Mercenary

This article is about the faction. You may be looking for other uses of the term.

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"I fight at your side, any time!"

―A mercenary's greeting to Ezio Auditore, 1477.

A mercenary is an individual, often a soldier, who participates in armed conflicts, generally functioning as a third party, for private gain or material compensation. Historically, mercenaries were often hired by nations to take part in battles, or by private contractors to serve as personal protection.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the high number of mercenaries in cities like Rome and Constantinople led to the creation of guilds, collaborating with each other as one large group and acting under a singular leader, known in Italy as condottieri. These mercenary guilds were often notable allies of the Assassin Brotherhood, with the Venetian condottiero Bartolomeo d'Alviano serving as a prominent member of the Italian Assassins. This was not an exclusive arrangement, however, as the famed condottiero Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, at one point assaulted the Assassin stronghold of Monteriggioni under the auspices of the Templars.

Throughout the following centuries, mercenaries continued to operate in the employ of various different bodies. In the 18th century, they provided a large portion of the manpower of the Colonial Assassins and the Colonial Templars, both having been newly founded at the time.

Although mercenaries have dwindled as a phenomenon in the 21st century, they continued to find their way into the ranks of the Templars and Assassins, most prominently in the example of Juhani Otso Berg, the Director of Operations within the Templars' Inner Sanctum.

History

Classical Greece

During the Peloponnesian War, mercenaries operated throughout Greece, and many of them were hired to fight for either the Delian League led by Athens or the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.

The mercenaries Kassandra and Exekias fighting each other

The Spartan misthios Kassandra learned the trade from the likes of Photios and Heitor, and eventually rose through the ranks of the mercenaries to become a legend on her own right known as the 'Eagle-Bearer' due to the company of her pet eagle Ikaros.

During her hunt of the Cult of Kosmos, Kassandra encountered and killed several mercenaries throughout Greece. Among them were the Cult members Deianeira and Exekias, as well as mercenaries in service of the Cult such as Sosipatros.

Abbasid Caliphate

In 9th-century Baghdad, Hidden Ones such as Basim Ibn Ishaq could enlist the services of mercenaries in exchange for Khidmah Tokens. Once hired, these mercenaries would typically attack the nearest guards, providing Basim with an effective distraction to aid him in his objectives.

Renaissance

Italy

During the Renaissance, mercenaries were widespread in Italy, to the extent that guilds devoted to their profession were established throughout major cities such as Venice and Rome. Many among these men were not even Italians, instead hailing from Switzerland, the German states, or Hungary. Entire armies could be composed of mercenaries, and their leaders when contracted by Italian city-states or the Papacy were commonly known as condottieri. Such condottieri could garner fearsome reputations, as could be seen in the likes of Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino.

Mario Auditore with his mercenaries

By the latter half of the 15th century, Italian mercenaries came to work closely in concert with the Italian Assassins, who classified them alongside thieves and courtesans as among three regular factions of allies. This was especially so with the condottiero Bartolomeo d'Alviano, head of the mercenary guild in Venice, who was a member of the Brotherhood himself. The Assassins, such as the Florentine Ezio Auditore da Firenze, were accustomed to employing allied mercenaries for street skirmishes or diversions as needed, though their services generally still costed a standard price of 150 florins.

In 1499, ahead of Ezio's mission to prevent Pope Alexander VI, the secret Grand Master of the Roman Rite of the Templar Order, from accessing the Vatican Vault, Bartolomeo transferred his forces to Rome. After Monteriggioni fell to Borgia forces led by Alexander VI's son Cesare Borgia on 2 January 1500, the Italian Assassins, too, relocated their base of operations to Rome for a campaign to unseat Borgia power in the city.

In due time, Ezio linked up with Bartolomeo, whose mercenaries were in dire straits of losing their fight against the Borgia. The French Army, with the permission of Alexander VI, had been marching through Italy in an expedition against the Kingdom of Naples, and a detachment under the command of the Templar Octavian de Valois took advantage of this to establish a base in Rome at the Castra Praetoria and assist the Borgia in dislodging the Assassin mercenaries. The arrival of Ezio, however, led to a slow turning of the tide. In August 1503, after Octavian captured Bartolomeo's wife Pantasilea Baglioni in the hopes of forcing Bartolomeo into unconditional surrender, Ezio and Bartolomeo's forces infiltrated the Castra Praetoria disguised as the French in a shocking blow that led to the assassination of Octavian and the withdrawal of his army.

