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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Shadows and Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
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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 Japanese Rite of the Templar Order is the rite of the Templar Order based in Japan, in operation since the Sengoku period.
The rite was formed in the second half of the 16th century by a number of European Templars who sought to expand the Order's influence following its numerous defeats at the hands of the Assassins. These Templars, most of them posing as Jesuit missionaries, cultivated alliances with the local warlords and clans, converting them to the Order's cause with the promise to restore peace to Japan during a time when the country was consumed by constant civil wars. However, it did not take long for the Assassins to catch wind of the Templars' intentions and establish the Japanese Brotherhood to counter their plans.
Unlike most of his fellow Templars, who sought to achieve their goal through usage of the Pieces of Eden, Nuno Caro aimed to control the Japanese people by influencing their beliefs. To this end, he formed an alliance with the secret cabal known as the Shinbakufu to acquire the Imperial Regalia safeguarded by the Assassins. However, Caro's ambitious plans, and his life, were cut short by the samurai and Assassin Yasuke.
Following Caro's death and the Shinbakufu's destruction by the Assassins, the Japanese Templars entered a long period of decline, especially as the land was united by Tokugawa Ieyasu, an ally of the Brotherhood. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the Templars were forced to keep a low profile to avoid detection by the Assassins. In 1725, the Shimazu clan, allies of the Japanese Rite since its inception, aimed to restore the Order's might by sending their agent Shimazu Saito to search for a set of three immensely powerful Pieces of Eden, only for Saito to abandon her mission and join the Zhang Wei Union.
After years of careful planning and subtle manipulation, the Templars finally persuaded Emperor Meiji to start the Boshin War against the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868. The resulting conflict saw the end of the shogunate and the age of the samurai and restored sovereignty to the position of Emperor while Japan gradually became a constitutional monarchy. Under the new regime, the Templars were able to build up a strong presence in the country through their front company, Abstergo Industries, which maintains facilities in some of Japan's largest cities, including Tokyo and Osaka.
History[]
Sengoku period[]
Establishment[]
During the first half of the 16th century, the Templars had suffered numerous defeats at the hands of the Assassins in Europe. Around 1549, the Spanish Templar Francis Xavier set his sights on Japan, seeing an opportunity to spread both Christianity and Templar influence on the island.[1] Among the earliest converts to the Templar cause were members of the noble Shimazu clan.[2]
The Templars' attempts to find new recruits were frequently hindered by the constant wars between clans, as well as their hostility toward outsiders. The Templars were also heavily opposed by the Japanese Assassins, who worked to prevent the spread of their influence in Japan and recruited individuals from the ranks of the ninja and samurai, such as Hattori Hanzō and Yamauchi Taka. The Assassins supported Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the many warlords of the period, who similarly opposed the Templars' influence and, as such, tasked his former squire Chaya Shirōjirō Kiyonobu with reporting any Templar activity in the land.[1]
Alessandro Valignano
Despite the opposition they faced, the Templars eventually managed to recruit, among others, Uesugi Kenshin, head of the Uesugi clan. Kenshin fought various battles with his rival Takeda Shingen, the owner of a Sword of Eden. Their rivalry ended when Shingen was assassinated in 1573 by the Tokugawa and the Assassins, and Kenshin himself was killed by the Assassin Hattori Hanzō in 1578.[1]
Meanwhile, Alessandro Valignano, an Italian Jesuit missionary and member of the Roman Rite, was sent to aid fellow missionary Francisco Cabral, who was already doing missionary work in Japan. However, the two men despised one another almost instantly. Valignano used his Jesuit connections to scour Japan for Templar recruits, and upon Cabral confronting Valignano regarding this, Alessandro used his influence to force him to resign from his post as Superior of the Jesuit Mission.[1]
Rise to power[]
By the 1570s, the fledgling Japanese Rite was led by the Portuguese Templar Nuno Caro, who answered directly to the Inner Sanctum. In addition to spreading the Templar ideology in the country, which he did with the aid of his partner Duarte de Melo, Caro aimed to retrieve the three Imperial Regalia of Japan due to their religious and political significance, believing that possession of the artifacts would allow the Order to rule over the people of Japan. Knowing the Inner Sanctum would disagree with his ambitions, Caro lied to them about the regalia's nature as Pieces of Eden so that they would continue to fund his mission.[3]
