Knights/Squires

Make up your own knight order. I did, and no one has ever lynched me when they overheard my character mention it.

So, the reason classic medieval "knights" don't exist in GW2's human society is because Kryta is not a feudal society. The King / Queen does not hand down land in return for military service. Rather human nobles tend to be land-owners who function as electoral for the Ministry. Nobles are elected from their territories as representatives, rather than in the more outdated Medieval sense of raising levies, and acting as soldiers. Kryta has a standing army, making that sort of thing completely superfluous.

In historical equivalent, Kryta is more akin to 16/17th Century England, than it is to feudalism.

As far as I know, the best way to have the archetype knight still exist without making anything up outside the strict lore is to roleplay a (non-Ministry) noble serving in the Seraph as an officer, attended by an aide-de-camp, who would perform similar duties as a squire. Since Seraph officers still functionally carry the same equipment as medieval knights, and perform roughly the same military function, this would be an appropriate lore-friendly equivalent of what you're looking for. You even get the added bonus of directly serving the Queen!
This does, however, naturally restrict your jurisdiction, and playing field.

Or you could, indeed, go "fuck it, we'll do it live", and make up your own thing. "Guilds" themselves have a strong historical connotation, and it is not unreasonable to have an "Knightly Guild" with a long history going back to the actual Guild Wars having Knights and squires, and the entire thing. You could found your own quasi-templar order as a Guild, and be entirely lore-compliant.

I created something similar, where instead of knights it's more a collective of Mercs helping the people of Tyria not just for coin but for more idealistic reasons. I would say making a guild of crusaders that help people in the name of Dwyana is more than reasonable, I would create something separate from a lore faction, only because it will work against you in the long run.

It just gives you and your guildies more creative freedom.

Very well, I alter my statement to "Are rare and do not command much deference."


Indeed, he's one example of a hedge knight. However he is not a common sight, at least not enough to suggest that there exists a level of nobility below "Lord" of any status. Hedge knights by definition are often poor and masterless, so having the funds and the influence to do what the OP is suggesting is unlikely. Arguably Hedge Knights would make perfect Mercenary leaders though. Masterless men getting rich fast by their sword. If such a mercenary wished to stylize themselves as Knight or Ser, who would challenge them? If they wanted to uphold a code of honour and go around declaring holy wars, there's a market for that... I maintain that a Mercenary guild is the best outlet for this.

Knights don't need to declare a holy war or cause though...

So in the most recent living story Lord Faren shows up with a host of krytan... Recruits ? Not seraph or seraph recruits but just recruits. These people carry improvised weapons (at least i saw a improvised shield) and does not wear seraph uniforms.. I immediately assumed that these are indeed Lord Faren's levies that he raised to defend Krytas interests.. Nothing prevents a country from having a small standing army for everyday needs and a larger conscription army you can draft up when shit hits the fan

I mean, thanks for the necro, and you're not even correct.

Taimi's dialogue during Forewarned is Forearmed explicitly states these are volunteer citizens of Amnoon.

Source.

Oh okay i did not remember that dialogue, i did also not state it as a fact i wrote that i (as in i personally) assumed those were levies, sorry about the necro i thought i had something new to contribute with clearly i was wrong