Jacob Frye

Sir Jacob Frye (1847 – unknown) was a Master Assassin of the British Brotherhood of Assassins, active in London during the Victorian era, and the younger twin brother of Evie Frye. He later became a member of Queen Victoria's Order of the Sacred Garter, and the grandfather of Lydia Frye.

Born in Crawley, where they were raised as Assassins from birth, Jacob and his sister eventually moved to London after their father died of natural causes.

Alongside Evie, Jacob led the Rooks, a criminal syndicate opposing the Templar-backed Blighters. In this endeavor, the twins came into contact with the novelist Charles Dickens, the biologist Charles Darwin and the inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

Early life
"Oh, right, my mistake. Ladies and gentlemen, the unstoppable Frye twins; see them nightly at Covent Garden!"

- George Westhouse sarcastically scolding the twins, 1868.

Born four minutes after his twin Evie, Jacob and his sister were raised by their grandmother as their mother, Cecily, died during childbirth. They were later trained by their father, Ethan Frye, in the Assassin ways. Unlike Evie, Jacob dismissed his father's education, preferring to explore factories and gambling dens in Crawley late at night while Evie trained with Ethan.

Sometime after their father's natural death in 1868, Jacob and Evie traveled to the Ferris Ironworks with George Westhouse, a fellow Assassin, to eliminate the Templars Rupert Ferris and David Brewster. Jacob infiltrated the Ironworks and assassinated Ferris. Escaping the enraged Blighters gang by train, Jacob narrowly survived the subsequent derailing and crash.

The twins later returned to Westhouse, having each completed their tasks. Impatient to journey for London, the twins were scolded by the older Assassin, warning them that it was not Ethan's plans for them. Despite Westhouse's sermon, Jacob and Evie secretly hitched a train to London, intent on liberating it, despite the Assassin Council's ruling against it.

Arrival in London
"I've always thought of myself as a gang leader. Firm, but fair. We'll have uniforms. And I'll unite a mix of disenfranchised outsiders under one name. That's it, Evie! We can rally them to our side... I can see it now! We'll call ourselves the Rooks."

- Jacob voicing his plans to his sister, 1868.

After arriving in Whitechapel, the twins sought out the leader, and sole remaining Assassin in London, Henry Green. Informed of the Templars' vast control over the city, Jacob proposed to form a gang called the Rooks to challenge the Blighters' power in the area, disagreeing with Evie's plan to recover Pieces of Eden. While discussing this, the three Assassins bumped into the writer Charles Dickens who invited them for a talk sometime. After losing the Blighters tailing them, the twins joined Henry in his shop, where he explained his array of contacts within the city.

The twins later encountered a disguised Sergeant Frederick Abberline, who gave them a list of Blighters, whom they could kidnap and bring to him for arrest, preferring living to dead. Jacob and Evie also liberated abused children from the local factories, in order to satisfy their young contact Clara O'Dea, in exchange for access to her network of child informants. Together with the new recruits, the siblings assassinated Rexford Kaylock and took control of Whitechapel from the Blighters, forming the Rooks in the process.

Following a street battle with Kaylock's Blighters, from which they emerged victorious, the Assassins won the gang leader's personal train, and decided to utilize it as their hideout, gaining Agnes MacBean's services as a financier in the process. They proceeded to travel to Southwark to meet Henry Green's accomplice and inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, to fix the broken rope launcher for use on their Hidden Blade bracers.

After Bell returned from installing fuses with Evie, the inventor showed Jacob the first messages of the telegraph and made him a second new rope launcher. The twins then headed to their hideout where they met Ned Wynert, an American transgender entrepreneur, who gave them his business card. The Assassins planned their next motive, with Jacob determined to strengthen the Rooks and eliminate Crawford Starrick's associates within London's infrastructure, whilst Evie searched for the Shroud of Eden.

Rise of the Rooks
Although in disagreement with Evie's hunt for Pieces of Eden, Jacob aided his sister in recovering an artifact from the Templar occultist Lucy Thorne's shipments. He eliminated the guards as Evie searched the chests. However, he was caught and chased by Blighters as he returned to Evie, forcing the twins to flee on a carriage; Jacob took the reins while Evie acted on the defense. Ultimately, their pursuers were closing in, forcing the twins to abandon the carriage and its cargo, though Evie managed to keep hold of a journal belonging to the late Edward Kenway.

