What is a real knight? For some time there has raged within the confraternity community a debate concerning who is and is not a real knight. Without question, those Infernals and their brethren have inherited the title in an indisputable tradition extending unbroken back to through the practice of chivalry. The Templars/Paladins also have an intact lineage, running all the way back to their foundation by Sir Gawain. Perhaps groups use the concept of knighthood to inspire their members in some way and to build better people?
For me, one of these groups contains real knights. In every instance the adoubement of knighthood now has little to do with the feudal structure and everything to do with a recognition of a particular kind of individual who has built their renown in the context of doing right.
In theory, Knighthood was given in recognition of deeds done in service of Crown and Commonwealth. Knights generally are members of close fraternal organizations whose aims are to achieve good works in the world and to provide an internally consistent system of values based on core religious beliefs common to most of the worlds population. A knighthood conferred here also recognizes achievement--renown. Knighthood is based both on physical prowess in the system of combat and for renown based on a loosely understood effort to follow chivalry.
The common thread for all Knights is their concern for their duty to pursue the good in various ways through personal sacrifice, sincerity, and excellence displayed in profession and avocation alike.
It has been brought to my attention that some people feel it has to do with the possession of such equipment and skills as were requisite to the title. Skill with swords, falcons, and venom is the basis more than was a focus towards the ideal. Straying from the subject though.. there is no centralized registry of knights; any GM can and does confer knighthood on members they deem worthy. Nor is the ceremony an absolute requirement. That's a pretty new thing to the Paladins, as a matter of fact. If a Paladin could fight, and appeared a knight then de facto he was a knight.
(*coughOOCcough*) The idea that a knighthood need be obtained through particular channels is a Renaissance one. English knights began to obtain their stations directly from the Crown, but by this time the station had changed from a tier in feudal society to an honorific title. Even so, the honorific use was to reward service to the Crown or state; a recognition, if you will, of renown in service.
I cannot agree with the knights who believe the only paths lie through their own organizations. I see the whole argument as a colossal waste of time--would not this time be better spent in the pursuit of deeds worthy of a knight rather than in trying to discourage others from pursuing the right in their own way?
It is also true that someone cannot awake one morning and say, I am a knight, and become one. But why not? The reason is that the earning of a knights title lies, in every case, of the building of renown such that the title is earned through deeds. Through sincerity. Through dedication. It is not the title of knight that makes a man a knight, it is his renown. Sometimes circumstances will recognize such a person with a formal title, and sometimes not.
Knights vary in quality as surely as all groups do. Some follow some kind of romantic ideal while others hold the attitude that only performance on the battlefield counts. Knights of both types all ultimately fail to achieve the perfection of their ideal, whether it be a purely martial image or a more philosophical one, but they can succeed in the betterment of themselves and of their world, and this is the function of knighthood.
The true essence of knighthood lies not so much in whether you believe you are a knight. The key is, do others believe you are a knight? If the answer to this question is yes, then I believe you can claim the title of knight. In so doing you also accept the duties towards acting with the right and striving towards the distant chivalric ideal. You then become a brother to all those knights who have trod the road before and who will come after. Fine company indeed!
I believe that this essence of renown is a spark that burns brightly in those knights who share the common bond of seeking a distant ideal, and that this spark can be recognized instantly by others who travel the same road. Some of them are formally known as knights while others are not. It is a comforting thing to know that it does not require an institution to continue the chivalric tradition, but is entrusted to a thing far more durable and pure--the heart.

Sir Tylin, Knight of Aurora

Penned by my hand on the 7th of Chronos, in the year 254 AF.