The emblem of the Assassin Order
The title of Mentor was an honorific title given to leaders of the Assassin Brotherhood who had obtained an extraordinary amount of skill and wisdom, and subsequently used these skills to tutor aspiring apprentices.[1]
The Assassin leaders who were assigned to direct the branches of the Brotherhood spread around the globe were granted the title of Mentor, once they had trained a specific number of apprentices and attained a high amount of skill and wisdom themselves.[1]
By the year 2000, the title of Mentor had become official and singular, with only a single Mentor leading the entire Assassin Order.[1] Typically, the Mentor acted as a living conduit for all of their predecessors, possessing the sum total of all of their knowledge and experience, which was passed down from Mentor to Mentor. However, following this Mentor's death, the Great Purge was enacted, with the leadership of the Assassin Order under a specified Mentor waylaid in efforts to evade detection by the Templars.[2]
History
Ptolemaic Egypt
Bayek and Amunet addressing their apprentices
In 47 BCE, the Medjay Bayek of Siwa and his wife Aya founded the Hidden Ones, the first incarnation of the Assassin Brotherhood, in Egypt.[3] The following year, during the hunt of the Ibis Reborn, the members of the Hidden Ones referred to Bayek as their Mentor, marking the first time that the title was used.[4] In 38 BCE, Bayek declared to a group Hidden One apprentices that Aya, recently rechristened as Amunet, was a Mentor of the Hidden Ones.[5]
High Middle Ages
During the 9th century, the Hidden Ones of Alamut were led by a council which was presided over by a Mentor. By the 860s, Rayhan had attained this position and led the council alongside the Master Assassin Roshan and the Rafiq and Eagle Master Fuladh Al Haami.[6] After Rayhan permitted Basim Ibn Ishaq to explore the Alamut Temple to help repel an attack on Alamut by their enemies, Roshan disagreed with his decision and left both the council and the Hidden Ones.[7]
Rayhan, Mentor of the Alamut Hidden Ones
By 867, Rayhan had become suspicious of Basim's motives and secretly asked his apprentice, the acolyte Hytham, to spy on him.[8] Rayhan remained in contact with Hytham as the latter accompanied Basim to England in order to hunt down members of the Order of the Ancients in the region and establish a new chapter for the Brotherhood.[9]
By 877, Fuladh had become a Mentor of the Hidden Ones based in the Justanid region of Persia and was set to host a council at the newly-constructed Alamut Castle in two years' time. Rayhan invited Hytham to attend the council in order to be promoted to a new rank for his actions in England, as well as to discuss the betrayal of Basim,[10] who had turned on his allies Eivor Varinsdottir and Sigurd Styrbjornsson and was presumed dead after being defeated by them.[11]
During the 10th century, Torgny the Lawspeaker, the advisor of King Eric of Sweden, was the Mentor of the Hidden Ones in Scandinavia. With his student Thorvald Hjaltason, he fought the Templars Styrbjörn the Strong and Harald Bluetooth who invaded Sweden.[12]
Third Crusade Levant
Al Mualim attempting to sway Altaïr to his cause
When the Hidden Ones reorganized themselves as the Assassin Brotherhood with a state in Western Asia, the title of Mentor came to designate the head of the branch established by Rashid ad-din Sinan in Masyaf.[13][14] Sinan would from then on be known to the Levantine Assassins only by this title, which in Arabic was "Al Mualim".[15] When Al Mualim used his Apple of Eden to seize mental control of the Assassins in Masyaf, he was confronted and slain by his pupil Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, at which point the title passed to Altaïr.[16][17]
Such was the influence of the Levantine Assassins that to this day, when referring to Middle Eastern Mentors in other languages, such as English and French, the Arabic "Al Mualim" has been used in the capacity of a loanword.[18][19] Nevertheless, in these non-Arabic languages, the title remains most commonly associated with Sinan, even being treated as a name synonymous with him.[18]
With Altaïr's succession as Mentor, he enacted many reforms and innovations to the Assassin Brotherhood.[20] These changes along with his efforts to spread the influences of the Assassins made him one of the most legendary and respected Mentors in the entire history of the Order.[21]
Altaïr confronting Abbas
In 1227, Altaïr's childhood rival Abbas Sofian staged a coup d'état against him, resulting in the Levantine branch falling under Abbas' leadership and Altaïr's self-imposed exile.[22] Usurping the title of Mentor,[23] Abbas tyrannically ruled the branch and its headquarters of Masyaf with a disregard for the Creed until he was finally killed by Altaïr in 1247,[22] marking the return of Altaïr's tenure as Mentor. Altaïr held this title for ten more years, until he disbanded the Levantine Assassins from Masyaf and passed away in his library during the Mongol attack on Masyaf on 12 August 1257.[24][25]
Song and Ming China
- "I will undo all that you have done. I will rebuild the Brotherhood and recruit those who wish to make our land a place of freedom, those ready to die to fight men like you. Your Templar world will not happen. The Assassins will rise again."
