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- Charles Lee: "Why do you persist...? You put us down. We rise again. You end one plot – we forge another. You try so hard... But it always ends the same. Those who know you think you mad and this is why... Even those men you sought to save have turned their backs on you. Yet you fight. You resist. Why?"
- Ratonhnhaké:ton: "Because no-one else will!"
- —The Templar Charles Lee and the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton arguing their conflict, 1782.[src]-[m]
The Assassin–Templar War is an ideological, sometimes military, conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order, as well as their respective predecessors, that has spanned across the entirety of known human history. The two factions often took part in, or even precipitated, military conflicts between nations to further their own agendas within their war, largely in the shadows of conventional politics.
History[]
Mythical origins[]
The conflict between the Assassins and the Templars can be traced back millennia ago, having its roots in the Isu civilization, a race of highly advanced precursors who ruled the Earth centuries before humanity.[8]
Creation of the hybrids[]
During the Isu Era, the Isu Authority in Eden launched Project Anthropos, whose aim was to create the human race as a docile slave workforce. The Isu Phanes was the first to succeed in creating humans, but as they were not subservient, the Isu implanted neurotransmitters into the humans' brains and used Apples of Eden to control them. However, Phanes fell in love with a female human, removing her neurotransmitter, and fled with her to Atlantis. Together, they had a daughter, Eve, the first of the hybrids, a subspecies of humans immune to the powers of the Pieces of Eden and having access to the Isu's "Sixth Sense".[9]
Over time, more Isu interbred with humans, leading to a generation of hybrids. Other Isu, like Juno and her husband Aita, feared that humanity could be the doom of their civilization. Around 75,010 BCE, Eve and another hybrid, Adam, stole an Apple of Eden, starting humanity's war for freedom against the Isu.[8] Ten years later, the war ended with the Great Catastrophe, a cataclysmic event that wiped out most of the Isu civilization and the human race. The survivors on both sides worked together to rebuild the world, though over time, the last of the Isu would become extinct.[10]
Adam and Eve, who led the human rebellion against the Isu, can be considered the earliest proto-Assassins due to their similar beliefs in fighting for freedom.[11] Meanwhile, their son Cain, who murdered his younger brother Abel to acquire his Apple of Eden, is regarded by modern Templars as their earliest precursor, and their insignia is modeled after the Mark of Cain.[12]
The Order of the Ancients' founding[]
The Order of the Ancients
Circa 1334 BCE, the Pharaoh of Egypt Smenkhkare founded the Order of the Ancients, a secret organization dedicated to imposing order and peace on society, as they saw humans as inherently predisposed to chaos and violence. As the Order tried to emulate the Isu civilization, who were seen as gods from different pantheons, the Pieces of Eden were a key part of their New World Order.[13] Despite their veneration of the Isu, the Ancients saw hybrids as a heresy and a source of chaos, referring to them as "Tainted Ones" and trying to eliminate them.[14]
Early history[]
With time, the Order of the Ancients infiltrated different empires, influencing their leaders, while some descendants of the hybrids were perceived as heroes and protectors of the people. Many factions were created across the centuries to thwart the influence of the Order.
Achaemenid Empire[]
For decades, the Order of Ancients had a firm grip on the Achaemenid Empire, influencing its kings. Darius I and Xerxes I of Persia led two invasions of Greece on the advice of the Order. In 480 BCE, King Leonidas I of Sparta, a descendant of the hybrids who wielded a Spear of Eden, led his troops at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persians. Although the king of Sparta was killed with his soldiers at the battle, his sacrifice ultimately permitted the Greek cities to repel the Persians at the Battle of Salamis.[15]
Artabanus killing Xerxes
In 465 BCE, the Persian elites Artabanus, Amorges, Pactyas, and others formed the Protectors of Persia, a secret group that planned to assassinate Xerxes to protect Persia from the Order's influence.[2] Feigning a massive attack, Artabanus stealthily approached Xerxes and assassinated the king with a weapon of his own creation: the Hidden Blade.[14]
When Xerxes' son Artaxerxes I became the new king, Artabanus feared that the Order would manipulate him as well and decided to assassinate him. Amorges and Pactyas were against this plan and joined the Ancients to stop Artabanus. Amorges prevented his former friend from killing Artatxerxes and Artabanus was forced to flee Persia with his family as the Ancients tracked them. This led to the Order pursuing him and killing his wife and all his children save for his son Natakas. Artabanus hid for many years, taking on the name of Darius and remaining constantly on the move.[2]
Greek city-states[]
Pactyas facing Natakas, Darius and Kassandra
In 429 BCE, Pactyas led the Order of Hunters to Makedonia with the aim of killing Leonidas I's granddaughter Kassandra, a hybrid and misthios who wielded the Spear of Leonidas, which made the Order consider her dangerous. Burning the village of Potidaia to attract her attention, the Order was confronted by Kassandra but also by Darius and Natakas who were hiding in the region.[16] The three joined forces and eliminated the Order of Hunters, killing Pactyas and his lieutenants. After that, Darius and Natakas left Makedonia while Kassandra resumed her travels throughout Greece.[2]
Later, the Order of the Storm led by the hybrid Phila located Darius and Natakas in Achaia, organizing a maritime blockade of the region. Darius sent a letter to Kassandra, who arrived to help him and Natakas once again, destroying Phila's fleet and killing her and her lieutenants.[17] Afterwards, Kassandra, Darius, and Natakas decided to settle together in the village of Dyme, where Natakas and Kassandra eventually had a son, Elpidios.[18] As Amorges discovered this, he led the Order of Dominion in an attack on Dyme, killing Natakas and abducting Elpidios.[19]
Kassandra and Darius confronting Amorges
In Messenia, the Order entrusted Elpidios to Prince Darius II who served as his guardian on a small island nearby. Searching for the child, Kassandra and Darius joined forces with a local contingent of Athenian soldiers to fight the Order of Dominion. During their assault, Darius killed Amorges who, in his final moments, reconciled with his old friend and revealed Elpidios' whereabouts. After retrieving her son, Kassandra realized that he would never be safe with her as the Order would continue to hunt them, so she decided to leave him in Darius' care. Darius later traveled to Egypt where he raised and trained Elpidios in his ways while avoiding the Order.[20]
Empires of the East[]
By 333 BCE, the Order of the Ancients allied with the Macedonian king Alexander and gave him two Isu artifacts: a Staff of Eden[21] and the Trident of Eden, allowing him to conquer the Achaemenid Empire and establish the Macedonian Empire.[22] The Babylonian Brotherhood saw Alexander as a great danger and assigned their member Iltani to poison him in 323 BCE. Iltani also tried to recover the Staff but it was buried with Alexander in his tomb in Alexandria, Egypt.[23]
By 221 BCE, the Order reached China and helped the king Qin Shi Huang to establish the first Empire of China. In 210 BCE, the individual known as Wei Yu assassinated the emperor with his spear "Jing Ke" to end his tyrannical rule.[24]
Hunting the Medjay[]
Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Order of the Ancients tried to unify Egypt through Hellenization. As the Medjay, an elite group who protected the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, were a symbol of the Old Kingdom, the Order sought their elimination.[25]
In 70 BCE, the Ancient Raia hired the mercenary Bion to exterminate the last three Medjay bloodlines. After killing Emsaf and Hemon and their families, only the Medjay Sabu of Siwa remained. Upon learning of Bion's hunt of the other Medjay, Sabu left his family to go on the run, but was eventually tracked down by his son Bayek and the latter's lover Aya,[25] a descendant of Elpidios.[20] Sabu then decided to train Bayek and Aya in the Medjay's ways, until he was eventually found and killed by Bion in 56 BCE, effectively making Bayek as the last of the Medjay. Bayek later avenged his father by killing Bion, as well as Raia.[25]
Alexandrine Civil War[]
- Main article: Hunt for the Snake
In 51 BCE, after Ptolemy XII Auletes' death, the Order of the Ancients controlled Egypt via their puppet Pharaoh, Ptolemy XIII. Led by the Roman Proconsul of Cyrenaica, Flavius Metellus, the Order had control over the royal court, the Saqqara Nome and the Faiyum Oasis and used the Gabiniani as their military force. In 49 BCE, the Order had Queen Cleopatra, Ptolemy's sister and wife, banished from Alexandria after she refused to join them.[26]
Khemu's death
That same year, the Order sought to open an Isu vault in Siwa using an Apple of Eden they had found. Flavius and four other masked Ancients abducted Bayek and his son Khemu and tried to interrogate the Medjay to learn how to open the vault. However, Bayek lacked the knowledge they sought and the encounter resulted in the accidental death of Khemu.[27]
After their son's death, Bayek and Aya decided to avenge him. Over the course of a year, Bayek hunted down the Ancients, killing the nomarch Rudjek[28] and the Oracle of Amun Medunamun, from whom he took the Order's Apple.[27] Meanwhile, in Alexandria, Aya entered the service of Cleopatra and her follower Apollodorus and killed the Ancients Actaeon and Ktesos.[29]
Bayek moments after assassinating Eudoros
After killing the Royal Scribe and Order member Eudoros[30] and his ally, the Phylakitai Gennadios, with Darius' Hidden Blade,[31] Bayek was made Medjay of all Egypt by Cleopatra, who tasked him to eliminate the remaining Ancients in Egypt.[26] Bayek killed the Order members Taharqa in Letopolis,[32] Khaliset in Giza,[33] Hetepi in Memphis,[34] and Berenike in Faiyum,[35] while Aya secured an alliance with the Roman Consul Pompey on Cleopatra's behalf.[36]
In September 48 BCE, the Order planned to assassinate Cleopatra and executed Pompey. Bayek and Aya protected the Queen from the Ancients' agent Venator and helped Cleopatra infiltrate Alexandria to meet the Roman Consul Julius Caesar, with whom she secured an alliance.[37] Cleopatra later asked Aya to open the sealed tomb of Alexander the Great so that she could show it to Caesar and impress him. The Ancients took advantage of this to infiltrate the tomb and steal the Staff of Eden from Alexander's sarcophagus.[38]
Caesar and Cleopatra siding with the Order
In 47 BCE, under the Order's influence, Ptolemy's army besieged Alexandria in retaliation for Caesar's decision to ally with Cleopatra. Bayek and Aya helped Caesar and Cleopatra's forces to gain the upper hand and Ptolemy's army was ultimately defeated during the Battle of the Nile. Bayek assassinated the Ancient Pothinus, Ptolemy's regent, but was stopped from killing the Gabiniani and Order member Lucius Septimius by Caesar, who had been convinced to spare Septimius by Flavius. Meanwhile, Aya attempted to eliminate Ptolemy himself, but the Pharaoh was attacked by crocodiles while trying to flee across the Nile and drowned.[38]
In the aftermath of the Alexandrine Civil War, Cleopatra ascended the throne of Egypt as Pharaoh. She and Caesar also welcomed Flavius and Septimius into their inner circle, effectively allowing the Order to influence both leaders and convince them to cut ties with Bayek and Aya.[39]
Late antiquity[]
Birth of the Hidden Ones[]
- Bayek: "Egypt has fallen. Greece also. And Rome will fall too. All will fall to the creed. Yet no one will know."
- Aya: "When we assassinate, we assassinate only those who deserve it. The few sick souls who try to control us... but they will never know who we are. Cold, calculated poets of the kill."
- —Bayek and Aya laying the foundations of the Hidden Ones, 46 BCE.[src]-[m]
The formation of the Hidden Ones
With Caesar in their ranks, the Order of the Ancients gained control over the Roman Republic. Meanwhile, angered by Cleopatra's betrayal, Bayek and Aya gathered their few remaining allies: the naval captain and mercenary Phoxidas, Aya's cousin and poet Phanos the Younger, the High-Priest Pasherenptah, and the huntress Tahira. Together, they decided to form a secret brotherhood to fight the Order's influence and defend humanity's freedom by eliminating tyrants.[40]
Since Apollodorus protected the Apple of Eden recovered by Bayek, the Ancients killed him and took back the artifact.[40] With the Staff and the Apple, Flavius and Septimius attacked Siwa, killing Bayek's friend Hepzefa and opening the vault. This activated the Apple's powers that Flavius used to control Cyrenaica while Septimius secreted the Staff to the Order. Following the Ancients, Bayek went to Cyrene to confront Flavius while Aya went to Alexandria to track Septimius. In the Temple of Mars, Bayek killed Flavius and recovered the Apple before hiding it away.[41]
Bayek and Aya laying the foundations of the Creed
In Alexandria, Aya met the Roman senators Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus and allied with them to fight the Order in Rome. Before her departure, Aya met with Bayek and the couple ended their relationship amicably, both agreeing to go their separate ways and build up their new brotherhood, which they named the Hidden Ones. Bayek subsequently became the Hidden Ones' Mentor in Egypt and installed a bureau in Memphis while Aya established a brotherhood in Rome.[42]
In 46 BCE, the priest Menkhtu impersonated Medunamun as the "Ibis Reborn" and allied with the remnants of the Order in Egypt to form the Sect of the Ibis Reborn in an attempt to retake control of the nation. As they entered the Isu complex under the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hidden Ones killed Menkhtu and his followers, putting an end to their plans.[43]
In Memphis, the Ancient Habibah possessed one half of an Isu dagger once wielded by the Isu Vejovis. She was killed by the Hidden One Khepri who was secretly a Sage of Vejovis. After recovering the dagger, Khepri was sent to Mesopotamia to establish a bureau and protect the artifact.[44]
Assassination of Caesar[]
- Main article: Assassination of Julius Caesar
Aya stabbing Caesar
On 15 March 44 BCE, Aya, Brutus, Longinus and various Roman senators planned the assassination of Julius Caesar due to his tyranical rule over the Roman Republic and ties to the Order of the Ancients. Aya killed Lucius Septimius in a fight before joining the others in stabbing Caesar to death. Three days later, Aya warned Cleopatra to leave Rome and to become a good queen for Egypt, otherwise she would share Caesar's fate. Cleopatra followed her warning and dissociated with the Order. Aya later renamed herself Amunet to distance herself from her past in order to better serve the Hidden Ones.[45]
Following Caesar's death, leadership of the Order fell to his adopted son Octavian. Allying with Marcus Antonius, he tracked the Hidden Ones responsible of Caesar's death, especially Brutus and Longinus. On 3 October 42 BCE, this culminated with the Battle of Philippi, where Brutus and Longinus committed suicide following their defeat by Octavian and Antonius.[46]
Confrontation in the Sinai[]
Rufio's final moments
By 38 BCE, the Order of the Ancients led by the Roman General Gaius Julius Rufio took control of the Sinai, pillaging the monuments and temples and inspiring fear in the population. Tahira installed a bureau in Klysma Nome and helped the Nabatean revolt led by Gamilat against the Romans. After the Order killed two Hidden Ones, Bayek arrived in Sinai and helped the bureau and the Nabateans.[47] Bayek assassinated the Ancients Tacito, who was executing the population;[48] Ampelius, who blocked the economic roads;[49] and Ptahmose, who organized the pillaging of the temples.[50]
After this, the Order burnt the Klysma bureau and captured the Hidden Ones. Bayek was saved from crucifixion by Amunet. Together they liberated the other Hidden Ones but Tahira died due to her injuries.[51] Bayek and Amunet later led an attack on the Roman soldiers to reach Rufio's fleet, which had arrived in the Sinai. Bayek infiltrated the general's ship and killed him, liberating the Sinai from the Order's influence for the time being.[52]
Roman Empire[]
- "For years we have scratched at the pillars of empire, toppling one or two when the foundation seemed too strong, and the weight of one Caesar's ambitions seemed too pressing. But there is a limit to how many supports a building may lose before it topples to the ground. We might have been more careful. We might have been more selective, more cautious in our approach to liberty."
- ―Magister Vitus, describing the Hidden Ones' activities in a letter left in a bureau in London.[src]-[m]
Amunet giving Cleopatra the poison
By 30 BCE, Octavian was the de facto ruler of the Roman Republic and led a military campaign against Antonius and Cleopatra. The leader of the Ancients wanted to capture the queen and kill Caesarion, the son she had with Caesar. On 12 August, Amunet infiltrated the palace in Alexandria and met with Cleopatra, giving her former ally poison to commit suicide and promising to protect Caesarion and train him as a Hidden One. The queen accepted her fate, ruining Octavius' plan to capture her alive.[53]
By 41 CE, decades after Octavian founded the Roman Empire, the Order of the Ancients influenced the emperor Caligula, who was a bloodthirsty tyrant. On 21 January, the Hidden One Leonius stabbed the emperor to death in an underground corridor beneath Palatine Hill, ending the Ancients' influence in Rome for the time being.[24]
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Hidden Ones retreated from some of their former territories such as the British Isles, mainly basing themselves around the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East.[54] In the meantime, the influence of the Order of the Ancients also faded, due to the development of monotheist religions.[13]
Tang China[]
The Golden Turtles
In 755, conflict broke out between the high-ranking members of the Order of the Ancients in China. By that time, the Order held major sway over the court of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty, as one of the Order's leaders Yang Guozhong served as the Emperor's chancellor. Eventually, Yang Guozhong came into conflict with the Tang general An Lushan, another influential member of the Order. This led to division among the Order, separating the faction known as the Golden Turtles led by Yang Guozhong from the Yeluohe led by An Lushan.[55]
Their conflict eventually sparked all-out war in China, with An Lushan rebelling against Emperor Xuanzong in what would become known as the An Lushan Rebellion. This led to An Lushan establishing his own state, the Great Yan, which he ruled as Emperor. After the Yeluohe army captured the western capital of Chang'an, Emperor Xuanzong decided to abandon the city and flee to Sichuan. The squad was led by the Hidden One Li E and consisted of the late government official Yan Jiming's widow He Hong'er, who successfully infiltrated the Emperor's military escort that was protecting him and his family along his escape.[55]
On the day that the group rested at Mawei Station, the Golden Turtles held a secret meeting in a bamboo forest clearing just outside its premises. They were attacked by the squad and most of the Golden Turtles members were killed, with Yang Guozhong beinghacked to death by the soldiers. The military strategist Yan Zhuang served as An Lushan's advisor while he worked in secret as a spy for Yang Guozhong. Eventually, on 29 January 757, An Lushan was assassinated by Li E.[55]
Abbasid Caliphate[]
- Basim: "What are you protecting that is worth all this bloodshed?"
- Rayhan: "Ancient ground. For generations, it has been our duty to watch over it. Defend it from the Order, who seek to exploit its secrets."
