The American Rite of the Templar Order, formerly known as the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order, is the rite of the Templar Order in operation in the United States since colonial times, before the country's foundation.
While the Templars had been active in North America since before the 18th century, they never held a permanent presence until Reginald Birch became Grand Master of the British Rite and refocused the Templars' efforts on locating several suspected Isu sites in the New World. In 1754, Birch sent his best agent, Haytham Kenway, to the Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire to find one such site. While the expedition was unsuccessful, Haytham remained and increased the Templars' influence in the colonies, founding the Colonial Rite as its first Grand Master.
The Colonial Templars maintained a vast network of resources and connections, and primarily ran their operations out of New York City. During the Seven Years' War, the Colonial Rite aided the British Crown in defeating France, and became engaged in a struggle for control of the colonies against the Colonial Assassins led by Achilles Davenport. The Templars were ultimately victorious after eliminating most of the Colonial Brotherhood, mainly thanks to the efforts of the Assassin-turned-Templar Shay Cormac, which allowed them to dominate the British colonies virtually unopposed.
When the American Revolution broke out, the Templars sought to peacefully secure the colonies' independence from Great Britain in order to achieve their goal of creating a New World Order. However, their plans were sabotaged by the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton, whose actions eventually resulted in the American Revolutionary War.
As the revived Colonial Brotherhood under Ratonhnhaké:ton allied itself with the Sons of Liberty and the Continental Army, the Colonial Rite's leadership was systematically eliminated by the young Assassin. After discovering that Ratonhnhaké:ton was his son, Haytham attempted to secure a truce between the Templars and Assassins, but failed and was ultimately killed by his son. His second-in-command Charles Lee succeeded him as Grand Master, though only for a short time, as he also met his end at Ratonhnhaké:ton's blade.
Following the creation of the United States, the Colonial Rite reorganized itself into the American Rite prior to the French Revolution and had contacts on both sides of the Parisian Rite. The earliest known Black Crosses appointed by the Inner Sanctum were from the American Bolden family, an influential Templar lineage that used covert tactics to hunt corrupt Templars and search for Isu artifacts.
By 1863, the American Rite was led by Grand Master William M. Tweed and was trying to influence the outcome of the American Civil War. The Templars directly influenced the Confederate States of America and infiltrated the Grant Administration during the Reconstruction Era through both of Tweed's terms as President. The American Rite has remained active in the country through the 20th century and into the present day, influencing politics both in the United States and abroad and establishing Abstergo Industries, the global company used as a front by the modern-day Templars.
History[]
Pre-foundation[]
A New World[]
In 1398, the Scottish Templar Knight, James Gunn, was said to have been part of Henry Sinclair's expedition to the New World. The expedition was believed to have reached Nova Scotia and Massachusetts.[2]
In 1491, the Italian Templars' Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia unsuccessfully attempted to thwart Christopher Columbus' voyage to the West Indies, wishing to keep North America a Templar secret.[3] By the time of the Roman Rite's collapse at the start of the 16th century, the Templars had already begun spreading their reach to the New World, prompting the Assassins to follow suit.[4][5] In time, both groups had managed to establish presences in the New World through both old and newly-recruited members.[6]
Salem witch trials[]
In 1692, following rumors of a girl named Dorothy Osborne coming into contact with a Piece of Eden in Salem, Massachusetts, the Templars sent two of their agents, Samuel Parris and William Stoughton, to investigate. The two Templars started a witch hunt in the city to cover up their investigation, trying and executing various local women who had been accused of witchcraft after becoming "ill."[7]
Samuel Parris and William Stoughton in Salem
During the Salem witch trials, the Master Assassin and artifact hunter Thomas Stoddard arrived in the city to search for the Piece of Eden.[8] With the help of fellow Assassin Jennifer Querry, he found and liberated Dorothy, who had been imprisoned by the Templars alongside several other people. Believing that the Assassins would lead them straight to the Piece of Eden, Stoughton decided to use the Salem townsfolk to hunt for them, an idea that Parris objected to.[7] Once the Assassins and Dorothy were captured in a swamp, Stoughton took them to be tortured and interrogated.[9]
Querry offered to give the Templars information after Stoughton threatened to hurt the mute boy David—secretly Querry's son. Before she could do so, however, Dorothy suddenly became possessed by the Isu Consus, who delivered a cryptic message, confirming to the Templars that Dorothy was the Piece of Eden they sought. While Stoughton and Parris were distracted, Querry managed to free herself, but was quickly shot and killed by Stoughton.[10]
As Stoughton made plans to experiment on the captured women to replicate Dorothy's powers, the girl killed herself to prevent the Templars from using her. In rage, Stoughton decided to execute the tied-up Stoddard, but was stopped by Parris, who had grown tired of his Templar brother's violent methods. Wishing to end the bloodshed, Parris gave Stoddard the keys to the cells where the captured women were held, and allowed the Assassin to leave Salem with David, declaring that the Templars' mission in the city was done.[10]
Preparations for a Rite[]
The Wardrop family was a Templar lineage active in the colonies since before the late 17th century. Continuing in his father's footsteps, James Wardrop was inducted into the Templar Order in 1720 and was tasked to secure land and wealth for the Order in North America, slowly but surely building up the foundation for a new Templar Rite.[11]
In 1738, Lawrence Washington joined the British Rite of the Templar Order. Upon rising to the rank of Master Templar, he was sent to the New World by Grand Master Reginald Birch to locate undiscovered Isu sites and artifacts.[12] By 1744, Wardrop had begun to build a trade network for the Order that ran from the American colonies to the West Indies.[11]
In 1746, Lawrence recruited the explorer Christopher Gist as an ally of the Templar Order.[13] Around this time, Gist encountered a young thief named Jack Weeks after the boy had tried to pickpocket him. Impressed by his skill and audacious attitude, Gist took him on as an errand boy.[14] Later, Gist was tasked by Lawrence to expand the Templars' communications network by recruiting William Johnson into the Order.[13] Johnson, who had been appointed Colonel of the Warriors of the Six Nations, used his relations with the Kanien'kehá:ka to help the Templars build an infrastructure in the colonies.[15]
In 1747, Lawrence worked with prominent businessmen and created the Ohio Company with the intent of opening trade to the interior of the American continent.[16] Around this period, he hired Samuel Smith as a treasurer for one of his businesses; following Smith's induction into the Templar Order, he became a treasurer for the Order as a whole.[17]
In 1750, Birch sent his agent, Colonel George Monro, to assist Lawrence in his search for the Grand Temple, due to his dissatisfaction with Lawrence's progress.[18] That same year, Wardrop worked with Gist to acquire North American lands for the Order, evicting many native tribes from their ancestral lands in the process.[19] Gist and Monro also worked with the Templar son of Barry and Cassidy Finnegan to try and drive the Assassin-allied gangs out of New York, to allow the city to flourish.[20] By 1751, both Gist and Weeks had been officially inducted into the Order by Monro.[19]
Search for Precursor sites[]
- "Master Washington, I am less than pleased with paltry results coming from the colonies. I have other agents around the globe searching tirelessly for Pieces of Eden and you and your motley crew are busy building a postal service. What is more, I understand that an Assassin Brotherhood has taken root somewhere outside of New York. This simply will not do."
