Assassins

"La shai wak'ion motlaq bal kollon momken ("Nothing is true, Everything is permitted" in arabic)"

- The Assassin's Creed

The Assassins, also known as the Hashshashin, are an organized Order of Assassins, who are in a continuous low-grade war with their greatest adversaries: the Knights Templar. The order has existed for at least a millennium, and was active during the Third Crusade, the Renaissance, and even 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 never compromise the Brotherhood. These tenets are lived daily by Assassins in the fight for "peace in all things". The Assassins carry out their duties through political strategic assassination, and by doing so, potential threats to peace are forever suppressed. By killing one individual, the Assassins believe that they can save tens of thousands.

Through their work, Assassins could be easily looked upon as keepers of peace. Assassins believe that they fight on behalf of those people who do not possess their abilities or resources to speak out against those in power who harm the powerless. Assassins speak to these corrupted men for the dispossessed by introducing them to the sharp edge of a blade. By doing so, the common people are freed from the shackles of oppression. Even though the Assassins fight for the people, they are feared, because no matter how one looks at the matter, killing above the bounds of the law for noble purposes is still killing, still an essentially evil act. The only way to justify the Assassins' deeds is to see them through the prism of long-term self-defense, though many moralists and philosophers claim this is just sophistry, a rationalization for murder. The Assassins were most feared due to their terrifying reputation for taking life in public places before many witnesses. The Assassins did so to create an atmosphere in which it was not safe to commit corrupt acts under the sun. This spread fear amongst their enemies, for they never knew when they might fall to an enemy who they could not see or hear.

Assassins used a particularly efficient weapon for assassinations: the Hidden Blade. A single thrust from this weapon could change the course of the Holy Land's future, as well as that of all future history. Such power could easily go to an Assassin's head, causing him to lift himself above others knowing he could change history, thus becoming as corrupt as the men whom he slew. But the devotion to the Assassins primary goal (peace in all things) and the knowledge of their "Assassin's Creed" provided the moral guidance necessary to keep the corruption caused by ultimate power at bay. This was not always the case. In order to have the precise political impact desired by an assassination, the Assassins possessed extensive political knowledge and remained always in tune with the ever-changing politics surrounding the many empires of the Holy Land and later of Western Europe during the Renaissance. They used this information to decide whose death would most benefit the people of their region.

Obtaining this information was done by stationing agents within the various cities of the Middle East and Europe to keep an eye on the actions of the various nobles and rulers. 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 of any of the three major monotheistic faiths or other suitable caricatures. When stationed in a particular 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 chosen target. The actual strike itself always 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 common people, and those other corrupt men who served the one assassinated, effectively spreading fear and disrupting the chain of command among the corrupted regime that had been targeted by the Assassins.

Members

 * Al Mualim (Master and leader of Syrian-Assassins [Secretly a Templar])
 * Altair Ibn-La'Ahad (Master Assassin and field instructor [Becomes Leader of the Assassins after the events of the first game])
 * Malik (Dai over Jerusalem's Assassin Bureau)
 * Kadar (Member of the Assassins and Malik's younger brother)
 * Raoul (Member of the Assassins)
 * Abbas(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)

Allies

 * Adha ("The Chalice")
 * Maria (Altaïr's wife)

Members

 * Ezio Auditore da Firenze (A nobleman and member of the Assassins)
 * Mario Auditore da Firenze (Ezio's uncle and mercenary)
 * Giovanni Auditore da Firenze (Ezio's father and Nobleman)
 * Federico Auditore da Firenze (Ezio's brother)
 * Paola (Head of the Florentine Brothel)
 * Sister Teodora (Head of the Venetian Brothel)
 * Antonio (Head of the Venetian Thieves Guild)
 * La Volpe (Head of the Florentine Thieves Guild)
 * Bartolomeo d'Alviano (Head of the Venetian Mercenaries)
 * Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (A nobleman from Naples)
 * Domenico Auditore (Patriarch of the Auditore family)
 * Dante Alighieri (Poet and teacher of Domenico)
 * Raphael Sanchez (Treasurer of Queen Isabella of Spain)

Allies

 * Leonardo da Vinci (Ezio's best friend)
 * Agostino Barbarigo (Brother of Marco Barbarigo)
 * Lorenzo de' Medici (Lord of Firenze)
 * Caterina Sforza (Countess of Forli)
 * Christoffa Corombo (Italian Conquistador)

Modern Times (2012)

 * Desmond Miles
 * Subject 16
 * Lucy Stillman
 * Shaun Hastings
 * Rebecca Crane
 * Any remaining assassins alive (confirmed to be survivors by Lucy and Shaun)

