Holy Knight

The Holy Knight is a class introduced in TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga and reappearing in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It is a horse-riding, magic-using Master-level class who defends themselves with swords or lances, as well as using their Light/Faith magic to both smite their enemies and heal, and support, their allies.

Overview[]

TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga[]

The class is associated with the Shining Knights, the guards of the apostle, and were led by Denimud, the husband of Silpha and the father of Sanacia. When apostle Silpha was assassinated, the knights were informed by the page Paramythis that the killers were sent by King Mordias IV himself, and not by the Raze Empire as officially claimed. Outraged, the knights turned against the king; the resulting conflict lasted for several years and ended with almost all of the knights exterminated.

In gameplay, it has the distinction of being the only mounted class that can also use magic. Additionally, it has better mobility than nearly all other mounted classes; it possesses the Light Cavalry movement type when mounted, and the Light Infantry movement type while dismounted. The player can recruit only one Holy Knight in the lategame, Paramythis.

A male version of the class exists within the game, and is distinguished by its ability to use Anima magic. However, it is not encountered in battle and only used by certain NPCs during cutscenes. Interestingly, none of the NPCs assigned the male version of the class are members of the Shining Knights.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses[]

On paper, Holy Knights can be considered the promoted form of Paladins and Bishops and are the white magic counterpart of the Dark Knight, allowing them to do two jobs at once, that being supporting their allies and attacking enemies.

In practice, Holy Knights try to do these two jobs and excel at neither of them. Being closer to Paladins in terms of abilities with Lancefaire being swapped out for White Tomefaire but functioning more like Bishops stat-wise, Holy Knights do not have the same class abilities that allows Bishops the ability to support their allies as well as they do since Holy Knights don't have double the amount of white magic charges nor can they bolster their healing capabilities that Bishops can do. In terms of offense, they are also outclassed by their Dark Knight counterpart, as White Tomefaire is much less useful on the basis of there being only 4 offensive White Magic spells, which means many candidates for Holy Knight rely on solely Nosferatu for White magic damage, while Lysithea is the only character to learn two additional unique offensive white magic spells besides Nosferatu. Overall, this class being designed for offensive white magic makes it largely inferior to classes designed for healing and support, in which white magic has more utility, or attacking, of which black magic has more options.

However, the Holy Knight is not without usefulness. A saving grace of the class is that, as a mounted class, it is able to traverse most battlefields nearly twice as far as a Bishop which is still limited by its poor movement, allowing the Holy Knight to reach other units that the Bishop may not be able to get to in time, and even when unmounted they are still able to cross the terrain quicker (unless it's the rare sand tiles that the Bishop has no problem crossing). Canto still provides the class much utility, being able to either attack or heal and then either retreat or carry onward to further allies or foes. The Holy Knight also possesses an overall higher stat boost total that is only lacking in magic and resistance when compared to the Bishop, possessing better boosts in HP, Strength, Speed, and Defense. Growth rate-wise, they are only inferior in speed while surpassing the Bishop in both Defense and Resistance, giving units more potential to grow out more durable, especially if those units carried over from the Paladin class which is the easiest class to reach Holy Knight from. Its weapon proficiencies also provide it unique niches compared to the Bishop; the Bishop is a purely magical-oriented class, meaning that its users are barred from the Gauntlet weapon types (something that Holy Knights can wield provided that they dismount beforehand), and with no proficiency boost in any physical weapons users are primarily left with mostly magic to deal with enemies (and given the majority of users meant strictly for this class are physically poor this cannot be ignored). The Holy Knight's proficiency in lances gives its users a quicker way to learn abilities and combat skills tied to the lance, including the potent Swordbreaker, Knightkneeler, and prowess Lv.1-5 as options, and as a mounted class it naturally accrues mounted proficiency points quickly to learn Movement +1, giving it twice as much battlefield coverage than the Bishop when mounted.

All in all, while the Holy Knight is not as potent in Faith as the Bishop it is still a competent class that can provide users with a slew of unique advantages that help it keep up with other classes.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes[]

The Holy Knight appears in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, where it serves as a promotion of the Paladin and wields lances while being capable of using magic.

Its moveset is almost identical to that of the Dark Knight, with the main difference between them being their heavy use of the light element in attacks as opposed to the myriad of elements the Dark Knight can pull off. The Holy Knight's class action attack is a charge attack akin to the Lightstrike Combat Art, which lasts as long as there is meter.

In-Game[]

Base Stats[]

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv	Cha
FE16	32	8	15	14	16	12	13	16	7	-	-	C B+ A	0

Growth Rates[]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses[]

HP	Str	Mag	Dex	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Cha
10/35%	0%	10/20%	0%	-5/0%	10%	5%	10/50%	10%	+3 +3 +3

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes[]

Class Modifiers[]

Class Skills[]

	Skill	Requirements
FE16	Canto White Tomefaire Terrain Resistance Defiant Resistance	Class Ability of Holy Knights. Class Ability of Holy Knights. Class Ability of Holy Knights. Mastery Ability of Holy Knights.
FEW3H	White Magic+ Terrain Resistance Sword Buster Lv 4 Swordbreaker Lightstrike Adjutant's Benefit Cyclical Awakening United Front Airshaker Shatter Slash Defiant Res Nullify Cavalry Effect Shining Guardian Range Master Exalted Breath	Class ability. Class ability. Class ability. 1-star Class Mastery for certain units. 1-star Class Mastery for all units. 2-star Class Mastery for certain units. 2-star Class Mastery for certain units. 2-star Class Mastery for certain units. 2-star Class Mastery for certain units. 2-star Class Mastery for certain units. 3-star Class Mastery for certain units. 3-star Class Mastery for certain units. 3-star Class Mastery for certain units. Innate Ability for certain units. Innate Ability for certain units.

Promotions[]

	Base Class	Promotion Method	Promoted Class
FE16	Any class	Use a Master Seal on a Level 30+ unit and pass the Holy Knight Certification Exam.	Holy Knight
FEW3H	Paladin	Use a Master Seal on a unit that has mastered the Paladin class.	Holy Knight

Notable Holy Knights[]

TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga[]

• Paramythis: The guardian of Apostle Sanacia, and one of the last Shining Knights.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses[]

• Rodrigue: Head of House Fraldarius and Felix's father.
• Daphnel: One of the Ten Elites, original bearer of the Crest of Daphnel, and founder of House Daphnel.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes[]

• Jeralt: Former captain of the Knights of Seiros.

Gallery[]

Concept artwork of the male Holy Knight class from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Concept artwork of the female Holy Knight class from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Mercedes as a Holy Knight in Three Houses.