- ―Birch in his letter to Lawrence, 1750.[src]-[m]
The Templars meeting at Mount Vernon
Following the 1751 earthquake of Port-au-Prince, Lawrence stole two Isu relics from the Haitian Assassins: a Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript.[21] After returning to New York, he tasked Samuel Smith and James Wardrop to research the relics in the hopes of unraveling their secrets. The two Templars consequently reached out to the Order's allies in New York and among native tribes for any information on the relics, to no success.[22]
In July 1752, Lawrence organized a party at Mount Vernon as a cover to reunite with his Templar brothers and learn about their progress researching the relics. He also informed them that he was dying of tuberculosis, and asked them to leave his younger brother out of the Order's affairs; a decision the Templars respected. After the other Templars departed, Lawrence was killed by the Assassin Shay Cormac.[22] In the aftermath, Wardrop took over as the de facto leader of the Templars in the colonies,[23] while Smith traveled to Europe to find a scientist who could make the Precursor box work.[24]
In 1752, the soldier Thomas Hickey became stationed in Boston. There, he was assigned as an assistant to William Johnson, and joined the Order himself shortly after.[25] Two years later, the British officer John Pitcairn also joined the Templars, who used their connections to influence Commander Amherst and have Pitcairn moved to the Copp's Hill Battery in Boston so that he could assist the Order in the colonies.[26]
By April 1754, the British Templars had acquired a mysterious key from Miko, the leader of the British Assassins, who had been killed by Haytham Kenway at the Theatre Royal in London. Upon further examination, the Templars concluded it was the key to the Grand Temple, and Reginald Birch sent Haytham to the colonies to find the site.[27] While traveling across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Providence, Haytham foiled an assassination attempt by the Assassin and sailor Louis Mills, who had led the Assassin ship, the Aquila, to attack the Providence. However, the Aquila was forced to abandon its pursuit after being lured into a storm, and the Providence continued its journey without incident.[28]
In May, Samuel Smith returned to the colonies with the Precursor box, having been unable to make it work. He was hunted down by Shay Cormac, who killed him in Terra Nova and claimed the box for the Assassins.[24] Prior to Smith's demise, William Johnson had made contact with Benjamin Franklin, who examined the box and agreed to conduct further research on it.[23]
Johnson with Franklin at the Albany Congress
In July, Johnson met with Franklin during the Albany Congress, promising the scientist that the box, as well as the Voynich manuscript, would be delivered to him for experimentation shortly. However, the Templars were forced to delay their plans with the artifacts, as James Wardrop refused to hand over the manuscript, believing the risks of meddling with Isu technology were too great. While hiding in Fort Frederick, Wardrop was killed by Shay Cormac for the manuscript; leaving the Templars in the colonies leaderless once more.[23]
Founding of the Colonial Rite[]
Haytham's operations[]
On 8 July 1754,[29] Haytham arrived in Boston and was greeted by Charles Lee, a hopeful young man wishing to join the Templar Order. With Lee's help, Haytham sought to gather four Templars that Reginald Birch had arranged to aid Haytham with his expedition: William Johnson, Thomas Hickey, John Pitcairn, and the surgeon Benjamin Church.[30]
Traveling to the Green Dragon Tavern, where Lee had booked them rooms, Haytham met with Johnson first, who informed him that his research on the native tribes had been stolen by mercenaries, likely hired by the Assassins. With Lee and Hickey, Haytham recovered the research, allowing Johnson to analyze the symbols on the Grand Temple Key and conclude they were connected to the Kanien'kehá:ka.[31]
Haytham and Lee rescuing Church
Afterwards, Haytham and Lee searched for Church in order to recruit him, but discovered he had been abducted by Silas Thatcher, a cruel British officer who demanded protection money. Fortunately, the two managed to rescue Church from being tortured by Silas' assistant, Cutter, and took him back to the Green Dragon.[32]
Later, Haytham and Lee went after the final recruit, Pitcairn, who was serving under the British general and former Templar Edward Braddock. However, because of his past grievances with Haytham, as well as the fact that he had been forced by his superiors to let Lee assist Haytham, Braddock refused to release Pitcairn from his command. In response, the Templars assaulted Braddock during a patrol to force him to comply.[33]
With all of his Templar recruits gathered, Haytham devised a plan to infiltrate Southgate Fort and put an end to Silas' slave operation, believing that this would earn them the favor of the Kanien'kehá:ka, which could prove essential in their search for the Grand Temple. After intercepting one of Silas' convoys transporting Kanien'kehá:ka slaves, the Templars killed the guards and took their uniforms. While Haytham rode on the carriage alongside a native woman named Kaniehtí:io, his fellow Templars followed the convoy from afar, taking out any suspicious soldiers along the way.[34]
The Templars disguising themselves as British regulars
Upon arriving at Southgate, Kaniehtí:io immediately ran away to liberate the natives. Despite this inconvenience, the Templars executed their plan successfully, freeing many prisoners who helped them fight Silas' men. During the battle, Haytham defeated Silas, who was then promptly killed by Church as revenge for his prior abduction. As the British troops surrendered, the natives were free to leave the fort, and Kaniehtí:io smiled to Haytham as a sign of gratitude.[34]
During this time, the French Templar Charles Gabriel Sivert served as the colonial governor of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and a Brigadier General in the French military, while also running an artifact smuggling operation on the side. Through this, Sivert funded Haytham's operations in the colonies and was at one point involved in a disastrous attempt to recover an unknown object.[35]
Official establishment[]
In November of 1754,[29] Haytham and Lee searched for Kaniehtí:io in the Frontier, as the former believed she could lead them to the Grand Temple. When they found her, the woman tried to run away but Haytham managed to catch up with her. The Templar explained why he needed her help, but Kaniehtí:io refused until Haytham offered to prove that he could be trusted. He promised to help the natives stop the British expeditions into their territory.[36] During their investigation, Haytham and Kaniehtí:io discovered that with the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, the British Government had arranged for Edward Braddock to lead an expedition to the French-controlled Fort Duquesne.[37]
In July 1755, the combined assault of Haytham's Templars and the native tribes, together with a timely attack by the French Army, led to the destruction of the expedition,[38] where Gist fought at George Washington's side.[19] After being confronted by Haytham, Braddock attempted to run away, but was eventually cornered and mortally wounded by his former Templar brother. True to her word, Kaniehtí:io then led Haytham to the Grand Temple, though the latter was disappointed to find little more than a painted cave.[38]
Charles Lee being inducted into the Templar Order
Later, Haytham returned to the Green Dragon Tavern and informed his Templar brothers of his findings. He then officially established the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order and inducted Charles Lee into their ranks. The Colonial Templars would continue to search for the Grand Temple, and also aided in the unification of the Thirteen Colonies by siding with the British Crown against the French.[38] Around this time, Barry and Cassidy Finnegan's son passed away and his Templar robes remained with his parents in New York.[20]
In early 1756, George Monro's men found an unconscious Shay Cormac, who was left for dead after having betrayed the Assassins and stolen the Voynich manuscript from them.[39] Monro recovered the manuscript from Shay's body and was tasked by Haytham to discover its secrets.[40] Despite being aware of Shay's former allegiance, Monro decided to rescue him and left him in the care of the Finnegans in New York, to recover from his wounds.[20]
The Colonial Great Purge[]
Securing New York[]
Shay questioning George Monro's motives
By June 1756, Shay had recovered and the Finnegans were attacked by gang members on the orders of the Greenwich Assassin bureau leader, who demanded protection money. Monro wanted to attack the gang's headquarter but Shay, after donning the robes of the Finnegans' late son, arrived first and killed the Assassin leader.[20]
Seeing the potential of Shay, Monro convinced him to work with him towards the betterment of the colonies, while concealing his Templar affiliations from him. Following his encounter with Monro, Shay began rebuilding the city by fighting the Assassin gangs and renovating properties.[20]
When Gist discovered that the gangs in New York were working on creating new weaponry, he attempted to take down the criminals set up at Fort Arsenal, only to get captured. As Gist was about to be hanged, Monro tasked Shay to rescue him. Once Gist was safe, Shay claimed the fort as his new home. He then recovered his ship, the Morrigan, from the Assassins and recruited Gist as his quartermaster.[41]
Fighting the Assassins[]
Gist, Shay, and Monro in New York
Shay and Gist later met with Monro in Albany, from where they navigated through the River Valley in the Morrigan and arrived at Fort La Croix, which was disrupting Monro's operations. Shay infiltrated the fort and confronted Le Chasseur, an Assassin ally and smuggler, who was surprised to see Shay still alive. To prevent Le Chasseur from informing the Brotherhood of his survival, Shay was forced to kill him. In his last moments, the smuggler revealed that the Assassins planned to poison the officials of New York.[42]
Shay returned to the city to stop his former allies. With Monro, he planned to destroy the Assassins' factory to prevent them from manufacturing more poisonous gases. After doing so, Shay was joined by Monro, Gist, William Johnson, and Jack Weeks and understood that he had just helped his former enemies, but kept his thoughts to himself.[43]
In 1757, Monro was assigned to Fort William Henry, which was threatened by the French. Consequently, he sent the Voynich manuscript to Shay for safekeeping, along with a letter in which he revealed his true allegiance. After Monro was forced to surrender the fort to the French, Shay, fearing an attack from the Assassins during the evacuation, went to protect the colonel and his men with Gist and Weeks.[40]
