History As I See it Thread - Project TARSUS mod for Deus Ex

This is how I see the Knights Templar going from somewhat non-existant in 2052 Deus Ex to in power position of 2072.

Before 2052, Dowd was one of the five key players in the Illuminati. His role was to regulate the funds coming from the companies, organizations and banks that were controlled by the Knights Templars. (Prior to the siege of 2051, the two groups worked together with a somewhat common goal, a world united through a single government). However, during the human modification era (mechanical augs of 2032 and so on), the Knights Templar began to look down upon the Illuminati and the current world affairs. As an organization built upon the Christian culture, they viewed the extensive modifications and experimentations being performed to the human body as an act of playing God and should not be tolerated. The Illuminati's investment in this new technology was seen as an insult to the them and they became more reluctant to cooperate with funding these scientific explorations.

As this occurred, Bob Page, being the entrepreneuric leader, began to realize the full potential of the MJ12 (branch of the Illuminati) and anticipated the future reluctance of the Knights Templars to willingly fund significant prospects. He began to develop his own methods for achieving research funding by establishing Versalife as a subsidiary of Page Industries. By doing so, direct research could be done under his staffs supervision while maintaining secrecy from the Templars. This was Page's first step taken in his personal initiative to remove the Knights Templar from the Illuminati.

One of the most notable actions taken by Bob Page and the Illuminati was the kidnapping of the Sarif Industries crew. Page wanted the best of the best for researching nano augmentation. Therefore, he hired help from outside sources to infiltrate Sarif Industries and fake the deaths of the several scientists. While in "captivity", the detained scientists worked on several MJ12/Illuminati projects that were key to maintaining control over mechanically augmented people. Each of the scientists had the ability to work without any of the legal and unethical restrictions on projects. Their findings provided the next step for human body modifications. Nano augmentation.

Although Hugh Darrow, famous for his history and developments in mechanical augmentations, was a member of the Illuminati, it is suspected that his actions at Panchaea were secretly influenced by the Knights Templars as a way to forewarn the Illuminati of the dangers of a future with human modifications. Despite the Hugh Darrow's clear message, these discoveries were quickly financed by the MJ12 for further research at their own facilities around the world.

During this time period (2030-2035s), the United States was on the verge of collapse. Poverty, disease, and disaster seemed to plague the nation. The Illuminati had plans to allow the country to collapse in order to push them into a one world government. However, the US managed to stabilize itself. Page and several others saw this as an opportunity for the Illuminati to seize the nation while it was still weak, however, Lucius DeBeers chose to do nothing. After these events, DeBeers decides to step down as overseer due to health problems and Morgan Everette takes his place.

By 2035, Page Industries/Versalife began making significant advancements in public nano-technologies. Unannounced to the public were also several major technological breakthroughs such as trangenics , nanites, and weaponry. Stocks with Page Industries and its associates are doing so well that it is determined that Stanton Dowd and his "old money" are no longer needed as a financial requirements and the Knights Templars are officially removed from the inner circle of trust. By 2038, MJ12 control most of the political, financial, military and religious arms of the Illuminati and it is around this time that they decide to detach to form its own organization.

By 2044, the US is pretty much in the hands of MJ12. The Illuminati have been whittled down into a minute organization that essentially has gone into hiding. Some of the members support terrorist and rebel groups in order to attempt to gain the upper hand on the MJ12. Most attempts have proven futile and Page no longer sees them as threat to their goals. The only possible group that might be a threat is the Knights Templars. They have enough money to fund a large enough military to prevent MJ12 from taking over completely.

In 2051, Page delivered what he thought was the final blow to the Knights Templars. He sent Unatco and Interpol into Paris and they stormed the Templar headquarters. With the Templars out of the way, it seemed like there would be nothing to stop them from executing their plans.

However, the Knights Templar anticipated such an event to happen. They removed much of their funds and relocated a majority of their resources to the last place one would ever associate with the Knights Templars. The Vatican. There, the remaining leaders of the Templars wait out the reign of the MJ12 in secrecy until suddenly the entire net collapsed.

Two years after the start of the Collapse, details began to surface as to what happened at Area 51. News travelled quickly about a rogue nano-augmented UNATCO agent taking down the entire communications network at Area 51. What most people didn't know, was that a highly sophisticated AI system known as Helios, had merged with JC prior to destruction of the facility, making him the most dangerous man in the world in the Illuminati's eyes. Almost all blame was placed on JC for causing the Collapse.

When the Knights Templar received word about these details, they decided it was time to begin restructuring. The Illuminati was still trying to control the world while nano-technology research was thriving through new and legal means. They no longer had to see eye-to-eye with the Illuminati's objectives. In fact, the Knights Templar blame the Illuminati for what has happened. They refused to heed their warnings of bio modifications research and instead, allowed a demon (MJ12) to take over the organization as its host, to do whatever it sees fit. As retaliation, the Knights declared war on nano-augmentation and the Illuminati, in hopes of preventing this disease from spreading even further.

With communications down, survivors of the Illuminati found it to be the perfect opportunity to initiate their One Government Global Adaptation Plan. This plan consisted of two main components, a tool for controlling economics and a tool for controlling the emotions of people. Respectively, the WTO and the Order Church were born.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was an international organization designed to supervise and liberalize international trade and was established long before the Collapse. However, it wasn't until after the events of 2052 that the Illuminati determined the organization to be one of few tools capable of controlling several different governments across the globe.

After the Collapse, people all around the world needed someone/something to look to for guidance. The governments were failing. People were dying of illness and starvation. Mutant creatures no one had ever seen before were beginning to roam the planet. Hope seemed to be lost for most people. The Illuminati understood that at the greatest times of need, people will look to religion for comfort and answers. Thus, the Order Church was established. The Order provided exactly what their name stands for, orderliness to its members. The group spread rapidly in the belief that "Her Holiness" would bring peace to those who worshipped her. In times of pure chaos, this is exactly what those people and the Illuminati needed.

As perfect as this system sounds, there were always exceptions to the rules. Some people in the Order began to desire revenge/retaliate against those who chose to support nano-technology. Many of these people were given the opportunity to come into the fold of the Knights Templar. Several times, the Knights Templars would go send its most loyal operatives to join the church in order to persuade these people to carry out their more notable acts against nano-tech companies. By doing so, they were able to conceal the identity of the organization while placing all of the blame on the Order, thereby creating inner-turmoil within the Illuminati systems.

The WTO also had its imperfections. Once the global economic control system was put in place, it became relatively difficult to have certain things transported, specifically weaponry and nano-tech. Every single shipment, regardless of its transport style, is checked for WTO approval by a WTO agent. Based on these complications, the Omar have realized that most people would rather go straight to the black market sale rather than deal with any WTO hassles. Since then, these cyborg nano-augmented humans have created a very successful and thriving underground business and are constantly being hunted by the WTO.

The Knights Templar needed to bring in both new weaponry and technology in order to achieve its goals. As undesirable as it was, the Knights Templar had no choice but to make trades with the Omar for a long period of time. The two groups had a mutual agreement though. As long as business kept flowing, neither of them would report the other.

However, as time went by, the Knights Templar became more solid, and began to create its own black market transit system. Less material began to flow from the Omar, which in turn, began to worry the Omar. Soon after, the WTO were tipped off about a major Omar black market trade system. The WTO raided the site to which several Omar died in a fire fight. Since then, the Omar have cut all ties with the Knights Templar and are very skeptical about to doing any type of business with individuals they do not know. They now only do small, high dollar inventory based transactions in order to limit the amount of inventory loss in case a raid occurs.

After establishing the trade market, the Templars began to invest in technology developments under false company identities. They began to redesign the old MJ12 Obsidian Armor, and after several iterations, they created the V68A Power Armor. Also, another device created by the investment from the Templars was the Nanite Detonator. The ideology behind this device was to prove to the people of the world that nano-technology weaponry is as dangerous as nuclear power and that the technology should not be allowed further development.

That's how I see the Knights Templar going from somewhat non-existant in 2052 Deus Ex to in power position of 2072.

Edited by: Team_Anthogonist

a thoroughly enjoyable and quite believable read. i like your vision for just how these elements can be folded together.
~The Vatican is a sensible twist. lots of lovely flying buttresses, paved courtyards, well manicured formal gardens, crypts and secret passageways aplenty, great fare for unrealed. the statues will be hard tho. if u are saying in-game destination? if not, then still good idea, because everyone knows what it is
~The Omar also a nice idea, ded really got that right in 2027, need those really run-down environs which can be quite hard in unreal.
~I quite like your player character. sounds like a decent human being. neither a deserter or turncoat, just a good guy, wrong place, right time
~NG resonance was cool, hope u include her, even if only as background material, i felt like dx-iw could have allured to the 4th wall divide between gamer/game, ng resonance/free dominguez (tho i think her npc in the cairo arcology wasn't named free- don't remember). could be cool content for magazine covers/tv screens/newspaper articles. NG Resonance as AI, and then also as human being, doing wealthy hedonistic human stuff, involving yachts and southern france (sorry i spend too much time on tv tropes) - if tl-dr- pls include NG Resonance because she is hot!

one thing i didn't quite understand tho; you make several references to 'the illuminati'. so does this mean you see the organisation reformed as a coherent organisation, sitting at their table dictating world events from on high? or is this an umbrella term for any high ranking conspirator who acts under the auspices of the illuminati ideals? ~ i ask because i wonder whom will fill the vacant posts of the illuminati's council of 5; with DeBeers = invalid, Dowd = gone rogue, Beth = dead, Page = badass villian dead, Stafford Powell = also dead (npc from dx-nihilum, as a side note, anthony stafford was awesome). quite the challenge no doubt to achieve a character of the calibre of those aforementioned.

Good work tbh, i liked reading your post alot.

Mikak, first off, thanks for reading the entire thing! I wasn't sure if anyone would take the time to do so and I'm glad you enjoyed the read. Now, where to start?

Based on the history of the Templars (1300's), the Catholic Church exiled the original organization. The Vatican being the one of the main symbols of Catholicism, no one would ever suspect the Knights Templars of going into hiding there. There’s a good possibility of it being a destination map. I have to do a lot of research though in order to make it happen. It is a great idea though.

I do agree, the Omar were done really well in 2027. I will be looking at that mod as reference material.

NG will definitely have reference material all over the place (bill boards, magazines are a good idea, tv) I don’t know about meeting her in person, however, I already have NG Resonance AI in the story. I need to redo her texture pallet though.

As far as the Illuminati, it is unclear if the Council of 5 is still being utilized. However, that’s not to say they don’t. We do know that at least two of those seats are currently filled by Nicolette DuClare and Chad Dumier. I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into the entire Illuminati scheme. Maybe a member of the Nassif family can hold one of those 3 seats. They will have a part of the story, however, this mod will mostly be about the actions of the Knights Templar and how they affect the events leading up to Invisible War.