>>5138907Reynauld had a nobleman's upbringing, though it was a not particularly important house and he was a middle child. He was schooled and got some martial training the average man wouldn't get. After the crusades gave him experience and trauma, he came home and slaughtered his remaining family and burnt his family home to the ground, so he didn't have much better to do than do crazy shit hoping to die from it.
When he kept surviving and noticed how much he could serve as relief to people, he figured there are wayyy better things to do than trying to die, and got himself legally certified as a knight be heading to the king's court, getting the king himself to accept it, and then getting it figured out that he can't own property anymore and doesn't pay taxes.
On a technicality, the wandering knights have their origin in the Grey Knights, which was an old order that is, by now, functionally extinct. They had a similar approach, in that the grey knight is forced to tirelessly fight for what is good, albeit in a somewhat limited moral sense. They were very black and white, and they were also forced to never accept help from anybody, which left most of them emotionally dead wrecks that would, most of the time, simply collapse rather than die to any outside threat.
They were instrumental in saving a lot of people, and after a grey knight saved a prince from a kidnapping, they also enjoyed tax benefits for the order.
The wandering knights were grandfathered in at a later date, being less of an order and more of a status. Wandering knights are generally respected, though there have been bad apples in the past, hence why either the monarch or spiritual leader of the country have to look them over and decide whether or not they can be one. The pilgrimage is considered to be part of the "initiation", so to speak, though one needs proof of several "heroic deeds", which is a bit of a tenuous thing to actually try and describe.
Grey knights are still around, but very rare. All the same, you can always assume that they're able to kick your ass.
also i stole the grey knights from this image it's from Hushabye he does good stuff look it up
