#Knights Templar origins

[thetemplarknight]

Five Biggest History Conspiracy Theories

My five favourite history conspiracy theories - a guilty pleasure at yuletide! #history

Conspiracy theories are nothing new. We’re more aware of them today thanks to the ceaseless buzz of social media. But back in ancient Rome, Nero was blaming Christians for burning down the city. While in Stuart London after the Great Fire of 1666, a monument was erected pointing an accusing finger at Roman Catholics as devious arsonists. What’s often not recognised is the extent to which…

[tonyrossmcmahon]

Five Biggest History Conspiracy Theories

My five favourite history conspiracy theories - a guilty pleasure at yuletide! #history

Conspiracy theories are nothing new. We’re more aware of them today thanks to the ceaseless buzz of social media. But back in ancient Rome, Nero was blaming Christians for burning down the city. While in Stuart London after the Great Fire of 1666, a monument was erected pointing an accusing finger at Roman Catholics as devious arsonists. What’s often not recognised is the extent to which…

[rrredgi]

Knelt, but not defeated

[royaltea000]

teutemp is so funny cuz it’s Gil’s healthiest relationship but only cuz they’re both dead

[wandering-jana]

Temple Bruer is a lone relic from what was once-sprawling Knights Templar complex hidden away on an abandoned farm outside of Lincoln, England

Sept. 2012

[squirrelwithatophat]

Wynne defending children from the Templars

It’s interesting to reflect on Wynne’s Establishing Character Moment in Dragon Age: Origins, especially in light of the strange whitewashing of the Templar Order in Inquisition as well as her apparently conservative politics.  When we encounter her in Broken Circle (our first interaction with her since the brief chat at Ostagar), we see her fighting to protect a group of young children not only from demons but from the Templars -- the very military force that claims to protect them.  If she is recruited into the party, in fact, we discover that she had already sacrificed her life for them.  She is technically dead/undead and only kept standing due to possession by a spirit of Faith.

As soon as the party enters the door, she’s fearful that the Warden has come to kill them all on behalf of Knight-Commander Greagoir, and depending on player choices/intentions, she may in fact be correct.  

Wynne: It’s you!  No... come no further.  Grey Warden or no, I will strike you down where you stand!

Warden: Wynne - what are you doing here?

Wynne: I am a mage of the Circle.  More importantly, why are you here?  The templars would not let just anyone by.

Warden: You have children with you.

Wynne: The tower is a place of learning.  Young apprentices are always here.  Why is that surprising?

Wynne: But this is no time to discuss that.  Why are you here?  Why did the templars let you in?

Warden: I am helping Greagoir resolve the Circle’s difficulties.

Wynne: Then you do serve the templars as I feared.  Do they have the Right of Annulment?

Warden: The Right of Annulment?

Wynne: The order from the grand cleric allowing the templars to completely annul a Circle.  Do they have it?

Warden: No, but Greagoir expects it to arrive soon.

Wynne: So Greagoir thinks the Circle is beyond hope.  He probably assumes we are all dead.  

Wynne: They abandoned us to our fate, but even trapped as we are, we have survived.  If they invoke the Right, however, we will not be able to stand against them.

Warden: It’s nothing less than this Circle deserves.

Wynne:  Do these children deserve death too?  Will they die by your hand?

Warden: Mages are a danger.  If I had a say, you would all be culled.

Wynne: Killing us solves nothing, but with training and education, mages learn to control their powers.

Wynne: You’re mad if you think I’ll let you lay a finger on these children.  If will fight you if you won’t listen to reason.

Wynne: I am not afraid of you.

Warden: This Circle must be destroyed, for all our sakes.

Wynne: If you insist on making war on the Circle, we have nothing more to discuss.  It comes to blows, then.  I will stop you or die trying.

BONUS - terrified child fleeing from being murdered:

Commentary

While Wynne can be condescending and sometimes preachy in her support for the Circle, her dialogue both here and elsewhere indicates that she has no illusions about the Templars keeping them locked inside.  

After all, they imprisoned her in Kinloch Hold since she was a young child, took her own child away from her forever, and threatened to slaughter both her and the other children she was mentoring in her son’s stead.  If recruited into the party, she opens up about the despair she felt as a girl when she realized she would be trapped there forever, and it was only by turning to the religious faith that was being forced on all mages in the tower that she began to make peace with her fate.  She knows that if the Libertarian Fraternity successfully leads a vote for independence from the Chantry, the Templars will simply kill them all.  She even uses the term “genocide” to describe what will happen.  She explicitly cites this as the reason why she opposes the independence vote. 

The mages will never be free! The Chantry would never allow it. Our only hope for survival is to show them we can be trusted! Don’t you remember what happened to the Circle in Ferelden? Do you want to give the templars another excuse to call for the culling of all mages?