- —Basim Ibn Ishaq and Rayhan, on the Hidden Ones' mission to protect the Alamut Temple, 860s.[src]-[m]
The Alamut fortress
In the 9th century, the Hidden Ones in the Middle East discovered an Isu vault which housed dozens of Memory Seals. Resolving to protect the site from the Order of the Ancients, the Hidden Ones established the fortress of Alamut atop the vault's ruins, which would become their permanent stronghold in the region.[56]
In 824, the Order enlisted the Martyrs of Agaunum to escort a case containing an Isu artifact from the Sinai to Baghdad. The Hidden One Fuladh Al Haami hired a group of mercenaries to steal the case, but one of the mercenaries, Francis, secretly served the Martyrs and sabotaged the group's mission, resulting in most members' deaths. Eventually, the last surviving mercenaries – Azadeh, Dias and Roshan – ambushed the Martyrs while they were meeting with an Order member in Baghdad and killed them with Fuladh's help, securing the case. Fuladh then brought the case to Alamut and recruited Roshan into the Hidden Ones.[57]
By the 860s, the Order in Baghdad was secretly led by Qabiha, the favorite concubine of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil.[58] Under her leadership, the Ancients focused their efforts on excavating various Isu ruins in the desert, enslaving people to use as a workforce at their dig sites.[59] Meanwhile, the Alamut Hidden Ones were able to secure an uneasy alliance with the Tahirids, who governed the lands their fortress was situated on, protecting Alamut from any attack from the Order.[60] As the Hidden Ones had no permanent agents in Baghdad, they allied with the Zanj rebels led by Ali ibn Muhammad, who served as their eyes and ears in the city.[60] In Anbar, Roshan used her old acquaintance Dervis, a peddler who ran a thief network, to acquire information and items on the Hidden Ones' behalf.[61]
The Order of the Ancients meeting with Al-Mutawakkil
In December 861, the Order found a Memory Seal and delivered it to Anbar to be protected by the caliph. The young thief Basim Ibn Ishaq, a member of Dervis' network, decided to steal the artifact from the caliph's Winter Palace in an attempt to impress the Hidden Ones, whom he wished to join. After witnessing a meeting between the Order and Al-Mutawakkil, Basim stole the Seal, which activated in his hand, drawing the attention of the caliph. In the resulting struggle, Basim killed Al-Mutawakkil in self-defense and escaped from the palace with the Seal. When Roshan found him the following day, she took the artifact and recruited Basim into the Hidden Ones.[61]
With the death of Al-Mutawakkil, the Order lost a major puppet, but Qabiha was interested in finding Basim, having deduced that he was a reborn Isu due to his activation of the Memory Seal.[58] Believing that Basim was the key needed to access the Alamut Temple, Qabiha sent mercenaries to discover its location but they were killed by Basim and a fellow Hidden One, Nur. Following this, Nur was sent to Baghdad to investigate the Order's activities and establish contact with the Zanj rebels.[60] However, Nur was attacked by soldiers serving the Ancient Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob, who captured Ali ibn Muhammad and imprisoned him in the Damascus Gate Prison.[62]
Basim about to assassinate Mas'ood
After Nur returned to Alamut and informed the Hidden Ones of Ali's capture, Mentor Rayhan sent Roshan, Fuladh and Basim to Baghdad to find and rescue the rebel leader, as well as fight the Order more directly.[62] With the help of clues gathered by Nur, the Hidden Ones were able to track down Ali, and Basim rescued him from the prison.[63] Ali then informed them that Mas'ood was responsible for his capture, leading to Basim assassinating the Ancient at the Caravanserai west of Baghdad.[64]
While the Hidden Ones established several bureaus across the city,[65] Basim continued to hunt down the Order's members operating in Baghdad. At the House of Wisdom, he discovered that the Ancient Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa was building a machine called the Alruh using Isu technology recovered from the Order's excavation sites, which could decipher the Memory Seals' contents.[66] To make the machine function properly, the Ancient Hassan enlisted the help of the inventor and Hidden One Ahmad ibn Musa,[67] while his fellow Order member Zahra abducted the scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq to force him to translate the Voynich manuscript.[68] Basim assassinated both Order members and, during a symposium held at the House of Wisdom, killed Fazil, ending his experiments with the Alruh.[66]
In Karkh, the caliph's treasurer and Order member Ning controlled the Bazaar, using her subordinates Javed and Suhail to seize foreign goods in search of a Chinese hairpin and raise the taxes for foreign merchants. This led to an increase in corruption in the district, which Basim investigated, learning about Ning's operation.[69][70] After assassinating Javed and Suhail, Basim attended the annual Da'irat Al-mal held at the Bazaar and killed Ning. In the process, he met Qabiha, who also attended the event, though neither was aware of the other's allegiance at the time.[71]
Basim and Ali standing over Wasif's body
As the Zanj rebellion continued to grow, the Ancients sought to end it. The Turkic warlord Wasif al-Turki, the general Jasoor ibn Basil, and the admiral Nadir ibn Havid worked with the captain Dogan bin Arslan to capture and execute rebels in Jarjaraya, until Basim and Ali freed the rebels and killed Dogan.[72] After being informed of their ally's death, Jassor hid inside the Qasr Salih while Nadir went to a camp south of Baghdad. Though well-protected, both Ancients were soon killed by Basim.[73][74] Next, Basim and Ali infiltrated the Great Garrison to eliminate Wasif and rescue the rebels he held prisoner. Despite failing to save Ali's second-in-command Beshi, the Hidden One and the rebel leader succeeded in killing Wasif and escaping the garrison.[75]
With all of her lieutenants dead, Qabiha made a deal with Baghdad's governor Muhammad ibn Tahir, who sought to end the civil war between Qabiha's son Abu' Abdallah and his cousin al-Musta'in over the claim to the Caliphate's throne. The Order leader forced her son to sign away his birthright and recognize al-Musta'in as the undisputed caliph; in return, Muhammad had his Tahirid cousins remove their protection of Alamut, leaving the Hidden Ones' stronghold vulnerable.[76]
At the same time, Basim sought to uncover the identity of the Ra's Al-Af'a of the Order and investigated the court poet Arib Al-Ma'muniyya, Qabiha, and Muhammad, all three of whom were suspected of having ties to the Ancients.[77] While Arib proved to be innocent,[78] Basim learned about Muhammad's deal with the Order and was forced to escape from the Shurta Headquarters after the governor called the guards.[76] At the Harem, Basim investigated Qabiha's office and found evidence confirming that she was the Order's leader.[79]
Qabiha's death
After convincing Roshan to let him carry out Qabiha's assassination,[80] Basim infiltrated the Palace of the Green Dome and confronted the Ra's Al-Af'a. As Qabiha informed Basim of his true nature as a reborn Isu and tried to convince him to accompany her to the Alamut Temple, the Order leader was suddenly struck from behind and killed by Roshan. Having deduced Basim's secret nature by herself, Roshan warned him against investigating the Alamut Temple and threatened to kill him if he disobeyed her.[58]
Following Qabiha's death, the Order used a Tahirid army led by Kabeer Al-Jund to launch a surprise attack against the Hidden Ones, resulting in many of their members being captured or killed. Arriving at Alamut after deciding to disobey Roshan, Basim was caught in the attack and was nearly killed, but was rescued by a mortally wounded Nur. Basim then killed Kabeer and freed all the captive Hidden Ones, allowing them to repel the assault, before going to investigate the Alamut Temple. Though Roshan attempted to stop him, she was defeated and subsequently elected to leave the Hidden Ones.[56]
Byzantine Empire[]
After exploring the Alamut Temple, Basim regained the memories of his past life as the Isu Loki. Although he now had an ulterior goal, namely to find and exact retribution on other Isu reincarnations,[56] he continued to serve the Hidden Ones and took on an apprentice, Hytham. In 867, the two Hidden Ones were sent to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople to investigate an assassination plot against Prince Leo VI, orchestrated by his father Emperor Basil I.[81]
During their investigation, Basim and Hytham allied with Thyra, the leader of the Eagle Clan and captain of the Varangian guard, and Hytham joined the Varangian guard undercover to keep watch over Leo. Soon, the group learned that Emperor Basil had allied with the Order of the Ancients, who manipulated him into attempting to kill his son. After foiling multiple attempts by the Ancients to kill Leo, Hytham was lured into a trap where he was captured and tortured by the Order, though he was soon saved by Basim and Thyra.[81]
While the royal family attended a chariot race at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the Ancients made one final attempt to eliminate Leo and managed to kidnap the young prince from his family's booth. However, they were pursued by Basim, Hytham, Thyra and Leo's bodyguard Justin, who ultimately killed the Order members, including their leader Isaac. As a result, the Ancients' alliance with Emperor Basil came to an end and Basim and Hytham left Constantinople.[81]
The Silk Road[]
By 870, the Order of the Ancients allied with the Snake-Eaters, a group who protected travelers along the Silk Road. Their leader Dunya joined the Order and her followers began to oppress travelers. After they destroyed the Hidden Ones' bureau in Antioch, Basim Ibn Ishaq sent letters to other Hidden One branches requesting help, and the brotherhood sent Jessamyn, Kalim, Rashid, and Sihem from Egypt and Oisel and Matthias from Francia.[82]
After the Snake-Eaters were exterminated in Antioch, the Egyptian and Frankish Hidden Ones traveled along the Silk Road to kill Dunya. During their attack on the Snake-Eaters' fortress, Matthias was captured and Oisel was left for dead. While Dunya went to Chang'an to convert Matthias to her cause, the Egyptian Hidden Ones tracked her and were joined by Oisel, who had traveled alone in the desert. The Hidden Ones attacked Dunya's headquarters and Oisel killed her, ending the Order's control of the Silk Road.[82]
Viking Age[]
- Eivor: "Basim. Hytham. This feud is not yours, yet you fight it all the same. I find that strange."
- Basim: "You find it strange because you are wrong. Our clan, the Hidden Ones, have been fighting with Kjotve's Order for centuries."
- —Basim Ibn Ishaq explaining the Hidden Ones' conflict with the Order to Eivor Varinsdottir, 872.[src]-[m]
Alfred and Æthelred, Kings of Wessex and Grand Maegesters of the Order
During the 9th century, the Order of the Ancients spread their grip across Francia, England, and Norway. Their branch in England was led by the Kings of Wessex, beginning with Æthelwulf and later his sons Æthelred I and Alfred. Even as a Grand Maegester, Alfred despised the Order for his worshipping of the Isu as he was a devout Christian. The King secretly planned to reform the Ancients to become a universal order but the Viking invasions slowed his plan.[83]
By 870, a merchant in Bulgar had a Shroud of Eden in his possession. The Hidden One Ammon infiltrated his palace to recover the artifact before the Ancients, but faced resistance from the Vikings Sigurd Styrbjornsson and Knud of the Raven Clan, who were trying to rob the palace.[84] After Ammon killed Knud, he was in turn killed by Sigurd, who took his Hidden Blade as a trophy but left the Shroud behind as the Ancients approached the palace.[85]
Later, Basim Ibn Ishaq met Sigurd in Constantinople and deduced the Viking to be the reborn form of the Isu Týr. Basim became close to Sigurd, serving as his guide through the Abbasid Caliphate and teaching him some of the Hidden Ones' customs. In 872, when Sigurd decided to return home to Norway, Basim and Hytham agreed to accompany him.[86] While Hytham was tasked to assassinate the Ancient Kjotve the Cruel, who operated in the country, Basim secretly followed his own agenda: finding Odin's reincarnation to take his revenge.[87]
Hytham attempting to assassinate Kjotve
In late 872, the two Hidden Ones arrived in Fornburg, Sigurd's hometown, and met his foster sister, the shieldmaiden Eivor Varinsdottir. They explained to her their fight against the Ancients and begrudgingly granted her the use of a Hidden Blade without inducting her into the brotherhood.[86] With the Raven Clan, the Hidden Ones attacked Kjotve's fortress, during which Hytham tried to assassinate the Ancient, only to be wounded when Kjotve intercepted him. However, this allowed Eivor to kill Kjotve,[88] avenging her parents Varin and Rosta whom the Ancient had killed years ago.[89] Kjotve's son Gorm, who was also an Order member, fled the fight and was later exiled from Norway by the new King Harald Fairhair.[90]
When Sigurd and Eivor decided to relocate with other members of the Raven Clan to England, Basim and Hytham followed them and established a bureau in their colony of Ravensthorpe in Mercia.[91] Hytham gathered intel on the Ancients operating in England while Eivor killed the targets and took their medallions as proof of her successes.[92] She freed Grantesbridge from the Ancient Wigmund's control,[93] and protected Lincolnshire from the schemes of the Ancient Herefrith.[94] Eivor also tracked and killed Gorm in Vinland as he was searching for the Grand Temple, guided by Juno through a Crystal Ball.[95] Eivor handed the artifact to Konwahawíhshon, a Kanien'kehá:ka from the tribe's village of Karonhiakèn:iate'.[96]
In Lunden, the Ancient Stowe was in possession of half of Vejovis' dagger before sending it to Syria. Three Hidden Ones helped Alva, a Viking warrior of the Raven Clan and a Sage of Vejovis, to kill the Ancient. While exploring the ruins of the Lunden bureau, Alva entered an Isu chamber and communicated with a hologram of Vejovis. The Isu addressed a "Spectator" saying that they should locate the blade by finding his Sage. He also tasked Alva to destroy the chamber, which she did.[97]
Basim, Sigurd and Eivor meeting Fulke
As Basim wanted to reveal to Sigurd his nature as a reborn Isu, they decided to search for the Saga Stone and allied with the gnostic scholar Fulke, who was secretly an Ancient.[98] She later betrayed them and captured Sigurd to experiment on him, cutting his right arm to awaken Týr's memories inside him.[99] Basim and Eivor tracked Fulke to Cent, but she escaped and took refuge in the fortress of Portcestre in Sussex. With her allies in England, including Basim, Eivor besieged Portcestre, rescuing Sigurd and killing Fulke.[100]
In 877, Eivor and Sigurd returned to Norway to enter the Yggdrasil vault, where Basim tried to kill them upon learning that Eivor was Odin's reincarnation. During their fight, Basim was defeated and trapped in Yggdrasil's simulation, leaving him in a suspended state.[101] His actions were seen as a betrayal of the brotherhood by the council in Alamut and left Hytham as the sole Hidden One in England for a time.[102]
Destruction of the Order of the Ancients[]
- "In a strange irony, I am grateful for the Danes and their invasion of Northumbria. My title should have gone to Aella. Being dead, it fell to my brother and then to me. God's unlikely gift. I will use it to destroy what I loathe so deeply about this sickening Order, and start afresh. Goodwin is with me, as are men on the continent. I will soon find others."
- ―Alfred the Great's commentary in a document, 870s.[src]-[m]
Seeing the arrival of the Hidden Ones in England as a way to reform the Order of the Ancients, Alfred took the alias of "A Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ" and sent letters to Hytham at the Ravensthorpe bureau with clues to eliminate the Ancients in Lunden, Jorvik, and Winchester. Hytham in turn relayed the information to Eivor, who killed the Order members in all three cities, liberating them from the Ancients' influence.[103][104][105]
Aelfred handing his Order medallion to Eivor
In 878, after Eivor had killed all major Order members in England, Alfred sent a letter to arrange a meeting with her in Athelnay, where he resided in exile following his defeat during the Battle of Chippenham.[106] When Eivor arrived, Alfred explained his actions to her and gave her his Order medallion, as well as the key to his study to show her his great project for the Order. Later, Eivor met with Hytham and told him the truth about Alfred. As the King no longer posed a threat in their eyes, Eivor and Hytham decided to spare him.[83]
In the Loch Ness Temple, the monk Columba led a Christian sect, using the Codex of Eden to convert the population. To recover the artifact, Alfred sent his agent Ecbert, who had faked his death, to infiltrate the group. To accomplish his mission, his brother Edward investigated his disappearance before being abducted by Eivor while his monastery was raided by the Raven Clan. Brought to Raventhorpe, the copyist worked for Hytham in his bureau.[107]
Recognizing a hermetic language close to his late brother's parchments, Edward convinced Hytham to send him to Lunden with the Viking warrior Niels Gunnarsson to investigate. There, they were trained by the Hidden One Adelaïde before infiltrating the Loch Ness temple and flooding it, destroying the cult. Edward reunited with his brother but he was killed by Adelaïde, who took the codex. Enraged, Edward threw his mentor from a cliff, killing her and destroying the artifact. Edward later recovered the fragments and brought them to Alfred, joining his newly reformed Order. Meanwhile, Niels returned to Hytham and declined his invitation to join the Hidden Ones.[107]
Despite the actions of the Hidden Ones, Eivor and Alfred, several remnants of the Order of the Ancients remained in England and allied with the Descendants of the Round Table to recover Excalibur, a Sword of Eden possessed by Eivor. At the same time, the Women of the Mist sent Niamh of Argyll to infiltrate the Hidden Ones in Lunden to take back the sword in Avalon. After Niamh stole the artifact, Hytham helped her by burning a replica of the sword at Hwithors. As the Ancients and the Descendants believed that Excalibur had been destroyed, Niamh brought the sword to Avalon while the Hidden Ones and the Women of the Mist formed an alliance.[108]
Roshan and Eivor confirming Makira's death
Two decades after Qabiha's death, her former servant Makira joined the Order and traveled to England. There, she allied with Edward, Earl of Westerna, manipulating him and his men into launching raids to steal valuable items and documents, and framing the Raven Clan for the attacks. Seeking to clear her clan's reputation, Eivor allied with Roshan, who despite no longer serving the Hidden Ones, had taken it upon herself to eliminate the Order's remnants across the world. Infiltrating the fortress of Ravensburg, Eivor killed Edward while Roshan assassinated Makira and recovered a scroll from her body, which she subsequently delivered to Jerusalem.[109]
By 889, the Hidden Ones had successfully established a strong branch in England under Hytham's leadership.[110] Meanwhile, Alfred's reforms profoundly transformed the Order, abandoning their worship of the Isu and instead promoting the betterment of mankind. By the early 10th century, the reformed Order was known as the Templars. As they continued to control societies through mischievous ways, the Hidden Ones fought them.[111]
Late Viking Age[]
- King Eric: "Do you believe Styrbjörn has entered into a compact with this Order?"
- Torgny: "No. Styrbjörn is far too willful and unpredictable to serve their purposes. But I assure you the Order is taking an interest in the outcome of this conflict."
- —King Eric of Sweden and Torgny the Lawspeaker discussing the Order's expansion to Scandinavia, 985.[src]
In 975, the Scandinavian branch of the Hidden Ones poisoned Svealand's harsh King Olof Björnsson. Their Mentor Torgny the Lawspeaker backed the crowning of Olof's brother Eric instead of Olof's son Styrbjörn, who was believed to be too much like his father. Taking refuge in the Kingdom of Denmark, Styrbjörn allied with the Danish King Harald Bluetooth, who was a member of the Templar Order. Understanding that Styrbjörn was a descendant of the hybrids, Harald gave him the Devotion prong of the Trident of Eden to lead his army against his uncle. Styrbjörn defeated Palnatoke, the founder of the Jomsvikings, taking control of the faction with their former leader as his second-in-command.[112]
In 978, a Templar spy infiltrated the Hidden Ones in Dorset. The brotherhood investigated the matter.[111]
Circa 984, Styrbjörn and Eric's armies fought at the Battle of Fýrisvellir. The Hidden One Thorvald Hjaltason killed Palnatoke and recovered the Devotion prong after Styrblörn died during the battle. To protect the artifact, Thorvald gave it to the farmer and warrior Östen Jorundsson, who hid it near his house.[112]
Middle Ages[]
Hassan-i Sabbāh
By the mid-11th century, like the Templars, the Hidden Ones had reorganized themselves, becoming known as the Assassin Brotherhood. One of the first known Assassins was active in the Duchy of Normandy.[111]
In 1090, under the leadership of Hassan-i Sabbāh, the Assassins in the Levant became a public organization for the first time in their history. Operating primarily out of their fortress of Alamut, they soon established a network of strongholds throughout the region, most notably Masyaf.[24]
In 1129, it was the turn of the Templars, under the leadership of Bernard de Clairvaux and Hugues de Payens, to become the Order of the Knights Templar, a monastic-military order officially founded to protect Christian pilgrims and Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The Templars also established a network of fortresses and a financial infrastructure in Europe and the Levant.[24]
During the Crusades, although the Templars officially sided with the Crusaders and the Assassins with the Saracens, in reality the two factions had members and allies on both sides.[24]
Assault on Masyaf[]
- Main article: Assault on Masyaf
Templars taking Assassins as hostages
In 1189, during the Third Crusade, the Assassin Haras defected to the Templars and led an assault on Masyaf, the headquarters of the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins. He captured the Mentor Al Mualim and other Assassins as hostages. Al Mualim's disciple, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, repelled the Templar attack and killed Haras, saving the Mentor, who granted him the title of Master Assassin.[113]
Wounded during the attack, the Assassin and Vejovis' Sage Faisal rode to Damascus to sabotage Templars' caches. On his journey, he killed Templars and destroyed water supplies, weakening their troops. In the city, Faisal met a Templar known as "The Hideout". Believing he had joined their cause, The Hideout gave a part of Vejovis' blade to the Assassin to transport it to Beirut. Their meeting was interrupted by the Assassin Rafee who fought Faisal, believing that he had betrayed the Brotherhood. The Sage killed Rafee but explained that his act would help the Assassin. Faisal went to Beirut and later brought the artifact to Constantinople.[114]
Quest for the Chalice[]
- Main article: Quest for the Chalice
In 1190, as the Templars tried to find the Chalice, an artifact that could unify the Holy Land under their banner, Al Mualim assigned Altaïr to recover it before them.[115] As the Chalice was locked in the hidden Temple of Sand, Altaïr traveled to Damascus, Tyre, and Jerusalem, collecting two of the temple's keys and stealing the third from Lord Basilisk, the leader of the Templars.[116]
Altaïr dueling Basilisk
Arriving at the Temple of Sand, Altaïr was confronted by Basilisk who explained that the Chalice was in fact a woman. The two enemies escaped from the collapsing temple, and later fought in Tyre.[117] Wounded, Basilisk revealed that the Chalice was in Jerusalem but also that the Templars planned to poison the water supply of Acre to end the siege of the city.[118] Altaïr thwarted the Templars' plot before going to Jerusalem.[119] He discovered that the Chalice was his lover Adha and he decided to leave the Brotherhood for her after his mission.[120]
As Harash, the second-in-command of the Assassins, secretly joined the Templars and prepared an attack on Alep, Altaïr killed the traitor.[121] Adha went to Tyre to leave the Holy Land with Altaïr, but she was captured by Basilisk. Altaïr fought the Templar leader and killed him, but the Templars left the city with Adha on a ship.[122] Later, the Templars killed her but Altaïr avenged her death.[123]
Hunt for the Nine[]
- Main article: Hunt for the Nine
Altaïr failing to assassinate Robert de Sablé
In 1191, Al Mualim secretly allied with the Templar Grand Master Robert de Sablé and his lieutenants Tamir, Garnier de Naplouse, Talal, Abu'l Nuqoud, William of Montferrat, Majd Addin, Sibrand and Jubair al Hakim. Together, they discovered an Apple of Eden in the ruins of Solomon's Temple. The Templars wanted to use the artifact to take control of the Holy Land and end the Third Crusade, but Al Mualim sought to keep the Apple for himself.[124]
The Mentor thus sent Altaïr and the brothers Malik and Kadar Al-Sayf to recover the Apple before the Templars. Although the Assassins were successful in their task, Altaïr's harsh actions in Solomon's Temple resulted in Kadar's death and Malik losing an arm.[125] Robert later besieged Masyaf with his army to recover the artifact but the Assassins repelled the Templars by activating a trap.[126]
To ensure no one would attempt to take the Apple from him, Al Mualim stripped Altaïr of his rank for his actions in Solomon's Temple and tasked him to kill nine Templars – Robert and his eight lieutenants – to recover his lost title.[127] Traveling to Damas, Acre, and Jerusalem, Altaïr killed his assigned targets, breaking the Templar influence in these cities, preventing the assassination of King Richard I of England and thwarting the Templars' plan to create an obedient army.[128]
Robert de Sablé's death
With all of his men dead, Robert decided to secure an alliance with Richard I and Saladin, taking advantage of Altaïr's assassinations to paint the Brotherhood as the common enemy. While Robert went to meet with the two leaders in Arsuf, his agent Maria Thorpe served as a decoy to lure Altaïr into a trap in Jerusalem.[129] After Altaïr discovered the truth, he went to Arsuf and dueled the Grand Master, killing him.[124]
With his dying breath, Robert exposed Al Mualim's treachery,[124] prompting Altaïr to return to Masyaf. After finding his Mentor using the Apple to control the town's populace, Altaïr killed him and subsequently took control of both the Brotherhood and the Apple.[130]
Confrontation in Cyprus[]
- Bouchart: "The world is more complicated than most dare admit. And if you, Assassin... if you knew more than how to murder, you might understand this."
- Altaïr: "Save your lecture on virtue for yourself. And die knowing that I will never let the Apple of Eden fall into any hands but my own."
- —Armand Bouchart and Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad during the former's final moments, 1193.[src]-[m]
Altaïr capturing Maria
In October 1191, Armand Bouchart succeeded the late Robert de Sablé as Grand Master and decided to relocate his troops to Cyprus, where the Templar Archive was located. As his men left Acre, a team of Assassins led by Altaïr infiltrated the city and captured the Templar Maria Thorpe. Altaïr went to Cyprus with the Apple to stop the Templars and took Maria as a hostage.[131]
The actions of the Templars on the island provoked the creation of the Cypriot Resistance. In Limassol, Altaïr allied with the resistance, killing the Templar Fredrich the Red.[132] In Kyrenia, Altaïr killed Bouchart's associates: the fanatic Templar Moloch,[133] the Dark Oracle,[134] and Moloch's twin sons Shalim and Shahar.[135]
While Altaïr was in Kyrenia, the Templars began to remove the contents of the Archive in Limassol.[136] As one of Bouchart's agents impersonated the resistance leader Barnabas and misled Altaïr to kill the merchant Jonas, the Assassin was suspected of being a traitor. After the agent killed the resistance leader Alexander and framed Altaïr, the population turned against the Assassin, who used the Apple to convince them that the Templars were their true enemies.[137]
Armand Bouchart's death
Bouchart's agent was soon killed by Maria, who had lost her faith in the Templars' cause and came to side with the Assassins during her journey alongside Altaïr.[137] In the Templar Archive under Limassol Castle, Maria confronted Bourchart but was knocked out. Altaïr came to her aid and killed Bouchart, ending the Templars' rule over Cyprus.[136]
For the next three decades, Cyprus remained under the control of the Assassins. Circa 1228, the Templars attacked the Assassins who protected the Archive. As the Mentor Abbas Sofian refused to send reinforcement, the Templars killed the Assassins and reclaimed control of their Archive.[138]
First Barons' War[]
- "Our so-called King meets with his Templar advisers in London. Shall we pay them a visit?"
