Lisbon

Lisbon (Portuguese: Lisboa) is the capital city of Portugal. During the Age of Discovery, it was a hub for commerce with Africa, India, and Brazil, doing trade in spices, slaves, sugar, and textiles.

An Assassin guild was also based in the city and received aid from Ezio Auditore da Firenze's Italian guild in fighting the influence of the local Templars.

History

Age of Discovery

Knowing that King Manuel I of Portugal might have connections to the Templars, the Assassins traveled to Lisbon and interrogated one of the men in his council, who revealed that Manuel did indeed serve the Templar cause. They also learned that Manuel was preparing to send a fleet, led by Vasco da Gama, to Calicut. This prompted the Assassins to warn their brothers in India.

Shortly after that, they learned that Manuel was forcing the city's entire Jewish population to either convert to Christianity or leave, but had also closed the city borders, making it impossible to escape. Anyone who refused to convert was beaten or even killed. The Assassins arranged for three ships to take the Jewish citizens out of Lisbon, though it was not enough and the Assassins were forced to kill many guards that had found out about their plans.

Knowing that they could not get all the citizens out in time, they provided them with weapons and light armor, training them in tactics such as stealth, surprise, intimidation and shock. The civilians seemed eager to fight their king, and very few of them accepted the offer to travel to Italy with the Assassins.

In 1511, a group of Ottoman Assassins sent from Constantinople by Ezio Auditore investigated the Templars' activities in Lisbon. They learned that the Order had been diverting money sent by King Manuel to fund their own "missionary" expeditions to Asia, and proceeded to retrieve the stolen funds, putting the money to better use. The Assassins further sabotaged the Templars' operations by eliminating Francisco, a sea captain placed in charge of the Order's proselytizing in Portugal's colonies. They boarded one of Francisco's ships at Lisbon's harbor and killed him at sea.

During this time, the Portuguese Templars paid large sums of money to explorers for information of their discoveries. The Assassins, although lacking the Templars' wealth, used other means to procure the same information. Capitalizing on the Templars' weakened influence, the Assassins later installed several Dens in Lisbon to allow them to better conduct their operations within the city.

Da Vinci's research on havens

Just before his death in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci, afraid of possible interception, hid encoded information with trusted friends scattered around Europe under express instructions to destroy it should the Assassins not be able to contact them within a month of his death. After a round of clues was uncovered by the Brotherhood chapters in the cities of Grenoble, Brussels and Augsburg, they then contacted the local Brotherhood chapter at Lisbon, passing alongside a letter from Leonardo. Leonardo's letter about Lisbon informed the Assassins that he had lost contact with his ally, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, in the last few years. He managed to discover that da Gama has retired and moved to a village near Lisbon, but could not uncover where exactly, leaving that task up to the Brotherhood. Having received the quest, the local chapter sent agents to four landmarks to investigate.

An Assassin infiltrated the Torre de Belém, a fort that served as the main point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers, and searched the place for documents related to da Gama's passage through the city, finding a note with his name and a map of Portugal with Lisbon and the main surrounding villages marked. At the Convento do Carmo, they uncovered a couple of recently painted nautical frescos, and copied over two fragments of a map with a trajectory inscribed upon them.

In the city's main fort of Castelo de São Jorge, an Assassin following a group of actors disguised themselves as an extra for a few days and joined their troupe without raising suspicions, with the aim of getting closer to the theatre director, Gil Vicente, one of the main playwrights of Portugal, assuming he would have a lead into da Gama. Vicente was forthcoming with information, saying that da Gama had been an avid theatre goer, but had stopped watching plays some time ago. He also mentioned that after being quite impressed with one of his plays, the old explorer had given Vicente a piece of a map with the trajectory of his fabled trip to India in thanks, which he handed to the Assassin.

The investigation into the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos had some difficulties, as their locks were difficult to pick, thanks to the Hieronymites' tendency for secrecy, and the Assassin was surprised by one of the monks in the study, who would not calm down and had to be silenced permanently to avoid further discovery. The search was, however, fruitful, leading to the discovery of another map fragment as well as a register containing the distances between Lisbon and the main nearby villages. By superimposing the map fragments atop the map of Portugal, the Assassins discover the location of da Gama, Vidigueira, and set off immediately for the village.

Early modern period

By the 18th century, Portugal's colony in Brazil provided a massive income for the empire. This allowed King John V to expand the city into one of the largest in Europe.

Lisbon had also become a capital with thriving markets that attracted not only visitors from all over Europe, but also trade from the West Indies, with the Portuguese royal family at Ribeira Palace having their wine supplied by the pirate Edward Kenway's fleet. Around this time, physicians in the city, attempting to curtail the then-recent smallpox epidemics that had devasted the continent, experimented with new cures and ingredients, also trading with the fleet.

In November of 1755, the Colonial Assassin Shay Cormac was sent to Lisbon by his Mentor, Achilles Davenport, to retrieve a Piece of Eden from within an Isu Temple hidden beneath the Carmo Convent. Shortly after Shay removed the Piece from its pedestal, it disintegrated and triggered an earthquake. Though Shay managed to escape from the disaster and sail back to the Thirteen Colonies, the massive earthquake collapsed multiple structures and killed countless civilians throughout the city. The earthquake inspired the French philosopher Voltaire to write a long poem about the tragedy.

Gallery

• 
  Lisbon prior to the 1755 earthquake
• 
  Shay Cormac running through Lisbon during the earthquake
• 
  Lisbon following the earthquake

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue
• Assassin's Creed: The Last Quest of Leonardo da Vinci
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Tales of Iga (mentioned only)