Jacob began his investigation into the source of Starrick's Soothing Syrup, which was ravaging London's poor districts. After chasing a merchant and locating the distributor to the factory, stealing his files in the process, Jacob managed to track down and kidnap the distribution boss in the Southwark Foundry, learning from him that Starrick's Soothing Syrup was produced in the distillation building.

Arriving there, Jacob witnessed an elderly man attempting to break inside, and hiding when the guards appeared. After eliminating the Blighters guarding the place, Jacob broke the lock of the factory and entered with the man. The duo investigated the tank and its ingredients, learning that the Syrup contained opium, turning it into an addictive and deadly substance. While the man hid near the entrance, Jacob turned the pressure valves, destroying the distillation tanks and setting fire to the building, which Jacob narrowly escaped by jumping through a window. The man introduced himself as Charles Darwin, who showed the Assassin a document that indicated batches of the Syrup were sent to the Lambeth Asylum.

He later found Darwin arguing with the asylum owner, Richard Owen, whose carriage Jacob chased and hijacked, damaging it to scare Owen into revealing the creator of the Syrup - the doctor John Elliotson.

The twins visited Bell, who upgraded their bracers with a dart mechanism capable of firing hallucinogenic darts. Jacob and Evie provided assistance to the inventor by recovering cable lines taken by the Blighters in the shipments in College Wharf. They also discovered poison in the shipments from Starrick.

After informing Darwin of his latest exploits regarding his hunt for the Syrup creator, Jacob infiltrated the asylum, where he discovered the doctors brutally experimenting on patients for medical purposes. He assassinated Elliotson, who mocked him, calling him childish for not thinking of the consequences of his actions.

Continuing their fight against Starrick and his control of the press, the twins returned to Bell's laboratory where the latter told Jacob of Starrick's efforts of bribery to coax the inventor to his side. Aware of the Blighters aiming to attack him, he invented voltaic bombs which would stun assailants and offered them to the twins with insulators to protect the Assassins from harm. Suddenly, the infuriated Blighters arrived; they took this as an opportunity to test the bombs as Bell distracted them through talking.

The Assassins further aided the inventor in the telegraph station to keep Starrick from spreading false information throughout London and show people the truth about his operations by distracting the guards and defending Bell with their newly acquired weapon.

Jacob introduced himself to Starrick's fierce business competitor, Pearl Attaway, unaware that she was a Templar and the Grand Master's cousin, to discuss a business preposition. He killed an employee of Attaway's rival company, Millner Company. The pair traveled to Millner's storage yard where Jacob destroyed their enemy's omnibuses, making Malcolm Millner's profit plummet quickly.

Soon enough, Jacob suddenly entered Attaway's carriage, obviously disregarding her request for an appointment. The businesswoman gave him a job to secure internal combustion engines being delivered to Millner. Knowing the man he needed, Jacob freed the arrested Ned Wynert from his police convoy and asked for his aid to transfer the package cargo. Climbing aboard the moving Blighters train, the young man searched the cargo for the engines and detached its wagon for Ned's train to recover.

Attaway tasked Jacob in murdering Millner who was in the River Thames with his ferry, the only business he had left. Jacob sabotaged the contraband on the boat to lure Millner outside where he assassinated him. The dying businessman revealed that Crawford and Attaway were family and allies. Dismayed, Jacob located Attaway and overheard her conversation with Starrick that she was a Templar. Finally, he headed to the Waterloo station to assassinate Attaway, recovered the engines and escaped with the train.

Reclaiming control of London
Jacob targeted the financial field of Starrick, kidnapping a man to gather intel; the man, however, was Frederick Abberline who was once again in disguise. The sergeant informed the Assassin of a planned robbery of the. As the information was confidential, Jacob talked him into revealing the supplier - Cockham Merchants.

He later met again with Abberline to continue their investigation. Jacob located the smuggled weapons and tailed their delivery to the Templar Philip Twopenny, under the alias of Plutus. Left with no choice but to stop the heist, Jacob infiltrated the Bank of England and assassinated Twopenny, giving the dead man a coin in mockery to the man's beliefs. As Jacob escaped, Abberline arrested Twopenny's accomplices.

