Russian Brotherhood of Assassins

The Russian Brotherhood of Assassins was the Guild of Assassins located in and around current Russia, formed some time after the early 16th century.

By the late 19th century, the Russian Assassins had prioritized the abolition of the Tsarist autocracy in Russia, even more so when some of the Russian Tsars had allied themselves with the Templars, and would utilize the Narodnaya Volya in this regard.

It was the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov who lived through both the Borki train disaster and the Tunguska explosion, two disastrous events in Russia's history, and the Assassins later stood alongside the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. By the 21st century however, an accident with an Animus had resulted in the near-total destruction of the Russian chapter, with only one survivor.

History

Renaissance

Spying on the Kremlin

During the 15th century, the Italian Assassins sent several recruits, including Pietro Antonio Solari and Ridolfo Fioravant, to Moscow, where they were employed by Tsar Ivan III Vasilevich as architects to work on the Kremlin. Unbeknownst to Ivan, they secretly kept an eye on his activities and ambitions, reporting back to the Assassins in Italy.^[1]

However, in 1493, Ivan found out that Solari and Fioravant – the latter who had adopted the nickname "Aristotle" – were spies, and had Solari killed. Aristotele, realizing Ivan was close to uncovering who they worked for, turned himself into the culprit for the murder. Additionally, he began creating rumors about a revival of the Strigolniki Sect.^[1]

In the early 1500s, Ezio Auditore da Firenze sent a group of Assassin apprentices to Moscow to find out what happened to Solari. The Assassins infiltrated the Kremlin, knocking a group of guards unconscious and eventually finding documents pointing out that Aristotele murdered Solari. After a search for Aristotele's location, offering small amounts of coins for rumors, they were directed to a church where Aristotele was rumored to hide. Having threatened the priests to lure Aristotele out, he came out to protect his people and explained his actions to the apprentices. The apprentices carried out the plans Aristotele had made to fool Ivan into believing the Assassins were working for the Strigolniki Sect, until they found two of Ivan's top investigators. Killing the two men, they carved the symbol of the Strigolniki Sect into the bodies and left them hanging from church beams, with Aristotele leaving a note declaring himself the leader of the sect. The apprentices then returned to Rome with Aristotele to question him, and new Assassin spies were sent to Moscow.^[1]

Assassination of Ivan Ivanovich

In the late 16th century, the Assassins discovered that Tsarevitch Ivan Ivanovich, the son and heir apparent of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was an affiliate of the Templar Order. As a result, they assassinated him on 19 November 1581.^[2]

The Narodnaya Volya

In the late 19th century, the Russian Assassins became known to the public as the Narodnaya Volya, a left-wing organization quickly associated with terrorism. The group was founded with the sole purpose of opposing and removing the Russian aristocracy, following Tsar Alexander II's new-formed alliance with the Templars. The Narodnaya Volya made several attempts on the Tsar's life, until they were finally successful on 13 March 1881 when the Tsar was killed during a bombing.^[3]

Tsar Alexander II's son and successor, Alexander III, continued upholding the Templar ties his father had formed. Due to this, the Narodnaya Volya continued their struggle against the House of Romanov, again making several attempts on the Tsar's life. In 1887, Alexander's secret police found out about an Assassin assassination plot against him and had the conspirators arrested. All conspirators were hanged two months later, among which was Aleksandr Ulyanov, brother of Vladimir Lenin.^[3]

The next year, the Mentor sent Nikolai Orelov on a lone mission to infiltrate the Tsar's imperial train riding from Crimea to Saint Petersburg and kill him. Orelov, fighting his way through the train despite being told not to use violence whenever possible, arrived at the Tsar's dining cart only to find Alexander's family present. Alexander himself attacked the lone Assassin from behind, and a fight ensued inside the carriage, eventually causing the train to derail; the event that would be known as the Borki train disaster. After rescuing his family, the Tsar pulled out his Imperial Sceptre – secretly a Staff of Eden – and dared the Assassin to fight him with it. Alexander easily retook the Staff and overpowered Orelov, but spared the Assassin's life when he noticed his family was bearing witness to the scene.^[3]

