First Templar Nation

1 1125. An oak table in a large hall in a small county named Portugale . . .
2 1095. November. In the Auvergne, a mountainous region in central France . . .
3 1096. August. Constantinople, capital of the Holy Roman empire . . .
4 1096. August. With the northern army, preparing to depart . . .
5 1098. On the desert road near Antioch . . .
6 140 BC. In a land in western Iberia called Lusitania
. . . 7. 1099. June. Outside the gates of Jerusalem . . .
8 Thirty years earlier. Orval. A town downriver from Bouillon . . .
9 1114. Braga. A very old city in Portugale . . .
10 1100. Jerusalem. In the palace of the new king . . .
11 1100. Braga. Hearing foreign voices . . .
12 1117. Bethlehem. At a ceremony . . .
13 1117. Guimaraes. In the court of Countess Tareja . . .
14 1126. Clairvaux. A very, very, very modest abbey in Champagne . . .
15 Seven Years Earlier. Clairvaux. A special moment on June 24 . . .
16 1125. Late Autumn. Porto. Disembarking after a long sea voyage . . .
17 1127. Autumn. Aboard a galley in the Mediterranean . . .
18 1128. April. Braga. An office where lots of documents are signed . . .
19 1128. January. A major gathering at Troyes, a town in Champagne . . .
20 1128. Back in Clairvaux. Upon the conclusion of the conclave . . .
21 1128. April. A chamber in the royal residence of Guimaraes . . .
22 1128. Meanwhile in Champagne . . .
23 1128. June 24 A battlefield outside Guimaraes . . .
24 1129. March. Afonso reveals himself . . .
25 1139. Ourique. Preparing to battle the Moors .
. . 26 1139. Clairvaux. Early dawn, outside the chapel . . .

INTERMEZZO
27 1867. Jaffa. A mule train heading toward Jerusalem . . .
28 1146. Coimbra. At home with Afonso and his new bride . . .
29 1147. April. Braga. The mysterious Prior Arnaldo in his new abode . . .
30 1119. Temple Mount. A tunnel, eighty feet beneath . . .
31 1147. Braga. Gualdino Paes also moves into his new domicile . . .
32 1121. Saint-Omer. In the home of a cryptographer named Lambert . . .
33 1947. Qumran. Two goatherds, in a cave, by the Dead Sea . . .
34 1159. Ceras. A pile of rubble near a dilapidated town . . .
35 68 AD. Mount Sion. Men in white, hiding scrolls and other important things . . .
36 1159. Coimbra. The king of Portugal's desk, part I . . .
37 1159. Coimbra. The king of Portugal's desk, part II . . .
38 1159. Coimbra. The king of Portugal's desk, part III . . .
39 1160. March 1. A dawn ceremony on the promontory above Thamar . . .
40 Present Era. April. Inside the rotunda of Tomar . . .
41 1865. The Vatican. Pope Pius IX gets all steamed up . . .
42 Present Era. April. By the rotunda, amid the secrets of the beehive . . .
43 Present Era. April. Musing outside the beehive . . .
44 1165. Monsanto. Peculiar behavior on an unusual hill . . .
45 Present Era. Monsanto. And other places for musing . . .
46 1147. Sintra. A funny thing happens on the way to the castle . . .
47 Present Era. Sintra. In the Forest of Angels . . .
48 Present Era. April. In the shadow of a statue in Tomar . . .
49 1153. Gossip in the alleyways of Jerusalem . . .
50 1312. Southern Portugal. The templars enjoy a six-year vacation . . .
51Present Era. Aksum. A feast day when the Tabotat are seen in daylight . .
. 52 Present Era. Tomar. Staring at the rotunda . .
53 Present Era. A circular hall in a small country named Portugal . . .

EPILOGUE Lusitania. Where knowledge is stored, guarded by a goddess whose

symbol is a triangle . . . Notes

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