Just as Shay had anticipated, Monro's troops were attacked by Abenaki forces led by the Assassin Kesegowaase. Shay defended the colonel and his men as they made their way to the Morrigan, where Kesegowaase made a final attempt to kill Monro, but was wounded by Shay with an explosion which left scars on his face. Despite the Templars' escape, Kesegowaase had seen Shay helping them and subsequently informed his Assassin brothers, making Shay a target of the Brotherhood.[40]
Monro giving his Templar ring to Shay
Later, Monro learned that Kesegowaase was planning an attack on Albany. The colonel decided to prepare the defense of the city and sent Shay and Gist to help the Oneida, a native tribe allied to the British, who had been attacked and taken hostage by Kesegowaase's men. Shay also gave the Voynich manuscript back to Monro, believing that it was no longer safe with him.[44]
In November, Shay arrived at Albany when the Assassins attacked the city. Making his way to Fort Frederick, Shay confronted and killed Kesegowaase, who with his dying words revealed that the attack was only a distraction to allow Liam O'Brien to assassinate Monro. Shay consequently rushed to Monro's defense, but arrived too late: the colonel had been mortally wounded, and the Assassins had stolen back the Voynich manuscript. With his last breath, Monro passed his Templar ring to Shay, trusting him to continue his work within the Order.[45]
Turning the tide[]
In 1758, Shay was officially inducted into the Templar Order by Haytham Kenway following the latter's return from Europe.[45] Since returning to the colonies, Haytham had started writing letters to his half-sister, Jennifer Scott, in which he spoke of his dream to conciliate the Assassins and Templars.[1]
Learning of Assassin activities near Louisbourg, Shay, Gist, and Haytham joined their ally, Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy, aboard the HMS Pembroke. The captain informed them that the British were preparing to attack the fort, but having learned of their plan, the French had mounted a counter-attack. The Templars decided to sink the French ships before they could begin their assault.[46]
The Templars aboard the Pembroke during the Battle of Louisbourg
Sailing to Louisbourg, Shay took command of the Pembroke and destroyed a number of French vessels before the Experto Crede, captained by the Caribbean Assassin Adéwalé, came to the French's aid. Adéwalé attempted to destroy British reinforcements with fireships, but the Pembroke managed to destroy them, forcing the Experto Crede to retreat. As the battle ended in a British victory with the capture of Louisbourg, marking a turning point in the war, the Templars could now focus on pursuing the Assassins.[46]
Later, Shay, Gist, and Haytham tracked down Adéwalé, and after a naval battle between the Morrigan and the Experto Crede, the Assassin beached his ship at Vieille Carrière to save his crew. Haytham decided to serve as a diversion while Shay sneaked up on Adéwalé and assassinated him. With the death of Adéwalé, the Assassins suffered a major loss of morale.[47]
In October 1759, the Mentor Achilles Davenport and the remaining high-ranking Colonial Assassins—Liam O'Brien, Hope Jensen and Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye—met in New York to use the Voynich manuscript and the Precursor box to find another Isu temple. Shay eavesdropped on their conversation and informed Haytham and Jack Weeks about the Assassins' plan.[48]
Shay observing Hope and Liam
Deciding that they needed to eliminate Hope to remove the Assassins' control over New York's gangs, Shay and Weeks captured two gang members and stole their disguises to impersonate them while robbing a British fort.[48] This turned the British authorities in the city against the gangs, leading them to attack Hope's mansion.[49]
During the attack, Shay made his way to the mansion's rooftop to spy on the Assassins through a window. He saw Liam leave with the box and the manuscript, but was spotted by Hope, who shot at the window. With Shay on the ground, Hope tried to poison him with gases, but the Templar managed to escape. Seeing this, Hope threw a poisoned knife at him, and Shay was forced to kill her after a chase through the streets of New York in order to obtain the antidote to the poison.[49]
[]
After the assassination of Hope Jensen, Shay and Gist sailed to Canada, New France, to assist the Royal Navy against the French during the Battle of Labrador. The Templars fought off the first wave of French ships sent to protect the coast, and afterwards sank the French flagship, the Couronne, and her reinforcements.[50]
In late 1759, Shay and Gist helped the Royal Navy again, this time in hunting down two of the most dangerous pirates operating in the North Atlantic, who had made a fortune terrorizing trade ships. The Morrigan sank the Cauldron captained by William Crest and the Pilgrim captained by Joseph Reed, thus eliminating one of the last remainders of the Golden Age of Piracy.[51]
The Storm Fortress, the flagship of the Assassin navy
Around the same time, the English had established dominance over the Arctic seas, and the French enlisted the help of the Assassins, who sent their flagship, the Storm Fortress, in a desperate attempt to regain control. Shay and Gist sailed the Morrigan with the support of British gunboats, though their escorts were quickly destroyed by the Storm Fortress' cannons and mortars. When the Storm Fortress was damaged severely, it was joined by two other Men O' War, the Argonaut and the Sceptre. Nevertheless, the Morrigan was able to sink the Storm Fortress and her escorts, thus maintaining the British hold on the Arctic seas.[52]
For his efforts in defending the Templar Order's hold of the region, Shay was eventually promoted to Master Templar. At one point upon returning to New York, Shay was lured into a trap by a group of Assassin gang members, who used Marla Capps as bait. When the Templar came to protect Marla, he was ambushed by the gang members but managed to kill them all, saving Marla.[53]
Confrontation in the Arctic Temple[]
In early 1760, with the help of James Cook, Shay and Gist tracked down the Chevalier de la Vérendrye, who the Templars believed to be in possession of the Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript. The Morrigan attacked the Assassin's ship, the Gerfaut, in the North Atlantic, where the Brotherhood had organized an expedition to find an Isu temple that they erroneously believed to contain an Apple of Eden.[54]
After sinking the Gerfaut's escorts, Shay boarded the ship and dueled de la Vérendrye, only to discover that the expedition was a ruse to lure the Templars away from Achilles and Liam, who had already located the temple. In his anger, Shay threw de la Vérendrye overboard to his death. Afterwards, Shay and Gist parted ways with Cook, who inquired whether they were part of a larger organization, but the Templars deflected his question.[54]
Shay and Haytham confronting Achilles and Liam in the Arctic Temple
By March, the Templars had managed to locate the temple in the Arctic Ocean and set out to stop the Assassins from causing another earthquake by meddling with the Isu technology inside. While Gist waited aboard the Morrigan, Shay and Haytham dealt with the Assassin expedition outside before entering the temple. They arrived at the central vault moments after Achilles and Liam, just as the Mentor realized that Shay had been right about the nature of the Seismic Temples.[55]
As Shay angrily confronted Achilles, telling him that he should have listened, Liam tried to shoot his former friend, but was stopped by the Mentor. In the process, Liam accidentally disturbed the temple's central component, triggering an earthquake and causing the temple to collapse. During their escape, Haytham fought Achilles while Shay pursued Liam, who eventually died when they both fell from an ice platform. Shay then recovered the Voynich manuscript from Liam's body and returned to the Morrigan.[55]
After Haytham defeated Achilles, he was stopped from killing him by Shay, who reasoned that the Mentor was harmless now without his Brotherhood and that he could warn other Assassins about the dangers of the Seismic Temples. Haytham agreed, but shot Achilles in the leg, crippling him. He then told Achilles to never forget what had happened there, to which the Mentor claimed that he would not, but the world would.[55]
Final assault[]
Later, on the Morrigan, Haytham tasked Shay to find the Precursor box, which was still in the Brotherhood's possession, and Gist to lead the eradication of any surviving Assassins in the colonies. While Shay left for Europe to begin his search, the remaining Colonial Templars launched a three-year purge against the last remnants of the Colonial Brotherhood.[55]
At one point during the Great Purge, a Templar raiding party killed the father of Atasá:ta, a Kanien'kehá:ka Assassin. The purge was also an opportunity for some Templars to prove their efficiency and dedication to the Order, as was the case of Federico Perez, who became a feared Assassin hunter operating in Florida.[56]
Lee strangling the future Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton
In November 1760, a group of Templars led by Lee assaulted a young Kanien'kehá:ka boy named Ratonhnhaké:ton, who unbeknownst to them was the son of Haytham and Kaniehtí:io. They asked him for the location of his village so that they could speak to the natives about the Grand Temple; stubbornly, the boy told them nothing and was knocked out. After the village was later burned down by British troops led by George Washington, Ratonhnhaké:ton believed Lee and his cohorts were responsible. Finally giving up their search for the Grand Temple, the Templars focused on strengthening their influence in the colonies.[57]
During the Great Purge, the Assassin Pierre Bellec witnessed the Templars commit several atrocities as they became more ruthless in their efforts to eliminate the Colonial Assassins. At one point, he supposedly witnessed them massacre an entire village to kill a single Assassin.[58] Bellec managed to escape to France in 1762, becoming one of the few survivors of the Templars' purge.[59]
In 1763, the Colonial Rite launched an attack on the Davenport Homestead, which served as a base of operations for the remaining Colonial Assassins. Killing those who remained, the Templars once again spared Achilles' life when he agreed to cease all Assassin activities in the colonies.[60] The Assassin Benjamin Tallmadge, Sr. narrowly survived the attack.[61]
