Crusaders

A battle of the Second Crusade by William of Tyre

The Crusaders were a Knightly Order that served the Catholic church in the middle age in Europe and parts of Middle East, they carry on the ideologies of the Catholic church to fight against the enemies of Christendom, although they are know to fight against the pagans of East Europe and Muslims of North Africa and the Middle East, they also fought against Dragons, Witches, Demons and all sort of spawns of the devil.
Thou the Crusades ended in the late XIII century, by that moment the Knightly Orders had acquired so much power and influence that they were able to be an integral part of the Catholic Church for the next centuries to the point of becoming an internal society within the most powerful and influential circles of nobility across Europe.
The impact of the Crusaders in Europe was a big one, the constant wars on Witches, Dragons and Demons stopped this groups for gaining any significant grasp or power of influence in the continent while at the same time pulling the strings in the political stage of the nobility.

Structure

The Order operated in the beginning under the direct command of the Pope, once the organization grew in size the Crusaders organized themselves into separated and autonomous Orders, each would had close ties with each other and the Catholic. They would act on their own goals and interest often time. After the first century of Operation, three distinctive order has rose to power each holding great influence on different areas of Europe and the Middle East.

Kingdom of Jerusalem (1000AC-1200)

One of the first body states established and administrated directly by the Crusaders and was the main conflict that grant then their initial boost of influence and power over the Catholic world, thanks to the success of this body state the organization was able to grew even more. This however was one the its body states that had the fewer encounters with the spawns of the devil, in some ocasions, some Muslin incursions led by a Chosen of Allah would clash with the Catholics believes, to which the Crusader also responded with their Chosen of God.

The Holy Inquisition (1100AC-1800AC)

Founded in the south of France, it was established to dealt with the growing threat of heresy, define as the deviation of the holy guidance and the practice of witchery and sorcery, this ramification of the Crusaders quickly grow in power through all of Europe, establishing firmly on Spain and parts of France. While the organization was meticulous on its investigations, going to the extremes of torture to obtain information, it was very efficient on its labors and followed their initial purpose faithfully until their eventual dissolution.

The Germanic Orders (1100AC-1500AC)

A conglomeration of various Knightly orders that were founded in the whole territory of the Holly Roman Empire, much like the nation itself, it was a heavily decentralized organization in which each order would follow their own goals as they see fit, it was common for this orders to come into conflict with each other, however, they biggest threat was the protestant reform, in which many of the order took side on one side of the debate, ultimately ending in the dissolution of many of the orders, either peaceful or violently. The Tueutonic Order would then take control of what was left.

The Teutonic Order (1100AC-1800AC)

The most influential and powerful order of the Crusaders, The successful Baltic and Northern Crusades let the Crusaders in a stable position in the area in which they would project their power with easy, in many ways they were able to create a body state with great success on administration. From this position they would send their incursions on the rest of Easter and Northern Europe. However, once the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Organization had split between those aligning with the newly formed kingdom and those align with the organization, cutting their influence and power effectively. Over the next centuries the state nation of Prussia would make sure to diminish the power of the organization until it could no longer have any real threat. Although the organization is still present today, it has little resemble to the original order acting solely as a charity organization via their numerous museums across Europe.

Public Agenda

The Hunt of the Unholy

Battle Pilgrim – Bretonnian by Warhammer Fantasy

The Crusaders hunt and kill any threat to the human kin, they saw themselves as the saviors of the humans and specially the saviors of Christendom, this lead to many conflicts with other societies on Europe, especially those that were substantially different and had any semblance of sorcery or witchery, there was little distinction between these groups.
Is difficult to believe how this orders of knights were able to defeat such enemies considering many of there were incredible powerful, at first their initial tries were met with total failure but the Crusaders learned quickly of their mistakes and found ways to fought these threats, the more common practice was by using special relic held by the Catholic church that allegedly grant their users with the blessing of god to defeat their enemies. Some examples can extend to the Holy Water or Holy symbols made of precious metals like gold and silver.
After several centuries of fighting, many of these persecuted flee off Europe or hided to the public, leaving the crusader ever vigilant, they them decided to use all the power and influence to control much of Europe in the shadows, some Orders were still dedicated to their original purpose and use this newly found power and influence to keep performing their task in secrecy while most of the organization move onto become active figures on the political stage of Europe, some publicly, some in the shadows.

History

The Crusades (1000AC-1400AC)

The Catholic church will lead a series of military campaigns to rally the world of Christendom against its enemies, these events would cause the creation of several knightly orders in Europe, many of these will carry on the initials ideals of the Pope.The power of the Order grew more in the Holly Roman Empire as well as the area of Prussia and the Baltic.

The Teutonic Order arrives in Riga by Maciej janik

The Reformation (1400AC)

With the surge of the Reformation, many old time Orders found themselves on no mans land, many of the most powerful orders were placed in the Holy Roman Empire, especially in what is today Germany, this would lead to many of this orders to stop operations, at least in publicly,by this time, the Crusaders moved to other parts of Europe, they had left behind many of their initial ideals of the Catholic Church and were more of an organization centered in the control of power and influence in Europe.

Medininkai Castle siege by the Teutonic Order by Vilius petrauskas

The Empire (1400AC-1600AC)

With the growing power of the European giants such as Spain, France, England and Portugal, the Crusaders decided to expand their domains off Europe, reaching other continents such as America, Africa and Asia via various missionary organizations effectively extending the domains of the organization across the world.

The Stagnation and Fall (1700AC-1800AC)

The Crusaders got so much power and influence that its internal organization and circle would be plague with rampant corruption and inefficiency, in the next century the Order would fall in a stagnation, unable to establish much needed reforms, the organization would collapse completely at the second half of the XVIII century, many of its most powerful and influential leaders would get striped of their powers, sentenced to death or vanish to escape such fates.
The Organization fragmented into hundreds of more minor ones, banks, merchant houses, some members cut ties with the organization and continue their lives as if nothing had ever happened, however a small portion of the organizations remained some of their old practices, some moderate and some more extreme.

• The Dragon Hunters: They had established several headquarters across the world, when the Order collapsed, they move their main base of operation to Asia, today they operate in Japan.
• The Witch Hunters: Formed as a result of the dissolution of the Spanish Inquisition and the Order, they would continue with their task to hunt down the users of demonic arts, today they reside in Spain.
• The Night Hunters: An organization centered on the hunt of the night creatures like Werewolves, Vampires and Necromancers, this organization is placed today in Romania.

~1000AC - ~1800AC

Type

Military, Knightly Order

Subsidiary Organizations

• Dragon Hunters