Holy Knights

The are the most powerful knights in Britannia who are heroes that protect their kingdoms. They are a group of terrifying individuals, with each able to match an entire country's army in strength and power and having magic that transcends human knowledge imbued within their bodies.

In Britannia, there are orders of Holy Knights within the kingdoms of Liones, Danafor (before it's destruction by Fraudrin), Edinburgh (before it's fall to the Vampires), Camelot and Benwick. The Holy Knights in each kingdom's order are under the command of the order's.

3,000 years ago
In the ancient past, all Holy Knights of Britannia fought alongside the Fairy Clan, Giant Clan, and the Goddess Clan to defeat and seal away the Demon Clan with the Coffin of Eternal Darkness in the old Holy War. Thousands of Holy Knights lost their lives in the ancient war at that time.

26 years ago
When the Seven Deadly Sins were framed for killing the previous Great Holy Knight, Zaratras and plotting to overthrow the kingdom, the entire order of Liones' Holy Knights were dispatched to kill them all. After the group of knights' supposed offense and the subsequent escape of at least four of them, the Seven Deadly Sins were dissolved and were relentlessly hunted down by the Holy Knights.

In the aftermath of ambushing the Seven Deadly Sins in the castle, numerous Holy Knights lost their lives attempting to kill the seven legendary knights fighting their way out as witnessed by young Alioni and an elderly knight.

16 years ago
King Bartra Liones, although realizing that a predicted new Holy War would soon occur, ordered all the Holy Knights to lay down their weapons in an effort to avoid war. However, the Holy Knights, believing that the war was inevitable and that protection of the kingdom was their duty, captured the king a few days in a successful coup before Elizabeth found Meliodas, and began military preparations. The kingdom, now under the command of current Great Holy Knights, Hendrickson and Dreyfus, fell into a state of distress as citizens from towns and villages surrounding the kingdom were enslaved or forcefully recruited into joining the military effort: the men forcibly trained as soldiers, the women and children forced to amass food for storage, and the elderly forced to construct castle walls. Death has now become the penalty for insubordination under the rule of the Holy Knights, with them justifying their enslaving of the citizens with the fact that the war is being fought for their protection to begin with.

It is revealed that Hendrickson plotted to resurrect the long-sealed Demon Clan so there will be a formidable enemy for the Holy Knights to fight and win the Holy War with aid from the New Generation Holy Knights.

During the Sins' infiltration and Arthur Pendragon's surprise visit, the Holy Knights were divided as several members began to question themselves if protecting or oppressing the people is their role and eventually turned against their fellow comrades. After the king of Liones was successfully rescued and Dreyfus admitting his crime of murdering Zaratras, Hendrickson who recently recovered from his defeat by Gilthunder, triggered a spell that causes the demon blood of the New Generation Holy Knights to run out of control and mutate them into hybrid Demons, thus causing chaos and confusion among the Holy Knights and knights throughout the kingdom's capital. The Holy Knights immediately fought against the New Generation Holy Knights-turned-Demons throughout the capital in defense of their kingdom but began suffering heavy losses among their ranks in multiple skirmishes in the ensuing chaos while some of their comrades and ordinary knights led the civilians to safety while fighting off the Demons attempting to harm them. However, Ban and of the Seven Deadly Sins come to their aid in time, pulling out and destroying plant creatures that were the core of the Demon hybrids' transformation from the New Generation's bodies, reverting the rampaging knights back to normal.

Recovering from the crisis, the Holy Knights around the capital rallied and surrounded Merlin's old castle, the same way they did before ten years ago but this time, they now aid the Seven Deadly Sins against the true enemy: Hendrickson. Witnessing the Sins' defeat, the Holy Knights made their move and battled their former superior only to face his terrifying demonic powers and suffered heavy casualties among their ranks and were instantly defeated despite great powers the Holy Knights all possess. However, Elizabeth awakened her powers that healed all of the Holy Knights and the Sins back to full health, as well as temporarily pushed back Hendrickson. The Holy Knights and the Sins were given and carried out the plan by Gowther to attack both Meliodas and Hendrickson at the same time with everything they got long enough for the Dragon's Sin of Wrath to build up his ultimate technique and finally defeat Hendrickson.

After the former Great Holy Knight's defeat and death, the Holy Knights quickly bend their knees in shame in front of their king, who recently recovered thanks to Merlin, for their atrocities they committed upon the kingdom they swore to protect and blindly following Hendrickson in his plot to revive the Demon Clan all in the name of the Holy War and demanded heavy punishment for their sins but the king forgave them and told the Holy Knights to help restore the kingdom back to the way it was before and dedicate their efforts to prevent the same mistake again in order to avert the Holy War from happening.

