Templar ring

"A ring with a red cross pattée in a white circle. The Order of the Knights Templar!"

―William Robert Woodman^[src]^-[m]

A Templar ring is an adornment worn by members of the Templar Order since at least the 16th century that signifies membership in the Order. Typically, the rings bear a simple design of a red cross pattée, the Templar insignia.

History

Renaissance

In the early 16th century, the Chinese Templar Qiu Ju, a member of the Eight Tigers, wore a Templar ring.^[1]

Age of Imperialism

In 1712, the British Templar Wilson wore a ring that left a cross-shaped scar on Edward Kenway's face after Wilson punched Edward while escaping the burning Kenway farmstead. Edward later encountered another Templar ring, this time worn by Benjamin Pritchard, when the latter was captured by the crew of the pirate ship, the Emperor. Edward's rival and fellow pirate Blaney stole the ring from Pritchard soon after.^[2]

In 1715, Grand Master Laureano de Torres y Ayala of the Caribbean Rite gave three rings to the new recruits Julien du Casse, Woodes Rogers, and Edward Kenway—the latter having impersonated the Assassin turncoat Duncan Walpole—during their induction ceremony into the Order.^[3] After Edward was revealed as an imposter, his ring was taken back by Torres.^[2]

In the early 18th century, certain members of the Templar-affiliated Shimazu clan wore Templar rings.^[4] In January 1725, a British Templar in command of an East India Company ship wore a Templar ring until his death at the hands of the Caribbean Assassin Adéwalé.^[5]

Later that year, another Templar wore a ring to his meeting with the Qing businesswoman Lee Huiyin. He demanded the late Dutch explorer Hendrik's sea log that Lee had in exchange for the Order ceasing all hostilities against her company, but unbeknownst to the man, Lee already knew of the Order's existence and correctly identified him as a member upon seeing the ring that most civilians would have overlooked.^[6]

Templar rings had their greatest usage in the United States both before and during the American Revolution. During the Seven Years' War, the British Army General Edward Braddock wore a Templar ring to signify his membership in the Order. Braddock was assassinated by his fellow British Templar Haytham Kenway during the Braddock Expedition in 1755 for his ruthlessness, following which Kenway took the ring from Braddock and awarded it to Charles Lee upon his induction into the Order's recently-established Colonial Rite.^[7]

Upon being fatally wounded in an attack on Fort Frederick in 1757, the British Colonel George Monro gave his Templar ring to Shay Cormac, who shortly after was inducted into the Colonial Templars.^[8] The last known ring in North America was seen nearly 20 years later, when a British Templar naval captain in the Royal Navy bore one until he was killed by the Colonial Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton in 1776.^[9]

Early modern era

By the early modern era, the wearing of Templar rings was largely discontinued by the Rites, though it did not stop their sporadic appearances in later decades. In a new tradition started by the French Rite just before the French Revolution, silver pins originally crafted by the Templar silversmith and Sage François-Thomas Germain briefly became the new symbol of recognition for the wider Order^[10] and later their internal enforcers, the Black Crosses.^[11]

In 1868, an assassin tasked to eliminate Maharaja Duleep Singh of the Sikh Empire in London carried a Templar ring in his pocket. After his assassination attempt failed and he was killed by the Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye, the twins found the ring in his pocket, informing them of his affiliations.^[12]

During the early 20th century, Templar rings were worn by the Secret Chiefs of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though the Hermeticists were unaware of the Templars' existence or influence in their organization.^[13]

General Erich Albert of the German Army wore a Templar ring during World War I. During the Christmas truce of 1914, Albert enlisted the aid of an enemy medic to perform surgery on a German soldier. After the surgery, Albert noticed the medic's interest in his Templar ring and offered to trade it with him until he noticed the medic's Assassin burn mark around his finger and was assassinated.^[14]

In 1927, the British Rite's Grand Master Thaddeus Gift wore a Templar ring. After he was killed by the Black Cross Albert Bolden for betraying the Order's principles, his ring-bearing finger was severed and placed in a box to be delivered to the Kuomintang's leader Chiang Kai-shek,^[11] whom the Chinese Templars hoped to recruit into their ranks.^[15] Gift's son Darius was tasked to deliver the box to Shanghai,^[11] but it was stolen shortly after his arrival in the city,^[16] while Chiang Kai-shek ultimately declined joining the Order.^[15]

Modern times

John Roberts wore a Templar ring during the 21st century.^[17]

In 2014, after uploading Shay Cormac's file to the Assassin network, Melanie Lemay presented a Templar ring to the Helix research analyst "Numbskull", offering them a place in the Order.^[18]

In 2019, the Japanese Templar Kaori Kagami wore a Templar ring while she worked as a doctor at the Abstergo Industries facility in Yokohama.^[1]

In 2023, a Templar higher-up who supervised Shimazu Sei's mission to find a Piece of Eden in Southeast Asia wore a Templar ring.^[19]

Behind the scenes

The Templar rings in the Assassin's Creed franchise can be seen as a counterpart to the various marks used by the Assassins, beginning in the Ptolemaic Kingdom with finger amputations up until the Middle Ages, then burn marks during the Renaissance, and eventually Assassin rings in the Victorian era. In contrast to the left ring finger favored by the Assassins, Templar rings are typically worn on the right ring finger, marking a physical difference between the two orders.