Templars

"May the Father of Understanding guide us"

- One of the mottos of the Templars

The Knights Templar is a military religious order and are the sworn enemies of the Assassins. It is revealed in one of the glyphs on Assassin's Creed II that Cain was the first Templar, and that the Templar's symbol is actually Cain's mark. During the Crusades, the Templars appeared to be a military order within the Crusade Army, while actually maintaining their own ideology and goals. The order survives through the Third Crusade and exists through the Renaissance even until the Modern Times.

Ideals and Goals
They seek to create a perfect world, but at the same time their members are power hungry and wish to do it by any means necessary, including destruction of free will, which the Assassins strive to protect. They believe there is no God or Great Power, only men with power and men without. They are atheistic during the Crusades they maintained the pretense and tradition of Roman Catholicism, and retained connections in the Vatican to avoid suspicion. To their reasoning, with no afterlife or ultimate punishment or reward after death, there was no real reason to oblige by notions of morality and ethics; the end always justified the means, no matter how heinous the means. They thought that only this life was important, rather than preparing for a non-existent next life. With so many lower class people kept in line with the promise of a next life and so many upper class men blissfully ignoring such ideals, the Templars vowed to make a better world, one of lasting peace, no matter the cost. This lasting peace, they thought, would be brought about by the Pieces of Eden, which they intended to use to bend the world to their will, eliminating all conflict, disease and poverty.

As time progressed however, the Templars' interest in the Pieces of Eden became more and more about seeking the power and domination that the artifacts offered. Their goals changed as they sought to control and unify the entire world under their grasp using the Pieces of Eden in a way similar to a "New World Order".

Beginning
As revealed in "The Truth" puzzles, Adam and Eve were two of the first Assassins, them apparently being the offsprings of Gods and humans, and they escaped Eden with a Piece of Eden, with which they liberated some humans from the God's mind control. They had two sons, Cain and Abel. It seems that Abel had this piece of eden which Cain wanted, and out of his lust for power killed Abel, got the piece of Eden and became the first templar.

Third Crusade
Later on, the Templars use the assassinations of Altaïr of those who are secretly Templars on both sides of the Holy War to bring both the Saracen and the Crusaders to fight against the common enemy, the Assassins. This failed, however, with the death of Robert de Sable at the hands of Altaïr. Altaïr then went back to Masyaf to kill the last Templar, his grandmaster, Al Mualim. However, even with the death of all the Templar leaders, they still persist.

They tend to attack more skilfully and take more hits than normal guards. 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.

Renaissance
The Templars of the Renaissance seek to control several key regions in Italy to form them under one group, under the dominance of the Templars. With this, the Templars will not only gain fortune, power and influence, but will also advance the common ideals of Templars throughout the world.

In the beginning, the Auditore family were living in relative peace, without the knowledge that Giovanni Auditore has become involved in a conspiracy that involves the Templars' actions. Soon after, the Auditore were victim to the conspiracy with the help of the traitor Uberto Alberti. This begins Ezio's quest to hunt down the people affiliated with this event, not knowing that those people he is about to assassinate are Templars.

Ezio's intervention of the goals of the Templars in Italy caused them to fail to succeed in uniting all of Italy under a single banner. Later on, after Ezio's numerous encounters with the Templars, the "Grand Master" of the Templars, Rodrigo Borgia, has become Pope Alexander VI, essentially becoming the most powerful man in Italy, but also the only known remaining Templar in the Renaissance. Ezio locates The Vault with the use of The Codex pages and his recovered Piece of Eden, wherein the Vault is located in Rome which Rodrigo has control over. Ezio goes to Rome and fights Rodrigo who seems not to care about being a spiritual leader and is only interested in the power it brings him and the possession of the Staff, a Piece of Eden. This indicates that the Templar ideals did not change over the years. Eventually, Rodrigo is defeated but not killed, causing a noticeable decrease in Renaissance Templars.

It is also indicated in the Glyph sequences made by Subject 16, that the Templar Seal is the Mark of Cain. This indicates that the principle ideas of the Templars seems to have existed for much longer. Also in these sequences, several influential people who are Templars, used the Pieces of Eden to further spread their influence over the world, hoping to control the world in a kind of "New World Order".

Members
Originally crusaders of unprecedented skill, as time progressed, they began to act secretly, utilizing powerful and influential people to further their cause. Often, these people are lured to being Templars by the promise of power and glory.

Third Crusade

 * Basilisk (Grand Master of the Knights Templar)
 * Robert de Sable (Grand Master of the Knights Templar, after Basilisk)
 * Armand Bouchart (Grand Master of the Knights Templar, after Robert)
 * 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 (Merchant king 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, and a former Templar)
 * Maria Thorpe (Robert de Sable's steward and his own personal assassin; became ally to the Assassins)
 * Roland Napule (Head of a Templar hospital in Tyre)
 * Masun (Traitorous assassin who is a double agent to the Templar)
 * Alaat (Templar knight)
 * Tamir (Altaïr's Chronicles) (A rich merchant allied to Basilisk)
 * Master of the Tower (Basilisk's second-in-command, master of the art of killing)
 * The Master's Student (Templar killer)
 * Harash (Al Mualim's second-in-command, traitor who joined Templars)
 * Frederick The Red (Templar regent of Limassol)
 * Pirate Captain (Leader of Cypriot pirates who joined the Order)
 * Osman (Templar knight, secretly a member of Cypriot resistance)
 * Moloch (Templar regent of Kyrenia)
 * Shalim (Armand Bouchart's second-in-command, son of Moloch)
 * Shahar (Shalim's twin brother)
 * Templar Agent (Armand Bouchart's highly trained, stealthy killer)
 * Isaac Comnenus (Former ruler of Cyprus and keeper of the Templar Archive)

Renaissance

 * Rodrigo Borgia (Grand Master of the Knights Templar and Pope Alexander VI)
 * Marco Barbarigo (Corrupt Doge of Venice)
 * Silvio Barbarigo (Member of the Supreme Tribunal of Venice)
 * Emilio Barbarigo (Corrupt Merchant of Venice)
 * Carlo Grimaldi (Member of the Council of Ten of Venice)
 * Uberto Alberti (The Gonfaloniere of Firenze)
 * Jacopo de' Pazzi (Head of the Pazzi Conspiracy)
 * Francesco de' Pazzi (Patriarch of the Pazzi Family)
 * Vieri de' Pazzi (Francesco's son - Ezio's rival)
 * Stefano da Bagnone (Advisor to Jacopo de' Pazzi - Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Bernardo Baroncelli (Banker - Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Francesco Salviati (Archbishop of Pisa - Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Antonio Maffei (Priest - Pazzi Conspirator)
 * Dante Moro (Personal Guard of Marco Barbarigo)
 * Tomas Torquemada (Spanish Inquisitor General)
 * Gaspard Martinez (Spanish Inquisitor)
 * Pedro Llorente (Spanish Inquisitor)
 * Juan de Marillo (Spanish Inquisitor)
 * Francisco Pizzaro (Spanish Conquistador)

Modern Times

 * Alan Rikkin (Abstergo Industries CEO)
 * Warren Vidic (Scientist of Abstergo Industries)
 * Nancy Nilop (Abstergo Industries employee)
 * Jane Birkam (Abstergo Industries employee)
 * Audrey Jacobs (Alan Rikkin's assistant)
 * Richard (Abstergo Industries employee)

Others

 * Cain
 * Xerxes
 * Alexander the Great
 * Qin Shi Huang
 * Atilla the Hun
 * Genghis Khan
 * Cleopatra
 * Caligula
 * François Duvalier
 * John Wilkes Booth
 * Lee Harvey Oswald
 * Rasputin
 * Josef Stalin
 * Mary I of England
 * Thomas Edison
 * Henry Ford
 * Adolf Hitler
 * Lyndon B. Johnson
 * J. P. Morgan

Templar Groups
There are groups who act as unofficial divisions of the Templars, unrelated to them publicly, but in fact commanded by Templars (some of them through the membership of their leaders and others are part of the Templar Order itself).
 * Third Crusade
 * Knights Teutonic Cross.svg Teutonic
 * Hospitalier Crest.svg Hospitalier
 * Renaissance
 * Pazziingame.png Pazzi
 * Flag of Most Serene Republic of Venice.svg Government of Venice
 * 442px-Emblem of the Papacy SE svg.png Papacy
 * Blason famille it Borgia01 svg.png Borgia
 * 20th century
 * Ford Motor Company Logo.svg Ford Motor Company
 * Edison Studios
 * Flag of Nazi Germany (1933-1945).svg Nazi Party
 * Animuslogowhite.svg Abstergo Industries
 * NASA logo svg.png NASA
 * 21st century
 * Animuslogowhite.svg Abstergo Industries
 * NASA logo svg.png NASA

The Historical 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")"

- Historical motto of the Templars

Ordre 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 favored 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.

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.