Tomás de Torquemada

"You dare to lecture me? I am the hammer of heretics, the light of España, the honor of my order. I follow none but God's command."

―Torquemada to Ezio Auditore da Firenze, 1492.

Tomás de Torquemada
Biographical information
Born	14 October 1420 Valladolid, Crown of Castile
Died	16 September 1498 (aged 77) Ávila, Crown of Castile
Species	Human
Political information
Affiliations	Dominican Order Spanish Inquisition Templars Spanish Rite

Tomás de Torquemada (1420 – 1498) was a Spanish Dominican friar who, though his connections as confessor to Queen Isabella I of Castile, became Spain's first Inquisitor General. Secretly a Templar, he led the Spanish Rite as its Master Templar.

Under the influence of then-Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, a Papal candidate and the Grand Master of the Italian Templars, Torquemada opposed the Spanish Brotherhood of Assassins, persecuting them as part of the Reconquista. He also searched for two Pieces of Eden: an Apple of Eden and the Shattered Staff of Eden, seeking to use them to eliminate the Inquisition's enemies and bring Spain under Templar control.

While the Assassins, in particular Aguilar de Nerha, thwarted his attempts to acquire the Apple, Torquemada successfully got his hands on the Staff's individual pieces after they were delivered to him by his allies. He subsequently traveled to the Forge, an Isu vault under the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás, to restore the Staff's powers, but was killed by Aguilar and his fellow Assassins before he could put the artifact to meaningful use.

Biography

Early life

In 1483, Torquemada was appointed the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. In this position, he was able to convince King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile to give him command of the Spanish army in 1489, whereupon he and his loyal enforcer, Ojeda, began a search for the pieces of the Shattered Staff of Eden, with which they intended to eliminate the Spanish Assassins and unite Spain under the Templar banner.

Hunting the Assassins

"Most who are brought here feel they have God's protection, no matter what their faith... and yet they always tremble with fright. But you... You dismiss the idea of God altogether, and yet you show no fear. Remarkable... Rodrigo Borgia was right to have me arrest you and your cohorts... your lack of faith is a disease. Let the heretic bleed."

―Torquemada ordering the execution of an Assassin, 1491.

In 1491, Torquemada served Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, whom he greatly admired, so much that Rodrigo provided him with a list of names of people to be executed. Believing them to be heretics, Torquemada had his men capture and prepare them for execution; the Grand Inquisitor was apparently oblivious to the fact that Rodrigo was using him as a tool to kill the Spanish Assassins. However, the Assassins Ezio Auditore and Raphael Sánchez attempted to prevent the executions and killed Gaspar Martínez, who was to oversee the first of these executions on an Assassin in Barcelona.

Sometime later, Torquemada visited Pedro Llorente, the Inquisition's calficador, in Zaragoza; there, the two men oversaw the execution of another Assassin. However, Ezio overheard their conversation and discovered that the names had been provided by Rodrigo Borgia, causing him to decide on assassinating Pedro Llorente as soon as Torquemada had left.

Despite Ezio's later assumption to the contrary, Torquemada was in fact a member of the Templar Order, being a Master Templar. With Ojeda's help, Torquemada continued to use the Inquisition to root out those who opposed the Templar agenda, manipulating the Christian faith for his own gain. To accomplish his mission, Torquemada favored the auto-da-fé, public executions during which "heretics" were burned at the stake. At some point, the Templars captured the Assassin parents of Aguilar de Nerha and executed them, prompting the Spaniard to join the Brotherhood.

Chasing the Apple

"(For decades, you have lived in a land torn apart by religious discord. But soon, thanks to God and the Inquisition, we will purge this disease! The sinners before you, sought to defend the heretic Prince of Granada, the last heathen stronghold in our holy war. And so today before our King and Queen. I swear that we shall wash ourselves clean, in the holy fire of God! Behold God's will!)"

―Torquemada's victory declaration, 1492.

In 1492, after Torquemada discovered that an Apple of Eden was entrusted to the besieged Sultan of Granada, Muhammad XII, the Templar decided to kidnap Muhammad's son, Prince Ahmed. Torquemada's plan was to force the Muslim monarch to surrender to the Christian kingdoms and to give the Apple to the Templars in exchange for his son. Later, as Ojeda and General Ramirez captured the Prince in the village where the young boy was hidden by the Brotherhood, the Templars were ambushed by a team of Spanish Assassins led by their Mentor, Benedicto. However, the Assassins failed and were all killed except for the Mentor and two other Assassins, Aguilar and María.

Torquemada at the auto-da-fé

The Assassins who had been thrown into a jail in Seville were dragged out of their cell to be publicly executed as heretics by the Inquisition. Presiding over the auto-da-fé, Torquemada made a speech about heresy, presenting the Assassins as enemies of peace and defenders of discord before sentencing them to death in front of a cheerful crowd.

While Benedicto was burned at the stake by the Templars, the two other Assassins freed themselves and, after killing several Templars and blowing up the stage with oil, fled under the eyes of an enraged Torquemada. Eventually, the Assassins escaped the arbalists that Torquemada had stationed on the rooftops as well as Ojeda and his men by performing a Leap of Faith from the Seville Cathedral.

Later, in Granada, Torquemada and his Templar army occupied the Alhambra Palace and confronted Sultan Muhammad. With his Assassin protectors dead and his son in the hands of the Templars, the defeated Sultan led them to the room where the artifact was hidden and relinquished the Piece of Eden to the Grand Inquisitor, who in turn released the young prince. As Torquemada held up the Apple in victory, Aguilar and María commenced their attack and locked the door of the room, trapping the bulk of the Templar's forces outside.

