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Our Angels Are Different: Seraphim in V have Flaming Swords and blood-stained wings!. Medieval European Fantasy: Their general aesthetic. Light Is Not Good: Especially pronounced from the fifth game onward. Light 'em Up: Particularly in V, VI and VII, where they worship the literal Crystal Dragon Jesus of Light, Elrath. Knight Templar: Unfortunately, plenty of this as well. Knight in Shining Armor: A whole faction of them, at least when they are not being. Jack of All Stats: From III onwards - cheap, relatively powerful in magic, loads of shooting, flying and defensive units, and powerful heroes. Humans Are Average: Very prominent in the first games, where they were "average" to the point of being underpowered, but even in the latter ones, they are typically the most balanced, Jack of All Stats faction. Holy Hand Grenade: Though their magic is mostly focused on healing and defense, it's also useful against Demons and Undead. The Hero: The main characters of their campaigns are typically this. Guardian Angel: Their racial ability in VI, making a stack impervious to all harm for one turn. Good Wings, Evil Wings: Angels are generally depicted with white bird wings, but the Seraphim in V's expansion packs have blood-stained wings that mark them as agents of Holy War and Vengeance. Good Is Not Nice: Even at their best, they are not of the All-Loving Hero kind of "good", and will kick your ass if you stand in their way. Evil Counterpart: The "Renegades" mini-faction in V's Hammers of Fate campaign presents the same units, but red, with spikes, and coming off as even bigger Knight Templars than any other Knight Templar in the game. Energy Being: The Zealots of the third game, as well as the Glories of the sixth, along with Sun Crusaders, who ride horses made of light. The Empire: The Holy Griffin Empire in V, and the Holy Falcon Empire in VI/VII. The preceding Holy Falcon Empire in VI/VII isn't much better, in part thanks to the Angels.
The Holy Griffin Empire in V is much less sympathetic than the previous incarnations.Crystal Dragon Jesus: Elrath - the god they worship in V, VI and VII - is a literal one, as he - just as the other gods of Ashan - is a dragon.Their magic is mainly focused on healing and blesses. In Heroes IV, they have traces of a Ranger faction, having three ranged units - two of which have no distance penalty - and one melee unit with long reach.In the first two games they were the Pariah faction, being seriously underpowered. There's also an actual Paladin unit in I, II, III, IV and V, and a Monk unit in III, IV and V. Church Militant: Many of their heroes are this, being either paladins or monks/priests.Bling of War: Most of their heroes - monks/priests aside - and some of the units wear rather elaborate armor.BFS: The Landsknecht in the VII carries one, as they are capable of cleaving to multiple enemy units.Make sense in the campaign as it represents the Wolf Duchy. By VII, players can use a Dire Wolf instead.
Beast of Battle: In III, V, VI and VII, they had the Griffin as a flying war beast in battle. In Heroes II, victory was achieved with the help of the rather magical Sorceress and Wizard factions, but in Heroes I, Lord Ironfist won on his own. This is especially prominent in Heroes 1 and 2: the only non-humans in the Knight faction are a few scattered heroes, none of the troops have any magical abilities, and the heroes themselves only have them if a spellbook is bought. In a world filled with magic and monsters, they are basically puny humans who manage to win most of the time lorewise. Badass Preacher: Monks in III, IV and V, and Sisters in VI (though the latter serve more as The Medic).
The background of V, VI and VII also counts eight Duchies, each corresponding to an animal and being a Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Falcon ( Ancient Rome), Griffin (Russia and Eastern Europe), Wolf (Germany), Raven ( Scandinavia), Stag (Ireland), Unicorn (Britain), Hound (France) and Bull (Italy and Spain) Duchies. Their Might Hero is the Knight and their Magic Hero is the Cleric/Priest. Typically the most balanced and the beginner's faction, they started gaining more flavor with the fourth game by gaining the resurrection ability. Their troops were all humans in the first two games, composed from various classical soldiers (archers, swordsmen, cavalry, etc.), before the introduction of Griffins and, most importantly, Angels in III. The Knight in Shining Armor faction, and the only one to have been present in all of the base games.