Assassins

We work in the dark, to serve the light. We are Assassins." ―Niccolò Machiavelli.



The Assassin Order, also known at various times as the Assassin Brotherhood, Liberalis Circulum (Circle of Liberals) during the time of the Roman Empire, or Hashshashin during the Middle Ages, was an organized order of assassins and sworn enemies of the Templars, against whom they fought a continuous, recondite war throughout the entirety of recorded human history.

Whereas the Templars sought the power to save humanity from itself by controlling free will, the Assassin Order fought to ensure the survival of free will, as it allowed for the progression of new ideas and the growth of individuality.

The Assassins, if not the Order itself, had existed since at least 456 BCE, throughout the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and into the modern times.

Ideals and goals
"The strings should be severed. All should be free." ―Ratonhnhaké:ton

The Assassin Order pursued many goals throughout its incredibly long existence, but its main and highest objective was in the pursuit of total freedom of all people.

This objective had led the Assassins to oppose tyrants and oppressors alike, as well as engage in rabble-rousing efforts, in the aim of motivating the people towards change. It has also led the Assassins to become sworn enemies of the Templar Order, who prized purpose and order above the acquisition of freedom.

Although freedom is their highest goal and ideal, the Assassins have also had other goals at various points of their existence. Examples included peace, justice, knowledge, and sometimes individual Assassins would operate on self-appointed objectives such as vengeance. At times such as in the modern era, the Assassins have even dedicated their entire pursuit to thwarting the Templars' goals and attempting to reverse the upper-hand which the Templars have achieved.

While Haytham Kenway once claimed that the Templar Order was born of a "realization" of the truth of society, the Assassin Order was often born of a "reaction". The entire Order's cause was often to counter-act the efforts of oppressors, and to reverse the trappings of society that certain individuals have forced upon the people. When dictators emerge, the Assassins sought to take them down, and thereby sought to protect the freedom which they saw as the inherent right of every individual.

In the same way, some Assassins also joined the Order's cause as a 'reaction'. While ones such as Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad were raised in the Brotherhood and were naturally loyal to its cause, those like Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Stephane Chapheau initially joined the cause as a way to seek revenge against the Templars that had wronged them.

Throughout its history, countless Assassins were recruited as the oppressed victims under different corrupt regimes such as the Borgia, and initially had only a great grudge against the opponents of the Assassins, rather than harboring a deep understanding of the Order's rationale and causes.

As the Order's name obviously indicates, the Assassins mainly assassinated key targets they perceived to be corrupt or a danger to humanity. The removal of opposing individuals by way of murder is their chief method, although the Order in particular encouraged an attitude of respect for the dead, and would ask for Assassins to give their targets their last rites whenever possible.

However, the Assassins also engaged in a wide range of covert operations, such as espionage, theft of certain items or supplies, covert redirection of funds, provision of secret support to certain select groups, or acts of sabotage. Understandably, while most of these actions were covert or stealthy in nature, sometimes, where the Order has a sufficient presence, it may also opt for open confrontation or control of territories.

The Assassin Order in Constantinople during the 16th century, for example, maintained a gang-esque presence in the city, and would even wage open, large-scale city warfare with the opposing Templars.

The Creed
"Laa shay'a waqi'un mutlaq bale kouloun moumkin. ("Nothing is true, everything is permitted" in Arabic.)" ―The Assassins' Creed

The Order believed in a strong set of values that strictly governed their way of life. This Creed consisted of three tenets: 1."Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent." 2."Hide in plain sight, be one with the crowd." 3."Never compromise the Brotherhood."

These tenets permeated every aspect of the Assassins' daily life, as well as their fight for "peace in all things". The Assassins carried out their duties through political, strategic assassination, in the hope that killing one individual would lead to the salvation of thousands. They also believed that they fought on the behalf of those who did not possess the abilities, resources, or knowledge to speak out against those who abused their power.

Despite their service to those who would otherwise suffer, the Assassins were still feared by the general populace, due mainly to their method of ensuring peace; mostly due to their terrifying reputation for taking life in public before many witnesses—so as to bring fear into the hearts of those who might abuse their power or corrupt the innocent—before vanishing into the crowd without a trace.

To aid in this, the Assassins used a particularly efficient weapon for assassinations: the Hidden Blade, a single thrust from which could end the life of its victim. However, before the Order's reform in the High Middle Ages, the Assassins were forbidden from using poison as it was considered "a coward's tool".

However, in order to ascertain which death might best assist the Assassins' goals, extensive political knowledge was required for target selection. Thus, the Assassins endeavored to remain in tune with the ever-changing politics surrounding them. Obtaining information on this was the job of low-level members of the Order, who would be stationed throughout the cities of the world.

These spies would watch the local nobles and rulers, looking for signs of corruption, or for membership in the Templars. Once gathered, any information was passed on to the Assassins responsible for the actual assassination.

The Assassin paradox
"What follows are the three great ironies of the Assassin Order: (1) Here we seek to promote peace, but murder is our means. (2) Here we seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to a master and set of rules. (3) Here we seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet we are practitioners ourselves." ―Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex.

Despite the Order's outwardly benevolent intentions, it was no less susceptible to faults, misguided beliefs or corruption than any other organization. Many Assassins acknowledged the irony of their work. When Desmond Miles was rescued by the Assassins, he assumed they were the "good guys", but Shaun Hastings advised him to "not get carried away", reminding him their function was to kill people. Rebecca Crane acknowledged that "it's not ideal. And taking a life is never easy. But sometimes there's no other way. Sometimes, Desmond, people have to die for things to change."

Connor tried to avoid killing William Johnson, and when he had to, he told his Mentor Achilles that "I thought it might bring clarity. Or instill a sense of accomplishment. But all I feel is regret." Achilles comforted him, explaining to "hold fast to that. Such sacrifices must never come lightly."

Both Desmond and Lucy Stillman fell out with their leader William Miles: his cold demeanor and the harsh training he put them through since childhood led Desmond to regard his father as a "[prison] warden" rather than a father. Lucy defected to the Templars after being sent to infiltrate them, telling Clay Kaczmarek that William was "using" them and claimed "he doesn't think about the lives he's hurting. We aren't people to him."

When the Assassins in the FBI began holding Nikolai Orelov's family hostage to make him give up his secrets, he asserted to his son Innokenti "These are not honorable men, Kenya. They are killers. They live by old laws which apply only to them and then call themselves heroes." However, Orelov was also brutal towards his son when training him to fight the Assassins.

Viewing these events via his genetic memory, Orelov's great-grandson Daniel Cross deemed the Assassins "a family of wolves, opportunistic, savage. They'll turn on each other at a moment's notice: they're anarchists. And anarchy can never lead to a unified world."

Connor expressed disdain for the Assassins' secrecy, an opinion shared centuries earlier by some Assassins under Altaïr's leadership, who disagreed with him returning the Order to the shadows. Altaïr wrote "They grow angry, insisting it is a mistake to shroud ourselves. They say it slows our work. But they do not understand the risks. To expose ourselves now would be too dangerous. I fear we would be branded madmen and attacked."

