Selwyn

"The Order condemns all men to pain, for all men are but a shadow of the perfection we should know."

―Selwyn to Eivor, c. 877.

Selwyn (died 877), also known as The Gallows, was a Anglo-Saxon member of the Wardens of Faith sect of the Order of the Ancients. Holding the title of Palatinus, Selwyn worked as a reeve in the city of Wincestre.

Biography

Early years

"That hedge-pig has brought down laws like a hammer on Wincestre. Executing sinners on spurious charges in the square."

―Goodwin describing Selwyn to Eivor, c. 877.

Selwyn came from fortunate beginnings, something that made him accustomed to being superior over the various servants, serfs and ceorls around him. However, his father's habits of cheating, drinking and wasting money on such vices not only brought his family into disrepute, but also made a young Selwyn disgusted with them. He rose above his family’s shameful reputation and his father’s demons, which he believed stemmed from giving the weak too much leeway. Thus, with the Order's backing, Selwyn abused his power, enforcing barbaric punishments for petty crimes in a misguided attempt to destroy human effluence.

Reeve of Wincestre and death

Selwyn: "Perverter of justice! Who dares execute the King's noose?"

Eivor: "It is not in Aelfred's name that you carry out your work. You are The Order's executioner."

Selwyn: "Ah. You peer through the veil, but you do not see clearly. Aelfred's laws are a slave's fever-dream. He offers shit-soaked beggars a seat at his table. Where the meek devour the strong. Who best to judge the fate of the wretched many, if not the strong and worthy few?"

—Selwyn to Eivor in the Memory Corridor, c. 877.

By the 870s, Selwyn came to serve as one of Wincestre’s reeves alongside one of his counterparts, Goodwin, upholding the city's law and order under direct order of the King Aelfred. Circa 877, Selwyn and fellow members of the Order in Wincestre Hilda and Ealhferth, known in Order communications as the Quill and the Seax respectively, were assigned by the Maegester Fulke to kill Aelfred due to his collaboration with the “Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ", an informant who sought to undermine and eradicate the Order in England. While the others went about their own operations, Selwyn’s first priority was to take down his fellow reeve Goodwin, a close confidant of King Aelfred who had come close to revealing Selwyn's double life.

Selwyn in the Memory Corridor after being assassinated by Eivor

Soon, Selwyn sent his men to Goodwin's residence, arresting, capturing and bringing him to the Wincestre Garrison, afterwards having his men ransack his home and destroy any evidence of his investigations. Certain that he had gotten rid of Goodwin's meddlings, Selwyn turned to his second priority, undermining the king's recent law reforms, which involved unjustly executing numerous citizens of Wincestre, often peasants, over petty, questionable or otherwise spurious charges in the city square. At one trial, he was due to execute the commoner Leona and her husband Hubert, for their comments towards a fellow Order member, the “dead” Bishop Ealhferth. After the husband’s execution and the audience’s taunting, Selwyn began to make a speech on the stage in the square, denouncing those he considered “criminals”, before Eivor Varinsdottir of the Raven Clan assassinated him, in full view of the public, ending his life.

Trivia

• Like other Order members, Selwyn's cutscene in the Memory Corridor differs. At the end of his confession, the darkened tree with hanged people started to lower its rope and then it hanged Selwyn, whose spirit immediately vanished after succumbing to its pull. Selwyn's medallion was dropped from his hands as he was hanged.
• Selwyn is one of the four Order members that wanted and planned to kill Aelfred, along with The Quill, The Seax, and The Instrument.
• Selwyn shares similarities with the character Majd Addin in Jerusalem from the 2007 video game Assassin's Creed. Both served as the city's representative of the king—Alfred and Saladin, respectively—and was an overzealous executioner, though he did not sadistically enjoy it as Addin did, nor did he have the crowd's wild support during the executions.
• Selwyn’s death has profound similarities with the assassination of fellow order member The Arrow, as both are assassinated during a speech, in full view of the public, while on-stage and surrounded by guards. Both were also the subject of city arcs in-game.

Gallery

• 
  Selwyn presiding over the trial of a couple
• 
  Selwyn assassinated by Eivor
• 
  Selwyn about to be hanged in the Memory Corridor

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (first appearance)
• The World of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Journey to the North – Logs and Files of a Hidden One (mentioned only)