Hidden History is brought to you by G2A.com and our supporters at Patreon.
Assassin’s Creed is an interesting franchise to cover because unlike games such as Skyrim
and Fallout, the series really wears its historical inspirations on its sleeves. In fact, the
chance to play through fairly accurate representations of different periods in history is one of
the main appeals of Assassin’s Creed. So it may seem obvious to say that a lot of the
things seen in the games come from real world history. But when really digging into it,
you may be surprised by just how much of the series’ core mythology is inspired by some
very interesting groups that actually existed. One of those groups is the Knights Templar.
The main antagonists in the series, the Templar are based on a very real religious order that
was founded 1119 AD and went on to be come a major player during the crusades. They were
founded under the name “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon”,
but they must have gotten tired of that mouthful pretty quickly, because it didn’t take long
for it to be shortened to just the Knights Templar. The really strange thing is that
even though they are remembered today as, well, kind of the creepy assholes they’re
depicted as being in the game, they definitely didn’t start out that way. In fact, the
group actually began with some pretty good intentions. Originally they were an order
of nine poor, pious warrior-monks whose only goal was to defend Christian travelers from
bandits and thieves on the roads in the Middle East and who mostly survived through charitable
donations. It didn’t take long for them to become something else entirely though.
About ten years after their founding, they were officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic
Church. This changed the group in a very profound way, as they suddenly found themselves with
plenty of money and were seen as above the law, answering only to the Pope himself. In
fact, in 1139 the Pope confirmed this, by decreeing that knights of the Templar were
no longer bound by any local laws. This allowed them to not have to pay any taxes and pass
through all borders without questioning. Obviously, this was a pretty amazing deal and it caused
the number of men joining the Templar to shoot up dramatically. This led to corruption and
some terrible abuses of power, giving us the shady organization that isn’t too far off
what we see in the first game. When wandering through the Holy Land as Altair
in 1191, you’ll often see Templar men being used as guards and harassing people in the
streets. This is actually very close to real-world history. Templar Knights often served as guards,
bureaucrats, doctors, and, being one of the few major powers in the area, they gave threats
to the local populace to keep them in line quite often. After all, they had the authority
to burn anyone they wanted to alive and they did...like all the time. And much like in
the game, the Templar was basically THE Christian ruling class in the Holy Land during the early
crusades. They accomplished this by keeping the Pope’s favor and creating a banking
system for Western travelers that they controlled. Combine this with frequent battles with Muslim
forces that often resulted in capturing tons of loot and you’ve got one of the richest
military organizations to ever exist. So far, so good, right? The first game is,
of course, fictional but the historical setting and the Knights Templar’s role in it are
fairly accurate. After the first game is where things really diverge from real history...well,
depending on who you ask. According to historians, the Templar’s power and wealth faded after
Jerusalem was lost to Muslim forces and they closed up shop in 1312. Conspiracy theorists
are not so sure. Theories about the Knights Templar continue to be very popular and really
gained steam after the release of the Da Vinci Code in 2003. Some believe that they became
so wealthy and influential that they secretly ruled over the Catholic church for the rest
of the Middle Ages. Some go even further, claiming that the Knights Templar are guiding
events of history behind the scenes to this day. In the Assassin’s Creed universe, this
version of history is basically true. We even find out in Assassin’s Creed 2 that the
Templar was behind the assassinations of American President John F. Kennedy and famous magician
Harry Houdini! So yeah, real-world history and Assassin’s
Creed history differ there a little bit, okay a lot, but that doesn’t mean that the franchise
stopped using real world figures. You’ll probably be familiar with really famous people
seen in the games like Leonardo Da Vinci and Charles Darwin, but some lesser known figures
from history make appearances as well. Take Assassin’s Creed 2, where we Ezio facing
off against the Templar, who are being led by the Pope, Rodrigo Borgia. While in real
life, he wasn’t the leader of the Templar Order, since the group was long gone by then,
his personality in the game seems to be almost identical to the real Rodrigo Borgia, whose
title as the Pope was Alexander the Sixth. Known as one of the worst leaders in the history
of the Catholic church, he basically bought his way into his role as Pope through bribery
and corruption, much like his in-game counterpart. Also seen in AC2 is his son Cesare Borgia
and like the game, the real Cesare Borgia was given a very powerful position in his
father’s rule at a young age. At the end of the game, Cesare poisons his father over
a dispute, murdering him. This also has some basis in reality, because though no one knows
for certain, some historians believe that the real Cesare did the exact same thing.
So, normally, this is where we’d have our comments showcase...but that’s going to
be kind of difficult this week since we’ve never made an Assassin’s Creed video before,
so we don’t have any comments about it. So please leave a comment below and maybe
it will be featured in a future Assassin’s Creed episode of the show. Also be sure to
share, so we a get chance to make more! So now let’s get to some trivia. Last week
we asked you who in Fallout 4 referenced a film in the Alien franchise by saying “Not
bad. For a human, that is”, the answer was B) Glory. This week we have a question about
the history of the AC franchise itself: The first Assassin’s Creed game was originally
intended to be a spinoff of what popular game series: