HOME | DD

Description
Very little is actually known about Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He was born a French nobleman, one of evolution's most egregious and catastrophic mistakes, in or around 1070 CE. Like many French noblemen with absolutely nothing better to do, Hugues de Payens was swept up in this new-fangled "crusading" fad. Exactly when he arrived in the Holy Land is just as nebulous as his birthday, though. If we assume that he's the same person as Hugo de Paganis, the brother of Godfrey de Saint-Omer (one of the future founding members of the Templar Order), then it's possible that Hugues followed his sibling to the Levant under the army of Godfrey de Bouillon in 1097. Of course, assuming makes an ass out of u and me, so if we wanna be more conservative with our assumptions, then the farthest back we can push Hugues's arrival in the Holy Land is 1104 or 1114, when his feudal lord Hugh, Count of Champagne, decided he wanted in on the "let's all go wreck the Holy Land" action. Personally, I'm okay with assuming that Hugues de Payens and Hugo de Paganis are the same person, because it does then make a lot of sense why Godfrey de Saint-Omer was his only companion when approaching King Baldwin II of Jerusalem to propose the creation of a new monastic order, as if we didn't have enough of those already.

See, by 1118, Hugues had noticed a problem: the Christian pilgrims had been living completely unabated and peacefully welcomed in Jerusalem as fellow People of the Book by the region's Muslim rulers for four centuries by that point. Heeeeey wait a second, that's not a problem. What I meant to say was Hugues had to invent a problem! See, in addition to the influx of lower class pilgrims bankrupting themselves just so they could visit their most sacred places before they died, there were also a bunch of rich assholes who could afford to throw away their tax dollars traveling in comfort just to squeeze their camels through the eye of a needle once they got to Jerusalem. But uh oh, having all this cumbersome money weighing down their caravans is prone to attracting bandits and other filthy peasants! If only there was an institution which could allow the pilgrims to deposit their money in a safe spot for them to collect after the journey. So, Hugues and Godfrey came to Baldwin some time between 1118 and 1120, proposing the creation of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ. This organization would be dedicated to protecting those fat stacks of go- I… mean… protecting those good, god-fearing pilgrims. Yes. That one. King Baldwin, himself sympathetic to the plight of having too much money, set the organization up in their new clubhouse on the Temple Mount, thus giving the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ the opportunity to shorten their name to the much catchier "Knights Templar".

It wasn't much of a club at first. Originally, it was just Hugues, Godfrey, and six other geriatric fossils, most of whom history has little else to say besides just being… one of the original eight Templars. I know, usually there's said to be nine original Templars, but from what I can gather, this is actually a later gloss which confuses Hugh of Champagne as a founding member, even though he didn't officially join until 1125. For the better part of a decade, these nine men just kinda sat around, unable to really protect anything because of the whole "poor" part of being the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ. Kinda hard to fund your proto-bank when you're just nine old guys with empty pockets. So, Hugues was left with no choice but to return to France and ask his loaded buddy, Bernard of Clairvaux (later Saint Bernard), for a shitload of money to sponsor the Templars' GoFundMe page. Bernard obliged, and even went through the trouble of reorganizing the Templar Order at the Council of Troyes in 1129. The Latin Rule, a treatise of 75 rules for the Order to be governed by, was drafted for the club during the Council, and so Hugues had everything he needed to return to the Holy Land with full pockets that would only get fuller. Hugues would serve as the Templar Grand Master until his death in 1136, whereupon he was succeeded by his seneschal, Robert de Craon. He died as he lived: a wealthy French nobleman. Truly, we live in a godless world.

Design notes, this one was pretty straight forward. I could only find two historical depictions of the man out there. The more famous one is a 1841 portrait by Henri Lehmann, whose name sounds like some sort of French NPC. The other is a statue carved into a monument dedicated to Saint Bernard in Dijon, France. They're both relatively simple images, but combining them together sort of makes up for it. Not nearly as complicated a design as if I was designing the final boss of an Assassin's Creed story, but that wasn't really what I was aiming for anyway. I actually quite like how he came out. I think I might have laid on his limb armor a little too thick, but other than that, not much to complain about. I am really damn proud of that sword. I'd love to loot that shit in a D&D game. Hol' up, let me note that down real quick-

Description
Very little is actually known about Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He was born a French nobleman, one of evolution's most egregious and catastrophic mistakes, in or around 1070 CE. Like many French noblemen with absolutely nothing better to do, Hugues de Payens was swept up in this new-fangled "crusading" fad. Exactly when he arrived in the Holy Land is just as nebulous as his birthday, though. If we assume that he's the same person as Hugo de Paganis, the brother of Godfrey de Saint-Omer (one of the future founding members of the Templar Order), then it's possible that Hugues followed his sibling to the Levant under the army of Godfrey de Bouillon in 1097. Of course, assuming makes an ass out of u and me, so if we wanna be more conservative with our assumptions, then the farthest back we can push Hugues's arrival in the Holy Land is 1104 or 1114, when his feudal lord Hugh, Count of Champagne, decided he wanted in on the "let's all go wreck the Holy Land" action. Personally, I'm okay with assuming that Hugues de Payens and Hugo de Paganis are the same person, because it does then make a lot of sense why Godfrey de Saint-Omer was his only companion when approaching King Baldwin II of Jerusalem to propose the creation of a new monastic order, as if we didn't have enough of those already.

See, by 1118, Hugues had noticed a problem: the Christian pilgrims had been living completely unabated and peacefully welcomed in Jerusalem as fellow People of the Book by the region's Muslim rulers for four centuries by that point. Heeeeey wait a second, that's not a problem. What I meant to say was Hugues had to invent a problem! See, in addition to the influx of lower class pilgrims bankrupting themselves just so they could visit their most sacred places before they died, there were also a bunch of rich assholes who could afford to throw away their tax dollars traveling in comfort just to squeeze their camels through the eye of a needle once they got to Jerusalem. But uh oh, having all this cumbersome money weighing down their caravans is prone to attracting bandits and other filthy peasants! If only there was an institution which could allow the pilgrims to deposit their money in a safe spot for them to collect after the journey. So, Hugues and Godfrey came to Baldwin some time between 1118 and 1120, proposing the creation of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ. This organization would be dedicated to protecting those fat stacks of go- I… mean… protecting those good, god-fearing pilgrims. Yes. That one. King Baldwin, himself sympathetic to the plight of having too much money, set the organization up in their new clubhouse on the Temple Mount, thus giving the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ the opportunity to shorten their name to the much catchier "Knights Templar".

It wasn't much of a club at first. Originally, it was just Hugues, Godfrey, and six other geriatric fossils, most of whom history has little else to say besides just being… one of the original eight Templars. I know, usually there's said to be nine original Templars, but from what I can gather, this is actually a later gloss which confuses Hugh of Champagne as a founding member, even though he didn't officially join until 1125. For the better part of a decade, these nine men just kinda sat around, unable to really protect anything because of the whole "poor" part of being the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ. Kinda hard to fund your proto-bank when you're just nine old guys with empty pockets. So, Hugues was left with no choice but to return to France and ask his loaded buddy, Bernard of Clairvaux (later Saint Bernard), for a shitload of money to sponsor the Templars' GoFundMe page. Bernard obliged, and even went through the trouble of reorganizing the Templar Order at the Council of Troyes in 1129. The Latin Rule, a treatise of 75 rules for the Order to be governed by, was drafted for the club during the Council, and so Hugues had everything he needed to return to the Holy Land with full pockets that would only get fuller. Hugues would serve as the Templar Grand Master until his death in 1136, whereupon he was succeeded by his seneschal, Robert de Craon. He died as he lived: a wealthy French nobleman. Truly, we live in a godless world.

Design notes, this one was pretty straight forward. I could only find two historical depictions of the man out there. The more famous one is a 1841 portrait by Henri Lehmann, whose name sounds like some sort of French NPC. The other is a statue carved into a monument dedicated to Saint Bernard in Dijon, France. They're both relatively simple images, but combining them together sort of makes up for it. Not nearly as complicated a design as if I was designing the final boss of an Assassin's Creed story, but that wasn't really what I was aiming for anyway. I actually quite like how he came out. I think I might have laid on his limb armor a little too thick, but other than that, not much to complain about. I am really damn proud of that sword. I'd love to loot that shit in a D&D game. Hol' up, let me note that down real quick-