To retrieve the regalia, Caro secured an alliance with the Shinbakufu, a secret organization founded by the deposed shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki as a means of regaining his power.[4] In exchange for the Templars' support, the Shinbakufu stole two of the regalia – the mirror Yata no Kagami and the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi – that were safeguarded by the Kakushiba ikki, the Japanese Brotherhood of Assassins, who were decimated by the Shinbakufu in the process.[5]
Meanwhile, Caro and de Melo focused on expanding the Templars' influence, recruiting the daimyō Kimura Kei to build a secret army for the Order,[6] and influencing Akechi Mitsuhide, a member of the Shinbakufu, to betray his lord, Oda Nobunaga, whose ambitions to unify Japan threatened to undermine the Templars' plans.[3] To ensure Mitsuhide's cooperation, Caro took two of his children, Hosokawa Tama and Akechi Mitsuyoshi; while the former was forced to join the Templars and help fund their operations by overseeing the silver trade in Tamba, the latter was held prisoner by Caro to guarantee Tama's compliance.[7]
Decline[]
In 1582, the Templars' operations in Japan began to be undermined by the kunoichi Fujibayashi Naoe and the samurai Yasuke, a former retainer of Oda Nobunaga, who eliminated the Shinbakufu[4] and uncovered the existence of both the Kakushiba ikki and the Templar Order.[8] Seeking revenge on Nuno Caro for the murder of his mother and wishing to protect his adoptive homeland from the Templars, Yasuke tracked down and assassinated both Duarte de Melo and Kimura Kei.[9][6] He also rescued Hosokawa Tama and Akechi Mitsuyoshi from the Order's influence, allowing him to discover Caro's whereabouts at Takeda Castle.[10]
Mochizuki Chiyome with her kunoichi
After Yasuke killed Caro, the Templars in Japan were left leaderless and their influence began to fade.[11] Around this time, the Order lost possession of the Imperial Regalia Yata no Kagami, which was recovered by Tokugawa Ieyasu and then given to his vassal Hattori Hanzō, ensuring the artifact returned to the Assassins.[5]
By the 1590s, the Templars had managed to recruit the kunoichi Mochizuki Chiyome, 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,[12] shortly before his own death in 1596 at the hands of Fūma Kotarō.[1]
Edo period[]
After the country was united under the rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu, an ally of the Assassins, in 1600, the Japanese Templars would subsequently fade into obscurity.[13] However, some Templars continued to operate in secrecy under Tokugawa rule as part of the Shimazu clan.[2]
Search for Angkor[]
Shimazu Saito with her ninja followers
In the early 18th century, Shimazu Saito, an illegitimate daughter of the Shimazu clan's leader, was brought to Japan following her father's death to be trained in the clan's ways. After becoming an efficient assassin for the clan, Saito was inducted into the Templar Order and was sent, alongside her subordinates, to search for the lost Khmer city of Angkor, believed by the Templars to be an Isu site. In exchange for retrieving the lost city's treasure, Saito was promised that she and her men, all of whom were of mixed heritage and thus looked down upon by the clan's Japanese members, would become full-fledged members of the clan.[2]
In February 1725, Saito and her followers, including a faction of Japanese ninja led by Fuma Sukuna, arrived in the Portuguese colony of Macau to search for clues to Angkor's location. While attempting to silence those who knew about the lost city's existence in order to maintain its secrecy, Saito and her men clashed several times with the British Assassin Edward Kenway, who was also on Angkor's trail.[14][15][16]
Around this time, the Templars began influencing the power struggle in Macau between its various merchants and trade companies, aiding the businessmen Sun of the Hualien Trading Company, Alan Jacob of the Far East Company, and Jan van Aert of the Dutch East India Company with their plans to sabotage their mutual rival, Lee Huiyin.[17] However, most of these schemes were thwarted by Edward.[18][19] Saito later ended up striking an alliance with Sun, who offered his protection to the Templar and her subordinates in exchange for a sea log she had stolen from Edward, which contained encrypted information on Angkor's location.[20]
Saito and Edward Kenway working together to fight Fuma Sukuna's ninja
In time, tensions between Saito's mixed-blood followers and the Japanese ninja in her service grew, eventually resulting in the latter abandoning Saito and branding her a traitor to the Shimazu clan.[21] During the subsequent civil war between the two ninja factions, Fuma Sukuna enlisted Edward's help to assassinate Saito aboard Sun's floating gambling hall.[22] However, the Assassin ended up striking an alliance with Saito instead, and together they attempted to recover the sea log from Sun, fighting against both Sukuna's ninja and members of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins, who also sought the log.[20]
