Egyptian Brotherhood of Assassins

Egyptian Brotherhood of Assassins
Organizational information
Founder(s)	Bayek Aya
Leader's title	Mentor
Operational center	Memphis
Locations	Egypt
Parent	Hidden Ones (until 1191) Assassins (after 1191)
Historical information
Formed	47 BCE

The Egyptian Brotherhood of Assassins, also known as the Hidden Ones during its early years, was the Guild of Assassins located in Egypt. It was the oldest organised Assassin branch, having been founded by Bayek of Siwa, in 47 BCE.

History

Ptolemaic Egypt

Precursors

During the 2nd century BCE, a group that served as the precursors to the Assassin Brotherhood seemingly operated in Egypt, as the Rosetta Stone, issued in 196 BCE, contained sensitive information concerning the Assassins.

Foundation as the Hidden Ones

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: "I am fine with this. I am not a father anymore. I am not a husband. I am not a Medjay. I am a Hidden One."

—Bayek and Aya during the inception of their brotherhood, 47 BCE.

In 49 BCE, the Order of the Ancients was manipulating the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII to take control of Egypt. This year, their leader, Flavius Metellus, and other Ancients went to Siwa to open an Isu vault under the Temple of Amun. They kidnapped the last Medjay Bayek and his son Khemu to force him to use an Apple of Eden to enter in the vault. As Bayek resisted, Khemu was accidentally stabbed by his father. Left for dead by the Ancients, Bayek and his wife Aya started to track the Ancients to avenge their son's death.

During a year, the couple tracked separately the Ancients through Egypt. While Bayek went to Saqqara Nome to kill the Ancient Rudjek, Aya went in Alexandria and allied with Apollodorus, a follower of the Pharaoh Cleopatra who was in a war against her brother Ptolemy and the Ancients. During his journey, Bayek met the huntress Tahira who helped him for a time in his track.

As Aya entered in the service of Cleopatra, the Queen gave to Aya her ancestor's Hidden Blade which was used to assassinate Xerxes I of Persia four centuries ago. Later, Aya killed Actaeon and Ktesos but was tracked by the Phylakitai Gennadios. So Aya hid under the Library of Alexandria thanked of the help of her cousin Phanos the Younger.

After Bayek killed Medunamun in Siwa and recovered the Apple, the couple reunited in Alexandria where Bayek gave the Apple to his wife. Aya gave the Hidden Blade to her husband and tasked him to kill Gennadios and Eudoros, who she thought was the leader of her son murderers. The Medjay helped Phanos to fight Gennadios henchmen who treated the actors of the city before killing the Phylakitai. During the assassination of Eudoros, Bayek accidentally cut his left ring-finger with the Hidden Blade.

Later, the couple had a personal meeting with Cleopatra who explained to them the true nature of the Ancients and their plan for Egypt. Bayek was elevated as a Medjay of all Egypt and began to track the Ancients through the Nile while Aya took the sea with the captain Phoxidas to secure an alliance with the Roman consul Pompey.

During his journey, Bayek tracked the Ancient known as the Scarab who oppressed the population of the Nile Delta. The Medjay allied with Taharqa, the protector of the Letopolis. When Bayek discovered that Taharqua was the Scarab, the Medjay assassinated him before his son Kawab.

In Giza, the Ancient Khaliset made human sacrifices in the Great Pyramid of Giza to bring back to life her daughter. The Medjay tracked his target and killed her.

In Memphis, the couple reunited and investigated the curse that stroke the city and the family of the High Priest Pasherenptah. They discovered that this was Hetepi, Pasherenptah's second, who organized the poisoning the sacred Bull and of the pregnant High Priest wife, Taimhotep. His plan was to sabotage the arrival of Cleopatra in the city. Bayek killed Hetepi and secured the city of any other threats.

In the Faiyum Oasis, Bayek allied with Hotephres to fight the oppression of the Ancient known as the Crocodile. As Hotephres' daughter Shadya was kidnapped by gladiator brothers Diovicos and Viridovix before being killed by the Crocodile, Bayek infiltrated the Krokodilopolis Arena as a gladiator to discover the identity of the Ancient. There, he met his old friend Kensa who became a gladiator. Bayek teamed up with Kensa to fight the gladiator brothers and uncovered the identity of the Crocodile. After Bayek and Kensa defeated them, they revealed that the Nomarch Berenike was the Ancient. Kensa discovering that her friend lied to her, she decided to become Berenike's bodyguard. Bayek killed the Ancient without injuring his friend.

While Aya and Phoxidas fought on the sea the Gabiniani led by the Ancient Lucius Septimius, Bayek went to Heraklion to report to Cleopatra. On the road, he met Tahira and helped her to fight Roman soldiers who captured animals for Circus' games.

Arriving in Heraklion in September 48 BCE, Bayek and Aya prevented the assassination of Cleopatra and killed the Gabiniani Venator. They tried to join Pompey but discovered that the consul was decapitated by the Ancients. As the last hope to Cleopatra was to ally with the consul Julius Caesar, Aya, Bayek and Phoxidas escorted the Queen to Alexandria by sea. As they were attacked by Ptolemy's fleet, the couple and the Queen fled to the city while Phoxidas attacked the rest of the ships.

