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I wanted to ask you something. Which is… what's your name? The title of this article is conjecture. Although the subject of this article is canon, no official name for it has been given. |
The Egyptian Rite of the Templar Order, also known as the Order of the Ancients in its early years, is the oldest branch of the Templar Order which has operated in Egypt since the Eighteenth Dynasty.
History[]
Ancient Egypt[]
Formation[]
Smenkhkare's tomb
The Egyptian Rite was founded as the Order of the Ancients in 1334 BCE by the Pharaoh Smenkhkare.[1] Smenkhkare had come into contact with the advanced technology of the Isu, and established the Order as an Isu worshipping cult for the purpose of obtaining more Pieces of Eden from the Eeyoo Sekedoo Aat vault. After his death, Smenkhkhare's tomb would be built on top of the vault.[2]
In the centuries following its formation, the Order's goal shifted from acquiring Isu technology to creating a New World Order. Its members believed it was their duty to guide humanity towards global peace, and would influence world leaders or seek the power of the Pieces of Eden to further their goals.[3]
Ptolemaic dynasty[]
In the early 1st century BCE, the Ancient Raia hired the mercenary Bion to eradicate the Medjay bloodline due to the threat it posed to the Order's goals. Bion was largely successful in his quest, reducing the Medjay to a single member: Bayek, the son of Siwa's Medjay Sabu. However, around 56 BCE, Bayek killed Bion with the help of his girlfriend Aya and mother Ahmose, and later also tracked down Raia and assassinated him in his home in Alexandria.[4]
Two Order members standing behind Ptolemy XIII
By 49 BCE, the Order held sway over the Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, convincing him to oust his sister and co-ruler Queen Cleopatra, which allowed the Order to effectively control Egypt.[5] In order to further their ambitions of ruling Egypt and beyond, they set their sights on uncovering the secrets of an Isu vault in the Siwa Oasis.[6]
To do so, five masked Order members kidnapped Bayek and his young son Khemu. With an Apple of Eden in their possession, the Ancients demanded Bayek unlock the vault. However, the Medjay lacked the proper knowledge, and in the ensuing struggle, Bayek accidentally killed his own son, leading him to swear revenge against the Order.[6]
Over the following two years, the members of the Order were systematically hunted down by Bayek and his wife Aya, Cleopatra's agent.[3] After Bayek killed Medunamun in 48 BCE, the Order lost control of their Apple of Eden.[6] As their ranks began to thin, the Ancients' leader, the Roman proconsul Flavius Metellus, began to solidify the Order's influence over Julius Caesar, the dictator of the Roman Republic.[7]
Flavius wielding the Apple
Bayek and Aya subsequently aided Cleopatra in gaining power over her brother, and helped her to secure a meeting with Caesar to gain Rome as an ally. Seeing an opportunity, the Order abandoned Ptolemy XIII and diverted their attention to Cleopatra, hoping to install her as the new puppet ruler of Egypt. Aya and Bayek also opened up access to the tomb of Alexander the Great,[7] which allowed Flavius to acquire Alexander's Staff of Eden. Flavius also killed Cleopatra's bodyguard Apollodorus, from whom he retrieved the Order's lost Apple of Eden.[8]
With both the Apple and the Staff in their possession and Cleopatra under their control through Caesar, Flavius and Lucius Septimius opened the door of the vault in Siwa, finding a map with the locations of more Pieces of Eden. Flavius then left with the Apple for Cyrenaica, where he used the artifact to corrupt the local populace into revering him. However, he was soon confronted and killed by Bayek, who reclaimed the Apple.[9]
Following the loss of Flavius and the Apple, the Order refocused their efforts on manipulating the Roman Republic, facing too much opposition in Egypt.[10] Despite this, some members remained active in the country, such as Habibah, who worked as a doctor in Memphis and possessed one half of an Isu dagger once wielded by the Isu Vejovis. After the Hidden Ones made several failed attempts on her life, she relocated to the Temple of Philae, where she was eventually killed by Khepri, who then took her half of Vejovis' dagger.[11]
Rufio with appartions of various Order members
In 38 BCE, as their control over Cleopatra began to dwindle, the Order attempted to regain control of Egypt, sending Gaius Julius Rufio to occupy the Sinai Peninsula. After Rufio and his three lieutenants – Ampelius, Ptahmose and Tacito – were all assassinated by Bayek with the assistance of a local Nabatean rebellion led by Gamilat, the Order was once again forced to put its ambitions for Egypt on halt.[12]
By 30 BCE, the Order had completely lost its sway over Cleopatra, though another opporunity to take over Egypt would soon present itself. Following Caesar's assassination, he was succeeded as leader of both the Order and the Roman Republic by his adopted son Octavian, who subsequently invaded Egypt with his forces. Faced with certain defeat, Cleopatra took her own life at the advice of her old friend Aya – by now the Hidden One known as Amunet – and Egypt consequently became a province of the newly-formed Roman Empire.[13]
Middle Ages[]
Following the Order of the Ancients' destruction in the late 9th century CE, it was reformed into the Templar Order.[14] By the 13th century, the Templars had managed to set up a presence in Egypt, which at the time was ruled by the Ayyubid dynasty.[15]
Acquiring the Scepter of Aset[]
A Templar knight killed by the Egyptian Assassin
In 1250, after the Mamluks rose up against the Ayyubids, the Templars, knowing that the Mamluks had formed an alliance with the Assassins, attempted to retrieve a Piece of Eden called the Scepter of Aset when the artifact was being brought to the rebelling Mamluks by an Egyptian Assassin. However, despite being injured, the Assassin managed to kill the Templars and brought the Scepter of Aset to the Mamluks to aid them in their efforts against the Ayyubids, effectively laying the foundation for the Bahri dynasty.[15]
