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.

The Templar Order, also known as the Order of the Knights Templar, were 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.

Prehistory
"Behold: the mark of Cain!"

- Clay Kaczmarek during one of his Glyph puzzles for Desmond Miles.

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.

Some time 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.

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, 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 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 Shi Huang's rule quickly became tyrannical, and he was assassinated by Wei Yu of the Chinese Assassin Brotherhood.

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.

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, 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 Templars in Great Britain 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.

In 1754, Birch tasked Haytham – a full member of the Knights Templar – with the assassination of Miko, an elderly Assassin in possession of the Grand Temple's key. Reginald and Haytham attended a performance of  in the, where Haytham - the son of an Assassin - used Eagle Vision to find Miko. Haytham assassinated Miko in his box and took the amulet from him, and returned to the Templar headquarters. 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.