After decades of attacks on their Templar fleets by the Aquila, the Colonial Rite set up a trap in 1768 to destroy the Assassin flagship once and for all. Three British frigates ambushed the ship and nearly destroyed it, though its first mate Robert Faulkner survived the trap and managed to escape. Faulkner later returned with the Aquila to the Davenport Homestead, where the ship lay in ruin for several years.[62]
American Revolution[]
After defeating the Colonial Assassins, the Templars gained more influence while a revolutionary fervour began to grip the Thirteen Colonies due to the accumulation of taxes and the lack of representation in Parliament.[29]
The Colonial Rite attempted to influence both sides, hoping to achieve the colonies' independence through less violent means and to create a Templar state: William Johnson traded with the natives to protect them;[63] John Pitcairn, who became a Major in the British Army, was known as a peacekeeper and was well-respected by the colonists;[26] and Benjamin Church joined the Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group that collected information, though in time he betrayed them by communicating with the British.[64] Unknown to the Templars, however, the Colonial Brotherhood had begun to rebuild, as Achilles Davenport came out of his retirement to train Ratonhnhaké:ton as an Assassin at the boy's own request.[65]
Assassin interference[]
Lee triggering the Boston Massacre
On 5 March 1770, after Private Hugh White wounded Edward Garrick in Boston, a crowd mobbed around the Old State House to seek justice.[66] Haytham sent one of his associates to shoot at the soldiers and cause an outbreak of fighting, but Ratonhnhaké:ton killed him before he could complete his mission.[67]
As a backup plan, Charles Lee fired his gun into the air. The British soldiers, believing it was the crowd, opened fire on the mob, killing five people and leaving many wounded.[67] This event increased the anger of the people against the British Crown.[68] Six months later, Church inducted into the Templar Order a junior officer of the British Navy, Nicholas Biddle.[69]
In 1773, Templar ships posing as British vessels began to attack Nantucket's coasts to make the region unstable.[70] That same year, William Johnson sought to purchase land from the Iroquois to protect it, knowing that the colonists would inevitably attempt to take it.[71] To finance this project, a local Templar taxman ran a tea smuggling operation in Boston on Johnson's behalf, as tea had become more expensive after the Tea Act. The taxman also extorted the city's citizens through his tax collectors, which enraged many of them.[72]
Eventually, one such citizen, a chef named Stephane Chapheau, decided to take action and killed Johnson's taxman with the assistance of Ratonhnhaké:ton—by now an Assassin known as "Connor". Chapheau subsequently joined the Assassins, becoming the first of Connor's apprentices and marking the official rebirth of the Colonial Brotherhood.[73]
Pitcairn, Johnson, and Lee watching the Boston Tea Party
In December 1773, the Sons of Liberty sought to protest against British rule of the Thirteen Colonies. With the assistance of Connor and Stephane Chapheau, they organized a raid of one of Johnson's ships, where they threw all of his British tea into the Boston Harbor in front of a large crowd. This act had the desired effect of upsetting the British Crown, and also greatly set back Johnson, who had just lost his main source of income.[74]
That same month, a group of mercenaries led by a Templar began upsetting order in the northern district of Boston, taking citizens captive and demanding protection money from merchants. Their efforts were undermined by Connor, who eventually killed the Templar leader with the help of Duncan Little, ending the mercenaries' operations in the district.[75]
On 12 January 1774, with the colonies on the brink of revolution, the leading members of the Colonial Rite—Haytham, Lee, Johnson, Pitcairn, Hickey, and Church—held their first meeting in almost two decades at the Restless Ghost tavern, to discuss how they could take advantage of the situation. It was here that the Templars informed Haytham of their failed search for the Grand Temple in 1760, which had been unsanctioned by the Grand Master, and Kaniehtí:io's death during George Washington's attack on her village.[29]
During the meeting, the Templars also discussed the native boy they had encountered en route to the Kanien'kehá:ka village, noting his resemblance to the Assassin who had helped the Sons of Liberty during the Boston Tea Party. After being informed that the Assassin wore a necklace resembling Kaniehtí:io's, Haytham began to suspect that the Assassin may be his son—a thought which both intrigued and terrified him.[29]
Johnson trying to intimidate the Iroquois
By July 1774, Johnson had managed to acquire the necessary funds to purchase the Iroquois' land, setting up a meeting with various tribe leaders at his personal estate, Johnson Hall. However, perceiving Johnson's actions as an act of oppression, the tribe leaders refused to sell their land. In frustration, Johnson decided to take more drastic actions and ordered his men to open fire on the natives. However, his attempt to intimidate the Iroquois was thwarted by Connor, who assassinated the Templar, putting an end to his plans.[71]
Preventing war[]
The Templar recruiter killed by Connor and Wilkinson
In 1775, as the colonies were preparing for war, a Templar recruiter in the British Army drafted Boston citizens for training to become British regulars. However, many citizens refused to fight and were forcefully recruited by the Templar, who had them placed under prison escort. While overseeing his operations in southern Boston, the Templar recruiter was assassinated by Connor with the aid of Clipper Wilkinson, ending the forced conscriptions.[76]
In April 1775, John Pitcairn hoped to end the budding Revolutionary War before it truly began. With his British troops, the Templar went to Lexington to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and negotiate with them. However, the meeting of the British Army and the Patriots quickly turned into an armed conflict. In Concord, Pitcairn retreated after his army suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Patriot militia commanded by Connor.[77] With the beginning of the Siege of Boston by the Patriots shortly after, war was officially declared.[78]e
With the creation of the Continental Army, Templars placed many men on the rebel side. Charles Lee, who sought to become the Commander-in-Chief, was instead made the second-in-command as George Washington was elected as the Commander of the Continental Army, much to Lee's anger.[79] Meanwhile, Church became the Surgeon General,[64] Hickey a private guard of Washington,[25] and Biddle a captain of the Continental Navy.[69]
Pitcairn ordering his troops to fall back
During the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, Pitcairn again tried to negotiate with the Patriots in the hopes of ending the war, but was assassinated by Connor inside his camp, as the Assassin mistakenly believed that Pitcairn sought to kill Adams and Hancock.[80] At the end of the year, Church was arrested for betraying the Patriots by giving intelligence to the British,[64] which went against the Colonial Rite's interests.[29]
War plans[]
- "'Ere is 'ow it's gonna work. First we bind ya and bring ya to your cell. Then, tomorrow, you go before the court, accused of plottin' to kill good ol' Georgie. Maybe we could pin the murder of the Warden on you too. You did kill 'im, after all. And who wouldn't take the word of Charlie over here? Once that's all squared away, well then..."
- ―Hickey revealing the Templars' plan to Connor, 1776.[src]-[m]
During the revolution, the British Army officer and Templar, Matthew Davenport, fought fiercely and with equal skill to that of his strategizing. Matthew also sent his daughter, Eleanor Mallow, on Templar-related missions of the most sensitive caliber against the Assassins, during which Eleanor concealed her identity. The Colonial Rite also employed the Hessian soldier and Templar Gerhard von Stantten, who served in the British Army, to carry out missions for the Order. At one point, a group of Templars killed friends of Caleb Garret, who consequently joined the Assassins.[56]
In 1776, the former slave and Louisiana Templar George Davidson abandoned the Patriot cause to serve in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, after having learned that Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, had issued a proclamation offering freedom to any slave who joined the Loyalists. Davidson was subsequently reunited with Titus Cornelius, and the two fought together against slavery while furthering the British war effort.[81] The Templars also tried to kill Lord Dunmore but were thwarted by the Assassins.[82]
Hickey and Connor arrested by the Patriots
In June 1776, Haytham ordered Thomas Hickey to assassinate George Washington, to allow Lee to become Commander-in-Chief. However, while running a money forgery operation in New York, Hickey was attacked by Connor, who sought to prevent Washington's assassination. After being caught by the Patriot authorities, Hickey was arrested for forgery and sent to Bridewell Prison.[61] There, he was imprisoned in a cell next to Connor, who had also been arrested after being mistaken for Hickey's accomplice.[83]
The Templars used their influence to have Hickey moved to a better part of the prison, but were unable to get him released just yet, as Hickey had been accused by Benjamin Tallmadge of plotting to kill Washington.[83] While visiting Hickey with Lee to plan Washington's assassination, Haytham took a look at the imprisoned Connor and, seeing how much he resembled Kaniehtí:io, became certain that the Assassin was his son.[29]
Lee about to execute Connor near the New York City Hall
Lee formulated a plan that would allow the Templars to simultaneously eliminate Connor and Washington. He and Hickey killed the prison's warden and pinned his murder, as well as the assassination plot, on the Assassin, so that he would be tried and executed—creating the perfect opportunity to kill Washington, who would be present for the execution.[83] The following day, as planned, Connor was led to hang in New York, after the Templars had managed to omit his trial.[84]
However, Lee's plan failed when Connor's rope was cut by both his Assassin apprentices[84] and secretly Haytham, who felt remorseful after having sentenced his own son to death.[29] In the ensuing chaos, Lee fled while Hickey made a desperate attempt to assassinate Washington; he failed and was killed by Connor, proving the latter's innocence.[84]
During this time, the Templars were hunted by both the Assassin Joe in New York, and the French Assassin William de Saint-Prix, who fought alongside the Patriots during the Revolutionary War.[56]
