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"My father wanted this life, Anna, not I. He came to this country with a dream and made the Narodnaya Volya his cause. I do not know if I have the strength to serve the Order of Assassins as he did."
―Nikolai Orelov to his wife, 1888.[src]-[m]

Nikolai Andreievich "Kolya" Orelov (Russian: Николай Андреевич Орелов; died 1928) was a Czech-Russian member of the Russian Brotherhood of Assassins during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was notably involved in events such as the Borki train disaster and the Tunguska explosion, and spearheaded the hunt for the Imperial Sceptre of the Russian royal family.

Nikolai was responsible for several notorious events during his career as an Assassin. In 1888, when tasked with assassinating Tsar Alexander III, the fight that ensued between the two men accidentally caused the Borki train disaster. Twenty years later, during a mission to retrieve the Imperial Sceptre from a facility in Tunguska, Nikolai's failure to acquire the artifact in time caused the object to explode, as Nikola Tesla broadcast a burst of electricity to it, resulting in a massive explosion that was later known as the Tunguska event.

In 1918, Nikolai was tasked with retrieving a Precursor box from the Romanov family. However, his mission was complicated by the intervention of the Templars, who sought the same prize and executed most of the royal family to obtain it. Nikolai became the protector of both the box and the sole surviving Romanov, young princess Anastasia, as the two traveled together to Nikolai's Assassin brothers in Moscow while avoiding the Templars and the Bolsheviks. Upon discovering that the Brotherhood planned to perform dangerous experiments on Anastasia, who had become a living Precursor artifact, a disillusioned Nikolai abandoned the Assassins and helped Anastasia to flee the country before he and his family did the same, emigrating to the United States.

During the final years of his life, Nikolai lived in seclusion with his son after having lost the rest of his family during the Palmer Raids, as part of the Brotherhood's efforts to force Nikolai to return to Russia. When the Assassins eventually tracked them down, Nikolai trained his son to fight and survive on his own, and later sacrificed himself to protect him from Brotherhood agents sent to capture them.

With his wife Anna, Nikolai was the father of Nadya and Innokenti Orelov. He was also the great-grandfather of Daniel Cross, an individual who would go on to cause the near fall of the Assassin Order generations later.

Biography

Early life

"I see [Alek] in my dreams, Anna. He calls to me, pleading for me to help him. To save him from the gallows. And I cannot."
―Nikolai telling his wife about his nightmares, 1888.[src]-[m]

Nikolai Orelov was born in the latter half of the 19th century. His father, Andrei, was a Czech citizen who immigrated to Russia and became a devoted member of the Narodnaya Volya, a left-wing terrorist offspring of the Russian Assassin Brotherhood. He decided to raise Nikolai as an Assassin as well, and so he had him start his training at a young age. In the Assassin Order, Nikolai befriended Aleksandr Ulyanov and his younger brother, who would later go by the name Vladimir Lenin.[1]

On 20 May 1887, Nikolai witnessed the execution of Aleksandr after the latter was captured during a failed assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. As the rope was put around Aleksandr's neck, he pointed his finger towards Nikolai, indicating that he found Nikolai guilty for not rescuing him. This traumatic event caused Nikolai to have nightmares for the following year.[1]

Borki train disaster

"Russia will soon be strong and free from imperial rule, an example to the world. But I fear that I will fail our master again."
―Nikolai reflecting on his mission to Crimea, 1888.[src]-[m]
ACTF Orelov Imperial train ride

Nikolai riding for the Imperial train

On 28 October 1888, Nikolai woke in bed after having another nightmare about Aleksandr's death. He confided in his wife, Anna, that he felt deeply responsible for his friend's death, to which she told him that Alek knew the risks when he joined the Brotherhood. Nikolai then mentioned to her that the Mentor had tasked him with assassinating Tsar Alexander III, an ally of the Templar Order, in order to loosen the Templars' grip on the country. Anna wished him safety in his mission, for she needed him to help raise their child, with whom she was pregnant.[1]

