Order of the Cup

The Order of the Cup is a Danaan order of chivalry stretching all the way back to the reign of High King Gawen I. The membership of the Order is rather limited and there are rarely more than one hundred members at any given time. Members of the Order have precedence below that of peers but above knights of any other order. Membership is granted by the Sovereign alone, without binding advice from either Cabinet Ministers nor officers of the court. In theory, membership is based purely on virtue. In reality, this is only half true. In most cases, a future member must have some position of aristocratic prominence for the Sovereign to notice his virtue, although there have been a few exceptions to this rule. However, virtue, as conceived by the Order, is truly a strict requirement. Members are required to hold themselves to a strict code of honor and the Sovereign, who heads the Order as the Knight Peerless, does not hesitate to expel members who violate this code. Individual members are known as Knights if male or Dame if female and are addressed as Sir or Lady.

The Order of the Cup competes with one other major Danaan order of chivalry, the Order of Steel. The Danaan Sovereign also sometimes simply creates Knights (or Dames) of the Realm. Men and women honored with such a title receive knightly rank without any of the requirements of membership in a specific order.