- ―Robert Fitzwalter to his supporters, 1215.[src]
By 1215, the Templars were influencing King John of England. As the King refused to apply the Magna Carta, the Assassin Robert Fitzwalter rallied the barons and led a civil war against the King, allying with the Kingdom of France. The Master Assassin William of Cassingham, meanwhile, sided with John and his son Henry, viewing them as the lesser of two evils as he was against the alliance with the French.[139]
Mongol Empire[]
Qulan Gal and Altaïr in Mongolia
With the rise of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan, who possessed a Sword of Eden, the Assassins and Templars took an interest in the new empire. In 1227, Altaïr, Maria and their son Darim allied with the Mongolian Assassins Qulan Gal and Nergüi to kill Genghis and his son Jochi Khan.[140][141]
On 9 April 1241, during the Battle of Legnica, opposing the combined forces of Poles and Moravians against the Mongols, a young Templar was captured and brought before Genghis' grandson, Möngke. The Templar taught him about the Order and Möngke became the founder of the Mongolian Rite of the Templar Order.[142] On 11 December, Nergüi assassinated Genghis' son Ögedei Khan while Qulan Gal killed Chagatai Khan on 1 July 1242.[143][144]
In November 1256, with his grandfather's Sword, Hülegü Khan led the siege of Alamut. The Assassins surrendered without a fight. A year later, on 12 August 1257, his troops arrived in Masyaf but Altaïr repelled them using the Apple of Eden. That same day, Altaïr, having planned the dismantlement of the Assassins as a public organization for years, ordered the evacuation of Masyaf.[145]
Altaïr using the Apple of Eden against the Mongols
Before locking himself in his library with the Apple, Altaïr gave his Codex and his library keys to the brothers Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, two Venetian explorers who had been inducted as Assassins.[145] On their way to found an Assassin Guild in Constantinople, the Polos were attacked by the Mongols and lost the Codex. The brothers subsequently tried to recover the book for a decade in vain.[139]
By 1259, Möngke Khan became Khan of the Mongol Empire and wielded the Fear prong of the Trident of Eden. Between February and August, he led the siege of Diaoyu Castle in China. A commander of the Song dynasty who was also an Assassin attacked with his archers the Mongol troops at the castle. The Mongol Bayan killed the Assassin on 10 August. The next day, Zhang Zhi, the Assassin's daughter, infiltrated the Mongol camp and killed Möngke Khan. Bayan crippled the Assassin apprentice and later joined the Templars as he was inducted by Möngke's son Asutai.[142]
The death of Möngke Khan, who was buried with the Fear prong, led the Mongol Empire into two civil wars, with the Assassins manipulating each side. On 14 November 1263, Nergüi assassinated the Prince of Novgrad Alexander Nevsky as he was allied to the Golden Horde.[146] On 8 February 1265, Nergüi killed Hülegü Khan in retaliation for the fall of Masyaf.[147]
In 1271, the Polo brothers went to Asia with Niccolò's son Marco. In May 1275, they arrived before Hülegü's brother Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty of China. Marco entered in his service for 17 years and recovered Altaïr's Codex, bringing it to Venice.[139]
Persecution of the Templars[]
- Main article: Persecution of the Templars
In 1307, the Mentor of the French Assassins, Guillaume de Nogaret, allied with King Philip IV of France to arrest the Templars, who had been declared heretics. On 13 October, the Master Assassin Thomas de Carneillon and Assassins disguised as Flemish mercenaries attacked the Temple, the Templar headquarters in Paris. Grand Master Jacques de Molay tasked his advisor to hide a Sword of Eden and his Codex Pater Intellectus before being arrested. The advisor hid the two artifacts in the de Molay's vault before being killed by de Carneillon.[148]
The last Templars burning at the stakes
The Templars were charged with many crimes, including heresy, blasphemy, and the worship of a deity known as Baphomet. In 1312, Pope Clement V, under the influence of the Assassins, disbanded the Knights Templar in his papal bull, Vox in excelso.[149] Jacques de Molay, who was a Sage of Aita, decided to reform the Order as a secret organization and sent nine of his trusted men, who possessed knowledge of the Templars, the Isu, and the Assassins, out into the world to continue his work.[150]
During his imprisonment, de Molay hid within the walls of his cell the Heart, an artifact that enhanced the power of his Sword of Eden.[151] On 18 March 1314, the Grand Master and Geoffroi de Charney were burnt at the stake before King Philip and Pope Clement.[148]
With the Templar Order officially disbanded, Thomas de Carneillon, by now Mentor of the French Brotherhood, traveled through Europe for a decade alongside his Assassin brethren, tracking the last remnants of the Templars who had gone into hiding. Their actions broke the power of the Order in Europe for over a century.[152]
Early modern period[]
Italian Renaissance[]
- Main article: Assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza
- Main article: Pazzi conspiracy
- Main article: Venetian conspiracy
- Main article: Battle of Forlì
- Main article: Liberation of Rome
By 1321, the Brotherhood believed the Templars to have been completely eradicated, unaware that their enemies had simply started operating in secrecy just like them. That year, the Assassin and Florentine writer Dante Alighieri planned to travel to Spain to hide Altaïr's Codex, but was killed by the Templars on 14 September, revealing their continued existence to the Brotherhood.[153]
Domenico Auditore in Venice
Dante's disciple Domenico took up the mission in his place and fended off pirates hired by the Templars to retrieve the Codex. Despite losing his wife Isabetta to the pirates, Domenico managed to protect the Codex by breaking it apart and hiding its pages in various boxes, which were subsequently scattered all across Italy.[153]
In January 1324, the Templars killed Domenico's father and Marco Polo as they were Assassins. Discovering their bodies, Domenico relocated to Monteriggioni, a walled town in Tuscany. Using Polo's fortune, Domenico founded the House of Auditore, impersonating a noble Florentine family of bankers who became the rulers of Monteriggioni. He constructed the Villa Auditore, which became the headquarters of the Italian Assassins, and trained his son Renato in the Brotherhood's ways.[153]
By 1355, the Templar Geoffroy de Charny owned the original Shroud of Eden. The Assassins secretly stole the Piece of Eden and sent it to Monteriggioni. Renato decided to hide the Shroud in the catacombs under the Villa Auditore, protecting it with various traps.[154]
The Templars about to execute Giovanni and his sons
By 1476, the Roman Rite of the Templar Order was led by Rodrigo Borgia, a cardinal who had a strong influence in Europe. He planned to take control of Italian city-states through conspiracies and diplomacy. After the Templars assassinated the Duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza, an ally of Florence's ruler Lorenzo de' Medici, on 26 December,[155] the Assassin Giovanni Auditore tried to expose them but he was publicly executed along with his sons Federico and Petruccio three days later.[156]
Giovanni's last surviving son, Ezio, informally joined the Assassins and tracked the Templars responsible for his family's death, firstly killing the corrupt Gonfaloniere of Florence and Templar Uberto Alberti.[157] On 26 April 1478, the Templar House of Pazzi tried to take over Florence by killing Lorenzo de' Medici. Ezio thwarted their plot, saving Lorenzo's life, and killed all the conspirators through Tuscany.[158]
By 1481, the Templars turned their focus to the Republic of Venice. The House of Barbarigo tried to control all the merchants of Venice,[159] and on 14 September 1485, they poisoned the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, allowing the Templar Marco Barbarigo to take his place.[160] The Assassins Antonio de Magianis, Teodora Contanto and Bartolomeo d'Alviano fought the Templar influence and received the aid of Ezio Auditore, who killed every Venetian Templar.[161] Marco's brother, Agostino Barbarigo, became the new Doge and allied with the Assassins for a time.[162]
Rodrigo and Ezio's confrontation
At the same time, the Templars and the Assassins tried to collect the pages of Altaïr's Codex to discover the location of an Isu vault, rumored to contain a powerful weapon.[163] A prophecy hidden in the Codex foretold that only "the Prophet" could open the vault with two Pieces of Eden. Rodrigo Borgia believed that he was the Prophet and tried to recover these artifacts.[164]
On 25 June 1488, the Templars brought to Venice the Apple of Eden that the Ottoman Templar Cem had hidden inside the Templar Archive of Cyprus.[165] The Assassins and Ezio confronted Rodrigo when he came to retrieve the artifact, forcing the Grand Master to flee as he was outnumbered. Following this, the Assassins secured the Apple and officially inducted Ezio into the Brotherhood.[164]
The Orsi brothers confronting Ezio and Caterina
On 7 July, the Assassins entrusted the Apple to their ally Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì. Rodrigo hired the condottieri brothers Ludovico and Checco Orsi to attack Forlì and retrieve the Apple, as well as a map to the Codex pages made by the late Templar Girolamo Riario, Caterina's husband.[166] During the Battle of Forlì, Ezio and Niccolò Machiavelli helped Caterina to defend the citadel against the Orsi's troops.[167] Ezio killed the Orsi brothers but lost the Apple after falling unconscious due to his wounds, causing it to be stolen by the monk Girolamo Savonarola. Before leaving Forlì, Ezio received the Codex pages map from Caterina, allowing him to collect the pages before the Templars.[168]
In the late 1480s, the Templars searched for a part of Vejovis' blade in Venice. Ezio asked his friend Leonardo da Vinci to draw a map for the Assassin and Vejovis' Sage Giulia to locate the item. She infiltrated the Basilica di San Marco and killed a Templar who revealed the existence of a treasure in the hidden vault beneath the Basilica. Entering the vault, Giulia met Vejovis' hologram who tasked her to hide the dagger deeper in the vault.[169]
On 11 August 1492, Rodrigo Borgia was elected as Pope Alexander VI. The Templars thus had control over the Papacy and access to the Papal Staff of Eden, the second artifact which could open the Isu vault located beneath the Sistine Chapel.[170] To fight the Templars, the Assassins Niccolò Machiavelli and Perotto Calderon infiltrated the Papal court while Bartolomeo d'Alviano fought the Borgia troops in Rome.[171]
By 1493, the Templar Bonacolto Contarini arrived in Florence and used his family's wealth to strong-arm merchants and officials to recruit them to the Templar cause. Those who refused were captured and sold as slaves to foreign merchants. Ezio discovered the Templar resurgence in his hometown and requested aid from different Assassin Guilds to put an end to it. A team of Spanish Assassins worked with the Assassins Corvo Antonelli and Perina di Bastian and killed Contarini.[172]
In 1497, the Assassins and the Templars discovered that Savonarola had used the Apple of Eden to take control of Florence. Rodrigo Borgia sent his troops to recover the artifact while the Assassins led a revolt against Savonarola.[173] Ezio killed his nine lieutenants bewitched by the artifact, freeing the citizens from the monk's control. On 8 April 1498, Savonarola was attacked by an angry mob and lost the Apple. As a Templar guard grabbed the artifact, Ezio killed him and took the Apple.[174]
Ezio and Rodrigo's last fight
By 1499, the Assassins had collected all the Codex pages, and using the Apple of Eden, they located the Vatican vault.[170] On 28 December, while his fellow Assassins distracted the guards in Rome, Ezio infiltrated the Vaticano District and confronted Rodrigo Borgia. The Assassin used the Apple of Eden while the Grand Master used the Papal Staff of Eden. Even if the Pope had the upper hand, wounding Ezio and taking the Apple, the Assassin defeated him in a fist-fight. Rodrigo accepted that he was not the Prophet as he had believed and asked Ezio to kill him, but the Assassin refused.[175]
Opening the vault with the two Pieces of Eden, Ezio discovered what it contained: a message from the Isu Minerva, who spoke to a man named Desmond about the Great Catastrophe and a Second Disaster.[175] Leaving the vault, Ezio tried to recover the Staff but it was locked underground.[176]
Cesare capturing Mario during the Siege of Monteriggioni
Contrary to his father who used conspiracies to try and unify Italy under the Templar banner, Cesare Borgia wanted to conquer it with his army. Funded by his cousin Juan Borgia the Younger and allying with the French baron Octavian de Valois, Cesare led the Siege of Monteriggioni on 2 January 1500. He killed the Assassin leader Mario Auditore, captured the Brotherhood's ally Caterina Sforza, and took the Apple of Eden. The city then fell under Templar influence.[177]
Surviving the attack on Monteriggioni, Ezio Auditore relocated to Rome.[178] With Machiavelli, Bartolomeo d'Alviano, La Volpe and his sister Claudia, he established their new headquarters on Tiber Island, expanding their network in the city to liberate Rome.[179] Ezio also inducted into the Brotherhood numerous citizens harassed by the Borgia, sending them on missions through Europe and Asia.[180] One of Ezio's apprentices, Francesco Vecellio, led a team of Assassins through Italy, breaking Cesare's power.[181]
In August 1503, Ezio assassinated Juan Borgia[182] and the Baron de Valois.[183] He also saved the actor Pietro Rossi who was targeted by the Templar Micheletto Corella on the order of Cesare, and recovered Rossi's key to enter the Castel Sant'Angelo.[184] Without funds and troops, Cesare killed his father to acquire the Apple of Eden on 18 August.[185] Ezio retrieved the artifact before the Templar and used it to fight his troops until Cesare's arrest in December by the order of Pope Julius II.[186]
Ezio letting Cesare fall to his death
As Ezio saw through the Apple that Cesare would return in power, the Assassin decided to eliminate him.[186] After hiding the Apple in the Colosseum Vault, Ezio confronted Cesare during the Siege of Viana on 12 March 1507 and defeated him. The Assassin then threw Cesare from Viana Castle's walls to his death, ending the influence of the House of Borgia over the Templars.[187]
Spanish Inquisition[]
- "The Inquisition has finally delivered Spain to the Templars. Sultan Muhammad and his people still hold out in Granada. But if his son, the prince, is captured... he will surrender the city and the Apple of Eden. [...] If the Apple falls into their hands, the Templars will destroy everything that stands in their way."
- ―The Mentor Benedicto, at the induction of Aguilar de Nerha, 1491.[src]
During the Granada War, the Spanish Rite of the Templar Order manipulated the Christian kingdoms to unify Spain while the Spanish Assassins allied with Muhammad XII of Granada, entrusting him an Apple of Eden.[188] They also trained his spy Jariya al-Zakiyya as one of their own. The Assassins also had members in the Christian courts, with Raphael Sánchez serving as the treasurer of Queen Isabella I of Castile and Luis de Santángel as the finance minister of King Ferdinand II of Aragon.[189]
Aguilar de Nerha's induction into the Brotherhood
In 1483, the Master Templar Tomás de Torquemada became the first Inquisitor General of Spain, leading the Spanish Inquisition and branding the Assassins as heretics to eliminate them. Among his victims were the parents of Aguilar de Nerha, who subsequently joined the Brotherhood.[188] As the Assassin ranks were dwindling due to the Inquisition, the Mentor Benedicto tasked Aguilar and his mentor María to recruit civilians, Spanish and Moors, who lost loved ones due to Templars' actions.[190]
In 1489, the Templars branded the family of the Hospitaller Knight Horacio de Heredia as heretics and executed them because they refused to support the Inquisition. The Assassins allied with Horacio to avenge his family and killed the Templar commander Duran. Horacio then joined the Brotherhood, infiltrating a Templar stronghold due to his link with the Knights Hospitalier.[191]
By 1491, a group of Italian Assassins composed of Ezio Auditore, Niccolò Machiavelli, Girolamo da Lucca and Lucas Bellini went to Spain for a mission and helped their Spanish brethren to fight the Inquisition.[190]
Besieging Granada, the Templars recruited the Assassin Ubayd Alayza who wanted to protect the citizens of the city. Ubayd killed his father, an influential philosopher and astronomer in the Granada court, after he discovered his betrayal.[192] The Templars decided to kidnap Muhammad's son Ahmed to force the Emir to surrender the Apple in his possession. The Assassins tried to save the Prince who was hidden in a village, but the Templar Ojeda captured Ahmed, Benedicto, María and Aguilar.[188]
Aguilar escaping from the Auto-da-fé
In Seville, the three Assassins were condemned to be burnt during an Auto-da-fé. Benedicto died but María and Aguilar escaped from the Templars. In Granada, Torquemada and Ojeda exchanged Prince Ahmed for the Apple but the two Assassins confronted them. Ojeda killed María but was in turn killed by Aguilar, who took the Apple and escaped from Granada. Aguilar later entrusted the artifact to Christopher Columbus, an ally of the Assassins, who took it to his grave.[188]
Between 1491 and 1498, the Assassins and the Templars tried to recover the pieces of the Shattered Staff of Eden scattered across Spain. The Templar Gustavo Ramírez recovered the first section and the Assassin Diego de Alvarado worked with him to find the two other parts. Diego killed Ramirez to give the Staff to Torquemada but was killed shortly after.[190]
Tomás de Torquemada's death
On 16 September 1498, Torquemada went to the Forge, an Isu vault situated beneath the Monastery of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Ávila. There, he managed to reconstruct the Shattered Staff of Eden, using its powers to create an army of tangible holograms. However, the Assassins followed the Grand Inquisitor into the vault and killed him, breaking the Staff, which resulted in the Isu ruins' destruction.[190]
By 1498, Luis de Santángel planned to poison Queen Isabella as he saw her being influenced by the Templars. Unfortunately, he died before his plan could come to fruition.[193]
In 1499, the Templars Garza and Ubayd Alayza captured Assassin sympathizers in Granada. The Spanish Assassins intervened and worked with Ubayd's sister Najma, a Libyan Assassin who wanted to kill her brother for betraying the Brotherhood and their family. As Ubayd rebelled against the Templars after seeing that they did not care about the population of Granada, Garza killed him. Later, Najma killed Garza and joined the Spanish Brotherhood.[192]
By 1504, Ezio Auditore sent his apprentices to infiltrate the Castillan court. They recovered Louis de Santángel's journal and decided to pursue his plan to poison Queen Isabella. On 26 November, the queen died and the Templars lost their influence in Castille.[193]
In 1511, the Templars commandeered the forges of Toledo, forcing their blacksmiths to flee to Madrid. Ottoman Assassins sent by Ezio reclaimed the forges and returned them to their rightful owners.[194] Later, the Templars plotted to kill King Ferdinand II but the Assassins thwarted their plans and killed the Templar leaders in Madrid.[195]
Clash of Empires[]
- Main article: Attack on Prince Suleiman
- Main article: Riot at the Harbor of Theodosius
- Main article: Fight for the Masyaf Keys
Ishak Pasha, Mentor of the Ottoman Assassins
During the reign of the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, the Assassins throughout the Empire were hunted down. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, who had an Apple of Eden, the Assassins could return to the city, installing several Assassin Dens.[196] In 1476, the Templar and Voivode of Wallachia Vlad Tepes led an uprising in Hungary against the Ottomans. He was defeated by the Ottoman Mentor Ishak Pasha, who established a truce between the Assassins and the Ottoman Empire.[197]
By 1481, the two nephews of Constantine XI, Andreas and Manuel Palaiologos, had joined the Byzantine Rite of the Templar Order and went to Rome to seek the aid of Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia in their quest to reclaim their former empire.[198] Mehmet II's son Cem joined the Templars after losing the throne to his brother Bayezid II. As he aimed to unite the West and the East into one empire, Cem took his father's Apple and hid it in the Templar Archive of Cyprus to use it as a means to bargain with Rodrigo.[198]
In 1495, the Spanish Inquisition acquired The Secret Crusade, Niccolò Polo's journal describing Altaïr's library and the Masyaf Keys. The Byzantine Templars bought the journal and set a trap for the Assassins, making them believe that the journal was still in Spain. Ishak Pasha and his Assassins went to Spain and worked with the local Assassins to recover the journal. Discovering the trap, the Assassins managed to escape from it.[199]
Cem later received Polo's journal and informed his nephew Ahmet about its contents, believing that Altaïr's library could lead them to the Grand Temple. Shortly after, the Assassins killed Cem to thwart the Templars' plans and Ahmet acquired the journal.[198]
In 1502, the Ottoman Assassin Yusuf Tazim and a contingent of Venetian Assassins went to Greece to put an end to the Ottoman–Venetian War. Rodrigo Borgia planned to send his best killers to break the armistice, but the Italian Assassins killed them before they even left Rome.[200] In 1509, an earthquake in Constantinople permitted the Templars to find a Masyaf Key hidden under the Topkapı Palace.[201] As the city was damaged and the Sultan left the city to fight against his son Selim, some Templar-aligned Byzantine forces emerged in Constantinople and tried to take control of the city. The Assassins and Templars began fighting openly in the streets for control of the Assassins' dens.[202]
Ezio captured by the Templars
In 1510, Ahmet, by now Grand Master of the Byzantine Rite, entrusted Polo's journal to the Templar Leandros, who took control of Masyaf and tried to open Altaïr's library. In March 1511, the Italian Mentor Ezio Auditore, who also searching for the library, arrived in Masyaf and was captured by Leandros' men.[203] The Templars wanted to execute him but Ezio escaped and killed Leandros, taking Polo's journal.[204]
Arriving in Constantinople in May 1511, Ezio allied with the Ottoman Assassins led by Yusuf Tazim and fought the Templars in the city.[196] The Italian Mentor inducted into the Brotherhood many citizens who were being harassed by the Byzantines. With their aid, he killed the Templars Vali cel Tradat, Georgios Kostas, Lysistrata, Cyril of Rhodes, Damat Ali Pasha, Odai Dunqas and Mirela Djuric.[7] The Mentor also helped the thieves, mercenaries and Romani who were in conflict with the Templars.[205]
Ezio distracting the crowd while Yusuf kills a Templar
In Constantinople, Ezio met the librarian Sofia Sartor and, with her help, found and recovered four of the Masyaf Keys.[206] In the meantime, Ahmet plotted the abduction of his nephew Suleiman by the Byzantines to later save him and earn public recognition as a hero. The Assassins thwarted this plan by infiltrating the party and killing the Templar agents.[207]
Suleiman subsequently enlisted Ezio to investigate the Janissary captain Tarik Barleti, whom he suspected to be in league with the Templars.[208] Ezio ultimately killed Tarik at Suleiman's request, only to discover that the captain was trying to earn the Templars' trust so that he could ambush them at their hideout in Cappadocia.[209]
In March 1512, Ezio arrived at the underground city of Derinkuyu in Cappadocia, the headquarters of the Byzantine Templars. There, the Mentor killed the Templar Shahkulu who was torturing Ottoman spies,[210] destroyed the Byzantine gunpowder stock,[211] and assassinated Manuel Palaiologos, recovering the last Masyaf Key.[212] After Ahmet arrived, he informed Ezio of his Templar affiliations and threatened to kill Sofia if the Mentor did not surrender the keys.[213]
The Assassins confronting Ahmet
True to his word, Ahmet had his men attack Sofia's shop, which was under the protection of Yusuf and the Ottoman Assassins. The Templars killed Yusuf and kidnapped Sofia, prompting Ezio and the Assassins to attack the Harbor of Theodosius, where Ahmet had taken refuge. Ezio confronted the Grand Master, but Ahmet threatened to have Sofia killed, forcing the Mentor to accept his terms.[214]
Meeting at the Galata Tower, the two factions proceeded with the exchange, but the Templars had used a lure. The two groups fought and Ezio saved Sofia.[215] While Ahmet left the city with the keys, Ezio and Sofia followed him in a carriage. The Assassin eventually defeated Ahmet and recovered the Masyaf Keys, before the new Sultan Selim arrived with his army. Ahmet was then promptly murdered by his brother, marking the end of Templar influence in the Ottoman Empire.[216]
Portuguese explorations[]
In September 1500, the Templars manipulated the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral to ferret the Assassin guild in Calicut. The Assassins poisoned the Portuguese commanders, leading them to depart Cabral.[217] On the Templars' advice, King Manuel I of Portugal built a massive fleet for his prized explorer, Vasco da Gama, planning retaliation at Calicut. The Assassins in Lisbon discovered this plan and infiltrated the fleet to warn their brethren in India.[218]
On 1 November 1502, Vasco prepared the bombardment of Calicut. The Assassins cleared their guild before the attack, hiding relics, documents, and their families.[219] After the bombardment, which killed many civilians, the Assassins rose an army in disguise to fight the Portuguese captains, crippling Manuel's efforts in Calicut.[220]
In 1511, the Templar captain Francisco was in charge of the Order's overseas proselytizing, sending Templars as missionaries to India and diverting King Manuel's money to their cause. The Assassins discovered their actions, stole the money, and killed Francisco.[221] As the Templars brought discoveries to explorers, the Assassins stole the information to challenge their enemies.[222]
Mediterranean Defense[]
- Main article: Mediterranean Defense
In 1511, the Assassins and Templars fought for control of various cities around the Mediterranean Sea, with the Mentor Ezio Auditore sending his Ottoman apprentices to help their brethren. King Louis XII of France, manipulated by his Templar advisors, ordered the banishment of the Assassins from Marseille. The Brotherhood hid its presence, recruited French soldiers into their ranks, and killed the Templar advisors.[223] In Tripoli, the explosive expert and ally of the Assassins Pedro Navarro was abducted by the Templars. The Assassins saved him and killed the Templars in the city.[224]
In Bursa, the Templars held hostage the third son of the Sultan, Korkut. The Assassins killed the Templars and saved him.[225] Later, a Turkmen philanthropist organized the kidnapping of his family by the Templars to extort money from the Brotherhood. The Assassins saved the family and killed the philanthropist.[226] In Athens, the Templars bribed the Ottoman guards to loot the goods of the city, making the people question the Assassins' honesty. The Brotherhood killed the Templars' leader in Athens.[227]
In Tunis, the Templars bribed the Hafsid King Muhammad IV to keep local goods from coming to market, and only Templar-approved merchants were allowed to peddle their wares openly. The Assassins stole the bribes and redistributed them.[228] Later, the King imposed quotas and mandates on local farmers that served the Templars' goals. The Assassins protected the farmers and killed the extortionists.[229] The Templars also bribed ministers of the Hafsid in exchange for loosened restrictions on imports and exports. The Assassins killed the ministers, dissuading others from accepting Templar bribes.[230]
In the Mamluk Sultanate, the Templars targeted the Assassins. In Alexandria, the Brotherhood recovered two Memory Seals from the Sultan's soldiers. The Templars attacked the Assassins and stole the artifacts.[231] Later, the Assassins killed the Templars, taking back the seals.[232] In Damascus, the Assassins stole the Templars' money to upgrade their guild in the city.[233]
Tudor England[]
- "Henry VII of the House of Tudor rules England with unflinching power. Though England enjoys peace and stability under his command, he may soon become a victim of Templar manipulation."
