Bolden family

The Bolden family was an American family who was famous for being the last lineage of the Black Cross, inquisitors tracking corruption in the Templar Order. The family was also responsible for the protection of the Koh-i-Noor, a Piece of Eden of immense power.

History

Journey to Libya

The eldest known member of the Bolden family was Solomon Bolden, an Afro-American member of the American Rite of the Templar Order at the dawn of the 19th century. He was married but did not sire any children with his wife.

After the Black Cross Tavis Olier was presumed dead, Solomon was appointed the new Black Cross by the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order and was tasked with completing his predecessor's mission of retrieving the Koh-i-Noor, as well as finding Olier in the event he was still alive. In 1805, discovering that Olier had been imprisoned in Tripoli, Solomon sought to rescue him and secured passage aboard a merchant brig, the Painted Lady, by posing as a slave trader. During the voyage to Libya, Solomon met the Flemish spy Jan van der Graff, who was also searching for the Koh-i-Noor on behalf of the French Emperor Napoleon I.

Solomon Bolden's death

After working together to fend off pirates that attacked their ship, the two men reached an agreement: Solomon would protect Graff during his mission, and the latter would use his contacts to help the Black Cross infiltrate Sultan Selim III's palace and rescue Olier. At a tavern in Tripoli, Solomon and Graff met the latter's contacts, Edmund and Ahkbar, who told them about an underground tunnel used to smuggle precious cargo into the palace. However, this turned out to be a trap, as Ahkbar secretly worked for Selim and ambushed Solomon and Graff alongside several guards. During the fight, the Black Cross was killed by Ahkbar while Graff was overpowered and captured.

By chance, Graff was thrown into the same cell as Tavis Olier, who trained him over the following three years. Becoming the new Black Cross, Graff escaped the dungeon in July 1808, after Olier sacrificed himself to distract the guards, and tried to stop the Libyan Assassins from acquiring the Koh-i-Noor. He discovered that Ahkbar was an Assassin and had poisoned Selim to steal the artifact, which he intended to keep for himself. Overcoming the Piece of Eden's illusions, Graff killed Ahkbar and escaped with the Koh-i-Noor after deceiving the Assassins who arrived as reinforcements by handing them an empty box.

Leaving Libya, Graff became the guardian of the Koh-i-Noor and traveled to the United States to meet Solomon's widow and inform her of her husband's fate. The two grew close and had a relationship, conceiving a child who continued the Bolden lineage.

The last Black Cross

In 1893, Albert Bolden, Graff's great-grandson, was born in Baltimore. Before joining the Templars and becoming a Black Cross, Albert served in the United States military as a soldier, part of the Harlem Hellfighters who fought in the trenches of World War I. Prior to going to the front, he sired a daughter with his wife.

Albert Bolden confronting Thaddeus Gift

After being injured in an explosion during the war, Albert left the army and followed in his ancestors' footsteps by becoming a Black Cross of the Templar Order. Posing as the leading trumpeter in the jazz group Albie Bolden and the Harlem Hotsteppers, he traveled around the world killing corrupted Templars, eliminating Assassin cells, and searching for Pieces of Eden. To protect the Koh-i-Noor, he secreted the diamond in a Swiss bank.

In February 1927, Albert was sent by the Inner Sanctum to London to assassinate Thaddeus Gift, the Grand Master of the British Templars who had been embezzling money from the Order. The Black Cross hunted Gift through the city's streets and killed him, removing his Templar ring finger. Later, he traveled to China, where he eliminated Yuri Dolinsky, a Templar turncoat who intended to use the armored train known as the "Great Wall" to transport White Russian troops to support the warlord Zhang Zongchang against the Templar-allied Chiang Kai-shek.

In April 1927, Albert arrived in Shanghai to investigate the local Templar Rite and ensure the safe delivery of a package carried by Darius Gift, Thaddeus' son. After the package was stolen by the actress Ruan Lingyu, Albert investigated Du Yuesheng and the Green Gang, whom he suspected to be behind the theft, but this trail proved to be a dead end. Eventually, the Black Cross discovered that Soong Ching-ling, the widow of the late Chinese Grand Master Sun Yat-sen, had orchestrated the theft to prevent the package from reaching Chiang Kai-shek, who had no intention of maintaining his alliance with the Templars.

As Chiang ordered his men and Du Yuesheng's gang to massacre all the communists in Shanghai, Albert rushed to rescue Darius and Ruan, who were being targeted by Du's enforcer "Flowery Flag". The Black Cross managed to kill the gang enforcer, though not without sustaining some serious injuries, and was afterwards confronted by Darius, who had learned that he was behind his father's death. Despite Albert's attempts to reason with Darius, the latter shot the Black Cross, who fell to his apparent death.