Torquemada holding the Apple of Eden

Using smoke bombs, the Assassins swiftly killed the soldiers present in the room, save for the Master Templar and his imposing henchman. As Aguilar seized the Apple and was about to kill Torquemada, the Assassin discovered that Ojeda had his lover's throat under his blade. To prevent Aguilar from giving the Apple of Eden to the Templars to save her life, María killed herself with Ojeda's blade. Enraged, Aguilar pushed Torquemada aside and engaged in a vicious brawl with Ojeda, eventually killing him.

Having witnessed his champion vanquished by the Assassin, Torquemada took advantage of Aguilar's distraction to open the locked door to the rest of his men. After fleeing through an underground tunnel, Aguilar escaped his Templar pursuers only to be surrounded by Torquemada and his men on a bridge over a deep ravine. The Templar, believing himself to have won, pressed his foe to surrender and to give him the Apple but Aguilar instead jumped into the ravine, disappearing into the river while Torquemada cursed the Assassin with an angry roar.

Assassination attempt by Ezio

Ezio: "Rodrigo Borgia is an unbeliever like me, and yet you lavish him with favors."

Torquemada: "A fantastic tale, and a spurious one. Borgia is one of three Papal candidates this year. And he is as devoted to God as I am."

Ezio: "There's no better hiding place than in the shadow of virtue. You are as blind to his evil as you are to yours."

—Ezio confronting Torquemada, 1492.

In the aftermath of the fall of Granada to the Spanish, Torquemada acted swiftly in dispatching Inquisitor Juan de Marillo to round up all heretics in the city. This operation failed when Ezio Auditore rescued many of these condemned citizens before proceeding to assassinate Juan in the city's sewers without anyone noticing.

Soon after Christoffa Corombo set sail on his first voyage, the Inquisitors, under the manipulation of the Templars, sent soldiers to kill the Assassins Luis de Santángel and Raphael Sánchez in retaliation for foiling their plans to stall the expedition.

Ezio confronting Torquemada

For this outrage, Santángel ordered Ezio to eliminate Torquemada once and for all, retracting a previous command against it. Despite this, Sanchez advised Ezio to make sure to figure out the extent of Torquemada's association with the Templars before going for the kill, and whether or not he was a Templar himself. Accordingly, when Ezio infiltrated Torquemada's heavily-guarded estate and at last reached the Grand Inquisitor, he confronted him directly, hoping to goad him into divulging his allegiances.

Torquemada boasted of his glory in the eyes of God, and jeered at the prospect that Rodrigo Borgia, whom he admired, was actually an atheist. Through this, Ezio incorrectly concluded that like Pedro Llorente before him, Torquemada lacked any knowledge of a Templar conspiracy and was merely a religious fanatic possessed by self-delusion. In spite of this, the Assassin remained keen on neutralizing him and charged in for a swift kill, but Torquemada had been well-prepared. He immediately lowered a portcullis between them to obstruct Ezio's approach and managed to escape unscathed.

Obtaining the Staff of Eden and death

"Ugh, why do you continue to resist? Had I the Apple as well, you would be mewling at my feet! Bow to me! I am Order! I am the future of the WORLD!"

―Torquemada being confronted by the Assassins, 1498.

In the years that followed his assassination attempt, Torquemada disappeared from the public eye. Through his allies Gustavo Ramírez and the Assassin turncoat Diego de Alvarado, he successfully gathered all three pieces of the Shattered Staff of Eden. Although he made no overt use of the Staff, his Inquisition increased its presence within Spain. By 1498, Torquemada had fortified himself within the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás in Ávila.

Torquemada's death

After weeks of cowering in the monastery, on 16 September 1498, the Spanish Assassins commenced an assault with the aid of their mercenary allies. Torquemada conjured an illusion of a soldier to hold the Assassins back while he fled further into the monastery. Below the monastery was an ancient Isu forge that Torquemada had discovered beforehand and he summoned more phantom soldiers to protect him while he made his way deeper into the site, intending to restore the Staff's full power. However, he was cornered by the Assassins, who overcame the illusions and killed the Grand Inquisitor.

Legacy

"Torquemada was the driving force behind the Inquisition, but he is not the only fanatic clergyman in Spain. I'm afraid Isabella will soon appoint a new Grand Inquisitor to take his place. A new puppet of the Templars."

―The Assassins discussing Torquemada's death, 1498.

Torquemada's demise did not bring an end to the Spanish Inquisition as the Assassins had hoped. Instead, the Grand Inquisitor was quickly replaced by Diego Deza and the Inquisition would continue for another three centuries.

Crawford Starrick, the Grand Master of the British Templars during the mid-19th century, owned a portrait of Torquemada, which he displayed in his office.

In 2012, the Assassin Clay Kaczmarek collected details on Torquemada's assassination while Abstergo Industries held him captive at their Animus Project laboratory in Rome. He then hid the information within the Animus 1.28 in Glyph puzzles for his successor, Desmond Miles, to find. Sometime in early September, Desmond solved the puzzle set titled "Guardians", in which Torquemada was included in a list of assassinated historic individuals.

Behind the scenes

Tomás de Torquemada is a historical figure first introduced in the 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II via the Glyph puzzles. He later appeared in the 2009 Nintendo DS game Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, where he was voiced by Doug Boyd, and in the 2016 film Assassin's Creed, where he was portrayed by Javier Gutiérrez.

Gallery

A portrait of Torquemada

Torquemada in Assassin's Creed II: Discovery

Torquemada in Auto de Fe en la plaza Mayor de Madrid

Torquemada inside the Forge

Torquemada's portrait inside Starrick's office

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (appears in Gylphs only)
• Assassin's Creed II: Discovery (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (painting only)
• Assassin's Creed film
• Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
  • Horacio's Retribution (mentioned only)