Star Knight Saga Lore: The Knights Hospitaller

Welcome back to the Lore Archives. Today, we're talking about Galactic Christendom's most welcome arm of the Church's military orders: The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem Instead of their historical, real-life origins imagine them more like this instead.

The emphasis of the Order's activities remains as it was originally: to protect pilgrims in transit and provide hospital and hospice care to those in need. As one might expect when operating on a galactic scope and scale, a certain degree of institutionalization is required to make this work. To that end, the Order operates hospitals and hospices from one end of the galaxy to the other- including the training programs.

While the Order retains its clerical basis, and thus all Brother Knights are priests (and, in Galactic Christendom, cannot be of noble blood), for most common folks interacting with the order the public face are the Brothers who emphasize the medical side and thus became Doctors of Medicine. Thus did "Sir Doctor" became the generic form of address for a Knight in Hospitaller dress, and woe to those who think the doctors are not also proficient fighting men. Unencumbered by filial duty, the Brother Knights pour themselves into the mastery of medicine as well as military matters as a practical expression of their whole devotion to Almighty God.

Lay Brothers of the Order make up most of their personnel, recruiting from across the galaxy, and do a lot of the necessary work keeping the Order running. They make up most of the orderlies, drivers, pilots, mechanics, cooks, and other such crew and support teams manning their stations, crewing their vessels, and flying or driving people and supplies from point to point. Though lacking in the formal education of their superiors, they are not lacking for devotion, valor, or compassion and many learn the basics of medicine by observation while in service.

Their mastery of medicine extends into cybernetics, and it is not uncommon for a veteran Brother to possess one or more cybernetic implants. While most wounds can be cared for normally, appendages severed by beam swords and similar wounds are often beyond the capacity to restore otherwise. This mastery of cybernetics includes full body replacement, but that requires the permission of the Grand Master of the Order and he rarely permits it without the direct intervention of His Holiness the Pope as it comes too close to violating several prohibitions that arose out of the Cataclysm- one of which being the potential for abuse via weaponization. It has happened; it is very rare.

The relationship that the Order maintains with other arms of the Church, by and large, are cordial if not friendly and cooperation between the Hospitallers and those other arms is frequent if not ongoing and the Order--as a matter of policy--works to maintain strong good will with its brothers. Friendships between key figures is not uncommon, such as that between the Masters of the Order and the Star Knights as well as the Admiralty of the Solar Guard. The Order runs the Guard's hospitals and trains their medical staff; the Guard trains their pilots and crews.