Templars

"Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tuo da Gloriam (Latin for "Not to us God, not to us, but to Your Name Give Glory'') May the Father of Understanding guide us."

The Knights Templar are the sworn enemies of the Assassins. They attack Masyaf after a failed mission under Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem; and after that, Templars found in the Holy Land will attack Altaïr on sight. They tend to attack more skilfully and take more hits than normal guards. You can find them in small villages throughout the kingdom, as well as throughout the cities, keenly observing their surroundings of encroaching danger. Templars are battlefield hardened soldiers lending aide to King Richard in the Third Crusade. Their battlefield experience shows in the way they fight. They are warriors in every meaning of the word, extremely skilled in the application of sword combat, and extremely disciplined. Templars should be dealt with while expressing extreme caution and solid battle skills. These soldiers are usually stationary, and on the lookout for the Assassins, their sworn enemies, who they are engaged with in a low-scale war.

History
Orde du Temple in French, the Knights Templar are amongst the most famous of the Western Christian military orders involved in the war. They are well known by the distinctive white mantles with a red cross. Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favoured charity throughout Christianity, and grew rapidly in membership. Because the Templars' existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded.

According to Subject 16, the Templar Seal is the Mark of Cain.

Distribution and goals
Their main goal is to bring peace to the Holy Land, but the ways they do it are both ruthless and barbaric. However, they believe that they're doing good. They're trying to control peoples' free wills and they will ruthlessly kill anyone who is against them, especially the Assassins, whose leader, Al Mualim, was a member of the Templars but he later chose to betray them by stealing the Piece of Eden for his own purposes. They're also good at manipulation, as they've members in both the Crusader and Saracen armies, allowing themselves to manipulate both Richard the Lionheart and Saladin for their own gain and manipulated the other knight orders like the Hospitalliers, Teutonic Knights and even the Assassins (Hashshashin) via Al Mualim.

Third Crusade

 * Robert de Sable (Grand Master of the Knights Templar)
 * Tamir the Merchant (Black marketeer in Damascus)
 * Garnier de Naplouse (Grand Master of the Knights Hospitalier)
 * Talal the Slave Trader (Slave master in Jerusalem)
 * Abul Nuqoud (A noble man of Damascus)
 * William of Montferrat (Regent lord of Acre)
 * Majd Addin (Regent lord of Jerusalem)
 * Jubair al Hakim (Head of the Illuminated and the chief scholar of Damascus)
 * Sibrand (Grand Master of the Knights Teutonic)
 * Al Mualim (Master and leader of the Assassins, betrayed the Templar's)
 * Maria (Robert de Sable's steward and his own personal assassin)
 * Masun (Traitorous assassin who is a double agent to the Templar)
 * Anonymous Templar Knights (regular soldiers

Renaissance

 * Uberto Alberti (The Gonfaloniere of Florence)
 * Vieri de' Pazzi (Ezio's Rival)
 * Francesco de' Pazzi (Patriarch of the Pazzi Family)
 * Antonio Maffei (Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Archbishop Francesco Salviati (Archibishop of Pisa - Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Bernado Baroncelli (Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Stefano da Bagnone (Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Jacopo de' Pazzi (Head of the Pazzi Conspiracy)
 * Emilio Barbarigo (Corrupt Merchant of Venice)
 * Carlo Grimaldi (Member of the Council of Ten of Venice)
 * Marco Barbarigo (Corrupt Doge of Venice)
 * Silvio Barbarigo (Member of the Supreme Tribunal of Venice)
 * Dante Moro (Personal Guard of Marco Barbarigo)
 * Rodrigo Borgia (Templar Leader and His Holiness, Pope Alexander VI)

Modern times

 * Abstergo Industries (current form of the Templars)
 * Warren Vidic (Scientist of Abstergo Industries)
 * Three men who are the bosses of Abstergo Industries

Others

 * Cain
 * Xerxes I of Persia
 * Alexander the Great
 * Qin Shi Huang
 * Atilla the Hun
 * Genghis Khan
 * Cleopatra
 * Caligula
 * Francisco Pizzaro
 * Francois Duvalier
 * John Wilkes Booth
 * Lee Harvey Oswald
 * Rasputin
 * Josef Stalin
 * Mary I of England "Bloody Mary"
 * Tomas de Torquemada
 * Thomas Edison
 * Henry Ford
 * Adolf Hitler
 * Winston Churchill (?)
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt (?)

Achievement
There are 60 Templars within the game world. Thirty are located in the kingdom, and ten in each city. Two subsections (either poor, middle, rich) of each city will have three Templars, and the remaining subsection will have four. Watch out when hunting them, however, as Templars are completely immune to throwing knives. In any Memory Block, regardless of the Rank Memory that Altaïr has, the Templars will attack with all techniques (Guard Break, Counter-grab, etc.) and are extremely hard to kill without more advanced techniques and a high sync bar, or climbing on the wall behind the Templar unnoticed then assassinating them. Should one be able to throw a Templar to the ground however, they can easily be dispatched by a hidden blade or a few sword strikes. Templars will wave their swords and shout upon seeing you, leaving them open for a few precious seconds, during which the player can tackle them and assassinate them while they are on the floor. Templars will also automatically realize that you are an assassin, regardless of whether you are blended or not, unless you are sitting on a bench. Templar locations are broken down as follows:

Kingdom: 30x

Jerusalem Poor: 3x

Jerusalem Mid: 3x

Jerusalem Rich: 4x

Damascus Poor: 3x

Damascus Mid: 3x

Damascus Rich: 4x

Acre Poor: 4x

Acre Middle: 3x

Acre Rich: 3x

Eliminating all 60 Templars in the game will grant the Personal Vendetta achievement.

Personal Vendetta Kill every Templar. (40 Points)

Locations
Simply put, if anyone finds a Templar in-game, check they aren't already listed and then give detailed description of their location. (Please don't use viewpoints as references, they disappear off of the map.)

There is one close by the docks on the Christian part of the kingdom. As you are leaving from Masyaf go right and you'll see a lake. At the edge of the docks is a Templar. There is one hiding in a house nearby.

There is one in the Poor District of Acre at the western edge of the large courtyard north of the plaza where you do the Masyaf flags fetch. Climb up in the middle of that western wall and you'll see him below you in front of a water spout.

There is another hiding inside the row of burnt out dwellings along the 'street' between the northern wall (Poor District Acre) and in the first block of houses as you approach the first sea-viewpoint from that direction. Stay on the roofs to spot him below.

In the Middle District of Acre (Sibrand campaign), there is one at the far western end of the docks. Keep going past where you save the citizen there toward the sea and boats.


 * Note: It seems that if you are fighting with a Templar on a roof and he dies from the fall, it doesn't count toward your tally.

There is one in the Rich District of Acre on the roof of the giant church, between the two steeples.

There is one in the Rich District of Jerusalem hiding behind the building south of the large building with a golden roof.

There is one in the Kingdom on the way out of Damascus. As you are going out of Damascus go to the tents and look along the river for a Templar. There is one behind the view point tower nearby.

The website Assassin's Creed Interactive Maps has great maps of the Kingdom and each separate district of Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem with Templar locations marked by green dots. When you mouse over the dots, a screen shot showing the Templar will pop up.

Extra Templars
During the Robert de Sable assassination you will fight more Templars. However, these do not count towards the total.

The Historical Templars
The Knights Templar was a real Roman Catholic military order who were prominent during the Crusades. They were among the most skilled fighters at the time, which is reflected in the game. Their ruthlessness against non-Catholics was also infamous; this also is reflected in the game.