The Assassins also cooperated with dubious figures such as members of the House of Medici or Vladimir Lenin, or would spare the likes of Tomás de Torquemada, simply because they were not Templars.[9] Vali cel Tradat left the Assassins before the Templars because they did not try to stop the Ottoman Empire's conquest of his native Wallachia.

Nikolai Orelov opined before leaving the Order that the Assassins' neutral attitude to those who were not Templars that "I began as a crusader for change and now I am no better than a common grave-robber."

The Order frequently sacrificed other ideals of society to freedom without regard for the implications of their actions: the Assassins often took to agitation, and in doing so, often caused great disruption to the pre-existing order of society, not to mention the ruin of property and lives. In 1511, Ezio Auditore da Firenze caused a riot that reduced the entire market district outside of the gates to Constantinople's arsenal to ruins, simply to infiltrate the arsenal and eavesdrop on information.

Later still, Ezio knowingly and deliberately caused a massive explosion in the underground city of Cappadocia, indirectly killing or injuring a large portion of the population, simply to draw his target out into the open.[1] Connor single-handedly assured the inevitability of his people's diminishment and the American Revolutionary War by eliminating Johnson and John Pitcairn, the ideal of freedom pursued without regard to cost, reason or practicality much to Connor's eventual regret.

Practices
There were two ways of entering into the Order: being born into it, like Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and Desmond Miles, or through being recruited, like Assassin apprentices and Shaun Hastings. After declaring oneself an Assassin under the Creed, a trainee would be tested to prove his or her worth over an unspecified period of time.

For example, Ezio had to hunt down the Templar conspirators over a multitude of years before he was officially inducted, whereas Assassin apprentices had to gain enough experience in their contract missions across the world before they were ready to join the Assassins Guild as true Assassins.

Training
The Assassins spent their entire lifetime training to kill. From an early age, they were taught to observe their surroundings and plan ahead. Combat skills were essential, and training was continuous, with a focus on bladed weapons of all sorts. However, despite such a concentration on combat, the most important consideration in the Assassins' training was concealment. Stealth was the greatest weapon of the Assassin, and everything about their life emphasized a devotion to it.

It was essential for an Assassin to be able to reach their target unnoticed, and then slip back into the crowd after they had struck. As such, they always wore clothing that allowed them to blend into the crowd. Even their weapons were identical to what was available locally, aside from the Hidden Blade.

However, not all Assassins within the Order were trained from birth; this was the case of many Assassins that were recruited later in life, as teenagers or young adults. For example, by the time of Renaissance Italy, after the Order had gone underground and out of public view to follow the lead of the Templars, traditional lifelong training could not be done as it had in the past.

Once brought into the Order, trainees like Ezio and later, his own apprentices, had to learn the ways of their craft through personal experience and the teachings from other Assassins in the field. At the time of the murder of his father Giovanni and two brothers Federico and Petruccio, Ezio had only been skilled in freerunning, fistfighting, and some basic swordsmanship.

Throughout his life, he learned several Assassin skills from other Assassins and allies like Paola, his uncle Mario Auditore and the thief Rosa, as well as several fundamental assassination techniques through reading the Codex of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.

Later, the apprentices within the Italian and Ottoman Assassins Guilds at the Tiber Island and Galata headquarters would be trained in the Assassin ways by Ezio himself, as well as learning through their own experiences during assassination contracts they were sent to fulfill across Europe and Asia.

The Kanien'kehá:ka Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton had already been well trained in freerunning and combat by the time he was a teenager during the time he spent with his tribe, before seeking out the elderly Master Assassin Achilles Davenport. Ratonhnhaké:ton – who had adopted the name "Connor" – then spent the rest of his adolescence into adulthood being personally trained by Achilles, not only in combat, stealth, and mobility, but also in fundamental Assassin history, ideals, and principles.

The colonial Assassin recruits Connor brought into the Order also had varying amounts of previous combat experience before meeting Connor; Jacob Zenger, for example, was a Hessian before coming to Colonial America and Clipper Wilkinson was a trained hunter and marksman. Like their Roman and Ottoman counterparts, the recruits received most of their subsequent Assassin training in the field with Connor himself, and via contracts they were dispatched on by Connor throughout the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War.

Unlike certain other factions, the Assassins did not have a specific style of fighting, especially after they went underground. Aside from their signature Hidden Blade, each branch simply used whatever weapons and fighting styles that were locally available. For example, the Turkish Assassins favored curved daggers, while the Chinese Assassins were trained in kung fu.

Another significant focus of an Assassins' training was maneuverability. By the time an Assassin reached the rank of Master Assassin, he was also a master of an early form of parkour, or freerunning, extensively utilized by the Assassins. Widely seen as alien by the general populace, this method of movement allowed the Assassins to reach areas not normally accessible.

From scaling a wall, to climbing atop one of a city's many view points, freerunning gave the Assassins a significant advantage over nearly all of their enemies and city guards, and could be used to quickly get anywhere in the city at any time.

Equipment
Throughout the ages, the Brotherhood had many weapons and pieces of equipment at its disposal, from simple poisons to automatic guns.

During ancient times, the Assassins did not have any standard attire or equipment, yet ancient Assassins were known for using spears, poisons, bows, and other armaments. However, by the time of the High Middle Ages, they had assumed white as their general color and robes with beaked hoods as their common clothing. They also began to use their trademark Hidden Blades, first conceptualized by Darius.

Other weapons used by the Assassins included swords, short blades and throwing knives. During the course of his life, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad pioneered several inventions, such as the Poison Blade and the Hidden Gun, with the assistance of an Apple of Eden.

From the Renaissance onward, the Assassins' equipment did not change significantly, but some weapons were still added to their arsenal. The use of armor over robes had become popular, although the white robes with beaked hoods persisted. Master Assassin Ezio Auditore and other Italian Assassins used a Hidden Gun, a crossbow, poison darts, smoke bombs, and a secondary Hidden Blade, amongst more conventional weapons like swords and knives.

Francesco Vecellio received a Hidden Bolt as an alternative to the Hidden Gun. In the Ottoman Empire, the Assassins began to use the Hookblade, a modification of the common Hidden Blade.

By the time of American Revolution, due to his Native American ancestry, the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton mainly wielded a tomahawk and a hunting bow from the beginning of his journey. Over time though, he and his recruits also used various swords, pistols, daggers, and muskets, amongst other weapons – as did both Continental Patriots and British Regulars – strongly suggesting that these consisted of the local weapons in America. The Hidden Blade appeared to have become less common, as none of Connor's recruits appear to receive one.

In modern times, Assassins followed the rest of society into the new era. As technology progressed, guns had become commonplace, and computers had become prevalent, with several Assassins, like Rebecca Crane and Hannah Mueller, specializing in their use.

Although the Mentor in 2000 claimed that the Hidden Blade was mostly ceremonial, it still appeared to be in use by several Assassins. When Daniel Cross attacked several Assassins attempting to prevent him from leaving an Assassin camp, Paul Bellamy restrained him, pointing a Hidden Blade at his throat.