In 1340, the Templars, with the aid of a local named Hasdin Al-Bellal and the wealthy merchant Bachir Al-Djallil, managed to steal the Scepter, leaving only the fragment of a dagger's handle behind, and smuggled the artifact to their hideout in Karnak.[15]
Assassination of the Sultan[]
Leila contacted by a Templar
In 1341, the Templars contacted Leila, a servant of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad, and offered her a chance to avenge the humiliations she had suffered throughout the years - without hesitation, Leila accepted the deal to kill the Sultan. One night, while still active as a servant, Leila was summoned by Al-Nasir. When she was asked to accompany him, Leila seduced the Sultan and killed him by slitting his throat, in the name of the "Templars' fight against oppression". She then made an attempt to flee, but was captured while making her escape from the Palace.[16]
Later on, the Templars were tracked down to Karnak by the Assassin Numa Al'Khamsin, better known as "El Cakr", and his disciple, Ali Al-Ghraib. 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.[16]
Templars fighting Numa in Karnak
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.[16]
Killing El Cakr[]
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 the same prison cell as Leila.[16]
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.[17]
While Numa was in prison, the Templars managed to capture Ali at the Temple of Edfu and tortured him, breaking his wrist. Eventually he cracked, agreeing to help them eliminate his master in exchange for his life. Not long after, Numa arrived at the Temple and noticed Ali's bandaged wrist before the Templars surrounded him and Ali.[17]
Leila dueling Numa
As Leila came forward, her identity still unknown to El Cakr, she explained that the Scepter was no longer the only priority of the Order and that Numa was such a nuisance that his death was now a new priority. Lowering her hood, she told El Cakr that she felt no hate towards him but had to follow orders before she began dueling with him.[17]
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.[17]
Losing the Scepter[]
Leila falling down the well
When Leila went to the Sultan's Emirs in Cairo to deliver them the artifact, she discovered that the ankh-shaped box was empty. Quickly rushing in pursuit of Ali, Leila happened to spot the Scepter's luster at the bottom of a well near Edfu Temple, which was where Ali had thrown the scepter. However, Leila fell while climbing up with the object. Suffering a head injury, Leila remained lifeless in the pit for three days before being rescued and tended to by passing Bedouins.[17]
Having become amnesiac, Leila forgot her allegiance to the Templars and the very existence of the Scepter, which she unknowingly left in the well. She then left with the Bedouins, but 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.[17]
Renaissance[]
In 1505, Odai Dunqas, a cousin of the first Sultan of the Sennar Sultanate, relocated to Alexandria and encountered the Templar philosophy, which he came to embrace. Calling himself "The Guardian of the Truth", he joined the Templars soon after in the hopes of making his ambitions a reality.[18]
In 1511, during an excavation of the destroyed Library of Alexandria, the Mamluk Sultanate's soldiers discovered two Memory Seals in a chest dating from 331 BCE. After Ezio Auditore, Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood, sent some Assassins from Constantinople to Alexandria to retrieve the seals, Templar soldiers launched an offensive to recover the artifacts. Despite successfully ambushing the Assassins and stealing the seals, the Templars subsequently lost them again when the Assassins organized a search party and recovered them.[19]
Members[]
Order of the Ancients[]
- 18th dynasty
- Smenkhkare (founder)
- Ptolemaic dynasty
- Lucius Septimius (Roman Rite)
- Medunamun
- Pothinus
- Ptahmose (Roman Rite)
- Raia
- Rudjek
- Gaius Julius Rufio (leader; 38 BCE) (Roman Rite)
- Tacito (Roman Rite)
- Taharqa
- Theotimos
Egyptian Rite[]
- Bahri dynasty
Allies and puppets[]
- Ptolemaic dynasty
- Augustus (Roman Rite)
- Bion
- Gaius Julius Caesar (Roman Rite)
- Cleopatra (betrayed)
- Gennadios
- Kensa
- Melitta
- Ptolemy XIII
- Venator
- Bahri dynasty
- Burji dynasty
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed II (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed 4: Hawk (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed 5: El Cakr
- Assassin's Creed 6: Leila
- Assassin's Creed: Origins – Desert Oath (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins (as the Order of the Ancients)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins comic (as the Order of the Ancients)
- Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book (as the Order of the Ancients)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Database: The Order of the Ancients
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – Notes from Bayek's travels: "Tomb of Smenkhkare"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Assassin's Creed: Origins
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – Desert Oath
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – Egypt's Medjay
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Assassin's Creed: Origins – The False Oracle
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Assassin's Creed: Origins – Aya: Blade of the Goddess
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Aftermath
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Final Weighing
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – Last of the Medjay
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book – Chapter 2: Training
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Hidden Ones – Sic Semper Tyrannis
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins comic
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Poor Fellow-Soldier
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Assassin's Creed 4: Hawk
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Assassin's Creed 5: El Cakr
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 Assassin's Creed 6: Leila
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense
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