history of the templars was on National Geographic earlier tonight

~:cheers: those of you in the US, or I guess everyone of you (if NG is broadcasted worldwide), did you all catch it? Seems pretty interesting. I wonder, just for conspiracy theory alone, should the templar line of chapter houses, headquarters, etc, buildings have a financial benefit as well? According to the documentary, those guys were pretty adept at making money, lending, collecting interests, and they probably even invented the world's first traveler's check (for the pilgrims). Just like the hospitaller buildings add health bonus, I wonder if the templar buildings can be modded to add money bonus. I guess the arguments can be made that these guys cannot be taxed, but because they can lend money to businesses and individuals, all that increased commercial activity has to have some positive benefit on the overall economy. For example, Molly who has borrowed some start-up fund from the templar venture captalists, so now she can go open her new establishment of brothel in the city of Edinborough, now you can tax the heck out of that brothel, which WILL give you increased tax revenue.:book: :whip:~:cheers:

This would be a nice addition, with one big historically accurate downside:

In 1307, all of your Templar improvements in France are suddenly confiscated. :laugh4:

And the King of France gets richer suddenly? Just one more incentive to play as the French then.

would be nice to see some bonus to the Templars... they are the most famous, but in game the Knights of St. John are easily the better of the two...

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Originally Posted by katank

And the King of France gets richer suddenly? Just one more incentive to play as the French then.

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no, that dude never got any money from templars, according to the documentary, he got nothing positive out of his whole scheme and machination, templars and their buddies transferred the goods away. Actually the grandmaster before he got torched, cursed both the pope and the french king. Both of those guys never lived out that year. They both died horrible deaths. I guess the frenchie's plot didn't quite pan out, and he bartered away his life with the devil.

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Originally Posted by Zheng He's Lost Son

This would be a nice addition, with one big historically accurate downside:

In 1307, all of your Templar improvements in France are suddenly confiscated. :laugh4:

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Now, think about this, as a thought experiment, if you the player are the french, you can choose not to confiscate.

It would be nice if the templar buildings have money bonus. The game probably shouldn't implement a rule that 1307 marks the destruction of all hitherto constructed templar buildings in all settlements in the world and anything that is templar. Since, what if England conquers France, and there is no more devilishly greedy french kings? What if anyone else defeats France in game? What if that french dude got assassinated before he started this plot? .......:book:

I wouldnt give much credence to anything NG tells you about this subject...

There are some that say the Knights Templar either invented or hugely refined the concept of modern finance and banking.

There's also them what say it was the Templar diaspora after that Friday the 13th that motivated the creation of an independent state of Switzerland.

Yeah, the French Kings faced the same disappointment when they wiped the Templars than when they wiped the Cathars : the money was gone ! :wall:. The Templars were warned somehow (or felt the way the wind was blowing) and moved it away or hid it before the king's men could arrest them. No one knows where it went.

In fact, their's still a lot of treasure-hunting going on here in France both in Templar and Cathar ruins, people going in there with metal detectors etc... in case there's heaps of gold buried in there somewhere. Lots of books being written about that too, with conjectures, hints, clues etc...

The tourism industry is very careful not to discourage that kind of thing for some reason :laugh4:. I guess in the end, France did profit from the fall of the Templars :idea2:.

For anyone who is interested in this period of French history, there is a pretty good sequence of seven (semi)historical novels by Maurice Druon, The Accursed Kings.

The novels take place during the reigns of the last five Capetian kings and the first two Valois kings, from Philip the Fair to John II. The plot revolves around Robert of Artois' attempts to reclaim the county of Artois from his aunt Mahaut but it also gives a very interesting, readable and well written description of the Templars and their struggle with Philip IV.

In a purely speculative, made it up myself, kind of "inventive historical" way, I think all that Templar gold is what kick started the Swiss national banking system.