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Has GW given us anything explicit or implicit on the level of technology on Knight worlds?

I realize Knight worlds really run the gambit from being advanced Mechanicus strongholds, to backward feudal worlds where the Knights themselves are some of the only remnants of functional technology... and there is obviously a lot in between... So I realize there isn't any single right answer.

They obviously have some understanding of cybernetics and the implantation of mind link interface unit type technologies. Just to maintain a Knight these planets would need an understanding of cybernetics, power systems, energy shield projection, metallurgy and manufacturing that exceeds the average Imperial world. While many are dependent on the Mechanicus not all of them are. To maintain the type of autonomy that these worlds generally have, would imply most have enough of a grasp that they could do without the Mechanicus for some amount of time.

Many Knight Households have household guards... how are these guys equipped? Given their relative autonomy is it safe to imagine that these guys would be more like the desperate human forces that existed before the Horuse Heresy than they are like the average 40k era planetary defense force?

Besides Knights are there any other technologies we are aware of these worlds using? I doubt the Scions walk there Knight to go visit their relatives on the other side of the planet. Do they have things like Arvus lighters or Valkyries? Anti-grav tech?

As you said - it depends. Adrastapol (the Knight world in Kingsblade / Knightsblade) is able to manufacture hydro-electric dams, orbital defences and it's own air force.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 aka_mythos wrote:
Besides Knights are there any other technologies we are aware of these worlds using? I doubt the Scions walk there Knight to go visit their relatives on the other side of the planet. Do they have things like Arvus lighters or Valkyries? Anti-grav tech?

Again, it varies - Sacristan Crawler repair vehicles are a thing (as are smaller Ironlegs), and drop keeps are also mentioned - but we've no idea how widespread they are.

Depends really. On one end there are Forgeworlds, on the other there are planets like Medieval Earth where Knights and the tech to maintain them are the only technology available (and strictly restricted to the ruling Knight House) and Knights are viewed as literal gods by the common folk.

Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

phillv85 wrote:
Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

I think it's still the case that while the Knight chassis can be repaired or replaced, the Throne Mechanicum cannot.

beast_gts wrote:

phillv85 wrote:
Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

I think it's still the case that while the Knight chassis can be repaired or replaced, the Throne Mechanicum cannot.

That was my understanding still. Was just wondering if any of the Knight books that have come out in the past few years said otherwise.

phillv85 wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

phillv85 wrote:
Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

I think it's still the case that while the Knight chassis can be repaired or replaced, the Throne Mechanicum cannot.

That was my understanding still. Was just wondering if any of the Knight books that have come out in the past few years said otherwise.

They don't explicitly state either way but they do mention creating more knights than they had, so it's implied, that they have access to more but doesn't specifically state if they come from a forgeworld rather than being built on world, or if they just have a stack of spares waiting for knights and a pilot.

beast_gts wrote:

phillv85 wrote:
Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

I think it's still the case that while the Knight chassis can be repaired or replaced, the Throne Mechanicum cannot.

The destruction of a throne is a big deal because you lose all the memories of the previous users that are imprinted in it. With the knight houses' focus on tradition, heritage and whatnot they seem to treat that loss as much worse than losing the piece of tech itself.
I think I remember some fluff about houses competing with each other to be the one who'll get the next brand-new knight delivered from the Adeptus Mechanicus. I'd imagine it comes with a new throne, but I might be wrong.

Regarding the original question: as others have said, tech can vary wildly, but the intended flavor for knight worlds seems to be "the middle-ages in space!" so I guess a hypothetical "average" world would look kinda like old-timey europe. People go around on horseback, peasants work the land without any machinery, the nobles' castles are made out stone... Guards might have semi-modern guns but not much else. The average commoner probably doesn't have access to any kind of worthwhile technology. Nobles may own a few cool relics from the dark age of technology or stuff bought from a distant forge world at great cost.

IT can be whatever you want to be blunt. They leave things vague for "reasons".

I'm creating a knight house that is the major house of a feudal agri world that is supported by and supports a nearby forgeworld. The peasants are kept down by only giving them the technology they need to farm whilst the knights are given the knights and the mechanicum support because they supply food and keep the populace in check. Win-win.. except for the peasants.

