Knights

A Knight is a human bonded to a Knight's Emblem--a powerful Artefact with a powerful fairy spirit bound inside that gives the Knight who holds it access to the powers of the bound spirit inside.

Knight's Emblems
Knight's Emblems are fairly rare, and creating a new one requires not only several powerful magic-users, but a powerful Fairy who can be bound to the Artefact. The spirits that are Bound this way vary in how they were Bound--some agreed to it as part of a Contract, others were tricked into it, and still others were dangerous Fairies who forced into being Bound to the Emblem as a means of imprisoning or sealing them away.

Titles
Each Knight's Emblem has a particular Title associated with it, and the current owner of that Emblem is also the holder of that Title. Examples of a Knight's Title are the Knight of Mirrors, the Knight of Sunflowers, or the Knight of Vectors.

A Knight's Title represents the domain of magic that the Knight has power over. However a Knight's Title can be broadly interpreted, and often has meaning beyond the strictest or most obvious interpretation. For example, the Knight of Mirrors's domains include literal mirrors, reflection and anything that reflects, as well as divination and mimicry.

Synchronization
A Knight's Power has a lot to do with their own personal power, but it is even more based on how in-sync the Knight is with the Bound Spirit inside. This can be dangerous for Knights whose fey were bound to seal away a dangerous fairy. At the first level of Synchronization, a Knight becomes capable of Transformation, which allows a Knight to alter their bodies into a partially fey form, with the requisite invulnerability and increase in physical capabilities. This is accompanied by a suitable set of Raiment that tends to reflect both the personality of the Knight and the nature of her power.

As Synchronization increases, a transformed Knight becomes more and more fey. When Synchronization is near perfect a Knight can even fuse with the Spirit of her Emblem, calling upon its full power for a short time.

While a Bound Spirit is obligated to observe the successor selected by the owner of her Emblem when that owner retires or dies, she is not obligated to synchronize with a Knight she doesn't respect. A Knight who can't transform is capable of some level of magic, but is not seen as a true Knight--as such, most Knights who are incapable of Synchronizing will eventually pass the Emblem on to a new successor.

This is also the reason all Knights are female. Because all true Fairies are female, they refuse (more or less out of pride, rather than any real biological or even psychological reason) to synchronize with males. MtF transexuals might be accepted by a Bound Spirit (and FtM transexuals might be refused), but it varies from spirit to spirit. The point is appeasing the spirit inside the Emblem.

Familiars
When a Knight's synchronization with her Bound Spirit is strong enough, she becomes capable of manifesting a Familiar. The Familiar will be a sort of reflection of the Bound Spirit within the Knight's Emblem. The Familiar is actually a reflection of the Knight's inner self, rather than of the Bound Spirit itself, but as synchronicity increases, parts of the Bound Spirit do begin to seep in to the Familiar. At some point a Bound Spirit might be able to speak to her Knight through the familiar.

Succession
Because Knights are among the most powerful magic-users humanity is capable of producing, the Crown Princess of the City of the Fireflies is always a Knight. When a Queen retires or dies, a Succession is called for. When this happens, all active Knights are promoted to Princesses, and begin taking part in duels to determine the strongest Princess. A defeated Princess loses her Princess status, and can no longer take part in duels.

However, a Princess may accept a defeated Knight as a Vassal. Vassals are allowed to take part in duels, but their victories count as victories for their Lady, rather than for themselves. Duels can be either one-on-one, or a Princess and all her Vassals against another Princess and all her Vassals. Duels to the death are forbidden, and relatively easy to prevent, anyway--until a Knight's morale is used up, she is effectively indestructible, so duels are considered to end when all of the opponents are forced to de-transform.