The Knights Templar Rise Again

[J. Lionheart]

The idea of an original Knight Templar being a Nightbane, and thus surviving and re-founding the organization, is a good way to incorporate a classic gaming organization in to the modern Nightbane setting.

The interesting question, to me, would be whether they would remain super-secret, or if they would be a bit more open. The original Knights Templar were quite public, with big castles, crusades, pronouncements, etc. Obviously THAT wouldn't work in the Nightbane setting, but I could imagine them being at least a bit less hidden and a bit more in the faces of the Night Lords. The Knights Templar weren't scared to announce their presence in the face of superior foes (though in the modern setting, they would understandly keep discreet around the general public).

Another angle to pursue would be the motivation behind the attacks. The Knights Templar were an extremely religious organization, and if this group is founded by a surviving original member, chances are his motivations are, again, religious. That's an entirely valid approach, and I could imagine the Night Lords being portrayed as demons, with the Night Lands as hell, in the minds of the new crusaders. The motivation the new Knights Templar would have for fighting the Night Lords should be used to inform the plot surrounding their actions, and will help you as a GM determine what angles they'll approach the problem from.

Perhaps one final thing, that could add an engaging element to the organization as something more than just a name, is if they maintained some ancient tradition in their combat. Maybe they only engage minions of Night Lords using swords or other melee weapons, or perhaps they use a certain symbol, or possess ancient religious artifacts that they believe grant them powers in their fight. Make sure they have something other than their name that sets them apart.

[MASTERMIND]

They could have a public personae as well as a private one. In the public eye they are Templar Industries (insert Knight flavor company logo), developers of new technologies whose goal is to improve the quality of life for everyone. Behind the scenes the company funds their efforts to battle the Nightlord threat. The company also serves as a recruiting grounds for future Knights.

I think the Nightbane Templar surviving is a great angle to work with. There are all sorts of rumors and myths about the Knights Templar (including several statues of questionably demonic origin). I am thinking these were actually statues of the some of the Nightbane members of the organization. In their hubris they made public something that should have been kept a secret. Of course, the Church doesn't understand what a Nightbane is (it's a demon to them) so they add this to the smear campaign they were running.

Also check out the game Hellgate: London. The game has not released yet but there is a lot of information on their website. One of the primary classes you can play are the Templars, the modern incarnation of the Knights Templar. They have combined their medieval style with modern technology to devastating effect (and they look friggin cool). These would resemble the private face of the organization, the side the Nightlords are forced to contend with.

Classes Section of the Hellgate: London Website

[RockJock]

I like the idea, but I also like mixing it up a bit with the modern turns. A modern knightly order equipped with a handful of magical artifacts, modern weapons, NB and such.

[MASTERMIND]

Cool.

[MASTERMIND]

The Knights Templar would be a mixed organization in my game. So basically anyone who is willing to stand loyally with the Templars is welcome. However, while all are welcome the leadership of the organization falls solely on the shoulders of The Chosen. The Chosen O.C.C. is a class of faith empowered modern day knights. All are welcome but The Chosen are the only ones fit to lead (by the Knights Templar's doctrine).

The flip side of the coin. The Knights Templar are plagued by an even more secret shadow organization that was born some 200 years ago. A vampire spent nigh 100 years with the organization professing his faith and proving himself one of the faithful time and again. It was a ruse. The vampire attempted to destroy the Templars from within but failed to do so. However, he did manage to split the Templars in two. The current Knights Templar is the group that remained true to their doctrines and this second organization are those who split and ended up in servitude to the vampire.

The Knights Templar have known about the Nightlords for some time. The Baal went into the Nightlands long before the Templars came into existence but they learned about from the religious documentation found in Jerusalem (remember the mysterious rooms the Templars uncovered in Jerusalem and looted - along with everything else there was extensive work about the darker side of our world, the supernatural, and ominous prophecies about the Nightlords and their return to our world). This obsession with the supernatural helped to create the twisted image used by the Pope (and others) to have them overthrown.