Additionally, the Templars continued to attack Nantucket with their British ships, to force the Continental Congress to give more ships to Nicholas Biddle.[70] With his flagship, the USS Randolph, Biddle was tasked to escort La Belladonna to supply the Continental Army, but he instead sent Templar ships to attack the vessel. Connor, captaining the rebuilt Aquila, defended La Belladonna and killed the Templar captain leading the assault.[85]
At the end of the year, Lee was captured by the British Army and gave information on the Continental Army to weaken Washington's position as commander.[79] During the surprise attack of Trenton, the German colonel and Templar Johann Rall was killed by Assassins sent by Connor.[86]
Shay killing Charles Dorian
By December 1776, Shay Cormac had managed to track the Precursor box to Paris, France, where he learned it would be passed to the French Assassin Charles Dorian during an Assassin meeting held at the Palace of Versailles. Reuniting with his old ally Benjamin Franklin, who served as the United States Ambassador to France, Shay protected him from a group of criminals and, in gratitude, Franklin helped the Templar gain access to the palace for a "business meeting." Shay consequently assassinated Charles after the meeting and recovered the box for the Templars.[87]
Losing influence[]
In the winter of 1777, George Davidson operated in a fort located in the New York frontier. However, his collaboration with the "Company Man" attracted the attention of the Louisiana Assassin Aveline de Grandpré, who enlisted the help of Connor to track down a Templar called "Officer Davidson." While Davidson and a few of his men were in the watchtower of the fort, Aveline infiltrated the stronghold and Connor created distractions against Davidson's reinforcements.[88]
Aveline confronting Davidson
When confronted by Aveline, who questioned his allegiance, Davidson claimed that the Templars and the Loyalists had given him freedom. He then engaged in a duel with the Assassin until they both heard an explosion, set off by Connor. Deciding to escape, Davidson locked Aveline in the watchtower before attempting to flee the fort in a gunpowder carriage. However, he was mortally wounded when Aveline shot one of the barrels inside the carriage, and informed the Assassin that her stepmother, Madeleine de L'Isle, was the "Company Man" before passing away.[88]
That same year, a Templar that controlled the northern district of New York used his military influence to hoard food, and ordered the attack of any resisting farmer. He also forced numerous families to pay him and had his men evict them when they were unable to do so. The operation was undermined by Connor, who protected the oppressed citizens and eventually tracked down the stolen food with the help of Dobby Carter. While Dobby created a distraction, Connor assassinated the Templar hoarder, ending his tyrannical rule over the district.[89]
Meanwhile, the western district of the city was controlled by a Templar mercenary who distributed blankets for the poor, which were unknowingly contaminated with smallpox. After Connor burned the blankets, took the ill citizens to the doctor, and killed several rabid dogs, the Templar ordered his men to attack the clinic of Jamie Colley and kill the patients to prevent the spread of the epidemic. However, they failed and the Templar was killed by Connor during the attack.[90]
The Templar commander killed by Connor and Jacob
Finally, a Templar commander in the British Army was based in New York's eastern district, where he had his agents infiltrate the Patriots to learn the names of their local leaders, who were then executed. Aware of Connor's feats, the Templar went into hiding from the Assassin, not wanting to share his Templar brothers' fate. Despite this, he was eventually tracked down by Connor after he had undermined his operations. With the help of Jacob Zenger, who disguised himself as a British regular, Connor was escorted onto the Templar commander's ship, where he assassinated him, ending Templar influence in New York.[91]
Attempted unity[]
- Connor: "Come to check up on Church? Make sure he'd stolen enough for your British brothers?"
- Haytham: "Benjamin Church is no brother of mine. No more than the Redcoats or their idiot king. I expected naiveté. But this... The Templars do not fight for the crown. We seek the same as you, boy! Freedom. Justice. Independence."
- —Haytham presenting his ideals to Connor, 1777.[src]-[m]
A family reunion
In late 1777, Benjamin Church was released and stole supplies intended for the Continental Army camped at Valley Forge. Connor was charged by George Washington to find the stock and, while tracking Church, ran into his father, who also sought to kill the former Templar for his betrayal of the Order. After an argument where Haytham exposed the true goals of the Templars to his son, he proposed a truce which Connor accepted,[92] to Lee's dissatisfaction.[29]
Tracking down Church and the stolen supplies, Haytham and Connor went to New York,[93] but were lured into a trap, learning that Church had already fled with the supplies to Martinique. After killing Church's men in New York,[94] the father and son sailed to the Caribbean using the Aquila, ultimately finding and boarding Church's ship, the Welcome. The former Templar was then beaten by Haytham and killed by Connor, before the two recovered the supplies for the Patriots.[95]
Biddle challenging Connor to a duel
On 17 March 1778, Nicholas Biddle, going against the truce, prepared a trap for Connor on the Caribbean Sea to eliminate the Assassin. The Randolph attacked the Aquila with the aid of two Men O' War, but was ultimately unable to sink the Assassin ship. After destroying the Men O' War and disabling the Randolph, Connor boarded the ship and defeated Biddle. Before dying, the Templar explained that he had only sought to strengthen the Continental Navy and asked that he be left to sink with his ship—a wish which Connor granted to him.[96]
On 16 June, continuing their alliance, Haytham and Connor learned that the British were planning to march on New York. Haytham wanted to inform Lee but his son decided to reveal this information to Washington instead.[97] Arriving at Valley Forge, Haytham sought to break Connor's trust in the Commander-in-Chief and thus revealed that it was Washington who had burned his village eighteen years prior. Washington also ordered a new attack on Kanatahséton, due to suspecting that its inhabitants had allied with the British.[98]
Kanen'tó:kon facing Connor
While Connor was angered by Washington's actions, he also understood that Haytham had been hiding this information from him for a long time. Consequently, he ended their alliance and cut ties with both Haytham and Washington, going to defend Kanatahséton from the Patriots' attack. However, Lee had already traveled to the village beforehand and persuaded its inhabitants to join the Biritsh side of the war. He also convinced Connor's friend, Kanen'tó:kon, that the Assassin had betrayed his people, ultimately forcing Connor to kill Kanen'tó:kon when the latter attacked him.[98]
During the Battle of Monmouth, Lee intentionally sabotaged the preparation of the Continental Army, hoping that the Patriots would lose and Washington's reputation would be ruined. However, his plan was thwarted by Connor, who arrived in time to help the Patriot soldiers retreat. Afterwards, the Assassin exposed Lee's treason to Washington, leading to his suspension from military service.[99]
Collapse[]
- "Even when your kind appears to triumph... Still we rise again. And do you know why? It is because the Order is born of a realization. We require no creed. No indoctrination by desperate old men. All we need is that the world be as it is. And this is why the Templars will never be destroyed!"
- ―Haytham to Connor, during their final confrontation, 1781.[src]-[m]
In July 1778, the Continental officer and Templar George Dorrance was killed by Assassins while fighting against the joint forces of the British Army and the Iroquois during the Battle of Wyoming.[100] The next year, the Templar ally and British Colonel John Boyd was assassinated during the Battle of Kettle Creek.[101] A few months later, a Patriot soldier in the Continental Army, Hugh Jackson, was assassinated during the Battle of Stono Ferry for his Templar connections.[102] In August 1780, the Major General and Templar Johann de Kalb was killed by the Assassins during the Battle of Camden.[103]
Haytham being killed by Connor
In September 1781, Lee was hiding from Connor in Fort George in New York's military district. Knowing that the Assassin could strike at any moment, Haytham visited Lee and urged him to escape, revealing to him that Connor was his son in the process. After an argument between the two where they both accused each other of creating the Assassin, Lee apologized and relented, leaving to continue the Order's work while Haytham stayed behind to await Connor's arrival.[29]
Making use of a distraction in which the military district was bombarded by French ships, Connor infiltrated the fort to assassinate Lee, but was surprised to find his father in his place. After a brutal fight, Haytham forced Connor to kill him, and Lee consequently became the new Grand Master of the Colonial Rite.[104] Haytham's journal was also recovered by Connor afterwards.[29]
Months later, in 1782, a funeral was held for Haytham, which was presided over by Lee. During the funeral, Connor approached Lee to try and kill him, but was taken captive by his guards. After vowing to destroy everything the Assassin held dear, Lee made preparations to rebuild the Colonial Rite's power and traveled to Boston.[105] However, Connor caught up to Lee and, after a rugged pursuit, managed to shoot him in the stomach.[106]
Charles Lee's demise
Lee escaped by taking a ferry to Monmouth, where he took refuge in the Last Drink tavern. Connor tracked him down again and the mortally wounded Lee embraced his end, sharing his drink with the Assassin before the latter stabbed him in the heart. Connor also recovered the Grand Temple Key from Lee, which had been given to him by Haytham before his death. Lee's death marked the collapse of the Colonial Rite, and the end of Templar influence in North America for a time.[106] But even with the leadership eliminated, Templar sympathizers like Alexander Hamilton still remained.[107]
By 1784, the Templar doctor Edmund Judge had left the Order, living and working by his own rules. While in Newport, Rhode Island, he sought to acquire a Piece of Eden in the possession of the former slave Patience Gibbs, but was killed by Gibbs and Aveline de Grandpré.[108] In August 1785, the Governor of Connecticut and Templar Jonathan Trumbull was killed by the Assassins.[109]
The American Rite[]
- "She gave me two hours with them. It was enough time to read them and form questions of my own. To know that there was another way. A third way."