- ―The Assassins on the state of England, 1503.[src]
In 1485, King Henry VII of England founded the Tudor dynasty. The Templar Margaret of York tried to place on the throne the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, but they were arrested.[234] By 1503, the Templars also infiltrated the Star Chamber, England's secret high court.[235] On 23 November, the Assassins poisoned Margaret and revealed themselves to the King, pretending to simply be hitmen.[234]
After Margaret's death, the Templars urged the people to rise against Henry's throne. The Assassins killed all but one of the Templars, who confessed to the Templar infiltration in the Star Chamber.[236] The Assassins exposed the Templars and the King offered them a seat in the court.[235]
By 1558, Henry's grand-daughter, Mary I of England, had allied with the Templars, ordering the execution of Protestants throughout the kingdom. On 17 November, the Assassins killed her and placed on the throne her half-sister Elizabeth I of England, an ally of the Brotherhood who was also in possession of Altaïr's Apple of Eden.[237]
Ming China[]
- Main article: 1402 Chinese Assassin purge
- Main article: Great Rites Controversy
On 25 July 1402, the Templars in China influenced the Yongle Emperor to initiate a purge against the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins. The Templars launched a massive attack against the Assassins and executed their leader Fang Xiaoru. The Assassin Li Tong and an apprentice escaped the purge, taking with them an Apple of Eden. On 12 August 1424, Li Tong assassinated the Emperor while he was attempting to suppress an uprising near the Gobi Desert.[238]
Chinese Assassins killed in the purge
In 1521, after the death of the Zhengde Emperor, the Templar eunuchs known as the Eight Tigers led by Zhang Yong placed the Jiajing Emperor on the throne to serve as their puppet. They then took the opportunity to eliminate the Chinese Brotherhood in Beijing, repelling them from the Forbidden City.[239] In 1524, during the Great Rites Controversy, the Tigers attacked the Assassin headquarters in the Maijishan Grottoes and killed many Assassins in China, forcing the Mentor Wang Yangming to go into hiding.[240]
As the last Assassins in China, the new Mentor Zhu Jiuyuan and his apprentice Shao Jun went to Italy to seek the aid of a retired Ezio Auditore. In Venice, Templar agents killed Jiuyuan and Shao Jun arrived alone at Ezio's villa in Tuscany.[241] At first reluctant, the former Mentor trained Shao Jun and helped her defeat the Templar agents pursuing her. Before Shao Jun left, Ezio gave her a Precursor box, a Piece of Eden.[242]
In 1526, Shao Jun returned to China and reconnected with Yangming who was reinstated as Mentor. Devising a plan to eliminate the Eight Tigers and rebuild the Chinese Brotherhood, Shao Jun allowed herself to be captured with the Precursor box by the Tiger Gao Feng. She was imprisoned in the Maijishan Grottoes and interrogated by the Templar about the artifact but refused to reveal anything. After Gao Feng sent the box to his fellow Tiger Gu Dayong, the Assassin escaped and killed Gao Feng.[243] At the same time, Yangming assassinated the Tiger Ma Yongcheng.[244]
.jpg){kind=link}
Shao Jun taking the Precursor box from a dying Gu Dayong
Later, an Assassin informed Yangming of the Precursor box's location in Macau, where Dayong enslaved anyone who opposed the Templars. After the Assassin was captured along with his son Kotetsu by the Templars, the boy managed to escape but his father was tortured. Arriving in Macau, Shao Jun infiltrated the port, saving Kotetsu and freeing Dayong's slaves, though she was too late to rescue Kotetsu's father, who succumbed to his injuries.[245]
Shao Jun avenged his death by killing Dayong and recovering the Precursor box.[246] Discovering his Tiger brother's corpse, Qiu Ju retaliated by setting the port of Macau ablaze, to show the Assassin the consequences of her actions. While escaping, Shao Jun saved some civilians from the flames before jumping into the water.[247]
.jpg){kind=link}
Zhang Yong killing Wang Yangming
In January 1529, Shao Jun went to Nan'an to kill the Tiger Wei Bin while Yangming wanted to give the Precursor box to a contact to study it.[248] The Tigers learned about this and set a trap for Yangming.[249] Shao Jun infiltrated the city with the help of Kotetsu, who had tracked her down using his late father's contacts.[250] After the Assassin killed Wei Bin, she witnessed Zhang Yong kill her Mentor and take the box. Shao Jun mourned Yangming's death, feeling responsible and knowing that she was the last Chinese Assassin.[251]
In 1530, the Tigers forced Empress Zhang, Shao Jun's childhood friend, to set a trap for the Assassin.[252] Arriving in the Forbidden City, Shao Jun once again met with Kotetsu, who helped her infiltrate the palace. Before meeting the empress, Shao Jun accepted Kotetsu's request to become her apprentice.[253] Inside the Forbidden City, the Assassin was confronted by Zhang Yong and Qiu Ju, who claimed that the Empress had betrayed her, but Shao Jun knew she had been threatened by them and forgave her friend. After Zhang Yong left, the Assassin dueled and killed Qiu Ju.[254]
.jpg){kind=link}
Shao Jun defeating Zhang Yong
In 1532, Zhang Yong planned to let the Mongols led by Altan Khan through the Great Wall and into China to maintain his grip on power.[255] Shao Jun thwarted his plan and killed the last Tiger, though he had already sent the Precursor box out of China. Over the following years, Shao Jun rebuilt the Brotherhood, became its new Mentor, and trained a number of recruits, including Kotetsu. In 1567, she ordered the Jiajing Emperor's assassination, sending him a lethal dose of mercury disguised as the elixir of life.[256]
Conflicts in Europe[]
- "Rumors have been swirling about a Maid of prophecy for years. I have investigated them all. Most are liars, memorizing the story and adhering to it, hoping to get a little bit of coin and some fleeting fame. But the stories about Jeanne were different"
- ―Yolande of Aragon to Gabriel Laxart, 1429.[src]
In 1348, a group of Templars known as the Brothers of the Cross operated in the German city of Essen which was hit by the plague. As the group promised protection against the disease, the German Assassin Lukas Zurburg investigated the Templars, believing they were in possession of the Ankh, a Piece of Eden. In 1350, the Brothers of the Cross and Zurburg mysteriously disappeared.[238]
During the Hundred Years' War, the Templars sided with the English, having one of their members, John Duke of Bedford, become the regent of France for his nephew, the young King Henry VI. Duke Philip III of Burgundy also joined the Templar ranks. The Templar Georges de la Trémoille, as Grand Chamberlain of the Dauphin Charles, tried to secure peace with the English to better control Charles. On the other side, Queen Yolande of Aragon, mother-in-law of the Dauphin and Mentor of the French Assassins, tried to place Charles rightfully on the throne without the Templars' influence.[151]
Jeanne d'Arc
As a prophecy mentioned that a young woman would be sent by God to save France, the Assassins contacted Jeanne d'Arc, who possessed a high concentration of Isu DNA. Trained by the Assassins and wielding Jacques de Molay's Sword of Eden, powered by the Heart, Jeanne led the French Army against the English, breaking the Siege of Orléans on 8 May 1429.[151]
On 23 May 1430, during the Siege of Compiègne, the Templar John II of Luxembourg captured Jeanne d'Arc. While hiding the Sword in the Parisian Temple, the Templar Pierre Cauchon charged Jeanne with sorcery and condemned her to be burned at the stake. On 30 May 1431, the Assassins saved Jeanne, the former prostitute Fleur willingly taking her place on the stake. Jeanne granted her the Heart to give her strength. The artifact was later thrown in the Seine as the executioner Geoffroy Thérage believed it was the holy heart of Jeanne.[151]
After the Swabian War between Switzerland and the Holy Roman Empire, Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia hired several Swiss mercenaries as captains in Rome. The Assassins abducted them and sent them before Emperor Maximilian who cut his funding to the Borgia.[257] In 1502, Rodrigo sent bribes to the Elector of Saxony, Frederick III, to prevent his construction of the University of Wittenberg. The Assassins stole the money and donated it anonymously to Frederick to construct the University.[258]
In Paris, as King Louis XII was in a war against Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Borgia placed three Templars as ministers. They captured an Assassin who had discovered their plan against the Orsini and tortured him for information.[259] As the Templars targeted the religious reformist Desiderius Erasmus, the Assassins saved him and learned about their captured brother.[260] The Assassins then interrogated Georges d'Amboise, who gave them the names of the three Templars ministers. With this information, the Assassins eliminated the ministers and tried to save their brother, but it was too late.[261] Before dying, the Assassin revealed that he had given the Templars false information and told them to be wary of the Orsini.[259]
Giovanni Borgia fighting Templars
In 1515, the Templar Dei Petrucci had an Apple of Eden. A retired Ezio Auditore sent his apprentices Giovanni Borgia and Hiram Stoddard to Florence to retrieve the artifact but they failed. Later, the Brotherhood recovered the artifact.[262] In 1527, a more experienced Giovanni and the Hermeticist Maria Amiel found in Paris the second half of the Book of Abraham for the Assassin Bombastus.[263] On their journey to Basel, they stopped in Troyes and were attacked by a Templar known as The Viper. Giovanni killed him and fled with Maria into the woods where Templars ambushed them, but Giovanni managed to fend them off.[263]
By 1581, the Templars were affiliated with Ivan Ivanovich, the son of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, resulting in the prince's death at the hands of the Assassins.[237]
European imperial expansions[]
During the Age of Discovery, the Assassins and Templars established new guilds and rites, respectively, as new regions were discovered by the European empires, ensuring their conflict continued in these previously unexplored areas of the world.
Spanish conquest of the Americas[]
- "Brother. I have succeeded in my task. Captain Pizarro will give us everything we have asked. I pray by the time you read these words you will have succeeded in yours and Manco will be dead."
- ―One of Pizarro's conspirators writing to Tuti Cusi, 1536.[src]
Ponce de León's death
By 1521, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de León, was manipulated by the Templars into searching for the Fountain of Youth, a Piece of Eden supposedly located in Florida. The Brotherhood sent the Assassin Miguel Ramón Carlo de Lugo, a Puerto Rican exiled by Ponce, to convince the Governor to turn back. As he refused, the Assassins shot him with poisoned arrows, resulting in his death.[238]
By 1533, the Spanish Assassin Gonzalo Pardo was sent to infiltrate the army of the Templar puppet Francisco Pizarro. During the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, Pardo was tasked to protect the Inca Emperor Atahualpa, but failed as the Emperor was captured and executed by Pizarro.[264]
In 1536, Pizarro and the high-ranking Inca official Tuti Cusi plotted the assassination of Emperor Manco Inca Yupanqui. However, Cusi's daughter-in-law Quila uncovered the conspiracy and saved the Emperor's life with Pardo's help. Afterwards, Pardo invited Quila to join the Brotherhood.[265]
In 1541, the Assassins killed Pizarro in his palace in Lima.[237]
Sengoku Japan[]
- "These converts are our foothold in this country."
- ―The Jesuit Alessandro Valignano on the Templars' influence in Japan.[src]
Hattori Hanzō in his Assassin robes
By 1549, the Templar and Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier set his sights on Japan, seeing an opportunity to spread both Christianity and Templar influence on the island. However, the Templars' attempts to find new recruits were frequently hindered by the constant wars between clans, as well as their hostility toward outsiders.[139] The Templars were also heavily opposed by the Japanese Brotherhood founded by the Chinese Assassin Kotetsu, who worked to prevent the spread of their influence in Japan and recruited individuals among the ranks of the ninja and samurai.[266] The Assassins allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu, a daimyo opposed to the Templars' influence in Japan.[139]
By 1578, the Templars had inducted the daimyo Uesugi Kenshin into the Order, though he was later killed by the Assassin Hattori Hanzō.[267] By the 1590s, the Templars had managed to recruit the kunoichi Mochizuki Chiyome, a noblewoman who had created an all-female group of ninja agents in her service as the spymaster of her uncle-in-law, Takeda Shingen. Through Chiyome, the Templars gained a vast information network that helped spread their philosophy throughout Japan. However, Chiyome was eventually assassinated by Hanzō after he tracked her down to her residence in Shinano.[268]
Witch-hunts[]
By 1593, the French Templars were in possession of the original Shroud of Eden. The French Assassins Isaac du Queyran and Florine stole the artifact. When Florine nearly died while giving birth to Margaux, Isaac used the Shroud to save her life. The Assassins then entrusted the artifact and Margaux to Catherine, a healer living in the Landes in southwestern France.[269]
In 1609, the Master Templar Pierre de Lancre was tasked to recover the Shroud. Appointed as an Inquisitor during the Labourd witch-hunt, the Templar captured Catherine along with her daughter Ermeline and Margaux. As she refused to talk, she was burned at the stake. The Templars kept Ermeline hostage while Isaac took the Shroud and saved Margaux, training her as an Assassin.[269]
While the Assassins planned to save Ermeline, the Templars attacked them, killing the Assassin leader Avicenne and taking the Shroud, which they later gave to their member François Ascair. Isaac was captured by the Templars and burned at the stake. During the riot, an Assassin tried to kill de Lancre but the Templar La Morguy killed the Assassin. In the meantime. Margaux joined Fabrizzio Auditore and other Assassins to storm the Castle of Saint-Pée. Auditore and Ascair killed each other in a duel, but Margaux secured the Shroud and went to the Americas with the artifact.[269]
Stoddard and Querry facing Puritans
In June 1692, during the Salem witch trials, the British Assassins Thomas Stoddard and Jennifer Querry were sent to Salem to recover a Piece of Eden. The Templar magistrate William Stoughton, who oversaw the trials, encouraged the Salem townsfolk to hunt and kill the Assassins, despite protests from his fellow Templar Samuel Parris.[270]
Once captured, Stoddard and Querry discovered that the Piece of Eden was in fact Dorothy Osborne, a young girl possessed by the Isu Consus who told Stoddard to seek "the ones with greater knowledge". As Stoughton wanted to create other oracles like Dorothy, the girl sacrificed herself by walking into a fire. The Templar killed Querry, but Stoddard was saved by Parris, who was against Stoughton's violent methods and allowed the Assassin to leave.[271]
Search for the Observatory[]
In 1673, the Grand Master of the West Indies Templars, Laureano de Torres y Ayala, came into contact with Thomas Kavanagh, Jr., a Sage of Aita who worked for Peter Beckford. The Templars needed him to access the Observatory, a complex constructed by Aita that allowed its user to observe anyone on the planet, regardless of their location, by using a Crystal Skull and blood vials. The West Indies Assassins led by the Mentor Bahlam abducted the Sage and brought him to their headquarters in Tulum. Later, the Assassins allowed Kavanagh to leave even if he refused to lead them to the Observatory.[272]
In 1714, the Master Assassin Duncan Walpole attempted to eliminate Henry Spencer, a Templar and member of the East India Company's Court of Directors, in London. However, Spencer convinced Walpole to secretly defect to the Templars, shortly before the Assassin was sent on an assignment to the Caribbean.[273] While helping the West Indies Brotherhood, Walpole acquired information on the locations of their hideouts and planned to deliver them to Torres and the Templars in Havana.[274] Before he had the chance to do so, however, he was killed in an altercation with the pirate Edward Kenway.[275]
The Assassins attempting to rescue Roberts from the Templars
Impersonating Walpole, Edward completed the rogue Assassin's mission from the Templars in exchange for the monetary reward that had been promised to him.[274] Edward continued to help the Templars for a time, including preventing the Assassins from rescuing another Aita Sage, Bartholomew Roberts, who had been found by the Order and brought to Havana.[276] Eventually, however, Roberts managed to escape the Templars' custody and Edward was unmasked as an imposter.[277]
Imprisoned on the Spanish Treasure Fleet, Edward managed to free himself and other prisoners, including the former slave-turned-pirate Adéwalé, and together they stole one of the fleet's ships.[278] Renaming her the Jackdaw, Edward became her captain and Adéwalé her quartermaster.[279] Edward later killed the Templar Julien du Casse to prevent him from informing the Order of his escape, and took over his hideout in Great Inagua.[280]
By 1716, Edward became involved in the Assassin-Templar War through his friend and fellow pirate Mary Read, an Assassin who impersonated the role of James Kidd. Mary brought Edward to Tulum where he met the Mentor Ah Tabai. The Mentor was reluctant to ally with Edward given his actions in Havana, but relented after the pirate helped the Assassins confirm that Roberts was indeed a Sage.[281] Shortly after, the slaver and Templar ally Laurens Prins led an attack on Tulum, but the Assassins, with Edward's assistance, were able to repel it.[282]
Ah Tabai reprimanding Edward
Ah Tabai absolved Edward of his mistakes but refused to associate with him due to his selfish ways. Edward subsequently became a hitman for the Brotherhood, helping them complete various assassination contracts, while trying to find the Observatory for his own ends.[282] Across the Caribbean Sea, he killed the Templars Lucia Márquez, Kenneth Abraham, Hilary Flint, and Jing Lang, who planned to attack the Brotherhood based on the information Edward had given Torres.[283]
In 1717, the pirate and Assassin Samuel Bellamy attacked Prins' ship, the Whydah, and stole the Fragment of Eden. He entrusted the artifact to his friend and fellow pirate Alonzo Batilla, who later gave it to Olivier Levasseur. As the Templar Woodes Rogers tried to recover it in 1718, Batilla attacked Rogers' ship to give Levasseur enough time to escape with the Fragment.[284]
In April 1717, Mary Read planned to kill Torres and Prins while they were meeting in Kingston but was stopped by Edward, who revealed that Prins had employed Roberts and hoped to sell him to the Templars. After the two targets fled, Mary and Edward infiltrated Prins' estate to find the Sage.[285] The pirate killed Prins but Roberts managed to escape.[286]
Torres and Rogers interrogating Edward
During his search for the Observatory, Edward killed the Templar pirate-hunters John Cockram, Josiah Burgess and Benjamin Hornigold. In 1719, he managed to track down Roberts again after the Sage had turned to piracy, and convinced him to take him to the Observatory at Long Bay, Jamaica. However, Roberts betrayed Edward and left him to be imprisoned in Kingston.[287] During his imprisonment, Edward was approached by Torres and Rogers, who tried to question him to learn what he knew about the Observatory, to no avail.[288]
In April 1721, Ah Tabai rescued Edward, as well as Mary Read and Anne Bonny who had also been imprisoned, but Mary died shortly after due to illness.[288] Edward reunited with Adéwalé, who had since joined the Assassins and who encouraged his former captain to do the same.[289] Returning to Tulum, Edward was welcomed into the Brotherhood by Ah Tabai and helped to defend the hideout from another Templar attack.[290]
With Anne as his new quartermaster, Edward tracked down the Templars and Roberts across the Caribbean Sea. In Kingston, he wounded Rogers, who ultimately survived his injuries,[291] though the Templar was later expelled from the Order for his slave trading.[292] Edward also found and eliminated Roberts near Príncipe, recovering the Crystal Skull he had stolen,[293] and Torres' bodyguard El Tiburón in Havana.[294]
Laureano Torres' last moments
In September 1722, as Torres found and accessed the Observatory, the Grand Master was confronted and killed by Edward, marking the end of the West Indies Rite. Ah Tabai returned the Crystal Skull to the complex and tasked his Assassins to protect it until the arrival of a new Sage.[295] The West Indies Assassins later left Tulum and relocated to Edward's mansion at Great Inagua, protecting them from further Templar attacks.[296]
Search for Isu Temples[]
In 1723, Edward Kenway returned to Bristol to exact revenge on the Templars who had attacked his family's farm a decade ago. He killed his former father-in-law Emmett Scott and his associate Wilson, who were both Templars. As he was about to execute Matthew Hague, the son of the Templar Aubrey Hague, Prime Minister Robert Walpole stopped him and offered him a pardon, allowing Edward to begin a new life in London. Walpole later introduced Edward to Reginald Birch, whom the Assassin hired as his senior property manager, unaware of Birch's Templar affiliations.[292]
For the next decade, Edward served as the British Assassins' co-leader alongside Miko. In addition to building up the Brotherhood, Edward traveled across the world in search of various Isu sites, documenting his research in a journal.[297] In 1725, his search for a Piece of Eden rumored to be hidden in the lost Khmer city of Angkor took him to Macau, where he clashed with Shimazu Saito, a Japanese Templar and samurai tasked to find the same artifact on her clan's behalf.[298]
Edward trying to interrogate Saito
Saito and her ninja followers sought to silence anyone who knew about the Piece of Eden's existence, including the Dutch East India Company navigator Hendrik, who had discovered the artifact's location during his travels and wrote down clues in his personal sea log.[299] Following Hendrik's death, his journal was acquired by the businesswoman Lee Huiyin, who kept it at her residence, the Mandarin's House.[300] Edward and Saito both infiltrated the complex to retrieve the log and the Templar ultimately emerged victorious,[301] though she soon discovered that the log was encrypted and Edward was in possession of the cipher needed to decode it.[302]
Saito later gave the sea log to Sun, the head of the Hualien Trading Company, in exchange for his protection of the Templar's subordinates.[303] During a mission to recover an opium shipment on Sun's behalf, Saito again encountered Edward, who had infiltrated her ranks by disguising himself as a ninja and sought to destroy the shipment.[304] While the Assassin and Templar fought, the Japanese ninja serving under Saito, fed up with her leadership, decided to desert and form their own faction. After learning about this, Saito ordered her remaining followers to retreat, allowing Edward to destroy the opium.[305]
Later, Saito's followers and the Japanese ninja, who were led by the Templar's former mentor Fuma Sukuna, engaged in a civil war on Macau's streets.[306] During the conflict, Edward sought to recover Hendrik's sea log from Sun's floating gambling hall, but while infiltrating the ship, he was confronted by Saito.[307] As the two fought, they fell into the water below and Saito nearly drowned until Edward decided to save her life.[308] The Assassin subsequently proposed a truce to recover the sea log and find Angkor's treasure, which Saito accepted.[303]
Edward and Saito working together to fight Fuma Sukuna's ninja
Working together, Edward and Saito tried to acquire the journal, facing Fuma Sukuna and his ninja, who had formed an alliance with Lee Huiyin and had been ordered to recover the sea log.[309] The journal was also sought by Xiao Han, the Mentor of the Chinese Assassins, who hoped to use Angkor's artifact to overthrow the Qing dynasty. As Edward disagreed with this plan, the two Assassins ended up clashing with one another.[310]
The three-way fight for the sea log eventually resulted in the deaths of all of Saito's subordinates[311] and Xiao Han claiming the journal after killing Sun,[312] whereupon the Chinese Assassins allied with Lee to find Angkor. Meanwhile, with all of her followers dead, Saito was welcomed into Edward's recently established organization, the Zhang Wei Union, and worked alongside them to search for Angkor and its treasure.[313]
In the Philippines, Edward, Saito and the other Union members came into conflict with a native resistance led by the Visayan chief Rajah, who had acquired a Piece of Eden – a crescent amulet – and sought to use it to secure the Philippines' independence through a violent revolution.[314] Edward ultimately defeated Rajah in Cebu and retrieved the amulet before he and Saito were confronted by Xiao Han and his Chinese Assassins.[315] After Saito was defeated, Edward used the amulet's powers to subdue the Chinese Assassins, allowing him and Saito to escape.[316]
However, as a result of his usage of the amulet, Edward became largely unresponsive as his mind struggled to resist the Piece of Eden's influence.[317] While the Assassin recovered, Saito assumed temporary leadership of the Union.[318]
Downfall of the British Assassins[]
- "Edward was murdered in his own home, betrayed by one of his business associates who was actually a Templar. Miko kept about his business as best as he could, but was also killed by a Templar: Edward's son, Haytham. With those two out of the picture, the Templars had a clear path to control London."
