Book Three The Orders Templars Knights Templar are members of the oldest and most powerful of the three Militant Orders. Because their headquarters was near the site of Solomon's Temple they were named Templars. By 1118AD the Order had been officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church and attracted many members, growing greatly in wealth. They were a very well organised Order, with wide ranging contacts - such as the Saracen Hashshashin assassins. The Templars fought bravely for Christianity during the 2nd Crusade, but after Jerusalem was recaptured by the Turks, the Templars retreated to Cyprus. Once removed from Outremer, the Templars had no purpose for their existence - and the vultures closed in. The Templar inventions of banks, cheques and other methods of credit - designed to help finance their activities in the Holy Land - were used to hasten their demise. The Templars were not the first Militant Order to encounter the vampires, but they were the first to actively hunt them down on an organised basis. Their ruthless pursuit of the Kindred and their surprising success eventually prompted the children of Cain to organise themselves and plot to overthrow the Order. King Philip IV (a vampire puppet) tortured and killed many Templars and seized their properties and the dominated pope, Clement, disbanded the Order. But they were only fragmented, surviving through widely dispersed secret societies who have Lodges through the world. Full Name: Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon Archetype: The Templars are intellectual and business people with very high dress codes. Business tycoons and spies are counted among their ranks. Their combat equipment is the same as that of all knights - and no identifying marks are allowed. Their monastic and ceremonial robes are distinctive, with a red splayed cross (the Croix Patte) set on a white background. The Orders banner is a black sky on a white field - called Bauseant. Headquarters: The Templars have been a fragmented force for more than 600 years, surviving as a fugitive and underground organisation. The revived Order's headquarters is in Scotland, at a mysterious castle and cathedral both known as Rosslyn. Situated in the Scottish heartland, this mystical place is rumored to have contained many of the Templars secrets for centuries Background: Templars are a suspicious and overly cautious group - reflecting the bitter experience of the early 14th century. Much importance is placed upon investigation and research techniques. The philosophy of "knowing one's enemy" succeeded in pulling-of the unconceivable in 1316 - disbanding a Militant Order subject to no earthly authority other than the pope's. The Templars have learnt their lesson well. Women are allowed to serve in non-combatant roles, after adopting the Nun's habit. Pressure for full acceptance of women within the Order is intense. Character Creation: Templars are almost obsessed about understanding their enemy, so the Knowledge attributes are primary as are research skills. They usually have professional and highly educated concepts. Their demeanour tends to be intellectual, with good bureaucratic, investigative, linguistic, law and money skills. For background traits they usually have strong Contacts, Influence and Resources. Weaknesses: Their quest for information on the blood of Cain often takes precedence over actually "removing" them. This often causes conflict with the Teutones who believe it is a Church Knight's primary responsibility to get rid of Kindred Corruption for humankind's greater good. The Templar's history also makes them overly cautious when it comes to dealings with the open public. Generally, the Templars believe that if the Militant Order's cannot do something themselves, then it should not be done at all. Hospitallers Formed by as a nursing Order after the First Crusade, the Hospitallers were originally totally devoted to providing healing and respite to weary pilgrims. Raiding Infidels and contact with the Kindred soon changed that. The Hospitallers followed the Templars lead, and soon became devoted to the Militant defence of Christendom. However, the knights Hospitaller never forgot their origins and always maintained a hospital to care for the sick and destitute. The knights of St. John have a philosophy of healing, and all are trained in medicine. Succouring God's people is seen by the knights as their primary purpose for existence - and the only reason for their Militant Arm is to combat the Kindred "disease" at its source. The Hospitallers were the only Order to survive the changing centuries intact, and thus enjoys the status of most senior Militant Order. They adapted their role from guardians of the Holy Land to that of forward raiders from Rhodes and bastion of the Mediterranean from Malta. During the past few centuries, they have often acted in concert with the Vatican's espionage arm. Most people see them as wholly dedicated to