only the turn undead ability was derived from van Helsing as vampire hunter, the whole militant heavy armour wearing cleric is straight Crusader, the original weapon restriction (bludgeon only) was from Bishop Odo of Bayeux who had taken vows to not draw blood.
That is not what caused the Crusades. The Umayyad invasion of southern France was not the cause of the crusades. The Crusades happened because of the Turkic migration into Anatolia, which took a lot of land from the Eastern Roman Empire. Alexios I Komnemos asked Pope Urban II for military aid against the Seljuks in exchange for recognizing the Pope as a patriarch again. The pope made up lies about the Muslims, promised amnesty to crusaders, and added in recapturing the holy land to motivate the Catholics to help the Byzantines.
There is a world of difference between how Rogues and Paladins are depicted. Paladins are almost always depicted as good guys, and Rogues are at best depicted as Robin Hood or swashbuckling archetypes, but are normally darker themed (Thieves’/Assassins guilds). One is presented as moral, the other as usually immoral.
Your last sentence has too many typos for me to be able to understand it. I am aware that the Muslims conquered Roman territory (Africa, the Levant, and Egypt). They had controlled those lands for several hundred years by the time of the crusades. The Crusades were motivated by the Pope wanting to gain authority over the Orthodox and the Byzantines wanting to defeat the Sultanate of Rum. That does not justify the many atrocities committed by the crusaders.
I can play am assassin and thief, but not a religous knight? Under your logic in the OP, there isnt a real difference.
