Templar Order (Assassin’s Creed)

"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, the first Grand Master of the Templar Order in Colonial America.

The Order of the Knights Templar, more commonly known as the Templar Order, Knights Templar or simply the Templars, are a monastic military order that serve as the chief antagonists of the Assassin's Creed video game series. The modern-day version of the Templars operates using a front called Abstergo Industries, a super-corporation that has been responsible for the majority of human technological development for the past millennia.

The Templars seek to create a perfect world, although the means by which they aim to do so - through force, control and the destruction of free will - directly contrast the ideals 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 millenia, 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.

History
Originally founded as a holy order of knights during the Middle Ages (though before this, the Templars existed as a more loose, unofficial coalition) the Templars were mostly active in the Holy Land during the Crusades. However, in 1307, the King of France, Phillip IV, accursed the Order of heresy, which supposedly ended the Order.

However, the Order was not defeated; they had just been driven into hiding. They continued to operate in secret through the Hundred Years' War and into the Renaissance. During the early 1500's, they managed to gain control of Italy when Rodrigo Borgia, then the Grand Master of the Order, was elected Pope. They managed to obtain two "Pieces of Eden" and locate "The Vault". However, Rodrigo's efforts were thwarted by the Assassin Ezio Auditore. Eventually, Rodrigo was killed and his son Cesare assumed leadership of the Order. Even then, the Assassin bested Cesare's forces, and the Borgia's control over Italy eventually broke. For the rest of the 15th century the Templar Order went into decline. Not much is known of their activities until the 19th century.

By the 20th century, the Templars had established a major foothold in the American industry, with important figures such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone being Templars themselves. In 1937, the Templars founded Abstergo Industries, a secret company aiming to control capitalists and workers and neutralize communism. The Templars, who had previously created the capitalistic economic system, hoped to control the people through owning capitalistic companies, as opposed to having people own the companies. The company would go on to control a lot of corporations and organizations, including the Ford Motor Company, NASA, the CIA and BP. In the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler, a Templar, began to take over political control over Germany. After having assumed full control, Hitler used an Apple of Eden to form Nazi Germany and hypnotize the population to join his cause. With this newfound support, Hitler began to declare "war" on Germany's neighboring countries, quickly conquering them. A worldwide war - World War II - soon erupted, but the entire war was a Templar plot to keep the people under the Order's control. While the entire war was overseen by the Templars, the world was split between two forces. On one side of the war stood the Axis, primarily led by Hitler and Benito Mussolini. On the other side stood the Allied forces, led by the Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin; the Big Three. By the time the war concluded, the Templars planned to take advantage of the resulting peace.

Levantine Templars (Assassin's Creed)

 * Robert de Sable: Grand Master of the Templar Order. He is the secondary antagonist of the game.
 * Tamir: Black Market master.
 * Talal: Slaver.
 * Garnier de la Plus: Corrupt Doctor.
 * Abu'l Nuqoud: "Merchant King".
 * William of Montferrat: Military Commander.
 * Majd Addin: Ruler of Jerusalem and obsessed executioner.
 * Jubair al Hakim: Plotted to burn history books and re-write history his way.
 * Maria Thorpe: Decoy of Robert during an assassination mission and future wife of Altair
 * Al Mualim: Spy inside in the Assassin's Creed, their eventual leader and the true main antagonist of Assassin's Creed.
 * Haras: Assassin-turned traitor and Templar enforcer, slain by Altair before he could kill Al Mualim.
 * Armand Bouchart: Templar leader after Robert's death and main antagonist of Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines.

Assassin's Creed II

 * Rodrigo Borgia: Grand Master of the Templar Order and eventually Pope Alexander IV. He is the main antagonist of the game.

Pazzi conspirators

 * Jacopo de' Pazzi: Uncle of Francesco and great uncle of Vieri and "Grand Master" of the Florentine and Tuscany Templars.


 * Uberto Alberti: Gonfaloniere in Florence and murderer of Ezio's father and brothers.
 * Vieri de' Pazzi: Leader of mercenary guards in Tuscany.
 * Francesco de' Pazzi: Vieri's father and leader of mercenaries to conquer Florence and replace Lorenzo de' Medici.
 * Antonio Maffei: Pazzi conspirator in Tuscany.
 * Stefano da Bagnone: Pazzi conspirator in Tuscany.
 * Bernardo Baroncelli: Pazzi family's main banker and Pazzi conspirator in Tuscany.
 * Francesco Salviati: Archbishop of Pisa and Pazzi conspirator in Tuscany.

Barbardigo conspirators

 * Emilio Barbarigo: Merchant noble and first of the Barbardigo family to gain power in Venice.
 * Marco Barbarigo: Doge of Venice following the death of his predecessor.
 * Carlo Grimaldi: Servant of the previous Doge of Venice and murderer of him as well.
 * Dante Moro: "The Muscle" of the Venetian Templars, big and tough.
 * Silvio Barbarigo: Government official and final member of the Barbardigo bloodline to die by Ezio's hands.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

 * Rodrigo Borgia: Current Pope (Alexander IV) and Grand Master of the Templars, but now serves as the tertiary antagonist of the game.
 * Juan Borgia the Elder: Money bandit.
 * Lucrezia Borgia: "Countess" of Rome and the secondary antagonist of the game.
 * Cesare Borgia: Commander of Templar Papal armies, tyrannical warlord and the game's main antagonist.
 * Octavian de Valois: Representative of the King of France and leader of Cesare's French army.
 * Micheletto Corella: 2nd-in-Command of Cesare's forces and his right-hand man.