Nikolai rode on horseback to Crimea the next morning, chasing the Imperial train. After infiltrating it, he killed several patrolling guards and extorted information from another. Making his way to the royal carriage, Nikolai burst through a door with his gun raised, but was shocked to find the entire royal family aboard, having been told that the Tsar was traveling alone.[1]

Just then, Alexander III surprised Nikolai from behind and attacked him for threatening his family. As the two engaged in a scuffle, Nikolai managed to stab Alexander in the right kidney, though the Tsar was not seriously injured. Meanwhile, in the middle of the fight between the two men, the train careered off the tracks and crashed.[1]

AlexanderNikolai

Alexander discovering Nikolai on the train

Whilst Nikolai was recovering from the crash, Alexander began to beat the Assassin down while taunting him about killing his loved ones. Following this, the Tsar pulled out the Imperial Sceptre from a box amongst the remains of the dining cart and challenged Nikolai to kill him with it, throwing the Staff over to his opponent.[1]

Despite wielding the Staff and relying upon his Assassin training, Nikolai was defeated by the physically superior Alexander, but was spared death when the Tsar's children came into view. Shamed, Nikolai fled to report his failure to the Order.[1]

At some point within the next twenty years, Nikolai and Anna's child was somehow "lost", before or after it was born, causing Nikolai to become bitter and filled with anger, which caught the attention of his Brothers.[2]

Tunguska event

First Assassin: "Are Brother Orelov's methods always so... savage?"
Second Assassin: "He was a gentler man when I met him, years ago. Before they lost the child."
—Nikolai's Assassin cohorts discussing his methods, 1908.[src]-[m]
Orelov & Dolinsky v

Nikolai torturing Dolinsky

By 1908, the Assassins had become aware of the Imperial Sceptre's true nature as a Staff of Eden, and captured a Templar named Dolinsky to interrogate him for the Staff's whereabouts. With Dolinsky tied up in a basement, Nikolai tortured him to obtain the information while two other Assassins watched and commented on his harsh methods, which they attributed to the loss of his child.[2]

After Nikolai revealed his knowledge of Dolinsky's infidelity and threatened to inform his family, the Templar conceded and revealed that the Staff was housed in a Templar research facility in Siberia. Nikolai then ordered the two Assassins present to slit Dolinsky's throat and left.[2]

On 30 June, the Mentor requested that Nikolai and his fellow Assassins retrieve the Staff of Eden, which was being tested with electrical machines based upon designs stolen from their ally, Nikola Tesla. While approaching the research facility in Tunguska, which had a Tesla coil built above it, Nikolai explained to the others that Tesla stood ready with his teleforce weapon in America, ready to destroy the facility, and noted that they had to make haste to retrieve the Staff.[2]

Nikolai lying-The Fall2

Nikolai after the explosion at Tunguska

At once, Nikolai and his comrades stormed the facility, killing all of the Templar guards and scientists within, though by the time Nikola reached the top, the Staff had been activated by the electrical current. He then heard voices coming from the artifact, saying things such as "Always the fighter", "Adam, I have it", "Just like your father", and "Eve". At that moment, the vengeful Tesla activated his weapon with the words "Rot in hell, Thomas", and the facility was destroyed while the Staff and the Assassins were still within it.[2]

Nikolai proved to be the sole survivor, laying with his clothes in tatters on the explosion's edge, mumbling that the Staff had been destroyed.[2] Soon after, he returned home to Anna, "bleached and broken", who welcomed him with a look of horror and grief.[3] A few years after this event, Nikolai and Anna had another child, a daughter named Nadya.[3]

Search for the shard

"I no longer consider myself a crusader for change, but I must find the splinter of the artifact. First, however, I need to learn more about it."
―Nikolai's thoughts on the Staff shard, 1917.[src]-[m]