Accompanying this, the Mentor himself owned one, which he gifted to Cross right before the latter plunged it into the Mentor's neck, killing him.

During a raid by Templar forces on an Assassin camp in Philadelphia during the Great Purge, one Assassin attacked several Templar operatives with what appeared to be a Hidden Blade on his right arm, although he did not use it.

While Desmond Miles was being held by Abstergo Industries within their Roman facility, a small group of Assassins attempted to rescue him, armed with automatic weapons.

Later, after Desmond escaped the lab and relived the life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Warren Vidic and other Templars attacked the warehouse hideout he had been taken to. During this raid, Desmond killed several operatives with a Hidden Blade given to him by Lucy Stillman.

Burial
Historically, Assassins always showed great respect for the dead. Their own were buried in crypts or large tombs when time permitted. Those given a proper burial were wrapped in a cloth shroud, their red sash spread across the body. The greatest Assassins were venerated in large tombs and contained within sarcophagi, their likeness emblazoned on the lid and their symbol venerated in the flags of the tomb.

For all their assassination targets, unless circumstances prevented them from doing so, Assassins would give them their last rites after they had passed away. Early in his career as an Assassin, Ezio Auditore was reprimanded by his uncle Mario for disrespecting the corpse of his target and longtime rival Vieri de' Pazzi, instilling in him a respect for death, even that of Templars.

Formation
The bloodline of the original Assassins was formed millennia ago, after various members of the First Civilization conceived children with members of the human race. These children had the visual appearance of humans, but were gifted with several extra senses from the precursor race, such as what the former dubbed "Eagle Vision". However, throughout the years, these senses became 'watered down' into the genetic pool, and many humans eventually lost their abilities. Only those with high concentrations of First Civilization genetics could use the power in the future, or those who gained the ability through the Bleeding Effect.

Regardless of the level of ability, many of the resulting humans eventually banded together to accomplish the same goals shared with their modern-day descendants; the protection of the free will for all people, and the removal of individuals who would threaten the freedom of others.

Roman Era
During the Roman Republican era, the Assassin Order was a secret enemy of the SPQR – the Senatus Populusque Romanus – who composed the ruling body of the Roman Republic, which was in fact a precursor to the Templar organization.

Little is known of the Order's hierarchy and activities during this time, except for a few major assassinations. In 44 BCE, forty Assassins, who had previously taken part in the Roman senate, plotted the assassination of the dictator of the Roman Empire, Gaius Julius Caesar.

Marcus Junius Brutus was tasked with planning the plot by Gaius Cassius Longinus, after Brutus was shown visions by the First Civilization in the Colosseum Vault. Twenty-three of the forty Assassins stabbed Caesar to death at the Roman senate. Following this event, the Assassins went their separate ways, but most were eventually tracked down and killed by Caesar's allies.

Brutus himself committed suicide before the Battle of Philippi, which his forces eventually lost. Afterward, his Brothers unsuccessfully tried to revive him with the Shroud of Eden.

Roman Empire
In the early years of the Roman Empire, Cleopatra, Caesar's former lover and Queen of Egypt, was killed by the Egyptian Assassin Amunet with a venomous snake, in 30 BCE. Later still, on 24 January 41 CE, the third Emperor of the Roman Empire, Caligula, was stabbed to death by the Assassin Leonius, under unknown circumstances.

In 259 CE, the Assassins Accipiter and Aquilus safeguarded an Ankh for the Assassin Order, which was operating under the alias Liberalis Circulum. Aquilus' father, Lucius, initially held the Ankh, but when the artifact was stolen by the Templar and Roman senator Caïus Fulvus Vultur, and Lucius killed, Aquilus fought to retrieve it. He found and eliminated a Templar traitor, Faustinus, who pointed to Vultur as the ringleader.

Though he was able to retrieve the Ankh from Vultur and kill him, Aquilus died as the captive of the soldiers of the prefect of Lugdunum. Accipiter, Aquilus' cousin, had once saved him from death on the battlefield by Gracchus' betrayal – but on hearing of Aquilus' capture, he rushed to the rescue too late. Managing to save Aquilus' wife, Valeria, she told him of the work that they were doing. Together, the two of them recovered the Ankh from the bodies of the soldiers, and Valeria interred it in a shrine to Aquilus' memory.

High Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, the Templars had become a public knightly order under the name "Knights Templar". In the year 1090, control of the Assassins fell to Hassan-i Sabbāh, who in turn also changed the Assassin Order into a public organization. Under his command, public assassinations occurred much more often and the people were encouraged to stand up to their oppressors, realizing that they were not on their own.

During the 1170s, the Assassins were at odds with the Saracens. In 1174, thirteen Assassins were sent to the Sultan Saladin's camp close to Damascus and were successful in infiltrating his tent, but were detected; one was killed by a Saracen general and the others were killed upon trying to escape.

In 1176, Saladin led a siege on the Assassins' fortress of Masyaf. After the location of Saladin's tent was revealed by the Assassin spy Ahmad Sofian, Umar Ibn-La'Ahad was sent to infiltrate the tent and leave a feather and a dagger with a threatening message attached to it. Umar evaded the chalk and cinders that were strewed around the tent and successfully left the objects, but was detected by the Sultan himself. Umar had to kill a noble to make his escape, and the Assassins managed to make a truce with the Saracens; though Umar's life had to be taken in the process.

In 1189, the Assassins were betrayed by a man named Haras, who captured Al Mualim and three other Assassins, and allowed the Crusaders into Masyaf's village. While other Assassins had lost hope, Altaïr regrouped them and fought back. Subsequently, he climbed into the fortress and killed Haras, who wanted to know where Al Mualim had hidden the Apple of Eden; following this, Altaïr was promoted to the rank of Master Assassin. The next year, the Assassins began to hunt for the Chalice, an object rumored to be so powerful that it could end the Crusades. Al Mualim wanted to keep it out of Templar hands, so he sent Altaïr, his most trusted Assassin, to recover it.

Altaïr killed several Templars, while attempting to find the Temple of Sand, where the Chalice was located. He finally found the Temple but realized that the Templar leader, Basilisk, had taken it away. Basilisk revealed to him that the Chalice was a woman, not an object, and then left Altaïr to die. However, Altaïr escaped and hunted Basilisk, uncovering the Templar plan to poison the water supply of Acre.

After foiling this plot, Altaïr went to Jerusalem to find the Chalice, which he successfully did and recognized her to be Adha, a former acquaintance of his. On Adha's instruction, Altaïr killed Harash, a traitor to the Assassin Brotherhood. From there, Altaïr planned to run away with Adha and leave his life as an Assassin behind, though Basilisk captured her. Subsequently, Altaïr killed Basilisk, but failed to find Adha; many years later Altaïr found her dead, and hunted her murderers.

By 1191, the Assassins were still in a secret battle with the Templars and their leader, Robert de Sable. It was during the Third Crusade that the Assassins learned of a Templar interest in an ancient artifact, hidden within the catacombs of Solomon's Temple. It was decided to liberate the treasure from them, and the mission was a success, although a costly one.