I always just thought "feudal" described the government of the planet ; they ALL have to have an industrial capacity of high degree (even if limited) to keep something as complicated as a knight in working condition.

TarkinLarson wrote:
IT can be whatever you want to be blunt. They leave things vague for "reasons".

I'm creating a knight house that is the major house of a feudal agri world that is supported by and supports a nearby forgeworld. The peasants are kept down by only giving them the technology they need to farm whilst the knights are given the knights and the mechanicum support because they supply food and keep the populace in check. Win-win.. except for the peasants.

I mentioned that I know things can vary quite a bit, its more a question of what technologies have been specifically mentioned and the general implications of those. Like how someone mentioned the fortress landing ships Knight Households have and use to get their Knights planet side. That would imply a degree of autonomy where some households might not just have the landers but also the warp capable space ships.


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Carlovonsexron wrote:
I always just thought "feudal" described the government of the planet ; they ALL have to have an industrial capacity of high degree (even if limited) to keep something as complicated as a knight in working condition.

That is largely the case but in more than one instance its been mentioned that a couple of the Knight worlds had lost the ability to maintain and keep operational their Knights when they were discovered by the Imperium, post darkage.

A Feudal planet from context of the Imperium is generally a low technology world, that otherwise has a stable government based on fealty.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ice_can wrote:

phillv85 wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

phillv85 wrote:
Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

I think it's still the case that while the Knight chassis can be repaired or replaced, the Throne Mechanicum cannot.

That was my understanding still. Was just wondering if any of the Knight books that have come out in the past few years said otherwise.

They don't explicitly state either way but they do mention creating more knights than they had, so it's implied, that they have access to more but doesn't specifically state if they come from a forgeworld rather than being built on world, or if they just have a stack of spares waiting for knights and a pilot.

I think its also likely that the Thrones of now extinct households would get salvaged from battlefields... Refurbished and given to households that could use them.

 aka_mythos wrote:

TarkinLarson wrote:
IT can be whatever you want to be blunt. They leave things vague for "reasons".

I'm creating a knight house that is the major house of a feudal agri world that is supported by and supports a nearby forgeworld. The peasants are kept down by only giving them the technology they need to farm whilst the knights are given the knights and the mechanicum support because they supply food and keep the populace in check. Win-win.. except for the peasants.

I mentioned that I know things can vary quite a bit, its more a question of what technologies have been specifically mentioned and the general implications of those. Like how someone mentioned the fortress landing ships Knight Households have and use to get their Knights planet side. That would imply a degree of autonomy where some households might not just have the landers but also the warp capable space ships.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Carlovonsexron wrote:
I always just thought "feudal" described the government of the planet ; they ALL have to have an industrial capacity of high degree (even if limited) to keep something as complicated as a knight in working condition.

That is largely the case but in more than one instance its been mentioned that a couple of the Knight worlds had lost the ability to maintain and keep operational their Knights when they were discovered by the Imperium, post darkage.

A Feudal planet from context of the Imperium is generally a low technology world, that otherwise has a stable government based on fealty.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ice_can wrote:

phillv85 wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

phillv85 wrote:
Slightly off topic, so apologies, but are there examples in the lore of new knights being built, or are they all relics now?

I think it's still the case that while the Knight chassis can be repaired or replaced, the Throne Mechanicum cannot.

That was my understanding still. Was just wondering if any of the Knight books that have come out in the past few years said otherwise.

They don't explicitly state either way but they do mention creating more knights than they had, so it's implied, that they have access to more but doesn't specifically state if they come from a forgeworld rather than being built on world, or if they just have a stack of spares waiting for knights and a pilot.

I think its also likely that the Thrones of now extinct households would get salvaged from battlefields... Refurbished and given to households that could use them.

That would kind of depend on why those houses are extinct, in the novels they certainly don't salvage anything period due to the other houses being wiped from the planet due to harbouring choas worshiping traitors, their fortresses keeps knights are all raised to the ground.

beast_gts wrote:

 aka_mythos wrote:
Besides Knights are there any other technologies we are aware of these worlds using? I doubt the Scions walk there Knight to go visit their relatives on the other side of the planet. Do they have things like Arvus lighters or Valkyries? Anti-grav tech?