charitable work, especially in world-wide ambulance and disaster relief services. Full Name: The Knights Hospitaller of St John, Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta Appearance: The members of this Order are well dressed in public. Like most doctors, they believe in high standards of cleanliness and hygiene. The ceremonial uniform of the Hospitallers is a black robe emblazoned with an eight- pointed cross of white (the Maltese Cross). Occasionally, the most senior warrior-monks wear red robes with the white Maltese Cross. Headquarters: Since being forcibly removed from their island home of Malta in the 1700s by Napoleon, the Hospitallers have had to be content with a small property near the Vatican in Rome. However, the knights have recently been allowed to return to their Valletta castle in strength - though the Maltese no longer accept them as rulers. Background: Members of this Order are generally chosen from medical, science and priesthood backgrounds. An arm of the Hospitallers has been heavily involved in espionage for centuries, so experienced spies are also available. This is the most traditional Order, placing great emphasis on religion and ceremony. As a result, women are only allowed to serve within the Order in a non-combatant manner. Character Creation: Hospitallers are mainly from medical backgrounds. Social Attributes are generally primary, as are Knowledge Abilities. Normal background traits include Resources and Status. The Order is a very humane one, this Virtues such as conscience and humanity are usually high. Weaknesses: The Hospitallers have a strong sense of justice. They will not have any dealings with people or creatures which they think are evil. This often puts them at odds with the Templars and Teutones. Their concern for the general populace often over-rides their immediate pursuit of the Kindred. If their is an accident or disaster involving many mortals, they will abandon a hunt to lend assistance. Teutones The Order of Teutonic knights was founded in 1190 by German Crusaders in Palestine and were recognised by the Pope in 1199. Modelled after the knights Templars and the knights Hospitaller but restricted in membership to the German nobility, the new Order grew to become a major principality. It is largely because the Teutones initially ignored warnings about the Kindred that they are so determined to wipe them out. Their ignorance cost the lives of many Teutonic Knights, and the Order is embarrassed it had to call for Hospitaller assistance during their Hungary campaigns against tribes lead by ancient Kindred. In 1229 the Teutonic knights began a crusade to convert and pacify the pagan Slavs in Prussia. They crushed the native Slavs, who were often lead by vampires who had adopted for themselves demi-god status. Their merciless treatment of such evil earned them a reputation as vicious warriors. The Teutonic Knights have become cynics, and believe direct conflict with the Kindred is the only means of eradicating evil quickly and efficiently. To this end, military training is paramount. Full Name: The Sacred Order of the Teutonic Knights Appearance: The members of this Order are usually muscular, reflecting their military mien. Battle dress is the same as all knights, though a Teutone may have a few more optional extras tacked on. Ceremonial dress is similar to that of the Templars, though their white robes are adorned with a simple black cross. Headquarters: For several centuries, the most pure fragment of the Teutones have been serving in Vienna as a charity nursing Order. However, now that the Militant nature of the knights has been restored, they have managed to reacquire their ancient headquarters Marienburg Castle. Background: It has an appearance to normal people as a semiclerical Order, devoted to charity work. But who ever heard of nurses who had the strength to bend iron bars? The Teutonic knights pick their members carefully from special police and military forces units from around the world. The knights are very secretive, rarely revealing their identity in public. This is the only Order to continue enforcing the ancient Rule of not maintaining family contacts. Their backgrounds are almost impossible to trace, their personal details well protected (even from fellow Teutones) and their fighting skills carefully honed. Character Creation: Most knights Teutone come from military or police force backgrounds. Physical attributes are primary, as are fighting abilities. Their disposition is often one of short temper, eager to get into the fight. This is often misinterpreted by the Hospitallers and Templars as pure bloody mindedness. The other Orders do not appreciate the hatred and concern with which the Teutones consider the Kindred. Delays are frustrating to the Teutones, as are strategic long-term considerations. They've spend most of their lives training to fight, and they want to put that training to use. Weaknesses: Teutones are not well