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"If you got nothing, go to New York. That way, if you leave with nothing, people don't ask why. And if you leave with something, then you are one lucky son of a bitch."
―A man's advice for Desmond Miles.[src]

New York City is the capital city of the state of New York and is the most densely populated city in the United States of America. During the American Revolutionary War, New York was a stronghold of the British Army.

History

Seven Years' War

During the Seven Years' War, several gangs commanded by the Assassin Hope Jensen operated in the town harassing and extorting citizen, including Barry and Cassidy Finnegan, a couple of Irish immigrants who lived in the Greenwich district. In June 1756, the gang outpost in Greenwich was captured by the Assassin turn Templar Shay Cormac, who was then contacted by George Monro, a Templar who would be responsible for the initiation of Shay into the Templar Order.[1]

Later, Shay would rescue Christopher Gist, another Templar, at Fort Arsenal.[2] After killing Le Chasseur,[3] Shay talked to Benjamin Franklin, confirming his suspects his former comrade, Hope, was behind the gang. Shay destroyed a factory used by the gangs in order to create poison to use against the authorities with his new grenade launcher.[4]

Shay would return to New York in 1758 to be initiated into the Templar Order by the Grand Master Haytham Kenway after Monro's death in Albany.[5]

American Revolution

The Assassin Connor came to New York with Benjamin Tallmadge in 1776, to investigate a plot to murder George Washington. Tallmadge learned the Templar and Continental soldier Thomas Hickey was involved: Connor tracked Hickey by following members of his counterfeiting racket. Unfortunately, Connor was arrested along with Hickey by soldiers who mistook him for a fellow counterfeiter, and was thrown into Bridewell Prison. The Templars framed Connor for the plot and planned to have him executed outside City Hall, with Washington attending. The Assassins - and Connor's father, Grand Master Haytham Kenway[6] - stopped the hanging, and Connor assassinated Hickey for trying to kill Washington.[7]

Afterwards, the east side of the city was greatly damaged due to the Great Fire, and New York passed from American control to the British. In the meantime, Connor recruited Deborah Carter, Jacob Zenger, and Jamie Colley to the Assassins after they helped him stop Templars taking advantage of these events. In 1778, Connor met with Haytham to find Benjamin Church, who had betrayed the Templar Order and the Continental Army,[8] but discovered he had left New York for Martinique. Later, they worked together to find out British troop movements, learning the British planned to march on Monmouth.[9]

In 1781, the disgraced American general Charles Lee was living in Fort George. Connor planned to infiltrate the fort while the French Navy bombarded the fort, so he could find and assassinate Lee during the chaos. However, Connor found that Haytham had sent Lee away, and the Templar, no longer willing to reconcile with his son, attempted to kill him. Connor assassinated his father.[10] A year later, Connor found Lee presiding over Haytham's funeral. Lee escaped, but by eavesdropping on an accomplice on the HMS Jersey, learned he had left for Boston.[11] A year later, after killing Lee, Connor watched the British depart on Evacuation Day, and met with Washington to discuss the country's future.[12]

Modern times

By 1989, Egyptian immigrant Layla Hassan and her family had settled in Queens where she grew up and later became a US citizen.[13] In 1994, rather than playing with toys, Layla dismantled them to learn about their inner workings.[14]

In 2003, after having fled from the Farm and the Assassin Brotherhood, Desmond Miles ended up living in New York City, working as a bartender at a successful nightclub named Bad Weather.[15][16] Joining the Assassin, he would later revisit New York in 2012, specifically a Manhattan office, to recover a power source for the Grand Temple, though he came across opposition in the form of Daniel Cross.[17]

Behind the scenes

It was intended for Connor be present in New York during the Great Fire of 1776, but it was too difficult to program civilians to react to the burning part of the city, so the event was left out of Assassin's Creed III.[18] The linearity of sequence 8 means the player avoids seeing the burned areas of the map until the game moves forward to 1777.

New York's sewers in Assassin's Creed III are anachronistic. In reality, an open canal known as Canal Street was used for transporting sewage during the 18th century. Canal Street was covered in the early 19th century (1812[19] or 1819[20]) and the sewer system was expanded after that.

New York is depicted quite differently between Assassin's Creed III and Rogue. Entire buildings are different structurally or are made of different materials or are missing completely, stone walls are replaced with wooden palisades, different pavements are being used in the same place and a particular church is missing due to Rogue having its unique version of the city rather than reusing the ACIII version.[21]

Surprisingly enough, in modern-day New York, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building or any of the iconic skyscrapers are nowhere to be seen.

Appearances

References

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