Hello-- I posted this same question on the Elder Scrolls Wiki board a couple of days ago (apologies to anyone who reads both boards), but I see this forum is much more active and stands a better chance of someone being able to answer the question).

In the online guides and docs for Daggerfall, much attention is paid to the individual knightly guilds of each temple (Knights Mentor for Julianos, Maran Knights for Mara, Order of the Lily for Dibella, etc.) versus the actual knightly orders in some kingdoms (Knights of the Wheel, Order of the Raven...). It's easy enough to find the kingdom knightly orders and join them, but I've never been able to figure out how to join an order of temple knights. I know they're treated like the temple as far as ranks and benefits go, but how exactly can you join one instead of joining the temple itself? I've talked to everyone in the temple and every offer to join just puts me into the general 'temple membership' category. Can a player actually join a temple knight guild? If so, how? Who do I talk to, or how do I join that part of the temple instead of the general category?

Hoping someone's got an answer, since for RP purposes I'd like a character who's a temple knight and not a worshiper. Thanks!

In terms of gameplay you can only join guilds which offer quests and let you advance in rank and use privileged services. Every other organization is a faction and you can only influence them by getting good reputation with their allies and being hated by their enemies. For what i know that won't affect the game much except for the way you receive greetings of if some people will refuse to talk to you with a nasty message.

The individual temple knightly orders were some of the many factions that never fully made it into the game, most likely due to time restraints. The Mages guild was supposed to have their own knight-like protectors as well, but they also never made it.

If you use a reputation editor you can see a crap load of factions and sub factions for each guild/kingdom that one can assume at some point were going to be fleshed out and fully implemented in the game. Kind of makes you wish they delayed the game a few more months.

if i remember correctly the order of the lamp was supposed to be the mage protectors. but i can be wrong though, its been years since i read those old discussion posts.

Ok, so, the online guides like the Elder Scrolls wiki and Beginner's Guide to Daggerfall are just being hopeful when they mention joining temple knightly guilds instead of the temple itself. That's too bad-- another good idea they had that never was implemented. Even though I love Daggerfall, I agree they dropped too many good ideas by rushing it out too early.
I'll just join the temple itself and pretend to be one of their knights, if that's the best the game allows!

Here's the deal with the Temple Knights (or Templar orders, as I call them)

If you join the temple, you joined the military arm as well, and vice versa because they are the same faction. You CAN find Templar guildhalls, such as the Stendar's Knights of Iron located in Sentinel City. However, they are exactly the same as the temple guildhall in all but name. They offer the same services and draw from the same quest pool.

It's unfortunate, but they just weren't fully implemented.Guildhalls exist, but they are difficult to find, as even asking for them under the kingdom-wide "regional" topic, they fall under "Temple of ___" and don't have their own entry. The best you could do is travel to a city and look at the options for local temples.

As for the mages guild, there are specific types of quests assigned by the guild (particularly guard duty) which marginally increase your reputation with the Order of the Lamp. You still cannot join it officially.

Aha-- that's actually a better answer than I hoped. I went to Sentinel and checked, and there is indeed a Knights of Iron outpost there. Yes, it's really just another Temple of Zen under another name, and inside there's no difference in services, but for RP, actually having some temple knights to join is useful. Now I just have to find some of those outposts in other cities, and for different temples. Thanks!