Great Holy Knight
The is the most powerful of the Holy Knights, and possesses the authorities of commanding over them, thus making him the leader of the Holy Knights. This gave previous Great Holy Knights of Liones, Dreyfus and Hendrickson, command over the whole country after the coup d'état. Liones' current Great Holy Knight is Howzer.

Vice-Great Holy Knight
The is responsible for assuming the responsibilities of the Great Holy Knight when the latter is absent from the Royal Capital. Currently, the Vice-Great Holy Knight of Liones is Guila. Moreover, she is the very first woman to have risen to such a high rank within her hierarchy.

Assistant Great Holy Knight
The, as his name suggests, is responsible for assisting the Great Holy Knight with most of his responsibilities, although he often has to do so quite a distance from the Royal Capital. The Assistant Great Holy Knight is allowed to lead his own "Sub-Faction", although it usually has fewer Holy Knights than those led by the Great Holy Knight. In the past, the Assistant Great Holy Knight of Liones was Denzel.

Cardinal
Holy Knights serve directly under the Great Holy Knights and act as their assistants. They may not necessarily be stronger than Diamond ranked Holy Knights, and some cardinals are elderly knights and wizards.

Holy Knight
is a title given to well established knights that have great strength, which is equal to that of an army. They have command over ordinary knights and train apprentices to become full fledged Holy Knights. All of them are imbued with extraordinary powers, such as Gilthunder's lightning abilities and Guila's Explosion abilities.There are titles within the Holy Knight themselves, it seems the higher ranked they are, the more power they have. From the highest to lowest, these ranks are :

Apprentice Holy Knight
, as their name suggests, are apprentices and disciples of existing Holy Knights who are undergoing training to become seasoned and qualified Holy Knights. They are fairly powerful compared to ordinary knights, whom they have authorities to command over, but are still much weaker than a Holy Knight.

Holy Knights of Liones
Protectors of Kingdom of Liones; the Holy Knights prepare for the prophesied Holy War led by the Great Knight usurpers who felt the King’s benevolence would be the destruction of the kingdom. Frightened by an unknown enemy, they work the populace to their deaths so as to save them from a fate that may ultimately be nothing more than superstition.

Though the standard differs from kingdom to kingdom in Britannia, a power level of greater than 300 is required to become a Holy Knight of Liones.

Seven Deadly Sins
The were the strongest and cruelest order of Holy Knights in the Kingdom of Liones. They were formed by seven brutal criminals, who had all been convicted for grievous crimes and had carved the symbols of seven beasts onto their bodies. They were originally framed for murdering the Great Holy Knight Zaratras, and as a result were hunted. They were indefinitely disbanded, as well as branded as traitors and villains, separating from one another and forced to go into hiding. This however, was due to the treachery of the Great Holy Knights' Dreyfus and Hendrickson, as they were responsible for framing the Sins and branding as traitors in order to further their own ambitions. 10 years later, the 6 of the 7 Sins (minus Escanor) came together, stopped both of the Great Holy Knights from destroying Liones, and ultimately cleared their names of all their accused crimes. Now cleared of their accused crimes, the Sins now function independently from the rest of the Holy Knights, free to come and go from the kingdom as they please.

Four Knights of the Apocalypse
The are an order of four knights prophecized to bring complete destruction to the world as well as lead the King of Camelot, Arthur, to his ruin. Despite their identities being almost completely unknown, Holy Knights such as Ironside, Pellegarde and Talisker have begun searching the land for any possibilites as to who they may be in hopes of snuffing them out and preventing the prophecy from coming to fruition.

Each of them bears an alias corresponding to the calamity that have been prophecized to bring: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death.

Holy Knights of Danafor
The faithful knights of Danafor defended their kingdom until its last hour, but tragically fell before the might of the Demon Fraudrin of the Ten Commandments and their kingdom lost to the Dragon’s Sin, who had lost himself in his wrath. The few stragglers left fight on in Danafor’s name, but are ultimately lost without their homeland.

Holy Knights of Edinburgh
The noble knights of Edinburgh guarded their kingdom with honor and their lives but all of them were wiped out by the Vampire Clan, recently released from its seal, either massacred or being converted into vampires for the Vampire King's army and took over the Edinburgh Castle in preparation to subjugate Britannia under their rule. They were all later killed off by the Seven Deadly Sins in a epic battle.