In 1917, Vladimir Lenin led a revolution against the Tsarist royal house. On 7 November, Lenin personally sent a letter to Nikolai, asking him to dispose of Tsar Nicholas II and eliminate the last symbol of Imperialism. Nikolai infiltrated Nicholas' residence, asking him for the location of the Staff, which he had spotted on a picture of the Tsar. Nicholas, threatened, brought Nikolai to the Staff, though the Assassin was quickly able to conclude that it was a fake; he said that the real Staff had a light shining from within, and that when one looked into it, they could see "the turn of the world and a glimpse of what lies beyond".[3]

Orelov Rev v

Nikolai reaching for the fake Staff

With this, Nikolai broke the fake Staff, proving it was indeed a replica. When Nicholas asked him to spare his family, just like he had spared his father's, the Assassin replied that he had no intention to kill the Tsar or his family, saying that he didn't "care any longer" and that he only wanted to make sure that the Staff was indeed destroyed. However, he did warn Nicholas that the next Assassin to come after him wouldn't be as objective.[3]

Nikolai proceeded to leave the building via a window, but not before hearing Nicholas confirm to him that Grigori Rasputin had worn a splinter around his neck, which was of the same material as the Staff, according to Nikolai's in-depth description.[3]

On 15 November, while traveling to Krasnoyarsk, the aged Assassin scaled the walls of the city's asylum and broke into the cell holding Khioniya Guseva, one of Rasputin's former disciples, who had attempted to assassinate him. Nikolai offered to free Guseva in exchange for the information he sought, forcibly taking her by the hand and leading her from the building.[4]

PL-OMINOUS PROPHECY

Nikolai killing Khioniya Guseva

After bribing a priest, the two took refuge in the city's Svyato-Troitsky Cathedral. Guseva then revealed the details of her attempt on Rasputin's life; how, despite her stabbing and mutilating him where he stood, Rasputin survived the attempt, thanks to his shard from the Staff. She also informed Nikolai that her facial wounds had been self-inflicted, with her own hands being controlled by Rasputin and the shard. At her request, Nikolai then ended Guseva's life with his Hidden Blade and set her down gently.[4]

Following this, on 22 November, Nikolai and two other men went to search for Rasputin's grave, and upon finding it, the three dug up the body. Examining the corpse, Nikolai searched for the splinter that Nicholas II had mentioned, retrieving it before returning to Anna and Nadya, who were waiting for him in a carriage.[3]

One last mission

"This will be my last mission. I have to think of Anna and Nadya... One last time. One last mission."
―Nikolai planning to leave Russia, 1918.[src]-[m]

By July 1918, a disillusioned Nikolai decided to retire from the Assassins and leave the country with his family. Needing false documents to escape the turmoil in Russia and unable to get them through the Brotherhood without revealing his departure, Nikolai decided to accept one last mission for the Assassins, hoping to find some money to buy new identities for his family. Traveling to Saint Petersburg, Nikolai met another Assassin who tasked him with stealing Ezio Auditore's Precursor box, which according to informants was in possession of the Tsar's family, who were kept prisoners by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg.[5]

ACCR RF (7)

Nikolai trying to calm down Anastasia while their Pieces of Eden interact

Once there, Nikolai discovered that the artifact was also coveted by the Templars, who had infiltrated the ranks of the Red Army and were planning the death of the Romanovs.[5] While in the city, Nikolai also found safes containing jewels left untouched by the looters and took possession of them in order to finance his departure. Infiltrating the house where the Romanovs were kept, Nikolai witnessed the murder of the Imperial family but reached Princess Anastasia, who was holding the box, in time to secure the artifact.[6]

However, as Nikolai was taking the Precursor box from Anastasia's hands, the Staff shard around his neck and the box interacted, and the girl was somehow imprinted with the memories of the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun.[6] Suffering from a kind of Bleeding Effect, Anastasia became overwhelmed by Shao Jun's skills and memories and the older man decided to take her under his protection and bring her to the Brotherhood in Moscow in the hope that the Assassins could heal her.[7]