However, the Knights Templar, who were successful in all other ways had become disenfranchised with their lot in the world. This new information was believed to be a message from God, a new mission for the order. They went into the shadows themselves and began fighting the supernatural horrors of our world. They also began interpreting the prophecies and looking for the signs of the Nightlords return meanwhile preparing themselves to face that threat when it arrived.

The Knights Templar are religious to a degree. Indeed, the upper echelons are filled with only the faithful and religion seems to be a major motivating factor but none are forced to believe in or endorse other's ideas. Due to the circumstances of their disbandment they do not follow the ways of the Catholic church, perhaps a simpler version of the faith that has developed independent from the prominent churches.

Just some random answers to your questions as my first reaction in regards to the concept in my game.

[MASTERMIND]

That's cool. Wish I had a copy of the book, hehe.

[Marcethus]

Just for the record...the Templars were presented (albeit briefly in the final, published version) in Shadows of Light.

Yeah, it's me. I had a PM I had to send, and thought I'd take the opportunity to pop in and see what was going on around here.

Too Briefly that's why we speculate as to what got cut since you have said before that you can't say nor can you post it somewehere IIRC

[Mike Taylor]

If you want to get really funky, check out the Knights Templar in C.J. Carella's WitchCraft. Their access to the Keys of Solomon give them some rather interesting abilities.

[NMI]

Isnt there some interpretation of the Templars in the Dimension Book: Wormwood?

[Marcethus]

That is the Knights of the Temple which they are a different thing representing the Cathedral that is the Religious/political order of Wormwood. They are also called the Templars

[csbioborg]

I'd rather have a sword wirlder templar that gained his immortality from the artifact myself

it would keep in line with the theme more

[Incriptus]

In my book "Creatues of Legacy"* I flesh out the templars. They are the reason why every supernatural being in Nightbane is a shapeshifter of some sort . . . If your race could not shapeshift [or hide in some reasonable fashion] . . . the Templars have already killed you off. Once the whole supernatural thing calmed down the templars retired. The only ones who remained semi-active were those who guarded items that could not be destroyed. These templars have worked with the seekers up until recently . . . some of the templar want to take a more active hand. Others belive the seekers to be like any other grave robber.


* This is a fictional book that i will not write because I have no writing skill. . . but if it were written it would have 4 main chapters

Chapter 1: Nightbane through the ages
Chapter 2: Vampires
Chapter 3: Werebeasts [aka children of the moon]
Chapter 4: Templar

[csbioborg]

that is actually pretty good I wish KS let some religion in so you cold tie it in with the catholic church's inqusistion

I read the author of shadows of light orignally had a much better product but he had to change it so that their was so inkling of religion in the book


presumably 9/11 never happened in nightbnae either

[Nekira Sudacne]

Checked out that game site link and the Templars there are pretty cool. They captured some of what I envisioned, using high tech melee weapons and firearms to fight evil, but I imagined mine as more like a paramilitary unit. To give a comparison of uniform I'm thinking of a Stargate SG1 look where they're all dressed in military style clothing with patches signifying their order. Instead of webbing holding on backpacks full of gear they would have scabbards and such to secure their melee weapon of choice and military style hip holsters for fully automatic handguns as well as some webbing for the requisite explosives. Body armor will be modern day vests or a decent high tech version if I can find one in the setting books. I'm also thinking of using the rules for upgrading SDC handguns in the Rifts GM Guide as well as the optional firearm degradation rules from the same section.

Take a look at Dragon Skin body armor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Ski ... y_armor%29

Just "bump it up" a notch for a secret organization having improved it a bit, and you've got almost standard-looking TDU's or jumpsuits that have x3-5 SDC while barely weighing more than normal cloth. Of course, it's super-secret, and only the Templars have access to it (or their allies), and they haven't released it to the government or anyone else. And instead of automatic pistols as their only ranged weapon, they could have bullpup-configuration Saiga's (automatic shotguns). They could use the HEAP shotgun rounds, incendiary ones, etc. For an assault team fighting against hounds, you don't necessarily need fantastic range, you need to be doing massive damage really quickly.

