History of the Templars

"Even when your kind appears to triumph... Still we rise again. And do you know why? It is because the Order is born of a realization. We require no creed. No indoctrination by desperate old men. All we need is that the world be as it is. And THIS is why the Templars will never be destroyed."

―Haytham Kenway to the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton about the Templars, 1781.

The Templar Order, also known as the Order of the Knights Templar, is a secret organization dedicated to ensuring the creation of a New World Order through force and control. Throughout the 12th to early 14th century, the Templars acted as a knightly military order, and by the mid 20th century had become a corporate giant after the foundation of Abstergo Industries.

Throughout history, the Templars have manipulated individuals and events to further their goals, notably during the Roman era, the Crusades, the Renaissance and modern times. Their endeavours often clashed with the ideologies of their sworn enemies, the Assassin Order.

Because of this difference in ideology, the Templars became involved in a covert war against the Assassins, spanning centuries, with their opposition's motivating belief being that mankind should always have the ability to choose; to have the freedom of liberty, even if it meant accepting that humanity would always be flawed in their ways.

History

Prehistory

"Behold: the mark of Cain!"

―Clay Kaczmarek during one of his Glyph puzzles for Desmond Miles, 2012.

The origins of the Templar Order remain a mystery; it is believed that the Templars have existed since the dawn of humanity, or at least since humanity claimed its freedom from the First Civilization.

Sometime after the Toba catastrophe of 75000 BCE, Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, murdered his brother Abel to acquire an Apple of Eden. It is speculated that Cain was a Templar or that he at least inspired or played an active role in its foundation. The mark of Cain became the emblem of the Order, and some of the earliest Templars considered themselves to be the Children of Cain.

Ancient world

"Officially, the Order of the Knights Templar was created in 1129, but we have endured, under various appellations, since well before the 12th century."

―A transcript from one of the Abstergo Files, 2012.

The earliest known instance of Templar influence in history dates back to the 5th century BCE, when they aided Darius I, fourth king of the Achaemenid Empire, in overthrowing the usurper and ascending the throne of Persia. The Templars aided his son and successor, Xerxes I, in his suppressions of revolts in Egypt and Babylon and conquering of most of Greece. Xerxes I was killed by the Assassin Darius in 465 BCE, the first recorded usage of the Hidden Blade.

During the 4th century BCE, the Templars entrusted Alexander the Great with one of the Staves of Eden, which Alexander used to become one of the most successful conquerors in history. However, this also made him a target of the Assassin Brotherhood, as he was poisoned by the Babylonian Assassin Iltani in 323 BCE.

In the 3rd century BCE, the Templars supported Qin Shi Huang, who united China and became its first Emperor under the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shi Huang's rule quickly became tyrannical, and he was assassinated by Wei Yu of the Chinese Assassin Brotherhood.

Formation as a military order

"For the first time in our long history, our Order was made public, but its truest and noblest agenda remained secret."

―A transcript from one of the Abstergo Files, 2012.

In 1118, the French abbot Bernard de Clairvaux realized that the Templars needed the Church as its ally. He sent nine of his most trusted men to the Holy Land in search of Solomon's Temple, and upon their return, reinvented the Order alongside Grand Master Hugues de Payens, creating the Latin Rule. The Knights Templar were recognized and confirmed during the Council of Troyes in 1129. For the first time the Order made itself public, but their real goals and purpose remained a secret.

In the wake of the First Crusade, the Crusader army managed to maintain a presence in the Holy Land. The Knights Templar, as well as the Knights Hospitalier, were among the military orders that heped maintain their foothold, until Saladin managed to unite much of the Islamic world. Later, during the Third Crusade, the Knights Templar again spread out to the Holy Land. During the Siege of Acre, Grand Master Gerard de Ridefort was captured and beheaded by Saladin, at which point the position was left vacant until 1191. Lord Basilisk, a high-ranking Templar, stepped in to become the de facto leader during 1190.

Post-Third Crusade activity

"Our so-called King meets with his Templar advisers in London. Shall we pay them a visit?"

―The Assassin Robert Fitzwalter to his supporters, c. 1215.

Outside of their presence in the Crusades, the Knights Templar continued to hold sway over positions of power. King Richard I's brother and successor, John, was one such target, being under the influence of his Templar advisors. The Assassin Robert Fitzwalter rose up against the King, gaining support from the English barons and sparking the First Barons' War.

