The Knights Templar is an organization and is one of the antagonist factions of the Deus Ex game series. It is a secret cult-like society that was formed by the descendants from the original Knights Templar from Crusader Times and now have survived into the 21st Cnetury. They are one of the affiliations of the Illuminati and gives financial and economic support to the secret society.
History
Early Days
The foundation of the Knights Templar dates back to during The Crusades and possibly formed during the same time as The Illuminati according to rumors. They were soldiers of the Crusades and evolved into a financial organization and acquired massive amounts of money. Eventually, the Templars managed to survive and continued to exist from behind the shadows, even into the 21st Century.
Pre-Collapse
The Knights Templars had continued to exist and remained active as the centuries went by. The Templars had absolute control over the world's economic instititutions and global markets giving them all the money in the world and contineud to gain it even after the global economy had been collapsing by the 2050s. Prior to The Collapse, the Knights Templars acted as bankers for the Illuminati. They gave the secret society all of the money and financial need that was required for the Illuminati's goal of creating a global One-World Government. Sometime in 2052 however, their headquarters in Paris was discovered and were attacked since Majestic-12 had controlled France during that time. A joint military task-force of UNATCO/Interpol Forces raided the Paris HQ and destroyed the organization entirely.
Post-Collapse
Follwing the tragedy that was The Collapse, the Knights templar were saved and resurrected once the surviving Templars were found and regrouped together. The Order Church had found the knights and in 2070, the organization was revived and re-established once more. It now acts as an independent organization and have changed their goal from financial support to "purifying" humanity from transhumanism. It was re-formed and recreated by Luminon Saman who managed to gather support from members and followers from within an Order Church division based in Tier, Germany and managed to gain support and influence from outside of Germany once he got enough followers and members.
The Templars act as a more independent organization and operate from within the Order Church having Church officials and followers from within their ranks and membership. The new incarnation of the Knights Templar believes itself to be of a more moderate version of their original incarnations and are very religiously conservative. The Knights Templar is deeply opposed to any form of bio-technology, nano-augmentations and just human augmentations as a whole. They view augmentations as a plauge to the "purity" of the human race and saught to "pruify" humanity from transhumanism. In Deus Ex: Invisible War, human augmentations are replaced with nano-augmentations and as a result, they're deemed "corrupt" by the Templars. As a result, they don't consider the Omar to be human as they are extremely augmented and both societies beliefs conflict with one anothers.
At the beginning of Invisible War, the Templars have seized control of massive gold reserves from the original Templars and gained access to massive financial aid and support. This gives them the ability to bankroll an army "larger than other armies combined" giving them vast military power and poses a threat to the current Illuminati establishment. The Templars than start an insurrection against Apostlecorp after a Templar extremist takes a nanite detonator and uses it on the city of Chicago. The bomb destorys the entire city and whipes it off the face of the earth. This brings the Templars into the spotlight and they are noticed by the current Illuminati administration and they try to deal with the new Templar insurgency. The Templar Knights knew that they would be at a disadvantage with their opposition towards biomodifyinh their soldiers and instead Templar scientists had constructed Power Assault Armored Suits which would help their soldiers face nano-augmented enemies and win more easily. The suits were packed with heavy weapons and rocket launchers and originally Mag Rails but the Illuminati had found out thanks to the World Trade Organization and used rocket launchers instead. The Templars are one of the main antagonists for Deus Ex: Invisible War however, if the player chooses, he can align with the Templars and have them take over the entire world in the Templars ending of the game. If this is done, all nano-augmentations will have been destoryed and the Templars would rule the world with their philosphy and beliefs resulting in humanity living in a state of fear of technology and submission to the Templars.
Structure
Leadership
The Templar Knights are lead by the Grand Master of the Templars who serves as the organization's leader. Prior to The Collapse, the Templars were lead by Stanton Dowd who also was part of the Illuminati and was a member of the Illuminati Council. In the waking aftermath of The Collapse, the Templars were revived and re-established by the Order Church and are now led by Saman. Other leaders include high-ranking paladins and possibly other clergy related titles.
Society
The Templars are a secret society much like the Illuminati and operate in a smiliar fashion. Templars operate from within the shadows and focus heavily on economics and money which aquires them to gain access to massive amounts of money, wealth, and power and uses it to finance the Illuminati. Following its revival, it has aligned itself with the Order Church and acts more religious. The current incarnation of the Templar Knights appears to be more connected to their original founders and are now a fanatical religious cult. Templar members have renounced augmentations and all their members are non-augmented people for the sake of humaity's "purity".
Ideology
The Templars are a fanatical religious cult and are anti-augmentation pro-human supremacists. They focus on control over the world's wealth and used it for financing the Illuminati prior to The Collapse. Following The Collapse however, it has splintered off and is now a fanatical terrorist cult. Templar soldiers launch countless terrorist attacks against augmentation companies like Apostlecorp and are human supremacists meaning that they want all augmentations destryed and to protect the "purity" of humanity.
Notable Members
Leaders
- Stanton Dowd (Pre-Collapse)
- Saman (Post-Collapse)
Members
- Billie Adams
- Silas Archer
- Todd
- Templar Paladin
Gallery
.jpg "Templar (Arctic).jpg (15 KB)")