With the death of one Assassin, the severe injury of another, and the arrival of the Templar army at the gates of Masyaf, the Assassins were nearly overwhelmed by the following battle. However, by crushing most of the Templar army under a concealed onslaught of rolling logs, they were able to drive the Templars from the fortress and village below.

Following the assault, the Assassin blamed for the loss of life that day – Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad – was severely reprimanded, being reduced to a novice and tasked with removing nine influential individuals who plagued the Holy Land with their corrupt rule. As Altaïr made his way down the list made up of both Crusader and Saracen individuals, he was greatly unsettled by the realization that their goal to bring peace to the people of the Holy Land was just, as he felt that his victims were "misguided perhaps, but pure in motive."

This was a view shared by Al Mualim, who agreed with their goals, but felt that their attitude of "the end justifies the means" undermined the good they sought to ensure. As his mission progressed, Altaïr sought to know what bound his victims together, and the discovery that they were all Templars only served to reinforce the Assassin's determination to bring an end to the Templar plot.

By Fall of 1191, the Assassins were victorious over their Templar enemies. Robert de Sable, Grand Master of the Templar Order, was dead, however the treachery of one of their own had also hit the Assassin Order hard. Al Mualim, secretly a former member of a coalition of ten Templar leaders, was revealed to be a traitor, and was killed by the very man he had sent to eliminate his fellow Templar conspirators. With Al Mualim dead, Altaïr took over as Mentor of the Levantine Order, leading the Assassins in their attempts to rebuild their strength after the costly conflict.

With full control over the Assassins, Altaïr immediately set out on a one-man quest to liberate the island of Cyprus from the Templars, who had recently bought it from King Richard I. After successfully having done so, assassinating the Templar Grand Master Armand Bouchart and discovering the Templar Archive in the process, Altaïr continued to write the Codex.

It detailed the secrets he had managed to uncover from the Apple of Eden, which he had began writing during his journey to Cyprus. In the end, those secrets had a profound effect on the Order, as new assassination techniques and world secrets had been uncovered. In 1209, Altaïr began to send his Assassins to various cities spread throughout the world, after he was made aware of their existence by the Apple of Eden.

Eventually, it was decided that the Piece of Eden was too great a threat to keep in Masyaf, and the decision was made to store it on the island of Cyprus, in the Limassol archives. However, Altaïr had started this rumor to keep away curious eyes. In actuality, he held on to the Apple until the end of his life, taking it with him to his library, though he did hand over the Codex and the keys to his library to the Italians Niccolò and Maffeo Polo.

In the year 1217, Altaïr set out with his wife Maria and son Darim to kill Genghis Khan, leaving Malik Al-Sayf as the Order's temporary leader. The Khan had made a rapid westward advance with his army and Altaïr suspected that he possessed a Piece of Eden. On their journey, the family met up with the Mongolian Assassin Qulan Gal, and the three Assassins worked together to end the threat. Ultimately, Darim and Qulan succeeded in killing the Khan in 1227.

On his return to Masyaf, Altaïr found that his rival Abbas Sofian had taken over the Order, imprisoning Malik, and killing Altaïr's younger son, Sef. Shortly after Altaïr's arrival, Malik was killed as well. Abbas then attempted to take the Apple from Altaïr, causing Altaïr and Darim to leave Masyaf, while Maria was also killed at the hands of Swami, Abbas' lackey. Enraged at her loss, and in desperation to leave, both Altaïr and his son killed several Assassins along the way.

After the escape, Altaïr became obsessed with the Apple, driving Darim and Sef's family away. The Apple led him to the Memory Seals, and taught him how to make several advanced gadgets.

Around 1247, Altaïr returned to Masyaf and found it in disrepair. He rallied several Assassins who were loyal to him, and turned several of Abbas' henchmen to his side. Finally, they assaulted the fortress, making sure not to harm anyone other than the Assassins who had defied the Creed. Following this, Altaïr finally shot Abbas with the Hidden Gun, marking the first usage of the weapon.

The Mongol threat continued advancing west however, and Altaïr decided for the Assassins to abandon their fortresses and to go underground, continuing their activities in secret. He trained and initiated the travelers Niccolò and Maffeo Polo into the Order in the year 1257, before escorting them out of the city. He then tasked them to set up [guilds around the world as they traveled.

Darim was one of the last Assassins to leave Masyaf; Altaïr stayed in his library with the Apple, and died there with the final Memory Seal in his hand.

Late Middle Ages
"In this modern age, we are not as literal as our ancestors; but our seal is no less permanent..." ―Mario Auditore at Ezio's official induction into the Assassin Order.

During the Late Middle Ages, the Order continued to thrive, despite being forced to adopt an even more secretive and isolated existence. When the Renaissance – a cultural movement – started in Italy, the Assassin Order primarily focused themselves in Italy, where the headquarters of the Templar Order were also located.

In the early 14th century, the Assassins manipulated the French king, Philip le Bel to try and destroy the Templars. They made the Church brand the Templars heretics, turning their own weapon against them, with the intention of finishing off the Templars. They managed to have the Templar Grand Master, Jacques de Molay burned at the stake, however, his nine most trusted men had escaped after he had passed on the knowledge of the ancients, and their Order continued to survive.

By 1321, various members of the Assassin Order had successfully integrated themselves into the everyday life of middle Italy, widely unknown to the average folk. That same year, a young sailor by the name of Domenico, the son of an Assassin, was apprenticed to the poet and Assassin Dante Alighieri, who had been tasked with transporting Altaïr's Codex from Venice to Spain.

Upon Dante's death, however, the undertaking fell instead to Domenico. During the voyage, pirates under the employ of the Templars ambushed the ship looking for the Codex, consequently killing Domenico's wife. Fortunately for the Assassins, Domenico managed to break apart the Codex and hide its pages before he and his son were forced overboard.

Eventually returning to Venice, Domenico found his father and his patron, Marco Polo, an ally of the Assassins, dead. Thus, Domenico emptied the bank accounts of Messer Polo, and traveled to the city of Florence under the adopted name of Auditore. He eventually constructed the Villa Auditore in the city of Monteriggioni, which became the center of the Assassin Order in Italy up to the year 1500.

Despite the order "modernizing" since the 12th century, they still retained many of the rituals and practices, albeit altered. The practice of removing one's ring finger had been ceased, although the seal of the Order was branded upon the finger instead with a heated iron. Although significantly fewer in number, the Assassins were supported by the courtesans, thieves and mercenaries of Florence and Venice; the guilds of which were each run by a member of the Order.

During this time period, the Assassins entered another span of increased hostility with the Templars, who were attempting to overthrow the ruling House of Medici in Florence, and the Doge of Venice. Having already killed the Duke of Milan in 1476, Rodrigo Borgia, the Grand Master of the Templar Order, brought the noble families of Pazzi and Barbarigo together to accomplish his goals.

Entering into conflict with the Assassins, Borgia dealt a crippling blow to the Order in 1476, when he had the experienced Assassin Giovanni Auditore da Firenze and his two sons executed, Federico and Petruccio, although a third son, Ezio, had managed to escape. With the aid of Ezio, the Assassins were able to counter Borgia's plot over a twenty-three year campaign, defeating him at every turn.

