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| {{Era|AC|ACB|AC3|AC3L}}
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| {{WP-REAL}}
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| [[File:Eden_2_v.png|thumb|250px|Human slaves controlled by the First Civilization]]
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| '''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.
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| ==Practices==
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| [[File:ACIII-Evacuationday 4.png|thumb|250px|A slave auction in New York]]
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| *'''Gladiators''' - In the [[Roman Empire]], slaves like [[Anacletos]] were made to fight to the death for the amusement of citizens.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]''</ref>
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| *'''Military''' - [[Janissaries]] and [[Mamluks]] were two military orders made up of Europeans enslaved as children and trained to serve their conquerors.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]''</ref>
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| *'''Concubines''' - [[Jenny Kenway]], half-sister of the Templar [[Haytham Kenway]], was kidnapped in 1735 and sold into sexual slavery in [[Topkapı Palace]].<ref name="Forsaken">''[[Assassin's Creed: Forsaken]]''</ref>
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| *'''{{Wiki|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.<ref name="Forsaken"/>
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| *'''{{Wiki|plaçage|Placée}} brides''' - In [[France|French]] and [[Spain|Spanish]] colonies like [[New Orleans]], a practice arose of white men selecting slaves for 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 de Grandpré|Aveline]].<ref name="ACL"/>
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| ==History==
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| 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]].<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed II]]''</ref>
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| [[File:Talal_Assassination_1.png|thumb|left|250px|One of Talal's slaves]]
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| The ancient [[Israel]]ites were enslaved by the [[Egypt]]ians, but they were liberated by the prophet [[Moses]], who was armed with the [[Staves of Eden|Staff of Eden]].<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' - [[Glyphs]]</ref>
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| 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.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed]]''</ref>
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| During [[House of Borgia|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.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]''</ref>
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| European powers like the [[United Kingdom|British]], French and Spanish enslaved [[Africa]]ns 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.<ref name="AC3">''[[Assassin's Creed III]]''</ref>
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| [[File:ACIII-InfiltratingSouthgate_8.png|thumb|250px|Haytham driving a slave convoy to infiltrate Thatcher's fortress]]
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| By 1758, [[François Mackandal]] had recruited many slaves from the French colony [[Haiti|Saint-Domingue]] into the Assassins, and attempted to poison all of their white masters. However, he was betrayed and executed.<ref name="ACL">''[[Assassin's Creed III: Liberation]]''</ref>
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| At the start of the [[American Revolutionary War]], [[John Murray|Lord Dunmore]] offered slaves belonging to [[Patriots]] freedom if they escaped and joined the British Army. [[George Davidson]] enlisted in Dunmore's {{Wiki|Ethiopian Regiment}} because of this proclamation.<ref name="ACL"/>
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| In an alternate reality created by the [[Apple of Eden 3|Apple of Eden]], [[George Washington|King Washington]] enslaved the Kanien'kehá:ka, and later declared he would invade the [[United Kingdom]] and enslave its people.<ref>''[[The Tyranny of King Washington]]''</ref>
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| ==References==
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| {{Reflist}}
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| {{AC3}}
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| {{AC3L}}
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| ==Moral ambiguity== | | ==Moral ambiguity== |
| {{Quote|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]]|Assassin's Creed II}} | | {{Quote|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]]|Assassin's Creed II}} |
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[src]
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."[1] 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."[2]
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.[3] 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."[4]
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."[5] 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."[6]
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."[1]
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.[7]