The Magic Knights 「魔法騎士 Mahō Kishi」 are members of the Clover Kingdom's nine squads of mages who serve as protectors of the country. They are led by the Wizard King.^[1]

Overview

The Clover Kingdom's Magic Knights are an organization where selected mages enter and become part of the kingdom's military as a Magic Knight. The organization has a noble duty, protecting the kingdom from various threats, such as invasions from foreign countries, as well as from local crimes within the kingdom itself.^[1] These duties are treated as missions which can be accomplished by any Magic Knights, where they could nominate themselves for the duty, or be nominated by a higher ranked Magic Knight.^[2]

Due to the Magic Knights' duties, which are focused on combat-based missions, members of the Magic Knights must possess a high amount of magic power and be well-versed in combat.^[3] Thus, membership and leadership of the Magic Knights are dominated by the nobility of the Clover Kingdom, because they often produce mages with high magical powers and talents. However, this fact does not hinder commoners of lesser status to enter the organization, as the Magic Knights arrange an annual Magic Knights Entrance Exam, in which everyone could participate for a chance to be inducted into one of the Magic Knights' squads.^[4] Royals are exempt from the exam since they typically join their families' respective squads; they can, however, choose from the other squads and have their relatives vouch for them.^[5]

Although the Magic Knights are seen as heroes by almost all of Clover's inhabitant, many become Magic Knights seeking only personal achievement and glories, as noted by Julius Novachrono. Nobles become Magic Knights just to feed their own egos, and many commoners seek to become Magic Knights just to get money and live an easy life and are not motivated by a genuine desire to protect people. Due to this, many Magic Knights abuse their status and authority for their own benefit, sometimes being even more dangerous to Clover's citizens than the criminals they're supposed to protect people from. A good example of this can be seen with Zara Ideale, who, although he was a great man who prioritized the protection of civilians above his own glory, was betrayed and killed by his own squadmates, simply for being a peasant but still acted like a true Magic Knight. His son, Zora Ideale, has also witnessed several times how corrupt the Magic Knights really are, many of them not giving a damn about the safety of the people, especially the commoners. However, there are still many Magic Knights who are truly honorable and noble, who seek above all else to protect their country and its people.

Merits

The Wizard King awards gold stars to individual Magic Knights and teams of Knights who have demonstrated exceptional performance in the field. Black stars are awarded for failed missions or poor performances, such as damaging towns they were meant to defend, and count against the squad's total.^[6] The number of stars awarded for a mission depends on the difficulty or significance of the accomplishment.^[7] These stars, regardless of which squad member earned them, serve as a means to measure the strength of the squad as a whole. Additionally, at the end of the year period, which is determined as the beginning of April until the end of March of the following year, the Star Awards Festival is held to celebrate their achievements and determine the best squad based on which squad has the most stars.^[8]

Furthermore, being a Magic Knight is considered as an occupation by the kingdom. Thus, every Magic Knight receives a salary on a regular basis, which is usually distributed by captains of their respective squads.^[9] Apparently, the higher the rank of a Magic Knight, the greater your salary and your privileges.

Ranks

Members of the Magic Knights are differentiated through ranks, which represent their status within the organizations. The Magic Knights' ranks are as follows:

1. Wizard King 「魔法帝 Mahōtei」
2. Grand Magic Knight 「大魔法騎士 Dai Mahō Kishi」
3. Senior Magic Knight 「上級魔法騎士 Jōkyū Mahō Kishi」
4. Intermediate Magic Knight 「中級魔法騎士 Chūkyū Mahō Kishi」
5. Junior Magic Knight 「下級魔法騎士 Kakyū Mahō Kishi」

The leader of the Magic Knights, the Wizard King, is the highest rank in the organization. Below the Wizard King status, members of the Magic Knights are divided into four other ranks, each of which (with the notable exception of Grand Magic Knight) is further divided into five classes, with the 1st class as the highest and the 5th class as the lowest.

All Magic Knights start at the lowest rank of 5th Class Junior upon joining the organization. It seems that this occurs regardless of the knight's social status, as was shown with Noelle who also started in that position, despite being royalty.

