unable to function in any of his duties, for a Chevalier unromantic is no Chevalier at all.

The ideal man, a Knight endeavors to be the perfect counterpart to womanhood, for he refines himself to the very soul, sharpening his masculinity to complement the feminine. Beyond the cordial airs of respect shown to ladies, he should know more than simply an artificial veneer of superficiality. To the center of his core must he be aware of women, to understand and innately desire to venerate and please them, with all his passion and drive, with every bit of his romance and feeling, with the affection and compassion that guides his honor and his way. Indeed, women are to be exulted as the earthly goddesses they are by every Knight, to hold them all in the most rapturous esteem and on the highest pedestal.
And if a Chevalier should fall in love with one such lady, if she would take him as her only Knight, the twain would become equals in their mutual respect and adoration for one another; and in that admirable bond which seeks the impossibility of uniting the two souls of the lovers, there will lie the only truth attainable to the most virtuous twain, therein held trinitously between man and woman.

Right and wrong, easily the most difficult concepts to define, are the polar constituents of a Knight’s justice, where fairness must be given to all. He must mete equity and ensure the righteous treatment of every being, and fight with all gallantry to ensure such. If ever might is making itself the absolute, whenever one who is weak and defenseless is being harmed or disenfranchised, he must not be allowed to fall into the night of silence, neither gently nor with the most fervent cries. It is the moral duty of a Knight to protect this innocent, to ensure his safety from injury, to sacrifice his very own life just to guard him and have his be spared. There are few codes which will guide a Chevalier on more just a path.

Valiance and fortitude, valor and stalwartness, the feet which plant the spirit of a Knight in the ground are never to be lost. He must always have courage and determination, in glorious battle and terrible combat, in his logic and reasoning and adherence to his beliefs, and in his heart to stay true to himself. When irrational fear will get the best of a man, when he loses his senses and reality to an uncontrollable anxiety, he will become a coward; and he will be worse if he allows such an event to pervade habitually. A Knight could never survive such an existence, needing at all times to have strength and lionheartedness, under siege and under blade.

If a Chevalier allows base and harmfully violent lusts to avice him, if he ends up injuring others without consideration to their well being, he will lose his faith and temperance, that virtue which keeps him from doing what is morally wrong. Faith, in this context, is the deepest and most deferent constancy to something, as with a Knight to his lady. Not only must he defend her above all else, but he should never betray her affection or romance, or be lost from virtue forever. He must temper himself to stay true to all that he believes, for those things retained valuably are far better than dispensed with cheaply.

There is no desire in a Knight’s heart for the accumulation of anything material, as he realizes the temporal and transitory nature of land, of money, and chooses his soul over avarice. He will give away all that he has just to help the needy and the injured, for altruism and generosity is a Chevalier’s most common expression of honor. Equally as with giving, for giving should bring him greatest joy, he must bestow mercy on all those deserving, on any who are merely misguided and not truly evil, as with those he encounters on the field of battle. The gift of life is often more honorable than the punishment of death.

In most centered culmination, the virtue that is the blended white light of all the spectral colors around it, love is honor, truth, and honesty, affection, compassion, and warmth, the spirit of generosity, the feeling of empathy, and the ideal of chivalry. Love is the answer to the unattainable goal, for it is love which seeks the brilliant yet invisible truth, that which is closest to infinity and nearest to our hearts. As a result, no Knight can live without all his morality intact, without having stayed true to his virtue in entirety. All humanity embodies the principle of goodness and rectitude, elusive as it is to make absolute and finite. And therein lies the magic of chivalry, the quest of knighthood, to go on in the never-ending search, the long and difficult but infinitely rewarding path, where virtue meets truth.