Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (also known as Circle of Blood in the United States) is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game developed by Revolution Software. It is the first in the Broken Sword series co-written and directed by Charles Cecil. The player assumes the role of George Stobbart (voiced by Rolf Saxon) an American tourist in Paris as he attempts to unravel a deep conspiracy involving a sinister cult and a hidden treasure seeing him travel to various locations around Europe and the Middle East. The game's storyline was conceived to feature a serious tone and heavily influenced by research on Knights Templar by Cecil but was also interlaced with humor and graphics in the style of classic animated films.