Re: [GZG] Knights of St John Re: Please ignore previous on Knights...

["K.H.Ranitzsch" <kh.ranitzsch@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Funny, how some minds think alike. I had very similar ideas about 
Knights of St.John for the Tuffleyverse, right down to their use of FSE 
ships with beam weaponry :-)

Unfortunately, the project never progressed very far beyond painting up 
a few GZG Nuns with guns in appropiately coloured armour and designing a 
"Non-Maltese" cross for them.

I have restored the webpage with their pictures:
http://kh-ranitzsch.homepage.t-online.de/gallery/sf_nuns.html


David Stokes schrieb:
> Sorry to cause confusion. The Knights of St John are also known as the 
> Hospitilers or the Knights of Malta. They are still in existence today, 
> with several affiliated groups in various countries. The Templars were 
> the other main group of crusader knights. 

And, of courese, the Teutonic Knights.

> The Knights of St John (I refer to them as such since they are no longer 
> based on Malta and no longer run the hospital in Jerusalem) 

Though they and their associated organisations still run a lot of 
hospital, first-aid organisations and charities in many places, so 
"Hospitallers" doesn't seem inappropiate for me.

> My plans for them in the Tuffleyverse build on their current operations 
> and their history. They will operate hospital ships evacuating 
> casualties from war zones during the Solar Wars, and patrol shipping 
> lanes against pirates, especially those with connections to the IF. Once 
> the Kra'vak War starts they see their sacred role as protecting humanity 
> and turn their small but potent force to striking Kra'vak incursions. I 
> foresee a siege of their fortified base world analogous to the Turkish 
> siege of Malta, and strikes at the Kra'vak lines of supply during the 
> attack on Sol.

Their military ground forces would act to support their relief 
operations and those of other aid operators, especially protecting them 
against crime and petty warlord interference.

> Diplomatically, I see them as officially neutral but not equally 
> friendly with all human powers, and relations cut across the typical 
> fault lines. Most friendly with the FSE. Good relations also, 
> ironically, with the NSL, although the NSL sometimes complains about the 
> being too close to the FSE. Cordial, but not warm, relations with the 
> NAC - still haven't quite gotten over the whole Church of England thing, 
> but some of their largest individual donors are NAC subjects. Fairly 
> frosty relations with the ESU, and all but outright hostile with the IF. 
> (yes, I'm building an IF fleet).

In the Tuffelyverse, they would nominally be subject to the Pope, but 
they have a very independent mind of their own, and it is unlikely Pope 
Sophia II could force them to do anything they don't want to do.

Even today, they are nominally a sovereign organization, not subject to 
a state, and indeed there are some countries that recognize them as an 
independent "states". In Prague, for example, they have a very nice embassy.

Greetings
Karl Heinz

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