Cyprus

Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Originally a Templar stronghold, the island became a battleground between the Assassins and the Templars in the late 12th century; where the island ultimately came under Assassin control.

The Templar Archive was located on the island, in the city of Limassol, until its relocation in 1191. Cyprus was also the location of an Apple of Eden until 1488, when it was recovered by the Templars, and transferred to Italy.

Templar conquest
Formerly ruled by the Greeks and the Roman Empire, the island was controlled by the Byzantine Empire from 395 until 1191. The Templars also operated in secret on Cyprus for nearly a decade prior to 1191, establishing a hidden Templar Archive underneath Limassol Castle with the help of Isaac Comnenus, a Templar and the ruler of Cyprus.

At the height of the Third Crusade in 1191, Comnenus angered Richard I, leading Richard to overthrow Comnenus and seize control of Cyprus. While Richard initially used Cyprus in his war against the Saracens, the Templars convinced him a few months later to sell the island back to their Order, as they worried that his forces would discover their Archive.

Headquartering themselves in Limassol Castle, the Templars began taking an unusually active role in governing the island, imposing harsh and arbitrary new laws to subdue the restless population. Residents began staying within their homes for fear of suffering abuse at the hands of the Templars, leaving the streets of Limassol and Kyrenia devoid of all but Templar patrols and a few civilians.

At the same time, the Templars attempted to win over the population through charitable donations and the building of churches. As the citizens of Cyprus became more restless of Templar brutality against them, a Resistance against Templar rule began to take shape.

After the assassination of Grand Master of the Templar Order Robert de Sable by the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Armand Bouchart became the new Grand Master and ordered a retreat of the Templars in the Levant to Cyprus. Altaïr, now serving as the Levantine Assassins' Mentor, pursued them to Limassol.

Resistance and liberation
Arriving in the city, Altaïr heard rumors of the Templar Archive, which he believed might contain knowledge and artifacts as powerful as the Apple in his possession. He began to track down the Archive, while at the same time helping the fledgling local Resistance.

Altaïr's assassination of Fredrick the Red, the head of the Templar guard in Limassol, led Armand to give all Templar soldiers immunity from any crime committed while attempting to discover Fredrick's murderer. However, fearing for his life after learning of Altaïr's presence on the island, Armand retreated to Kyrenia, with Altaïr in pursuit.

Upon arriving in Kyrenia, Altaïr was asked by Barnabas, a resistance leader, to kill Jonas, a member of the resistance collaborating with the Templars. Jonas' death sparked a riot in Kyrenia due to his respected status in Cypriot society. Altaïr later learned that Jonas' death and the succeeding riot were acts of subterfuge by the Templars, as the real Barnabas had been executed before his arrival, and he had instead spoken to a Templar agent impersonator.

Altaïr continued his search for the Archive, in the process of which he prevented the execution of several resistance members, and assassinated key Templars in Kyrenia, including Moloch and his sons Shalim and Shahar. As a result, the Templars soon fled Kyrenia for the safety of Limassol, liberating the city.

Following the Templars back to Limassol, Altaïr learned that the Templars had begun an even harsher crackdown in the city, arresting people at will in hopes of weakening the resistance. In addition, the Templars began a propaganda campaign against Altaïr, accusing him of treason with the resistance.

While Altaïr put a halt to the Templar's repression by assassinating several Templar captains, he later found himself surrounded by a mob of civilians accusing him of treason. He was forced to use the Apple of Eden to convince the crowd of his innocence, and rally them against Armand and the Templars.

With the help of ex-Templar Maria Thorpe, Altaïr infiltrated the Templar Archive underneath Limassol Castle, only to find that the contents of the Archive had been moved during his time in Kyrenia. He killed Armand before escaping the collapsing Archive.

Altaïr later wrote in his Codex that Cyprus eventually came under control of the Assassins. In 1193, he and Maria held their wedding on the island in Limassol.

At some point between 1225 and 1227, the Templars launched an attack to retake their archive on Cyprus. Abbas Sofian, the leader of the Levantine Assassins at the time, refused to send reinforcements, allowing the Templars to retake the Archive in what Altaïr referred to as a "massacre."

Renaissance
At some later point, an Apple of Eden was sealed in a well-hidden treasury on Cyprus, where it remained concealed from both the Assassins and the Templars for several centuries. By 1486, the Templar Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia discovered the location of the Apple, and dispatched a fleet of ships to Cyprus to recover it. After two years, the fleet located the Apple and removed it from Cyprus, taking it back to Venice.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze sailed to Limassol on Cyprus in late 1510 on the ship of Ma'Mun, from whom he received a map of the island drawn by Piri Reis. He later gave the map to al-Scarab.

Modern times
In the year 2000, the Assassins Daniel Cross and Hannah Mueller visited Cyprus in order to convince the Cypriot Assassins to support Daniel's quest to find the Mentor.

Cities

 * Limassol
 * Kyrenia