At Rest in the Hedge, On the Life of Hedge Knights and Robber Knights

"We are Wanted nowhere, and show up everywhere m'lord"

"Hedge knight, what a joke you are sir. A knight with even less sense than the Vestoni Errants or any respected Sellsword. Sleeping in ditches and stables across the land, going from tourny to tourny in the hopes of some grain of recognition. They wont ever love you, you know that right? The nobles i mean. You have no family title, no purse like a real knight, and at the end of the day, this is not a world you can raise yourself up in. You will be out here forever, fighting forever, sleeping outside forever, and you are what you are born as"
"This world is what i make of it lady." -An unkown old woman speaking to a wandering hedge knight, Sir Andry the Dragon

One may at first confuse these men with the Knight Errants of Vebastonne, and they couldn't be anymore further from the truth. An errant is a romantic, chivalrous figure, respected by the commonfolk as a symbol of beauty and valor. A hedge knight is a wandering bastard with a blade. Not all Hedge Knights are bastard children of nobles, but alot of them are. In this world, some men and women have discovered the only way to earn respect in this world is to kill for it, though few have the means to supply themselves like noble sons and daughters can. Thus we arrive to the Hedge Knight, a lonesome individual wandering the land from tourny to tourny, competing for the coin prize in such competitions, in the faint hope of earning recognition. While they can be mistake for simply more vain mercenaries, in truth they are not sellswords persay and more just wandering masterless warriors, similar to the Ronin of the lands of the far west. They earn their name from the fact that since the high majority of their wealth is put back into their horse and arms, they typically have to sleep outside amongst hedges or whatever spot they can find thats moderatly comfortable. 
Most Hedge Knights are young, and for this reason most do not survive long. The simple fact that a proper landed knight has acess to far more coin than someone who spent every coin they had on the cheapest chainmail and sword they could afford. Injured in a tounry? A knight will just see a cleric or apoethecary, a hedge knight most likely either has to go in the streets to beg, or just lays down and dies. However, diamonds always shine brightest in the rough, and some hedge knights are rather old veterans that are in it for the coin and thrill. Some are even nobles who have fallen out of favor and have abandoned the courtly life for a life more akin to an adventuerer, and many hedge knights do end up falling into the adventuering profession.
A fair amount of these wandering hedge knights consdier themselves chivalrous warriors (espically strange since outside of Vebastonne Chivalry is largely some old cliche romantic ideal that modern knightly orders don't put much stock in), and they are ussually wrong. Hedge knights are often mistrusted and considered disreputable, and for fairly good reason. They are men hat live by not code of honor but by a code more practicle and focused upon survival first. The less scrupulous of these warriors will turn to banditry, becoming Robber Knights. These knights often join up with bandit groups as elite warriors, or more often than not establish themselves as the gangs leader. Though they are named diffrently, its often said the Hedge Knights and Robber Knights are two sides of the same sword, and the terms are often used interchangebly. Some hedge knights like to travel in groups, having an unwritten levle of respect for watching over each other as they rest in the hedges, but these groups typically run into problems fast. Quick to anger, violent men and women living amongst similar minded individuals can get into feuds very quickly, and they ussually end very violently. This life is indeed a lonely one, but it is all in the hope that maybe through their display of arms, they can either earn respect of a noble and find employment, or earn enough coin that it doesn't matter how lowly their station of birth truly was.

Career

Qualifications

Enough money to go broke on the cheapest but respectable gear you can get, and a low outlook on life. Above all else, overwhelming greed and desire to get that money.

Perception

Social Status

Both hated and loved, hedge knights are wandering warriors and troublemakers. They regurarly attend tournys which makes for damn good shows, but also bring with them alot of trouble and mischief aplenty. Going around farkin every person you can pay for a night of companionship, and killing people for the vain hope of being a noble, its no wonder a hedge knight rearely makes a whole lot of friends.

Operations

Tools

Much of the gear of a Hedge Knight, espically when starting out, is cheap and worn. Much of their gear is scarred from countless drills and close calls in tournys and skirmishes on the roads. Their gear is meant to be practical above all, but still presentable enough to look good for a noble to take notice of.