- ―Shaun Hastings on the British Brotherhood's decline, 2015.[src]-[m]
Edward Kenway's death
For years, Reginald Birch had been trying to get into the good graces of the Kenway family to learn the location of Edward's journal, which contained information on the Grand Temple's location. He courted Edward's daughter Jennifer Scott and interrogated his young son Haytham to discover the journal's location. Eventually, on 3 December 1735, Birch sent mercenaries to raid the Kenway Mansion, killing Edward and recovering the journal. Jennifer was captured and sent to Damascus as a slave while Birch trained Haytham to become a Templar.[319]
By 1735, a Templar Admiral had Ezio's Precursor box and was about to deliver it to Bastienne Josèphe, the Madam of La Dame en Rose in Port-au-Prince. Adéwalé attacked the Templar's ship and recovered the artifact but was shipwrecked in Haiti after a storm.[320] Helping Josèphe and the local Maroon rebellion for two years, the Assassin eventually granted the box to the Madam in 1737 before he returned to the Brotherhood.[321]
By 1751, Josèphe had entrusted the box to François Mackandal, the Mentor of the Saint-Domingue Brotherhood of Assassins. Using it to decipher the Voynich manuscript, Mackandal located an Isu Temple in Port-au-Prince and sent his apprentice Vendredi to investigate the site. The Assassin triggered the Seismic Temple, creating an earthquake, and was trapped under rubble. The Master Templar Lawrence Washington, who had followed the Assassin, offered to help him if he gave him the location of Mackandal's camp. Vendredi accepted but was killed by Washington, who then infiltrated the camp and stole the box and the manuscript.[322]
In 1752, Washington entrusted the box to the Templar Samuel Smith and the manuscript to James Wardrop. Shortly after, Washington was killed by the Colonial Assassin Shay Cormac[323] and two years later, Shay also assassinated Smith[324] and Wardrop, recovering the two artifacts for the Mentor Achilles Davenport.[325]
Haytham confronting Miko
In 1753, Haytham went to Corsica to kidnap the young rebel Lucio Albertine who could decipher Edward's journal. However, Lucio was protected by the leader of the British Assassins, Miko. Haytham defeated him, taking his Hidden Blade in the process, and brought Lucio to Birch, by now the Grand Master of the British Templars.[319]
The following year, Haytham killed Miko with his own Hidden Blade at the Theatre Royal and took the Grand Temple Key that the Assassin had in his possession.[326] With the death of their leader, the British Assassins left London and relocated their headquarters to Crawley while the Templars took control of the capital.[297]
Haytham was later sent to the British colonies in America to find the Grand Temple. Aboard the Providence, the Templar was followed by the Assassin Louis Mills, who threw painted cargo overboard to allow the Colonial Assassins' flagship, the Aquila, to track them. Haytham killed Mills and the Providence escaped from the Assassins by sailing into a storm.[327]
In Boston, the Assassins hired mercenaries to steal the Templar William Johnson's research on the Grand Temple. With the Templar Thomas Hickey and the initiate Charles Lee, Haytham attacked the mercenaries and recovered Johnson's research.[328]
Colonial Assassin Purge[]
- Main article: Great Purge (1757-1763)
Shay cornered by the Assassins
During the Seven Years' War, the Assassins sided with the French and their native allies while the Templars aligned with the British Empire to unify the colonies. By 1756, Shay Cormac was left for dead by the Assassins after he stole the Voynich manuscript to stop their search for Isu temples,[329] having witnessed the danger of the Seismic Temples first-hand when he accidentally triggered the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.[330] Shay was found floating in the Arctic Ocean by men working for the Templar George Monro, who decided to rescue him despite his allegiance and took the manuscript from him.[331]
Nurse back to health by Barry and Cassidy Finnegan, Shay began working with Monro and the Templar Christopher Gist, the latter of whom became his quartermaster aboard his ship, the Morrigan.[332] Fighting the Assassin-affiliated gangs in New York City,[331] Shay killed the Assassins' ally Le Chasseur and discovered their plot to poison the officials of New York.[333] With the Templars, SHay destroyed the poison stocks of the Assassins and discovered the true allegiance of his new allies.[334]
In 1757, the Assassin Liam O'Brien killed Monro in Albany and took back the manuscript. Shay, who was officially inducted into the Templar Order by Haytham Kenway, began to eliminate his former brethren, assassinating Kesegowaase,[335] Adéwalé,[336] Hope Jensen,[337] and Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye.[338]
Haytham crippling Achilles
In 1760, in the Arctic Temple, Shay and Haytham confronted Liam and Achilles. During the confrontation, the Assassins accidentally triggered the Temple. During the resulting earthquake, Lian died from a fall and Shay recovered the manuscript from him while Haytham defeated Achilles in a duel. Shay convinced the Grand Master to spare Achilles' life so that he could warn other Assassins about the Seismic Temples, though before leaving, Haytham shot the Mentor in the leg, crippling him.[339]
During the following years, Shay sought to recover the Precursor box from the Assassins and searched for it in Europe, while the Templars in the colonies continued their purge of the Assassins. In 1763, Haytham led an attack on the Assassin headquarters at the Davenport Homestead, killing the last remaining members of the Colonial Brotherhood and again sparing Achilles, who entered a life in exile at the Homestead.[340]
In 1768, the Templars ambushed the Aquila with three British frigates and she was nearly destroyed. Her captain, the Assassin Robert Faulkner, beached the ship in the Davenport Homestead's bay, where it would remain for the next few years.[341]
Search for the Prophecy Disk[]
- Aveline: "You killed my father with your "care" and your tonic. Why? Because he never truly loved you? And Jeanne, my mother. You stole her child, sent her away. You kept her enslaved even after my father had freed her. And now you attempt to return me to that fate."
- Madeleine: "In the service of humanity! In Work, the purpose for which you were created. We were created! The highest purpose."
- —Aveline de Grandpré and Madeleine de L'Isle during the latter's final moments, 1777.[src]-[m]
The Louisiana Rite of the Templar Order
In 1751, the Templar Rafael Joaquín de Ferrer seduced Rhona Dinsmore, the leader of the Assassin bureau of Havana, and stole a map indicating the location of Chichen Itza, an ancient Maya city constructed atop the ruins of two Isu Temples.[342] The leader of the Louisiana Rite, Madeleine de L'Isle, took control of the excavation site, bringing slaves from North America to serve as laborers while promising them their freedom.[343]
In 1758, Madeleine succeeded in eliminating the Mentor François Mackandal, having him publicly burnt at the stake. His apprentice Agaté fled to Louisiana, where he founded the Louisiana Brotherhood as its Mentor. Another of Mackandal's disciples, Baptiste, allied with the Templars and created his own cult in the Louisiana Bayou to track down Agaté.[344]
In 1759, Agaté recruited Aveline de Grandpré and Gérald Blanc as his first apprentices and tasked them to spy on Templar activities in New Orleans. Unbeknownst to Aveline, Madeleine, who had become her stepmother after marrying her father Philippe de Grandpré, was aware of her stepdaughter's allegiance and began manipulating her for her own benefit.[345] Madeleine's main goal was to find the Heart of the Brotherhood, an artifact once owned by the Saint-Domingue Assassins which had been stolen by Aveline's mother Jeanne. Fearing the Assassins would come after her to recover the Heart, Jeanne had given it to Aveline before being manipulated by Madeleine into leaving New Orleans.[346]
Aveline confronting de Ulloa
In 1765, Aveline killed Louisiana's governor Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie, a Templar puppet,[347] and Baptiste, who planned to poison the nobles of New Orleans to begin a slave revolt.[344] In 1768, the Templar Antonio de Ulloa was appointed as the new governor of Louisiana. Aveline provoked the Louisiana Rebellion, forcing the governor to leave the city. The Assassin spared his life in exchange for information on the Templars' plans.[348]
While killing de Ferrer[349] and the Templar Diego Vázquez,[350] Aveline completed the Prophecy Disk after finding both of its components in the Isu ruins in Chichen Itza with her mother's help.[351] In 1776, Madeleine poisoned her husband after he discovered the Templars' interference in his business, and asked Aveline to rescue the former slave George Davidson, who secretly served the Templars.[352]
In 1777, Aveline killed Davidson after the latter became an officer in the British Army during the American Revolutionary War. With his dying words, Davidson revealed Madeleine to be the leader of the Louisiana Templars,[353] prompting Aveline to confront her stepmother. After Madeleine explained her plan to induct Aveline into the Templar Order, she asked her to kill Agaté as a final test.[354] Aveline tried to speak with her Mentor, but Agaté, believing his student had betrayed the Assassins, fought her and committed suicide following his defeat.[355]
Aveline killing Madeleine
Aveline used Agaté's death to trick Madeleine into thinking she wished to join the Templars. During her stepdaughter's induction at the Saint Louis Cathedral, Madeleine was presented with the Prophecy Disk but failed to make it work due to lacking the Heart of the Brotherhood, which was the key needed to activate the artifact. Madeleine and all the other Templars present were then killed by Aveline, marking the end of the Louisiana Rite.[356]
American Revolution[]
- Haytham: "Only look at this little revolution your friends have started. I have stood before the Continental Congress and listened to them stamp and shout. All in the name of liberty. But it is just noise."
- Ratonhnhaké:ton: "And this is why you favor Lee?"
- Haytham: "He understands the needs of this would-be nation far better than the jobbernowls who profess to represent it."
- —Ratonhnhaké:ton and Haytham Kenway discussing the Revolution, 1778.[src]-[m]
During the American Revolution, the Colonial Templars tried to make the British colonies independent of the Crown through negotiation and manipulation, hoping to establish their own Templar state. As the Order wanted to open the Grand Temple, the Isu Juno communicated through a Crystal Ball with the young Kanien'kehá:ka Ratonhnhaké:ton, Haytham Kenway's illegitimate son. Juno instructed Ratonhnhaké:ton to stop the Templars by joining the Assassins and recovering the Grand Temple Key.[357] The young native boy thus became the new apprentice of the old Mentor Achilles Davenport, taking on the name of Connor to operate among the colonists.[358]
On 5 March 1770, the Templar Charles Lee provoked the Boston Massacre to accelerate the colonies' independence while Connor tried to stop him.[358] In Boston, Connor associated with the Sons of Liberty to free the colonies from the Templars and the British, participating in many events of the Revolution like the Boston Tea Party.[359] During the following years, Connor killed the Templars William Johnson,[360] John Pitcairn,[361] and Thomas Hickey. During the American Revolutionary War, Connor protected the Commander of the Continental Army, George Washington, who was targeted by the Templars as they wanted to replace him with Lee.[362]
Connor and Haytham establishing a truce
By 1777, the Templar Benjamin Church betrayed the Order and the Continental Army as he stole goods for the British Army. While tracking Church independently, Haytham and Connor ran into each other and decided to form an alliance, which led to the death of Church.[363] The father and son continued to work together to further the Revolution, but their alliance came to an end when the Grand Master revealed that it was not Lee who had burned down Connor's village years prior, but Washington.[364]
After Lee manipulated the villagers of Kanatahséton into attacking the Patriots, Connor prevented the conflict from escalating, though to do so he was forced to kill his friend Kanen'tó:kon, who had been turned against him by Lee.[364] On 28 June 1778, Lee sabotaged the defense of the Patriots in Monmouth to undermine Washington's reputation. Connor helped the Patriots during the Battle of Monmouth and exposed Lee's treason to Washington, leading to the Templar being discharged from the army.[365]
During the war, Connor's apprentices fought the Templars in the different colonies, dislodging them from Montreal, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland. The Assassins killed the Templars George Dorrance, Johann Rall, Johann de Kalb and their ally Hugh Jackson. They also arrested the Templar allies Samuel Elbert and Robert Howe and prevented the Templars from killing the journal editor Shepard Kollock, the governor Dunmore and Emily Geiger.[366] In 1778, Connor confronted the Templar Nicholas Biddle, who was an admiral of the Continental Navy. After defeating him, Connor allowed the dying Templar to sink with his ship, the USS Randolph.[367]
Connor killing Charles Lee
In 1781, Connor ordered the bombardment of Fort George, the Templar headquarters in New York City, to infiltrate the place and kill Lee. During the attack, Haytham sent Lee away with the Grand Temple Key and stayed behind to confront Connor. As the Grand Master could not bring himself to kill his son, he allowed the Assassin to kill him.[368] A year later, Connor tracked down Lee, who had become the new Grand Master, and killed him, recovering the Key. After Juno contacted him and tasked him to hide it, Connor buried the Key in the grave of his Mentor's son, Connor Davenport.[369]
In 1784, Connor tried to recruit the former slave Patience Gibbs into the Brotherhood but she fled and was later captured by the Templar Edmund Judge, who wanted to take her charm, a Piece of Eden. Connor enlisted the aid of Aveline de Grandpré to rescue Gibbs, which she did. After killing Judge together, Aveline convinced Gibbs to join the Assassins.[370]
In 1785, the Assassins killed the Templar Jonathan Trumbull, who was the governor of Connecticut.[366]
International revolutions[]
By the end of the 18th century, both factions had evolved to have a different impact on society. The Templars, previously embroiled in the titles of nobility and the offices of Church and State, reformed to use Capitalism to control the masses from the shadows, becoming industrialists and economists. The Assassins, meanwhile, developed a sense of social duty, directly helping the common people while still eliminating oppressors.