In 1487, the Order of Assassins learned that the Templars had retrieved another Apple of Eden from the island of Cyprus, and deemed its capture necessary. Following the artifact from L'Arsenale di Venezia, Ezio managed to overpower and replace the Templar guard carrying the artifact. Under this guise, Ezio met with Borgia himself, and the two engaged in battle.

Borgia fled upon the arrival of other Assassins, and in doing so, the artifact fell into the hands of their Order. The Assassins of this age, however, were unaware of the nature of the artifact, although they did recognize it as one of the Pieces of Eden mentioned within Altaïr's Codex.

By 1500, right after Cesare Borgia besieged the city of Monteriggioni, murdering Mario Auditore and once again claiming the Apple for the Templars, Ezio Auditore had moved to Rome, meeting up with Niccolò Machiavelli and laying the foundations of a new "brotherhood" of Assassins. Utilizing the mercenaries, thieves and courtesans of Bartolomeo d'Alviano, La Volpe and Claudia Auditore da Firenze respectively, Ezio's brotherhood worked to combat the influence and power of the Borgia family, and by extension, the Papacy itself.

Headquartered in an underground storeroom owned by Fabio Orsini, on Tiber Island in the center of Rome, the Assassins began to spread their influence throughout the city, recruiting Rome's own citizens as Assassin apprentices under Ezio, eventually becoming inducted and branded into the Order as Assassins themselves. Under the instruction of Ezio, many Assassin recruits undertook a variety of missions across Europe and Asia in cities such as London, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Moscow and Calicut.

There, the recruits killed and sabotaged Templars, the Templars' allies, and corrupt men in power, as well as defending and aiding their Assassin brothers and sisters, along with any willing to stand against the Borgia and the Church.

Over a period of three years, Ezio's brotherhood whittled away the Borgia family's power, and with the murder of Rodrigo Borgia at the hands of his own son, and the arrest of Cesare by the Papal Guard of Pope Julius II, the Templars' influence over the city of Rome was shattered.

Three years after Siege of Viana in 1507, when Ezio ended the threat of Cesare Borgia for once and all, the Assassin Mentor traveled to the ancient fortress of Masyaf, on a pilgrimage to learn about the origins of the Order. When he arrived, he discovered that the fortress had been overrun by the Templars, who were searching for the five keys, which would unlock a secret library beneath the fortress of Masyaf.

With one seal already in the Templars' possession, Ezio learned that the remaining four were hidden throughout the city of Constantinople. From there, Ezio made his way to the city in the hopes of obtaining the remaining seals.

When he arrived in Constantinople, Ezio was welcomed by the guild there, led by Yusuf Tazim, and learned how to use their unique weapons. With the knowledge made known to him that the Templars had taken over the Byzantine remnants, and in the recent years, had been attempting to overthrow the Ottomans, Ezio began to take a leading role in the conflict.

He retook all the Assassin Dens around the city and trained seven recruits to the rank of Master Assassin, assigning each to one of the dens. The Constantinople guild of Assassins also worked to help liberate and spread their Order's influence in other cities, namely Bursa, Rhodes, Marseille, Damascus, Jerusalem, Madrid, Lisbon, Tunis, Tripoli, Athens, Algiers and Alexandria, where they slowly whittled away Templar control, rebuilt the cities and protected them from attacks by the Templars.

They also rescued captured Assassins in these cities, and helped those who opposed the Templars. During these ventures, the Assassins were responsible for destroying the compound of the Knights Hospitalier.

Together with Yusuf, Ezio protected the Ottoman prince Suleiman I from the Templars, while continuing his search for the keys. Befriending a Venetian lady, Sofia Sartor, she deciphered a map containing the location of the keys. After finding four of the keys to Altaïr's library, Ezio traveled to Cappadocia – after asking Yusuf to protect Sofia at her shop – to hunt down Manuel Palaiologos and find the final key. On doing so, he discovered that Manuel was not the true leader of the Byzantines, but that Suleiman's uncle – Ahmet – was.

On his return to Constantinople, Ezio made his way to Sofia's shop, only to find that Yusuf had been killed and Ahmet had captured Sofia, demanding the keys in exchange. However, after a full scale assault on the city's Arsenal, Ezio chased him over the countryside, culminating with Ahmet's brother, Selim I, killing Ahmet by throwing the man from a cliff.

From there, Ezio and Sofia traveled to Masyaf and unlocked the library of Altaïr, where Ezio attempted to communicate with Desmond. Deciding that his mission was over, Ezio left behind his sword and Hidden Blade, resigning his life as an Assassin.

Once he had returned to Italy, Ezio appointed the Assassin Lodovico Ariosto as the Mentor of the Italian Assassins and then retired from the Order, marrying Sofia Sartor and having two children with her, Flavia and Marcello Auditore, while settling down on a Tuscan vineyard.

As the Templars had been severely weakened in Europe, the Assassins began collecting and studying several Pieces of Eden. In 1510, Francesco Vecellio hunted down Niccolò di Pitigliano, recovering the Shroud of Eden.

By 1519, Giovanni Borgia was secured a position aboard Hernán Cortés' ship, which was sailing to the New World. After the Spanish troops began to ransack Tenochtitlan, Giovanni recovered a Crystal Skull from the Mayan city, assassinating one of their priests to obtain it. On bringing it to Paracelsus for study, the Assassins found that it was not one of the Pieces.

In 1527, Giovanni accidentally read a tome belonging to Paracelsus and succeeded in crafting the Philosopher's Stone. After discovering that the tome was one half of the Book of Abraham, he searched for the other half with Maria Amiel, Paracelsus' assistant, but only found a translation. However, he did develop a relationship with Maria, with the two of them becoming romantically involved and later marrying each other.

In 1542, after studying the Crystal Skull over a long period of time, Giovanni found out that it could be used to communicate over large distances, seeing the face of a Chinese man in his mind.

Around this time, the Chinese Assassins were fighting desperately against the Templars. Several Chinese Emperors came to power through Templar support, who would then orchestrate the mass killings of Assassins. One such emperor was Yongle, who was killed by the Assassin Li Tong in 1424.

When Emperor Jiajing came to power, he nearly destroyed the Brotherhood in China, though a handful of Assassins fled west for support. Shao Jun and her Mentor escaped to Italy, though Jiajing's men killed Jun's Mentor along the way, leaving her to fend for herself. With no alternative, Jun went to Ezio to seek guidance and support.

Though he initially wanted nothing to do with the Assassins anymore, he eventually relented and taught her how to rebuild her Brotherhood. Shao Jun, armed with this knowledge and a box that Ezio told her to open only if she lost her way, traveled back to China with the vow to rebuild the Chinese Brotherhood, no matter how long it took.

Colonial America
As the reach of the Old World spread to the New, the Assassins followed to ensure they were able to protect it from any advances the Templars made. In 1503, the Italian Assassins under Ezio were sent to recover a map of the New World made by Piri Reis. Using this map, they too began to send their forces to America. The first Assassin to ever reach the New World was John de la Tour, who set up a base for the Brotherhood there.

