The war between the Templars and Assassins is largely a philosophical one questioning whether humanity should have free will or be subject to control. The Templar Order believes that humans need to be managed in order to protect their best interests, and for the first few games this was a major focus. The Assassin’s Creed lore shifted in more recent entries to explore the history of the ancient Isu and embrace its more speculative elements. The Isu have always been pivotal to understanding the lore of the two organizations, but in recent entries their relevancy has overshadowed that of the Templars and the Assassins.
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Assassin’s Creed Origins Explores the Roots of the Templar Order
Historically, the Knights Templar were a religious military order that functioned very visibly at the dawn of the 12th century. Their relevancy to the Crusades often overshadows their financial influence, as many of their members were actually involved in protecting pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land through a banking system. This system allowed travelers to store goods at their points of departure, and then claim the monetary equivalency of those valuables at their destinations.
The quiet ways in which these institutions functioned remains a significant part of the Knights Templar legacy. The Assassin’s Creed games expand upon the origins of the real Templars to capture their military and political prowess during the time period. Many of the early Templar factions offered help alongside subjugation, such as the case with the mysterious Brothers of the Cross. Assassin’s Creed Origins serves to tell the story of its formation, which predates the actual Knights Templar by nearly 2,000 years. Instead of the Templars and the Assassins, Origins introduced their respective predecessors: the Order of the Ancients and the Hidden Ones.
Up until Assassin’s Creed Origins, the franchise was more focused on insular stories of the Templar and Assassin conflict, as it played out in the past and the current timeline. In Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, the focus shifted to the Isu and their legacy - introducing a variety of new mechanics and characters that capitalized on this mythos. The issue with such a speculative shift is that the Templars no longer feel like such a dire threat.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Doubles Down on Pre-Templar Lore
The First Civilization and the artifacts it possessed are at the forefront of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s story. Not only does the game predate the Templars and Assassins, it isn’t all that focused on their differing philosophies. Instead, players are introduced to a different but still similar organization to fight against, and far more mythological encounters with beings like the Minotaur and Sphinx. With its focus on myth over the more grounded occultism of the traditional Templars, the game derives less from history and more from its own lore.
This can be disappointing only in that the Templar Order was the first villain that fans encountered and grew accustomed to fighting. Those interested in the more science-fictional elements of the series will be happy to rediscover the relevancy of the Isu through Odyssey. As the technically oldest game in the series, with its setting being far enough down the timeline to feel completely disconnected from Ezio and his struggle against the Templars, the game can’t help but introduce different villains. It’s just that they aren’t yet the Templars, and while they are guided by the same principles, their mission and members can feel estranged from the original Templar goals.
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Further Explore the Templar’s Rise
By the events of Valhalla, the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients already have established footholds in the lore. In the modern timeline, there are characters like Basim - the POV in Assassin’s Creed Mirage - who serve as Sages and hold the memories of a particular Isu reincarnated throughout the generations. These humans in possession of Aita’s memories were first established in the lore back in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, but Edward Kenway’s work with the Assassins against the Templars was still front and center.
The allure of the clandestine struggle between the Templars and Assassins is often overshadowed by the Isu and their surviving artifacts, especially as the game’s open-world elements makes finding these items into viable main and side quests. Expanding lore helped the Assassin’s Creed franchise reinvent its formula and established new norms for gameplay and character customization. But the ultimate threat soon becomes centered on the potential destruction of the world, and this relegates the Templars and the Assassins to footnotes in a cosmic struggle.
Assassin’s Creed’s commitment to creating a compact but authentic fictional world is what helped it rise to popularity. Fans inclined to research beyond the basis of the game can find many avenues to pursue, including featured historical events and cameos by famous figures. The Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood have woven such a deep narrative connection over the series’ run that to push them aside can be a difficult change for long-time fans. In shifting the focus to other organizations and the more speculative elements of its lore, Assassin’s Creed games seem to have left their own origins behind.
While the Templars remain enemies to the Assassins, their position in the current lore of Assassin’s Creed is precarious. For the future of the series, it might be worth invigorating their relevancy by setting a game during a height of their influence, hearkening back to the days of the original trilogy. The Assassins and the Templars taking a backseat to bigger conflict deflates some of the tension, as it can feel less personal than it did in the previous games. But the future of Assassin’s Creed is not set in stone, and fans could further see Templar lore altered and explored further down the line.
Assassin’s Creed Hexe and Assassin’s Creed: Codename Red are currently in development.
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