Again, it varies - Sacristan Crawler repair vehicles are a thing (as are smaller Ironlegs), and drop keeps are also mentioned - but we've no idea how widespread they are.

Do we have any sort of description of the Sacristan Crawler, Ironlegs, or Drop Keeps or are they just names they’ve casually dropped in?

 aka_mythos wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

 aka_mythos wrote:
Besides Knights are there any other technologies we are aware of these worlds using? I doubt the Scions walk there Knight to go visit their relatives on the other side of the planet. Do they have things like Arvus lighters or Valkyries? Anti-grav tech?

Again, it varies - Sacristan Crawler repair vehicles are a thing (as are smaller Ironlegs), and drop keeps are also mentioned - but we've no idea how widespread they are.

Do we have any sort of description of the Sacristan Crawler, Ironlegs, or Drop Keeps or are they just names they’ve casually dropped in?

dropkeeps and Crawlers are both described maybe not in as much detail as we would like, but they are described in the novel's. They also described as being very diffrent forgeworld to forgeworld aswell, as they talk about Crawlers with wheels a d crawlers with legs aswell, the drop keeps sound more like fortresses that are orbital drop capable over a knight size drop pod.

 aka_mythos wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

 aka_mythos wrote:
Besides Knights are there any other technologies we are aware of these worlds using? I doubt the Scions walk there Knight to go visit their relatives on the other side of the planet. Do they have things like Arvus lighters or Valkyries? Anti-grav tech?

Again, it varies - Sacristan Crawler repair vehicles are a thing (as are smaller Ironlegs), and drop keeps are also mentioned - but we've no idea how widespread they are.

Do we have any sort of description of the Sacristan Crawler, Ironlegs, or Drop Keeps or are they just names they’ve casually dropped in?

Lexicanum wrote:Sacristan Crawlers are heavily armoured vehicles that are used by groups of Sacristans to conduct resupplies and repairs on Imperial Knights. Ornately decorated yet bulky, Crawlers have eight armoured balloon tyres and are almost the size of an Imperial Super Heavy Tank[1a]. They are equipped with auto-loader ammunition carriages, a number of hard-wired eight-legged repair Servitors[1c] and nests of servo-arms[2a], as well as armature repair rigs that allow Sacristans to reach any area on a Knight that needs to be tended[1b]. As the vehicles accompany their Households to war[1c], the Sacristan Crawlers are armed with esoteric weapon systems, pulsing sensor shrines, vox-amplifiers[2a], a number of Heavenly Host Servitors[2b] and can also lay down mine charges[1c]. The Crawlers also have the important duty of recovering the Throne Mechanicums of destroyed Knight suits, as well as wounded Knight Scions[1d], who can be placed within the Crawlers' built-in medicae bays.[2a]

Lexicanum wrote:Ironlegs are heavy mechanical walkers that are piloted by a single Sacristan, to conduct resupplies and repairs on Imperial Knights, with the aid of several supporting servitors.

The walkers are similar to the Sentinels used by the Astra Militarum, except the Ironlegs are larger and are supported by four-jointed piston-limbs rather than the Sentinel's two. Due to being equipped with heavy weaponry, servo-arms, omnitools, ammo hoppers, fuel bowsers and all the other indecipherable techno-arcana used by the Sacristans, the Ironlegs are very top heavy and walk with a lurching gait.[1]

The Crawler is used by the Houses, while the Ironlegs supported Freeblades.

beast_gts wrote:

Lexicanum wrote:Sacristan Crawlers are heavily armoured vehicles that are used by groups of Sacristans to conduct resupplies and repairs on Imperial Knights. Ornately decorated yet bulky, Crawlers have eight armoured balloon tyres and are almost the size of an Imperial Super Heavy Tank[1a]. They are equipped with auto-loader ammunition carriages, a number of hard-wired eight-legged repair Servitors[1c] and nests of servo-arms[2a], as well as armature repair rigs that allow Sacristans to reach any area on a Knight that needs to be tended[1b]. As the vehicles accompany their Households to war[1c], the Sacristan Crawlers are armed with esoteric weapon systems, pulsing sensor shrines, vox-amplifiers[2a], a number of Heavenly Host Servitors[2b] and can also lay down mine charges[1c]. The Crawlers also have the important duty of recovering the Throne Mechanicums of destroyed Knight suits, as well as wounded Knight Scions[1d], who can be placed within the Crawlers' built-in medicae bays.[2a]

Lexicanum wrote:Ironlegs are heavy mechanical walkers that are piloted by a single Sacristan, to conduct resupplies and repairs on Imperial Knights, with the aid of several supporting servitors.