- ―Shao Jun vowing to rebuild the Chinese Brotherhood as its Mentor, 1532.[src]-[m]
By 1259, Kang was the Mentor of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins during the twilight years of the Song dynasty. He recruited an officer of the Song army who died at the Siege of Diaoyu Castle. Kang initially took the officer's orphaned daughter Zhang Zhi under his wing but ultimately expelled her after she assassinated Möngke Khan without his permission.[26]
Over two centuries later, the Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming held the title of Mentor in China. As the core group of Chinese Templars, the Eight Tigers, led another Assassin purge during the Great Rites Controversy in 1524, Yangming hid from them, and Zhu Jiuyuan became the new Mentor.[27] With his apprentice Shao Jun, they fled to China to seek help from the retired Mentor Ezio Auditore in Italy. When they arrived in Venice, Zhu Jiuyuan was killed by Templar agents who had followed them.[28]
Shao Jun and Wang Yangming
After her training with Ezio, Shao Jun returned to China in 1526 and contacted Wang Yangming, then still acting as the branch's Mentor. By this point, they were the last two remaining Chinese Assassins, and they embarked on a mission to eliminate the Eight Tigers.[29] Yangming was killed by their leader Zhang Yong in 1529,[30] but Shao Jun assassinated Zhang Yong in 1532 and revived the Brotherhood, becoming the new Mentor.[31]
Ottoman Empire
At the end of the 15th century, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Ishak Pasha became the Mentor of the Ottoman Assassins. Up until his death, he tried to establish an alliance between the Ottoman Empire and the Assassin Brotherhood.[32] Later, his apprentice Yusuf Tazim took his role as the leader of the guild without pretending to the title of Mentor.[33]
Renaissance Italy
During the late 15th century, the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins was led by Mario Auditore from Monteriggioni until his death during the Siege of Monteriggioni on 2 January 1500.[34] Niccolò Machiavelli subsequently became the de facto Mentor of the Brotherhood and worked alongside Mario's nephew, Ezio Auditore, to build a new Assassin guild in Rome and recruit citizens to fight against the power of the Borgia.[35]
Ezio Auditore being promoted to Mentor
In August 1503, for his actions, Ezio was promoted to the rank of Mentor by Machiavelli.[36] He held this position for a decade, and also acted as a leader and teacher to the Ottoman Assassins during his time in Constantinople while his sister Claudia led the Assassins in Italy.[33] Ezio resigned as Mentor upon returning to Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1513, and assigned Lodovico Ariosto as his successor.[37]
Spanish Inquisition
By 1491, the Spanish Brotherhood of Assassins was led by the Mentor Benedicto. In 1492, he was captured by the Spanish Inquisition led by the Spanish Templar Tomás de Torquemada. Branded as a heretic, he was burned at the stake in Seville before the King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.[38] Years later, Aguilar de Nerha, who had escaped from the pyre, became the new Mentor of the Spanish Brotherhood.[32]
Mamluk Sultanate
As of 1511, a descendant of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Iskender, held the position of Mentor of the Egyptian Assassins. Around this time, Iskender received aid from Ezio Auditore, who sent several of his Assassin recruits to free the Mentor after he had been arrested and imprisoned. The Levantine Mentor Mujir was also rescued by Ezio's recruits when he was arrested by the Mamluks in Jerusalem.[39]
Colonial West Indies
By 1673, the Mayan Bahlam was the Mentor of the West Indies Assassins based in Tulum.[40] He tried to locate the Sage to protect the Observatory from the Templars. By 1713, his son Ah Tabai took the mantle of Mentor after Bahlam's passing and continued his work.[41]
Ah Tabai with Edward Kenway
As he was betrayed by the scheming of the Assassin turncoat Duncan Walpole, Ah Tabai decided to move the headquarters of the Assassins. In 1722, the pirate-turned-Assassin Edward Kenway offered his hideout in Great Inagua to the Mentor to make amends for unwillingly aiding in Walpole's treason.[42] Ah Tabai would thereafter continue to lead the guild until his death sometime around 1745.[43]
