User:Alientraveller/Sandbox

Human slaves controlled by the First Civilization

Slavery is the subjugation of another person, to be bought and sold for forced labor. The First Civilization created humans to be their slaves, and the Assassins believe the Templars intend to return humanity to that state.

Practices

A slave auction in New York

• Gladiators - In the Roman Empire, slaves like Anacletos were made to fight to the death for the amusement of citizens.
• Military - Janissaries and Mamluks were two military orders made up of Europeans enslaved as children and trained to serve their conquerors.
• Concubines - Jenny Kenway, half-sister of the Templar Haytham Kenway, was kidnapped in 1735 and sold into sexual slavery in Topkapı Palace.
• Eunuchs - These slave guards watched over concubines, and were castrated at a young age to discourage desiring them. After rescuing Jenny Kenway, Haytham's friend Jim Holden was captured and castrated. Haytham found him undergoing the process to turn him into a eunuch in Egypt, and killed the monks responsible.
• Placée brides - In the French and Spanish-American colonies like New Orleans, a practice arose of white men selecting slaves to be a form of "practice" marriage. Often though, they had children and opted to free their wives from slavery, as was the case with Philippe Olivier de Grandpré and Jeanne when she gave birth to their daughter Aveline.

History

The First Civilization controlled humanity with the Pieces of Eden. However, interbreeding led to the birth of hybrids like Adam and Eve, who were immune to the power of these devices, causing the Human-First Civilization War.

One of Talal's slaves

The ancient Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, but were liberated by the prophet Moses, who was armed with the Staff of Eden.

The Templar Talal ran a slave ring in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, shipping beggars, whores and thieves to Garnier de Naplouse in Acre. Garnier experimented on these people, believing turning them into mindless slaves bettered their lives. The operation was scuppered when Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad assassinated both men.

During Borgia rule of Rome, Silvestro Sabbatini kidnapped men, women and children to be deported into slavery. Ezio Auditore da Firenze and his apprentices assassinated him and freed those he was keeping captive.

Europeans enslaved many Africans to work in their colonies in North America. In 1754, Silas Thatcher, an officer in the British Army, began enslaving members of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation, including Kaniehtí:io. Haytham and his band of Templar brothers freed the slaves and killed Silas to gain the natives' trust.

Haytham driving a slave convoy to infiltrate Thatcher's fortress

By 1758, François Mackandal had recruited many slaves from the French colony Saint-Domingue into the Assassins, and attempted to poison all of their white masters. However, he was betrayed and executed.

At the start of the American Revolutionary War, Lord Dunmore offered slaves belonging to Patriots freedom if they escaped and joined the British Army. George Davidson enlisted in Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment because of this proclamation.

In an alternate reality created by the Apple of Eden, King Washington enslaved the Kanien'kehá:ka, and later declared he would invade the United Kingdom and enslave its people.

Moral ambiguity

"What follows are the three great ironies of the Assassin Order: (1) Here we seek to promote peace, but murder is our means. (2) Here we seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to a master and set of rules. (3) Here we seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet we are practitioners ourselves."

―Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex

Despite their relative benevolence to the majority of Templar activities, many Assassins expressed discomfort with their Order. When Desmond Miles was rescued by the Assassins, he assumed they were the "good guys", but Shaun Hastings advised him to "not get carried away", reminding him their function was to kill people. Rebecca Crane acknowledged "it's not ideal. And taking a life is never easy. But sometimes there's no other way. Sometimes, Desmond, people have to die for things to change." Desmond's ancestor Connor tried to avoid killing William Johnson, and when he had to, he told his Mentor Achilles that "I thought it might bring clarity. Or instill a sense of accomplishment. But all I feel is regret." Achilles comforted him, explaining to "hold fast to that. Such sacrifices must never come lightly."

Both Desmond and Lucy Stillman fell out with their leader William Miles: his cold demeanour and the harsh training he put them through since childhood led Desmond to regard his father as a "[prison] warden" rather than a father. Lucy defected to the Templars after being sent to infiltrate them, telling Clay Kaczmarek that William was "using" them and claimed "he doesn't think about the lives he's hurting. We aren't people to him."

Nikolai Orelov served the Order to please his father, with whom he had a negative relationship. When he left, he felt "I began as a crusader for change and now I am no better than a common grave-robber." When the Assassins in the FBI began holding his family hostage to make him give up his secrets, he opined to his son Innokenti "These are not honourable men, Kenya. They are killers. They live by old laws which apply only to them and then call themselves heroes." However, Orelov was also brutal towards his son when training him to fight the Assassins. Viewing these events via his genetic memory, Orelov's great-grandson Daniel Cross deemed the Assassins "a family of wolves, opportunistic, savage. They'll turn on each other at a moment's notice: they're anarchists. And anarchy can never lead to a unified world."

Connor expressed disdain for the Assassins' secrecy, an opinion shared centuries earlier by some Assassins under Altaïr's leadership, who disagreed with him taking the Order back underground. Altaïr wrote "They grow angry, insisting it is a mistake to shroud ourselves. They say it slows our work. But they do not understand the risks. To expose ourselves now would be too dangerous. I fear we would be branded madmen and attacked."

The Assassins also allied with dubious figures such as members of the House of Medici or Vladimir Lenin, or would spare the likes of Tomas de Torquemada, simply because they were not Templars. Vali cel Tradat left the Assassins before the Templars because they did not try to stop the Ottoman Empire's conquest of his native Wallachia.