known for their restraint or subtlety. They tend to be hard to get along with socially as they are often engrossed with their mission. They dislike trickery or subtle tactics, believing front-on confrontation to be the best approach. This will often lead them into dispute with the Hospitallers and Templars, and sometimes Teutones may ignore instructions from officers outside their own Order if they believe it is inappropriate or indirect. An Historical Perspective "Go forward in safety, knights, and with undaunted souls drive off the enemies of the cross of Christ, certain that neither death nor life can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, repeating to yourselves in every peril : Whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord's" - Bernard of Clairvaux, De laude novae militiae Knights Templar The Knight's Templar had their origins in a small band of crusader knights who took upon themselves the task of keeping the Holy Land's roads safe and secure. Formed about 1115 by Hugh de Payens or Burgundy and eight other knights, the small band quickly won the favour of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. After being granted the right to use part of the old Temple of Solomon as their headquarters, the Poor Knights of Christ began to be called Templars. In 1118, the small band swore before the Patriarch of Jerusalem that they would uphold the monastic vows of poverty, obedience and chastity while protecting pilgrims en-route between Jerusalem, Jericho and the Jordan. The number of knights grew rapidly, the concept of a devout group of warriors doing God's work in the Holy Land proving popular. With this increase in size, Hugh acted to have his knights recognised as an official monastic order with special rules for their combat role. In 1124 Hugh travelled to Europe to muster support for his new band of warrior-monks. The Council of the Catholic Church at Troyes, and personal relative St Bernard of Clairvaux, approved the idea and compiled what was to become known as The Rule. The Pope's and Bernard's approval resulted in a flood of new entrants. When Hugh returned in 1130, 300 new members travelled with him. The new Order was led by a Grand Master, Seneschal, Marshal, Commander and Preceptors (masters of provinces). Each province was divided into several preceptories, each with its own knight captain and a lieutenant. The Templars allowed subordinate members into the Order as sergeants, as well as "confrere knights" - knights who only served for a short term, were permitted to marry but had to bequeath half their estate to the Order upon their death. Gifts of land and money also poured in. At the height of the Order's power it owned more than 9000 titles and manors throughout Europe and the Holy Land. It was this vast wealth that eventually led to the Order's downfall. The skills needed to keep track of such vast amounts of money tuned the Templars into the world's first international bank. It also attracted a lot of resentment. By 1147, the Templars and the Hospitallers fielded about half of the total available forces in Outremer. About 80 Templars, leading 300 other knights, lead a cavalry charge in 1177 which smashed through Saladin's much larger army. The Moslems were routed, greatly enhancing the Order's prestige. Their victories were tainted by several stupid defeats. In 1187, Grand Master Gerard de Ridefort led a force of 90 Templars and 40 others to charge 7000 Moslem cavalry. Only he and two other Templars escaped with their lives. But they regularly demonstrated their willingness to fight unto the bitter end. In 1243, at the loss of Jerusalem to the Moslems, only 36 Templars out of 300 survived. In 1250, 200 Templars died in the streets of Mansurah after their Grand Master had warned others of an impending ambush - but had been overruled. At Christendom's final defeat in the Holy Land - the fall of Acre - the knights were forced to take refuge in their chapterhouse after the walls were breached. While negotiating a surrender treaty, the Moslems began slaughtering civilians sheltering within the Order's boundaries. True to their vows, the remaining Templars jumped to their defence. Later their surviving officer, the Knight Marshal, was treacherously beheaded while negotiating. After another week of fighting, the Templar remnants died along with 2000 Moslem attackers when their building collapsed upon them all. By the time the Order was expelled from Outremer in 1291, the Templars were too deeply involved in banking to afford a new crusade. Despite a few unsuccessful raids, the Order had been reduced to a group bankers and money-lenders. King Philip VI "The Fair" organised the downfall of the Order by planting infiltrators among the ranks - with a carefully organised plan for trumped-up charges of heresy. When one of these plants, renegade Templar Esquiu de Floyrian laid charges against the Order in 1305, it was the beginning of the end. Similar attacks