The Templars in the Assassin’s Creed series make themselves out to be the shepherds of order and realization in the world, but we’ve seen time and again how this faction really only has their own benefit in their minds.

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In order to get what they want, the Templars have employed any means necessary to get the job done, leading to many heinous acts confirming that the Assassins really are the good guys in this scenario. In this list, we’ve taken into greater consideration the acts of violence and tragedy the Templars have doled out toward the Assassins, as these hold more weight since we play the games out from the Assassins’ point of view.

10 Making Arno An Orphan

It’s certain the Templars had made thousands of children out as orphans over centuries, but we got to see the true impact of this in Assassin’s Creed Unity where the actions of Shay Cormac resulted in the innocent child Arno becoming an orphan as he saw his father dead right before his eyes.

The fact that Cormac had passed Arno mere seconds before killing his father showed how cold and calculating the Templars were in achieving their goals as the comprehension that he would be making this child parentless and lost alone didn’t deter Cormac even slightly.

9 The Way They Silenced Alan Turing

The Templars aren’t known for being compassionate, even when it comes to their own kind. This was best seen with Alan Turing, who had turned the tide of World War II in the Templars’ favor but was then turned on by his own people.

This was because the Templars didn’t want Turing to go deep into robotics as it would mean the faction wouldn’t be able to control humanity since Turing’s robots would cause mass unemployment. To this end, they framed Turing for gross indecency and then killed the man with cyanide later on.

8 Putting On The Pretense Of The Church

In the Assassin’s Creed series religion divided people a whole lot because of the Templars’ machinations as they made it appear as if Christianity was responsible for their acts. This was most striking during the crusades, as the Templars put on a christian front in public.

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What’s worse is that the Templars weren’t religious at all, and believed in the idea of “understanding” rather than true worship of a deity. This pretense caused a permanent conflict between the religions of the world, with the Templars hiding their atrocities behind the banner of Christianity.

7 Causing The Death Of Ezio's Family

Every Assassin’s Creed fan hates Uberto Alberti for being the man who betrayed Ezio’s father, that led to all the males in the Auditore family barring Ezio to be publicly executed for treason. This act was done to ensure Giovanni Auditore wouldn’t interfere with Templar plans, and it came at the expense of Ezio’s life being shattered.

We get that the Templars didn’t care about that, but considering they even had a child (Ezio’s little brother) be executed in this manner speaks volumes over how they had zero empathy when it came to maintaining their grip. At least we got to kill Uberto ourselves using Ezio. 

6 Desecrating Desmond's Body

Desmond was confirmed as a modern day prophet in Assassin’s Creed III, and he chose to sacrifice himself rather than let the world burn by the end of the story. The Templars, having no appreciation for Desmond’s sacrifice, seized his body and began conducting an internal investigation.

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They didn’t even bother to have any respect for his death and started cutting apart Desmond’s body right then and there where he’d passed away. At least the assassins showed some regard for the Templars they killed, but the latter only cared about their benefit without appreciating the fact that Desmond had just saved all of humanity.

5 Torturing Subject 16

Before they got their hands on Desmond, the Templars had this guy in their hold and used him so excessively in the animus that he ended up taking his own life. Prior to that, the former assassin Lucy Stillman had betrayed Clay (Subject 16’s real name) and revealed to the Templars that he was an assassin infiltrating Abstergo.

To make use of him, the Templars then fried all of Clay’s mind by relentlessly putting him in the animus and causing Clay to have a permanent mental breakdown. This led to him taking his own life; not that the Templars cared, as they disposed of his body and pretended he never existed.

4 Using Desmond And Then Planning To Kill Him

The Templars then moved on toward Desmond, as they kidnapped him and brought him to Abstergo to do the same thing they did with Subject 16. Except, this time they had no problems with hiding their malicious side and confessed to Desmond that he was a prisoner.

Warren Vidic was even enthusiastic with the idea of getting to kill Desmond after they’d used him, but Lucy Stillman became more diabolical by putting on a show of having feelings for Desmond, “hiding” him from the Templars, and then having plans to use him to get the Templars into the Grand Temple. Now that’s really the extent to what using a person can constitute of.

3 Brainwashing Daniel Cross

Although he became a Templar later in life, this poor guy was always set up to have a tragic life as Daniel Cross was kidnapped as a young boy where, using a Piece of Eden, the Templars had an impulse implanted into him to kill the Assassin Mentor when Daniel would face him. He was also abused with his memories scanned, to the point where Cross had bleeding effect hallucinations at regular intervals.

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Cross was then thrown in the street to fend for himself when he wasn’t even 10-years-old, with the Templars’ plans to have him execute the Assassin Mentor eventually paying off. Basically, the Templars had signed Cross’s death warrant when he was still a child as he was later killed by Desmond.

2 Terming Assassins As Brutes While Killing Freely Themselves

The Templars have a low opinion of the assassins due to the former’s ideology being one of “peace and understanding” while the latter faction openly seek to kill people to ensure free will. However, we’ve seen countless instances where the Templars have freely killed too, with more malicious intent even.

For that matter, Haytham Kenway and Shay Cormac employed assassin techniques to kill the assassins themselves, meaning they were in no place to judge the “brute” nature of their rivals since they were effective enough for the Templars’ use. In Assassin’s Creed III, we saw how Connor tried to keep people alive while Haytham coldly killed them, making the Templars real hypocrites too.

1 Intending To Control All Of Humanity

Not only have the Templars harbored plans to subjugate humanity, they’ve been successful in doing so at numerous points of time. Overall, though, their main plans are to use the Pieces of Eden to keep watch over the world and to control humanity by force.

For the Templars, the ideal world is where people have no free will and can’t make any decisions for themselves; they’ve killed and plotted to make humans out to be walking puppets. Just the intention of wanting to hold a vice like grip on the world and taking away all that makes us human solidifies this as the worst thing the Templars have ever done.

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