Feather

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"Be sure to remind the Bureaus in Baghdad to return every bloodied feather and mission report to Alamut. Each feather is a victory; they must be collected and chronicled, not consigned to the heap of history."

―Rayhan in a letter to Fuladh Al Haami, 862.

An eagle's feather

Feathers are integumentary structures distinctive of certain archosaurs such as dinosaurs, particularly their avian descendants. Feathers provide insulation, waterproofing, flight aid, and can also be help in camouflage or communication.

Throughout human history, feathers have been used for aesthetic, practical, and ritual purposes. Among the Assassin Brotherhood, feathers were of particularly high importance and, at various points in their history, were used by the Brotherhood's members during their assassinations to mark the death of their targets.

Structure

Feathers are typically composed of a center shaft with interlocked barbs branching out from the shaft to create a stiff vane. The barbs of downy feathers are not interlocked causing them to be much softer.

Human usage

Classical Greece

The Mysteries of Hedone, a cult active during the Peloponnesian War, used collecting a feather as part of their initiation ritual.

Ptolemaic Egypt

Bayek using a feather to send Gennadios to the Duat

In Ancient Egypt, feathers, particularly those of eagles, were used in various rituals. The inhabitants of the Siwa Oasis believed that the hearts of the dead would be scaled against the feather of Ma'at to determine the soul's fate in the afterlife. If the heart was equal or lighter than the feather, the soul could pass on to the Field of Reeds; otherwise, it would be devoured by Ammit.

During his hunt of the Order of the Ancients, the Medjay Bayek of Siwa used feathers to send his targets to the Duat for Osiris to judge in accordance with Egyptian mythology. After Bayek founded the Hidden Ones alongside his wife Aya, this practice was quickly adopted by members of their organization. Although the practice's original purpose was lost over the centuries, it nonetheless remained an integral part of the Hidden Ones' identity.

Abbasid Caliphate

"Our tradition of the feather comes from Egypt. They represent the feathers of Ma'at. The feathers of the heron were dipped in the blood of the targets. These would be left for the Lord of the Duat to judge. It is important we remain humble and know our place in the process. We are messengers of justice and not the final judges."

―Fuladh Al Haami, 862.

Basim dipping a feather in Ning's blood

In 862, Fuladh Al Haami, a member of the Alamut Hidden Ones, explained the origins of their practice of dipping feathers in their targets' blood to a new initiate, Basim Ibn Ishaq. Fuladh claimed that, although the tradition did not hold the same meaning as when the brotherhood was first founded, it nonetheless served as an important reminder that the Hidden Ones were only messengers of justice, and not the final judges.

During his hunt of the Order of the Ancients in Baghdad, Basim was given a heron's feather ahead of each assassination, typically by a Rafiq, which he would then dip in his target's blood and return to the Hidden One bureau as proof of the target's death.

Third Crusade

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad receiving a feather at the Damascus Bureau

For the Levantine Assassins in the High Middle Ages, similarly to the Alamut Hidden Ones, feathers were used to both grant an Assassin permission to kill a target, as well as for them to prove that the assignment had been completed.

After investigations on the target had been completed, Assassin bureau leaders would give the chosen Assassin a feather, allowing them to proceed with the actual mission. Upon killing his target, the Assassin would stain the feather with the blood of the slain, and present it to the Bureau leader.

Among Assassins, the phrase "having a feather on one's head" meant a mark of death. For example, an informant in Damascus once commented that "a feather laid on top of Abu'l Nuqoud's head," implying that the Merchant King was marked for assassination.

Renaissance

"Ezio, look at her. I still can't get her to talk! She spends all day and night in front of those feathers Petruccio used to collect. She can't let him go."

―Claudia Auditore, regarding her mother, 1478.

Ezio giving Petruccio a bundle of feathers

As he was sickly and often confined to bed, Petruccio Auditore once asked his brother Ezio to collect feathers for him. Though Ezio asked him what they were for, he only said that it was a secret, which he would reveal in time.

After the murder of Ezio's father, Giovanni Auditore, and his two brothers, Federico and Petruccio, his mother Maria was struck to silence for years. She would only remain praying over Petruccio's feathers in her room in the Villa Auditore, in mourning for her lost child.

In an effort to resolve this, Ezio sought to collect feathers, both in memory of his brother and to coax his mother into speaking again. As he traveled across Italy, he gathered and placed any feathers he found into a box in his mother's room.

Maria's box of feathers

After Ezio had collected fifty feathers, Mario Auditore spoke with him about what he was doing, suggesting that he should give up in what he believed to be a wasted effort. In an attempt to have Ezio turn his attention to other matters, Mario also let him know that a new weapon, the Condottiero War Hammer, was waiting for him at the Monteriggioni blacksmith.

After collecting one hundred feathers, Ezio's efforts were rewarded. Maria spoke again for the first time in years, thanking Ezio for not giving up on her, and presenting him with the Auditore cape.

In later years, even after the fall of Monteriggioni, Ezio would continue to collect feathers in Rome; particularly those found on landmarks throughout the city. He placed these feathers in a chest at the Tiber Island headquarters, which resembled the feather box that had once been kept in Maria's room.

American Revolutionary War

Connor laying a feather on Achilles' coffin

During one instance in 1769, Ratonhnhaké:ton and Kanen'tó:kon gathered feathers from nests nearby Kanatahséton at the request of the Clan Mother of their village. During the course of the American Revolutionary War, Ratonhnhaké:ton could also collect other feathers in memory of his village.

During the funeral of his Mentor Achilles Davenport in 1781, Ratonhnhaké:ton laid a feather on his coffin.

Modern times

Before the fall of the Assassin Order, an Assassin safehouse disguised as a dry-cleaners used photographs of feathers, coupled with the codeword "Rafiq", as proof of identity. However, the Templars, with the help of Daniel Cross, used this information to identify the safehouse and launch an assault.

Trivia

• Proximity to a feather was signaled by a 'shimmering' sound effect identical to the ones heard near treasure chests, glyphs and Codex pages, as well as the decipher fragments in The Lost Archive.

Assassin's Creed II

• Due to his death, it was never revealed why Petruccio collected the feathers in the first place; although a line from the novelization suggested that they were meant to be a present for his mother.
• Collecting all 100 feathers unlocked the achievement "In Memory of Petruccio".
• If Ezio placed all 100 feathers at once in Maria's feather chest, the cutscene with Maria occurred before the one with Mario.
• If one were to begin collecting feathers in Florence before arriving at Monterigionni, the Animus would still provide the message stating that feathers could be returned to Maria's room there.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• Collecting all 10 feathers unlocked the achievement "In Memoriam".
• After Sequence 4, a map detailing the locations of all the remaining feathers could be bought from any art merchant.
• Maria's feather chest was an artifact that could be found in modern Monteriggioni by Desmond Miles.

Assassin's Creed III

• All feathers were found in the Frontier, and a map detailing their locations could also be bought from general stores.
• Collecting all feathers unlocked the outfit Ratonhnhaké:ton wore before becoming an Assassin.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

• Jacob and Evie Frye used handkerchiefs to mark successful assassinations rather than using feathers.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

• The Hedonists also had a ritual of collecting feathers. Herodotos believed it a futile endeavor that no one should emulate.

Gallery

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  A feather left in Salāḥ ad-Dīn's tent
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  A Templar holding a picture of a feather