Oisel

Patience, brothers. Soon we will reveal the secrets of Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road. This article has been identified as being out of date. Please update the article to reflect recent releases and then remove this template once done.

Oisel was a member of the Frankish Brotherhood of Hidden Ones during the 9th century CE. In 870, he fought the Snake-Eaters, an Order of the Ancients faction that operated on the Silk Road.

Biography

Early life

Having both Frankish and Moorish ancestors, Oisel was born during the mid-9th century CE in the County of Anjou, in the west part of Francia. When his mother worked as a lord's accountant, Oisel was regularly warded by the washerwoman Rosalie. His father, who traveled in many countries, taught him many languages, Greek and Arabic among them. When he was seven years old, Oisel received a pierced coin from his father and kept it as a lucky charm around his neck.

Later, Oisel was inducted in the Hidden Ones, a secret organization that fought for the liberty of humanity. While the nun Mahaut operated as the bureau's leader in Chinon, Oisel was trained by Farid, a Moorish Hidden One from the Emirate of Córdoba. As all Hidden Ones, Oisel severed his ring finger to prove his commitment to the Brotherhood and received a Hidden Blade, and became friends with his fellow members Matthias and Aline. At some point, Oisel adopted an eagle he named Alouette.

Travel on the Silk Road

Letter from Levant

After a mission, Oisel returned to Chinon to wash his outfit. Upon encountering Rosalie, whom he did not immediately recognize, he refused her offer of cleaning his robes, fearing that she would find his hidden pockets or grow concerned at new bloodstains in it. After washing his clothes himself, Oisel met Aline and Matthias. The three Hidden Ones ran to the Bon Berger, an inn that served as the Hidden Ones' bureau. After the race, a drunken customer attacked Oisel and his friends. After defeating the drunkard, the group was joined by Mahaut, who accompanied them to the dovecote above the inn.

There, Mahaut showed Oisel a letter from the Constantinople Hidden Ones' leader Basim Ibn Ishaq informing Mahaut of an Order of the Ancients conspiracy he had found in Antioch. Oisel was chosen with Matthias to travel in Levant while Aline was sent in Scandinavia to learn the language of the Norse people due to the Viking expansion. While his friends shared their last day together, Oisel visited the butcher Gwen, who had tended to a wounded Alouette. Taking his healed raptor, Oisel joined Matthias in navigating the Loire to Nantes, and from there, boarded a ship for a weeks-long trip over the Mediterranean Sea to Lisbon, Portugal and then Antioch.

In Antioch, they found the city had a heightened military presence and lacking any trace of the expected local Hidden Ones. Through a series of puzzles, they managed to meet the quartet of Egyptian Hidden Ones Rashid, Kalim, Sihem, and Jessamyn. Jessamyn explained that they were the only ones, together with the two Franks, who answered Basim's call for help. Jessamyn then offered to lead Oisel and Matthias to Basim, who was in a caravanserai outside the city.

When Oisel and Matthias met Basim, he explained the emergency that had prompted him to ask Egypt's and Francia's Brotherhoods for aid, saying that he suspected the Snake-Eaters were affiliated with the Order of the Ancients. During the meeting, Hytham appeared and informed Basim that the Roman Brotherhood could not send help. Basim therefore decided to send the six young Hidden Ones who had answered him to eradicate the Snake Eaters while he would return with Hytham to Constantinople.

The start of the Road

The six Hidden Ones infiltrated a caravan led by Kazem, from whom Oisel learned the rudiments of the Sogdian language, which he already partially knew through his father's teachings. Later on, the Hidden Ones obtained some information on the Snake-Eaters thanks to the confession of a thief. A former merchant reduced to poverty by the military organization, he said that the Snake-Eaters forced merchants to pay excessive taxes and to stop only at their caravansarais. The group hailed from the East and were based in a fortress on the Silk Road.

During a night sortie, Oisel, Matthias, and Jessamyn engaged a Snake-Eaters patrol and took one prisoner, whom they interrogated and learned that the Snake-Eaters were a group of Sogdians who had united a decade earlier to make the Road secure. They were led by Dunya, the founder's granddaughter, and aimed to guide regional progress at specific times and places of their choosing. With this information, the six Hidden Ones headed to the Snake-Eaters' fortress, with Jessamyn and her group providing cover for Oisel's and Matthias' infiltration. Once inside, Oisel and Matthias confronted Dunya, who revealed that the Snake-Eaters' goal was to control the Silk Road and thereby maintain order across Eurasia by choosing when and where to provide wealth and knowledge. In the resulting clash, Dunya threw a knife at Alouette and killed her, forcing Oisel to flee and leave Matthias to fight alone.

Lost in the desert

Certain that Matthias had died, Oisel wandered through the desert towards Alexandria in search of his companions. Tired and wounded, he barely survived a wild dog attack before meeting a mysterious woman who offered him a drink. When a sandstorm struck, he took shelter in an ancient tomb, where he found and claimed a set of strange armor. That night, Oisel had a dream where he and Aline talked about Mahaut's seemingly righteous behavior and the irony of the Creed instructing the Brotherhood use questionable means to achieve their goals. After more wandering the next day, Oisel found his companions but was dismayed that Matthias was not with them. The Alexandrians then revealed that the Snake-Eaters were linked to the Order as Basim had suspected. With this information, the Hidden Ones hastily departed for Asia to reach the Tang dynasty capital of Chang'an.

Chang'an

Upon reaching Chang'an, the Hidden Ones saw a multitude of red banners around the city suggesting the Order's presence was strong. While Oisel explored the city, a trio of civilians observed that his armor did not match any known styles, whether local or foreign. They then escorted him to the villa of a noblewoman who had drawn similar motifs as those that adorned the armor. After meeting with the noblewoman, Oisel left the estate.

Together with his companions, Oisel improved his gear, gathered allies, and planned a way to storm the castle where Dunya resided, the Sogdian having survived the Hidden Ones' initial attack and fled east. Together with the people of Chang'an, the Hidden Ones stormed the Snake-Eaters' castle while Oisel personally hunted for Dunya. In the process, he ran into Matthias, whom Dunya had imprisoned and taken with her after defeating him in combat. After killing Dunya and the remaining Snake-Eaters, Oisel and the Hidden Ones founded a new bureau in Chang'an for the already-established local Brotherhood and recruited new members. After several months running the bureau, Oisel decided to return to Francia.

Behind the scenes

"Oisel" is an Old French word meaning "bird", derived from the Late Latin aucellus, which is a contraction of the Classical Latin avicellus, itself a diminutive of the Latin avis.

Appearance

• Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road