New Knights Templar, What's the deal with them? Options

[imperialus]

Unfortunatly I don't own Threats or Threats 2 but my character just joined the New Knights Templar. My knowlage of them pretty much starts and ends with them being the papal goon squad. I'm gonna pick up Threats 2 as soon as I have the money but anything you can tell me in the interm about them, their organization, goals, motives, how they'd use him ect. would be handy.

For referance my character is a level 1 initiate mystic thurge, mostly focus' on mental abilities and the like. He also deals with social skills. He's not much of a combatant though, he relies on spells like Mob Mind to get himself out of trouble.

Thanks

[Mistwalker]

One thing that they do do, is to eliminate corrupted magic/beliefs.

They will take out groups of pagans, shamans, etc... that do not follow Christianity or the Pope.

They are very well organized.

There are 4 branches of them, each specializing in one area, with their summoned spirits looking like angels (at least in SR3, that was the case)

[fistandantilus4....]

IIRC, each of the 4 groups has a patron archangel as well

[Glyph]

Huh, kind of ironic, considering that the original Knights Templar were executed by the Church for heresy. Of course, this happened around the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Church, and the real reasons for their being wiped out had more to do with greed and politics than anything else.

But despite how they have been more or less exhonerated since, I don't see the Catholic Church creating a new order with a name that has so much baggage (although I guess I feel the same way about the breakaway Southern States calling themselves "Confederate").

[imperialus]

well one thing I'm considering talking to my DM about is since my character is Quebecoi and Quebecoi and French in general seem to have an odd obsession with making themselves "distinct" is having him be a member of a smaller order within the Templars called the Knights of Charlamain or some such.

I agree though Glyph. It probably has something to do with how well know and "kewl" sounding Templar is now. Naming them the New Knights Hospitlar or something might just confuse people.

I can see how my characters abilities might mesh well with them at least from an information gathering standpoint. One question though, how fanatical are they in wiping out heresy? I can only imagine that they only really hit "big targets" nasty things like Toxic shaman circles, wacky vampire cults, Winternight, ect. After all if they started going after every bear shaman or neo-pagan hippy tree hugger they could get their hands on they'd quickly run afoul of around 50% of the awakened population, not to mention the hermetics who just don't happen to be Catholic and that might just get the entire church wiped out. How heretical does a shaman have to be to get the Popes personal hit squad sent out after him?

As an added wrench in the works one of the other PC's is a member of the New Islamic Jihad and although Kadir and Jean have an understanding and are on relatively friendly terms but for all he knows Jean is a member of the "Third Order of Saint Francis". A nice friendly Catholic lay order, sorta like a Catholic version of Possum Lodge from the Red Green show. Should be interesting to see how that little bit of PC on PC conflict resolves itself.

[Crakkerjakk]

New Knights exist primarily to defend Christiandom, according to Threats 2.

IIRC, they focus on the protection of christians in three areas where they're currently heavily persecuted. Aztlan, Tir Na N'Og, and what they refer to as Outremer. Thats right, the Holy Lands. They're the most open in the Middle East, with actual military campaigns conducted there. They exist within the Order of St. Sylvester, using it as a cover, although not all Knights Templar are Sylvesterites, and vice versa. In fact, most of the church doesn't really know that they exist, even most of the members of the Order of St. S. They operate directly by the pope's command and are issued orders via angels. There are four chapters, which they call "Patronages."

There are Patronages of: Archangel Raphael, Angel of the East and Ruler of the Air, Archangel Michael, Angel of the South and Ruler of Fire, Archangel Gabriel, Angel of the West and Ruler of Water, and Archangel Uriel, Angel of the North and Ruler of Earth. Each Patronage is governed by a single Seneschal.

Raphael-Healing specialists.
Michael-Combat specialists.
Gabriel-Detection/conjuring and matrix specialists.
Uriel-Enchanting/Supply/Procurement specialists.