A tentative truce[]
Shay assassinating Charles Dorian
In December 1776, the French Assassin Charles Dorian was killed by Shay Cormac after being entrusted the Precursor box at an Assassin meeting in Versailles. Shay subsequently reclaimed the box for the Templars,[371] while Charles' young son Arno was adopted by François de la Serre, the Grand Master of the French Templars. Arno became close friends and later lovers with François' daughter Élise, who was trained to become the next Grand Master.[372]
In 1788, Élise was tasked by the Carrolls, a British Templar family, to recover Haytham Kenway's letters, containing his dream to conciliate the Assassins and Templars. At the Kenway Mansion, Élise met Jennifer Scott, who gave her the letters and a necklace Haytham had sent her, expecting the young Templar to continue her brother's dream.[373]
As the Carrolls wanted to destroy the letters to impeach the peace between the two factions, Élise protected them and killed May Carroll in the process. Returning to France, Élise allied with the British Templar Frederick Weatherall and the former Assassin Bernard Ruddock to pursue the end of the Assassin-Templar War. In reality, Ruddock worked for the Carrolls, who had hired him years ago to kill Élise's mother Julie because she wanted to gradually change the monarchy in France.[373]
Mentor Mirabeau and Grand Master François de la Serre
On 5 May 1789, the Grand Master François de la Serre and the French Mentor Mirabeau established a truce between their respective groups in the wake of the French Revolution.[374] That same night, the Grand Master was killed on the order of François-Thomas Germain, a Sage of Aita and former Templar who had been excommunicated by de la Serre for his radical ideas to reform the Order and overthrow the monarchy.[375] Becoming the new Grand Master, Germain and his allies eliminated the last Templars loyal to the de la Serres, targeting Élise and her supporters.[373]
Even with the death of François de la Serre, Mirabeau maintained the truce with Germain's faction, preventing the Assassins from targeting the Templars. During the Women's March on Versailles, the radical Templars infiltrated the protesters to incite violence against the royal family. As they wanted to kill the leader of the march, Théroigne de Méricourt, the Assassins protected her and escorted the protesters to the gates of Paris.[376]
On 4 January 1791, the Assassin Council ended the truce with the Templars and tasked Arno Dorian, who had joined the Brotherhood, to investigate de la Serre's murder.[377] His first targets were the killers of his adoptive father: the Templars Charles Gabriel Sivert and the Roi des Thunes.[378][379] After eliminating them, Arno discovered their link to Germain without knowing he was a Templar.[380] The Sage manipulated Arno into killing Chrétien Lafrenière, the last Templar loyal to de la Serre, making him believe that he was the leader of the radical Templars.[381] Discovering his mistake, Arno later eavesdropped on a secret meeting between Germain and his lieutenants.[382] As they planned to kill Élise, Arno intervened to save her.[383]
Arno and Élise appearing before the Assassin Council
Reconnecting with Élise, Arno suggested that she work with the Assassins to stop the radical Templars, an offer she accepted. Even if Mirabeau agreed to ally with the young Templar, the other members of the Council disagreed, especially Arno's mentor Pierre Bellec.[384] On 2 April 1791, as Mirabeau refused to change his mind, Bellec poisoned the Mentor and framed Élise for the crime to impeach the alliance.[385]
When Arno discovered the truth, he confronted his master, who invited him to join forces to eliminate the rest of the Council and rebuild the Brotherhood stronger than before. As Arno refused, the two Assassins fought, leading to Bellec's death. With the death of two of its members, the Council refused to ally with Élise and Arno was removed from Germain's case.[385]
During the summer of 1792, the radical Templar Flavigny organized the hoarding of food arriving in Paris, inciting the mobs to be violent. Théroigne de Méricourt investigated and asked the Assassins to help her. After rescuing her from Flavigny's men, they worked together to locate the stolen food and eliminate Flavigny.[386]
On 10 August 1792, the radical Templars led an attack on the Tuileries Palace. As the Council feared the Templars might recover Mirabeau's correspondence with King Louis XVI, exposing the Brotherhood's secrets, they tasked Arno to destroy the letters. The Assassin did so, meeting and forming an alliance with Napoleon Bonaparte in the process, but while escaping from the palace, he saw Frédéric Rouille, one of Germain's lieutenants.[387]
Arno confronting Germain at the king's execution
Without the permission of the Council, Arno resumed his hunt of the radical Templars alongside Élise, killing Rouille,[388] Marie Lévesque,[389] and Louis-Michel le Peletier.[390] Confronting Germain at the Execution of Louis XVI on 21 January 1793, Arno allowed the Sage to escape in order to protect Élise from the radical Templars. Furious at Germain's escape, Élise ended her partnership with the Assassin.[391] Later, the Council discovered Arno's actions and excommunicated him from the Brotherhood.[392]
Germain later placed his lieutenant Maximilien de Robespierre at the head of the Committee of Public Safety, launching the Reign of Terror against the enemies of the French Republic. When the Girondists were arrested in July 1793, the Assassins saved some of them and smuggled them out of Paris.[393] As the Templar general Marcourt organized a coup against the Assembly, the Assassins, warned by Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, infiltrated a tournament and killed Marcourt and his fellow conspirators.[394] In November, the Assassins saved Robespierre's spy Didier Paton from the guillotine after he was condemned by his master for discovering the Templar Order. Paton subsequently joined the Brotherhood and his notes allowed the Assassins to identify numerous Templars.[395]
On 10 February 1794, the Templars decided to free Jacques Roux from prison to further the Reign of Terror, but he was killed shortly after by the Assassins.[396] On 5 April, the Brotherhood tried to save their ally Georges Danton, who had been condemned to death by Robespierre. The orator refused as he knew that Robespierre's reputation would die with him. As his last wish, Danton tasked the Assassins to protect his friends from the Templars.[397] In May, Robespierre tried to expose the Brotherhood by showing Mirabeau's Assassin relics to the population but the Assassins removed them from the Panthéon before the Templars could take them.[398]
Meanwhile, Arno and Élise resumed their partnership to kill Germain.[392] In Versailles, Arno assassinated the Templar Aloys la Touche, who oversaw public executions in the city.[399] Learning about Robespierre's ties to the Order, Arno and Élise ruined the Templar's reputation by sabotaging his Festival of the Supreme Being.[400] On 28 July 1794, Robespierre was arrested by the National Convention but managed to escape. Arno and Élise cornered him and forced him to reveal Germain's location before Robespierre was re-captured and subsequently guillotined.[401]
Arno killing Germain
At the Parisian Temple, Arno and Élise confronted Germain, who had recovered Jacques de Molay's Sword of Eden. During the fight, the Sword was damaged and released a blast of energy, killing Élise and wounding Germain. Arno finished off the Sage, who with his dying breath, re-affirmed his belief that his death would not affect his plan to reshape humanity.[402] That same night, the Assassins raided the Jacobin Club to kill the last Templars who tried to flee Paris.[403]
Following Élise's death, Arno became acquainted with Frederick Weatherall, who gave him Haytham Kenway's letters. When Bernard Ruddock took Élise's handmaiden Hélène hostage to recover the letters for himself, Weatherall killed the rogue Assassin. Sometime later, Arno re-joined the Brotherhood and tried to honor Élise's memory by reducing the gap between the Assassins and Templars.[373] As he rose to the rank of Master Assassin, Arno prevented several plots by the remaining radical Templars to expose the Brotherhood and eliminated their members who had infiltrated the Council of Five Hundred.[404]
In 1801, ten years after the Saint-Domingue Assassins launched the Haitian Revolution, the Templar Jean-Louis Villatte declared himself governor of the island. He was deposed and replaced by the Assassin and general Toussaint Louverture.[405]
Fight for the Koh-i-Noor[]
The Assassins surrounding Jan van der Graff after he killed Ahkbar
By 1805, the Ottoman Sultan Selim III was in possession of the Koh-i-Noor, a Piece of Eden shaped like a diamond. The Black Cross Tavis Olier went to Tripoli in Libya to recover the artifact but was imprisoned. His replacement, Solomon Bolden, resumed his mission and allied with Jan van der Graff, an agent of the French Emperor Napoleon, who also sought the diamond. However, the two were ambushed by the Libyan Assassin Ahkbar, who wanted the Piece of Eden for himself. He killed Bolden and imprisoned Graff in the same cell as Olier.[406]
For the next three years, Olier trained Graff to become the next Black Cross and sacrificed himself to allow him to escape the prison. After Ahkbar poisoned Selim to take the Koh-i-Noor, Graff confronted the rogue Assassin and killed him, retrieving the diamond. When the Libyan Assassins arrived, the Black Cross deceived them by claiming that he was not a Templar and had only sought revenge on Ahkhbar. He then gave them an empty box, keeping the Koh-i-Noor for the Templars.[407]
By 1830, the Koh-i-Noor had ended up in the hands of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire, who hid it in the Isu ruins of Tosha Khana under his summer palace at Amritsar. On 27 June 1839, the British Templar Francis Cotton planned to assassinate the Maharaja to recover the artifact and allow the East India Company and the Templars to take control of India. The Mentor of the Indian Brotherhood, Hamid, sent the Master Assassin Arbaaz Mir to foil the Templars' plan.[408]
Durga appearing before Cotton and Raza
With the help of his servant Raza Soora, Arbaaz infiltrated the palace and allied with Singh's granddaughter Pyara Kaur. Although Cotton succeeded in poisoning the Maharaja, Arbaaz, Raza and Pyara managed to retrieve the Koh-i-Noor before him and confronted the Templar. In the resulting fight, Pyara activated the artifact and was possessed by the Isu Durga. Horrified, Cotton shot the diamond, shattering it and releasing a powerful energy blast that killed him. The Koh-i-Noor later reconstructed itself and was retrieved by Arbaaz, who gave it to Hamid.[408]
In 1841, Cotton was succeeded by William Sleeman, a Templar who suppressed the Thuggee, believing they were connected to the Assassins. In Cotton's office, Sleeman found a Precursor box and files on the Indian Brotherhood, allowing him to learn the location of their hideout.[409] With his right-hand man Alexander Burnes, Sleeman attacked the Assassin headquarters in Amritsar, kidnapping Hamid and stealing the Koh-i-Noor.[410]
While Arbaaz rescued his Mentor from the Templars' captivity, Sleeman ventured into the Tosha Khana vault with the Koh-i-Noor and the Precursor box.[411] Combining the two artifacts, Sleeman unlocked a map indicating the location of another Isu Temple in Herat, Afghanistan. As Arbaaz confronted the Templar, Sleeman shot at him but the Assassin dodged his bullet, which hit an Isu structure instead, causing the temple to collapse. Both men escaped the temple's destruction and headed to Herat to investigate its Isu vault.[412]
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Arbaaz defeating Alexander Burnes
Sleeman arrived first and had his men occupy the Herat Citadel, which was situated atop the temple's ruins. As the Templars ventured into the ruins, Arbaaz followed them and beat them to the vault's pedestal, but was captured before he could activate it. The Templars subsequently took Arbaaz, the Koh-i-Noor and the Precursor box to the Katasraj Temple, where they were guarded by Burnes.[413] Arbaaz freed himself and confronted the Templar, who challenged him to a duel. After the Assassin emerged victorious, Burnes allowed him to leave with the two artifacts.[414]
In Amritsar, the Templars led by Sleeman took over the summer palace, taking Pyara Kaur hostage to lure Arbaaz into a trap. When the Assassin arrived at the palace, Sleeman held Pyara at knifepoint and demanded the Koh-i-Noor and the box. Arbaaz tossed the artifacts into the air before Pyara stabbed Sleeman with a concealed blade. This allowed her and Arbaaz to grab the Koh-i-Noor and escape, while Sleeman kept the box. Later, Arbaaz gave the diamond to the British Assassin Ethan Frye, who hid it somewhere in India.[415]
Conflict in Canada[]
- "Fellow patriots! The Oppressors have laid claim to Saint John's Day! As we speak, they are celebrating the creation of their secret association. No longer will this blessed day be theirs! We will form our own society! We will give this day back to the people!"
- ―The Assassin Ludger Duvernay at a soirée for the Saint-Jean Baptiste Society, 1834.[src]
Ludger Duvernay freed by his brothers
During the 19th century, the Château Clique, a group of wealthy families in Lower Canada, was a leading faction of the Templars in the country. In 1832, the Canadian Brotherhood financed the journalist and Assassin Ludger Duvernay to post several articles accusing the Canadian administration of serving the Château Clique. The Templars sent Duvernay to prison but he was freed by the Assassins.[238]
In 1834, Duvernay founded the Saint-Jean Baptiste Society to unify Quebec and gain independence from Canada. On 24 June, during a soirée reuniting the members of the society, a Templar agent infiltrated the party and killed one of the Duvernay's allies. The Templar agent was knocked out by Duvernay's associate Larose.[416]
The Magus Conspiracy[]
By 1851, Oscar Kane, an Assassin inventor serving as a liaison for the Brotherhood's branches in Europe, began to work with the Templars to garner their technical advancements. Under the alias of Magus, he wrote to the Countess Ada Lovelace to develop the Engine of History, a method of complex mathematical calculations which allowed the user to predict the future plans and actions of individuals they were targeting with nearly 100% accuracy. As Lovelace refused to share her research, Kane hired thugs to kidnap her at the Great Exhibition in London. After Pierrette Arnaud, an acrobat of the Aurora Equestrian Troupe, rescued her, Lovelace gave her her notes and tasked her to meet her friend, the soldier Simeon Price.[417]
In the meantime, Kane sent the Assassin Henri Escoffier to kill a target aboard the HMS Birkenhead and recruit Price. When the ship sank on its way to Cape Colony, Price deserted the army, and under the name of Jack Straw, began his training with Kane in Vienna.[418] In December 1852, Kane and Price attended a Templar meeting at the house of the Baron Julius Jacob von Haynau. They met the Baron and two other Templars, the lawyer Karl Mayr and the Countess Konstanze von Visler. While Kane and Mayr discussed experimental Templar weapons, the lawyer tried to strangle Kane but Price killed the Templar.[419]
Kane also began to influence the tailor János Libényi to test his devices in the assassination of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. In 1853, Libényi attempted to kill the Emperor before Kane could give him his invention. The assassination attempt was thwarted by Price, and Libényi was arrested. Kane and Price tried to liberate the tailor before his execution but they failed and Libényi was hanged.[420] A few weeks later, von Haynau seemingly died peacefully in his bed.[421]
In 1854, Price met Arnaud who gave him Lovelace's notes and asked him to stop Magus.[422] As Kane told him about the Pieces of Eden and the Precursors, Price began to doubt the path he had taken and left Kane's apprenticeship. When Price claimed that he would not help her, Arnaud stole back the notes and decided to find Magus herself. As the Templars searched for the notes, she traveled with her troupe across Europe.[421]
Later, as Magus, Kane associated with the Italian revolutionary Felice Orsini, promising to deliver bomb casings in his plot against the French Emperor Napoleon III. While in Como, Price met Orsini and discovered his link with Magus.[423] Price joined the Assassins in Paris who formally inducted him into the Brotherhood.[424] In 1858, at the theater opera of Rue le Peletier, Price, with the help of Arnaud, prevented Orsini and his fellow conspirators from killing the Emperor.[425] Price then decided to train Arnaud as an Assassin as she wanted to find Magus.[426] As Kane was in Paris to recover an Isu Eye during the bombing, the Assassins concluded that Kane was Magus and tracked him across Europe.[427]
In 1861, when Kane recovered an Eye from Assyria in the British Museum, Price confronted his former mentor alone and Kane tried to rally him to his side. Price refused and was soon arrested by the police for his desertion.[428] While Arnaud searched for intel on Kane and a way to free Price, Countess von Visler and Art Hennighan captured and tortured her to retrieve Lovelace's notes, finding them in her corset.[429] For days, the Templars forced her to decipher the notes. She mentioned the location of a temple in Bath and the existence of another Eye. The captive escaped from the Templars after a daring attempt. When von Vizler informed Kane about the temple in Bath, the former Assassin prepared to investigate the place.[430] Before his departure, Kane entrusted an Apple of Eden to the countess.[431]
In 1862, after his trial for desertion, Price was declared not guilty with the help of Lovelace's son Byron. Reuniting with Arnaud and their allies, they entrusted Lovelace's notes to Arnaud's friend Nell Robinson before leaving for Bath.[432] In the Isu bunker near Bath Abbey, the Assassins and their allies confronted Kane and his henchmen who found no Eye there. Kane once again tried to convince Price to join him but in vain. During the fight, Arnaud said she had burnt Lovelace's notes. After a fall, Kane was mortally injured and asked his former apprentice to end his life; Price complied, killing him with his Hidden Blade.[433]
As one of Kane's henchmen informed her that the notes were destroyed, von Visler confronted the Assassins at the Rossetti's home where Elizabeth Siddal had died recently from an overdose. Arnaud hid the notes beneath the deceased's head and affirmed that she had destroyed them to the Templar. Defeated, the countess left the house after paying her respects to the widow Dante Gabriel Rossetti.[434] The Assassins decided to hide Lovelace's notes in their friend's grave to protect them from the Templars.[435]
Boshin War[]
- Main article: Boshin War
In 1855, the British Templars sent William Lloyd to Edo to restore the power of the Japanese Rite. As the Japanese Assassins had been supported by the Tokugawa shogunate for over two centuries, the Templars infiltrated the Imperial court to influence Emperor Meiji.[436]
By 1867, Lloyd became the assistant of the British Consul to Japan, Harry Parkes, and successfully diminished the influence of the shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. As the shōgun planned to resign, the French Assassin Jules Brunet tried to convince him to stay but in vain. As the war between the Emperor and the shōgun became inevitable, Brunnet tasked the Assassin Matsuo to mobilize all his agents to support the Tokugawa clan.[436]
After the shōgun abdicated, the Assassin Issa planned to kill Parkes to weaken the Imperial party. Infiltrating the consulate, the Assassin confronted Lloyd, who protected Parkes. Issa was defeated before being shot down by the consul. After this, Matsuo infiltrated Lloyd's battalion, disguised as the rōnin "Masajiro".[436]
In 1868, the Boshin War began between the Emperor and the shōgun. To bolster the Imperial power, Lloyd wanted to obtain the Musashi Masamune, a powerful sword that once belonged to the legendary rōnin Miyamoto Musashi. As the sword was possessed by the samurai lord Saigo Kayano, Matsuo tasked the Assassin and onna-musha Nakano Takeko to serve as his bodyguard. Nakano began to groom Shiba Atsuko, a young woman posing as a man in the Tokugawa army, hoping to recruit her into the Brotherhood. When Lloyd and his rōnin attacked Saigo's camp and killed him, Nakano and Atsuko protected the sword, the young soldier even fighting Matsuo without knowing he was an Assassin.[436]
As Lloyd failed to recover the Musashi Masamune, he planned to win the war to beat the Assassins. Nakano tasked Atsuko and her brother Shiba Ibuka to poison the wells of Fushimi as the Imperial army would halt there. Atsuko refused but Ibuka accepted, as Nakano threatened to expose his cowardice displayed on the battlefield. Shocked by her brother's deeds, Arsuko decided not o help Nakano again.[436]
Musashi Masamune was entrusted to the daimyo Aizu Matsudaira Katamori. During the Battle of Aizu in October 1868, Nakano was mortally wounded and Lloyd killed Matsudaira, recovering the sword. Atsuko dueled the Templar but was defeated. As Lloyd was about to kill her, she was saved by her brother who slew the Templar. Wounded, Ibuka carried his sister away from the battlefield before succumbing to his wounds. Matsuo healed Atsuko and revealed his true allegiance, asking her to join the Brotherhood after protecting the Musashi Masamune, an offer she accepted.[436]
Liberation of London[]
- Main article: Liberation of London
Grand Master Crawford Starrick
By the 1860s, without any Assassin presence in London for the past century, the British Templars held complete control over the city. The Grand Master and industrialist Crawford Starrick controlled every aspect of the city's society through his company Starrick Industries and the help of his Templar lieutenants John Elliotson, Pearl Attaway, Philip Twopenny, and James Brudenell. He also hired the criminal Maxwell Roth to form and lead the Blighters, a Templar-affiliated gang that dominated the streets of London.[437]
In 1860, the Indian Assassin Jayadeep Mir failed to assassinate the Templar Tjinder Dani, a task his father Arbaaz accomplished. Though initially sentenced to death, his mentor Ethan Frye was able to arrange for a lesser punishment and have Jayadeep sent to London to spy on the Templars. In 1862, after Ethan killed the Templar Robert Waugh, Jayadeep infiltrated a group of Templars led by Cavanagh who tried to recover an Apple of Eden from the Metropolitan Railway's excavation site. The Assassins failed to recover the artifact while Cavanagh was killed by the Templar Marchant on the orders of Starrick, who had learned of Cavanagh's plan to overthrow him with the Apple.[438]
Evie with a dying David Brewster
In February 1868, the Apple was given to the Templar scientist David Brewster, who studied it in his laboratory in Croydon, a city under the control of the industrialist Templar Rupert Ferris. After Ethan died of pleurisy, his twin children Jacob and Evie were sent to kill Ferris and Brewster, respectively, and to recover the Apple.[439] They succeeded in assassinating their targets, but the artifact was destroyed in an explosion during an experiment.[440]
Without the permission of the Assassins Council, the Frye twins later traveled to London to liberate it from the Templars' control, and joined forces with Jayadeep, by now known as Henry Green. They founded their own gang called the Rooks to fight the Blighters and killed their Templar leaders across the city, convincing numerous Blighters to join their ranks.[441]
Jacob and Evie killing Starrick
While Jacob assassinated Starrick's lieutenants, Evie tried to recover a Shroud of Eden hidden in London by Edward Kenway a century prior. During her quest, Evie eliminated the Templar Lucy Thorne, who looked for the Shroud on Starrick's behalf.[442] When the Grand Master infiltrated Buckingham Palace to kill the Heads of Chruch and State and take the Shroud from the vault it had been hidden in, Jacob, Evie and Henry intervened and killed Starrick. The Assassins then decided to leave the Shroud in the vault and were knighted by Queen Victoria for their deeds.[443]
After the death of their Grand Master, the Templars in London were divided into many factions trying to take control of the city. One of these factions organized various terrorist attacks, such as the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the bombing of the Palace of Westminster, but the Frye twins foiled their plans and eliminated the Templars involved.[444]
Another Templar faction was led by the British India Company's official Brinley Ellsworth, who sought to sabotage Maharaja Duleep Singh's attempts to secure India's independence from the British Empire.[445] The Fryes protected Singh from an assassination attempt and helped him recover the Punjab gold stolen by the Templars and the Company.[446] When Singh met with Ellsworth to settle matters between them, the Templar tried to kill the Maharaja, but Evie intervened and defeated Ellsworth, though she ultimately spared him at Singh's urging.[447]
American Civil War and Reconstruction[]
- "If the Confederacy wins, or even forces the negotiation of a treaty, the Templars could take control of the country. [...] Everything we've achieved. Everything my grandmother fought for in New Orleans. It will all be lost."
