Templars (DK)

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In the DARK SUN campaign, the only PC class that cannot advance beyond 20th level is the templar. In service to a sorcerer-king, a templar can never get more powerful than 20th-level. Additional experience points do not bring more spells, hit points, or powers. 
Also, since templar characters typically lose their magical powers upon the death of their sorcerer-king, some may wish to abandon the class for another. Any human templar can opt to become dual-classed, provided he has a 17 or more in the prime requisites of his new class. Demihuman templars and human templars who do not meet these requirements must take more drastic measures. 
They can immediately reduce their experience point total to zero and start the campaign over in any new class for which they qualify. 
==Former Templars==
All of Tyr's templars lost their source of spell powers and many their political positions with the death of Kalak. Many who found themselves especially friendless upon his assassination in turn lost their lives to those they had persecuted over the years. Others found work with Tithian, the new king of the city, as administrators, bureaucrats, and soldiers. Those left outside that circle, however, were left with two options: employment with another sorcerer-king, or complete abandonment of ternplarhood. 
The campaign should be crawling with templars who previously worshipped Kalak of Tyr. Their motivations and powers are now very different, depending on their new positions. If other sorcerer-kings die or become ineffective in your campaign, similar suggestions apply to his former templars. 
Tithian's templars: Despite Kalak's death and the subsequent rioting and disorganization, Tithian realized, correctly, that only Tyr's templars could maintain many services. The bureaucracy that had run the city for centuries remains largely in place since there is no suitable substitute available. Further, Tithian was himself a templar, and his own friends within those ranks have served him well as the central administrators under his rule. 
Still responsible for many of the same functions, Tyr's templars now perform their duties without the bene~t of spells. As a substitute for magic lost, the templars have promoted within their ranks those with useful psionic powers, and they have hired the services of other psionicists to help maintain order. Ironically, large numbers of former slaves have taken service with the templars, selling their psionic powers to those who kept them in bondage for years. To a lesser extent, templars are engaging the services of both defilers and preservers, but this practice is kept very quiet-centuries of magical oppression die hard. 
The loss of spell powers, however, has become the great equalizer among the backstabbing templars of Tyr. Formerly low-level templars find they are nearly as powerful as high-level adversaries-without magic, one templar is pretty much the same as the next. Sudden parity with their superiors has bred dangerous ambitions among templars eager to advance through the ranks. 
Kalak's templars in other cities: Templars who instead fled to other city states, to other sorcerer-kings, more often than not found the point of a sword. Templars who were already in power there had no wish to instate new rivals in their order. Newcomers who weren't killed outright upon arrival were either enslaved or, for the fortunate, simply turned away. 
Only those templars who managed to gain an audience with the new sorcerer-king and who had something to offer found an open hand. Many who fled to Urik, for example, offered their knowledge of Tyr and its organization in return for a new sorcerer-king to worship. Others found they could buy their way in, bribing other templars to speak kindly for them to their leader. 
With psionics and magic to keep them in line, all templars new to their city from Tyr are unquestionably loyal, or they hide it very well. Since most have had personal contact with their new sorcerer-king, they have special favor, at least for the moment, but they have drawn the scorn of the existing templar hierarchy. Once a new templar falls from favor with his sorcerer-king, even slightly, he is at great risk of retribution from jealous rivals. 
Ex-templars: Those who have shed the finery of their templar past have had a difficult time. When recognized, they are often tortured or killed. They are never welcome in Tyr, so they have been forced to wander to new locations. Ex-templars start advancing again in a new character class, but they begin at 1st level. Few ex-templars reveal their true identities; most have few friends.