In 1510, the Assassins in Florida recruited Alonso Carlo and his adopted son, Miguel Ramón Carlo de Lugo, to their cause. In 1521, Carlo was tasked with stopping the explorer Juan Ponce de León from reaching the Fountain of Youth, where they knew he would find a Piece of Eden. While Miguel distracted León in conversation, a poisoned arrow killed the explorer, following which Miguel escaped.

In the mid-1730s, Achilles Davenport was recruited to the Colonial branch of the Assassin Order and became its Mentor in 1746. The Templars, headed by Haytham Kenway, nearly decimated this branch of Assassins in 1763, wiping out most of its members and nearly all of its records. The exact nature of the attack still remains unknown, but it left at least one survivor, Achilles, who disbanded the Order and went into retirement.

Years later, Achilles mentored the young Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton, who ultimately destroyed the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order through his actions during the American Revolutionary War. Ratonhnhaké:ton also rebuilt the province's Brotherhood, by recruiting several citizens of New York and Boston.[6]

Modern Times
"In the old days, that usually meant killing anyone who became too powerful or greedy. [...] These days, it means subversion of established regimes. [...] Countries. Corporations. We change the system from within." ―"The Mentor", in 2000, on the Assassin Order.

During the mid-19th century, at the start of the Sikh Empire, the Indian Assassin Arbaaz Mir and ancestor to Monima Das was active in the search for a powerful Piece of Eden known as the Koh-i-Noor. During this period the Indian Assassins were led by the Assassin Hamid in the capital city of the Sikh Empire, Amritsar.

By the late 19th century, the Russian sect of the Assassin Order, the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), played a vital role in overthrowing the Tsarist rule over Russia. The Assassins strongly assisted their close ally, Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks – as Lenin's brother was an Assassin himself.

Due to the efforts of the Assassin Nikolai Orelov, the Templar Tsar Alexander III died of kidney failure and a Staff of Eden was destroyed in the Tunguska explosion. Without power, Tsarevich Nicholas II was removed from the throne and Russia became communistic.

By the 20th century, the tactics and practices of the Assassin Order had changed greatly. Whilst the Order of Assassins had kept to their policy of remote camps and isolation, the Templars had begun to infiltrate society further; taking the form of many publicly known corporations such as NASA, Kraft and BP, which all secretly linked to the shadow-corporation Abstergo Industries.

The Templars Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Adolf Hitler planned a war, World War II, which would place the Templars in control. At the end of the war, Hitler was supposed to kill his double, created by the Piece of Eden in his control, and then escape. However, the Assassins spoiled this victory by assassinating Hitler as he exited the bunker that his body double was placed in.

The Assassins relied less upon killing powerful or greedy individuals, and more on changing the "established regime" from within, using politics as well as the blade to achieve their aims, such as rigging elections to keep Templars out of office.

The American presidential election of 2000 was one such election, with the Templars attempting to place their puppet George W. Bush into power, and the Assassins backing Al Gore.

By the year 2000, the Hidden Blade had become a largely ceremonial weapon. In the meantime however, the Templars continued to search for and investigate the various Pieces of Eden they discovered throughout this period, whilst the Assassins continued their war against them; notably being responsible for the destruction of at least one Templar-controlled base in Siberia in 1908, known in public as the Tunguska explosion.

However, by the year 1985, the Templars, under the guise of their front-company Abstergo Industries, had begun kidnapping Assassins or those related to them in an attempt to locate even more Pieces of Eden.

That same year, a ten to eleven year old child, a descendant of the Assassin Nikolai Orelov, was kidnapped by Abstergo's Lineage Research and Acquisition department and entered into the Animus Project, later being codenamed "Daniel Cross". Years later, in 1998, Daniel joined the Assassin Order as a prospective, but with a mission to find the then-current Mentor.

Two years later, he was granted his wish and inducted into the Order by the Mentor himself; Cross subsequently murdered the Mentor with the very Hidden Blade he had been bequeathed by his victim just moments before, as a result of a neurological impulse instilled in him by Warren Vidic during his time as an Abstergo captive.

Cross' actions directly led to the fall of the Assassin Order, as he compromised virtually all of the Assassin camps around the world that he had visited in search for the Mentor upon his programmed return to Abstergo Industries, which forced the Assassins even further into hiding. Other notable Assassins held captive by Abstergo included Clay Kaczmarek and Desmond Miles – both descendants of Ezio Auditore and Adam.

After the Mentor's death, William Miles began to take a prominent role in the Order's functioning, and became their de facto leader. It was his decision of raising Lucy Stillman outside the Order after the age of seventeen, so that all her ties to the Assassins were cut and she could infiltrate Abstergo.

The Assassins attempted to spy on Abstergo using moles several times, but the people they sent always turned out to be strong and got themselves killed, or too weak and easily manipulated by the Templars.

Sometime around 2008, William also recruited Clay Kaczmarek to the Order. Tasked with infiltrating Abstergo and discovering information about them, Clay returned successfully with a memo detailing the allocation of Abstergo Industries' budget, along with their funding of the Animus Project. With this information known to the Assassins, a plan was devised for him to get caught by their Lineage Research and Acquisition department as Subject 16, and was to be rescued later by Lucy.

However, years of isolation had caused her to turn against the Assassins, and once Clay learned of her defection through hacking into Abstergo's systems and uncovering security footage, she did not help him escape when the time came, leading to his subsequent suicide.

"We lost two more teams last night. That's eight more of us just... gone." ―Lucy Stillman, 2012.

Later on, the Templars tracked down Desmond Miles, William's son, who had left the Order in 2003. Using Desmond, Abstergo managed to obtain a map of the locations of the Pieces of Eden across the globe, and subsequently begun their attempts to claim them. When Desmond began to suffer from the Bleeding Effect, Warren Vidic told Lucy to take him somewhere where he would feel safe, as part of a plan code-named "Project Siren".

Not long after, the Assassins were able to free Desmond with the "aid" of Lucy, as well as obtain their own copy of the map. Following this, Desmond agreed to aid the Assassins in their quest to defeat Abstergo, mostly for revenge, but also for closure.

Utilizing the Animus 2.0, a copy of the machine used by Abstergo to explore his genetic memories previously, Desmond followed the memories of Ezio Auditore, adopting his skills in combat and freerunning, while the rest of the Order concentrated to locating the Pieces of Eden before their Templar counterparts.

Despite this, however, the war with the Templars had taken a turn for the worse. With their numbers dwindling, the Order of Assassins was in danger of losing the war. At least two known teams were reported to have been killed, one in Brisbane, Australia, and another in Whistler, Canada.

As technology progressed, so did the weapons used against the Assassins. By 2012, the Templars were using cell phone towers and satellites to track them down. As a result, Desmond and his group had to take refuge within the Sanctuary, deep beneath the city of Monteriggioni. By this point, the Order was using at least one e-mail network, known as the Hephaestus Email Network, in order to facilitate communications.

