Templars

The Templars are a faction of Way of 5 Users in Ballad of the Laser Whales.
Addicted to the mystic Babel Tar, they are possessed of superhuman powers and the ability to see briefly into the future, allowing them to dodge bullets and otherwise perform feats of absurd prowess on the battlefield. The Templars, like all practitioners of the Way of 5, activate these abilities by holding contradictory "Axioms" in their minds, warping reality through their own cognitive dissonance.
The Templars are a major political faction in the Void, particularly in Chiron. They advocate constantly for a more "decent" form of warfare where soldiers can face each other courageously in battle without being obliterated from a distance or involving civilians. To this end they have forced the governments of the various nations to pass certain humanitarian laws, most famously by marching into the capital of Chiron and rioting with fenceposts and shovels, killing the entire police force and much of the Autarch's royal guard.
The Templars are a war-cult at heart who believe that violence is a form of art, and that a society should engage in wars as a matter of course to beautify the world. Their desire to insulate civilian life from warfare has done some good, but their obsession with war has probably killed more people than they have saved.
=== Trivia ===
-Jimmy Rome has described the Templars as simultaneously "Humanitarian" and "The worst sort of people." They are willing to tolerate the deaths of millions--indeed they WANT the deaths of millions--but only if it is done their very specific, inefficient way.
-The Templars refuse to use missile weapons most of the time, but many of them fight with rifles and bayonets, but ritually unload them before combat so that they will not be tempted to fire instead of using the bayonet.
Category:Ballad of the Laser Whales