Mercenaries in the Caserma di Alviano's Fight Club

In Rome, the mercenaries acted much as they did in the previous cities, with Bartolomeo and Pantasilea leading their operations from their barracks. There, they actively participated in the fight against the Borgia and their French allies. When Ezio completed all of the mercenaries' guild challenges, they rewarded him with Bartolomeo's Axe and the guild's crest, which could be located in the armor section in the Tiber Island headquarters.

Spain

During the Reconquista, mercenaries in Spain also organized themselves in guilds. One notable guild was the Lobos Silenciosos (The Silent Wolves), established by Álvaro de Espinosa sometime in the late 15th century. Initially contracted by the Spanish crown to make war against the Moorish Emirate of Granada, Álvaro began to have second thoughts and decided to abandon his mercenary ways to join the Spanish Assassins. While most of his men objected to his decision, a few remained loyal and followed him into the Brotherhood, among them Andrea Cortés and Inigo Montañés.

Another notable mercenary group was Los Hijos Del Leon (The Sons of the Lion), which acted as bodyguards for a number of Spanish nobles and fought in countless battles. After twenty-five years, the guild's founder and leader, Domingo de la Torre, filled with regrets over the loss of his companions, decided to disband the group and seek redemption by joining the Spanish Assassins.

Ottoman Empire

In 1511, a mercenary guild based in the Ottoman Empire's capital of Constantinople was working in tandem with the Ottoman Assassins. When Ezio Auditore relocated to Constantinople under a wider mission to find the keys to unlock Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's fabled library in Masyaf, he helped to expand mercenary bases in the city. The mercenaries proved an asset to the Assassins, though like their Italian brethren, use of their services costed 150 akçe.

18th century

Southeast Asia

Nagamasa with his mercenaries

In 1725, a group of Japanese mercenaries settled in the Philippines and led by Nagamasa were hired by Fuma Sukuna to hunt Shimazu Saito following her alleged betrayal of the Shimazu clan. In return for their services, Nagamasa and his men were promised a place in the Shimazu clan, which had previously shunned them. However, the mercenaries would ultimately fail in their task as they were defeated by Saito and the Zhang Wei Union.

Later, Saito, sympathizing with Nagamasa's plight, offered him and his men a chance to exact vengeance on the Shimazu clan. Accepting, the mercenaries helped the Union ambush and kill Fuma Sukuna and his followers, and continued to accompany them on their journey through Southeast Asia, where they searched for a set of three Pieces of Eden so they could prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

While accompanying the Union to Burma to retrieve one of the artifacts, Nagamasa sent his men to establish contact with a group of mercenaries from the Ayutthaya Kingdom, who shared a plight similar to theirs. The Ayutthayan mercenaries later came to the Union members' rescue when they were ambushed by the East India Company, which stole the Piece of Eden they had retrieved. Alongside Saito and Nagamasa's men, they also attempted to recover the stolen artifact, but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Nagamasa's crew and the Ayutthayan mercenaries later formed part of the large fleet assembled by Edward Kenway that sailed to Indochina to prevent their enemies from finding the Forgotten Temple and the artifact it housed. Both groups helped Edward and his allies sink an East India Company fleet that was blocking their path to the mainland.

Colonial America

Haytham Kenway warning an Assassin-hired mercenary

The services of mercenaries were regularly employed by both the newly founded Colonial Assassins and their counterparts, the Colonial Templars, in the British colonies of continental America. In 1754, several mercenaries hired by the Assassins stole the research notes of the Templar William Johnson that detailed the region inhabited by the Kanien'kehá:ka. They guarded these in an encampment in west Boston until Johnson's assistant Thomas Hickey, the Colonial Rite's newly arrived Grand Master Haytham Kenway, and his protégé Charles Lee infiltrated the fort, killed most of the mercenaries, and recovered the notes.

In general, the line between mercenaries, official members, and criminals blurred for the Colonial branches of Assassins and Templars. Hickey was a particular example, for though he was treated as a core member of the Colonial Rite, working closely with its leaders, his only motivation was profit, caring not at all for the Templars' goals. Meanwhile, the Assassin Hope Jensen took control of the gangs throughout the colonies of northeast America and carved out a wide criminal network whose brigands served as her forces for the Assassins. These gangs were, in a sense, functionally mercenaries operating out of numerous bureaus and cells in New York and in the wilderness of Halifax and the Hudson River valley. However, during the Seven Years' War, the Templar Shay Cormac and the British Army managed to break their power and scatter them, killing Jensen herself in 1759.

