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Templars
"Deliverance From Evil"
Crusaders. Judges. The Holy Terror. The Templars are the world's least secretive secret society. Their military-ideological machine has operated in plain sight since Babylon - a matter of pride, or moral superiority.

Conspiracy theorists, obsessed with the minor 'Knights Templar' offshoot, underestimate the Templars' true European empire. Private armies. Members of parliaments. Royal families.

The Templars believe they will deliver the world from evil by force, and even their opponents - who call them zealots and warmongers - cannot deny that force. As an agent of the Templars you are not just fighting the war on darkness, you "are" the war on darkness. Suave and sophisticated, but brutal and uncompromising, you use history as a weapon to shape the future.

Few will stand in the way of the Templars' banner. Do you have the will to stand behind it?

In The Secret World, the Templars are a group that defines themselves as the war on evil. The lore behind this society makes it the one that the Knights Templar was an offshoot of. Their goal is to take the war to evil and win it by any means necessary.

To understand the Templars a bit more, we look at their lore declared offshoot, the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar (or Order of the Temple) were a western military Christian group and officially endorsed by the Catholic Church around the year 1129 AD. The group was founded to protect Christian pilgrims that were being slaughtered on their way to Jerusalem.

As the order grew, so then did their role. They soon gained favor in the Catholic Church as is evident by their official endorsement in 1129 AD. As the Templars grew in favor, they were eventually granted exemption from local laws by Pope Innocent II, allowing them to pass freely through all borders without having to pay taxes and making them exempt from all authority. The Templars answered to the Pope and the Pope alone.

With increasing resources, the order began to grow rapidly and they eventually became the advanced force in many key battles of the Crusades. One of their most popular battles is the Battle of Montgisard, where a small force of 376 Knights, 80 Templars, and several thousand infantry defeated the much larger army of over 27,000 soldiers led by Saladin.

The order was dissolved amidst trumped charges of heresy around 1314 AD and many Templars were burned at the stake as heretics. Confessions were obtained by torture and even though it was decided that the Templars were not heretics and had been the victim of false charges by King Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V still decided to dissolve the order.

In The Secret World, the Templars are the least secretive of the secret societies. They don’t hide the fact that they exist or that they have some power, and they have no problem doing what it takes to get the job done. Those who choose to serve the Templars will begin their adventure in London, United Kingdom.
Some things to know about the Templars.

• Old blood, new veins
• Tradition and honour above all.
• Righteous and holy crusaders.
• They don’t participate in the war on evil. They are the war on evil.

Secret Societies are rooted deeply in world history and Funcom has decided to take advantage of this information for The Secret World. Much to the chagrin of conspiracy theorists everywhere. In the world of secret societies there are no good guys, there are only your rivals. Who will you choose to serve? Take the test and find out where you fit in.

Research Sources:

• "The Illuminati." Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. The Gale Group Inc. 2003. Retrieved September 21, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406300124.html
• Woleslagle, Jeff (2009, September 10). The Secret World's Three Secret Societies. Retrieved from http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74238
• Lorenzi, Rossella (2007, October 29). Tracking Down the Tale of the Knights Templar. Retrieved from http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/29/knights-templar.html
• (n.d.). Knights Templar. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar
• Hickman, Kennedy (n.d.). Crusades: Battle of Montgisard. Retrieved from http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars10011200/p/montgisard.htm
• (n.d.). Black Dragon Society. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dragon_Society