In Alexandria, Apollodorus, Aya and Bayek infiltrated in the palace with Cleopatra in a rug. As the Queen secured an alliance with the consul, the couple could stay in the city. Aya gave the Apple of Eden to Apollodorus and with Bayek opened the tomb of Alexander the Great to impress Caesar. In February 47 BCE, the Ptolemy Army led by the Ancients Septimius and Pothinus led an attack on Caesar troops in Alexandria. In the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Aya set the signal to the Roman fleet to attack while Bayek joined Caesar in the fight.

During the Battle of the Nile, Bayek killed Pothinus and dueled Septimius while Aya was tasked by Cleopatra to kill Ptolemy but she spared him as she saw a crocodile devoured the Pharaoh. As Bayek ready his blade to finish Septimius he was stopped by Caesar who wanted the Gabiniani to be judged by Rome and the Medjay was beaten. Later, the couple witnessed Cleopatra made a speech before Alexandria's people with Caesar and Septimius at her side and armed with a Staff. Apollodorus explained to them that Cleopatra no more needed their service as she allied with the Ancients.

Realizing their mistake in supporting Cleopatra, Bayek and Aya gathered his allies Phanos, Pasherenptah, Tahira and Phoxidas to form a brotherhood to counter the Order and defend the free will of the common people. Bayek and Aya realized that the Order showed a strong interest in the tomb of Alexander the Great, which they investigate. There, they found a mortally wounded Apollodorus who warned them that Caesar's lieutenant was Flavius Metellus, the true leader of the Order. He and Septimius had taken the Apple and a Staff from the tomb and were heading back to Siwa for the Vault.

Upon returning to Siwa, the couple found the city devasted by the Ancients troops. Entering the already opened Vault, they saw a holographic map of Earth but also discovered the corpse of Hepzefa, Bayek's friend. Bayek tracked down Flavius in Cyrenaica while Aya followed Septimius in Alexandria. Confronting Flavius in the Temple of Mars, even if the Ancient wielded the activated Apple of Eden, Bayek killed him, avenging Khemu's death.

When Bayek returned to Alexandria, Aya had recruited Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and Gaius Cassius Longinus to their cause. She planned to head to Rome with Brutus and Cassius to assassinate Caesar and Septimius. Bayek and Aya parted ways but formed the foundation of the Hidden Ones when they both swore to protect the world from the shadows. Upon their separation, Bayek dropped his eagle's skull charm, a necklace of Khemu's, into the sand which left an impression, becoming the icon of their new Brotherhood.

Bayek built the Egyptian Brotherhood by making a bureau in Memphis and becoming their Mentor. The Hidden Blade became the iconic weapon of the Hidden Ones who used stealth and parkour during their operations. The members cut their left ring-finger as Bayek to prove their faith in his fight.

Expanding to Sinai

By 38 BCE, the Egyptian Brotherhood had a bureau in Sinai and had allied with the rebel leader Gamilat, Bayek traveled to the bureau. The three lieutenants of general Rufio were assassinated by Bayek.

The bureau in Sinai was attacked by the Romans. Bayek, Tahira, and Kashta were captured and Bayek was crucified. Bayek was saved by Amunet, who then told Bayek that the Sinai branch of The Hidden Ones has been too loud, to the point where she had heard tales of them even in Rome, and that there may be a traitor among them.

The two rescued Kashta and Tahira, though she later succumbed to her injuries and died in Bayek's arms. Amunet told The two discover Rufio's men burning down a village and stop them before assassinating Rufio.

Amunet then informed Bayek that Gamilat had allowed innocent villagers to die to inspire more people to join his rebellion. Bayek confronted Gamilat on this, who stated that their fight on the same side Bayek replies, "No. Here, we simply fight." The two started to fight, Bayek killing Gamilat who understood he was going too far. Bayek rebuilt the bureau in Sinai, he then makes the tenets that no Hidden Ones should harm an innocent.

Assassination of Cleopatra

On 12 August 30 BCE, seventeen years after the formation of the Hidden Ones, and thirteen years after Aya, who by then had adopted the name Amunet, decided to spare Cleopatra's life after killing Caesar, the Assassin killed the Egyptian Queen in Alexandria, by using a poisonous asp.

Middle Ages

Aiding the Mamluks

The Egyptian Assassin killing a Templar knight

In the early 13th century, the Egyptian Assassins acquired the Scepter of Aset from a merchant, who had purchased it from Italian fishermen that had discovered it after it was lost in a Roman shipwreck during Antiquity. In 1250, after the Mamluks rose up against the reigning Ayyubid dynasty, the Brotherhood, who had formed an alliance with the Mamluks, tasked an unidentified Egyptian Assassin with delivering the Scepter to them. However, while on his way to deliver the artifact in Cairo, the Assassin was attacked by Templar knights.