Ultimately, Saito and Edward lost the sea log to the Chinese Assassins, who killed Sun[23] and joined forces with Madam Lee and Sukuna to find Angkor. The conflict also resulted in the deaths of all of Saito's followers, prompting Edward to recruit the former Templar into his organization, the Zhang Wei Union, whereupon she worked alongside them to search for Angkor and its treasure.[24]
Boshin War[]
By 1868, the Japanese Templars had fallen into oblivion after more than two centuries of Tokugawa rule under the watchful eye of the Assassins. The British Templars tasked their agent William Lloyd to use his position and influence as right-hand man to Harry Parkes, the British consul to Japan, to bring an end to the Tokugawa shogunate. The Templars believed that with the restoration of a strong Imperial power in Japan, their ideology would once again spread on the island.[13]
Eventually, Lloyd's mission was successful, as the political landscape was so deteriorated that the young Emperor Meiji and his allies took up arms against Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the shogunate of Edo. Despite his failure to recover the Musashi Masamune and his death during the Battle of Aizu, Lloyd's mission was a success as the Tokugawa shogunate was ended and the Assassins were defeated. Furthermore, the Imperial Court became the undisputed rulers of Japan and this allowed the Templars to spread their influence across the country.[13]
Modern times[]
By 2012, the Templars' front company Abstergo Industries had facilities located in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, and Kobe.[25] In September of that year, Abstergo agents pursued an Assassin cell located in Osaka, forcing the Assassins to cut contact with the other cells in order to lose them.[26] By December 2013, the Assassins had taken over a yakuza faction known as the Onmoraki-Gumi and used their increased numbers to infiltrate Abstergo Osaka. The Assassins stole a new type of Animus headset, which they later gave to the Assassin team led by Gavin Banks.[27]
Search for the Precursor box[]
By 2019, the Templar Kaori Kagami was employed at the Abstergo facility in Yokohama, where the doctor worked to unlock the secrets of Shao Jun's genetic memories by using her descendant, a teenager named Kō Risa, as an Animus test subject.[28] At first, she manipulated the young lady by reassuring her that these sessions would help her control her outbursts of anger, but gave no concern about the Animus' effects on her patient.[29]
Kaori Kagami and an Abstergo colleague
After Ellen Kaye, who headed both Abstergo's Board of Directors and the Templars' governing Council of Elders, demoted Kagami following her failure to learn the whereabouts of Shao Jun's Precursor box in 2016, the doctor was desperate to succeed this time.[30] As a result, when Risa eventually realized that Kagami was using her and did not care about her well-being, she confronted the doctor, prompting Kagami to take Risa hostage at gunpoint[31] and force her back into the Animus against her will.[32]
During the forced sessions, Kagami informed her assistant that they would dispose of Risa after gaining the information they wanted. However, Shao Jun's memories ultimately proved to be a dead end, with the Precursor box becoming lost to the Assassin after being shipped out of China. This caused Kagami to throw a fit of rage until she noticed Risa wake up from the Animus.[33]
While Risa confronted the doctor about her mistreatment, the Assassin Kiyoshi Takakura and Risa's cousin Mari infiltrated the facility to rescue her. Risa, however, disarmed Kagami and knocked out her guards. With Kiyoshi and Mari arriving on the scene, Kagami was met with defeat as Risa thanked the doctor for helping her understand herself before shooting and destroying her Animus. After Kiyoshi and the cousins departed, Kagami was left in complete disarray.[34]
Shimazu Sei's mission[]
- "I'm sure it comes as no surprise that many of our brethren are skeptical of your family's value to the Order. Make no mistake. This is a test of your clan's loyalty and worth to the Templars. You will not be granted another like it, Supervisor Shimazu."
- ―A Templar higher-up to Shimazu Sei, c. 2023.[src]-[m]
By 2023, relations between the Shimazu clan and the rest of the Templar Order had soured.[35] In order to prove her family's loyalty and worth to the Templars, Shimazu Sei, a descendant of Shimazu Saito, was tasked with leading the search for a Piece of Eden found by Edward Kenway in Southeast Asia. Operating out of the Exitus research vessel in Macau, China,[35] Sei's team abducted one of Edward's descendants, the Korean-American student Noa Kim, and placed him in the Animus to relive Edward's memories.[36]
Sei watching Noa enter the Animus
After Noa caused several synchronization errors, Sei had him removed from the Animus and explained the nature of her mission to him in the hopes of getting him to become more cooperative.[37] Noa ultimately agreed to help Sei in exchange for his freedom and the two began to bond over the course of their Animus sessions.[38]
At one point, Noa and Sei had to travel together to the A-Ma Cultural Village to follow up on a lead that would allow them to continue exploring Edward's memories.[39] While there, Sei and her Abstergo guards were attacked by Doom Eagle thugs employed by the Zhawang Corporation, who sought to rescue Noa. Wishing to uncover his family roots through Edward's memories, however, Noa refused the Corporation agents' help and went to protect Sei from the thugs before returning with her to the Exitus.[40]
