Mateo Galan

Mateo Galan was a 15th century Assassin of the Spanish Brotherhood. Hailing from a family of Assassin sympathizers, he officially joined when the Spanish Inquisition razed his entire village to the ground for harboring a fugitive.

Biography

Born in a small village outside Murcia in the latter 15th century, Mateo Galan and his family were peasants who knew of the Assassins and sympathized with their cause. Growing up, Mateo was able to enjoy a simple and peaceful childhood before the rise of Tomás de Torquemada. Once the Grand Inquisitor's influence befell Spain, persecutions of those deemed heretical escalated dramatically. Torquemada, in his dual role as the Spanish Templars' leading Master Templar, targeted not only Muslims and Jews but the Assassins as well.

When a notorious fugitive fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition arrived at Mateo's village, his family granted them refuge. Unfortunately, they were unable to escape discovery by the Inquisition soldiers, who retaliated by setting the village aflame and putting every single soul present to the sword. In their eyes, they were all collectively responsible for harboring the wanted traitor.

At the time, Mateo was away on a trip to Murcia to sell his family's goods and so was unscathed, but he returned to the sight of his destroyed home and the butchered corpses of his family. Paralyzed by grief, the boy could do nothing but cradle his mother's body while crying his heart out. A day later, Assassins arrived to find him him lying in the ashes, still clutching onto his dead mother. Feeling pity for the boy, they resolved to adopt him.

While the Assassins trained Mateo in the principles of the Creed, their arts of assassination and stealth, and the ideals that they fought for, the boy grew progressively sullen as time wore on, developing a reputation as a solemn yet deadly Assassin.

Personality and traits

Soft-spoken as a child, Mateo became more withdrawn after his entire village was slaughtered. The trauma hardened his heart, and when he became a young man, he refused to speak even to his peers except to reaffirm his vows toward the Assassins and his integrity towards the Creed. He disguised the emotional tumult within under a mask of stoicism, and he coped by setting every fiber of his being and every essence of his soul single-mindedly to the delivery of his vengeance, executing his missions with exacting precision. As a full-fledged Assassin, he had molded himself into the embodiment of that role in its most literal, archetypal form. To his enemies, Mateo was a cold-blooded killer who showed neither remorse nor hesitation.

Skills and equipment

Mateo was an Assassin who dedicated his entire training to the art of assassination. In light of this, he was an expert in using the Assassin's signature dual Hidden Blades, employing them as his exclusive weapon in his operations. A killing machine, he offered next to nothing in the way of a support role to his peers, but he was a deadly stealth operative in the field, being able to assassinate from hiding spots, from ledges, and around corners.

Being a hyper-specialized Assassin meant that he never equipped himself for open, close quarters combat using heavy armor or weapons, instead relying on his light and nimble physique to evade incoming attacks. Even when exposed, he engaged with only his Hidden Blades because he was skilled at striking with them with lightning-fast swiftness. His merciless resolve conditioned within him a keen sense of focus at every moment of a kill, and this enabled him to target the vital areas of his enemies with such unerring precision that, when combined with his deft finesse, gave the appearance of slaying foes instantaneously. Though he was not as much of a master at freerunning, he was still adept at it as Assassins were always trained to be, and he used this skill granted him the mobility to navigate to and around his targets with ease.

Gallery

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  Mateo's avatar in Rebellion's character menu

Behind the scenes

Mateo Galan is a playable character featured in the mobile game Assassin's Creed: Rebellion as a common rarity unlockable, costing 10 DNA fragments. He is a hero of the Shadow: Assassination class. With his DNA fragments being a high drop in the very first Legacy mission, "The Escapists", he is one of the earliest heroes to unlock.

Name

The name Mateo is the Italian form of the English given name Matthew. The Hebrew meaning of Mateo is 'gift of god'. Galan is a nickname from galán meaning 'beau' or 'suitor'; it is a loanword from the French galant.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Freerunners