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 are 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 in any way, and exists exclusively in 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 in order 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 her creation 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 shake the foundations of the Continent with his every action. 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.

Trivia

 * Arios Theoman's appearance among the Twelve Knights in Miracle's hologram marks the first time that his likeness has 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".