BoM/TWS Message Forum

Hmm...interesting way to see Fane. I always kept getting Knights Templar vibes, and while they weren't nice guys, I feel they were demonized way too much. As in; Crusaders did some horrible shit, but they got singled out because they were about to become a global superpower through sheer financing, and Europe was already scared shitless that the Hospitallers took Malta and the Teutonic Brotherhood took a vast region of what's now Eastern Germany and Kaliningrad, and since Philip IV didn't want to pay his dues to the Templars, he pressed Clement V with the idea of forcing a fusion between the Templars and the Hospitallers (to dissolve the former and appease the latter), and when that didn't happen, he began accusing them of idolatry, blasphemy and...erm, homosexualism. And of those, the one that kept the most was "Baphomet", which is probably a bad transliteration of the name of the Islam prophet Muhammad (Mahomet). Had they survived, they'd probably have had the earliest existing corporation, what with their very successful bank.

So, as I saw Fane's operations, and as it gave me that vibe, it kinda turned me off a bit. I loathe Fane and all it represents, and I'd love that some minor, yet still influential, organization tied to the former Knights Templar would wreck some shit on them. It'd be interesting, though, if Fane is basically an off-shoot of the Templars who want to reclaim their old power, but their actual Templar brethren reject them because of their need to atone for their misdeeds. (Probably because they unwittingly created the Brotherhood of Baphomet, which didn't exist until then?)

Don't mind me if I find the Templars (or the Crusaders) sympathetic, despite their systematic attempt at genocide and visceral conquest against the Arab culture, which still reflects even today. I can't agree with their actions, but I certainly feel allured by their romantic descriptions.