Turkish Templars (Assassin's Creed: Revelations)

 * Ahmet: Grand Master of the Turkish Templars and sought to become the next Sultan. He is the main antagonist of the game.
 * Manuel Palaiologos: Supposed Grand Master and the secondary antagonist.
 * Shahkulu: Turkish renegade and the tertiary antagonist.
 * Leandros: Commander of Templar-peppered Masyaf to find the Masyaf Keys.

Assassin's Creed III

 * Haytham Kenway: First Grand Master of the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order, active during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution. He is the main antagonist of the game and later deuteragonist of Assassin's Creed: Rogue.
 * Charles Lee: 2nd-in-Command of the Colonial Rite, competitor of George Washington and the secondary antagonist of the game.
 * Nicholas Biddle: Patriot naval officer and Templar spy
 * Edward Braddock: British General in Colonial America-turned deserter of the Templar Order. He is the main antagonist of the first three sequences, when Haytham is the playable protagonist.
 * Thomas Hickey: George Washington's personal bodyguard and mastermind of a plot to kill him and replace him with Charles Lee.
 * William Johnson: English ambassador of the Iroquois Confederacy and sought to buy the Native American's land.
 * John Pitcairn: British military commander and leader of the British armies in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill.
 * Benjamin Church: Patriot surgeon-turned deserter of the Templar Order.
 * Reginald Birch: Grand Master of the British Rite, responsible for training Haytham and sending him to America, the true main antagonist of Assassin's Creed: Forsaken.

Assassin's Creed: Rogue

 * Haytham Kenway: First Grand Master of the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order, active during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution.
 * Shay Cormac: Assassin-turned Templar, the feared Assassin hunter and the main protagonist of Assassin's Creed: Rogue
 * Christopher Gist: British naval officer and Shay's first-mate on his ship, the Morrigan.
 * George Monro: British naval officer and the man who brought Shay to the Templar Order
 * Lawrence Washington: Brother of George Washington and leader of a plan to find Precursor artifacts.
 * Samuel Smith: Lawrence's minion in his plan.
 * Jack Weeks: Member who operates in New York.
 * James Wardrop: Lawrence's minion in his plan.

Caribbean Templars (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)

 * Laureano de Torres y Ayala: Governor of Cuba, Grand Master of the Caribbean Templars and distinguished naval commander. He is the main antagonist of the game.
 * Woodes Rogers: Naval captain and eventual Governor of Nassau, leading a plan to "purge" the West Indies of pirates.
 * Julien du Casse: French weapon-seller.
 * Benjamin Hornigold: Pirate-turned-British naval privateer and new member of the Templar Order.
 * El Tiburon: Torres' armored bouncer and personal bodyguard.
 * Jing Lang: Queen of Pirates

French American Templars (Assassin's Creed III: Liberation)

 * Madeleine de L'Isle: New Orleans noble and Grand Master of the Louisiana Templars, known as the Company Man among those who don't know her true identity. She is the main antagonist of the game.
 * Rafael Joaquín de Ferrer: Head of a former slave worksite in Chicken Itza, Mexico and the Company Man's 2nd-in-Command.
 * Officer Davidson: Slave-turned-British fort officer.
 * Antonio de Ulloa: Governor of New Orleans when the Spanish took over.

French Templars (Assassin's Creed: Unity)

 * Francois-Thomas Germain: French blacksmith-turned-Grand Master of the French Templars. He is the main antagonist of the game.
 * Charles Gabriel Sivert: Agent hired by Germain to kill Francois de la Serre
 * Le Roi des Thunes: Agent hired by Germain to kill Francois de la Serre.
 * Francois de la Serre: Grand Master of the French Templars and ally to the French Assassins, murdered by Germain's agents and replaced by Germain himself.
 * Chretien Lafreniere: Leader of a second organization of Templars, essentially the leader of deserting Templars, who deserted when Germain took over.
 * Jacques de Molay: Long-deceased French Templar Grand Master who motivated Germain to rebuild the Templar Order.
 * Elise de la Serre: Francois de la Serre's daughter, who sought to kill Germain as revenge for murdering her father, serving as the anti-heroic deuteragonist, and Arno Dorian's adoptive sister and love interest.
 * Maximilien de Robespiere: Politician, lawyer and is known to have abolished slavery in France.

21th Century Templars (Abstergo Industries, mainly)

 * Alan Rikkin: Chief Executive Officer of Abstergo Industries
 * Lucy Stillman: Scientist at Abstergo's lab in Rome, Italy and spy within the Assassin's Creed and hidden modern day main antagonist of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.
 * Warren Vidic: Scientist at Abstergo in general, inventor of the Animus device and the main antagonist of the Assassin's Creed series until Assassin's Creed III.
 * Daniel Cross: Test Subject in the Animus, Templar spy within the Assassin's Creed and protagonist of the Assassin's Creed comic series, then the secondary antagonist in Assassin's Creed III 's present-day timeline.
 * Laetitia England: Supporter of Abstergo Entertainment's attempts at searching the genetic memories of Edward Kenway to find "the Observatory".
 * Otso Berg: the multiplayer protagonist in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations and later serves as arguably the main antagonist of Assassin's Creed: Rogue 's present-day story, working as an agent within Abstergo.
 * John Standish: Instrument of the First Civilization and the spy within both Abstergo Industries and Abstergo Entertainment. He is the main antagonist of present-day Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.