Templar Subclass

Races Permitted: Human, 1/2 elf, elf, dwarf, mul

The templars are taught that long ago the sorcerer-kings banished all sots as false and sent hundreds of selfish and misguided followers packing. Some believe that this true, and others say it is only a convenient lie created to justify the Eradication. The majority of templars don’t really care. They care more for the power they have and with scheming to acquire more.

Not surprisingly, most templars rarely, sometimes never, see their lord and master. There are far too many for the king to personally supervise, and sorcerer-kings usually have no desire to associate with undesirables, even their own. Templars of higher rank see their king only when he wishes to see them, and then only if there is an important matter to be discussed. Each king is somewhat different, but the general rule seems to be "speak when spoken to."

The templars usually have a very rigid chain of command. First-level templars will report to those immediately above them. They, in turn, pass messages up through the ranks. Trivial information is weeded out, and only the most urgent matters are brought before the Templar commander—the king himself.

The spells and minor powers that are given to the templars must be requested directly from the sorcerer-king, but these transactions have been plied out so many times that the king rarely is rarely even conscious of them. High-level Templar spells are often supervised, however, because the sorcerer-kings are concerned about potential treachery and, in any case, they believe that they know what armorments their servants need better than their templars.

Although Templar magic comes directly from the elemental planes, templars do not have the ability to open these channels themselves. The templars must telepathically request spells from the sorcerer-king, and the monarch, in turn, taps into the elemental plane. The kings have no pacts with the elementals; the source of their power is strange and singular. A living vortex of energy once planted its tendrils on the inner planes and was attracted to the strange metamorphosing creatures that the sorcerer-kings had become. The vortex was a living conduit of raw energy that the kings could direct, but could not control. Much to their frustration and dismay, the sorcerer kings cannot use the vast amounts of power they receive from the inner planes; they can only redirect it to lesser beings—their templars.

The vortexes have now become extinct, but the kings have managed to keep the conduit alive much like liquid that, when siphoned through a hose, flows by means of the vacuum created. Once the reaction had begun it could only be stopped by the conscious effort of the one who had opened it. And that time is past and will never come again.

As for the elementals, they are powerless to stop the theft of their diminishing energies. They despise the defilers, but they are too detached and chaotic to identify the sorcerer kings as the culprits.3 and funnels the energy into the disciple. A Templar whose king has died or has become otherwise ineffective does not gain these powers.

To recharge their spells, a cleric must be in good favor with his ruler (or at least not in disfavor), and pray to him for the standard amount of time. Templars on assignment outside the city also have a telepathic link with the king, but the link is only open wide enough for them to channel their spells through him. It is only through spells or psionic abilities that a Templar can communicate with his master. Whatever he has to say better be good—the sorcerer-kings don't like being bothered, and they certainly don't like their minions inside their heads. Templars have major access to all elemental and cosmos spells; they have no access to the paraelemental schools. Young and aggressive templars tend to pick spells of fire and earth, because these are the most helpful in combat. Veteran templars, advisors of the sorcerer kings, will almost always have spells of the divinatory air sphere, with a few healing spells from the sphere of water.

Templars may utilize the sorcerer-king's libraries, allowing them to make scrolls at the 6th level and potions at the 8th.

Templars have power over the undead, but only as evil priests and undead in the Player's Handbook.

Templars gain certain powers due to rank, and some due to the efforts of the sorcerer-king. While they usually function only within a city-state, it is not uncommon for a Templar on a mission in the wastes to command those that he meets like personal slaves. Of course, he must be careful, for slave tribes and others who nurture hatred for the templars won't give them time to speak before ripping their tongues from their gaping mouths. Powers that result from rank are ceremonial and secular, and the templars of Tyr still possess these powers:

Because each sorcerer-king is different, the templars they employ also vary in temperament and behavior. Use the following descriptions for general attitudes of a city's templars:

The templars of Balic are much like their wise, cruel leader, Andropinis. He delights in forcing legal loopholes and manipulating logic to his own ends. Andropinis enjoys mental gymnastics, and has even shown favor to the few who have challenged him and provided him with fresh, entertaining dilemmas. Of course, favor is often a quick death instead of a slow one once he grows weary of the game.

Most of his templars imitate Andropinis' behavior. This is done to impress their lord and to gain promotions when they become available.

The following tale is an example of Templar behavior in Balic. The templars of most cities would simply confiscate anything they felt was of value to them or their king. The men who serve King Andropinis do things differently....

Balican Kits: Herald, Secret Police.

Tectuktitlay calls his templars "Moon Priests," as he calls himself the "Father of Life and Master of the Twin Moons." He claims that he is a god, that it was he who made the mud flats of Draj into a fertile haven for his cowering, worshipping creatures.

His templars dress in bluish robes with a bright yellow moon embroidered on the front and on the back. Armor and other accouterments are also decorated in the moon motif, with backgrounds of blue, running to black.

Tectuktitlay is a cruel and bloodthirsty man and his templars are as well, out of necessity and the desire for promotion. They are especially fond of the king's lavish rituals, like the one Tectuktitlay himself enjoys, when he tears out the hearts of his captives.

Drajan Kits: Moon Priest.

The templars of Eldaarich are as mysterious. Their faces are shrouded so that it is nearly impossible to tell one from another, and they do not speak to anyone. And yet strangely, in silence, they command. The fact that their expectations are hard to fathom only deepens the population's sense of terror. To make matters worse, when the templars are not pleased or satisfied, people disappear.

