Liam O'Brien (1726 – 1760) was a member of the Colonial Brotherhood of Assassins operating in the British Colonies in North America during the Seven Years' War.
As Achilles Davenport's first apprentice and second-in-command, he played an instrumental role in the Brotherhood's expansion by helping the Mentor find new recruits, including his childhood friend Shay Cormac. Liam was responsible for supervising Shay and, despite being a few years his elder and more experienced, the two formed a brotherly bond.
After Shay abandoned the Assassins in 1756 and joined the Templar Order, Liam made it his personal mission to make him pay for his betrayal, as well as the deaths of numerous Assassins at his hands. In 1760, while accompanying Achilles to an Isu temple in the Arctic that the Brotherhood had discovered, Liam encountered Shay again and tried to take his revenge. However, he was defeated by his former friend and succumbed to his injuries.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Liam was born in 1726 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. A family of Irish immigrants, the O'Briens struggled to survive on their farm for years, until they moved to New York where Liam's father began to work for a shipping merchant. Eventually, Liam joined his father at work, loading ships bound for England. It was at work where he first met a young Shay Cormac, and the two became fast friends. Liam looked after the younger Shay, who lived in a rough neighborhood and had a knack for getting himself into trouble.[1]
Over the next years, Liam became aware of his employer's growing wealth, even as his fellow workers remained underpaid and mistreated by their superiors. The tensions came to a breaking point in 1736, when Liam recruited several of his co-workers in a plot to rob their employer and distribute the money among themselves.[1]
However, the group was caught in the middle of the heist, and Liam was forced to kill a man in self-defense. Wishing to protect his son, Liam's father took the blame for the murder and was executed by the authorities.[1]
Building the Brotherhood[]
In the coming years, Liam drifted from one job to the next and continued to rob the city's richer citizens, sending the money to his aging mother. He also distanced himself from his friends, including Shay. Around 1738, he met the Assassin Achilles Davenport, who gave him small tasks and errands to perform. Over time, Achilles' influence over Liam grew, and Liam looked to the older man as a mentor.[1]
Eventually, in 1743, Achilles inducted Liam into the Colonial Brotherhood as his first student, after which he helped the Mentor to find new recruits, including Chevalier de la Vérendrye, Kesegowaase, and Hope Jensen. In 1748, Liam reconnected with Shay, who had just lost his father, and managed to get his old friend back on his feet. The two became more inseparable than ever, and Shay was soon recruited into the Brotherhood, whereupon Achilles tasked Liam with keeping an eye over Shay, just as he had years ago.[1]
At some point, Liam accompanied Adéwalé, a renowned member of the West Indies Brotherhood, on a mission. Liam grew to greatly respect the man for being a "living incarnation of the Creed" and came to view his opportunity to work alongside him as a great honor.[3]
Mentoring Shay[]
Liam breaking up Shay and Chevalier's fight
In January 1752, Liam and Shay arrived at Port-Menier to rendezvous with Chevalier and his fellow smugglers. While the two were hunting, Chevalier's smugglers were captured and his ship, the Gerfaut, came under attack by the Royal Navy, leaving him stranded. After returning to camp, Liam and Shay were berated by Chevalier, who in his anger punched Shay, starting a fistfight between them. Liam soon broke up the fight and reminded both Assassins that they shared a common goal: to rescue the smugglers and recover the Gerfaut.[4]
After Liam handed Shay a sword and dagger, the three Assassins proceeded to eliminate a group of nearby British sailors in order to free Chevalier's smugglers. In the process, they claimed the sailors' sloop-of-war, the Morrigan, which Shay decided to make his personal ship. After using the Morrigan to sink the British ships attacking the Gerfaut, Shay, Liam and Chevalier returned to the Davenport Homestead to report to Achilles.[4]
Liam and Shay discussing Adéwalé
Two months later, at the Homestead, Liam and Shay witnessed the arrival of Adéwalé, who came to speak with Achilles about an earthquake that had destroyed the city of Port-au-Prince. While Adéwalé and Achilles talked, Liam helped to train Shay in the use of firearms, lending him his pistols.[3]
Not long after, Adéwalé left the Homestead to deliver supplies to survivors of the Port-au-Prince earthquake, and Achilles informed Liam and Shay about the Templars' theft of two Isu artifacts from the Saint-Domingue Assassins: a Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript. Shay was then tasked by the Mentor with recovering the artifacts, while Liam was tasked with supervising Shay during his mission.[3]
Quartermaster of the Morrigan[]
Liam with Shay and Chevalier aboard the Morrigan
Joining his friend aboard the Morrigan, Liam became Shay's quartermaster and accompanied him to Port la Joye to meet with Chevalier, who had a lead on the artifacts' location. On the way there, Shay lamented that Achilles had no trust in him, but Liam assured him that, if he succeeded in this mission, he would have more than proven himself to the Brotherhood.[5]
After picking up Chevalier, Shay and Liam sailed to Anticosti Island to meet with the spy Le Chasseur, an ally of the Brotherhood. Le Chasseur provided the Assassins with new armaments to upgrade the Morrigan and informed them that the Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript were in the possession of the Master Templar Lawrence Washington.[5]
Liam and Shay discussing their findings with the others