In the latter half of 2012, an Assassin team made up of Lucy Stillman, Rebecca Crane, Shaun Hastings and Desmond Miles discovered the Colosseum Vault – after Desmond had relived Ezio's memories in Rome through the Animus – and infiltrated it, securing the Apple of Eden that Ezio had hidden there centuries before. On contact with First Civilization artifact, Desmond's body was taken over by the ancient being Juno, who forced him to stab and kill the Assassin-traitor, Lucy.

This indirectly helped to ensure that the Templars could not get their hands on Ezio's Apple of Eden and kept Desmond safe from Templar influence from within the Assassins. Due to this event, the team and the Apple were brought to William Miles and the Order, in turn securing one of the ancient artifacts for the Order's cause.

Also, around this time, an Assassin team in Moscow were chasing a potential lead on a Piece of Eden. However, as William Miles stated, this was some of the only good news they had got. There were teams in Osaka and São Paulo. In Osaka, the team was being tailed, so they had gone dark. In São Paulo, a leak was confirmed and the team was working on flushing it out.

The team in Denver were even worse off. They had lost contact without informing, and their safe house was empty. This meant that they were dead or captured, or that they had gone dark without notifying the Assassin headquarters.

After killing Lucy, Desmond entered a coma, and was put back into the Animus. He relived a restored memory sequence, which provided the Assassins with co-ordinates, leading to the Grand Temple. While most Assassins continued their fight with Abstergo, William's team – with help from Gavin Banks – reached New York, hoping to find the Temple and stop the end of the world.

Upon finding out that they needed a key, and three "batteries" to open the door in the Grand Temple, Desmond began to work on finding the key, by reliving memories that Juno told him to. While William's team began working on opening the Temple, he had other teams run interference, and tried to thwart Abstergo's attempts to find them, or other Pieces of Eden.

During this endeavor, several Assassins were killed by Abstergo agents, including Adriano Maestranzi. William was captured by Juhani Otso Berg when he went alone to Cairo to retrieve the third and final power source. This attempt to find Desmond and take the Apple from him ended in failure, as he assassinated both Daniel Cross and Warren Vidic, killing the men responsible for nearly destroying the order 12 years previously, and foiling the Eye-Abstergo through these actions.

Returning to the Temple, Desmond fully reactivated it and discovered the Eye, a device that would save the world from the Second Disaster. Juno urged Desmond to activate the Eye, but Minerva asked him not to, saying that the Eye's activation would also kill Desmond and release Juno from her prison.

While Minerva and her brethren tried to save the world, Juno was planning to use their technology to conquer it, so she was imprisoned. Minerva showed Desmond that if he let the Second Disaster happen, the world would be devastated, but humanity would endure. Desmond would become a legendary figure that would rebuild the world. However, upon his death, his ideals would be misinterpreted by future generations, bringing about the fall of civilization, and "what once was, shall be again".

Believing the world would have a chance at defeating Juno, Desmond told William, Shaun and Rebecca to leave and prepare for the incoming struggle. Desmond then activated the Eye and the world was indeed saved, but as he was informed, Desmond died and Juno was released from her prison.

Known Assassins
"The seeds were planted as two worlds became one. Behold, the Assassins, the children of two worlds!" ―Clay Kaczmarek

The Assassins had existed since before the turn of the first millennium; several known figures included Darius, Iltani, Wei Yu, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and their co-conspirators,[15] Amunet and Leonius. Historically however, the forebearers of the Assassins have existed since before recorded time, possibly reaching as far back as Adam and Eve.

Medieval and Renaissance periods
During the Third Crusade, the Levantine branch of the Assassin Order was mainly made up of native individuals; although some, like Altaïr, were born to parents of both religions. Led by Al Mualim, and later Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad himself, other members included Harash, Malik and Kadar Al-Sayf, Rauf, Abbas Sofian, Masun and Jamal.

Later still, individuals such as Dante Alighieri, Maffeo Polo, Marco Polo, and Domenico Auditore, the founder of the House of Auditore would join the Order's ranks.

Allies also included various individuals, such as Adha, Qulan Gal, and even former Templars like Maria Thorpe.

Later on, during the Renaissance, the Order's numbers had dwindled significantly. Having become much more secretive, members of the Order often had occupations and lives outside of the Order, ranging from artists, to thieves, and even royal treasurers.

They included the Florentine banker Giovanni Auditore da Firenze; his brother Mario Auditore, caretaker of the Auditore Villa and condottieri leader; Federico Auditore da Firenze and his brother Ezio Auditore da Firenze; Paola and Teodora Contanto, the heads of the Florentine and Venetian courtesans respectively; Antonio de Magianis, the head of the Venetian Thieves Guild; La Volpe, the head of the Florentine, and later, Roman Thieves Guild; Niccolò Machiavelli, a writer and head of the Florentine mercenaries; Bartolomeo d'Alviano, condottiero of Venice and later Rome, and Perotto Calderon, undercover in the employ of the Borgia, who posed as a courier.

Others included Giovanni Borgia, the illegitimate son of Calderon and Lucrezia Borgia; Paracelcus, Swiss scientist and alchemist; Francesco Vecellio, Renaissance painter; Tessa Varzi and Cipriano Enu; Rinaldo Vitturi, the keeper of the Shroud; Ridolfo Fioravant and Pietro Antonio Solari, spies working undercover as architects on the Kremlin; Luis de Santángel and Raphael Sánchez, finance minister to Ferdinand II and treasurer of Queen Isabella I respectively; Yusuf Tazim, the leader of the Constantinople Assassin Guild; Piri Reis, a top navigator and cartographer to Bayezid II; and Dogan and Azize, two lieutenants of the Constantinople Assassin Guild.

Once again, the Order had many allies amongst the common folk of Italy, as well as amongst the nobility. Foremost among them was Leonardo da Vinci, Ezio's closest friend and a genius of invention. Others included Caterina Sforza, the Countess of Forlì; Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence; Agostino Barbarigo, the Doge of Venice from 1486; and the famed explorer Christoffa Corombo.

By 1501, Ezio Auditore and Niccolò Machiavelli had begun training new Assassin recruits in the Order from their Tiber Island headquarters in Rome. In 1503, Claudia Auditore da Firenze, sister of Ezio, also joined the Order.

Age of Empires
During the Colonial period, the Assassins spread their influence to the New World. Around this time, the Caribbean Assassins were led by Ah Tabai, a Mayan-born member of the Order. To secure the Assassin's interests, he recruited Mary Read into the Brotherhood, as well as stationed numerous Bureau leaders across the Caribbean, including Opía Apito, Rhona Dinsmore, Antó and Upton Travers. By the year 1730, Edward Kenway and Adéwalé had joined the Order, albeit only after significant personal journeys; Adéwalé displayed an interest in the Creed early on, and became a student of Ah Tabai, while Edward joined the Order to make amends on the past misdeeds he had committed in his life.

