Twelve Knights

"Miracle Tou, on the Twelve Knights."

- The Twelve Knights is the name of the Queen's elite guard. Twelve excellent men who have sworn their absolute loyalty to me. Heh heh, their abilities are the very best in the world, truly worthy of being called all-stars.

About
The Twelve Knights (トゥエルヴナイト, toueruvunaito) is a hypothetical all-male elite guard that was conceived by the powerful-yet-eccentric witch Miracle Tou. Designed with the intention of serving her after she becomes queen of her own country, Miracle hand-selected twelve notable male warriors from across The Continent who she believed possessed outstanding qualities that made them worthy of serving her. While several of the individuals who Miracle desires to be a part of the group have fought alongside each other in the past, it has not at any point existed in reality, and remains exclusively within her imagination.

While the majority of the guard's members are exceptionally capable fighters, Miracle also took into account the appearance, personality and background of the individuals chosen. This was done to ensure that each person would fulfill a distinct and interesting niche within the group that would allow them to stand out when alongside the other eleven. The twelve being exclusively male was also done to create a contrast between them and their queen. As Miracle had only encountered roughly half of the men who she chose to make up the team in person, she relied largely on rumors and word of mouth regarding each of their reputations in order to evaluate whether they were worthy of being a part of it. As a result, some of her information regarding them was dated, causing her to place already deceased individuals such as Oda Nobunaga among its ranks.

Overall, Miracle prioritized unique personality and aesthetic appeal over all other qualities when deciding the twelve individuals who would make up the group. This decision caused several incredibly powerful men to be denied potential membership due to their lack of distinct or compelling characteristics. Most notably, Rick Addison, a swordsman universally recognized as one of the most powerful men alive, was firmly rejected due to being, in Miracle's words, "not interesting at all."

Miracle is extremely proud of the concept of the Twelve Knights, and looks for any opportunity she can to go into great detail about the processes she went through to decide the people who would make up the group. Her obsession reaches the point of creating a highly-detailed Magical holographic projection of the twelve standing alongside her as their queen simply for the sake of having a visual aid when telling others about it. Miracle is capable of talking about the group nonstop for hours at a time, with the only guaranteed way of making her stop being to simply walk away from her and leave her to finish ranting about it to dead air.

During the events of Rance IX, Miracle agreed to assist the Helman Revolutionary Army in its bid to overthrow the Helman Government due to her desire to scout for new talent for the Twelve Knights. In Helman, Miracle encountered the warrior Rance, who she immediately became interested in due to his uncanny ability to overturn the conventions of the world in order to achieve his desires. Miracle quickly declared Rance to be the man worthy of being the head of the Twelve Knights, and was not even slightly discouraged by his immediate refusal of the position. Miracle later described the entire structure of the group in great detail to the uninterested Rance, who instantly deemed each of the men that she had chosen besides himself as being unworthy for various petty reasons. Rance also alerted Miracle to the deaths of some of the people that she had selected, causing her to return to her search for talented and interesting individuals to fill the now vacant spaces among the knights.

In addition to the Twelve Knights, Miracle also mentions desiring to have a second, similar elite team serve under her that would be made up exclusively of interesting women. While she does not go into specific detail concerning this group, she identifies Lia Parapara Leazas, Keikoku, Minerva Margaret and Silbarrel Silbarella as being among its members.

Neo-Twelve Knights
In the year RA0009, a second incarnation of the group was formed by Miracle during the War of the Brutal King in order to combat the forces of Demon King Rance's New Monster Army, which had begun invading the Human Realm. Unlike the original, this new version of the group, dubbed the "Neo-Twelve Knights", was a legitimate elite team formed from several outstanding warriors from across the Continent united under the common goal of defeating the Demon King, and had both men and women among its ranks. Comparable in strength to the United Human Army's Dark Lord Extermination Squad formed during the 2nd Dark Lord War, Miracle's dream of commanding humanity's strongest was finally made a reality.

While not all of the Neo-Twelve Knights' members are known, it included exceptionally high caliber warriors such as Patton Helman, who Miracle had previously desired to be a part of the original Twelve Knights, the world's strongest martial artist Alexander, the world's greatest adventurer Arms Arc, the orphan-turned-adventurer and then-wielder of the Dark Sword Chaos Karma Atranger, the young heir of the Yamamoto family Yamamoto Rangi, and Bishop Mi Lordring of the AL Church. Rick Addison, who had been firmly rejected from the group's first incarnation, was also notably incorporated into its ranks. Additionally, other outstanding warriors such as British, the former leader of the renowned adventuring party the Legendary Five, were known to have played active roles during the war, though whether they were actual members of the Neo-Twelve Knights or simply cooperated with the group is unknown.

The Neo-Twelve Knights proved to be a formidable defense against the Monsters, pressuring Demon King Rance to create four entirely new Dark Lords for the sole purpose of opposing them. The group clashed against these newly-created Dark Lords countless times, successfully fending off their attacks at every turn. In spite of its best efforts, however, the Neo-Twelve Knights struggled to land a decisive victory over the New Monster Army, causing the war to rage on with no clear end in sight.

After over a year of fighting, the Neo-Twelve Knights carried out its final strategy to defeat Rance. Using a mysterious being known as SBR, the group was able to momentarily paralyze the brutal Demon King, granting his daughter and the owner of the miraculous Hand of Klausen Reset Kalar enough time to slap him. Reset's slap allowed Rance to be temporarily freed from the corrupting influence of the Demonic Blood Pool, returning him to his usual personality. With his sanity restored, Rance ordered the forces of the Monster Realm to retreat, ending the war in the process.

Following the end of the war, the Neo-Twelve Knights disbanded. The group's members were revered as heroes for their contributions toward protecting mankind, with each becoming a legendary figure in their own right.

Trivia

 * According to Orion, the Rance Series' lead artist, both Crook Mofus and Am Isuel were invited to join the Neo-Twelve Knights, but Crook turned down both offers. Orion also noted that he wanted Pigu Geliciam, Lia Parapara Leazas, and Sheila Helman to be a part of the group but that their inclusion had not yet been officially decided.
 * Arios Theoman's appearance among the Twelve Knights in Miracle's hologram marks the first time that his likeness ever appeared in a canonical game in the Rance Series.
 * Both Sanada Tourin and Pitten Chao's codenames in the group reference the nickname of their respective Mamatoto counterparts. Tourin's name, "Forest Dragoon", is similar to Stourin Wald's nickname of "The One-Eyed Ice Dragon" with the original element of ice being replaced by the forest, the element of Fuurinkazan that Tourin represents. Pitten's name, "Perfect Gold", is merely a shortened version of the Mamatoto version of Pitten's nickname of "The Perfect Golden Knight".
 * The earliest draft of the picture depicting the Twelve Knights featured both male and female members, and included the characters Athena 1.0, Dark Rance, British, Am Isuel, Uesugi Kenshin, Keikoku and Caloria Cricket in place of Patton, Gandhi, Rolex, Pitten, Tourin, Souun and Ithere.