A Templar Knight killed by the Assassin

In 1250, the Knights Templar in Egypt saw an opportunity to retrieve a Precursor artifact called the Scepter of Aset, when the artifact was being brought to the rebelling Mamluks by an Egyptian Assassin. However, their attempt to obtain the artifact resulted in failure.

By the 1260s, Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Vladimir and a Templar ally, was using his alliance with the Golden Horde, a division of the Mongol Empire to protect medieval Russia from becoming a target of the Mongols. However, his connection to the Templars instead made him a target of the Mongolian Assassins, and he was killed by Nergüi in 1263.

Fall of the Knights Templar

"Pope Clement, hear me! Before this year is out, you will answer for your crimes before God almighty. And you, King Philip, no punishment is too heinous for the great evil you have inflicted upon the Temple. I curse you! Curse you to the thirteenth generation of your blood! You shall be cursed!"

―Jacques de Molay to Pope Clement V and King Philip IV, 1314.

In 1307, the Mentor of the French Assassins, Guillaume de Nogaret, councillor to King Philip IV, used his influence in the French court to turn the King and Pope Clement V against the Knights Templar. They were branded as heretics, and Philip ordered the arrest of all members of their Order. On 13 October of that year, Esquieu de Floyrac led a force of Assassins disguised as mercenaries in an attack on their Temple in Paris. Realizing the danger they were placed in, Grand Master Jacques de Molay ordered his advisor to hide their Codex Pater Intellectus and Sword of Eden in their vault.

Jacques de Molay arrested

Finding the artifacts stolen by Master Assassin Thomas de Carneillon, the advisor went into pursuit of the Assassin and retrieved them. However, after hiding the objects in the vault, de Molay was captured by the Assassins, and the advisor was killed by de Carneillon. The Grand Master was held in captivity, and after standing trial, was burned at the stake on 18 March 1314 alongside Geoffroi de Charney.

Shortly before his death, de Molay realized that the Order could no longer function as a public organization. He selected nine of his most trusted men and sent them out into the world, armed with the knowledge of the Ancients, to continue the Templars' plans outside of the public eye.

Rebirth as a secret order

"History teaches they were disbanded nearly 200 years ago in France. Only they weren't. Merely pushed underground where they continued their nefarious work."

―Mario Auditore about the Templars, 1477.

In 1321, the Templars made their continued existence known to the Assassins when they killed Dante Alighieri, a prominent member of the Italian Assassins, in an effort to retrieve the Codex of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. They hired a group of pirates to follow the Assassin who would later be known as Domenico Auditore to the Otranto harbor to obtain the book, but Domenico had already scattered and hid its pages. By 1324, the Templars had killed Domenico Auditore's father and Marco Polo, other prominent members of the Italian Brotherhood.

Templars fighting Numa at Karnak

In 1340, Egyptian Templars stole the Scepter of Aset from the court of the reigning Bahri dynasty, and smuggled the artifact to their hideout at Karnak. On 7 June 1341, Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad himself was killed by the Templar agent Leila. Not too long afterwards, the Scepter was retrieved by the Assassin Numa Al'Khamsin. After Leila's capture, she wound up sharing a cell with Numa. The two escaped, though after the Templars lured Numa into a trap, the Assassin was killed by Leila. Retrieving the Ankh-shaped box containing the Scepter from the Assassin's apprentice, Ali Al-Ghrabe, Leila discovered it to be empty upon wanting to give the artifact to the Emirs of Egypt. The Templar agent discovered the Scepter to be hidden in a well near Edfu Temple, but fell while trying to retrieve it, and became amnesiac, having no recollection of her allegiance to the Templars.

Several years later, in 1348, a Templar group called the Brothers of the Cross travelled through Europe offering protection from the Black Death; secretly, they were looking for the Ankh, a Precursor artifact. Two years later, the Brothers of the Cross vanished, alongside the Assassin Lukas Zurburg.

At the end of the 14th century, the Knights Templar in Scotland started an expedition to the New World, led by Henry Sinclair and James Gunn. The expedition landed in North America on 2 June 1398.