The Eldaarican medallions are uniquely designed to give the king utter control over the minds of his templars. Within the lands of Eldaarich, the king has power to use his full psionic potential from the Templar medallion; consequently templars are feared as powerful psionicists even though none of them have any talent, or else they would have been slain by the paranoid king.

Eldaarican Kits: Secret police, Champion.

The warrior priests of Gulg are fanatically loyal to the sorcerer-queen, Lalali-Puy, and believe she protects them from the city of Nibenay, with whom they are at war.

Lalali-Puy's templars have two separate orders; Judaga priests and champions. Champions are just the same as priests in other cities. They wear heavier armor in combat, wield heavy weapons, and defy their enemies openly and with righteous convictions.

The Judaga, on the other hand, are a class of warriors and nobles who behave much like rangers in the forest city of Gulg. Some of Lalali-Puy's priests have followed this path. They generally wear light leather armor, use thrusting weapons (good for ambushes from heavy foliage), and are surprisingly adept at moving quietly through the forests. For this reason, the Judaga priests of Gulg almost always have a large repertoire of woodland spells.

All of Lalali-Puy's templars wear necklaces to display their rank. Those of first level wear one, while her advisor is said to wear at least 10.

Gulg Kits: Judaga, Champion, Spy, Secret Police.

The grey-clad Heralds of Oronis, like their Balican and Raamin counterparts, do not oversee the majority of city bureaucracies and institutions, but leave most elements of governing to the local neighborhoods. Heralds remain infamously in charge of enforcing Kurn’s staggering entrance tax, and keep tabs on all of Kurnish relations with foreigners. Like the Gulg Jugada, a group of Kurnish ranger-type templars oversees the forests of the White Mountains, keeping relations with the halflings north of the White Mountains and vigorously keeping logging in check.

Kurnish champions maintain Kurn’s walls, aqueducts, and outer lands. Except for the champions, Kurn does not have a standing army. Proficiency in the Kurnish longbow is a requirement for normal citizenship in Kurn, and all citizens are required to spend six days of every Rallan month (30 days) in military service—missing this service is punished with heavy fines. Kurnish champions are in charge of keeping the populace always trained and vigilant for battle. The older low-ranking templars act as teachers of other templars, and of the people.

Kits: Champion, Administrator/Teacher, Herald, Judaga, Spy.

The templars of the Shadow King are the most feared and terrible of all. They dress in black, like the dark and mysterious legends that shroud their master, and they wield terrible barbed spears made of agafari wood from the Crescent Forest. Their armor is typically formed from the black carapaces of giant insects, ridged with hideous rows of spines and other natural, and deadly, decorations.

Most of the templars of Nibenay are women. Some have said that they actually serve as the king's wives as well as his warriors.

The Templar warriors of Nibenay frequently have to fight the Judaga and champions of Gulg. They prefer to stand in formation, forcing opponents to do open battle. This tactic rarely gives them a victory, but neither does it bring defeat. The open battle tactic is one of the reasons why the war between Nibenay and Gulg has lasted for so many centuries. Perhaps the Shadow King and Lalali-Puy like it this way. It has been sail that there is no ally like a common enemy

Kits: Champion, Herald, Secret Police, Accountant, Spy.

The templars who serve Ablach-Re are the most timid of the lot, but ironically, they are some of the most dangerous.

Templars will only operate in large groups in Raam because of open defiance to the Grand Vizier. They usually form small cliques or teams that are lay Al to each other, but not necessarily loyal to other groups, or even to their sorcerer queen. The paranoid templars feel constantly besieged by the nobles' never ending rails and double cross plans, so they frequently carry a large number of divinatory and defensive spells (of air and earth spheres).

They dress in white robes, often covered by armor, with the symbol of the false god worshipped by the Grand Vizier emblazoned in the center. Like the templars, the symbol is false; it has no truth.

Raamin Kits: Herald, Secret Police (Kuotaga), Champion, Spy.

The templars of Tyr are currently in a state of adjustment, in the wake of Kalak's demise. The former High Templar, Tithian has assumed power, but he cannot offer spells or other special abilities to those templars who are in his dominion.

Tithian watches his templars with great concern, for he has no special powers. He is smart enough to realize that those beneath him may attempt an assassination, but he is far more concerned that Hamanu will descend from Urik with a mighty army to capture the city and its valuable iron mines.

To prepare for this eventuality, Tithian is training his templars night and day. They are having difficulty recalling the weapon skills they learned in youth, and they fully realize that they have relied on their spell casting abilities for far too long.

In game terms, there are still templars in Tyr, but they are fast becoming warriors. They are still priests, but they have no priestly powers, abilities, or spells. Many have already started to become dual classed priests and warriors. They still retain whatever proficiencies and ceremonial powers they hat earned prior to Kalak's downfall.

Kits: Accountant, Herald, Secret Police.

King Hamanu is the most warlike, ruthless, and arguably the most powerful of the sorcerer-kings. His armies have never met defeat when he led them, and his generals make war with a fanaticism born of knowing the price of failure.

To be a Templar under Hamanu is to train for war constantly. Every man spends at least four hours every lay in weapons training, and knows only too well the harsh lessons the veteran masters will teach them if their guard is down, even for a second.

Hamanu's templars dress in leather armor laced with bone or chit in, and bear arms made of obsidian from the Black Crown Mountains. Those of higher rank may even wear metal breastplates and helms, and carry weapons with metal blades.

The templars of Hamanu should be portrayed as utterly ruthless and without pity. Urik does not allow weak emotions to surface. Templars who hesitate in the face of adversity will quickly find themselves spitted on one of the obsidian spikes that line Hamanu's grisly arena.

Kits: Champion, Herald, Spy.

Templar Kits