In 1732, the Assassin and former slave François Mackandal founded his own Brotherhood as a splinter faction of the West Indies Assassins on the island of Saint-Domingue. He liberated slaves to recruit them into his Brotherhood and collected different Pieces of Eden, while also planning to poison all the white colonists of the island. In 1758, the Templars captured and burned Mackandal at the stake under the order of Madeleine de L'Isle, leading to the collapse of his Brotherhood.[44]
Qing China
Xiao Han leading the Chinese Assassins
By 1725, the Chinese Brotherhood was led by the Mentor Xiao Han, who claimed descent from Shao Jun.[45] As the Han Chinese people, including many Chinese Assassins, had suffered heavy persecution under the Manchu Qing dynasty, resulting in the Brotherhood's decline, Xiao Han wished to overthrow the Manchus and establish a new dynasty under which the Han people might thrive again.[46]
To this end, the Mentor and two of his fellow Assassins, Liu Qing and Xue Yan, sought the power of a Piece of Eden rumored to be hidden in the lost Khmer city of Angkor. However, their efforts were opposed by Edward Kenway, who believed using Isu artifacts for personal gain would only lead to more chaos and destruction.[47]
Colonial Louisiana
Following François Mackandal's death, one of his apprentices, Agaté, fled to New Orleans, where he founded the Louisiana Brotherhood of Assassins as its first Mentor. In 1759, he recruited Aveline de Grandpré, the daughter of his former lover Jeanne, as the first member of his Brotherhood. Aveline operated as an Assassin on the field while Agaté stayed hidden in the Louisiana Bayou.[44]
As their relationship became strained over time, Agaté tried to kill Aveline in 1777, believing she had joined the Templars. The Mentor ultimately committed suicide after his apprentice defeated him and decided to spare his life, which Agaté saw as a great dishonor.[48]
Colonial America
In 1740, Ah Tabai sent the Assassin Achilles Davenport to the Thirteen Colonies to found a new Brotherhood. There, Achilles met John de la Tour, an Assassin from Canada who searched for Isu temples. Working together, they arrived in Louisbourg in 1745 during the Siege of Louisbourg. John gave the title of Mentor to Achilles before sacrificing himself to buy the Assassin enough time to escape the city.[49]
During the mid-18th century, Achilles recruited many apprentices to his newly-formed Colonial Brotherhood, constructed a powerful fleet and acquired the Precursor box and Voynich manuscript from the Templars.[50] In 1755, one of his apprentices, Shay Cormac, inadvertently triggered an earthquake in Lisbon while exploring an Isu temple.[51] As Achilles refused to believe it was the temple that had caused the earthquake, Shay stole the Voynich manuscript in an attempt to halt the Assassins' search for Isu temples.[52]
Branded a traitor, Shay was left for dead by the Colonial Assassins before joining the Colonial Templars and helping them purge most of his former Brotherhood.[50] Achilles himself was spared by the Grand Master Haytham Kenway at Shay's request, as the latter believed the Mentor to be harmless without his followers and that he could warn other Assassin branches of the dangers of Isu temples. However, Achilles was still shot in the leg by Haytham, crippling him and forcing him to retire from active service.[53]
Achilles and Ratonhnhaké:ton in Boston
By 1763, most of the Assassins in Colonial America had been wiped out, leaving as Achilles as the sole survivor. During the time before the American Revolutionary War, he was hesitant to train new Assassins, due to having lost faith in their cause after his personal experiences. Eventually, though, he trained Haytham's son Ratonhnhaké:ton as a member of the Brotherhood, serving as his mentor up until his death in 1781.[54]
