Assassin's Creed 4 is the fourth issue of the Titan comic book series Assassin's Creed. The comic, written by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery with art by Ivan Nunes and Neil Edwards, was released on 13 January 2016.
Publisher's summary[]
The clock is ticking Charlotte has a bad feeling that she just can't shake. When another visit to Tom's memories reveals a horrifying truth, it's the blow that finally transforms her from Initiate to true Assassin as she puts aside her own safety for the good of the Brotherhood…[1]
Plot summary[]
2015: Believing that nothing further can be gleaned from Charlotte, both Xavier and Galina head out to try and rescue Joseph from the Templars. Charlotte re-enters the Animus on a hunch and discovers that Joseph had been telling the Templars the truth all along.
1692: Tom and Jennifer are being tortured, in the same dungeon that they escaped from. After a distraction from Consus, Jennifer manages to free them both. She is mortally wounded by Stoughton whilst trying to obtain weaponry. Stoughton attempts to kill Tom, but is knocked out. As Tom attempts to escape, he is shot by a recovered Stoughton, who declares the imprisoned girls to be a new breed of oracles. Dorothy, overtaken by feelings of guilt, takes her own life by fire.
Enraged, Stoughton declares that all women shall be tried for witchcraft and attempts to kill Tom. He is shot by fellow Templar, Parris. Parris clearly has misgivings about Stoughton's methods and takes control of the situation. He releases Tom, David, and the girls. Tom and David bury Dorothy and Jennifer on the outskirts of Salem. The location of their burial is now known.[2]
Supplementary material[]
- Salem
The trials and "evidence" that condemned 24 men and women to death...
It was on June 2nd of the year 1692 that the famous trials of Salem began. The Governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, created a Court of Oyer and Terminer to try the cases. These courts, so named for their Anglo-French roots, were commissioned to hear (oyer) and determine (terminer) felonies, treasons, and misdemeanors. The court was comprised of seven members of the community, including William Stoughton. It was these seven men who would condemn 19 people to death, and allow the deaths in prison of five more.
The trials were beset by sensationalism, with spectral evidence admitted in the form of testimonies from the afflicted, with displays of possessions and fits prevalent in the proceedings. 'Spectral evidence' was testimony from the afflicted, girls like Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, that the accused had appeared to them in a dream or vision and perpetrated some harm on them. It was admitted as evidence by William Stoughton.
The first victim of this court was Bridget Bishop. She hadn't been the first accused of witchcraft, but was the first to be tried for the simple reason that It was believed her trial would be the easiest to win. Bishop was a well-known figure In Salem, but for the wrong reasons. Married three times, she was regarded as having loose morals and a poor character. She dressed flamboyantly, for the time at least, and was known to engage in drinking and gambling. It was not the first time she had been accused of witchcraft, with rumors flitting around the countryside a few years before. She was brought up before the court on the June 2nd. On the 10th, she hanged.
Sarah Good met the same fate. Desperately poor and pregnant, she could often be seen begging door to door. Along with Sarah Osborne and Tituba, she was one of the first women accused of witchcraft by the girls Abigail Williams and Betty Parris. She was hanged on July 19th. Four other women were hanged that day: a poor widow named Susannah Martin, a farmer's wife Elizabeth Howe, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes. The executions of the latter two show just how dangerous the community in Salem had become if you refused to conform. Nurse was a pious and popular woman, but had a longstanding feud with the wealthy Putnam family, and disapproved of the appointment of Samuel Parris as the new minister. It was the Putnams who were her main accusers. She was found to be not guilty in the original verdict, but the "afflicted" girls protested vehemently, and the jury reconsidered and returned a guilty verdict. Nurse hanged alongside Good and Howe.
Joining them that day was Sarah Wildes, another victim of the Putnam family. Wildes was the wife of the local judge, and had previous brushes with the law to condemn her. She had been accused of fornicating out of wedlock in 1649 when she was 22, and charged with the heinous crime of wearing a silk scarf in 1663. Her marriage to John Wildes enraged his sister, Mary Gould, who used her friendship with the Putnam family to ensure Sarah Wildes stood trial. She hanged.
The Salem Witch Trials are a terrifying example of mob mentality, and the power of religious fervor. 24 [sic] people lost their lives between June and September of 1692, the last being Giles Corey. He had refused to enter a plea, and was tortured in a field in Salem Town by being pressed with stones. He died after three days.
Cover gallery[]
Behind the scenes[]
Contrary to the above supplementary material, only 18 people were executed from June – September 1692. Furthermore, the trials from start to end resulted in more than 24 casualties: in 1692, 20 executions were held and an additional seven died in captivity awaiting sentencing, but no fatalities were recorded the next year. Lastly, Giles Corey was not the last of the accused to die. He was crushed to death on 19 September, but his wife Martha and five others were hanged three days later, with the hangings of the 70-year-old widows Margaret Scott and Ann Pudeator on 2 October marking the end of the executions.