Handing Anastasia a knife for protection, Nikolai left to secure the perimeter around the house so that they could make their escape. In the process, he eliminated a Bolshevik soldier operating a machine gun to protect Anastasia, and provided cover fire for the girl, taking out more Bolsheviks to allow her to flee the estate. When a guard suddenly approached them from behind, Nikolai pushed Anastasia down to protect her, causing her to be momentarily possessed by Shao Jun and strangle the guard before Nikolai helped her return to her senses.[7]

On the run

Anastasia: "Your friends are... Narodnaya Volya. They hate my family. Why are you helping me?"
Nikolai: "I... have a daughter... And we are not in the business of murdering children."
—Nikolai reassuring Anastasia about his intentions, 1918.[src]-[m]
ACCR TToR (6)

Nikolai and Anastasia during the train ride to Kazan

Later, Nikolai and Anastasia boarded a train bound for Kazan, and during the journey, Anastasia told the Assassin about the visions of Shao Jun's life she was experiencing. Nikolai warned Anastasia not to lose herself in Shao Jun's memories and explained that, once in Kazan, they would secure passage to Moscow with the aid of his contacts in the Narodnaya Volya. When Anastasia expressed doubt about Nikolai's intentions due to his friends' allegiances, the Assassin reassured her, explaining that he had a daughter and that the Brotherhood's cause did not involve murdering children.[8]

At that moment, a noise startled the pair as Templar soldiers boarded the train in search of the Precursor box. Nikolai left to deal with them, telling Anastasia to remain hidden. After Nikolai dispatched the soldiers, an armoured train pulled up and started attacking the train the Assassin and Anastasia were on as more soldiers boarded it. Commandeering a machine gun, Nikolai opened fire on the Templar train and managed to destroy it, but he and Anastasia were soon forced to leap off their own train after the wagons caught fire.[8]

Once in Kazan, Nikolai told Anastasia to wait for him with the Precursor box while he went to find his friend, Leon Trotsky, and request his help to get to Moscow. As the city was in the midst of a civil war between the Red and White Armies, the former of whom sought to reclaim control of Kazan, Nikolai was forced to stay hidden while he looked for Trotsky. Along the way, he also removed several wanted posters of himself, in which the Templars accused him of being a member of the White Army, to reduce the risk of being recognized by the Bolsheviks.[9]

ACCR AFH (11)

Nikolai captured by the Templars

Evading the numerous soldiers in Kazan, Nikolai eventually found Trotsky in an isolated house. Unfortunately for the Assassin, Trotsky thought that Anastasia was too dangerous as a symbol to be left alive and wanted her dead to further the Revolution. Having deduced that Nikolai would come to him, Trotsky betrayed his friend to the Templars, who captured him.[9] The Assassin was subsequently taken away to be interrogated for Anastasia and the box's whereabouts, but refused to tell the Templars a thing.[10]

Eventually, Nikolai was rescued by Anastasia, who had made use of Shao Jun's skills to find and reach him.[10] As the two decided to escape Kazan, they split up, with Anastasia sticking to the streets and buildings while Nikolai took to the rooftops to cover her with his rifle. Once the pair reached a bridge where they were surrounded by Bolshevik soldiers, Anastasia pushed an explosive barrel towards the bridge, allowing Nikolai to shoot it and blow up the bridge, losing their pursuers.[11]

Nikolai and Anastasia subsequently boarded a boat and sailed on the Volga to reach Moscow. During the voyage, Anastasia reflected on her losses and Nikolai reassured her of her ability to get through her current predicament, telling her that she was strong just like Shao Jun. However, Anastasia resolved that she, as Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, could not continue to exist.[11]

Breaking with the Brotherhood

"This is not the Creed I swore to uphold. Hold on, Anastasia. Find the strength I know you have. I'm coming!"
―Nikolai deciding to leave the Brotherhood and save Anastasia, 1918.[src]-[m]
In Safe Hands

Nikolai and Anastasia greeted by Sergei in Moscow

Arriving in Moscow in September 1918, Nikolai and Anastasia were greeted by the Assassin scientist Sergei who, after receiving the Precursor box, assured Nikolai that he would bring Ansastasia to the Mentor to find a cure for her condition. Despite Nikolai wanting to go with the girl, Sergei sent him to the Assassins' local bureau to make a report on the latest events.[12]