- ―The American Mentor explaining the importance of a Union victory to Varius, 1863.[src]
During the American Civil War, the Templars profited from the political chaos to regain power in the United States, manipulating the Confederate States, while the Assassins tried to end the war. In New York City, the Grand Master William M. Tweed was the boss of the Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine in the city.[22]
On 13 July 1863, the Templars orchestrated the New York City draft riots to discredit the Mayor and the Governor to take control of the city. During these events, Varius, the only Assassin operating in the city, infiltrated the Aztec Club of 1847 to steal the Faith prong of the Trident of Eden and give it to General Ulysses S. Grant to end the war. The Templar Cudgel Cormac confronted the Assassin and used the artifact to defeat him. As he was about to finish off the Assassin, Cormac was paralyzed with his own air rifle by Eliza, Tweed's servant who had discovered his Templar plots. Later, Varius inducted Eliza into the Brotherhood and she entrusted the prong to Grant.[22]
On 14 April 1865, near the end of the war, the Templar puppet and actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln, who died the next morning. The Assassins tracked Booth down and killed him on 26 April.[237]
In 1871, William M. Tweed's corruption was exposed thanks to evidence brought by Eliza, and the Grand Master was arrested.[22]
After Ulysses S. Grant became president, the Templars infiltrated his administration, granting him access to a Precursor box and pages of the Voynich manuscript to master the power of the prong. In 1872, as Grant's opponent Horace Greeley discovered the Templars and stole the Precursor box, the Order poisoned him and sent the Templar Alice to finish the job and take back the box. Alice stole the artifact but the Pinkerton agent Tommy Greyling prevented her from killing Greeley.[448]
Alice confronted by Tommy Greyling and Evie Frye
When Alice went to London to recover pages of the Voynich manuscript from the British Museum, Greyling followed her, allying with Mark Twain and the Assassins Evie Frye and Henry Green. With the help of the Blighters, Alice infiltrated the museum and stole the pages but was confronted by Greyling and Evie. The Templar escaped and took a ship to the United States but Greyling followed her and boarded the ship. Not seeing any way out, Alice threw the pages into the ocean and jumped into the ocean as well, seemingly killing herself.[448]
The Resurrection Plot[]
By 1869, a group of Templars was operating in Cairo. As Armen Kazan recovered the Ankh, the American Templar Albert Hawkins convinced the Khedive Ismail Pasha to build a railway from Alexandria to an uninhabited spot midway down the Suez Canal using forced labor. The end of the line was a cave where the Ankh could be used and the Templar Art Hennighan was sent by the Countess Konstanze von Visler to assist with the experiments on the Piece of Eden. On 1 November, at the inauguration of the Khedivial Opera House, Hawkins set a bomb to kill the Khedive but the Assassins Pierrette Arnaud, Safiya El-Nadi and Gamal Sabry infiltrated the event. Arnaud killed the Templar and prevented the explosion.[449]
Later, the three Assassins investigated the end of the railway with the help of Arnaud's former mentor Simeon Price, who was searching for the Ankh.[450] In the cave, Kazan, Hennighan and eleven other Templars activated the artifact, resurrecting a dead horse. While the Assassins killed Kazan and most of the other Templars, Hennighan rode the horse and escaped with the Ankh.[451] As the Templar fled to Paris, Price followed him to France. In 1870, Price interrogated the Templar Virgile Donat, who informed him that Hennighan wanted to use the Ankh with the Engine of History. Before leaving, the Assassin killed Donat.[452]
In London, through the art dealer Charles Augustus Howell, the Templars learned that Ada Lovelace's notes were hidden in Elizabeth Siddal's grave. They manipulated Howell into convincing Dante Gabriel Rosetti to exhume his late wife. Once the grave was opened, Countess von Visler recovered the notes to resume construction of the Engine of History. Howell was interrogated about the exhumation by Arnaud, Evie Frye and Anne Blunt, confirming their fear that the Templars had the notes.[453] Later, Arnaud interrogated the Templar-affiliated criminal Tom Shallow to know where von Visler was, but without success.[454]
In the summer of 1870, the French and German Templars orchestrated a conflict between the French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia.[452] The Master Assassin Michel Moulin sent Price and the brothers Jules and Fabrice Sabourin to cut off the telegram line to prevent the war. The Templars shot at them but the three men survived. Ultimately, the Franco-Prussian War was declared.[455] In September, when Emperor Napoleon III was captured, the French Third Republic was established, with the Government of National Defense resuming the war. As the Prussian army surrounded Paris, the government moved to Tours where the Templars influenced it to not send reinforcements, leaving the Assassins alone to organize the defense of the capital. Arnaud went to Tours to track the Templars.[456]
To smuggle out the Ankh from the besieged Paris, the Templars planned to have Victoire L'Estocq serve as a decoy for the Assassins while Lebrun would keep the Ankh. The Assassins found the message intended to lure them. They blocked L'Estocq while Price took a ballon to Tours with Lebrun, oblivious of his allegiance. During the flight, the Templar stabbed the Assassin, but Price threw away Lebrun from the ballon.[457] His corpse was later found by the Templars but no trace of the Ankh.[458] Arriving in Tours, a wounded Price met Arnaud but they were targeted by Hennighan. Arnaud confronted the Templar and killed him.[459]
Later, Price traveled to Brussels to kill von Visler. The Templar invited him to the Château Aarden and gave him Lovelace's notes as a measure of peace, even if she kept copies for herself. After Price burnt the notes, the Templar proposed a truce as she wanted to understand the Brotherhood and offered to stop the Templars' influence over the French government. Price accepted, leading to the end of the war and the establishment of the German Empire.[460] During the following years, Price and the countess grew closer, sharing many points of view. In 1873, the Templars were worried about Price and ordered the Château's butler Lambert to eliminate him but he was killed by the Assassin. Von Visler, unaware of this, confessed her love and hid Price from the Order. To escape the Templars, the two lovers faked their deaths with an explosion on a train.[461]
As a Templar illegal art ring operated in Cairo, Arnaud interrogated a young Templar, retrieving a list of businesses in England affiliated with the Templars. Going back to Crawley, she worked with the Assassin George Westhouse, focusing their investigation on the Drake Line business as the other companies had fallen due to the Vienna stock market crash.[462]
In Zürich, Price and von Visler joined the local Brotherhood led by Henri Escoffier. For the next three years, the former Templar learned the tactics of the Brotherhood, becoming an Assassin.[431] In September 1876, during the Brussels Geographic Conference, von Visler killed the Templar cartographer Maynard Poole and erased any mention of the Ankh. As she met King Leopold II of Belgium and Henry Morton Stanley in private, Price believed she betrayed the Brotherhood. After a confrontation between the two lovers, von Visler escaped.[463]
To protect the Brotherhood, the Assassins burned their Zürich safehouse and relocated while Price was deemed unreliable for his misjudgment. In the meantime, von Visler rejoined the Templars and resumed construction of the Engine of History, planning the downfall of the Assassins using all the intel she had learned.[464] In 1884, Escoffier heard rumors that von Visler was present during the Berlin Conference but he did not find her. In 1889, Price returned to Paris and killed the Templar gang leader Centime.[465]
In 1882, the Assassins learned that the Templars were planning to kill Queen Victoria of Great Britain. George Westhouse informed Arnaud of the plot, and she was able to prevent it with the help of her ward Spider Wallin.[466]
During the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, von Visler finalized her plan. Using the Engine of History to predict the actions of the Assassins, she left clues for the Brotherhood that the Templars would use the newly built Eiffel Tower in an attack, manipulating the Assassins to bomb the monument to frame them as anarchists.[467] While Moulin, Price, Fabrice Sabourin and Mary Fitzpatrick placed the explosives, Arnaud understood that it was a trap. She tried to warn the Assassins but was shot by von Visler. Wounded, the Assassin tasked Wallin to go to the tower.[468]
In the landmark, Price confronted his former lover who presented their alleged daughter Gisela. The young girl used Kane's Apple of Eden to pacify the Assassin but Wallin intervened. During the confrontation, Price wounded the Templar in the throat and she escaped with her daughter using gliders. The countess fell to her death while Gisela and the Apple disappeared. Price and Willin sent a signal to the other Assassins to stop the bombing, preventing the exposure of the Brotherhood.[469]
Russian Empire[]
During the dusk of the Russian Empire, the Templars influenced the ruling House of Romanov while the Russian Assassins formed the Narodnaya Volya, a group of revolutionaries seen as terrorists by those in power. The Assassin Simeon Price recruited freedom fighters into the Brotherhood against the rule of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, among them Dmitry Karakozov. In 1866, Karakozov attempted to kill the Tsar but failed and was executed.[470]
Tsar Alexander III overpowering Nikolai Orelov
On 13 March 1881, after four other attempts, the Assassins Ignacy Hryniewiecki and Nikolai Rysakov killed the Tsar with a bomb before being executed.[464] His son and successor, Alexander III, also aligned with the Templars and was entrusted with a Staff of Eden that he used as a sceptre. The new Tsar began to arrest the Assassins in Russia.[471]
On 1 March 1887, a group of Assassins, among them Aleksandr Ulyanov, tried to kill Alexander III but failed. The captured Assassins were then publicly hanged. On 29 October 1888, the Assassin Nikolai Orelov infiltrated the Imperial train to kill the Tsar and took the Staff. The encounter resulted in the Borki train disaster, which both Nikolai and Alexander III survived. However, the Tsar later developed a kidney inflammation as a result of his wounds sustained during the fight against Nikolai, and died on 1 November 1894.[471]
In 1908, the Templar and mystic Grigori Rasputin stole the Staff of Eden and brought it to a Templar facility in Tunguska. After capturing and interrogating the Templar Dolinsky, Nikolai and two other Assassins infiltrated the facility to steal the Piece of Eden.[472] During the mission, they also had the support of the scientist Nikola Tesla, who had been discredited and had his Apple of Eden stolen by the Templar Thomas Edison.[473] While Nikolai touched the Staff and experienced several visions, Tesla sent a burst of electricity from his Wardenclyffe Tower towards the facility, destroying the artifact and causing a massive explosion that left Nikolai as the sole survivor.[472]
Nikolai showing the Staff shard to his wife Anna
Later, Rasputin found a shard of the Staff, giving him influence over the Romanov family and granting him invulnerability. On 29 December 1916, the Assassins poisoned, stabbed, and shot the Templar, then unknowingly buried him with the shard. A year later, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia informed Nikolai about Rasputin's shard and the Assassin dug up the Templar's body to retrieve it, opting to keep it for himself rather than give it to the Brotherhood.[474]
20th century[]
At the dawn of the 20th century, the Templars formulated the "Plan", to control both workers and employers through capitalism. In 1937, they founded Abstergo Industries, a pharmaceutical company that would become their public front to control the economy and sciences. In the meantime, the Assassins were more involved in military conflicts, acting as soldiers or spies.
World War I[]
The Assassin medic about to kill Erich Albert
During World War I, the Templars and Assassins fought on both sides of the conflict, serving in the army and intelligence services. During the Christmas Truce of 1914 between the British and German soldiers, the German Templar and general Erich Albert asked for the help of a British medic to treat his men. To thank him, Albert offered him his Templar ring only to discover that the medic was an Assassin. The medic promptly activated his Hidden Blade and killed the Templar.[46]
In 1916, the Templars in London were led by the Master Spy, a German Templar who was also a Sage of Aita. While recovering intelligence for the German Empire, the Master Spy converted the Templars to the Instruments of the First Will, a group dedicated to resurrecting Aita's wife, Juno, so that she could rule over humanity. His operations were discovered by Winston Churchill, who enlisted the aid of Lydia Frye, the last Assassin left in London, to eliminate him and his followers.[475]
Russian Revolution[]
In 1917, the Assassins supported Vladimir Lenin in the Russian Revolution, overthrowing Tsar Nicholas II and creating the Soviet Union. With the end of the Empire, the Templars infiltrated the Soviet government to take control of the new regime.[474]
By July 1918, the Romanov family had been placed under house arrest in Yekaterinburg, where they were in possession of a Precursor box. The Assassin Nikolai Orelov was sent to infiltrate their residence and recover the box for the Brotherhood.[476] Meanwhile, Templars led by Yakov Yurovsky, who sought the same prize, interrogated the Romanov family to learn the artifact's location, and executed them when they refused to talk.[477]
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Anastasia killing a Templar through the Bleeding Effect
The Tsar's youngest daughter, Anastasia, survived her family's massacre and fled with the box, where she was soon found by Nikolai. As the Assassin tried to calm her down and take away the box, the artifact interacted with his shard of the Staff of Eden, imprinting Anastasia with the genetic memories and skills of the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun.[477] Nikolai, feeling responsible for what had happened, became Anastasia's guardian and decided to escort her to the Brotherhood, believing they could help the girl.[478]
Taking a train to Kazan, Nikolai and Anastasia were hunted by the Templars, who boarded the train to kill the girl. The Assassin killed the Templars and escaped with Anastasia.[479] In September 1918, the two arrived in Kazan, whereupon Nikolai went to meet with his ally Leon Trotsky to secure passage to Moscow. Believing Anastasia needed to die to further the Revolution's cause, Trotsky betrayed Nikolai to the Templars, who interrogated him for the location of the girl and the Precursor box.[480] Using Shao Jun's skills, Anastasia killed the Templars and saved Nikolai.[481]
In 1928, four years after Lenin's death, the Templar puppet Joseph Stalin became the new leader of the Soviet Union. During his leadership, he led a purge against the Assassins in the Russian Academy of Sciences, forcing their Mentor to go into hiding.[482]
Inter-war period[]
During the period between the two World Wars, the Assassins and Templars tried to eliminate each other. The Black Cross Albert Bolden eliminated many Assassin cells throughout the world during this period.[483]
On 12 March 1925, the Assassins killed the Chinese Templar Grand Master and leader of the Kuomintang, Sun Yat-sen. This created turmoil not just among the Shanghai Rite, but in all of China, as the country entered what would become known as the Warlord Era.[483]
In the 1930s, Henry Ford and other high-ranking Templars founded Abstergo Industries, achieving their goal to control the United States from the shadows and leaving the Order in charge of both the communist and capitalist causes.[484]
In 1936, the British Assassin Norbert Clarke eliminated the Templar branch based in the city of Tallinn, Estonia.[485]
Spanish Civil War[]
- "Few people can survive direct contact with the Koh-i-Noor. Fewer still can control it. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say [Grosvenor] plans to control you in order to control the gem."
- ―Albert Bolden to Ignacio Cardona, 1937.[src]
During the Spanish Civil War, the Templars supported logistically both sides of the conflicts, the Republicans with the Soviet Union led by their puppet Joseph Stalin and the Nationalists with Nazi Germany led by their ally Adolf Hitler. Some Assassins sided with the Republicans to stop the war, fighting on the front.[486]
Albert Bolden and Igancio Cardona riding together to stop Rufus Grosvenor
In 1937, the Brotherhood sent Norbert Clarke to reinforce the cell of the Assassin Ignacio Cardona. On his way to meet them, Clarke ran into the rogue Templar Rufus Grosvenor, an Instrument of the First Will who had stolen the Koh-i-Noor from the former Black Cross Albert Bolden. Grosvenor manipulated Clarke into committing suicide and impersonated him to approach the Assassins. He convinced Cardona to unlock the power of the artifact as the Assassin had a high concentration of Isu DNA, while Cardona realized too late the deception of the Instrument.[485]
As Grosvenor turned his cell against him, Cardona was forced to team up with Bolden, who sought revenge on the Instrument for killing his family to steal the Koh-i-Noor. Gaining an alliance with some Spanish revolutionaries, the Assassin and the former Black Cross confronted Grosvenor and Cardona's former team in a war-torn village. Cardona and Bolden confronted Grosvenor and Glaucia Acosta, Cardona's former teammate and lover, in the village's church.[487]
Cardona using the Koh-i-Noor against Grosvenor
The Instrument handed the Koh-i-Noor to Cardona and asked him to use it to save his friends. The Assassin used the artifact against Grosvenor and projected an illusion to trick him into believing the diamond had been destroyed. During the church's collapse, Grosvenor and Acosta escaped while Cardona left the Piece of Eden buried in the ruins. Bolden then revealed that he had no intention of serving the Templars if they were going to support the likes of Stalin and Hitler, and remained in Spain to help Cardona protect the Koh-i-Noor's burial site.[488]
World War II[]
- "It was the Templars who delivered Germany into Nazi hands. If we do nothing, the world will crumble. In the age of shadows, the price doesn't matter, we need to stop them."
- ―Boris Pash to Eddie Gorm, 1942.[src]
During the 1930s, the Templars supported the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany to further their plan to create a global conflict and bring about their New World Order. The Templars manipulated Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill to ally against Hitler during World War II.[489]
In 1940, during the Blitz, the American Assassins Boris Pash and Julia Dusk tasked the Assassin descendant Eddie Gorm to infiltrate the SS to uncover the Uranprojeckt, the German nuclear weapon project. After two years, Gorm blew his cover by capturing Dr. Werner Heisenberg, the head of the Uranprojekt. He revealed that the project was a cover for Die Glocke, a machine being built by the Templar and Obergruppenführer Gero Kramer in Vemork, Norway. Gorm was exfiltrated by Dusk before the SS could kill him.[490]
Gorm fighting Kramer in the Vemork facility
On 27 February 1943, Gorm, who was formally inducted into the Brotherhood, and Dusk participated in Operation Gunnerside. While Gorm served as a diversion and tried to kill Kramer, Dusk and the commandos sabotaged the heavy water storages of Vemork. Gorm was defeated by Kramer, who tied him to Die Glocke, a machine designed by Nikola Tesla and powered by his Apple of Eden which could read an individual's genetic memories.[490] Kramer wanted to find Piece of Eden through the memories of Gorm's ancestors but Die Glock exploded and Dusk saved Gorm before they escaped.[491]
On 15 July, Pash ordered Gorm and Dusk to infiltrate Książ Castle and kill Kramer while his team of Assassins attacked the underground facilities to sabotage Project Riese, whose aim was to create superweapons using Tesla's Apple. Gorm killed Kramer and recovered the Apple while Pash's team eliminated all the Templars in the facilities.[491]
Gorm and Dusk recovering Tesla's Apple
With Kramer's death and the loss of the Apple, the Templar Inner Sanctum accepted Project Rainbow, headed by the Templar scientist John von Neumann, to stop the war as they had lost control over their puppets on each side of the conflict. Von Neumann made a truce with Pash to use Die Glocke, the Apple and Tesla's knowledge to travel back in time and kill Hitler before his rise to power. As Gorm and Dusk discovered Pash's betrayal, Dusk tried to destroy the Apple by blowing herself with a hand grenade, but the artifact survived the explosion and was recovered by Pash.[491]
On 28 October, Pash and Neumann prepared Project Rainbow on the USS Eldridge in a Philadelphian shipyard. As they were ready to launch the experiment, Gorm infiltrated the ship and killed Tesla to sabotage the project before committing suicide. As the experiment failed in the end, von Neumann was forced to join the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons for the United States to stop the war. The Templars kept Tesla's Apple, ending the truce with Pash.[491]
On 30 April 1945, the Allies surrounded Berlin and the Nazis were on the verge of defeat. Hitler planned to kill a body double to disappear and join the Templars with a Piece of Eden, intending to meet with Stalin to review their plans. The Assassins infiltrated the Führerbunker and killed Hitler. The death of Hitler permitted the end of World War II but the Templars achieved their goal to create a new international order.[492]
Cold War[]
After World War II, the Russian Assassins were able to reorganize the Academy of Sciences. They were freed of Templar influence and, on 5 March 1953, succeeded in their attempt to kill Joseph Stalin using poison, depriving the Templars of a valuable asset. As their Mentor was dead, the Assassins lost their influence on the Russian government. The last Russian Assassins hid in their Science Cities.[493]
On 8 February 1957, the Assassins Boris Pash and Alekseï Gavrani went to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.. While Gavrani neutralized the guards, Pash met the Templar John von Neumann who was dying from cancer. As he passed away, Pash took Tesla's Apple of Eden which was in the Templar's possession.[494]
A picture of the Bloodstone Unit
The Assassin and director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William King Harvey, founded the Bloodstone Unit, a cell of Assassins led by Pash to carry out missions during Cold War. Under the cover of Project BLUEBIRD, Pash brainwashed the Assassins with Tesla's Apple to create obedient soldiers who could break the Creed to win the war against the Templars. Among the cell's members were Gavrani and Julia Gorm, Eddie's daughter.[494]
By 1963, Harvey had secretly defected to the Templars and orchestrated the assassination of John F. Kennedy to retrieve the Apple of Eden in his possession. Harvey manipulated the members of Bloodstone Unit to participate in the plot and sent them to Vietnam to uncover information on the Templars' plans.[494]
On 2 January 1963, the unit captured the Templar Cooper, who had infiltrated the U.S military during Vietnam War. After torturing him, the Assassins discovered that the South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm was a Templar puppet. As Gavrani was opposed to such violence, Pash dismissed him from the unit for being weak-willed. On 2 November, the Bloodstone Unit organized a coup in South Vietnam, leading to the death of the president.[494]
Gavrani taking the Apple from Greer
On 22 November in Dallas, the Bloodstone Unit assassinated President Kennedy. One of its members, William Greer, took the president's Apple but was confronted by Gavrani, who wanted to stop his former unit. Incapacitating Greer, Gavrani recovered the Apple and brought it back to Harvey, oblivious of the latter's Templar allegiance and role in the conspiracy. Harvey decided to manipulate Gavrani to dismantle the Bloodstone Unit and force Pash to give him Tesla's Apple.[494]
On 30 July 1964, the USS Maddox crew attacked the North Vietnamese Army while disguised as South Vietnamese combatants. The attack was a distraction while Gavrani approached the Bloodstone Unit base at Hòn Mê the next day. The unit buried Tesla's Apple and left the base while the Assassin Dhogura burnt the evidence. In a fight, Gavrani killed his former teammate before continuing his track. On 2 August, Gavrani met the rest of the unit in Ninh Bình. As Zenia, Pash's lover, was pregnant and wounded, Gavrani made a deal with Pash: medical assistance for Zenia in exchange for the Apple's location. When Pash accepted, Julia Gorm arrived, killing Doni and Gavrani, though the latter managed to mortally wound her, allowing Pash and Zenia to escape.[495]
Pash attacking Harvey
On 4 August, Harvey received Pash and Zenia on the USS Maddox. In exchange for the Apple, the Templar doctor Warren Vidic took charge of the pregnant woman, who died while giving birth to her daughter Nathalie. Harvey revealed his true allegiance to Pash and explained that Nathalie would be raised by Vidic to ensure that Pash's loyalty to the Templars, and ordered him to give them all his research on Project BLUEBIRD and the concept of genetic memories.[495]
On 21 April 1971, the Haitian Assassins killed François Duvalier, the President of Haiti who was a puppet of the Templars.[237]
Modern times[]
At the end of the 20th century, the Assassins changed their ways of fighting the Templars, ceasing to use violence to change regimes, and instead focusing their efforts on stopping the manipulation of the Templars through the co-optation of regimes and corporations. The development of technology allowing the exploration of genetic memories also greatly affected how the conflict was fought.