Each patronage has a symbol, which is tattooed into a member's forehead with nannites upon initiation. The nannites are only detectable by MAD scanners, which most members have installed in some sort of vision mods, be it cyberware or goggles/glasses/contacts/etc(Usually contacts for knights, see below).

The members of the Templars are divided into two groups, the Knights and the Sergeants. The Knights are ALL magically active full mages, while the Sergeants are mundanes. All Knights are also ordained priests, while among the Sergeants, ordination, while not uncommon, is not a requirement. Each Patronage serves as a separate initiatory group for the Knights.

Hope that helps.

[Chrome Shadow]

It helped me!!!

[imperialus]

great, thanks that gives me something to work with. We'll have to change a few things (Jean isn't a preist for example) but that gives me an idea of what they're up to. Thanks.

[FlakJacket]

[PBTHHHHT]

Well, one interesting thing is there are a couple of catholic societies that call themselves Knights of XXX that are around present day. More of a fraternal organization with activism and fundraising, but in the world of shadowrun the GM can easily make these organizations as ones that may hire/train folks to do things if deemed necessary by the particular group. Here's a list of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International...atholic_Knights
The Knights of Columbus are big at the school I went for graduate.

Other thing, maybe Vatican bolsters up the Swiss Guards and maybe reestablish the Noble Guards (calvary) and Palatine Guards (infantry) in the Shadowrun world. That would be interesting.

[fistandantilus4....]

One of the things I like about the SR church is it's on internal power struggles. You've got the Knights Templar that basically answers to the Pope. The Pope is basically aligned agaisnt the old guard church beuracracy, and has his "enlightened faction" to help him out. Then there's the New Order of Jesuits that basically supports the beauracracy, so they're aligned against the Templars. All very quietly of course, since you just can't have another schism.

They're real big in France and Spain, because that's where their power base was. At least until the other guy that was gonna be king (in Spain), that supported the beuracracy (term for them, can't recall it ATM) stepped aside to let the guy that supported the Pope take power there (the ogre I think). Oh so much good stuff for shadowruns in the church.

[Crakkerjakk]

Um, just a FYI, some chapters of the Knights of Columbus are not exactly lily-white. I know near 29 Palms(military training base in the high california desert) the local KoC chapter is a white supremicist orginization, and there's a few other places where they engange in rascist/criminal activity. Not trying to start any flames here, just repeating what was commonly acknowledged amongst the people who lived at that base and what I've heard around. It's by no means most or all of them, just a few here and there.

[HullBreach]

[PBTHHHHT]

[Glyph]

Also remember that in the SR universe, the Black Lodge has some of its tendrils in the Catholic Church, especially the Templars.

[FlakJacket]

[fistandantilus4....]

A lot of the best stuff for the Church is seeded throughout Shadows of Europe. Obviously the Italy chapter is a big part. So is the France section, which covers one of the factions of the Church

[ Spoiler ]

Black Lodge Bishop there. Big rivalry for Church power

, as well as Spain which I mentioned also.

[Synner]

Most of the material regarding the alignment of the various factions and their roles in the Catholic Church is in the Italy chapter of SoE. As has been mentioned other references are laced through the France and Spanish chapter (and to a lesser extent Poland and Portugal). The NOJ and NKT are mentioned in passing as are the Sylvestrines and the Vigilia. Hopefully the material also makes sense of apparently contradictory previous references regarding the NOJ (ie. Aztlan vs. Black Madonna).

The Templars (and the Sylvestrines to some extent) were profiled in Threats 2, so I had to decide on whether to expand the NOJ or go for something new in Loose Alliances - I ended up chosing the Vigilia cause I'm a sucker for old libraries full of prohibited tomes and old magic, plus I had just been rereading some Umberto Eco.

[The ubbergeek]

I don't know quite about Shadowrun, but like in France, our society was very laicised after the huge changes of the Quiet Revolution and the idea of Templars in 2070s Quebec, even after about one century... nah...