In the following decades, the Colonial Assassins had grown in number significantly, led by Achilles Davenport as the Mentor. Following an attack by their Templar counterparts in 1763, the Brotherhood in America was almost completely wiped out. It would take another ten years for the Assassins to rebuild their ranks, when they were joined by a number of new Brothers, including Ratonhnhaké:ton, the grandson of Edward Kenway, who managed to ultimately eliminate the Colonial rite of the Templars in 1782. During that time, he managed to recruit several new members into the Order, including Clipper Wilkinson, Deborah Carter, Jacob Zenger, Stephane Chapheau, Jamie Colley, Duncan Little, and Patience Gibbs.

Modern Times
During the mid-19th century, Indian Assassins had developed a strong presence in the Sikh Empire, with their main goal being the search for the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the removal of foreign Templars attempting to control India. Around this time, the Sikh Empire was ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was seen in a mixed light; he was viewed as a murderer by Assassins like Arbaaz Mir for his removal of Muslims in Kashmir, but by others as a hero for his near liberation of India, which ended abruptly with his poisoning by Francis Cotton.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Assassins' Order had spread as far the Russian Empire, with a strong presence in and around Petrograd. Members of the Narodnaya Volya were in fact members of the Assassin Order. Some known Assassins included Nikolai Orelov and Aleksandr Ulyanov, the older brother of Vladimir Lenin.

During World War I, there was an Assassin on the Western Front, an unidentified medic fighting for the British on the front line. The medic assassinated Erich Albert, a German general and member of the Templars.

During the late 20th and 21st century, however, the Order seemed to have sunk further into hiding, with their numbers fewer than ever. Although it is evident that more existed, only a few were known to be in the Order: Clay Kaczmarek, Desmond Miles, Lucy Stillman, Rebecca Crane, Shaun Hastings, Hannah Mueller, Paul Bellamy, Daniel Cross, William Miles, Gavin Banks, Harlan T. Cunningham, Siobhan Dhami, Jasdip Dhami, Adriano Maestranzi, a woman named Janice, and a man named Marco. There were also known groups of Assassins based in São Paulo, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; Osaka, Japan; Denver, Colorado, United States; Whistler, Canada; Georgia and weapon suppliers in the Philippines.

Known Victims
"Find them, kill them. In doing so, you will sow the seeds of peace." ―Al Mualim to Altaïr, 1191.

Over the centuries, the Order of Assassins killed hundreds, if not thousands of individuals who they saw to be corrupt in their ways and a danger to humanity. Their intense rivalry with the Templars also ensured that many underlings who served their Templar masters often shared the same fate.

Below is a chronological list of notable victims of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad:

Haras, in 1189 Tamir of Damascus, in 1190 Alaat, in 1190 Roland Napule, in 1190 The Master's Student, in 1190 Master of the Tower, in 1190 Harash, in 1190 Lord Basilisk, in 1190 Tamir (arms dealer), in 1191 Garnier de Naplouse, in 1191 Talal, in 1191 Abu'l Nuqoud, in 1191 William of Montferrat, in 1191 Majd Addin, in 1191

Jubair al Hakim, in 1191 Sibrand, in 1191 Robert de Sable, in 1191 Rashid ad-Din Sinan, in 1191 Frederick the Red, in 1191 Moloch, in 1192 Dark Oracle, in 1192 Shalim, in 1192 Shahar, in 1192 Pirate Captain, in 1192 Armand Bouchart, in 1193 Swami, in 1227 Bayhas, in 1247 Abbas Sofian, in 1247

Below is a chronological list of notable victims of Ezio Auditore da Firenze:

Uberto Alberti, in 1476 Vieri de' Pazzi, in 1478 Francesco de' Pazzi, in 1478 Antonio Maffei, in 1478 Francesco Salviati, in 1479 Bernardo Baroncelli, in 1479 Stefano da Bagnone, in 1479 Jacopo de' Pazzi, in 1480 Emilio Barbarigo, in 1485 Carlo Grimaldi, in 1485 Marco Barbarigo, in 1486 Silvio Barbarigo, in 1486 Dante Moro, in 1486 Ludovico Orsi, in 1488 Checco Orsi, in 1488 Gaspar Martínez, in 1491 Pedro Llorente, in 1491 Juan de Marillo, in 1491 Girolamo Savonarola, in 1498

Il Carnefice, in 1500 Master of the Sacred Palace, in 1500 Lanz, in 1503 Lia de Russo, in 1503 Brother Ristoro, in 1503 Donato Mancini, in 1503 Gaspar de la Croix, in 1503 Auguste Oberlin, in 1503 Juan Borgia the Elder, in 1503 Octavian de Valois, in 1503 Ercole Massimo, in 1506 Cesare Borgia, in 1507 Leandros, in 1511 Cyril of Rhodes, in 1511 Mirela Djuric, in 1511 Lysistrata, in 1511 Tarik Barleti, in 1511 Shahkulu, in 1512 Manuel Palaiologos, in 1512

Below is a chronological list of notable victims of Edward Kenway: Bartholomew Roberts, in 1722 El Tiburón, in 1722 Laureano de Torres y Ayala, in 1722 Emmett Scott, in 1723 Wilson, in 1723

Below is a chronological list of notable victims of Aveline de Grandpré:

Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie, in 1765 Baptiste, in 1766 Rafael Joaquín de Ferrer, in 1769 Diego Vázquez, in 1773

George Davidson, in 1777 Madeleine de L'Isle, in 1777 Edmund Judge, in 1784

Below is a chronological list of notable victims of Ratonhnhaké:ton:

William Johnson, in 1774 John Pitcairn, in 1775 Thomas Hickey, in 1776 Nicholas Biddle, in 1778

Benjamin Church, in 1778 Kanen'tó:kon, in 1778 Haytham Kenway, in 1781 Charles Lee, in 1782

Below is a chronological list of notable victims of Desmond Miles:

Lucy Stillman, in 2012 Daniel Cross, in 2012 Warren Vidic, in 2012

Below is a chronological list of the known victims of other Assassins:

King Xerxes I, by Darius in 456 BCE Alexander the Great, by Iltani in 323 BCE Qin Shi Huang, by Wei Yu in 210 BCE Gaius Julius Caesar, by Brutus and others in 44 BCE Cleopatra, by Amunet in 31 BCE Caligula, by Leonius in 41 Faustinus, by Aquilus in 259 Caïus Fulvus Vultur, by Aquilus in 259 Genghis Khan, by Qulan Gal and Darim Ibn-La'Ahad in 1227 Bachir Al-Djallil, by Numa Al'Khamsin in 1340 Yongle, by Li Tong in 1424 Cem, in 1495 Tomás de Torquemada, in 1498 Perotto Calderon, in 1498 Agostino Barbarigo, by Tessa Varzi in 1501 Malfatto, in 1503 Silvestro Sabbatini, in 1503 Cahin, in 1503 Caha, in 1503 Rocco Tiepolo, in 1503 Baltasar de Silva, in 1503 Margaret of York, in 1503 Isabella I of Castile, in 1504 Niccolò di Pitigliano, by Francesco Vecellio in 1510 Damat Ali Pasha, in 1511 Georgios Kostas, in 1511 Odai Dunqas, in 1511