Assassins

The Assassins, also known as the Hashashin, are an organized Order of Assassins, who are in a constant low-scale war with their greatest advesaries the Knights Templar. The order has existed over at least a century, including the Third Crusade, the Renaissance, and even lasting into the year 2012. The order believes in a firm creed of values that strictly govern their way of life, consisting of three tenets: stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent, hide in plain sight, and to never compromise the brotherhood. The tenets are lived by daily in the fight for "peace in all things". The Assassins carry out their duties through political strategic assassination, and by doing so, potential threats of peace will be forever suppressed.

Through their work, Assassins could be easily looked at as political keepers of peace. Fighting on behalf of the people who do not possess the abilities, or better put, resources to speak out against the men in power who harm them. Assassins speak to these men of corruption for them, by introducing them to the sharp edge of a Hidden Blade. By doing so, the people are freed from the shackles of their oppression. Even though the Assassins fight for the people, they are feared, because no matter how you look at it, killing is killing. The only way to truly justify it is self-defense, if in fact that's what it truly was. The Assassins were most feared due to the terrifying reputation for taking life in public. Creating the atmosphere of it not being safe to commit ill acts under the sun spreads fear amongst their enemies, never knowing when they may fall to an enemy who they can't see or hear.

Assassins possessed a specific weapon most efficient for assassinations, it was the Hidden Blade. A single thrust from this weapon could change the course of the Holy Land's future, as well as history. Such power could easily go to a blade hand's mind, causing him to lift himself above others knowing he could change history. But the devotion to their cause (peace in all things) and the knowledge of the "Assassins Creed" provided the guidance necessary to detour them from such thoughts. This was not always the case. In order to have a precise impact caused by an assasssination, the Assassins possessed extensive political knowlege, always intune with the ever-changing politics surrounding the empires of the Holy Land. They used this to decide whose death would most benefit the land.

Obtaining information was done by stationing agents within the cities to keep an eye on their actions. When deployed on missions, elite master assassins or blade hands were the ones responsible for carrying out public assassinations. They worked alone in the field, usually disguised as holy scholars or other suitable images. When stationed in a city, the Assassins would spend an immense amount of time getting acquainted with their environment and learning where and when it would be best to strike at their marked target. The actual strike itself took place in public. By performing the murder in the public's eye, the Assassins knew without a doubt that news and information about the assassination would spread quickly amongst the people, and those possibly tied to the one assassinated, effectively spreading fear and disrupting the chain of command targeted by the Assassins.

"When does our work ever go as expected? It's our ability to adapt that makes us who we are." —Al Mualim

Third Crusade

 * Al Mualim (Master and leader of Syrian-Assassins)
 * Altair (Master Assassin and field instructor)
 * Malik (Dai over Jerusalem's Assassin Bureau)
 * Kaddar (Member of the Assassins and Malik's younger brother)
 * Raoul (Member of the Assassins)
 * Masun (Traitor of Masyaf)
 * The Instructors and Rafiqs
 * Jamal (possible Assassin that betrayed Masyaf)
 * Bahir (Damascus - Rooftop Race Informant PC version)
 * Karim (Acre - Rooftop Race Informant PC version)

Renaissance

 * Ezio Auditore de Firenze (A nobleman and member of the Assassins)

Modern Times

 * Lucy Stillman (a Employee at the Abstergo Industries who's in truth a double agent for the Assassins)
 * Desmond Miles (an [ex, though presumably re-initiated as the end of the game]Assassin descended from both Altair and Ezio Audtiore de Firenze. he was born on a farm "in the desert" presumably pertaining to the middle east.)

Assassin's Creed
In 1191, during the Third Crusade, the Assassins Order has its stronghold in the fortress of Masyaf. Led by Al Mualim, the other assassins battle with the Templar's and their leader, Robert de Sable over ideologies and the means in which to accomplish them. It is the Third Crusade and low-scale war with the Templar's that Altair must find wisdom within himself from the "Assassins Creed" in order to accomplish the assassinations appointed for his redemption. As the war intensifies and Altair begins to understand the Assassins true way of life, the "Creed" and it's meaning begin to open Altair's eyes and mind to question their cause and the lives he is meant to take in the name of the Assassins peace. Is killing these men the true and only way to teach those that have strayed or do they not deserve a second chance, "misguided perhaps but pure in motive". Altair

Assassin's Creed II
It has been announced in the May 2009 issue of Game Informer that the Assassins have "gone underground", but the order still continues their battle with the Templars. Ezio, who was announced as the game's protagonist, is an Italian nobleman who joins the order for an unknown reason. The magazine does hint that it may be because of the death of his family, indirectly or directly due to the Templars.

Real History
The Hashshashin (also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin, or Hashasheen), from which the word assassin is thought to originate, was the Persian derived designation of the Nizari branch of the Ismā'īlī Shia Muslims during the Middle Ages.