Wukong

Wukong, or Wooky for short, was a baby monkey that was adopted by Xialun Qing and the Zhang Wei Union.

Biography[]

In 1725, while the Fenghuang was docked at a village to resupply, Wukong snuck aboard the ship and hid within a crate. While John Young inspected the ship, the baby monkey startled him, lunging at him and crawling over his face and body.^[1] Drawn by John's screams, his fellow Zhang Wei Union members rushed to see what had happened, only to laugh at John's predicament once they saw him struggle to rid himself of the monkey.^[2]

Eventually, Xialun Qing was able to calm down the agitated monkey and cradled him until he fell asleep. Deducing he must have lost his parents, John then suggested that they adopt the monkey and Qing readily agreed,^[2] later naming her new companion Wukong, or "Wooky" for short.^[3]

From that point on, Wukong rarely left Qing's side and could always be seen aboard the Fenghuang, playing or eating some food.^[4] When Qing went missing on Monkey Island, Wukong accompanied John, Edward Kenway, and the other crew members who went to search for her,^[5] and his tracking skills proved useful in locating Qing, as the monkey remembered her scent and was able to lead the crew in her direction.^[6]

During the Zhang Wei Union's time in a village near the Sultanate of Sulu, Wukong quickly made friends with some of the local children, entertaining them, as well as Qing, by playing with some apples.^[7] Later, when the Union members were imprisoned in Sulu, Wukong was placed in the same cell as Qing and Edward. After escaping, Wukong provided a distraction by knocking down several lamps, allowing Edward to eliminate the guards in their path and free the other Union members.^[3]

When Qing ventured into a partially demolished warehouse to retrieve the crescent amulet, Wukong accompanied her and retrieved a set of keys from one of the dead guards' bodies. This allowed Qing to open the chamber where the amulet was stored and take the artifact.^[8] However, not long after, Qing sacrificed herself to save John from the Chinese Assassin Xiao Han.^[9] Wukong opted to remain by his owner's body and did not join the Union members in escaping Sulu.^[10]

Behind the scenes[]

The exact species of monkey Wukong belongs to is not identified in Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple, although he is most likely a Philippine long-tailed macaque, which is the most common monkey species found in the west-central Philippines.

Wukong was likely named after Sun Wukong (孫悟空), also known as the Monkey King, a legendary figure in Chinese mythology who first appeared in Wu Cheng'en's 16th-century novel Journey to the West.^[11]