I played a couple hours of the first game, and now I jumped straight into Black Flag.

Now, I keep hearing about this Assassin/Templar conflict and I don't know what the deal is. I searched around and read some spoilers trying to figure out why I should hate them (and pickpocket them for optional quests).

Can someone give an overview of why the Templar are bad guys, or a brief overview of the conflict? Do they just want to rule the world? Because who doesn't? And are assassin's some pure force that only does good things? Or is it a "who are the real bad guys" scenario?

I welcome spoilers (just not from 4, please).

Basically Templars want to take (sometimes by force) Pieces of Eden, artifacts from the Ones That Came Before to control everyone in the world. They say man needs to be controlled in order to bring peace while the Assassins believe without free will there will never be peace, hence the never-ending war between the two groups. That's what I gathered from the five AC games I've played.

I've played 'em all (except the handheld ones) and am most of the way through 4. Unless I'm forgetting something, the storyline in a nutshell is that the Assassins and the Templars are fighting over lost relics left by a technologically advanced precursor civilization that existed before humanity. The Templars want to use these relics to rule and guide humanity towards what they view as just. The Assassins stand in opposition, believing that humanity should be free. There's some additional stuff, but that's the gist of it.

Templars want peace by using control.

Assassins want peace by using freedom.

I would say the games have done a good job of not painting the two as black and white/good and bad. I would say the templars are not the bad guys per say, it just that you view the events in the games as the Assassins.

Ok, I read a bit about the Pieces of Eden, but it seems like they're at the center of a war of ideologies. Which is actually kind of interesting.

Who do the First Civilization people back?

The Assassins only goal is freedom and free will for everyone. Assassins hope peace and prosperity will derive from that but peace is not their goal. The Templars goal is power and influence similar to a police state and in exchange for this they promise peace and security.

@csl316: The first civilization also kind of dealt with a similar struggle. In AC3 you kind of deal with two from the first civilization that ultimately force you to make a typical end of game decision on what you want to do. They basically act as reflections of the Templar/Assassin ideological clash, with one wanting to be released to "help" humanity and the other wanting humanity to deal with the pending crisis on it's own. That is the other thing at the center of this universe, or it was...the "end of the world" crisis. Apparently in some way the artifacts of Eden play a part in preventing some of this. I haven't played AC4 yet but thus far very little has been resolved in the overarching backstory other than basically wrapping up Desmonds part in it.

Templars kill for power for themselves and will kill other Templars should it come to it.

Assassins kill for humanitarian purposes and thus do not need backstab each other.

Pirates are a half measure of each. Kills for riches but also fights the power. Bit weird really.

I was always hoping there would be an Assassin's Creed game that had a huge swerve that showed the Assassin's were actually the bad guys, either all along or that over time they became corrupted. Or at least they are wrong in their ideals, like the freedom only brings more pain and suffering instead of peace. Whereas the Templars would come out looking like the smart ones or the good guys, somehow.

Or maybe I just really want the Assassin's Creed franchise to get even more crazy?

Nothing, they should all just hug it out and end these games

They talk French. What more do you need?

@boom_goes_the_dynamite: There's something kind of like that in AC3, when you finally encounter Haytham and he plays Devil's Advocate with you, to the point where I was sort of wondering "Why exactly am I the good guy again?"

@csl316: The Templars aren't precisely evil, if anything they're far more practical than the Assassins. They're just more Machiavellian than the Assassins are and lacking in super heroes. Instead of super heroes they have an endless amount of resources and numbers.

Templar's merely have a different ideology, in AC3 Haytham by my book was the good guy and Conner the bad guy who despite learning the truth about his father was too blinded by the "assassins creed" to see reason.

Ubisoft should really make the templars the stars of the next game.

I just played 30 minutes of the first assassins creed and then started on the second game but got tired out because I had too many games to play. I went to AC 4 and I enjoyed the story but was very confused because I thought the templars were really evil. I guess I will just watch the cutscenes of the first game to remember some of that story

They suck?

Never cared about the AC games' story enough to ask this question myself, but from what I understand it's because fuck those guys, a blue CG lady and some other nonsense. You're welcome.

Because they make shitty video games obviously.

The Templars remind me of the Ayn Rand type of character, or even Bioshock. "Some people just wanna watch the world burn." type of thing.

I'm maybe one sequence away from finishing AC IV, and the scenery is at least satisfying.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed AC III's scenery, and backdrop a bit more.

AC3 explains it with Haytham, but then I'd imagine the sequel to this game would explain it some more.

@devise22: Hmm.... so Juno getting released is sort of representative of the Templar. Helping save humanity by intervening and such. I guess that gives me a better perspective than ancient space people bickering amongst themselves (my reaction to reading the AC 3 ending).

@csl316: Yeah that is kind of the idea. Honestly it's meant to be a theme of pretty much all the games and the universe. The end message is less about a real resolution and more that there is a ideological conflict that rages on, used to rage on even in ancient alien civilization and raged on throughout all the memories you "re-lived." I think the idea is that this battle will likely continue forever.

I always end up siding with the Templars in these games, which is probably part of why I'm not crazy about the series.

They Killed JESUS THATS WHY!!!

Don't believe me read this link.http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Templars

Its in History under CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS.

You know, I don't think Ubisoft even knows what's so bad about the Templars anymore, and they know it, and that's why TEMPLARS ARE BAD has been less and less emphasized.