By the end of the conflict, the Colonial Brotherhood had been all but destroyed, with only its Mentor Achilles Davenport surviving as a cripple. Thus, in the following decades, mercenaries ceased to be an asset of the defunct Colonial Brotherhood, whereas they persisted as a significant part of the Colonial Rite's forces into the American Revolution.

Mercenaries guarding the entrance to Smith and Company Brewery

A large number of Templar mercenaries later sided with Benjamin Church following his desertion of the Order, working to protect him from the retribution of Haytham Kenway. However, they would ultimately fail their task in 1778, when Church was killed aboard his ship, the Welcome, off the coast of Martinique through the combined efforts of Haytham and his son Ratonhnhaké:ton.

Outside the private war waged in America between both secret organizations, mercenaries saw much use by the political powers of the time. In their attempt to quash the colonial uprising, the British hired an army of Hessian mercenaries to occasionally lead troop detachments in the place of officers. Most notable among the Hessian force were the Jägers, elite scouting units who specialized in unconventional warfare and carried a renowned reputation in Europe for their discipline and ferocity in battle. In accordance with their training, although hired to lead British forces, they typically operated independently of most army protocols. Following the end of the war and the departure of the British forces, some mercenaries chose to remain in the newly-named United States rather than return home, and continued to provide their services in the employ of the Continental Army.

Combat

Mercenaries during the Peloponnesian War were incredibly varied and used a variety of different weapons in combat, including swords, daggers and spears. When the Assassin Layla Hassan relived Kassandra's genetic memories in the Animus, most of the mercenaries she encountered in the simulation were—bar a few exceptions—procedurally generated, each having a selection of strengths and weaknesses.

Italian mercenaries during the Renaissance were the most heavily armored of the three factions available, and they usually wielded heavy, two-handed weapons, fighting very similarly to Brutes in combat.

During the Colonial era, mercenaries fought much like British regulars, using the same weapons and tactics as their professional counterparts.

Trivia

General

• In Assassin's Creed II, mercenaries possess similar weapons to Brutes but are easily defeated by them. This differs from their abilities in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood where they are far more powerful, able to effectively take out several enemies due to their higher health, as seen in in the barracks' fighting challenges.
• Italian mercenaries cannot perform any form of freerunning. However, Mario Auditore, who behaves like a mercenary, is able to free-run.
• If Ezio attempts to loot a dead mercenary's corpse, no money can be found despite hiring them.
• It is possible to kill mercenaries if Ezio uses a lift when they are behind him, where the debris would crush and kill them.
• If a minstrel attempts to play in front of Ezio while he is accompanied by mercenaries, they will push him away, and one will attempt to chase him before returning shortly afterward.

Assassin's Creed II

• Regular mercenaries can break out of Ezio's grabs, though the ones in the Monteriggioni training grounds can not do so unless he is training with them.
• Ironically, Niccolò Machiavelli is portrayed as the leader of the Florentine mercenaries, when, historically, he strongly opposed the use of them.
• During the mission to assassinate Vieri de' Pazzi, Mario refers to his mercenaries as his brothers, a term usually reserved for fellow Assassins.
• In the Cannaregio District of Venice, Ezio can hire groups of six mercenaries, instead of the usual four.
• While Ezio distributes Bartolomeo's men to specific spots throughout the Castello District as a distraction for Silvio Barbarigo, the mercenaries act like normal guards instead of Brutes, even being able to sprint.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• With some exceptions, the mercenaries during the siege of Monteriggioni function as regular guards and some are wielding weapons of the arquebusiers, but they are easily defeated by Borgia soldiers except those who accompany Ezio and wield heavy weapons.
• Fabrizio and Prospero Colonna are two notable mercenaries who are saved by Ezio during a courtesan assignment.
• Mercenaries can be killed by Ezio's Apple of Eden if they are caught within range of its blast radius.

Gallery

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  Concept art of a mercenary
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  A mercenary in 5th-century BCE Greece
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  A group of mercenaries in Baghdad
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  A group of mercenaries in Venice
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  The Roman Mercenaries Guild insignia
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  Ezio Auditore speaking with an Ottoman mercenary
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  A group of mercenaries from the Ayutthaya Kingdom
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  A group of mercenaries in Boston

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Assassin's Creed III
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
• Echoes of History (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR
• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple