In the fictional story of the
game Assassin's Creed and it's sequels the Templars are a near thousand year old Christian group of knights, politicians, and other high authority figures (as well as civilians) who's goal is for a "better world". Though their means of doing so are questionable, as is their actual "goal" in the first place. The Templars were political juggernauts in much of the 12th century and renaissance.
They are the sworn enemy of the Assassin Order, who, despite their name, are more or less the
peace keepers in this ongoing
war. The Templars truly
long for world domination using ancient artifacts believed (and in the story eventually proven) to hold mystical powers.
The Templars are based on, and infact are the Knights Templar, a Christian
band of knights from the 12th century. As well as their rivals the Assassin Order being based on the real life
band of assassins known as the Hashashin (Hashashin believed to be the word "assassin"
came from). In all
reality these 2 groups did have their own bit of
history together but, were never arch rivals nor was one or the other the bad guy. The Knights Templar were most likely the more noble of the groups, but that's fairly debatable.