- ―Élise de la Serre's observation of Haytham Kenway's ideals, 1788.[src]
By 1788, the reorganized American Rite had likely been contacted by the exiled French Templar, François-Thomas Germain, to gain their support for his planned coup d'etat of the Parisian Rite by convincing them that overthrowing Grand Master François de la Serre was necessary. That same year, Élise de la Serre was given Haytham Kenway's letters by his half-sister, Jennifer Scott.[1]
In 1794, the American Rite was contacted by Frederick Weatherall, who sent appeals asking them to support the overthrown De la Serre family against Germain and his extremists. Though they lent their sympathies, they offered no support, as the Parisian Rite ran smoothly, making Élise's request for support of marginal interest.[1]
The Coyote Man was a Native American Templar who specialized in hunting Assassins during the 18th century, gaining infamy after killing an Assassin Mentor with his bare hands.[56]
Following the disappearance of the Black Cross Tavis Olier during his search for the Koh-i-Noor, the Inner Sanctum presumed Olier to be dead and appointed the American Templar Solomon Bolden as his successor. While serving as the new Black Cross, Bolden found evidence suggesting that Olier was still alive and being held captive by the Ottoman Sultan Selim III. In 1805, Bolden, posing as a slaver, traveled to Libya to find and rescue Olier, who was imprisoned in Tripoli.[110]
Jan van der Graff as the new Black Cross
During his voyage on the Painted Lady merchant ship, the Black Cross met the Flemish spy Jan van der Graff, who was also searching for the Koh-i-Noor on behalf of Emperor Napoleon I. After surviving an attack from pirates sent by Selim, the two men decided to work together: Bolden would protect Graff during the trip while the spy would help the Black Cross infiltrate the Sultan's dungeon to rescue Olier.[110] However, following their arrival in Tripoli, Bolden and Graff were ambushed by the Libyan Assassin Ahkbar and Selim's guards, who killed the Black Cross and captured Graff.[111]
The Flemish spent the next three years in the same cell as Tavis Olier, who trained him to become the new Black Cross. In July 1808, Graff escaped after Olier was killed by guards, and confronted Ahkbar, who had poisoned Selim and stolen the Koh-i-Noor for his own gain. Besting the rogue Assassin, Graff killed Ahkbar and escaped with the Piece of Eden to the United States. There, he met Bolden's widow, with whom he fathered a child, continuing the Bolden lineage.[112]
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Templars of New York struggled to maintain their control over the city against a single Assassin. Around this time, the young Templar Cudgel Cormac was being trained by his grandfather, Shay Cormac, to hunt Assassins like his father before him.[113]
Early modern era[]
American Civil War[]
During the 1860s, at the start of the American Civil War, the American Rite was under the control of Grand Master William M. Tweed. Tweed was the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party's political machine, through which he directly influenced the Confederate States of America. In order to regain a stronger position over the Assassins since their eradication during the American Revolution, the Templars hoped to create chaos in the political climate to reclaim power.[113]
To this end, Tweed orchestrated the New York City draft riots in 1863 with the aid of Templars controlling the police and the army, while Cudgel Cormac influenced the New York gangs to instigate chaos and mayhem. The Grand Master knew the rioters would eventually turn against the Black citizens of the city, which conflicted with his own opposition to racial segregation, but was deemed a necessary evil to realize their goals. Additionally, the Templar Charles W. Sandford purposefully hindered the efforts to stop the rioters, by holding back the State Militia under his command. Cudgel nevertheless decided to save the children of a Black orphanage after it was set ablaze by rioters.[113]
After Tweed received intel that the Assassins intended to locate a Dagger of Eden—one of the prongs of the Trident of Eden—the Grand Master sent Cudgel to intercept them and acquire the artifact. Cudgel was unable to succeed in his mission as he was defeated by the Assassin Varius and his ally Eliza, Tweed's maid. The Assassins subsequently handed the Dagger to General Ulysses S. Grant to turn the civil war in the favor of the Union against the Confederacy.[113]
Reconstruction era[]
In April 1865, at the end of the Civil War, the Templars ordered John Wilkes Booth to assassinate the President of the Union, Abraham Lincoln. Booth succeeded but was tracked down and killed by the Assassins twelve days later.[114] After Grant's 1868 election as President of the United States, Templars infiltrated his administration and helped Grant master the powers of the Dagger, by granting him access to a Precursor box and pages of the Voynich manuscript.[115]
Years later, Tweed's corruption was brought forward by the Assassin Eliza, and Tweed was arrested in 1871.[113] By 1872, the Templar Alice was tasked to recover the box and manuscript, which Grant's political opponent Horace Greeley had taken from the President's office. After the Templars poisoned Greeley, Alice posed as a nurse to infiltrate his house in New York, where she succeeded in recovering the box but failed to eliminate Greeley due to the intervention of Pinkerton detective Tommy Greyling.[115]
Alice in London
Alice subsequently traveled to London after learning that several of the manuscript's pages were stored in the British Museum. Despite altercations with Greyling, Mark Twain, the British Assassins Evie Frye and Henry Green, and the Metropolitan Police Service,[116][117] she ultimately succeeded in her theft of the pages and boarded a ship to return to America. However, Greyling also boarded the ship and confronted Alice on the deck. Cornered, the Templar elected to jump into the Atlantic Ocean, killing herself and destroying the manuscript pages, after warning the detective that his actions would not go unnoticed by her superiors.[118]
Founding Abstergo[]
By the early 20th century, the Templars had created a more laissez-faire form of capitalism as a means to keep the working population in line and under their own tight control. The Templars Henry Ford and Ransom Eli Olds created the assembly line, and economist John Maynard Keynes created several new theories and forms of economics based on capitalism. Harvey Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, was also a member.[114]
Throughout the 20th century, the Templars made use of puppet regimes and rulers to spread capitalism throughout the world, with the ultimate goal being the eventual collapse of democracy, creating an ideal situation for the Templars to introduce a New World Order.[114]
A group of Templars during Abstergo's formative years, including Ford, Edison, and Firestone
In the 1900s, Nikola Tesla, a former employee of the Templar Thomas Edison, invented the alternating current of electricity, which was more efficient than Edison's direct current. In addition, Tesla was also in possession of an Apple of Eden, which he planned to use to create a free information network across the entire world.[114]
The Templars, however, most prominently Edison himself, opposed Tesla's ideas, as they would be a serious impediment to the Templar goals and Edison's own ideals. To this end, Edison demonstrated a series of experiments, such as the electrocution of a circus elephant that he released, as proof of Tesla's power being dangerous, causing public disapproval towards Tesla's invention. Along with his smear campaign, Edison also influenced his fellow Templar J.P. Morgan to cut funding for Tesla's famous Wardenclyffe Tower. As Tesla's credibility began to falter, Edison rose to prominence, with his innovations outshining his competitor's.[114]
In November 1910, the Templars Frank A. Vanderlip, Paul Warburg, Charles Norton, Benjamin Strong, Jr., Henry Pomeroy Davison, and Nelson W. Aldrich met in secret on Jekyll Island, where they designed the "Plan", a plot to control the capitalist market.[114][119] In December 1913, the Federal Reserve System was established, secretly as the first part of the "Plan".[120][119]
Sometime later, Edison came into possession of Tesla's Apple after Templar agents stole it from his lab, and used it to help him create several commercially successful inventions. He later allowed his fellow Templar Henry Ford to use the Apple. On 5 January 1918, Ford announced that his company would pay its workers $5 per day. However, the supposed pay rise was actually a pay cut, as Ford has used the Apple to convince his workers otherwise.[114]
Albert Bolden as the Black Cross in 1927
After World War I, Albert Bolden joined the Templars and became the new Black Cross, traveling the world in the guise of the lead trumpeter of the jazz band Albie Bolden and the Harlem Hotsteppers, as a way to monitor the various Templar Rites. In February 1927, while in London, he killed the British Rite's corrupt Grand Master, Thaddeus Gift.[121] Later, he traveled to Shanghai, where he assisted the young British Templar Darius Gift in delivering a mysterious package to the local Rite.[122] However, Bolden soon became entangled in a conspiracy involving the city's crime syndicates, warlord Chiang Kai-shek, and Soong Ching-ling,[123] and was eventually shot by Darius after the latter discovered that the Black Cross had killed his father.[124]
While Bolden survived, he never reported back to the Templars, choosing to focus on safeguarding the Koh-i-Noor, which was sought by the rogue Templar and Instruments of the First Will member Rufus Grosvenor. However, he continued to keep track of Templar operations and uphold his Black Cross duties even while presumed dead.[125] After learning about the Templars' plans to start a new global conflict by influencing "venal demagogues" like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, Bolden officially abandoned the Order.[126]
World War II[]
- "H. has [the Apple of Eden], so I assume the war will begin as soon as he can take over. We'll let him have his fun (Lord knows, that kind of purge will be good for Europe) and then end it with a bang, as planned. Out of the chaos of war a new order will emerge!"