were mounted in England and Spain, but the charges were thrown out as ridiculous. Several years of legal wrangling followed, during which the Grand Master Jacques de Molay placed his faith in the Order's supposed invulnerability from all earthy authority and relied upon papal protection. Eventually charges were laid against all individual members of the Order - not the Order itself. Against this, the imprisoned and tortured Templars had no defence. In 1312, the Order was dissolved. Knights Hospitaller The knights Hospitaller are an Order whose role and power are much more thoroughly documented - and tangible - than the Templars. This Militant Order is the Templars traditional rival. The knights Hospitaller of Saint John had a structure based on that of the Templars but had a greater focus on medical health. The Order of Saint John originated with a hospital dedicated to Saint John in Jerusalem about 1070, - 30 years before the First Crusade - by a group of Italian merchants wanting to look after pilgrims. It appears to have been constituted as an Order about 1100, just after the First Crusade, when it took on its first Grand Master. The Hospitallers thus pre-dated the Templars, but they were solely dedicated toward medical work. By 1126, however, about eight years after the Templars appeared publicly, the knights of Saint John had begun to assume an increasingly military character which would soon become more prominent than their hospital service. Interestingly, the Hospitallers may have had to adopt a militant arm because the Templars were not doing the job given to them - they were running around the Holy Land searching for Holy relics instead of protecting pilgrims. The Hospitallers, along with the Templars and Teutones, became the major military and financial power in the Holy Land. This power spread throughout the Mediterranean. Like the Templars, they became immensely wealthy. The Order developed into a vast military, ecclesiastic and administrative organisation with hundreds of knights, a standing army, numerous secondary services, a network of fortresses and enormous holdings of land across the Christian world. The Order remained true to its origins, maintaining hospitals staffed by its own surgeons. In 1307, when the Templars had been charged with a catalogue of offences against Catholic orthodoxy, the Hospitallers managed to stay clean of any stigma. They retained the favour of the papacy. In England and elsewhere, ex Templar holdings were handed over to them - boosting their wealth. After the fall of the Holy Land in 1291, the knights of Saint John retired to Cyprus. Then in 1309 they proceeded to establish their headquarters on the island of Rhodes, which they governed as their private principality. They remained here for two centuries, withstanding two major sieges by the Turks. In 1522, a third siege forced them to abandon the island and in 1530 they re-established themselves on Malta. In 1565, Malta was besieged by the Turks in an ambitious attempt to conquer the Mediterranean. In an epic defence, 541 knights Hospitaller and sergeants along with 1500 standing soldiers and mercenaries repelled the repeated assaults of a historically verified 30,000 attackers. The historic defeat inflicted upon the Turks destroyed their invasion plans. Six years later, in 1571, the Order's Fleet, together with warships from Austria, Italy and Spain, won a decisive victory at the naval battle of Lepanto, shattering Turkish maritime power. The Hospitaller fleet was awarded disproportionate credit for sinkings. In the late 16th century they were still one of the supreme military and naval powers in the Christian world, with strength and financial resources comparable to most nations. But the Protestant reformation had begun to shatter the strength of Catholic Europe, and the Order itself was split by changing beliefs. Chivalric behaviour had become "quaint" and out dated, and Europe moved on to a new age of religious tolerance and mercantilism. The knights were still on Malta in 1798, though only a shadow of what they were. Freemasonry had eroded their Catholic allegiances, and when Napoleon invaded the island on the way to Egypt, the knights offered no resistance. When Horatio Nelson recaptured the islands, the knights were able to re-establish an unofficial presence on their island again. In 1834, an official base was established in Rome. Once again devoted to hospital and health work, the knights maintain their fortress in Malta but have no magisterial powers. Interestingly enough, it was seriously considered to hand Israel over to the knights after World War II. In international law, the knights of Malta have status as an independent sovereign principality, with the option of a seat in the United Nations (which they have never enacted). Embassies can be found in African and Latin American countries with full diplomatic privileges. Knights Teutone The Teutonic knights are a German military and