Despite being injured, the Assassin managed to kill the Templar knights and successfully delivered the Scepter of Aset to the Mamluks, allowing them to succeed in their slave revolt against the rule of their Ayyubid overlords and effectively laying the foundation for the Bahri dynasty.

In 1257, Darim Ibn-La'Ahad, son of the Mentor of the Levantine Brotherhood, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, moved to Alexandria after the Levantine Assassins were disbanded. Darim joined the widow of his deceased brother and her children, which led to their bloodline integrating into the Egyptian Assassins. Darim also notably gave an Apple of Eden to the first Sultan of the Bahri dynasty, further strengthening his power.

Search for the Scepter of Aset

Numa fighting Templars in Karnak

In 1340, after the Scepter of Aset had remained in the possession of the Mamluks Sultans for nearly a century, the Egyptian Templars stole it from the Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad and the Assassins entrusted Numa Al'Khamsin, better known as "El Cakr", and his apprentice Ali Al-Ghraib with the task to find the artifact. One year later, Numa and Ali managed to track down the Templars to their hideout in Karnak.

Arriving at night near the Temple of Amun, the two walked across a village, when Ali noticed a man wearing a dagger with the Templar cross on it. After telling this to his master, Ali started a fire as a distraction, so that Numa was able to look for the Scepter of Aset unnoticed.

However, the distraction was not effective and Numa became surrounded by Templars. While the Assassin engaged in battle with his enemies, Ali stole the Scepter from the Templars. Numa and his apprentice then fled from Karnak, taking the artifact with them.

Losing the artifact

Two days later, El Cakr arrived at the Sultan’s palace in Cairo. Although the Sultan’s Emirs expected Numa to hand over the artifact, the Assassin did not trust the Emirs and told them the artifact would remain in Assassin hands until a dignified successor to the throne would be presented. Interpreting Numa’s words as an insult, the Emirs locked him up in a prison cell.

While in the cell, Numa met a woman named Leila, a Templar agent and former servant of Al-Nasir Muhammad, whom she had seduced and killed. After convincing Numa that she was not a true believer of the Templar cause and had merely used them in order to kill the sultan, the two escaped and headed for a safe house that Leila had arranged in the city in order to lay low after the murder of the Sultan. There, she seduced Numa into a sexual encounter.

While Numa was in prison, Ali was captured by the Templars at the Temple of Edfu and was tortured by them, which resulted in them breaking his wrist. Eventually he cracked, agreeing to help them eliminate his master in exchange for his life.

After Numa arrived at Edfu Temple and noticed Ali's bandaged wrist, the Templars surrounded him and Ali. One of them came forward and explained that the Scepter was no longer the only priority of the Order, revealing that Numa was such a nuisance that his death was now a new priority. Lowering her hood, the Templar revealed herself to be Leila and she told El Cakr that she felt no hate towards him but had to follow orders before she began dueling with him. Perfectly trained, Leila revealed that everything she had told Numa about her commitment to the Templars was a lie before putting a dagger into his heart, instantly killing Numa before the eyes of his distraught apprentice. However, keeping her promise to spare Ali, Leila let the shaken Assassin apprentice go.

However, Ali, even though he had betrayed his master, was still loyal to the Brotherhood and threw the Scepter in a well near Edfu with the intent to contact the Brotherhood and come back later, but died a few weeks later of food poisoning, from eating tainted meat. Leila, who had discovered Ali's ruse, managed to briefly find the artifact in the well, only to suffer a head injury while climbing up with it, becoming amnesiac and, after being rescued and tended by passing Bedouins, died nine months later from internal bleeding while giving birth to the child she had conceived with El Cakr during their night in the safe house. As a result, the scepter remained hidden to all.

Renaissance

By 1511, the Egyptian Assassins were under the leadership of their Mentor Iskender, a descendant of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. He was captured to be executed that year, but was saved by Ottoman Assassins sent from Constantinople by the Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood, Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

Ottoman Egypt

By 1794, the Egyptian Assassins were led by an individual who was known as Al Mualim, who was based in Cairo. Arno Dorian sent one of his fellow Parisian Assassins to the city with the Apple of Eden he had taken from the Head of Saint Denis to keep it safe.

Members

Ptolemaic Egypt / Roman Republic

Main article: Hidden Ones

• Bayek (Founder)
• Amunet (Founder)
• Caesarion
• Kashta
• Kawab
• Kensa
• Lugos
• Maqwat
• Osorkon
• Paanchi
• Pasherenptah
• Phanos the Younger
• Phoxidas
• Shaqilat
• Tahira
• Publius Volumnius
• 38 other senators involved in Caesar's assassination

Mamluk Sultanate

• Ali Al-Ghraib
• Assassin Elder
• Darim Ibn-La'Ahad (Levantine Assassins)
• Unidentified Assassin
• Iskender
• Numa Al'Khamsin

Ottoman Empire

• Al Mualim

Allies

Ptolemaic Egypt

• Apollodorus the Sicilian
• Cleopatra (betrayed)
• Gamilat (betrayed)