- ―Henry Ford in a letter to Thomas Edison, 1930s.[src]-[m]
In 1933, Henry Ford shipped the Apple of Eden to Germany and into the hands of Adolf Hitler, who would go on to become the leader of Nazi Germany, laying the groundwork for the Second World War. During the war, the Templars held sway over Franklin D. Roosevelt, the sitting U.S. President. They also sought to establish a global conglomerate that would secretly dominate the capitalist market in the wake of the war, and to dismantle communist governments.[120]
In 1937, the formulators of the "Plan" founded Abstergo Industries as a front for their activities. This enabled them a means to accumulate wealth and accelerate scientific progress. Largely anonymous, Abstergo's leadership claimed their duty was to "shepherd those beneath us through life, even if force is required".[120]
John von Neumann and Pash's Assassins working on Project Rainbow
However, by 1943, the Templars had lost control of Roosevelt and their other puppets, who each had their own ideas for the world's future. As a result, the Inner Sanctum decided to develop an atomic weapon to give victory to the Americans. However, Templar physicist John von Neumann proposed a more peaceful solution in the form of Project Rainbow. Using his theories on Die Glocke, an early version of the Animus, von Neumann believed it could allow them to alter the course of history and kill Hitler before his rise to power.[127]
Agreeing to a temporary alliance with U.S. Colonel and Assassin Boris Pash, the Templars allowed von Neumann to work with Pash and Nikola Tesla on Project Rainbow aboard the USS Eldridge in Philadelphia. However, the rogue Assassin Eddie Gorm infiltrated the ship and killed Tesla, setting the project back. It was ultimately a failure, and the Templars moved von Neumann to the Manhattan Project to improve the Allies' position over the Axis.[127]
By 1944, Abstergo and the Templars were prepared for the inevitable post-war era, where they would "ensure the development continues in the proper direction", and used the Bretton Woods Conference in July of that year as a cover for a meeting between their economic agents, including John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White. On the last day of the conference, a speech was given to Abstergo Industries employees, economists, and world leaders, mentioning the formation of the "Plan" by Henry Ford and Ransom Eli Olds in 1910 and the threat presented by the communist system, as well as the efforts of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin to create the "turmoil and fear necessary" for the implementation of the new economic systems.[120]
In 1945, Abstergo sanctioned the Manhattan Project's tests of the atomic bomb, and on 6 and 9 August of that year, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.[114] Amidst the resulting chaos of the war, the Templars were able to guide the world's economic rebuilding towards their goal of a New World Order.[120]
Cold War[]
Following the war, White betrayed the Templars in order to warn the Soviet Government of Abstergo's capitalist plans, making him a top target of the company. In 1948, Abstergo operatives killed him in his home.[120]
Abstergo agents in Pasadena
On 17 June 1952, agents from Abstergo Industries discovered that American rocket propulsion researcher Jack Parsons had solved a secret formula from occultist Aleister Crowley. To stop Parsons' research, they orchestrated the explosion of his laboratory in Pasadena, with Parsons himself still inside. Parsons died soon after of his injuries, and Abstergo agents kidnapped undercover detective Thomas Sean Morgan to cover their tracks.[128]
During the 1950s, the Templars and Abstergo manipulated the CIA's actions in favor of their plans for a New World Order, notably through toppling democratic governments around the world and replacing them with Templar-influenced dictatorships. This resulted in the orchestration of the 1953 coup against the Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in order to place Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi into absolute power as well as the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état in order to depose democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz.[120]
Vietnam War[]
By 1957, John von Neumann was dying from cancer, likely caused by his overexposure to X-rays during his work on the Manhattan Project, and was under treatment at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.. As von Neumann had kept the Apple of Eden used in the unsuccessful Project Rainbow, he was visited by Boris Pash, who took the Apple after the Templar passed away.[129]
During the Vietnam War, the Templars infiltrated both the U.S. military and the Vietnamese regime, using President Ngô Đình Diệm as their puppet in Vietnam. In January 1963, the Templar agent Cooper was captured and interrogated by the Bloodstone Unit, an extremist Assassin cell founded by William King Harvey and led by Boris Pash. Diệm was later deposed and killed during a coup orchestrated by the CIA and Pash.[129]
In 1963, Abstergo Industries aimed to remove President John F. Kennedy of the United States, as Kennedy did not serve Abstergo's interests and was in possession of an Apple of Eden. As a result, the company sanctioned Kennedy's assassination, with the intent to steal his Apple and allow the Templar and acting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to become the new President.[114] Unbeknownst to the Templars, the Bloodstone Unit uncovered their plans and orchestrated their own assassination of Kennedy to obtain the Apple before Abstergo.[129]
Harvey receiving Kennedy's Apple of Eden from Gavrani
The Templars planned to have Lee Harvey Oswald shoot Kennedy while he drove through Dallas, with Abraham Zapruder acting as a second gunman and William Greer as the President's driver. Greer was tasked with stealing Kennedy's Apple in the confusion after the assassination, having been trained by Abstergo beforehand using another Apple of Eden.[114] Unbeknownst to the company, Greer was a covert member of the Bloodstone Unit and tried to deliver Kennedy's Apple to the Assassins. However, he was stopped by his former teammate Alekseï Gavrani, who beat him and took the artifact.[129]
Believing Pash and the Bloodstone Unit had become corrupt, Gavrani sought to stop them and delivered the Apple to William King Harvey,[129] unaware that the latter had defected to the Templars and become a double agent within the Brotherhood.[130] Harvey then sent Gavrani to Vietnam to pursue the members of the Bloodstone Unit, allegedly so he could put an end to their clandestine operations.[129] In reality, Harvey sought to acquire Pash's Apple of Eden for the Templars.[130]
On 4 August 1964, Pash contacted Harvey after his unit had been attacked by both Gavrani and a mentally unstable Julia Gorm, offering the location of the Apple in exchange for medical aid for his pregnant lover Zenia. With Gavrani having been killed by Julia, who was gravely injured in the process, Harvey sent his men to retrieve Pash, Zenia, and Julia and bring them onto the USS Maddox. There, Julia received medical attention while the young Templar doctor Warren Vidic operated on Zenia. Unfortunately, Zenia had lost too much blood and passed away, though Vidic was able to save her and Pash's daughter, whom her father named Nathalia.[130]
Harvey holding Pash's Apple of Eden
After tucking away Pash's Apple, Harvey revealed his Templar allegiance to his former protégé and explained his plan to escalate the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War by painting the Viet Cong as the aggressors in the Gulf of Tonkin incident. He then used the newborn "Nathalie" as leverage to force Pash to swear loyalty to the Templars and surrender all his research on memory resurrection to Vidic. Pash reluctantly complied, and Nathalie was subsequently left in the care of Vidic, who would become the lead scientist of Abstergo's Animus Project, helped in part by Pash's research.[130]
Other activities[]
Kennedy's assassination paved the way for NASA, one of Abstergo's puppet companies, to organize the Apollo 11 spaceflight and allow Templar agent Buzz Aldrin to retrieve another Apple of Eden from the Moon's surface.[114]
In 1973, Abstergo Industries sought to overthrow the communist government of President Salvador Allende of Chile to maintain control over Chile's corporations, which Allende wanted to nationalize. In a plot devised by Abstergo's puppet Henry Kissinger, Allende was overthrown and killed, and the Templars' puppet Augusto Pinochet was installed as the leader of a new military junta.[120]
In 1977, Warren Vidic built his first Animus prototype and tested it on a teenage Nathalie Chapman. Reliving the memories of her father Boris Pash, Nathalie discovered that she was a prisoner of the Templars and subsequently escaped with a copy of the Animus blueprints and her father's Apple of Eden.[130]
As the Animus Project progressed, Abstergo abducted numerous individuals to use as test subjects. In 1983, the company found an orphan young boy and brought him to their facility in Philadelphia, where Vidic dubbed him "Subject 4" and experimented on him. The boy was later given the name "Daniel Cross" and placed in the Animus, where he relived the memories of his ancestor Nikolai Orelov. Vidic also used a replicated Piece of Eden to imprint Daniel with a subconscious impulse to kill the Assassins' Mentor, were he ever presented with the opportunity.[131]
During the late 1990s, the Templars and Assassins were engaged in a solely political war for the Presidency, with the Templars using George W. Bush as their puppet and the Assassins supporting candidate Al Gore.[132]
Modern times[]
The Great Purge[]
Daniel returning to the Abstergo facility in Philadelphia
On 6 November 2000, Daniel Cross, having been found and recruited by the Assassins, was granted an audience with the Mentor and, in a split moment, acted upon his impulse and murdered him.[131]