religious Order based on the Hospitallers and Templars. The youngest of the three militant Orders, the Teutonic knights were founded as a nursing unit in 1190 by German Merchants who were concerned about their disease-ridden compatriots among the Christian army camped outside Acre. After being granted land to build a hospital, and being granted Monastic status, the Teutones were somewhat surprised to be instructed by Pope Innocent III to become a Militant Order. The militant arm was closely modelled on the knights Templar, and the hospital arm based on that of the knights of St John. Membership of the Teutones was not restricted to members of the German nobility. The only limits were to be a freeman and not to be in wedlock. The Order generally wore a white habit with a black cross. Each Chapterhouse of the Order numbered 12, after the number of disciples. Their leader was known as a Komtur - meaning bailiff. When a Grand Master died, all Komturs were gathered to elect 13 members, who, in turn, would elect a new Master. Other officers of the Grosskomtur (command) were the Ordensmarshall, the Tressler (treasurer), the Spittler (hospitaller) and the Trapier (quartermaster). The Order never distinguished itself in the Holy Land. It fought no famous battles, nor did it initially enjoy the wealth of support given to the other Orders. It is partially because of this lack of support that it remained a purely Germanic movement- a fact that soon saw its interests turn closer to the Fatherland. In 1216AD the order lost most of its knights and its Grand Master in action defending the Holy Land. While continuing their presence in Acre until the kingdom fell in the late 13th century, the Teutones increasingly focussed their strength on the Balkans. First, the Order assisted King Andrew of Hungary in the 1210s to evict the Kumans who were raiding Transylvania. However, the king reneged on rewarding the Teutones with their own principality in the district of Burzenland. Fortunately, the Polish Duke Conrad of Masovia asked the Order for protection from the pagans on the borders of his country. By 1229AD, Pope Gregory IX instructed the Teutones to "convert" the Prusiskai - with any conquered land becoming their own with only nominal Church interference. The Order was ruthless in its fight against the heathen tribes, with even small numbers of heavy cavalry being virtually invincible in the face of any enemy. Any captured knights were tortured to death under pagan rites. But the Teutones were no more merciful. Every conquered man, woman and child was faced with conversion or death. The natives became the Order's serfs, controlled from a series of powerful fortresses. Eventually, their domain extended through the Balkans from Poland to Sweden. In the following 100 years they extended their domain which was held as a Papal fief, along the Baltic from the Gulf of Finland to the Pomeranian borders. The Teutones colonised the land with Germans and established a strong central government with a headquarters at Marienburg, Prussia. Rebellions in the 1260s stretched the Order to the limit. After several Balkan castles and Acre fell in the late 13th century, the knights moved their headquarters to Venice. The lost ground in the Balkans was soon recaptured. The Teutonic Knights governed their new land efficiently. Most colonists found it strange to have to answer in financial matters to monks who were not allowed to own anything, but this limited corruption and allowed business to operate effectively During the early 1300s Inquisition, which saw the fall of the Templars, the Teutones were periodically subject to charges of cruelty and witchcraft - though their primary theatre of operations (Prussia and the Baltic Coast) placed them safely beyond the reach of any authority wanting to act against them. The rule of the Teutones was not an easy one. The 14th century was a series of continuous battles against the Lithuanians - up to 80 expeditions in all with up to seven in one year. The Teutones reached their peak of power and reputation during this period - budding some of the best military minds of the era. Defeated by the Poles and Lithuanians at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410, the Teutonic knights were forced in 1466 to cede West Prussia and Pomerelia to Poland and to move their headquarters to Konigsberg in East Prussia. In 1525 their grand master, Albert of Brandenburg, converted to Lutheranism and made East Prussia a secular Polish fief. The Order remaining possessions in France and Germany were secularised by 1805. The Teutonic image, as well as part of the Order itself, was hijacked by the Nazi party in World War II. The Order's Slavic Crusade was held up as an example of German superiority and used as an excuse for another attack on Russia. Many members of the SS styled themselves as Teutonic Knights. The Order of Teutonic knights still exists in Austria as an organisation devoted to charity work.