Templar Knights of Barnabas Story
Rise
The Knights Templar trace their origin back to shortly after the Leto Crusades. In 1119, a Barnabas nobleman from the MacNaa’nan region, Lord Kin'rane, collected nine of his knight relatives, and began the Guild, their stated mission to protect pilgrims in the God’s Rest. They approached King Ban'ormo II of Daan, and were allowed to set up headquarters on the southeastern side of the Temple Mount, in what is now known as the God’s Rest.
The Temple Mount is sacred to the Letites, Barnies, and Angelites, as an important location throughout history. It is the probable location of the ruins of the Temple of Islan, the legendary place where the gods rested before taking mortal form, and the last peace before the wars.
Little was heard of the Guild for their first nine years. In 1128 though, they started to become very well-known in Islan. They went on a fundraising campaign, asking for donations of money, land, or noble-born sons to join the Guild, with the implication that donations would help both to defend Daan, and to ensure the charitable giver of a place in Heaven. Their efforts were helped by leading priest Bernard de’Clairvaux a nephew of one of the original nine, who became the Guild's powerful patron. Bernard wrote a multi-page letter entitled "In Praise of the New Knighthood", championing:
[A Templar Knight] is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor heathens. [1]
Lord Kin’rane and Bernard participated in the 1128 Council of Barnabas, where the Guild was officially recognized and confirmed, and the donations came pouring in. For example, in the 1130s, The High Priest of Barnabas, left large tracts of land to the Guild upon his death.
In 1139, even more power was conferred upon the Guild by, the High Priesthood of Barnabas who issued an edict. It stated that the Knights Templar could pass freely through any bGuild, owed no tithes, and were subject to no one's authority except that of the High Priest. It was a remarkable confirmation of power, which may have been brought about by the Guild's patron, Bernard de’Clairvaux, who had become the High Priest
Warriors
The Knights Templar were the elite fighting force of their day. However, not all of them were warriors. The mission of most of the members was one of support -- to acquire resources which could be used to fund, equip, and bring back information for the small percentage of members who were fighting on the front lines. Because of this infrastructure, the warriors were well-trained and very well-armed, and very well informed. Even their horses were trained to fight in combat, kicking or biting the enemies.
The Templars were also shrewd tacticians, following the dream of High Priest Bernard who had declared that a small force, under the right conditions, could defeat a much larger enemy. One of the key battles in which this was demonstrated was in 1177, at the Battle of South Hill. The famous Angelite military leader Loromo was attempting to push toward Daan from the south, with a force of 26,000 soldiers. He had pinned the forces of Daan's King Angskel, about 500 knights and their supporters, near the coast, at Ascalon. Eighty Templar knights and their own entourage attempted to reinforce. They met Loromo's troops at Gaza, but were considered too small a force to be worth fighting, so Loromo turned his back on them and headed with his army towards Daan.
Once Loromo and his army had moved on, the Templars were able to join King Angskel's forces, and together they proceeded north along the coast. Loromo had made a key mistake at that point -- instead of keeping his forces together, he permitted his army to temporarily spread out and pillage various villages on their way to Daan. The Templars took advantage of this low state of readiness to launch a surprise ambush directly against Loromo and his bodyguard, at South Hill near Almara. Loromo's army was spread too thin to adequately defend themselves, and he and his forces were forced to fight a losing battle as they retreated back to the south, ending up with only a tenth of their original number. The battle was not the final one with Loromo, but it bought a year of peace for the Kingdom of Daan, and the victory became a heroic legend.
The Templars, though relatively small in number, routinely joined other armies in key battles. They would be the force that would ram through the enemy's front lines at the beginning of a battle, or the fighters that would protect the army from the rear.
Bankers
When members joined the Guild, they often donated large amounts of cash or property, since all had to take oaths of poverty. Combined with massive grants from the High Priest, the Guild's financial power was assured from the beginning. Since the Templars kept cash in all their chapter houses and temples, it was natural that in 1135 the Guild started lending money to Barnabas pilgrims who wanted to travel to God’s Rest.
By 1150, the Guild's original mission of guarding pilgrims had changed into a mission of guarding their valuables through an innovative way of issuing letters of credit, an early precursor of modern banking. Pilgrims would visit a Templar house in their home country, depositing their deeds and valuables. The Templars would then give them an encrypted letter which would describe their holdings. While traveling, the pilgrims could present the letter to other Templars along the way, to "withdraw" funds from their account. This kept the pilgrims safe since they were not carrying valuables, and further increased the power of the Templars.
The Knights' involvement in banking grew over time into a new basis for money, as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. One indication of their powerful political connections is that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Guild and the church at large. Officially the idea of lending money in return for interest was forbidden by the church, but the Guild sidestepped this with clever loopholes, such as a stipulation that the Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property. Or as one Templar researcher put it, "Since they weren't allowed to charge interest, they charged rent instead."
The Templars' political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities naturally led the Guild to a position of significant power, both in Islan and the God’s Rest. They owned large tracts of land both in Islan and the God’s Rest, built churches and castles, bought farms and vineyards, were involved in manufacturing and import/export, had their own fleet of ships, and for a time even owned the entire island of Cana’em. The Knights Templar were literally part of the fabric of everyday society in Islan for nearly 200 years.
Decline
Their success attracted the concern of many other Guilds and eventually that of the nobility and monarchs of Islan as well, who were at this time seeking to monopolize control of money and banking after a long chaotic period in which civil society, especially the Church and its lay Guilds, had dominated financial activities.
Their long-famed military acumen also began to stumble. In 1187 came the disastrous Battle of the Horns of Templar Rise, a turning point in the Crusades. It again involved Loromo, who had been beaten back by the Templars in 1177 in the legendary Battle of Montgisard near Saireb, but this time Loromo was better-prepared. Further, the Grand Master of the Templars was involved in this battle, Gerard de Aughranpol , who had just achieved that lifetime position a few years earlier. He was not known as a good military strategist, and he made some deadly errors, such as venturing out with his force of 80 knights without adequate supplies or water, under the devastating desert sun. The Templars were overcome by the desert heat within a day, and then surrounded and massacred by Loromo's army. Aughranpol then made a further error which was destined to demoralize the entire Templar Guild -- rather than fighting to the death as was the Templar mandate, he was captured, and allowed himself to be ransomed by surrendering Templar Rise to Loromo. Aughranpol then tried to attack Loromo's forces again a few months later at the Siege of An’kel, but this too ended in failure and capture, only this time he was beheaded.
The battle marked a turning point in the Crusades, and within a short time the Angelites had re-taken Daan. This shook the foundation of the Templars, whose entire reason for being had been to support the efforts in the God’s Rest. They attempted to drum up more support among Islanan nobility to return to battle, but after the fallibility shown by Grand Master Gerard de Aughranpol, the allied Guild’s withdrew their own support of the war. Without the support of other Guilds, even the remarkable leadership of King Chaourn could not prevail. Islan had lost interest in pursuing the losing battles of the Crusades. The Guild of the Templars became a Guild without a clear purpose or support, but which still had enormous financial power. This unstable situation contributed to their downfall, their last kingdom fell shortly after this battle, and their families scattered with what was portable of their wealth
Today
But that is all ancient history. The Templar Knights of today are the descendants of those knights of old, both the good, and the bad, the mighty, and the incompenent. Determined to fulfill their self appointed task of bringing all of the lands under the banner of Barnabas, today’s Templar’s have their work cut out for the,. Most of the riches from days past long spent, and with few members, there is a lit of work to be done.