After more Animus sessions, Sei and Noa had to relocate to the Philippines in order to physically trace Edward's footsteps.[35] Sailing to Cebu, the two were joined by Sei's bodyguard Yuki, but during their investigation, they were again attacked by Doom Eagle[41] and forced to head to a shopping mall. After Yuki was injured, Sei and Noa fled into the mall,[42] where the latter protected Sei from the thugs pursuing them. Noa then engaged in a fight with Doom Eagle's leader, the Assassin Nathan Zhang,[43] who ultimately retreated when Abstego's Sigma Team arrived on the scene.[44]
Eventually, Edward's memories revealed the whereabouts of a Piece of Eden – a crescent amulet – in the Strait of Malacca, though because of his long sessions in the Animus, Noa began to succumb to the Bleeding Effect. Sei contacted her superiors to update them on the situation, only to be taken aback when they ordered Noa's termination, believing the test subject had outlived his usefulness. Sei disagreed, considering Noa still had his uses, and was contacted by the DedSec hacker group on Nathan Zhang's behalf.[45]
Sei defecting from Abstergo and escaping with Noa, Yuki, and Nathan
Nathan proposed a mutually beneficial deal to ensure Noa's safety, which Sei reluctantly accepted before being informed that Noa had gone on a Bleeding Effect-induced rampage aboard the Exitus. Sei calmed Noa down and helped him return to his senses,[46] and later convinced her superiors to keep Noa alive so that he could recover the crescent amulet from the shipwreck of the SS Ourang Medan.[47]
Following Noa's successful retrieval of the amulet, Abstergo's executive committee dispatched Sigma Team to eliminate the test subject, but Sei convinced them to delay Noa's execution by pointing out that, with him gone, any hope of studying the amulet was also lost.[48] Shortly after, the Abstergo ship came under attack by Doom Eagle, as per the terms of Sei's deal with Nathan Zhang. Sei took advantage of the distraction to escape with Noa, Yuki, and the amulet, officially defecting from Abstergo and the Templars in order to save Noa's life.[49]
Sei later reflected on her defection while under the influence of a lantern-shaped Piece of Eden in the Shwedagon Pagoda. Although feeling remorseful for betraying the Order she had served her entire life, an act which would surely backfire on the Shimazu clan, she ultimately decided to forge her own path and dedicate herself to fighting against Abstergo.[50]
Abstergo's genetic research[]
- "At present, Sei Shimazu is being held at the Abstergo Genetic Research Lab in Osaka. They call it a research lab, but it's essentially a front for all kinds of inhumane experiments."
- ―A DedSec member, regarding the Abstergo Genetic Research Lab, c. 2023.[src]-[m]
The headquarters of the Abstergo Genetic Research Lab, a division of Abstergo Industries focusing on genetic research, is located in Osaka.[51] Following her defection and eventual capture by Sigma Team,[52] Shimazu Sei was brought to the Research Lab to be used as an Animus test subject to help the Templars locate another Piece of Eden. From Sei's genetic memories, Abstergo learned about an artifact that had been buried with Shimazu Saito, and Sigma Team was dispatched to recover it.[51]
Meanwhile, Noa Kim, seeking to save Sei, infiltrated the Research Lab with the help of DedSec and a group of Assassins. Navigating through the facility while avoiding security, Noa managed to reach Sei and free her from the Animus, though the doctor suffered from a severe Bleeding Effect and believed herself to be Saito.[51] Nevertheless, Noa proceeded to carry Sei out of the facility as he and the Assassins made their escape, leaping from the building and onto an air cushion deployed by Nathan Zhang and his men. Disguised as firefighters, the group then drove away from the Research Lab, avoiding detection by Abstergo.[53]
Members[]
- Sengoku period
- Nuno Caro[54] (leader; c. 1560 – 1582) (Portuguese Rite)
- Kimura Kei[54]
- João Machado (Portuguese Rite)
- Duarte de Melo[54] (Portuguese Rite)
- Hosokawa Tama[54] (defected)
- Mochizuki Chiyome[1]
- Uesugi Kenshin[1]
- Alessandro Valignano[1] (Roman Rite)
- Gaspar Vilela (Portuguese Rite)
- Francis Xavier[1] (founder; Spanish Rite)
- Edo period
- Shimazu Saito (defected)
- William Lloyd (British Rite)
- Modern times
- Kaori Kagami
- Mitsuko Nakamura
- Shimazu Sei (defected)
Allies and puppets[]
- Sengoku period
- Baltazar
- Samemaru
- Yasuke (unwillingly)
- Edo period
- Fuma Sukuna
- Alan Jacob (British Rite)
- Sun
- Jan van Aert (betrayed)
- Emperor Meiji
- Modern times
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Memories (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun
- Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Blade of Aizu
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
- Assassin's Creed: Shadows
- Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Iga no Monogatari
References[]
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