A promotion to a higher rank is possible for every Magic Knight based on their performance, which is represented by the number of stars they had collected. Knights who are aiming to get a promotion need to collect a certain number of stars before the annual War Merits Conferment Ceremony to be considered for a promotion.^[10]

Squads

Members of the Magic Knights are divided into nine different squads, each of which is led by a Grand Magic Knight that has been bestowed authority as the captain 「団長 danchō」 of the squad.^[1][11] These captains have broad authority within their respective squads and over the recruitment of new members.^[12] Each squad possesses their own insignia in correspondence to the squad's name, as well as signature robes that easily differentiate members of one squad from another.^[13] Upon taking over, a new captain is allowed to change part of the squad's name and insignia.^[5]

Additionally, all squads compete with one another in order to see which squads are the best. The ranks are determined by the cumulative amount of stars that the members of a squad have collected as a whole.^[9]

The nine squads of the Magic Knights are as follows:

Squad	Insignia	Captain	Stars
Golden Dawn		Yuno Grinberryall	125[14] 70;[6] 96[14]
Black Bull		Nacht Faust	101[15] 0;[16] -30;[9] -50[17]
Silver Eagle		Nozel Silva	95[18] 88[17]
Blue Rose		Charlotte Roselei	83[18] 7X[17]
Crimson Lion		Fuegoleon Vermillion	76[18] 93[17]
Green Mantis		Jack the Ripper	69[18] 6X[17]
Coral Peacock		Dorothy Unsworth	67[18] 51[17]
Purple Orca		Kaiser Granvorka	51[18] 7X[17]
Aqua Deer		Rill Boismortier	49[18] 53[17]

Royal Castle Knights

The Royal Castle Knights 「王城騎士隊 Ōjō Kishi-tai」 are a special group of Magic Knights tasked with protecting the front gates of Clover Castle. It is composed of Knights from the Crimson Lion and Silver Eagle squads.^[19]

Royal Knights

The Royal Knights 「王撰騎士団（ロイヤルナイツ） Roiyaru Naitsu」 are an elite squad of Magic Knights specially chosen by Augustus Kira Clover XIII. Their singular mission is to attack and defeat the Eye of the Midnight Sun.^[20]

Special Reserve Corps

The Special Reserve Corps 「特別遊軍 Tokubetsu Yūgun」 is Yami Sukehiro's personal squad that he makes after Asta becomes Wizard King.^[21]

Notable Events

• Magic Knights Entrance Exam 「魔法騎士団入団試験 Mahō Kishi-dan Nyūdan Shiken」: As noted above, the entrance exam is an event that the Magic Knights Squads organize to select potential recruits for the organization. The exam is open to all mages across the Clover Kingdom, regardless of their social statuses. During this event, all nine captains are in attendance to observe the participants, as they would personally select the new recruits whom they wish to induct to their ranks.^[4] Members of royalty are exempt from taking the exam and instead they are immediatly accepted in one of the squads, for instance, Noelle Silva was accepted by Yami Sukehiro in the Black Bull squad before the exam even began.

• War Merits Conferment Ceremony 「戦功叙勲式 Senkō Jokun-shiki」: As mentioned above, the ceremony is an annual event where Knights with high achievements are promoted to a higher rank and decorated with a medal. In order to participate in this ceremony, every Knight must collect a specific number of stars of excellence before the ceremonial date.^[10]

• Star Awards Festival 「星果祭 Seika-sai」: As noted above, the festival is an annual event where Knights and citizens alike celebrate the accomplishments that the Magic Knights have achieved during the one-year period from March to April of the following year. At the end, an announcement ceremony is held to determine the squad with the highest number accumulated stars, which will be awarded as the best squad of the year.^[8]

Members

Base of Operations

The main headquarters of the Magic Knights lies within the Clover Kingdom's Royal Capital.^[22] Each squad has their own base, which are spread out in various locations.

Trivia

• If a captain feels that they are no longer right for the position, then they have the right to step down and choose their successor.^[23]
• The Black Bull and Golden Dawn squads are the youngest squads as they were created at the same time, just a few years before the start of the series, this could mean that before, there were only seven squads or less in the Magic Knights.
• The 27th Wizard King, Conrad Leto was captain of the White Serpent squad.^[24] It is unknown what happened to this squad since then.

References

Navigation

Magic Knights Squads
Golden Dawn • Silver Eagle • Crimson Lion • Blue Rose • Coral Peacock Aqua Deer • Green Mantis • Purple Orca • Black Bull
Royal Knights • White Serpent