While waiting at the bureau, Nikolai overheard other Assassins talking about Anastasia's condition and the fact that she was now like a living Precursor artifact; the Mentor and Sergei wanted to extract Shao Jun's memories from Anastasia through a process that would probably kill her or leave her barely human. Caring for the girl he had protected during the last two months, and enraged by his Brothers' lies about their dishonorable projects for Anastasia, Nikolai decided to fight against the Brotherhood to save her.[12]

Extracting the location of the facility where Anastasia was kept from an Assassin he threatened, Nikolai rushed toward the Kremlin, trying to knock out the Assassins chasing him instead of killing them when it was impossible to avoid them. Nikolai ran through the city by traveling on the roof of the tramways and then through the sewage system, before eventually running into Ilia, an old Assassin friend. After questioning Nikolai's intentions, a disapproving Ilia nonetheless agreed to help him rescue Anastasia by giving him the access codes to the laboratories where the girl was kept.[12]

Dark Secrets

Nikolai hiding from his former Brothers while searching for Anastasia

Once in the underground laboratories, Nikolai freed Anastasia from her captors. Although Anastasia was momentarily overcome by Shao Jun's personality due to the experiments performed on her, Nikolai helped her return to her senses and apologized for his involvement in her current predicament. The two then worked together to escape the facility, with Nikolai at one point saving Anastasia when she became trapped in an airtight room with gas filtering in.[13]

Outside, Nikolai and Anastasia were attacked by a tank the Assassins had sent after them. Telling Anastasia to flee and wait for him at the Bolshoi Theatre, Nikolai proceeded to lure the tank to a construction site, where he destroyed it by shooting at its weakest points with his rifle. He then went to meet Anastasia at the Bolshoi, where he gave her the false documents originally destined for his wife. Now known as "Anna Anderson", Anastasia thanked Nikolai for everything and bid him farewell, revealing that she was heading for Germany and that she was confident in her ability to keep Shao Jun's personality under control.[14]

Move to the United States

"Whatever debt I owed my father and Alek has been paid. Tonight we start anew."
―Nikolai about starting a new life with Anna, 1918.[src]-[m]

After betraying his Brothers to save Anastasia, Nikolai finally carried out his plan to definitely leave both his country and the Assassin Order. Along with their daughter, Nadya, Nikolai and Anna crossed Russia's borders and boarded a ship that was bound for the United States,[3] aided by using the power of the Staff shard. Sometime later, Anna gave birth to their second child, a son by the name of Innokenti.[15]

ACTC-Nikolai and Innokenti abandoned

Nikolai and Innokenti after losing Anna and Nadya

During the Palmer Raids of 1919, Nikolai and his family were at a bar with other Russian immigrants in Hartford, Connecticut,[16] when agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation stormed the building. Nikolai, Anna, Nadya and Innokenti attempted to make their escape, but Nikolai and Innokenti were separated from their family while trying to fend off their attackers. Anna and Nadya were captured and later deported back to Russia, while Nikolai attempted to chase after them.[15]

For the following two years, Nikolai attempted to find clues to their whereabouts, breaking into compounds where immigrants were held for deportation, though he only managed to uncover that they had been transferred to Finland, a country at war with Russia. After hearing a rumor that some prisoners were shot by Finnish soldiers after having crossed the Russian border, and not hearing anything that indicated Anna or Nadya's survival, Nikolai became convinced that they had perished.[15]

For the next years, Nikolai lived in seclusion with his son in a cabin in the woods near Manchester, Connecticut.[16] They scraped together a life, cutting wood from trees and hunting the wildlife in the forest. In 1926, Nikolai was tracked down by his former Assassin brother Sergei, who had been sent to retrieve Nikolai by the Russian Mentor, as the Assassins claimed ownership of the Staff shard and the knowledge of Nikolai's vision at Tunguska. After Sergei threatened Innokenti's life, Nikolai attacked and strangled him to death. Nikolai then discovered an FBI badge in Sergei's pocket and realized that more Assassins would come after him.[15]

