As you know I am against the Templars...this is not just an in-game choice.
Ultimately (and not something I've seen discussed in detail yet) we could do with knowing (
Ceolag ??) to what extent the templars are based on when it comes to real life history and their origins beginning with King Solomon. Sure they did some good...but they were no longer the good guys as soon as they became a political organisation fixated with christian religious fanatical beliefs that tried to take over Europe. Did they originally help poor folk? Sure. Did they also slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Sure, they also did that too.
Without knowing the devs actual intention regarding them (the old adage of...
when did we become the bad guys?) it's difficult to really make a decision as to whether to trust them or not. However, even since their inception almost a thousand years ago, their traces still remain to this day (most notably within the Freemasons) and sorry, but no iteration of them has ever really been of the 'good guys'...
This is one of the main reasons this VN interests me, the Templars have long been a fascination to me as a historical subject.
I share this facination with the Knight Templars, although I have a more benevolent view of the Original Order.
TLDR: The Order is originated from the St Francis brotherhood, they were the Armed arm of the Vatican in former days
they had to vow "humilty, and poorness" no personal posesions for them, also they live under the celibate, originally the order protected the trading routes, and the merchant caravans from the sacred land to europe they are called Knight Templars because they headquarter was the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, they were Monks, with habits, and trained in combat, they become like an elite corps within the years, they also had a system that when a rich Busnisess man wanted to carry gold from one city to another he went to the next templar post paid there and get a document back acrediting him to recive the same amout back once reached the destination paid from the treasure of the post.
The Order became wealthy and powerfull trough out the years, and rivalized with the St Johns order of the Hospitalarian knights.
Anyways they were an "Hermetic order withing the St Francis brotherhood" with strong rules and own rituals.
Im researching them, and other Hermetic organisations since almost 16 yrs now, I only can encourage you to look for material, and make your own picture about them.
Of course they were a few "rotten eggs" within the great masters,
The fact that their finacial power, plus military power, and their own secret rituals, contributed to their diapearace, It was one French King who needed the money of them and one pope who felt threatend by their power to take them down using the "Holy Inquisition" fun fact is that the unlucky friday 13 is founded by the raid to catch the great master of the Knight Templars in France. after that the order got disolved by the Vatican, and their great grandmasters excomunicated, inprisoned, and executed, anyway the Order surived as and Hermetic brotherhood In Spain, Germany, England and South France.
Edit: this is a brief and incomplete resume from what I remeber out of my head, I don't want to go into a detailed discuassion or getting corrected by some if someone is intersted in the historical facts, go and make your own picture about it.