Faisal

Faisal
Biographical information
Species	Human (Sage)
Political information
Affiliations	Assassins Levantine Brotherhood Templars Levantine Rite (undercover)

Faisal was a member of the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins in the late 12th century. He was also one of the Sages of the Isu Vejovis.

Biography

In 1189, amidst a Templar siege of Masyaf, Al Mualim tasked Faisal with flanking the oncoming Templars and causing panic to drive them from the village. Faisal left, hearing Al Mualim shouting at the enemies below, and was joined by the Assassin Rafee, who asked if Faisal needed help with his task but was rejected. Faisal instead headed for Masyaf's main entrance, sneaking past the Templars, intent on going to Damascus rather than completing his orders.

Altaïr saving Faisal from Templars

At the gates, however, he saw a Templar soldier abusing a woman and decided to intervene, throwing a knife into the man's back to kill him and allow the woman to get away. Two other Crusaders came for him and they fought, with Faisal holding his own until the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad rode up on horseback and struck down one of the Templars. Faisal took the other Templar's sword strike on his left foot, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain while Altaïr killed the assailant.

Altaïr helped Faisal to a bench and the two briefly discussed Altaïr's late father Umar before Abbas Sofian interrupted by alerting them that the Templars had breached Masyaf and captured Al Mualim. After informing Faisal that he would survive his wound, Altaïr left to defend Masyaf. Now alone, Faisal took the opportunity to climb on the abandoned horse and ride toward Damascus.

Faisal watching Altaïr and Abbas argue

On the road to Damascus, Faisal stopped to allow his horse to drink from a stream but saw two Templars filling huge pots with water and loading them onto a carriage. Staying hidden, he followed the Templars to their next stop: an empty hole near a small tree. Realizing they were burying the water to allow further Templar forces to refresh themselves on the road to Masyaf, Faisal struck down the Templars and broke the water pots. Finding a map with the locations of other such caches, Faisal noticed that he needed to sabotage only one of them to break the chain and make the Templars either not arrive at Masyaf at all or, at the very least, arrive weak enough to be easily cut down by the Assassin forces.

Blending in with a group of scholars, Faisal made it inside Damascus, where he climbed a tower to get a better view of the city. After looking for "The Hideout", a supposed location used as a Templar weapon cache rumored to hold a collection of Syrian blades and specific dagger blade, he sketched some places on a map before taking a Leap of Faith onto a pile of leaves below.

Faisal walked the streets, avoiding Templars, until he came to a spire-shaped building. Walking inside, he was greeted by a large Templar soldier, who said that if Faisal sought "The Hideout", he had found him. The Hideout requested Faisal's help smuggling a package out of Syria and gave him an Isu blade, telling him to head to Beirut and seek out a contact to ship it out of the port. The door suddenly opened, revealing Rafee, who questioned what Faisal was doing with a Templar while The Hideout escaped through a fake wall.

Thinking Faisal a traitor to the Brotherhood, Rafee implied that the transgression was punishable by death, only for Faisal to strike a mortal blow first. As Rafee lay dying, he forgave Faisal, acknowledging that his death might be necessary for their cause, to which Faisal responded by promising to make Rafee's death mean something and that what he did was for the Creed. Faisal then took a Templar cloak from the room, wearing it to blend in better, and left for Beirut.

Outside the gates of Damascus, The Hideout's contact approached him who joined Faisal on the trip to Beirut. This contact revealed that they would then give the blade to someone else to ship it to Constantinople, but Faisal decided that he would make the voyage to Constantinople himself.

Behind the scenes

Faisal first appeared in the 2011 video game Assassin's Creed: Revelations as an unnamed Assassin. The 2022 book Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book featured a man named Faisal who was also rescued by Altaïr during a siege in 1189 before being wounded in the leg, but his identity was not outright tied to the nameless Assassin until the author James Hamer-Morton confirmed on Twitter that the men were the same person.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Revelations (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book (first identified as Faisal)