Desperate to regain control, Crawford Starrick now entered England's politics, plotting against Queen Victoria for his own profit. As Jacob's latest exploits was to now meddle with the Parliament, Evie warned her brother of the consequences of his latest actions: the increase of fraud medicine, transportation and production problems, and the near collapse of the British currency, problems she mostly fixed.

Jacob proceeded in spying on the prime minister of London within the Sinopean Club, following Benjamin Disraeli and a spy walk out from the meeting. He tackled the man, assuming it was the Templar associate "B", who told him that he was just paid by another man. He was suddenly shot in the head by a sniper. Jacob then chased the sniper, threatening to throw her off the roof to reveal information. The scared woman admitted that she did not know her employer, only giving a description of his appearance. but they were planned to attack the prime minister's carriage.

Infiltrating Disraeli's carriage, Jacob pretended to be the prime minister's bodyguard. Disraeli was suspicious of the Assassin however, unlike his wife Mary Anne who let Jacob speak. There was a sudden gunshot from outside, coming from the police and the Blighters. Jacob defended the Disraelis and chased their hijacked carriage, securing the couple's safety. Jacob then asked Mary Anne for the Templar affiliate he was searching for and the woman agreed in exchange for a tour of the Devil's Acre.

The following night, Jacob arrived at their meeting place, but Mary Anne canceled the tour due to scandal-seeking journalists. The Assassin, unable to hurt the journalists, distracted them instead and returned to Mary Anne's carriage. Escaping more journalists, the pair eventually arrived in Devil's Acre and avoided the Blighter thugs on patrol. They later settled to a tavern where Mary Ann's purse, containing her dog Desmond, was stolen. After recovering the dog, Jacob returned only to find Mary Anne advising the thugs. Their misfortune was succeeded by the Blighters chasing their carriage. With the tour coming to an end, Mary Anne revealed the man Jacob was seeking for - the Earl of Cardigan, who was currently working within the Palace of Westminster.

Stealthily infiltrating the Palace of Westminster, Jacob eventually made his way to the Earl and assassinated him. The Earl called him a coward and dramatically announced his death, much to Jacob's irritation. Having done his task, Jacob escaped the palace's guards and Blighter patrols. Unbeknownst to him, his action caused major turmoil in the citizens of London, another problem Evie had to fix for him.

Moving to his next target, Jacob accepted London's biggest criminal mastermind and Blighter leader Maxwell Roth's invitation for dinner, who found Jacob's accomplishments magnificent. He offered the Assassin a partnership which Jacob accepted. The duo rode into the night to St. Pancras station, where Jacob blew up shipments of explosives belonging to Starrick and Co. With the explosives dealt with, Jacob went to kidnap a driver to deliver the train to Roth.

The pair continued their goal to overthrow Starrick's control over London with theft in mind. Roth explained his plan to kidnap three of the Grand Master's henchmen: Hattie Cadwallader, Benjamin Raffles and Chester Swinebourne; a task which Jacob accomplished, delivering the trio to Roth's carriage.

However, Jacob found Roth's tactics brutal and selfish. He decided to severe the agreement after Roth's unconcern in destroying a factory with innocent laboring children inside. Jacob, opposing Roth's idea of sacrificing innocents for Starrick's downfall, refused, forcing Roth to ignite the explosives himself and Jacob to save the children from the building. He was then given a letter by Roth in the form of a gift, with the corpse of Roth's pet bird inside.

To celebrate Starrick's loss and the end of Jacob's partnership, Roth called for a masquerade party in the Alhambra Music Hall. Jacob took this opportunity to assassinate the Blighter and his decoys during the performance. Roth, now mad with the goal to murder his audience and Jacob, set fire to the stage. Jacob then used his blade to end Roth's life who in turn kissed Jacob, telling him his reason of killing innocents was just because he wanted to. The Assassin narrowly escaped the flaming theater.

With his sister, the Rooks eventually took control of London's boroughs, eliminating the Blighters threat with their Templar leaders Bloody Nora, Lilla Graves, Victor Lynch, Octavia Plumb, Cletus Strain and Edith Swinebourne by launching a gang war between the two rivals.

Assassinating Crawford Starrick
After assassinating Maxwell Roth, Jacob returned to Evie, who scolded him with his disinterest in the Shroud and reckless planning. Evie mentioned their father, a sore topic for Jacob, and the siblings argued. Henry calmed them down and told them about a ball to be held in Buckingham Palace where Starrick was planning to steal the Piece of Eden and eliminate the heads of church and government.