On 21 November, Daniel made his way back to the Abstergo facility in Philadelphia. As soon as he arrived there, he demanded that he be returned to the Animus, though it was only after an attack on an unfortunate secretary that Warren Vidic became convinced of his urgency. Daniel was placed into the Animus to freely explore the memories of his ancestors, which had a calming effect on him.[131]
Daniel was soon taken out of the Animus and tied to a medical bed. Under the supervision of Alfred Stearns and other high-ranking Abstergo employees, Dr. Sung was forced to extract information from Daniel by administering SK-345 to him. Daniel subconsciously revealed the locations and secrets of the Assassin hideouts he had visited over the past two years, allowing Abstergo to initiate the "Great Purge", which nearly annihilated the entire Assassin Brotherhood.[133]
During the Great Purge, Assassin compounds in South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas were located and destroyed by Abstergo.[134] Nearly all Assassins within their camps, including children, were massacred by military agents on the orders of Abstergo Industries.[133]
The Templars overseeing the Great Purge
Without the Assassins' interference, the Templars were able to steer the election in their desired direction, and Bush became the President of the United States.[131] Following the controversial 2000 presidential election, the Supreme Court heard the case Bush v. Gore, where the Court was asked to decide whether to allow a recount of the votes in the State of Florida or order the certification of the election in favor of Bush. Justice Antonin Scalia, a Templar affiliate, convinced fellow Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the swing vote on the Court, to rule in favor of Bush, appealing to her desire to retire under a Republican president.[120]
The Templars spent the next several years routing out Assassin cells and safe houses. By 2002, various Assassins, including Paul Bellamy, were captured by Abstergo. The company induced the subjects into a coma and bound them to Animi in the company's Philadelphia facility, where they explored the genetic memories of their ancestors.[135]
In 2003, the Templars manipulated the Bush administration into starting the Iraq War in order to pave the way for Dick Cheney's military contractors to accept jobs from the government and escalate the war further. As a result, Templar influence spread, and Cheney was able to strengthen the American armed forces, ensuring the war would continue. Abstergo also utilized the administration's loose regulation of the private sector to gain more influence.[120]
Upon the resignation of O'Connor in 2005, Scalia ensured that President Bush was given the name of Templar John Roberts as her replacement. However, following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist less than two months later, Bush renominated Roberts to the position of Chief Justice. In 2010, the Roberts-led Court ruled against limitations on corporate contributions to political campaigns. This decision ensured the Templars' ability to elect their chosen candidates to Congress and, eventually, the presidency.[120]
Second Gilded Age[]
Sometime before October 2011,[136] in an underground Abstergo facility beneath Denver International Airport,[137] Daniel Cross[138] served as the Project Lead on an experiment involving the Eye-Abstergo satellite. However, Daniel fell under the influence of the project's Apple of Eden and killed everyone in the facility before the company's clean-up crew arrived, while the artifact was ultimately destroyed. Warren Vidic was responsible for preparing the final report of the incident.[137]
Daniel confronting Desmond
In November 2012, Daniel tracked the Assassin Desmond Miles out of frustration that Abstergo had lost him, eventually confronting him in an office building in Manhattan, where Desmond attempted to steal a power source for the Grand Temple. Daniel held Desmond at gunpoint but was knocked out by the Assassin, who then escaped with the power source.[139] Daniel was subsequently found by Juhani Otso Berg, sent by Inner Sanctum member Laetitia England to investigate the break-in, and forcibly brought back to Abstergo's facility in Rome.[140]
The following month, both Daniel and Warren Vidic were killed by Desmond during his raid of the Rome facility to rescue his father, William Miles. While their deaths did not set back Abstergo, the company was nonetheless forced to cancel the planned launch of the Eye-Abstergo satellite on 21 December 2012 due to Vidic's failure to obtain the required Apple of Eden.[141]
As of 2014, there was a Grand Master operating in the United States. That year, Alan Rikkin sent a memo to Álvaro Gramática telling him that, if they proceeded with his plan to excavate the Observatory to retrieve its blood vials – which Gramática considered to be of critical importance to the Phoenix Project – he would contact the Grand Masters in Cuba, Mexico, and the United States to get a read on the situation.[142]
Didier Hawking and other Templars monitoring Joseph
In 2015, the Templar Didier Hawking worked with the Assassin turncoat Joseph Laurier to set a trap for Xavier Chen, the leader of Joseph's former cell. By having Joseph pose as the Templars' captive, they lured Xavier and Galina Voronina to Treo Tea, an Abstergo front company in San Diego, where Joseph killed Xavier and injured Galina. However, the turncoat then double-crossed the Templars and detonated a hidden explosive that killed Hawking and several other Templars.[143]
In 2016, the Templars at the Aerie, an Abstergo complex directed by Isaiah, focused on locating the prongs of the Trident of Eden and captured a group of teenagers recruited by ex-Abstergo employee Sebastian Monroe to search for the artifacts, which their ancestors had come into contact with. Isaiah found and retrieved the first prong from Ulysses S. Grant's home on Mount McGregor,[113] and later led an expedition to Mongolia to acquire the second prong from Möngke Khan's tomb. However, upon retrieving this prong, Isaiah betrayed the Templars to pursue his own agenda for world domination, leading to the Order forming a truce with the Assassins to stop him.[144] With the teenagers' help, they were ultimately successful, killing Isaiah when he attacked the Aerie with the restored Trident, which was then depowered.[145]
That same year, the Abstergo facility in Philadelphia, overseen by Juhani Otso Berg, focused on the search for the Koh-i-Noor diamond by exploring the genetic memories of André Bolden, the descendant of several notable Black Crosses.[110] The Instruments of the First Will who had infiltrated Abstergo also looked for the Piece of Eden and interfered with the Templars' investigation, which had to be put on hold as Berg decided to take up the Black Cross mantle to deal with this mysterious fifth column.[112]
Members[]
Colonial Rite[]
- Seven Years' War
- Benjamin Church (betrayed)
- Shay Cormac
- Christopher Gist
- Thomas Hickey
- Barry and Cassidy Finnegan's son
- William Johnson
- Haytham Kenway (Grand Master; 1754 – 1781)
- Charles Lee (Grand Master; 1781 – 1782)
- George Monro (British Rite)
- John Pitcairn
- Jack Weeks
- Victor Wolcott
- American Revolution
- Nicholas Biddle
- Templar commander (New York)
- Coyote Man
- Matthew Davenport
- George Dorrance
- Templar hoarder (New York)
- Edmund Judge (deserted)
- Johann de Kalb
- Eleanor Mallow
- Templar Master
- Gillian McCarthy
- Templar mercenary (New York)
- British Templar naval captain
- Federico Perez
- Johann Rall
- Templar recruiter (Boston)
- Jeremiah Scudder
- Gerhard von Stantten
- Templar taxman (Boston)
- Jonathan Trumbull
American Rite[]
- Post-Revolution
- Solomon Bolden (Black Cross)
- Shay Cormac
- Shay Cormac's son
- Jan van der Graff (Black Cross)
- American Civil War
- Albert Hawkins
- Charles W. Sandford
- Peter B. Sweeny
- William M. Tweed (Grand Master; c. 1863)
- Gilded Age
- Cold War
- Buzz Aldrin
- William King Harvey (American Brotherhood)
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- John von Neumann
- Warren Vidic
- Modern times
- Daniel Cross
- American Grand Master (Grand Master; c. 2014)
- John Roberts
- Lucy Stillman
- Joseph Vidic
Allies and puppets[]
Colonial Rite[]
- Seven Years' War
- American Revolutionary War
- Alexander Hamilton[107]
- George Davidson (Louisiana Rite)
- Hugh Jackson
- John Boyd
- Kanen'tó:kon
- Ratonhnhaké:ton (Colonial Brotherhood; 1778)
- "Twitch"
American Rite[]
- French Revolution
- François-Thomas Germain (Parisian Rite)
- Frederick Weatherall (British Rite)
- American Civil War
- Early 20th century
- Cold War
- Gerald Ford
- William Greer (American Brotherhood; undercover)
- Henry Kissinger
- Richard Nixon
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Boris Pash (American Brotherhood)
- Modern times
- Dick Cheney
- Donald Evans
- Grace Collins
- Condoleezza Rice
- Donald Rumsfeld
- Antonin Scalia
- George W. Bush
- Paul Wolfowitz
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed II (appears in Glyphs only)
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (appears in Rifts only)
- Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
- Assassin's Creed: The Fall
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (appears in Abstergo Files only)
- Assassin's Creed: The Chain
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates
- Assassin's Creed III
- Assassin's Creed: Forsaken
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Aveline
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue
- Assassin's Creed: Unity novel (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Locus
- Assassin's Creed: Conspiracies
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone
- Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR
References[]
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