“
It took people with clear minds, great ingenuity, and implacable spirit to face down and defeat one of the living trains of Sangfielle. In the time since, they’ve crafted armor from their slain foe, and with that have come to be experts of all things train. They herd, they breach, they redirect. But they haven’t yet killed a second.”
The Shape Knights are a loose group of people dedicated to the study and use of trains.
Pickman is a Shape Knight. Other known Shape Knights include Big Bucho, the Bell Metal Band, and Alekest san Geraint.
Organization[edit | edit source]
Shape Knights are loosely affiliated, similar to a bounty hunter guild rather than a formal organization.[1] Their relationship with trains has been described variously as that of cowboys to their livestock, medieval knights to dragons,[2] and a mountain climber to a mountain:[1] it is generally antagonistic, but many hold a deep respect for the power of the Shape, and are often more attempting to get something useful from the trains or keep people safe in interacting with them than aiming only to harm.
Shape Knights are typically organized into small gangs or bands,[2] though a number work alone. These operate in specific regional territories, and typically know each other by reputation — though that might not be a positive one. However, they are very insular and value the group extremely highly, considering it taboo to attack another Shape Knight.[3] Summoning or working with trains is heresy, and may result in reprisal.[4]
The Train They Killed[edit | edit source]
Some years ago, the Shape Knights made an enormous, multidisciplinary effort to trap and kill a single train (a powerful one, as of yet unnamed), taking decades and collaborating with many other individuals and organizations, such as the Telluricist Union. The end result involved catching it in earthworks[2] and essentially destroyed almost everything aboard.[5]
The train's corpse is kept somewhere closely guarded. Over time, it is slowly being stripped to build the Shape Knights' characteristic armor, as well as some notable weapons such as Pickman's espignol.