Others

 * Darius (The Male Persian Assassin; he killed Xerxes with the Hidden Blade.)
 * Iltani (The Female Babylonian Assassin; she poisoned Alexander the Great.)
 * Wei Yu (The Male Chinese Assassin; he killed Qin Shi Huang with a spear.)
 * Qulan Gal (The Male Mongolian Assassin; he shot Genghis Khan's horse with a bow and arrow.)
 * Amunet (The Female Egyptian Assassin; she killed Cleopatra with a snake.)
 * Leonius (The Male Roman Assassin; he stabbed Caligula to death with a dagger.)
 * Adam and Eve (The Two Original Assassins)
 * Nikola Tesla (An ally of the Assassins, helped destroy the Staff and cause the Tunguska Event)

Victims of Altair Ibn-La'Ahad

 * Talal
 * Garnier de Nablus
 * Tamar
 * Abu'l Noqoud
 * William of Monferrat
 * Majd Addin
 * Jubair al Hakim
 * Sibrand
 * Robert de Sable
 * Al-Mualim

Victims of Ezio Auditore da Firenze

 * Uberto Alberti
 * The Pazzi Family
 * Vieri de Pazzi
 * Francesco de Pazzi
 * Jacopo de Pazzi
 * The Pazzi Conspirators
 * Stefano da Bagnone
 * Bernardo Baroncelli
 * Antonio Maffei
 * Francesco Salviati
 * Emilio Barbarigo
 * Carlo Grimaldi
 * Marco Barbarigo
 * Dante Moro
 * Silvio Barbarigo
 * Gaspard Martinez

Others

 * Xerxes
 * Stabbed by Darius with a Hidden Blade
 * Alexander the Great
 * Poisoned by Iltani
 * Qin Shi Huang
 * Stabbed by Wei Yu with a spear
 * Cleopatra
 * Killed by Amunet with a snake
 * Caligula
 * Stabbed by Leonius with a dagger
 * Genghis Khan
 * Horse shot out from under him by Qulan Gal with a bow
 * Mary I of England
 * Francisco Pizarro
 * Tomas de Torqemada
 * John Wilkes Booth
 * Rasputin
 * Adolf Hitler
 * Killed from above while attempting to flee his bunker in Berlin
 * Joseph Stalin

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 assassins battle with the Templars and their leader, Robert de Sable over ideologies and the means with 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 "Assassin's Creed" in order to accomplish the assassinations appointed for his redemption. As the war intensifies and Altair begins to understand the Assassin's true way of life, the "Creed", its meaning begins to open Altair's eyes and mind to question his cause and the lives he is meant to take in the name of the Assassin's 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, after killing Robert de Sable, confronts his Master, Al Mualim, who has secretly been a high-ranking Templar the entire time. After a grueling struggle, Altair defeats Al Mualim and becomes the leader of the Assassins, though many lives were lost during Al Mualim's short reign of Terror. Altair then dedicates the Order to hunting down and destroying the remaining Artifacts, left by "Those Who Came Before," using the Piece of Eden to find them.

Assassin's Creed II
During the Renaissance time period, the Assassin Order had apparently ‘gone underground’. The reason for this is explained inside the codex pages, where by Altair states that even though the Templar Order was served a crushing defeat in the Holy Land and Cyprus, they still survived in more inconspicuous ways. As such, Altair believed that the Assassins too had to change tactics so as to live on.

For example, he talked of abandoning the Assassin fortress of Masyaf and conducting their operations more covertly so as not to attract attention from their enemies. He also proposed that the method of removing the ring finger was an obvious sign to Templar forces who the Assassin members were, and found a way to modify the Hidden blade and still keep their finger. The Renaissance Italian Assassin Order, however, didn’t follow all these traditions that were passed down to them.

One example of this was the Auditore Villa, built by Ezio’s great-grandfather, which acted as an Assassin fortress, containing recovered Codex pages and the Armour of Altair. It was considered an Assassin fortress (whilst containing the Auditore crypt) even displaying a mix of the Auditore and Assassin symbols.

Rituals were still in place to induct new recruits as shown when Ezio is finally revealed to the rest of the Assassin Order, many of who have helped him over the years. Machiavelli (the supposed Grandmaster of the Assassins during the Renaissance) conducted a ritual, where by he posed questions to Ezio, who had to respond with ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted’. He then finished by burning the ring finger on Ezio’s left hand, the same finger which use to be taken from Assassins to show their commitment to their Order.

However they did still follow Altair’s idea of keeping hidden and evolved into a secret society (even though they still displayed Assassin Tomb’s and the Auditore Villa).

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.