The walkers are similar to the Sentinels used by the Astra Militarum, except the Ironlegs are larger and are supported by four-jointed piston-limbs rather than the Sentinel's two. Due to being equipped with heavy weaponry, servo-arms, omnitools, ammo hoppers, fuel bowsers and all the other indecipherable techno-arcana used by the Sacristans, the Ironlegs are very top heavy and walk with a lurching gait.[1]

The Crawler is used by the Houses, while the Ironlegs supported Freeblades.

First, thanks for posting that.

Reading the Sacristan Crawler description it really sounds more like what GW would have liked to have done instead of the Forgeshrine. If you imagine a Forgeshrine that could move around, even slowly or even requiring some sort of deployment, it would address the Forgeshrine's biggest deficiencies. When it comes to the Forgeshrine I've always had the feeling some higher up has made the decision that every army needs a terrain piece and the Forgeshrine was an after thought to fulfill that. Now I think I want to go convert one to represent a Forgeshrine.

Reading that on the Ironlegs reminds me of something one of the designers, I think it was Jes Goodwin, said on GW's 40k podcast... when they were talking about the Armiger they mentioned originally having different load out options in mind for it. That one variant was originally intended as a unit that would run up to resupply, repair, rescue Knights; one in the squad would just carry the extra equipment for the Knight and the other to sort of defend while that was going on. It was apparently a tough sell to decision makers because it wasn't a uniform unit and they didn't like one not having weapons. The Ironlegs really seems to line up with that mentioned concept.

 aka_mythos wrote:
Reading that on the Ironlegs reminds me of something one of the designers, I think it was Jes Goodwin, said on GW's 40k podcast... when they were talking about the Armiger they mentioned originally having different load out options in mind for it. That one variant was originally intended as a unit that would run up to resupply, repair, rescue Knights; one in the squad would just carry the extra equipment for the Knight and the other to sort of defend while that was going on. It was apparently a tough sell to decision makers because it wasn't a uniform unit and they didn't like one not having weapons. The Ironlegs really seems to line up with that mentioned concept.

I don't think GW main has ever made non-combat support units for 40k. FW made a few (I've got a Trojan and a Sentinel Power-lifter) but apparently they didn't sell well.
I intend to convert up a Sacristan Crawler at some point, but it'll probably be tracked and not that ornate - more like a Battletech Mobile Field Base.

beast_gts wrote:

 aka_mythos wrote:
Reading that on the Ironlegs reminds me of something one of the designers, I think it was Jes Goodwin, said on GW's 40k podcast... when they were talking about the Armiger they mentioned originally having different load out options in mind for it. That one variant was originally intended as a unit that would run up to resupply, repair, rescue Knights; one in the squad would just carry the extra equipment for the Knight and the other to sort of defend while that was going on. It was apparently a tough sell to decision makers because it wasn't a uniform unit and they didn't like one not having weapons. The Ironlegs really seems to line up with that mentioned concept.

I don't think GW main has ever made non-combat support units for 40k. FW made a few (I've got a Trojan and a Sentinel Power-lifter) but apparently they didn't sell well.
I intend to convert up a Sacristan Crawler at some point, but it'll probably be tracked and not that ornate - more like a Battletech Mobile Field Base.

I don't think the lack of non-combat support units is for a lack of wanting. I think the closest we've gotten to non-combat support are the terrain pieces.

Back in the Rogue Trader era core rulebook there was artwork for a couple of large wheeled vehicles, those are what I think of when I hear 8 wheeled nearly superheavy - trucks. I think the one in the artwork really has the Knight's sort of curves too.