Development of the Animus[]
In the 1970s, the Templar doctor Warren Vidic created the Animus, a device used to read the genetic memories of an individual; he based his creation on previously discovered Isu technology. One of his first test subjects was Nathalie, Boris Pash's daughter. In 1977, while exploring the memories of her parents, she discovered that she was a hostage of the Templars. She fled Vidic's lab, taking Tesla's Apple of Eden and the Animus' blueprints. She then met the American Assassin William Miles and gave him the blueprints.[495]
Miles giving the Animus' blueprints to Voronina
Miles flew to Moscow to meet an Assassin cell but was tracked by Templars. He was saved by the Russian Assassin Medeya Voronina from the laboratory of Protvino. In gratitude, Miles gave her the blueprints, asking her to create an Animus in their facilities.[496]
In 1980, Vidic launched the Animus Project, tracking Assassin descendants to put them in the Animus and find Pieces of Eden. They also used the Animus to brainwash individuals and release them to become sleeper agents in the Brotherhood to destroy the Assassins. Among them were Daniel Cross, the great-grandson of the Assassin Nikolai Orelov,[474] and Maxime Gorm, Julia's son.[495]
In 1986, to recover Aguilar's Apple of Eden, the Templars located his descendant, the Assassin Mary Lynch, and sent a team after her. In Baja California, as the Templars led by Alan Rikkin were on their way to capture her, Mary tasked her husband Joseph to kill her to impede the Templars' attempt to recover the Apple.[188]
Mary Lynch committing suicide with Joseph's help
As their son Callum witnessed and misunderstood the scene, Joseph ordered him to flee because the Templars could use him to find the Apple. Callum escaped from the Templars while Joseph was captured and sent to the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Madrid. He was put in an Animus but resisted synchronization with his ancestors, refusing to let the Templars discover the secrets of his bloodline. As a result, he suffered neurological damage and became blind.[188]
By 1991, while the Templars plotted to end the USSR, the Russian Assassins in Protvino created their Animus. However, the Assassins who tested it became mad because of the Bleeding Effect and were locked in the facilities. Medeya Voronina decided to become the only test subject while many Assassins left Protvino as they saw the project as a waste of time and resources.[497]
Great Purge[]
- Main article: Great Purge
By 1998, after his release by Abstergo, Daniel Cross became a petty criminal and a drug addict, suffering from the Bleeding Effect which made him involuntarily experience the memories of his ancestor Nikolai Orelov. After a confrontation with a civilian at a bar in Philadelphia, he was found by the Assassin Hannah Mueller who mistook him to be an Assassin from the training camp.[471] She brought him before the camp director Paul Bellamy who tried to heal him from the Bleeding Effect and make sense of his hallucinations about Tunguska. Cross's brainwashing led him to join the Assassin and to meet their leader, the Mentor.[472]
Cross killing the Mentor
On 6 November 2000, while the Assassins supported Al Gore and the Templars George W. Bush in the race for the U.S. presidential election, Cross met the Mentor in his facility in Dubai. Just as the Templars had programmed him, Cross killed the Mentor and revealed the locations of various Assassin facilities across the world. The Templars launched simultaneous attacks on the Assassins, nearly eradicating the Brotherhood.[474] The training camp in Kyushu was attacked by Team Epsilon led by Maxime Gorm who killed the Assassin leader Yuri. The Assassin Hajime Shimada escaped the slaughter with Yuri's son, Tomo Sakagawa.[495]
Even though they killed many Assassins during the Great Purge, the Templars captured some of them to explore their genetic memories, including Paul Bellamy.[498] The other Assassins who escaped the purge continued to work in small cells to avoid detection by the Templars. Among these cells were the Science City of Protvino and the Farm, an Assassin compound located in the Black Hills of South Dakota led by William Miles.[499]
In 2011, Cross led a group of Templars in a raid on an Assassin hideout. Hannah Mueller, who was located there, gave her fellow Assassins time to flee and tried to reason with Cross, only to be killed by her former friend.[500]
Search for the Apple[]
On 19 October 2002, under the Bolshoi Theatre, Daniel Cross infiltrated the hidden library of Ivan the Terrible which served as a repository for the Assassins. Posing as an Assassin guard's replacement, Cross recovered the Prophet's Codex written by the Mentor Ezio Auditore. Reading it to Warren Vidic via his earpiece, Cross learned about Ezio's meeting with Minerva in the Vatican Vault five centuries ago. Cross then left the library with the Codex and killed the Assassin sentry outside.[498]
In 2005, William Miles, the de facto Mentor of the Assassins, forced his apprentice Lucy Stillman to cut her ties with the Brotherhood to infiltrate Abstergo Industries. Later, she was contacted by Vidic who hired her to work at the Animus Project laboratory in Rome.[501] Forbidden to leave the laboratory, Lucy secretly sent blueprints of the Animus to the Assassin Rebecca Crane, who created the Animus 2.0. However, Lucy's isolation from the Brotherhood made her vulnerable to Vidic's manipulation, making her a mole for the Templars.[502] In 2010, another of William's apprentices, Clay Kaczmarek, hacked the personal computer of Alan Rikkin, Abstergo's CEO and one of the Guardians of the Templars. He uncovered the files about the Animus Project and sent them to the Brotherhood.[503]
The Eye-Abstergo satellite
By 2011, the Templars wanted to launch the Eye-Abstergo, a satellite with Altaïr's Apple of Eden programmed to localize individuals with Isu DNA. In the facilities under the Denver International Airport, Daniel Cross led an experiment involving the satellite. Cross, influenced by the Apple, killed all the Abstergo employees in the facilities and the artifact was destroyed during the experiment. To replace the lost Piece of Eden, the Templars searched for Ezio Auditore's descendants for the Animus Project to locate his Apple.[504]
As Clay was a descendant of Ezio, William decided to send him undercover to infiltrate the Animus Project and reconnect with Lucy. On 1 February 2011, Clay was captured by Abstergo and became Subject 16 of the Animus Project.[501] Because of overexposure to the Animus, Clay suffered from the Bleeding Effect and had visions of Juno asking him to prepare the path of the future Subject 17, Demond Miles, William's son who had left the Brotherhood a decade ago. Discovering Lucy's betrayal and realizing he was about to die, Clay obeyed Juno, creating an AI copy of his consciousness in the Animus' memory core to help Desmond. With his blood, he drew Glyphs as clues for Desmond before committing suicide on 8 August 2012.[505]
Desmond in the Animus, monitored by Vidic and Lucy
On 1 September, the Templars captured Desmond as he was a descendant of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore. Brought to the Animus Project laboratory, Desmond was forced to explore the memories of Altaïr to recover a map of various Pieces of Eden. During the sessions, Lucy befriended Desmond to further the Templars' plan. On 7 September, a team of Assassins tried to rescue Desmond but they were killed by the Templars. Lucy later covertly revealed her Assassin allegiance to Desmond.[506]
The next day, Desmond accessed his ancestor's memory which revealed the map. The Templars then pretended to order his death, allowing Lucy to falsely save his life by "convincing" Vidic to spare him as he could still be useful.[506] While Desmond began to develop Eagle Vision through the Bleeding Effect, Vidic tasked Lucy to initiate Project Siren, a plan to help Desmond join the Assassins so that he could explore Ezio's memories to find his Apple. Lucy and Desmond fled the Abstergo laboratory with the Animus' memory core.[507]
Joining the Assassins Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings in the Rome hideout, Desmond agreed to help the Brotherhood. Exploring Ezio's memories, Desmond increased his skills through the Bleeding Effect and discovered the clues left for him in the Animus by Clay. When Desmond reached Ezio's memory of the meeting between the Assassin and Minerva in the Vatican Vault, the Isu spoke directly to Desmond, warning him about the Second Disaster.[507]
Vidic confronting Lucy and Desmond
At that moment, Abstergo discovered the location of the Assassins' hideout and Vidic led a team to attack the safehouse. Desmond and Lucy killed the guards while Vidic fled the scene. With their hideout compromised, the Assassins went on the road to find another safehouse, taking the Animus with them.[507]
During this time, the Templars tried to kill the last Assassins. On 10 September, they eliminated an Assassin cell in Brisbane and infiltrated a cell in São Paulo. On 12 September, Cross led an attack on a cell in Whistler, Canada, killing all the Assassins except for one who managed to escape.[508]
The Templars also launched the Animi Training Program, using the Animus to train Abstergo operatives through the Bleeding Effect. One of their first recruits was Juhani Otso Berg, a former Finnish Special Forces operative who succeeded in the first stage of the program and became a Templar.[509]
Desmond stabbing Lucy
Arriving in Monteriggioni, Lucy's cell installed their hideout in the Sanctuary under the Villa Auditore while Desmond explored Ezio's memories in Rome to locate his Apple, believing it was the key to preventing the Second Disaster. On 10 October, the team found the artifact in the Colosseum Vault, but as Desmond touched the Apple, Juno contacted him and showed him a vision of Lucy delivering the artifact to the Templars if she was allowed to take it.[509]
Reluctantly, Desmond killed Lucy to prevent this from happening before falling into a coma.[509] William Miles and Harlan Cunningham arrived in the vault shortly after and William placed his son in the Animus to save his life.[508] The two Assassins then researched Ezio's memories through Desmond to determine the location of the Grand Temple.[510]
Averting the Second Disaster[]
- "Every day for the past two weeks the sun has been throwing off larger and larger flares. Older satellites are starting to malfunction, I hear rumblings of recalling the crew on the international space station. There's already work being done as well to shield power stations and transformers on the ground. Not that any of it matters. This goes far beyond some brownouts..."
- ―Shaun Hastings on the imminent solar flare, 2012.[src]-[m]
The two factions were pressed by time, as the Assassins wanted to prevent the Second Disaster while the Templars wanted to launch the Eye-Abstergo before 21 December 2012. While William Miles and his cell planned their escape from Italy, the Templars tried to locate the Assassins. Without Warren Vidic's permission, Daniel Cross tracked the Assassins but was later joined by Delta Team led by Theodore Rizzo.[508]
On 27 October, William's cell arrived at the Florence airport. Delta Team tried to capture them but they were ambushed by Assassins led by Harlan Cunningham. The Assassin lost one of their members while the Delta Team suffered many casualties. As Cross tried to reach Desmond Miles, the contact with the Apple provoked a seizure, leading Cross to kill three members of the Delta Team, among them Rizzo. William and his cell took a jet to New York while the other Assassins went to their hideout in Florence.[508]
Desmond facing Daniel Cross
On 30 October, Desmond regained consciousness and the Assassins arrived at the Grand Temple in New York to prevent the Second Disaster.[511] As they needed three Isu power sources to access the locked room, Shau Hastings hacked Abstergo's mainframe and located a power source in an office in New York City. On 16 November, Desmond infiltrated the building but was ambushed by Cross, who tracked the Assassins without the Templars' permission. Desmond knocked out Cross and returned to the Grand Temple with the power source.[512] Cross' interference foiled the capture of Desmond by a Templar agent sent to investigate the hacking, who brought Cross back to Philadelphia.[508]
On 28 November, Cunningham's cell infiltrated an Abstergo campus in Italy where hackers tried to track William's cell. The Assassins killed four of them and destroyed their servers. As the Assassins returned to their hideout in Florence, they were tracked by Juhani Otso Berg who led Sigma Team. On 30 November, the Templars attacked the hideout. Cunnigham escaped while the other Assassins were killed. The leader of the cell, Adriano Maestranzi, detonated an explosive to destroy the hideout and kill all members of Sigma Team, but Berg survived.[508] Despite the heavy losses, Berg was promoted to the rank of Master Templar and became a member of the Inner Sanctum.[511]
On 2 December, William's cell went to São Paulo to retrieve another Isu power source. Templars led by Cross followed the cell to capture them. During an MMA fight in the local stadium, Cross took the power source but Desmond defeated him and his guards and stole the source before returning to the Grand Temple.[513]
Desmond using the Apple on the Templars to save his father
On 11 December, William was in Cairo and stole the third power source from the Egyptian Museum before being captured by Berg and the reformed Sigma Team.[508] The Assassin was brought to the Animus Project laboratory and Vidic sent a video to Desmond, demanding the Apple of Eden in exchange for his father. On 14 December, Desmond stormed the laboratory with the Apple, killing Cross and Vidic before saving William and recovering the power source. Without any Piece of Eden for the Eye-Abstergo, the Templars were forced to cancel the project.[514]
Phoenix Project[]
- "Using Animus technology, Precursor history will be open to us for the first time ever. Ancient languages will be unlocked and ancient technology will be ours for the taking. Imagine what will be possible if we master the technology underpins the Pieces of Eden. Such discoveries would surpass one-hundredfold the splitting of the atom."
- ―Narration of Abstergo Industries' internal Phoenix Project video, 2014.[src]-[m]
On 21 December 2012, William's team recovered the Grand Temple Key and entered the locked room of the Grand Temple. There, after saying farewell to his teammates, Desmond sacrificed his life to activate the global aurora borealis device and protect Earth from the Second Disaster, though this also freed Juno's consciousness from the Grand Temple, allowing her to commence her plan to conquer humanity.[500]
The Abstergo team performing Desmond's autopsy
Several hours later, the Templars sent Sample Recovery Unit 3 to recover Desmond's corpse and extract fluid samples and organs from the body. Juno's consciousness managed to inhabit the equipment brought to the scene by the Abstergo forensics team and spread through the web to inhabit a wide variety of networked systems.[515]
In Montreal, the Templars launched the Sample 17 Project, exploring the genetic memories of Desmond's various ancestors to recover Pieces of Eden. Officially, the project was for Abstergo Entertainment's employees to examine the lives of these individuals for suitable material for Animus Omega programs, feature films, and other related materials.[516]
After his son's death, William left his role as a Mentor, and Gavin Banks became the de facto leader of the Brotherhood. While he rebuilt many cells across the world, Banks sent Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane to investigate Templar operations in the United States.[517] By November 2013, the two Assassins infiltrated Abstergo Entertainment to discover what had happened to Desmond's body. To recover the files of the company, they enlisted the help of the head of its IT department, John Standish, who was secretly an Instrument of the First Will and a Sage of Aita.[516]
John Standish attempting to poison the analyst
Standish blackmailed the analyst "Noob", who had been assigned to explore Edward Kenway's memories, and forced them to hack the Abstergo Entertainment server to enter into contact with Juno. The Sage tried to use the analyst's body as a vessel for Juno but he was killed by Abstergo security. The Templars recovered the Sage's corpse while the analyst gave the recovered files to Shaun and Rebecca. When William achieved closure for his son's death, he resumed his role as the Brotherhood's Mentor.[516]
Standish's corpse was sent to the Abstergo Industries Paris facility to be studied by the Templar doctor Álvaro Gramática for the Phoenix Project, an attempt to clone a complete Isu genome. To further their program, the Templars actively searched for the remains of past Sages while Gramática experimented with the original Shroud of Eden.[518]
In November 2013, the Templars sought to find the Koh-i-Noor and made a deal with MysoreTech to create the Brahman V.R., an Animus which could upload a user's genetic memories to the Abstergo Cloud. In Bangalore, the Indian Assassin Siobhan Dhami infiltrated MysoreTech and met the test programmer Jot Soora who pretended to be a descendant of the Assassin Arbaaz Mir. Believing his memories were the key to finding the Koh-i-Noor, Siobhan and her brother Jasdip kidnapped Jot in Mumbai and used the Brahman on him.[408]
Juhani Otso Berg at the Assassin safehouse
Just when the Assassins discovered Jot had lied about his ancestry due to his insecurities, a Templar strike team led by Juhani Otso Berg attacked the Assassin hideout. Siobhan was killed and while Jasdip fought the Templars and Jot fled with the Brahman. During their escape, Jasdip remotely activated his sister's Hidden Blade to detonate; the resulting explosion separated him and Jot.[408]
Later, the Templars captured Jot and his fiancée Monima Das before escorting them in a van. Jasdip tried to save them, provoking the plunging of the vehicle into the Mithi River. The Assassin succeeded in saving Jot but Monima drowned. Meeting with the Assassin Dinesh at a safehouse in the Chor Bazaar, the Brotherhood discovered that Monima was Arbaaz's descendant and that her genetic memories were in the Abstergo Cloud. While exploring the memories, the Assassins deleted the files from the Cloud before being attacked by the Templars again. Dinesh was killed but Jot and Jasdip destroyed the Brahman and escaped.[408]
In February 2014, Harlan Cunningham and his apprentice Arend Schut stole the Precursor box from an Abstergo facility in Rotterdam. Berg led Sigma Team to recover the artifact and they were ultimately successful, though the Assassins managed to escape.[519]
In May, the Assassins discovered that their members Eric Cooper and Stephanie Chiu were spies for the Initiates, a collective whose aim was to publicize illicit information about both the Assassins and the Templars. As they used a private network, Shaun Hastings recruited several Initiates into the Brotherhood to fight the Templars.[517]
In July, Abstergo Entertainment tasked Robert Fraser to explore the memories of the French Assassin Arno Dorian to find the remains of the Sage François-Thomas Germain. While exploring Arno's memories, Fraser developed the Bleeding Effect, confusing his memories with the Assassin's. He began to help the Assassin Bishop to sabotage the Templars' research. In August, Fraser, with the help of his psychiatrist Victoria Bibeau, deleted all of his research before leaking Arno's unsequenced memories to the Assassins. Fraser was later killed by the Templars while Bibeau was inducted into the Order as no one was aware of her role in Fraser's actions. The Templar agent known as the Journeyman was tasked to continue exploring Arno's memories to find Germain's remains.[520]
On 13 October, an Assassin team composed of Gavin Banks, Shaun Hastings, and Galina Voronina led an attack on the Phoenix Project laboratory in Paris. They destroyed Standish's corpse and all the Templars' research. Galina tried to kill Gramática with a grenade but the Templar was healed by the original Shroud of Eden. However, the artifact had been badly damaged in the explosion and lost its powers immediately afterwards.[521] Berg and his right-hand man Sorkin tracked the Assassins in La Rochelle but Voronina stabbed Sorkin before escaping with the others on a ship.[522]
Bishop speaking with the Initiate
Later, Bishop and Shaun recruited a Helix user to relive Arno's memories and discover the location of Germain's remains. Abstergo began performing a server sweep, forcing the Initiate's avatar to flee through Helix rifts to avoid being detected, transporting them into other historical periods of Paris. When the Initiate discovered that Germain's remains were in the catacombs of Paris, the Assassins concluded that his DNA was too degraded to be used by the Templars.[518]
In November, Juno implanted a virus in the memories of the Assassin-turned-Templar Shay Cormac to create a security breach in Abstergo Entertainment. Berg and Violet da Costa arrived at the complex to investigate the breach. Berg tasked the analyst "Numbskull" with completing the memories which were uploaded as a message for the remaining Assassins.[523] Afraid to be discovered, the Assassins emptied a few of their hideouts and shut down their servers. Berg's true goal, however, was to bluff the Assassins and locate their agent in Montreal as he communicated with other Initiates. After identifying the Initiate, the Templars killed him.[524]
After the destruction of the original Shroud of Eden, the Templar Isabelle Ardant, the Head of Abstergo's Historical Research Division and a member of the Inner Sanctum, searched for another Shroud hidden in London, exploring the memories of Jacob and Evie Frye to find it. Around this time, Violet da Costa became a mole for the Instruments of the First Will, who sought to use the artifact to resurrect Juno.[525] In October 2015, the Templars discovered that Desmond Miles had an illegitimate son, Elijah, who was also a Sage of Aita, and planned to capture him and explore his genetic memories.[526]
Shaun Hastings assassinating Isabelle Ardant
That same month, Shaun and Rebecca infiltrated Ardant's office in London and downloaded the Fryes' memories, allowing Bishop to send them to a member of the Initiates to explore them. The Assassins planned to ambush Ardant, but Berg and Violet caught them, forcing them to escape and return to their safehouse, where they were joined by Galina Voronina. After the Initiate learned the location of the Shroud, the three Assassins headed to the Buckingham Palace vault and confronted Ardant, Berg and Violet, who had also found the artifact. In the resulting fight, Ardant was killed by Shaun and Rebecca was shot and wounded by Berg, while Violet escaped with the Shroud.[525]
Ultimately, the Assassins managed to escape from the vault and fled London, while Violet delivered the Shroud to Álvaro Gramática at his secret laboratory.[525] Sometime later, Berg also delivered the Precursor box to Gramática, who required the information stored within the artifact for the Phoenix Project.[527]
For the next few years, the Assassins searched for Gramática's lab across the world, while the Templars began to target the Brotherhood's influential supporters, auditing or discharging them.[524] In late 2015, William Miles enacted the Rooftop Garden Protocol, stopping the usage of the Initiates in the Assassins' operations to prevent them from being targeted by the Templars.[528]
The Instruments of the First Will[]
- "All these bodies... It's a statement. Templars don't make statements. Why would they drag this war into daylight? The cell we lost in Hong Kong... now this in Germany. We haven't seen anything like this since the Great Purge. This is something new."
- ―Kiyoshi Takakura, regarding the Assassins and Templars' mutual enemy, 2017.[src]-[m]
In late 2015, the Assassin Joseph Laurier planned to kill his former team member Xavier Chen as his leadership had resulted in the death of most of their cell during a botched mission, including Joseph's lover Christian. Faking his death, Joseph contacted the Templar Didier Hawking to tell him the location of a Piece of Eden encountered by his ancestor Jennifer Querry. He also sent messages to Xavier explaining he was just baiting the Templars. To determine whether Joseph was telling the truth, Xavier, Galina Voronina and the Assassin technician Kody Adams recruited Charlotte de la Cruz, a descendant of Thomas Stoddard, and had her relive her ancestor's memories during the Salem witch trials.[529]
In Stoddard's memories, Charlotte was contacted by Consus through Dorothy Osborne, instructing her to seek "the ones with greater knowledge". After discovering that Querry had died before seeing where Osborne was buried, Xavier and Galina concluded that Joseph was lying to the Templars and decided to save him.[530] However, Charlotte and Kody remained unconvinced and continued to explore Stoddard's memories, eventually discovering that Joseph had another ancestor, David, who knew the location of Dorothy's burial site, proving Joseph had betrayed them.[271]
Joseph confronting Charlotte and Galina
At Treo Tea, a Templar secret facility in San Diego, Joseph killed Xavier and broke Galina's leg. As Charlotte arrived, Joseph tried to convince her to leave the Assassins, claiming they were using her, before detonating hidden explosives he had planted in the building to kill Hawking and other Templars. Charlotte ultimately overpowered Joseph and rescued Galina before the two Assassins fled San Diego alongside Kody, going on the run from the Templars.[531]
In early 2016, Charlotte, Galina and Kody were hiding in Mexico City while trying to track down Joseph. They contacted the cartel of Arturo Viera to treat Galina's leg and the cartel leader sent a pair of doctors, his girlfriend and an infiltrated Templar agent. When the agent tried to eliminate Galina, the Assassin killed him and knocked out Viera's girlfriend, though this unknowingly angered Viera, who vowed revenge on the Brotherhood.[532]
The Assassins also tried to find the collective of hackers Erudito, as they understood that Consus' hints led to them. They discovered that they had a meeting in a week but the location was protected by a password. The sole hint was the question, "What does the cute Pishta say?". Charlotte understood that it referred to her ancestor Quila and used the Animus to find the password.[532]
In the meantime, to find Joseph, Galina tasked Charlotte to tail the Templar Garcia-Lopez but her target fled.[533] After that, Kody was captured by Viera's cartel, who cut off one of his ears and sent it to the Assassins.[264] Galina and Charlotte tried to save him at the Estadio Azteca stadium but were defeated. A Templar strike team led by Ortega Sanchez then arrived and killed Viera and his cartel members, as they needed the Assassins alive to learn the location of the Erudito meeting.[534]
In exchange for sparing Galina and Kody, Charlotte offered to give Sanchez the password and the Templar gave her one day to learn it, while secretly placing a tracker on her.[534] After learning that the password was "Don Gonzalo Pardo" and that the Erudito meeting would take place in Argentina, Charlotte met with Sanchez, but before she could be taken by the Templar, his convoy was attacked by Viera's cartel. During the chaos, Charlotte managed to escape and reunited with Galina and Kody, who revealed that they had made a deal with the cartel, giving them a chance to avenge their leader's death.[265]
The Assassins meeting Erudito
Arriving in Argentina, the Assassins met Charlotte's grandmother Florencia, the leader of Erudito.[265] Escorting them to their secret island, Florencia explained that she wanted Erudito and the Assassins to ally against the Templars but some members of the collective refused. She also wanted Charlotte to explore the memories of her ancestor Hiram Stoddard who had come into contact with Consus. Even if most of the collective were against the alliance, Charlotte convinced them to join the fight against the Templars.[535]
While Charlotte explored Hiram's memories, Galina went with two Erudito agents, My'shell Lemair and Sheed, to Mogadishu, Somalia to find Joseph Laurier.[535] In the Animus, Consus spoke to Charlotte through Giovanni Borgia, informing her that, to stop the Phoenix Project, she had to "let the wolf dwell with the lamb". At that moment, the Templars found Erudito's island thanks to Sanchez's tracker, and a strike team attacked the hideout. During the Assassins and Erudito's escape, Kody was shot and killed by the Templars.[262]
In Mogadishu, Joseph planned to assassinate the Templar Zerha Okur, who had funded the operation that killed Christian, but failed due to the interference of Galina, My'shell and Sheed. The Assassin and the Erudito members managed to overpower Joseph, but during the fight, they were informed of the Templars' attack on Erudito's hideout. Wishing to protect Charlotte, Joseph offered to assist the team and flew them to the island on his jet.[262]
On Erudito's island, Sheed was killed when the Templars shot down Joseph's plane, and Joseph himself was mortally wounded while destroying a Templar ship. Charlotte was nearly captured by Sanchez and his men, but was rescued by the Assassins Arend Schut and Kiyoshi Takakura, who had been sent by Gavin Banks to help. After gunning down Sanchez and his men, Charlotte boarded the Assassins' helicopter and fled the island alongside the other survivors of the Templars' attack.[536]
References[]