She doesn’t reject freedom for her fellow mages for any personal advantage, throwing others like her under the bus to reap the rewards of brown-nosing.  If she wanted any semblance of power or status, after all, she would have accepted the post of First Enchanter (or second-in-line to it) a long time ago.  As of Dragon Age Origins, she has consistently rejected the opportunity to become Irving’s successor.  As of the end of Broken Circle, if she joins the party and defeats Uldred’s rebels, she still needs to ask for permission just to temporarily leave the tower, despite having proven her loyalty and competence beyond any reasonable doubt both here and over the past thirty or so years of incarceration.  It takes helping the Hero of Ferelden save the entire country by defeating the Archdemon to convince the Templars to allow her to come and go freely - an opportunity that, as her own son later points out, no one else has had or probably ever would have in their lifetime (and one, as the only the player knows, that is entirely conditional on player choices).

The only context in which she ever even considers fighting the Templars is when she has no other way of preventing the Templars from killing them all anyways - both during Broken Circle and in the climax of Asunder.

Her politics are, in the end, based on fear.

Not the usual fear of the Other or fear of social change that hamper normal politics, but the completely rational fear, as someone at/near the bottom of the social hierarchy, about what the authorities will do to her and everyone like her if they step out of line.  As it turns out, she’s not wrong about what the powers that be are and how they will react - she’s only wrong about the potential for a better future and the rewards of fighting for it.

[the-flying-serpent]

Update #1: Brosmýr the Raven

He now actually looks Gaelic and a part of the Knights Templar. He's still keeping his bardiche and fur though, because they're iconic.

My man's got that black knight energy, and I'm loving it

Yes he should have a helmet, and he will, but that covers way too much of his face which you're gonna see more of anyway, shush

[rozenmarchen]

the historical chibi this time is a Knights Templar oc, one of my oldest characters, woah...

[daydreamerwonderkid]

I know jackshit about Jean Paul Valley and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.

[gemsbokk]

another one from my deck made with @calfrxca, whose idea it was. we're slaying, brother

[mrcarlkarlson]

Respite [OC]

Killing cultists can be stressful

[minaakaajaa]

The eighth episode in my Let's Play: Dragon Age Origins Let's Play! In this episode we are heading to Lake Calenhad and the Circle of Magi.

[thunderboltfire]

I have to say, Dragon Age games' Polish translation pretty much always make the jokes fall flat and has many faults, BUT-

The choice to translate "Knight Commander" title as "Komtur" is frankly genius. It's a very subtle localisation but it also works on a deeper level.

Komtur is a direct borrowing from german, and was a high rank among the teutonic knights. And while templars weren't too active in Poland and they are not very culturally significant in the area, the teutonic knights were a major political force in the region in the medieval times.

Here's where the subtler connotation comes in: in our historiography and culture the teutonic knights are unanimously remembered as a threat. They've had a record of rapidly installing themselves wherever they were called to and once they felt powerful enough, they've disregarded previous treaties and in practice became their own political entity. Profiting off a reputation of a hospitaliter order established during the crusades, once they've had their own land in Europe they didn't hesitate much to fight anyone to further their political goals. In our culture the teutonic knights are both a formidable figure of foreign terror and wolves in sheep's clothing, an organisation that, blinded by power, have lost sight of its original cause.

I love how, on a superficial level it's just a clever localisation, but also how well the cultural negative connotations fit the vision of what the templars would become, especially in DA2.

[knuttydraws]

Let me take a little break from posting art and share this little announcement with you all!

Templartations Exchange 2023 officially begins!

What is Templartations Exchange?

Templartations Exchange is a Discord server exclusive fics and arts exchange created to celebrate templars and ex-templars characters from the Dragon Age universe, such as Cullen Rutherford, Alistair Theirin, Raleigh Samson, Delrin Barris, Rylen, Carver Hawke, and others

Note: even though this is a templars-related event, members of the Templartations community DO NOT necessarily go with templars siding play-throughs nor share the in-game pro templars views. This is an event hosted for everyone to celebrate their favorite Dragon Age characters and appreciate the diversity in the fandom.

How do I sign up?

Please follow the link to our Templartations Discord server Here, complete The Recruitment and look for the instructions in the Exchange channel

Event time table:

Nominations

March 25th - April 1st

Sign-ups

1 week: April 1st - April 7th

Assignments Issued

April 8th

Creation Period

6 weeks: April 8th - May 20th

Collection Goes Live!

May 27th

Creators Revealed

June 3rd

We look forward to seeing you there! Happy creating!

[elavoria]

Sketch and line versions of two of my favorite templars, because I love the way they turned out.

Colored versions: [Cullen] [Greagoir]

[the-flying-serpent]

No, I don't have a favorite OC, I love all my children equally (she said like a liar)

I can admit, Brosmýr has become kind of my babygirl as of late. My lorg Catholic babygirl, but still.

This fictional man has given me brainrot, please help