Four years later, the Templars played a role in the ascension of the Yongle Emperor. Using their influence in the Imperial court, they managed to have Yongle initiate a purge of the Assassins in Eastern China, resulting in the deaths of thousands of citizens, including the Assassin leader Fang Xiaoru. In 1424, the Yongle Emperor was killed by a survivor of the purge, the Assassin Li Tong.

The Templars also maintained a presence during the Hundred Years' War. After discovering that the French warrior Jeanne d'Arc was in possession of a Sword of Eden, they orchestrated her capture and burning at the stake in order to obtain the artifact.

During the middle of the 15th century, the Templars were engaged in a struggle with the Ottoman Empire, with the Templar Vlad the Impaler, the Prince of Wallachia, taking a center role in the conflict. In December 1476, Vlad was defeated by the Ottoman Assassin leader Ishak Pasha, and he was later killed by the Ottomans.

Search for the Observatory

"For two decades now I have endeavored to locate this Observatory... a place rumoured to contain a tool of incredible utillity and power. [...] With this device, there would be no secrets among men. No lies. No trickery. Only justice. Pure justice."

―Laureano de Torres y Ayala to his fellow Templars, 1715.

During the later part of the 17th century, the Templar Counsel had entrusted Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Grand Master of the Templar Order in the West Indies, with the task of finding the Observatory, an ancient First Civilization complex with the power of monitoring the life of any individual. By 1673, Torres had managed to determine that the Observatory was somehow linked to individuals known as Sages – humans born with the genetic code and memories of Aita, the First Civilization architect of the Observatory. That year, while visiting Peter Beckford's residence in Jamaica, Torres encountered a Sage known as Thom Kavanagh among Beckford's employees, and wanted to find out more about the man; however, Kavanagh was taken from the Beckford residence by the Assassin leader Bahlam that same evening.

Du Casse, Rogers, Kenway and Torres

In 1715, the Templars had managed to locate another Sage known as Bartholomew Roberts, and Torres had managed to recruit several new members for the Order – privateer Woodes Rogers, smuggler Julien du Casse and Assassin Duncan Walpole, who was killed by the pirate Edward Kenway before his arrival at Torres' residence in Havana, Cuba. After Rogers, du Casse and Kenway, taking up Walpole's identity, were formally inducted into the Order and made aware of their search for the Observatory, Roberts arrived in Havana and his blood was poured into a blood vial; however, Roberts managed to escape captivity before more information on the Observatory could be distracted from him, and Kenway betrayed the Templars after deciding to take the Observatory's contents for himself. Kenway was brought aboard a vessel of the Spanish Treasure Fleet to deliver him to British Templars in London, but managed to escape alongside other captives and destroyed the fleet.

Search for the Grand Temple

"It could contain certain knowledge. Perhaps a weapon. Or something as yet unknown, unfathomable in its construction and purpose. It could be any of these things. Or none of them. They are still an enigma, these precursors. But of one thing I am certain: whatever waits behind those doors shall prove a great boon to us all."

―Reginald Birch about the yet unknown Grand Temple, 1754.

By the 1730s, the British Templars had become preoccupied with finding another First Civilization complex called the Grand Temple, though they were unaware of its contents. Edward Kenway's assistant Reginald Birch was a Templar – and by 1754 had arisen to the position of Grand Master – and discovered that Kenway had been doing research into the temple, and had been writing it down in a journal. On the evening of 3 December 1735, mercenaries hired by Birch stormed the Kenway household in London, killing Edward and seizing the journal. Birch sent the heavily encoded journal to Juan Vedomir in Spain for research, and took Edward's son Haytham under his wing, coercing him into the ways of the Templar Order.

An unidentified Templar, Harrison, Birch and Kenway at the Templar meeting

In 1754, Birch tasked Haytham – then a full member of the Knights Templar – with the assassination of Miko, an elderly Assassin, in the Theatre Royal. In the process of killing Miko, Haytham retrieved the Grand Temple's key. Reginald researched the amulet and concluded that it was a key capable of opening a First Civilization storehouse. With the calculations of John Harrison, the Templars were able to determine that the storehouse was located somewhere around the colonies of New York and Massachusetts in the New World. Reginald assigned Haytham to travel to the colonies and find the storehouse and its contents, and gave him a list of men sympathetic to their cause. Haytham boarded the Providence that night, and arrived in Boston after 72 days of travel.