Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order

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"The human body has its heart. The Earth has its core. All things have a center, whence comes their deepest strength. The Templar Order, too, has its Inner Sanctum. Nine there must be, three times three."

―Alan Rikkin during Simon Hathaway's induction, 2016.

The Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order, also known as The Nine, is a council consisting of nine of the best and brightest members of the modern day Templar Order. Alongside the Council of Elders, the Guardians and the General of the Cross, it forms the central governing body of the entire Templar Order, holding authority over the Outer Temple. During the modern era, its members typically hold key positions in Abstergo Industries, the Templars' front company, heading different branches of the organization.

Structure

Authority

The Inner Sanctum is one of the highest-ranking authorities in the hierarchy of the Templar Order, being answerable only to the Guardians, who review all decisions made by the Inner Sanctum and subsequently pass them on to the General of the Cross for approval. The General is the supreme head of the Order and their identity is kept secret from the members of the Inner Sanctum.

At some point before the 19th century, the Inner Sanctum created the position of Black Cross for the purposes of combating corruption within the Order and locating Pieces of Eden. The Black Cross is answerable only to the Inner Sanctum, essentially acting as its enforcer, and holds the authority to execute any Templar who betrayed the Order's principles, even Grand Masters.

The Ritual Garbs

During Simon Hathaway's initiation into the Inner Sanctum, he noted that the ritual garb had been made by hand and not machines, ranging from the sheep being hand-sheared and the wool carded, spun and dyed by human labor. This showed the Templars' ritual garbs were much like those worn by their forebearers over the centuries, which Simon, as a historian, valued and admired due to the Templars putting in effort towards genuine authenticity.

History

The exact date of formation of the Inner Sanctum is unknown, but it has been active since at least the latter half of the 16th century. The Portuguese Templar Nuno Caro, who oversaw the Order's expansion to Japan during the Sengoku period, answered directly to the Sanctum and told them about the three Imperial Regalia safeguarded by the Japanese Assassins, which he intended to retrieve for the Templars. Although Caro led the Sanctum to believe the Regalia were Pieces of Eden due to their importance to the Japanese people, in reality the artifacts possessed no known abilities and were mere symbolic trinkets. Caro lied about the Regalia's significance so that the Sanctum would increase his funding, and intended to maintain the lie once he delivered the artifacts to them, though he never had the chance to do so due to his death in 1582.

Under the Inner Sanctum's leadership during the Age of Enlightenment, the Templars became supportive of the classical liberalism that emerged, in which intellectuals such as Isaac Newton, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, and Francis Bacon represented a new emerging society of science and technology.

In the late 18th century, François-Thomas Germain successfully petitioned the American, Roman, and Spanish Rites for support in overthrowing Grand Master François de la Serre of the Parisian Rite. He recruited followers for his coup and began purging all Templars opposing him, including Chrétien Lafrenière and François' daughter Élise. The reformed Rite brought about Jacques de Molay's reforms proposed in his Codex Pater Intellectus, such as abolishing the monarchy to create a capitalist society, and had critical support from the Outer Temple. This gradually redirected the entire Templar Order to adopt this policy, under the leadership of the Inner Sanctum.

By the early 19th century, the Inner Sanctum had created the position of Black Cross to act as their secret enforcer and keep the various Rites' Grand Masters in line. Following the latest Black Cross, Albert Bolden's, disappearance and presumed death in 1927, the position remained vacant for nearly a century, until the Master Templar and Inner Sanctum member Juhani Otso Berg took up the mantle in 2016. This marked the first time a member of the Inner Sanctum became the Black Cross, though because of his investigation of a fifth column that had infiltrated the Order, Berg chose to keep his double role secret. He went so far as to have André Bolden pose as the Black Cross during an Inner Sanctum meeting in March 2017, in order to draw suspicion away from himself.

Known members

Current members

• 
  Agneta Reider
  Chief Executive Officer, Abstergo Financial Group
• 
  Laetitia England
  Head of Operations, Abstergo
• 
  David Kilkerman
  Research, Animus Project
• 
  Dr. Mitsuko Nakamura
  Research, Director of Lineage Research and Acquisition
• 
  Juhani Otso Berg
  Operations, Director of Abstergo Medical
• 
  Pr. Simon Hathaway
  Historical Research Division, Abstergo
• 
  Alfred Stearns
  Retired Head of Operations, Abstergo
• 
  Vacant
  since December 2016
• 
  Vacant
  since August 2018

Former members

• 
  Dr. Álvaro Gramática
  Research, Future Technology Division
  died 2018
• 
  Alan Rikkin
  Abstergo Industries Chief Executive Officer
  died 2016
• 
  Isabelle Ardant
  Operations, Historical Research Division
  died 2015
• 
  Daniel Cross
  Operations, Abstergo
  died 2012
• 
  Warren Vidic
  Research, Animus Project
  died 2012
• 
  Otto Schmidt
  Operations, Lineage Research and Acquisition
  died 2012

Behind the scenes

While the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order has only been used in explicitly in certain instances, the number nine occurs multiple times throughout Templar history: the number of men that Bernard de Clairvaux sent to Solomon's Temple, the number of Levantine Templars that Al Mualim tasked Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad to kill in his Hunt for the Nine, and the number of agents that Jacques de Molay sent out to the world during the persecution of the Templars. It is unknown if these other groups constituted as previous iterations of the Inner Sanctum.

Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple contains multiple references to Abstergo's "executive committee", which appears to comprise several high-ranking Templars, including Mitsuko Nakamura. However, it has yet to be confirmed whether this executive committee coincides with the Inner Sanctum.

Gallery

• 
  Juhani Otso Berg accessing the Inner Sanctum office
• 
  Laetitia England meeting with Berg
• 
  Warren Vidic and Laetitia meeting with Berg
• 
  A list of the Inner Sanctum members in 2011

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Revelations (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed III (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Heresy
• Assassin's Creed: Templars
• Assassin's Creed: Uprising
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – The Fate of Atlantis
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice (indirect mention only)
• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
• Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows (mentioned in Database entry only)