Final showdown

"These are not honourable men, Kenya. They are killers. They live by old laws which apply only to them and then call themselves heroes. If they capture me... If they capture us... we will be used and then thrown away. Better we should die here as free men."
―Nikolai to his son, about the Assassins, 1928.[src]

Over the course of the next two years, Nikolai began training Innokenti in combat and stealth, in the hope that they might be well prepared for the inevitable. Nikolai's training consisted of himself being Innokenti's practice target, and his harshness often resulted in Innokenti being forced to sleep outside with a meager meal upon his failures. One day, when Innokenti was able to overpower his father and held his knife at Nikolai's throat, Nikolai knew his son was ready and strong, and together they began to prepare for the oncoming Assassin attack.[15]

ACTC-Nikolaishot

Nikolai's death

Part of these plans involved the pair abandoning their cabin, since they had rigged it with explosives. As a result, when the team of Assassins arrived, one of them attempted to open a window, which caused the cabin to explode and leave only five Assassins alive. Next, when the Assassins tracked down Nikolai and Innokenti's makeshift camp in the woods, Nikolai was able to rapidly kill three of the Assassins, though he was shot in his right leg by a fourth one. As one of the Assassins held Nikolai at gunpoint, Innokenti snuck up on him from behind and stabbed him in the neck, saving his father's life. From there, the two proceeded to make their escape, coming to a halt at a cliff.[15]

Nikolai told his son to throw a rope to the other side and use his rifle to slide down, in a makeshift zipline. As Nikolai prepared to follow his son, he was shot in his left foot by the remaining Assassin, and with both his legs wounded, Nikolai was left at the Assassin's mercy. Holding Nikolai up by his shoulders, the Assassin yelled out to Innokenti and revealed that his sister was still alive, though Nikolai denied the Assassin's claims and told Innokenti to "be strong". To this, Innokenti understood his father's intention and shot him, killing both Nikolai and the Assassin.[15]

Legacy

"I just got off the phone with Bill Miles. According to what's left of his records, a small team was sent to Tunguska in 1908 to find the Staff. Only one of them walked away alive. The survivor eventually disappeared, somehow slipped away from the Order. His trail just vanished."
Paul Bellamy to Daniel Cross, on Nikolai, 1998.[src]-[m]

Due to his betrayal of the Brotherhood, all Assassin records of Nikolai were either destroyed or lost at some point in the 20th century, with the last known mention of Nikolai being in an account of his 1908 mission to Tunguska.[2]

Through Innokenti, Nikolai became the great-grandfather of Daniel Cross, who in 1983 was abducted by the Templar front company Abstergo Industries and forced to relive Nikolai's genetic memories as Subject 4 of the Animus Project. Daniel was subsequently released onto the streets and was eventually found and recruited by the Assassins in 1998,[1] rising through their ranks until he was granted a meeting with their Mentor in November 2000. However, due to an impulse secretly implanted in his brain, Daniel killed the Mentor, allowing the Templars to initiate their Great Purge, which saw the near-extermination of the modern-day Assassin Brotherhood.[3]

AC3 Daniel Cross Bleeding Effect

Daniel experiencing a hallucination of Nikolai

Daniel subsequently joined the Templar Order, eventually becoming a member of the Inner Sanctum, but continued to struggle with hallucinations of both Nikolai and Innokenti's memories, suffering from an extreme case of the Bleeding Effect.[15] One of these hallucinations eventually proved fatal on 14 December 2012, when it interrupted Daniel's attempt to kill the Assassin Desmond Miles, allowing Desmond to gain the upper hand and assassinate Daniel.[17]

In 2012, Nikolai's memories were researched by Abstergo as part of their Project Legacy through the Data Dump Scanner, in order to uncover more information about the destroyed Staff of Eden.[4] Three years later, Nikolai's memories were again relived by a research analyst at Abstergo Entertainment through the Helix Navigator, due to the Assassin's connection with one of the Precursor boxes.[18]

