Templar Order (Assassin’s Creed)

The Order of the Knights Templar, more commonly known as the Templar Order or simply the Templars, are a cult-like 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 centuries, 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 Rennaissance. 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.