Albert encountering Rufus Grosvenor

After recovering at a local hospital, Albert decided not to inform the Templars of his survival and focused on safeguarding the Koh-i-Noor from the Instruments of the First Will. In 1928, the rogue Templar and Instruments member Rufus Grosvenor tracked down Albert and tried to blackmail him into surrendering the diamond, but the Black Cross refused and left China. For the next nine years, he lived on the run while avoiding the Instruments, occasionally returning to the United States to visit his wife and daughter despite the risk of turning them into targets.

In 1937, Albert found his entire family murdered by Grosvenor, who ambushed him and stole the Koh-i-Noor. Seeking revenge, the Black Cross tracked Grosvenor to Spain, where the latter posed as the Assassin Norbert Clarke to join the cell led by Ignacio Cardona, who possessed a high enough concentration of Isu DNA to unlock the Koh-i-Noor's full power. After witnessing Grosvenor give the diamond to Cardona in Barcelona, Albert intervened and fled with the latter, being unable to get close to his intended target due to the Assassins protecting him.

Telling Cardona about Grosvenor's true identity and goals, the Black Cross convinced him to join forces to stop the Instruments. They tracked Grosvenor and the members of Cardona's Assassin cell to a war-torn village, where a fight resulted in Albert being injured and his and Cardona's capture. In a last-ditch effort to activate the Koh-i-Noor, Grosvenor offered it to Cardona, who used the Piece of Eden to destroy the church they were in and create the illusion of the diamond shattering under its own power.

Cardona and Albert during the Spanish Civil War

While Grosvenor fled, believing the Koh-i-Noor to have been destroyed, Albert and Cardona decided to leave the diamond at the bottom of the collapsed church and protect the site from intruders. They later took in a number of orphans, whom they raised and trained to continue their work, and fought together in the Spanish Civil War, on the side of the Republicans. After their involvement in the war, Albert and Cardona, having become good friends, went their separate ways.

Disagreeing with the Templars' support of dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, Albert never returned to the Order and retired from his role as the Black Cross, taking advantage of his presumed death to start a new life. He eventually got remarried and sired a son, André, in 1944.

Passing the Black Cross legacy

André grew up unaware of his family's connection with the Templar Order, but like his father before him, he enlisted in the United States Army, fighting in the Vietnam War. Suffering from PTSD due to his actions during the war, André struggled to lead a normal life afterwards. Although he married a woman who had a daughter from a previous relationship, his troubles proved too much to handle, and they both eventually left him.

In 2016, André was contacted by Abstergo Industries, who had learned about his heritage and offered him an alleged treatment for his PTSD. Brought to Abstergo's facility in Philadelphia, André was put in an Animus and relived the memories of his ancestor Jan van der Graff under the watch of the Templar Juhani Otso Berg, who secretly hoped that these memories would lead Abstergo to the Koh-i-Noor. Although distrustful of Berg and the Templars after learning they had deceived him, André agreed to help them on the condition that Berg not lie to him again.

André passing his family heirloom to Berg

André eventually came to trust Berg after the latter saved him from a group of assailants who attacked both of them, and his time with Graff's memories led him to discover the truth about his Black Cross heritage and the Assassin-Templar War. After receiving Albert Bolden's Templar pin from Berg, André declined the gift, feeling that it was not his destiny to continue his ancestors' legacy. However, he suggested that Berg could become the new Black Cross instead, offering him the pin.

Despite his refusal to become involved in Templar affairs, André nonetheless assisted Berg during his investigation of the Instruments of the First Will who had infiltrated Abstergo. He served as his tech support, providing him with valuable intel, and also posed as the Black Cross during a meeting of Inner Sanctum members in March 2017 to keep Berg's role secret.

After Berg allied with the Assassins to find the Koh-i-Noor before the Instruments, André sent them a sample of his blood, allowing Berg to relive Albert Bolden's memories in the Animus. However, André was eventually tracked down and captured by the Instruments, who forced him to lead them to a secret Abstergo facility in Australia, whose location had been revealed to him by Berg. Once there, the Instruments promptly disposed of André, who had outlived his usefulness.

Members

• 
  Solomon Bolden
  (? – 1805)
• 
  Jan van der Graff
  (fl. 19th century)
• 
  Albert Bolden
  (1893 – ?)
• 
  André Bolden
  (1944 – 2018)

Family tree

Solomon Bolden

Unknown woman

Jan van der Graff

Two generations

Unknown woman

Albert Bolden

Unknown woman

Unknown daughter

André Bolden

Unknown woman

Unknown daughter

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Templars (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed FCBD 2016 Edition
• Assassin's Creed: Uprising