Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob

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"It is our divine will to rule over them. Our duty to exact their contribution."

―Mas'ood, on the Order of the Ancients' goal to rule over humanity, 860s.

Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob (died 860s), also known as Al-Ghul (English: The Ghoul), was a soap mill owner and member of the Order of the Ancients who operated in the Abbasid Caliphate's capital of Baghdad during the 9th century. A ruthless taskmaster, he enslaved desperate foreigners in his mills to make vast quantities of soap to sell, earning immense fortunes for himself and his son, Nimlot. After joining the Order, he fully devoted himself to their cause and had his enslaved workers moved to the desert to dig for rumored Isu relics.

Caring only about his excavations' success at any cost, Mas'ood ordered the abduction of inmates from the Damascus Gate Prison and unwary travelers at Baghdad's caravanserai to replace fatally overworked slaves, which caught the Alamut Hidden Ones' attention. This culminated in his assassination by the Hidden One Basim ibn Ishaq, who had investigated the mysterious abductions and confirmed Mas'ood's culpability in them.

Nimlot, unaware of what his father's secret activities actually entailed, bore witness to the killing and vowed vengeance against Basim. After fleeing to the caliphate's edges in al-Ula, he set up a gang of robbers to steal from the local civilians and traveling merchants, allowing him to become a wealthy merchant in his own right while secretly plotting his revenge.

Biography

Early life

A successful businessman in Baghdad, Mas'ood earned his fortune on the backs of vulnerable foreigners he employed in his soap mills. After joining the Order of the Ancients, he became a strong believer in its cause and used his workers to search for Isu artifacts buried in the desert. Mas'ood quickly rose in the Order's ranks to become one of the five leading members in Baghdad, answering directly to the Ra's Al-Af'a, Qabiha, and overseeing the Order's operations in the Harbiyah district.

Ruthless and proud, Mas'ood treated his employees like slaves and frequently overworked them, sometimes to the point of death. He saw no issue with this, as in his eyes, it was the Order's divine right to use those beneath them to further their goals, which would ultimately benefit all of humanity.

Meeting the Caliph

Mas'ood and his Order brethren meeting Al-Mutawakkil

On 11 December 861, Mas'ood and the other Order leaders in Baghdad—Qabiha, Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa, Ning, and Wasif al-Turki—convened at the Winter Palace in Anbar, where Caliph al-Mutawakkil awaited them with a chest containing a Memory Seal. After verifying the artifact's authenticity and ordering the caliph to guard it until their return, the masked Ancients left.

However, it was all for naught, as shortly after the meeting, the young thief Basim ibn Ishaq killed al-Mutawakkil in self-defense while breaking into the Winter Palace to retrieve the Memory Seal for the Hidden Ones. The caliph's death robbed the Order of a powerful puppet, but Mas'ood and the others remained undeterred in their work and moved forward with their respective plans.

Search for Isu artifacts

"You think your cruelties are well-hidden, Al-Ghul, for you chose those with little voice whose cries you knew would go unheard. They dug at your bidding, died at your hand and were cast aside like so much refuse. All to scour the desert for some artifact."

―Basim ibn Ishaq, on Mas'ood's operations, 860s.

After the loss of the Memory Seal, Mas'ood continued to utilize enslaved workers in his search for Isu artifacts. He set up several excavation sites in the desert around Baghdad, including one southwest of the city and another near the Northern Oasis. After his workers found several mysterious shards, Mas'ood believed they were connected to an Isu vault beneath the Northern Oasis and asked that they be given to the Order's elite Tha'abeen members for protection until an entrance into the vault was found.

Mas'ood overseeing his workers at a dig site

At some point, Fazil offered to show Mas'ood his progress with the Alruh, a machine built using the Isu technology recovered from his excavation sites, which had the goal of decoding Memory Seals. Mas'ood was fascinated by the visions of an ancient past he saw and encouraged Fazil to finish his device.

In his own tasks, Mas'ood began bribing the guards of the Damascus Gate Prison to supply him with prisoners for his dig sites, and started frequenting the caravanserai west of Baghdad to procure additional laborers. However, he soon faced incursions from the Alamut Hidden Ones and their ally Ali ibn Muhammad, who investigated his operations. Infuriated by the interruptions, Mas'ood sent the Abbasid guards after them and they succeeded in capturing Ali, who was subsequently taken to the Damascus Gate Prison for interrogation.

Death and legacy

Mas'ood: "These... are gifts. Destined to be recovered. They speak to us. As you well know..."

Basim: "Me?"

Mas'ood: "Oh, yes. A Hidden One you may be, but not just..."

—Mas'ood and Basim in the former's final moments, 860s.

Following Ali's capture, the Hidden Ones sent their newest initiate Basim to rescue him, and they both found evidence of Mas'ood's dealings with the Damascus Gate Prison guards, allowing them to identify the soap mill owner as an Order member. Meanwhile, Ali's second-in-command Beshi infiltrated one of Mas'ood's dig sites by posing as a slave and learned about the Ancient's operations at the caravanserai.

Basim leaping to assassinate Mas'ood

Basim subsequently infiltrated the caravanserai and worked up the civilians' sentiments against Mas'ood to lure him out of his locked office. When he emerged onto the balcony to investigate the commotion, Basim leapt down and assassinated Mas'ood, stabbing him with his Hidden Blade before hanging his body in a public display. His death alerted Qabiha to the Hidden Ones' presence in Baghdad and she cautioned Ning not to showcase herself too publicly to avoid meeting Mas'ood's fate, though her advice was ignored.

Among the shocked onlookers who witnessed Mas'ood's public assassination was his own son, Nimlot, who had accompanied him to the caravanserai that day. Unaware of his father's position within the Order or the abuse inflicted upon his workers, Nimlot saw this act as a senseless killing and vowed revenge on his murderer. After leaving Baghdad, he relocated to the city of al-Ula on the edges of the caliphate, where he worked to rebuild the fortune that Mas'ood's death had robbed him of. He did so by setting up a gang of robbers to prey on the vulnerable locals and traveling merchants, while concealing his involvement by masquerading as an upstanding community member.

By chance, Nimlot later met Basim when the Hidden One traveled to al-Ula on his own personal journey. After deducing his identity as Mas'ood's killer, Nimlot sought to enact his revenge by murdering Basim's own father, Ishaq ibn Khalid, whom his men had captured and were holding hostage. However, Basim saved his father and assassinated Nimlot for his role in harassing and misleading the townsfolk.

Behind the scenes

Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob is a fictional character featured as the first major assassination target in Assassin's Creed: Mirage. He is the only one of the five Order leaders in Baghdad not to have any subordinates that Basim needs to assassinate beforehand.

In his final moments in the Memory Corridor, Mas'ood indicated that he was aware of Basim's true nature as a Isu incarnation, though it is unknown how he learned this fact. It is possible that Qabiha revealed it to him, but why she seemingly chose to only tell Mas'ood is not explained.

Gallery

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  Close-up of Mas'ood
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  Mas'ood in his Order outfit and mask
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  Mas'ood overlooking the Caravanserai
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  Basim dragging Mas'ood to a rope
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  Mas'ood hanged
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  Mas'ood's final moments

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Mirage (first appearance)
  • Valley of Memory (mentioned only)