Holy Knights of Benwick
The mysterious knights of Benwick who protect their kingdom and their rulers, king Ban and queen Elaine.

Holy Knights of Camelot
The chivalrous knights of Camelots who protect their kingdom and their king Arthur Pendragon with their lives and bravery. They helped in defense of Camelot from Albion and later against Galand of the Ten Commandments but suffered major casualties among their ranks. Sixteen years later, under the lead of their king, who seeks to save mankind from the other four races due to the belief that Humans have suffered at the hands of the other races since the ancient past to the war from sixteen years prior and even from numerous other incidents, and thus are commited to help only their own kind and to prevent the other races from abusing the human race any longer, to the point where they consider even their former allies to be a threat to their quest.

Reactors
(also referred to as "Reactor class" Holy Knights and "Demon Reactors") refers to any Holy Knight that has consumed the blood of the red demon. Those who are compatible gain new powers and have their strength greatly increased. They fall into two categories:

Old Generation
The were among Hendrickson's first creations after the discovery of the red demon's corpse. During the recovery of the corpse, hundreds of crows were found to have died after feasting on the demon's flesh. Among them were crows that had consumed the flesh and lived, only to mutate into monstrous forms. Hendrickson determined that the flesh and blood of the red demon could transform living beings and draw out immense power and so began experimenting on members within the Holy Knights. The Holy Knights that underwent these experiments were bestowed the powers of the red demon while still retaining their own powers, but were consequently transformed into mindless, grotesque monsters. Despite the experiment yielding incredibly powerful "unified beings", the Old Generation were considered a failure due to being "wild and difficult to control."

New Generation
The were the result of experimentation with the demonic blood on Apprentice Holy Knights. The apprentices that were compatible with the blood had their power greatly increased, while those that were incompatible experienced a violent death as their bodies rejected the blood and exploded. The sudden appearance of the New Generation caused a power imbalance between Dreyfus and Hendrickson, while also giving rise to suspicion within the ranks of the Holy Knights. Unlike their predecessors, the New Generation maintained their human form but could be identified by their characteristic black eyes that gave them the appearance of being possessed. While not nearly as powerful as the Old Generation, they were much easier to control and retained their sanity. A notable side effect of consuming the demon's blood was a loss of empathy and increased belligerence. This inherent hostility could be observed in many of the New Generation. Further experiments on the red demon's corpse resulted in the "deciphering of parts of dark magic", giving Hendrickson demonic magic. This power allowed him to forcefully transform the New Generation Holy Knights into demonic monsters by manipulating their feelings of frustration and inferiority, making them virtually indistinguishable from their precursors.

However, a way to revert them back to normal was discovered by Ban when he used Snatch to extract the demon plant within Jericho, freeing her from the mutation. Ban and King did the same method to every New Generation Holy Knight they find around the capital, reverting them all to normal. As a result, all New Generation Holy Knights lost their powers. Guila was the only known New Generation to have avoided gone berserk and retained her respective powers thanks to Gowther, when he changed her memories to avoid what caused the other New Generations to change into monsters.

List of Fights

 * Meliodas, Ban & Gowther vs. Holy Knights of Liones: Interrupted
 * Holy Knights of Liones vs. New Generation Holy Knight/Demon Hybrids: Won with assistance by Ban and King.
 * Holy Knights of Liones vs. Hendrickson: Lose
 * Meliodas, Diane, Merlin, Slader & the Holy Knights of Camelot vs. Galand: Lose

Trivia

 * The practice of the Reactor Holy Knights ingesting demon blood in order to enhance their powers is very similar to the Grey Wardens drinking Darkspawn's blood in the RPG series Dragon Age.
 * It is said that one Holy Knight's power alone is said to match that of an entire country's army, with the average one having a power level of 300, which is only twenty times Escanor's power level (at midnight), which seems to be very average for an adult human, which means that one Holy Knight should have the power of at least twenty or more men.
 * However, high-ranked ones such as Gilthunder and Howzer have power levels over 2,000, which would be equal to over one-hundred soldiers, and the Seven Deadly Sins all having power levels over 3,000 which would equal more than two-hundred knights.
 * The various armors with unique helmets worn by the Holy Knights (and also the Seven Deadly Sins 10 years ago) make them look like the New Band of the Hawk from Berserk which is fitting as the New Generation of Holy Knights bolster their ranks by having potential members drink Demon's blood.