Loss of your Imperial Knight

[KnightEagle]

I was just wondering if there is any lore behind what happens to a knight pilot who survives the destruction of his/her imperial knight? I have found nothing personally and was after it for a personal lore project.

[YorkNecromancer]

I've not read owt.

To be honest with you, does it matter? Go with whatever story you already have in mind. I'd personally imagine it varied from world to world, house to house, and whether the Knight in question came from an AdMech house or one of the Imperial ones. Most likely there's a variety of opinions. Some probably view their Knights as ancient family heirlooms, telling stories about them in the same way people nowadays talk about katanas ([url=http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/katanas-are-underpowered-in-d20]I heard that katanas are so amazing they can cut through tank armour.[/url]). Others (more AdMech in flavour) probably see them as shrines/holy icons; the Omnissiah given form. There's a good chance that some simply view their Knights as materiel, much like modern armies view tanks; impressive tanks, but tanks all the same.

I imagine the pilot who loses their Knight probably gets treated according to the corresponding outlook. It seems unlikely that death would be the punishment - training in operating a Knight chassis has to be a tricky skill, after all, and you don't waste valuable resources. More likely it would be something from loss of face (that's 'face' as in reputation, not flesh) amongst Knightly houses; some kind of religious castigation from the AdMech; possibly nothing at all beyond a weary 'That's war; now shut up and get into this mech' from the more pragmatic houses.

Just go with whatever interests/seems most plausible to you. Never let the fluff get in the way of a good story.

[DWest]

One thing to consider though, is the psychic imprint of the former pilots upon a Knight. Unless our hypothetical pilot's new ride was a totally new, blank chassis, s/he would have to contest with those imprints to take control of the new machine, a feat which the pilot might not be capable of performing. By the same token, being linked to the imprints in the original Knight when it died messily might leave the pilot burnt out and unable to connect to a new machine, if not dead.

[Badtucker]

are knight pilots psychic? ive not read anything to suggest they are anything other than controlling a big machine. The fluff states they are just interfaced with the knight an become one with it when piloting.

[DWest]

Not psychic as in Psykers, but the previous pilots leave a definite impression with in the Throne Mechanicus, and these "spirits" (for lack of a better term) are shown to judge the current pilot and either help or hinder according to their impressions of him/her.

[Just_Me]

The new Knight Codex alludes to this in passing, mentioning a Knight (which one escapes my memory at the moment) who is described as one of the few to successfully complete the Ritual of Becoming again.

This suggests that a Knight must effectively start over by bonding with a new mount. This is likely to be uncommon for a number of reasons. One can imagine that there are very few circumstances where a Knight Armour is destroyed beyond repair while its pilot escapes. Furthermore, extrapolating from the bonds between Titan Princeps and their Engines (and assuming the Knight bond is very similar) catastrophic damage and/or failure of the war engine has a good chance of causing fatal neurological feedback damage to the Princeps, infact it seems that this is a far more likely occurrence than actual destruction of the Engine itself. So not only would the Knight pilot have to survive physical damage sufficient to render their Engine irreparable but also the neurological trauma of the damage to the Knight. Finally, there would have to be an available Knight Engine for the pilot to bond with. It also is not unreasonable to assume (although there is no direct evidence of this) that re-bonding might be more difficult as the Knight has become neurologically shaped to his original mount, making a successful bond to a new mount less likely.

How an individual Knight was regarded or treated by his house after surviving the destruction of his mount would likely depend on the house and the individual circumstances of the loss. On the whole Knight Households are universally honor based warrior societies, so as long as the loss of the Knight engine was not perceived to dishonor the pilot (and assuming there were a mount available) then they would likely be afforded the chance attempt the bond again.

Now, this is where the story telling opportunities come into play. A Knight might undertake some form of penance, either self imposed or mandated by his house culture, to atone for the loss of his mount. He might be viewed with distrust or perceived to be unlucky (or lucky) by his fellows, etc.