Leaving Anticosti, Liam and Shay sailed to Two Bends in the River Valley to report to Achilles, Hope and Kesegowaase. After Hope revealed that her spies had learned Washington was expecting a package, Liam and Shay decided to tail the ship carrying the package in the hopes it would lead them to Washington. They followed the ship to the Templar's estate at Mount Vernon, where Shay proceeded to disembark the Morrigan in order to infiltrate a party hosted by Washington and assassinate him.[6]
Liam remained aboard the ship and took the helm when the Morrigan came under attack by Washington's fleet, sailing the ship to relative safety. Once Shay returned to the Morrigan after having killed Washington, he assumed command again and was able to lose their enemies. He then informed Liam that Washington had given the Isu artifacts to his fellow Templars and that the man was already dying of tuberculosis by the time he had gotten to him. Liam told Shay to cheer up, claiming they would find the artifacts eventually and that taking Washington's life was the right thing to do.[6]
Liam and the others pursuing Smith
In April 1754, Liam and Shay met again with Chevalier and Le Chasseur at Anticosti for information on Samuel Smith, the Templar who had been entrusted the Precursor box by Washington. Using the Morrigan, the Assassins tracked Smth's ship, the Equitas, before she beached on Terra Nova. Shay followed and killed the Templar, taking the box from him. Liam congratulated his friend for his actions but Shay doubted the necessity of Smith's death. Liam reassured Shay that Smith was a threat, as was their next target, James Wardrop.[7]
Three months later, Liam and Shay met with Hope at the Albany Congress. She informed them that Wardrop was also there, under heavy guard, and that he had the Voynich manuscript in his possession. Shay tracked down and eliminated Wardrop in order to retrieve the manuscript while Liam and Hope made sure the Templar could not escape Albany.[8]
Shay's betrayal[]
With both the Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript back in Assassin hands, Shay's mission was complete and thus Liam was given a new assignment by Achilles. As a result, Liam could not accompany his friend when Shay sailed to Lisbon to investigate an Isu temple whose location had been revealed by the two artifacts. However, Shay's mission went awry, resulting in an earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, not too different from the one in Port-au-Prince four years prior.[9]
Liam attempting to calm down Shay
Liam and Shay would not see each other again until early 1756, when the latter returned to the Davenport Homestead and angrily accused Achilles of sending him to slaughter innocents. Liam and Hope intervened in the heated exchange, trying to calm down Shay before ultimately having to remove him from the manor. However, Shay's mind was already made up and, later that night, he broke into the manor to steal the Voynich manuscript, intending to put a stop to the Assassins' search for Isu temples.[10]
Achilles caught Shay in the middle of his theft and ordered his Assassins to capture the traitor. Liam attempted to stop his friend by shooting a powder keg, resulting in a small landslide, but Shay escaped from the trap. Eventually, the runaway Assassin was cornered atop a cliff by his former allies, including Liam, who pointed a gun at Shay to dissuade him from fleeing. However, Shay, who believed that absconding with the manuscript was the only way to prevent more innocent lives from being lost, jumped into the river with it in his arms.[10]
Liam and the other Assassins cornering Shay
Before Shay could jump, Chevalier shot at him and missed, hitting him in the left shoulder. However, the gunshot wound was still enough to cause Shay to plummet into the ocean, with the manuscript in his pocket. As a result, the Assassins assumed Shay to be dead and the manuscript destroyed.[10] It would not be until a year later that the Brotherhood learned the truth, after Kesegowaase found Shay working alongside the Colonial Templars, confirming that Shay had survived his fall and switched allegiances.[11]
Search for Precursor sites[]
In November 1757, Liam and Kesegowaase were tasked by Achilles with retrieving the Voynich manuscript, which Shay had entrusted to the Templar George Monro. Knowing Monro to be located in Albany, Kesegowaase led an attack on the city as a distraction to allow Liam to find and assassinate the Templar. While Shay confronted and killed Kesegowaase, Liam mortally wounded Monro before taking the manuscript from him and leaving the Templar to die inside a house he had set on fire.[12]
Liam meeting with his fellow Assassins in New York
With the manuscript recovered, the Colonial Assassins were able to resume their search for Isu sites. By October 1759, Hope had successfully recreated Benjamin Franklin's experiment with the manuscript and the Precursor box, unlocking a map which revealed the location of an Isu temple in the Arctic.[13] Following this, Liam took the two artifacts from Hope and, while he kept the manuscript on his person, he entrusted the box to Chevalier to be shipped away from the colonies.[2]
Not long after Liam's departure, Hope was assassinated by Shay during a raid on her mansion by the British Army, secretly orchestrated by the Templars.[13] Liam later discovered Hope's body and, realizing it was Shay who had killed her, alongside countless other Assassins including Kesegowaase, Adéwalé and Chevalier, vowed revenge on his former friend.[2]
Death[]
Liam and Achilles being confronted by Shay and Haytham
By March 1760, Liam and Achilles were the only high-ranking Colonial Assassins left. Undeterred, the two followed through with their plan to lead an expedition to the Isu temple in the Arctic, in the hopes of retrieving the Pieces of Eden they believed it contained. However, they were secretly followed by Shay and Haytham Kenway, the Grand Master of the Colonial Templars.[2]
Upon reaching the heart of the temple, Achilles realized that the artifact was not an Apple of Eden after all. He then acknowledged that Shay had been right about the danger of these temples, just in time for an embittered Shay to interject that if Achilles had simply listened to him, the calamity could have been averted.[2]