And each Templar unit should be balanced - they don't *all* have to be NB necessarily. There could be one or two NB with travel powers or specialty powers specific to each mission (be awfully handy to have a 'bane around who could hack that computer in 3 seconds flat instead of 3 minutes or hours). The human Templar's could have been raised and/or trained to work with the 'bane, and see them as "special projects in genetic research" or something, like crossing alien DNA with human, so they wouldn't necessarily have to know what they *really* were (to keep the secret safe if captured and interrogated).

The Nightbane game i'm presently in, the first "Reward" that the group got was a set of dragonskin body armor for the Humans and the barbie doll Nightbane

[csbioborg]

I really don't think nightbane are apporiate as templar
templars are pure righteous people historically
that would rather die honorably than to consortwith the demonic
and that is how they would view the nightbane
I am all for a immortal leader but just give him a artifact
drink from the holy grail
or make him geoimmortal
but he should be human
that is just right

[Rallan]

Isnt there some interpretation of the Templars in the Dimension Book: Wormwood?

Utterly different. The two main knightly orders that serve the Cathedral are the Templars and Hospitallers, with the authors obviously getting the names from the two most famous crusading orders of Earth history. Apart from the names of the orders and the fact that they're in a holy war though, theres's absolutely no parallels between the Templars and Hospitallers in the Wormwood book and the Templars and Hospitallers of medieval history, and no backstory to suggest that the Wormwood orders are related to the historical orders.

And csbioborg, your view of the Templars is pretty much totally unrelated to the reason why they're a popular choice for throwing into occult settings. The Templars went down thanks to accusations of heresy and forbidden or blasphemous knowledge, and they've long been a favourite subject for occult/historical conspiracy theorists who believe that part of the order lasted long enough to create new secret societies to preserve whatever terrible secret knowledge it was that the Templars had discovered at Jerusalem.

[csbioborg]

actually they were brought down becasue of the nobility being eery of a large power bloc within europe they did not control

athough part of the rationale was based off unsubstanited claims they deat in the occult

[Rallan]

actually they were brought down becasue of the nobility being eery of a large power bloc within europe they did not control

Yeah but you can't just flat out say that the king of France needed a lot of cash in a hurry and the pope felt concerned enough by the Templar's political power to let France sieze all their assets and dismantle the order. Accusing them of heresy and sodomy sounds much more respectable

[csbioborg]

I guess its me but I've always wanted two things
setting wise

battle field boston
and the rise of the american milita movement

boston being the last somewhat free city in America
where the the irish priests and deacons have gone into the street to kick ass for the lord
old IRA that moved to america fighitng for Church and Country once again
maybe even a schism in the church since the Pope has been replaced with a night prince


and a movement in minnesota wyoming dakotas area where milita men that have been preapring for a war with the federal government finally are making their stand against the NSB

[DracoMagus]

Very cool ideas here if I say so myself. My question is what would their interactions be with other factions.

I saw references to how they might interact with Spook Squad and the Seekers, but what about the Lightbringers? Another question given the Leader being a 'bane and a member of the old templars, would there be any interaction between them and the Inlustrius(sp?), would it just be past relations or possibly present day relations.

Just a couple questions I thought up after having read through this the other day.

[TechnoGothic]

Thread Necromagic huh. Wow. I miss Jason Vey around here.

[Ale Golem]

I totally forgot I ever posted this here, way back when I went by Kn1ves. I'll have to see if I can dig out my old notes. The aforementioned game fell through years ago but maybe I can salvage some of the ideas for a new game.

[MurderCityDisciple]

The Nightbane Templar angle would explain why the Templar's were accused of worshiping Baphomet.

The Goatbeast wasn't SATAN....just the goaty 'bane boss.

I'm not sure if I would stick the Temp's in my game though. Too many active factions might muddle the storyline. I already have Seekers, Vamps/Nocturnes, a hedonistic sorcerers faction, the Nightlords with the USB and Juggalos. Yes, you read it correctly...Juggalos .

If anything the Templars will be a European animal for me. Modern Kevlar armored paramilitary Templars wielding enchanted longswords (doing double damage against the supernatural) does seem very compelling. Hmmmmm....for some reason Bruce Dickenson (of Iron Maiden) would make a great flamboyant leaping Templar archetype/character.