Tunguska explosion

In 1908, Nikolai Orelov and two other Assassins found and interrogated a Templar named Dolinsky, who - under heavy threats from Orelov - gave up the location of where the Staff of Eden was located; Tunguska,^[4] previously taken there by the Templar agent Grigori Rasputin. The Assassins contacted Nikola Tesla, a scientist who was previously heavily discredited and slandered by industrialist Templars in the United States, and offered him a chance to take revenge on the Templars by broadcasting electricity to the Tunguska facility to destroy it,^[2] while Orelov and his two companions were ordered to retrieve the artifact from the facility.^[4]

The Assassins went into the research facility and killed the Templar guards inside, but were too late to complete their objective. As soon as Orelov reached out to grab the Staff, Tesla broadcasted electricity to the facility, causing the Tunguska explosion. Orelov was the only survivor.^[4]

Russian Revolution

In 1917, the Bolsheviks instigated the Russian Revolution against Tsar Nicholas II. The Russian Assassins strongly supported the Bolsheviks, hoping to abdicate the Tsarist throne. Under pressure from the Assassins, Nicholas formally abdicated the throne in 1917.^[5]

Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks whose brother – Aleksandr Ulyanov – was an Assassin himself, requested his old friend Nikolai Orelov to assassinate Nicholas II, to bring the Revolution to an end. Orelov left for the Winter Palace, having seen a picture of Nicholas holding a staff similar to the one destroyed in the Tunguska explosion. Orelov infiltrated Nicholas' Winter Palace and confronted the Tsar, who showed Orelov the staff under pressure. Deducing the staff to be a replica with no power, Orelov spared the Tsar's life, but warned Nicholas that other Assassins wouldn't be as merciful.^[6]

Nonetheless, the other Assassins continued to support the Bolsheviks. Ultimately, the Assassins would lose control over the Revolution.^[5]

Decline and revival

In 1953, the Assassins succeeded in poisoning Templar puppet Joseph Stalin.

By the end of the 20th century, the Russian Brotherhood began to decline as the Templars in Russia became more powerful and almost eradicated the Assassins' Science Cities, except for Protvino near Moscow.^[7]

An Assassin scientist tried to reverse this by building an Animus from the schematics given to her by an American Assassin fleeing from Abstergo Industries' agents. In her laboratory, while she had test subjects for her experiments, her project failed extremely when they were gradually driven insane. Unwilling to create more victims, she chose to be the sole subject of her own Animus, but was unaware of her sanity slowly being frayed away by the Bleeding Effect.^[7]

By December 2012, a sudden power surge caused her to experience a vision with "Eve", which she took as a sign to redouble her efforts. From this urge, she forced the remaining Russian Assassins – including her two daughters – into the Animus. However, just as before, all but one became insane thanks to the Bleeding Effect, with her daughter Galina Voronina being somehow spared from the negative side effects, who then used the technique to learn fighting skills from her ancestors.^[7]

By 16 March 2014, Galina made contact with the Assassin team composed of Gavin Banks, Emmanuel Barraza and Emmett Leary, and requested help to assassinate her mother in the former science city, which was crawling with the deranged remnants of the old Russian Brotherhood. After securing the help of Gavin and his team, she managed to single-handedly kill all of the Russian Assassins, including her sister.

Some time later, the group found Galina's mother in the Animus, babbling about her lost husband and of the color grey. To put her mother out of her misery, Galina plunged her Hidden Blade into the woman's brain, killing her instantly. Following this, as Galina remained the last of the Russian Assassins with no-one to rely on, she elected to join Gavin and his crew aboard their ship while Gavin sent word to his contacts in Georgia to form a new Russian Brotherhood.^[7]