Finding this a good opportunity to assassinate Starrick, Jacob formulated a plan with Evie and invited the Disraelis to their hideout. The twins told them their need to enter the ball and offered their plan to steal the invitations of Catherine and William Gladstone, much to the Disraelis' glad approval.

Jacob then headed to the Gladstones' house to recover the invitations and eventually tracked Mrs. Gladstone and hijacked her carriage. Finding that weaponry was not allowed in the ball, Jacob asked Frederick Abberline for ideas and the latter told him to acquire the royal guards' uniform. The Assassin proceeded to St. Martin's Church, stole one, giving it to Abberline.

The twins successfully managed to infiltrate the ball using the Gladstones' carriage and invitations. Jacob sought out Frederick Abberline for their smuggled weapons. The sergeant told Jacob that Starrick had disguised his own men with the royal guards. The Assassin came to the rescue, killing all of the impostors. Afterwards, Jacob sent his sister a signal.

However, Evie lost her Precursor necklace to Starrick and ordered her brother to locate the crypt. Jacob made his way to the vault, finding Starrick with the Shroud. He failed to attack the Templar; instead, Starrick choked him. The vault's activated defense mechanism sent Jacob sprawling to the floor. Finally recovering, Jacob had to save his sister in return from the clutch of Starrick. After exchanging more blows with Starrick, the two of them were trapped.

Fortunately, Henry Green arrived, throwing a knife at the Templar. Joining the fight, Henry too was knocked off his feet by the Templar. Jacob and Evie continued the fight and manged to remove the Shroud and end Starrick's life. With the Templar threat gone, the rift between the siblings vanished. Jacob returned the Shroud as Evie attended at Henry's side.

A short time later, the three Assassins met with Queen Victoria, who was grateful to her saviors. The queen knighted them to her Order of the Sacred Garter. The twins then raced off to their hideout, leaving Henry behind.

Rebuilding the London Brotherhood
With the Templar Grand Master eliminated, the twins continued their struggle to help London's underclass. The Fryes soon distanced themselves from Queen Victoria to avoid their cooperation furthering imperial interests but the British capital itself entered a twenty year period of relative peace.

During that time, Jacob and Evie would eventually go their separate ways with Evie and Henry relocating to India while Jacob remained in the city to maintain the Rooks and reinforce the Brotherhood with new apprentices. He also had at least one child, a son, who was also invested into the Assassin Order.

One of his initiates was a young boy from the Lambeth Asylum nicknamed "Jack the Lad" and together with new initiates, Jacob joined his sister in India in order to learn the fear tactics of the Indian Assassins.

Autumn of Terror
Sometime after returning to London, Jacob came to blows with his apprentice Jack, who had developed an extremist view of the Assassins' mission and his own warped variant of the Creed. He eventually lost control of the Rooks to Jack, who intended to use the gang to further his goals. In retaliation, Jacob sent a few of his female initiates after Jack, disguised as prostitutes. His efforts proved to be in vain, however, with Jack brutally eliminating all opposition sent his way. This marked the beginning of the Whitechapel murders, otherwise known as the Autumn of Terror.

On the night of 30 September 1888, Jacob approached the journalist Arthur Weaversbrook, who had been publishing Jack's letters for the public to read. He demanded that Weaversbrook discontinue the publishing of the letters and berated him for turning Jack into a legend.

After his conversation with Weaversbrook, Jacob caught wind of a peering Jack nearby and rushed to his Whitechapel lodgings. Midway, a fight broke out in a cemetery, where Jack injured Jacob and gained the upper hand. Jacob continued to flee and escaped to his lodgings via horse-drawn carriage. There, an injured Jacob was ambushed and overpowered in combat, resulting in him being kidnapped and locked away in a cell beneath Lambeth Asylum.

Prior to his abduction, Jacob had requested the return of his sister. Honoring the request, Evie began searching for him and investigating the murder scenes of Jack's many victims. Jacob was eventually located by his sister, barely alive and in a semi-conscious state. After killing Jack and his accomplices, Evie went to help her brother and, with the aid of Inspector Frederick Abberline, obscured the identity of the Ripper to prevent the potential compromising of the Brotherhood.

