Amorges

"For every soul that lives in peace, others had to die. It is the only way."

―Amorges' motto.

Amorges
Biographical information
Died	c. 420s BCE Temple of Zeus, Messenia, Greece
Species	Human
Political information
Affiliations	Achaemenid Empire Artabanus' group (until c. 465 BCE) Order of the Ancients Order of Dominion

Amorges (died in 420s BCE) was the leader of the Persian Sect of the Order of the Ancients who operated in the Achaemenid Empire during the 5th century BCE.

A former member of the Persian elite and a close friend of Darius, formerly known as Artabanus, Amorges joined the Order and prevented Darius' assassination of King Artaxerxes I, the son of Xerxes I whom Darius had previously assassinated. After Darius was branded a traitor, Amorges and his Order hunted him and his family, forcing them to flee Persia.

Biography

Joining the Order

Amorges was a member of the Persian elite alongside Artabanus and Pactyas who served during the reign of Xerxes I of Persia. At some point, they learned the existence of the Order of the Ancients, a secret and powerful organization who backed and supported Xerxes and the previous emperors. Opposing the King's tyranny and the organizations corruption, Amorges and Darius secretly formed a small group intending to assassinate Xerxes. They successfully did so in 465 BCE, with Darius personally assassinating the Emperor with a Hidden Blade.

With Xerxes' death, his son Artaxerxes ascended the throne. Fearing that he was also manipulated by the Ancients, Darius plotted his assassination soon after. Amorges, however, opposed his decision, believing that the Emperor was still young and they should wait until sufficient evidence of his corruption. Nevertheless, Darius went ahead with his plot and infiltrated the palace at night. Amorges, disapproving Darius' beliefs, joined the Order himself and confronted Darius outside the door of the king's chambers. Clashing with each other, Amorges called for the guards, an act which branded Darius as a traitor to the Empire. As such, Darius was forced to flee Persia with his family.

Later at some point, Amorges rose to become a leader of the Order and they set out to hunt down the Tainted Ones. With the Peloponnesian War raging in Greece, Amorges dispatched Pactyas, who had similarly joined the Order, to lead a branch to hunt down the Spartan misthios Eagle Bearer, a Tainted One.

Undercover

Elderly Amorges as Orontas

Following the death of Pactyas at the hands of Kassandra and Darius in Makedonia, Amorges travelled to Greece to investigate first-hand the Tainted One who had killed his old friend. He arrived in Achaia alongside the Tempest, a Greek-born member of the Order, who was also in Achaia at the time.

Adopting the pseudonym of Orontas, Amorges disguised himself as a stranded merchant seeking to escape the Tempest's blockade of the region. In this capacity, he met Kassandra in Boura and worked with her to apparently undermine the Tempest's control of the region, all with a view to learning more about his enemy.

Sometime later, following the birth of Kassandra and Natakas' son, Elpidios, "Orontas" located their home and ordered that the entirety of the Order be brought to Greece to pursue the family.

After his defeat at the hands of Darius and Kassandra at the Temple of Zeus, Amorges revealed Elpidios' whereabouts and patched up with Darius before succumbing to his wounds.

Personality and characteristics

Amorges was an ambitious, ruthless and patriotic man who yearned for Persian rule throughout the Mediterranean, including Greece. Not hesitating to murder and enslave innocent people in order to instill fear in Greek society, he was an expert manipulator capable of taking over the Greek authorities with the aim of a better future. He detested the Tainted Ones as he considered them too dangerous to even be alive.

Behind the scenes

Amorges, a character in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's DLC Legacy of the First Blade, shares his name with both the leader of the Carian rebellion against king Darius II in 413 BCE, and the 6th century BCE Persian king of the Amyrgians. Orontas, a pseudonym assumed by Amorges, is presumably Hellenized form of the Persian word اروند‎ (arvand) "of greatness, mighty". The name Orontas is also a reference to a line of Armenian rulers that reigned from the 6th century BCE to the 2nd century BCE. The first among them was Orontes I Sakavakyats who had a connection to the Achaemenid Empire.

The background of Amorges, a character in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's DLC Legacy of the First Blade, is similar to that of Megabyzus who historically was complicit in Artabanus' plot to assassinate Xerxes but later betrayed him before Artaxerxes could be killed.

Gallery

Amorges in his younger years

Amorges in his guise as Orontas

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade
  • Hunted (first appearance)
  • Shadow Heritage
  • Bloodline