The Knights Templar are recorded as one of the fiercest fighting forces in history famed for protecting Christian Pilgrims travelling in the Holy Land but what modern history books don’t reveal, is that the Templars were wolves. Once the Wolf Packs had steadfastly refused to participate in the second Scottish Rebellion of 1745, King George II ordered that the wolves were to be eradicated from history. Scribes spent years rewriting historical documents and manuscripts, obliterating the entire race from the annals of history. Where the wolves had done anything remotely heroic or loyal, the scribes attributed these acts to humans and any achievements that didn’t fit in to this new world order were just removed altogether. Unfortunately, many of these re-written histories remain as credible testimonies to this day.
In around 1118, a French wolf called Hugues de Payens, a rogue but also an aristocrat, formed the Templar Pack for any rogue who wanted to join. As a rogue himself he knew that wolves ended up rogue for a variety of reasons and not necessarily because they had done something wrong. Many who lost a mate or had been rejected would choose to go rogue rather than staying with their pack and Payens felt that these wolves still had a lot to offer to society. Many wolves who went rogue became completely feral and Payens was determined this wouldn’t happen to him, he trained hard and shifted back to his human form at least once a day so his wolf wouldn’t take over completely. He continued this routine with his newly joined rogues, there was a strict training regime that included combat in both wolf and human forms and all wolves who became warriors took a vow of chastity and had to be unmated. Payens had insisted on this as the Templars were a fighting force and he didn’t want to take a wolf in to battle that had a mate and pups at home. He had gone through the pain of loss himself it wasn’t something he was prepared to put another wolf through, if a Templar met his mate, he or she would step down as a warrior and had a choice to stay with the Templar pack or find a new one.
Payens was a deeply religious wolf, his piety to the Moon Goddess was second to none and his new pack members were expected to follow suit. He was from a very old and an exalted bloodline, he was descended from one of the Goddesses’ daughters, Menai, and because of their heritage the Payens family were tasked with protecting the most prized religious wolf relics. These relics were the bones, a lock of hair and a vial of blood belonging to Menai and many wolves from all over the world made the pilgrimage to France just to have the honour of being in the same room as them.
Despite the strict rules the Templar Wolves had to live by, many rogues applied to join and Payens took the biggest and strongest of them for warrior training. There were many who were not suited to combat, Payens employed these wolves around his estate, or in the large kitchens, cooking for the warriors. Life as a rogue was not easy, they were constantly moving, scavenging for food and being attacked by established packs was a constant fear, so the rogues were just content have the protection of a pack again and no wolf was ever turned away. The Templar Pack was for any rogue who wanted a better life and it wasn’t long before it was seen an honour to become a Templar, they were known as kind, compassionate wolves that defended the weak from the strong and fed the poor which attracted rogues from all over Europe. Consequently, the size of the Pack grew very quickly. Once Payens had a sizable, well trained army, he hired them out to anyone who needed protection and could pay. Human Royalty and the aristocracy were particularly fond of hiring these warrior monks as they were highly efficient fighters and incredibly loyal.
The Church employed the Templar Wolves to protect the human pilgrims who were travelling to the Holy Land which turned out to be a very profitable venture. Even though part of becoming a Templar meant taking a vow of poverty, the Pack as a whole profited and accrued land and wealth which enabled them to establish new Templar packs throughout Western Europe. They established the first ever banking system, enabling pilgrims to deposit money in their homeland and withdraw it in the Holy Land and the Pack became so wealthy that at the height of their influence, they were the primary lender of funds to European royalty. After Payens death, a wolf named Jacques de Molay became the Alpha of the Templars after a vote of all members, and he continued to run the Pack as he thought Payens would have done.
By the 12th century, Jerusalem was retaken and the pilgrimages came to an end forcing the Templars to return to France. Around the same time the French King found himself heavily in debt to the Templars and was unable to repay them, his solution was extreme to say the least. On Friday 13th, 1314, scores of Templars were arrested and accused of heresy and worshipping false Gods on the order of the King. Many of the wolves were subject to torture with wolfsbane in an attempt to get them to renounce the Moon Goddess, all but a few refused and were burnt at the stake in a mass public execution in the centre of Paris. All these charges were false of course, but the King needed a reason to disband the Templars and avoid paying his debts.
The Teutonic Knights, a human organisation who worshipped the Christian God, were the Templars enemy. They were jealous of the Templars popularity and wealth and celebrated when their downfall came. With the blessing of the King they plundered the Templars assets and shared their lands between themselves.
Many Templars managed to escape to England bringing the most precious objects they owned with them, Menai’s relics. In an attempt to capture the monks, the King put out a proclamation that the Templars had absconded with a huge treasure and anyone who assisted in their arrest would get a share of the loot. The King was out of luck however, even with the Teutonic Knights in hot pursuit once the Templars made it to English shores they headed straight to Scotland and secured the protection of the Reiver Wolf Packs.
Every wolf pack on their journey up the length of England helped the Templars stay hidden, the Teutonic Knights did everything to find them but the wolf packs kept them well protected. They fed them and gave them provisions for their journey and upon arriving on Reiver Territory, they were welcomed with open arms. To have the most important relics in Wolfen history on their lands was seen as an honour by the Reivers, and there the Templars remained for the next one hundred years.
Finally, they had enough money to buy a tract of land at Rosewell just outside Edinburgh where they established a territory and built a chapel in which to keep their relics. The Templars now lived a more traditional pack existence, they took in more rogues and rebuilt their numbers which had been lost during the purge of their Order in France. Their banking and finance businesses were re-established and quickly grew giving the Templars a means to build their new chapel at nearby Rosslyn. Finally settled, the Templars and relics remained there undisturbed for hundreds of years until an incident occurred that no one could have predicted.