Liam knocking the artifact over
Despite this revelation, Liam still accused Shay of betraying the Brotherhood and attempted to take revenge, aiming his pistol at him. Achilles tried to stop him and, in the ensuing skirmish, Liam accidentally knocked over the artifact, disturbing the site and causing a seismic tremor. As the temple began to collapse around them, Achilles fled one way, with Haytham following closely behind, while Liam in turn was pursued by Shay.[2]
During the chase, Liam shot at Shay multiple times, but the Templar was able to take cover behind various structures. As the two former friends argued, Liam told Shay that he had given the Precursor box to Chevalier to keep it out of the Templars' hands, and accused him of murdering Hope, to which Shay mournfully pleaded that he had no choice.[2]
Liam's final moments
Eventually, Liam was cornered at a cliff side and briefly dueled Shay before the precipice under them gave way, causing both men to fall onto the ice below. Shay used Liam to break his fall, and the latter was fatally wounded as a result. In his final moments, Liam questioned Shay's motivation to join the Templars, to which the latter stated he was trying to save the world. Upon hearing this, Liam sardonically stated that he hoped the world the Templars were trying to build was a good one.[2]
As Liam succumbed to his injuries, he used the last of his strength to take the Voynich manuscript out of his pocket and hand it to his former best friend. Shay then pulled Liam's Assassin hood over him, as a sign of respect, and briefly mourned his former friend before leaving with the manuscript.[2]
Personality and traits[]
Liam bantering with Shay
Liam appeared to be a patient, pensive, and respectful man. He did not hesitate to intervene between two of his fellow Assassins fighting, and always tried to maintain a cool head regardless of the situation. His character was mostly peaceful and calm, but he would not hesitate to forego friendship for the sake of fulfilling his duty to the Brotherhood.[14]
Liam had unquestionable faith in the Creed and felt a great sense of admiration for Adéwalé and his fellow Colonial Assassins, seeing them as people from whom it was necessary and useful to learn.[3] While he was not a man for small talk, being far more serious and driven than his friend Shay, he could become more laid back and prone to jokes in his friends' company.[14]
Having known each other since childhood, Liam was considered Shay's best, if not only, friend among the Assassins. While most of his comrades either outright despised Shay or treated him with cold condescension, Liam served as a big brother figure who offered words of encouragement when needed. When Shay defected to the Templars, Liam took his betrayal personally and was determined to kill him, especially after learning of Hope's demise at Shay's hands.[14]
Skills and equipment[]
Liam locked in combat with Shay
Liam was a highly skilled Assassin, having been Achilles' first student and possessing over a decade of experience within the Order.[14] A proficient marksman and swordsman, he was capable of defeating a number of British soldiers in quick succession.[4] Accompanying this, Liam possessed some knowledge of sailing, acting as quartermaster of the Morrigan.[14]
In terms of physicality, Liam was a skilled freerunner, capable of performing the Leap of Faith. His arsenal consisted of dual Hidden Blades, a sword and two pistols, with the last of these appearing to be his preferred weapon.[14] He was not only very confident, but also proud of his marksmanship skills. When Shay accused him of having been the one to shoot him in the back, Liam denied this, remarking that it was Chevalier de la Vérendrye, and boasted that he never missed a shot to reinforce his claim.[2]
Trivia[]
- Liam is the Irish short form of William, which is derived from the elements wil "will, desire" and helm "helmet, protection". O'Brien is an Irish surname that means "descendant of Brian".
- Liam's Database entry states that he met Achilles Davenport in 1738. This is likely an error, as Achilles did not arrive in the British colonies until 1740.
- In the memory "Scars", Liam is described as a "huge man with an axe", despite the fact that he is never seen with such a weapon throughout the game. However, his concept art does depict him with an axe.
- When playing events prior to Shay's defection from the Assassins, a glitch occurs where if the crew spots a prisoner-of-war ship, Christopher Gist can be heard reporting this news rather than Liam.
- The Assassin Hunter gameplay trailer for Rogue shows Shay killing Liam during their fight contrary to the events of the actual game where he dies after falling off a cliff with Shay.
- In the memory, "Non Nobis Domine", his body can neither be picked up nor looted by Shay after his death.
- Liam shares his name with the American voice actor of the same name.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned in Database entry only)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Database: Liam O'Brien
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Non Nobis Domine
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Lessons and Revelations
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – The Way the Wind Blows
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – By Invitation Only
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – One Little Victory
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – We the People
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Kyrie Eleison
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Freewill
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Honour and Loyalty
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Scars
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Caress of Steel
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 Assassin's Creed: Rogue