Later life
In 1893, Jacob's granddaughter, Lydia Frye, was born. With Lydia's parents often away on the continent performing missions for the Brotherhood, responsibility for Lydia’s training fell to Jacob and Evie.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, Jacob and Evie were removed to the safety of the countryside, while Lydia remained in London to protect the city from German spies and Templar agents.

Personality and characteristics
"I'm no criminal. I just do as I please."

- Jacob Frye.

Jacob was an impulsive, reckless and rebellious individual with a quick wit and an aggressive demeanor. While he was brought up as an Assassin, Jacob grew up under a strict lifestyle that restricted his active behavior. As a result, he began to resent his father as well as his teachings, and usually lost his composure when Evie brought their deceased father into their arguments. Furthermore, he did not appear to be a fervent believer in the Creed's tenets like his sister, preferring action over philosophical thoughts and a good fight over discretion. As such, he was easily dismissive of Pieces of Eden, preferring to focus on his targets.

Coupled with his reckless behavior, Jacob remained oblivious to the chaos created by his actions. Assassinating Starrick's Templar associates created as much harm as good, and when brought up by Evie, Jacob simply dismissed them. Instead, he justified his actions by claiming he was doing something proactive in toppling Starrick's power, unlike Evie who was obsessed in tracking down the Pieces of Eden.

However, complementing his impulsive and reckless behavior, Jacob was very good at thinking on his feet, part of the reason he survived his own recklessness. Also, as a gang leader, Jacob proved himself as a criminal strategist and organizer.

While "having fun" was very important to Jacob, he was not above altruistic acts and fighting for the disenfranchised. Furthermore, he had no desire to harm any innocent civilians, cutting off all ties with Maxwell Roth for doing so. Upon seeing how dangerous Roth's anarchism was, Jacob finally realized the flaw in his own idea of freedom. As such, he came to understand the tenets of the Creed, and acknowledged that his father was right all along.

Equipment and skills
"Leave the sneaking and spying to my sister. Toss me my brass knuckles and point me to a good brawl."

- Jacob Frye.

Having been trained by the Brotherhood from birth, Jacob was a Master Assassin adept at both stealth and combat, despite his preference for the latter, he proved efficient in the use of the Hidden Blade as he could eliminate his targets with great skill. He also proved capable in eavesdropping, pickpocketing and lockpicking.

He was a skilled freerunner, able to scale the tall buildings of London aswell as climb natural elements - including trees - with relative ease. Quick and athletic, he was able to instantly transverse over and under several obstacles as well as moving terrains, additionaly he proved to be a capable swimmer.

An experienced brawler, Jacob was proficient in hand-to-hand combat, able to engage multiple opponents simultaniously with minimal effort, where he could utilise his brass knuckles to employ more brutal take-downs. Due to the era's restriction on open weaponry, Jacob utilized an arsenal of hidden tools including his dual Hidden Blades, one of which was equipped with a rope launcher – a versatile tool that he could utilize to access and scale areas quickly, as well as create ziplines.

Accompanying this, the Hidden Blade was equipped with a mechanism that fired hallucinogenic darts; firing a dart into an open flame would result in a poisonous gas cloud, allowing Jacob to eliminate multiple enemies from a distance. Other weapons in his possession included a kukri blade, a cane-sword, a six-shot revolver and throwing knives.

Additionally, Jacob possessed the rare ability of Eagle Vision.

Trivia

 * Jacob's name is of Biblical origin, with the meaning being either he who grasps the heel or supplanter. Frye is a derivative of the English word free.
 * Much like Aveline de Grandpré, Jacob possessed additional headwear other than the traditional beaked Assassin hood, being able to wear a cap or top hat.
 * Jacob keeps a shilling around his neck as a memento.
 * Jacob possesses a scar on his right eyebrow, as well as one on the left side of his beard.
 * Jacob has a tattoo of a raven on his left collarbone and another depicting a stylized cross on the shoulder.
 * According to the Charing Cross Edition, a wanted poster depicting an image of Jacob lists his characteristics as 'Age: 27 to 29 years - height: 5 feet 6 - 7 inches - hair: dark - supposed clean shaven - complexion: somewhat pale - full round face - thickish lips - medium build - erect carriagde - Dress: Black overcoat - Dark tweed cap. Foreign apperance, speaks fairly good english'.
 * Similar to the Levantine Brotherhood, Jacob and Evie dipped an object in their targets' blood following their death, though the twins used a handkerchief rather than a feather.