Under Achilles' leadership, the Colonial Brotherhood regrew in the area, and the fight led by Ratonhnhaké:ton greatly diminished the influence of the Templar Order in the colonies. Following Achilles' death, Ratonhnhaké:ton presumably succeeded him as de facto Mentor of the newly-reformed Colonial Assassins.[55]
Medieval, Bourbon and Revolutionary France
During the Middle Ages, the Mentor of the French Brotherhood was Guillaume de Nogaret, who most notably influenced King Philip IV of France into declaring the Templar Order illegal and assigned Master Assassin Thomas de Carneillon to lead the assault on the Templar headquarters. The raid was successful, with the Knights Templar disbanded and their Grand Master Jacques de Molay executed. Carneillon himself took the title of Mentor sometime after de Molay's execution.[56]
During the Hundred Years' War, the Queen Yolande of Aragon, mother-in-law of Charles VII of France, became the Mentor of the French Brotherhood. She prevented the Templars in England from retaking control of France and financed the army of Jeanne d'Arc, whom she later recruited to the Assassin Order.[57]
At the end of the 17th century, another Mentor led the French Brotherhood. He tasked Louis-Joseph d'Albert de Luynes to recruit Julie d'Aubigny into the Brotherhood but his attempt failed.[56]
Mirabeau (second from the left) with the French Assassin Council
During the French Revolution, the title was held by Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, a noted and venerated public speaker and one of the most famous contributors to the Revolution. He was at the head of the French Assassin Council, which included four Master Assassins: Pierre Bellec, Guillaume Beylier, Hervé Quemar, Sophie Trenet.[56]
Mirabeau's tenure as Mentor saw two ultimately unsuccessful attempts to secure peace between the French Brotherhood and the Templars, the second of which resulted in Mirabeau's fatal poisoning by Bellec, who opposed any such truce.[58] Bellec was later killed by his former apprentice Arno Dorian, leaving only three members in the Council.[59] Though leadership of the Brotherhood fell to Sophie Trenet, it would appear she did not take the title of Mentor as she was never addressed as such.[56]
Sikh Empire
- "Arbaaz. Take care. The diamond... The transcription reads: 'He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman can wear it with impunity.'"
- ―Hamid warning Arbaaz about the Koh-i-Noor, 1839.[src]
Hamid tasking Arbaaz to retrieve the Koh-i-Noor
During the mid-19th century, the Mentor of the Indian Brotherhood was Hamid, under whose leadership the Assassins held a strong presence in the Sikh Empire. In 1839, Hamid instructed the Assassin Arbaaz Mir to retrieve a powerful Piece of Eden known as the Koh-i-Noor, which was under the protection of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was sought by both the Brotherhood and the Templars.[60]
After Arbaaz suceeded in his mission, he gave the Koh-i-Noor to Hamid for safekeeping, though in 1841, the Mentor was captured, along with the artifact, by the Templars. Following several failed attempts to interrogate Hamid in order to learn how to unravel the Koh-i-Noor's secrets, the Mentor was eventually rescued by Arbaaz.[61]
Hamid still served as Mentor in 1860, when he sentenced Arbaaz's son Jayadeep Mir to death for failing his first assassination and breaking the Creed's tenets in the process, though he was later convinced to banish him to England instead.[62]
Modern period
Daniel Cross killing the Mentor in November 2000
In the latter half of the 20th century, the entire Assassin Brotherhood was united under a single Mentor.[1] By 1998, an individual known only as "the Mentor" led the Brotherhood, though his name and location were always kept secret – even from the Assassins themselves – for safety concerns, and he always stayed mobile to avoid being located. In November 2000, the Mentor invited Daniel Cross into his secret Dubai headquarters after having monitored his actions for two years, believing him to be a worthy apprentice.[2]
However, Daniel, whose brain had been unknowingly experimented upon by Abstergo Industries and imprinted with an impulse to kill the Mentor, assassinated him after having been rewarded with a Hidden Blade. Following this, the Assassins were thrown into disarray and forced underground,[2] and the mantle of leader was eventually taken by William Miles.[33]
