On my last update, Dragonrider posted this:
No technical comments, I do however have a question aout the Templars.. are they a "descendant" of the origional Templars, the current Templars or something altogether diferent.. just wondering.
The answer… is a little complicated. To answer it properly, requires a confession as to where the comic orginated. Please bear with me, I've been trying to organize my notes into something the rest of the world can read without a headache or cliffnotes for the cliffnotes… and I don't know if I succeeded or not.
Phoenyx and her friends started off as characters in an a fan-based roleplay chat (basically, for our group, round-robin storytelling). The original setting was Star Wars based. (A nod to whoever can tell me what the Hadassi are loosely based on.)
So the Templars are Jedi? … Not quite. The characters they were based off of were, yes. But when I started to put this together, I made some changes. Copyright issues, obviously, were a first concern. I like the universe George made, and I respect that it is his. Besides, he has lawyers, I don't.
Second, let's face it, the Jedi can be a bit overwhelming. When I created Nyx just to play, I deliberately made her -not- Force Sensitive, as for a time, such characters were fairly rare. She's a damn good pilot, and has a small quirk that won't show up for some time (well, except for a cat's curiosity, which you've seen just a peek of), but nothing really outside the bounds of "ordinary people".
So the Jedi characters had to be toned down. A lot. I liked the concept of a group, to a point a mini-society, of protectors, with a fabled past and an aura of mystery around them. I toned down the "powers"… some of them are still there, but subtle… and not required for membership.
No, I won't go through all of those notes… =l= Trust me, it gets even more random from there on the nit-picky details.
However, I did need a new name for them, and hopefully, something that did not point in the direction of "Jedi". Protectors, Guardians… meh… standard titles seemed more directed to a government agency… at least in my mind while trying to sort this out. And a random, made up name just didn't seem to fit, either.
Pull back a bit. At some point in the past few years, I had been channel surfing, and landed on a show about the Templars. Rather than following the mysticism about the group, they showed the more
practical view of them. They were guides and protectors for those making a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands. They even created a system of credit for the pilgrims to use.
I don't remember much of the actual program itself. What I do remember was my bemusement, that while those details were interesting, and no small accomplishment for the time, how mundane they seemed against the aura of mystery that surrounds the name "Templar"…
Click.
I remembered that show (sort of), and the pieces started to fall into place. Details began to flesh out, and my Templars started to shed their Jedi shells even more. Of course, there are still some details that shape themselves out over time.
I don't know how obvious it has been in the pages, but Katryn wears a wide green sash around her waist, while Nerex has a narrower red belt. These aren't marks of rank, but rather, divisions of service. Nerex is primarily a warrior, while Katryn, though no slouch in the combat department, is primarily a healer.
Those details weren't in my original notes. They came about when I was creating the textures for the outfits. A random burst of creativity that fit.
There are other bits and pieces, but for now, does that help give an idea of the Templars?
Oh, this is an excellent time to give credit to the two real life people that made their Jedi interesting enough that when I was chopping up my "play" notes, I felt needed to stay.
Katryn, in the games was Katerina Caliel. A healer and maker of potions, ointments, and ungeunts. Her player was a wonderful young woman who lived, surprisingly for the internet world, not too far away from me. I've met her aunt, also a player in the rooms, but not her. Need to fix that.
Nerex was originally Nexis Tarkin. The plays with Nexis and his Queen are… legendary. =g= Sadly, his player is no longer with us. Rest well, O, I still miss you.
Both of these players, and the others not yet named, provided not just the characters, but a rich backdrop that I enjoyed playing in. There is no way I can accurately portray the characters to their true depth, and in some points had to make some major changes for the sake of the story. (Amyana, for instance, was originally Tarn's fiance, not his niece.)