Personality and traits

"I began as a crusader for change and now I am no better than a common grave-robber."
―Nikolai to his wife, after recovering the Staff shard from Rasputin's grave, 1917.[src]-[m]

At an early age, Nikolai was trained as an Assassin, though this was his father's choice and not his own, which led him to sometimes show disdain at his life in the Assassin Order. Nikolai also felt intense guilt for his friend Aleksandr Ulyanov's death, which haunted him for over a year.[1] Though despairing in his life as an Assassin, Nikolai's personality went through a massive change after the death of his first child.[2]

NikolaiOrelov

Nikolai with his family, on the ship to America

Following this loss, Nikolai became bitter and unflinching, unable to lament on his role for decades. He also became noticeably more heavy-handed in his actions, showing little compassion or lenience towards Dolinsky, and even made threats against the man's innocent family in order to coerce information from him. During this interrogation, two of Nikolai's Assassin brothers remarked how the death of Nikolai's child had driven him to become as "savage" as he was, and that before, he had been a gentler man.[2]

After the events at Tunguska, Nikolai was never the same man again. His fellow Assassins became concerned for his mental stability, especially when he eventually went rogue.[12]

That being said, even as an increasingly ruthless and brutal Assassin, Nikolai's character was not entirely callous. During the Russian Revolution, Nikolai expressed strong vocal disgust and moral outrage that the Bolsheviks would stoop to murdering the Tsar's family even though they were just children. He also realized that the Brotherhood he had long served was growing brutal and corrupt, as if they were becoming more like the Templars. Their plans to experiment on Princess Anastasia proved so outrageous, he fought many of his former comrades without a second thought in order to rescue the girl.[12][13]

Skills and equipment

"How weak you are, little man! [...] You should be ashamed to call yourself Russian!"
―Tsar Alexander III to Nikolai during their fight, 1888.[src]-[m]
Fall-Orelovrifle

Nikolai aiming his rifle

In regards to his outfit and armaments, Nikolai wore a large fur coat with the traditional Assassins' hood, along with a sash and a baldric with the Assassin insignia on it. He also wielded one Hidden Blade, a dagger, a sabre and a Berdan rifle.[1]

Through his years of Assassin training, Nikolai gained many skills. He became an excellent freerunner, able to move on any structure with ease. He also learned sword-fighting techniques that allowed him to take on multiple soldiers at once, as well as unarmed combat. In addition, he was a proficient marksman and a master in pickpocketing, lockpicking and stealth. Nikolai also possessed Eagle Vision, an extra-sensory ability which allowed him to read people's intentions and see things that were invisible to most.[19]

Having survived the Tunguska explosion, Nikolai was more durable than the average person and even most Assassins, withstanding an energy yield capable of reducing an entire city to ashes, and still managing to walk home and later recuperate from it.[2] Even in his old age, he was still able to dispatch numerous opponents before falling to injuries.[15]

Behind the scenes

Nikolai Orelov is a character first introduced in the 2010 comic Assassin's Creed: The Fall. He would not make his video game debut until the release of Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia in 2016, in which he is a playable character alongside Anastasia Romanova.

As with most protagonists, Nikolai's name has avian connections, with Orelov being a Slavic surname meaning "son of eagle". The given name Nikolai is the Slavic variant of the Greek Nikolaos, formed of the words nike(victory) and laos (people). In Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia, Nikolai's name is incorrectly spelled as "Nikolaï".

Nikolai's portrait was available as a patron image in the second stage of the Animi Training Program, after a system update.

A playable skin of Nikolai was included in the DLC Skin Pack 5, available for the Xbox 360 version of the video game Minecraft.

For unknown reasons, Nikolai was excluded as a card from the Magic: The Gathering set Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed, despite all other playable Assassin's Creed protagonists, including Shao Jun and Arbaaz Mir, receiving cards.[20]

Appearances

References

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