Despite this, some Brotherhoods around the world continued to be led by their own individual Mentors, such as the Japanese Brotherhood, which was led by Kenichi Mochizuki and then his wife Saeko after Kenichi's death in 2013; and the Russian Brotherhood, which was headed by Medeya Voronina up until an accident with an Animus in 2014 that resulted in the near-total destruction of the branch.[63]
Known Mentors
![Bayek[4] Egyptian Brotherhood (47 BCE – ?)](/wiki/File:Hidden_One_Bayek.png "Hidden One Bayek.png (2.74 MB)")
![Aya[5] Roman Brotherhood (46 BCE – ?)](/wiki/File:ACO_Aya_render.png "ACO Aya render.png (469 KB)")
![Rayhan[6] Alamut Brotherhood (c. 860s – ?)](/wiki/File:ACMirage_DB_Rayhan.png "ACMirage DB Rayhan.png (2.53 MB)")
![Fuladh Al Haami[10] Persian Brotherhood (c. 870s – ?)](/wiki/File:ACMirage_DB_Fuladh.png "ACMirage DB Fuladh.png (1.7 MB)")
![Torgny[12] Swedish Brotherhood (c. 984)](/wiki/File:Wiki_noimage.jpg "Wiki noimage.jpg (30 KB)")
![Al Mualim[15] Levantine Brotherhood (1162 – 1191)](/wiki/File:ACR_Al_Mualim.png "ACR Al Mualim.png (387 KB)")
![Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad[33] Levantine Brotherhood (1191 – 1227; 1247 – 1257)](/wiki/File:ACR_Altair_Render2.png "ACR Altair Render2.png (1.29 MB)")
![Malik Al-Sayf[22] Levantine Brotherhood (1217 – 1228)](/wiki/File:AC_Malik_render.png "AC Malik render.png (3.65 MB)")
![Abbas Sofian[33] Levantine Brotherhood (1227 – 1247)](/wiki/File:Abbas_Sofian_render.png "Abbas Sofian render.png (54 KB)")
![Thomas de Carneillon[56] French Brotherhood (until 1323)](/wiki/File:ACU_De_Carneillon_Render.png "ACU De Carneillon Render.png (364 KB)")
![Ishak Pasha[32] Ottoman Brotherhood (c. 1490s)](/wiki/File:AC_Twelve_Trials_Revelations_Q3_Ishak_Pasha.png "AC Twelve Trials Revelations Q3 Ishak Pasha.png (225 KB)")
![Benedicto[38] Spanish Brotherhood (until 1492)](/wiki/File:ACM_Benedicto_3.jpg "ACM Benedicto 3.jpg (44 KB)")
![Aguilar de Nerha[32] Spanish Brotherhood (until 1526)](/wiki/File:ACMovie_Aguilar_full_body_render.png "ACMovie Aguilar full body render.png (1,017 KB)")
![Niccolò Machiavelli[65] Italian Brotherhood (1500 – 1503)](/wiki/File:ACB_Niccolo_Machiavelli.png "ACB Niccolo Machiavelli.png (267 KB)")
![Ezio Auditore da Firenze[66] Italian Brotherhood (1503 – 1513)](/wiki/File:ACI-Ezio.png "ACI-Ezio.png (264 KB)")
![Zhu Jiuyuan[27] Chinese Brotherhood (1524)](/wiki/File:ACCC_Zhu_Jiuyuan.jpg "ACCC Zhu Jiuyuan.jpg (41 KB)")
![Wang Yangming[27] Chinese Brotherhood (until 1524; c. 1526 – 1529)](/wiki/File:ACCC_Wang_Yangming.png "ACCC Wang Yangming.png (441 KB)")
![Shao Jun[27] Chinese Brotherhood (c. 1532 – ?)](/wiki/File:ACCC-Shao_Jun_Render.png "ACCC-Shao Jun Render.png (896 KB)")
![Ah Tabai[67] West Indies Brotherhood (1713 – c. 1745)](/wiki/File:AC4_Ah_Tabai_render.png "AC4 Ah Tabai render.png (494 KB)")
![Xiao Han[69] Chinese Brotherhood (c. 1725)](/wiki/File:ACFT_Xiao_Han_closeup.png "ACFT Xiao Han closeup.png (573 KB)")
![Achilles Davenport[54] Colonial Brotherhood (1746 – 1763)](/wiki/File:ACRG_Achilles_render.png "ACRG Achilles render.png (1.66 MB)")
![Agaté[44] Louisiana Brotherhood (1759 – 1777)](/wiki/File:AgateDatabaseHD.png "AgateDatabaseHD.png (350 KB)")
![Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau[56] French Brotherhood (until 1791)](/wiki/File:ACU_Mirabeau_Render.png "ACU Mirabeau Render.png (403 KB)")
![Hamid[60] Indian Brotherhood (c. 1839 – c. 1860)](/wiki/File:ACCI_Hamid.png "ACCI Hamid.png (982 KB)")
![The Mentor[2] Worldwide (until 2000)](/wiki/File:MentorTheFall.png "MentorTheFall.png (347 KB)")
![William Miles[73] Worldwide (c. 2000 – 2013; 2015 – present)](/wiki/File:ACO_DT_-_William_Miles_render.png "ACO DT - William Miles render.png (363 KB)")
![Saeko Mochizuki[63] Japanese Brotherhood (2013 – present)](/wiki/File:ACInitiates_-_Saeko_Mochizuki.png "ACInitiates - Saeko Mochizuki.png (431 KB)")
![Medeya Voronina[74] Russian Brotherhood (until 2014)](/wiki/File:ACi-Matricide.jpg "ACi-Matricide.jpg (267 KB)")
References
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