Sun (Hualien Trading Company)

He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. This template should be removed from the article 12 March 2024.

Sun (died 1725) was a Chinese businessman who served as the head of the Hualien Trading Company under the Qing Empire. Based in Portuguese Macau, he was one of the city's wealthiest and most influential merchants and operated his own floating gambling hall. He was also the uncle of the Assassin Xiao Han and a close associate of the Shimazu clan, in particular the Templar Shimazu Saito.

In 1725, Sun conspired to eliminate a rival trading company led by Lee Huiyin and allied with fellow businessmen Jan van Aert and Alan Jacob to this end. However, their efforts to sabotage Lee's company were thwarted by the Assassin Edward Kenway, who had allied himself with Lee.

Under the Templars' influence, Sun also attempted to decode an encrypted sea log containing information on the locaton of Angkor, the lost city of the Khmer Empire, believed by the Templars to be a Precursor site. Seeking the city's treasure, Sun formed an alliance with Saito, employing her as his bodyguard and lending his aid when a civil war broke out between Saito's ninja followers.

Biography

Alliance against Lee

In February 1725, Sun collaborated with Alan Jacob, a representative of the Far East Company, and Jan van Aert, the Chief Navigator of the Dutch East India Company, to sabotage the rival trading company led by Lee Huiyin and benefit their own respective businesses in the process. To this end, they hired Shimazu clan ninja led by the Templar Shimazu Saito to eliminate Lee at her own residence, the Mandarin's House.

After the ninja failed to kill Lee, Alan called an emergency meeting with Sun and Jan at St. Dominic's Church to discuss their next course of action. During the meeting, Sun expressed his belief that the failed attack nonetheless served as a clear warning to Lee that if she did not stop indulging her avarice, she would pay for it with her life. Unbeknowst to them, the Assassin Edward Kenway was watching the meeting from above after following Alan there and suspected one of them of being a Templar.

Sun meeting with Alan and Jan to discuss about Lee

Sun listened to Alan's plan to cripple Lee's company, which required Sun to use his connections with the Shimazu clan to have the ninja continue their attacks against Lee's operations. However, both Sun and Jan were hesitant to follow Alan's lead and questioned his motives. To entice their cooperation, Alan showed them a "treasure" he had acquired, which he promised would bring them unprecedented wealth.

Having been convinced to go along with Alan's plan, Sun later did as he had been told and persuaded Shimazu Saito to send several of her ninja to attack Lee's merchants located at the Macau market. He also used his connections with pirates across the Straits of Malacca to hire a crew to raid Lee's ships along the coast. However, this attack was ultimately thwarted by Edward Kenway, who subsequently interrogated the pirates' captain, Rupiya, and learned that Sun was his employer.

After Alan's plan to frame Lee's company for opium trafficking backfired and resulted in one of his ships being detained by the Dutch Navy thanks to Kenway's interference, Sun met with Alan and Jan at the port. There, he witnessed a furious Alan accuse Jan of betraying their agreement and attempting to sabotage his company, despite Jan claiming he had no choice in the matter. Sun broke up their fight and revealed that he suspected Lee had somehow learned about their plan and had sabotaged it. He then offered to help Alan recover his confiscated product, and reminded him and Jan that they could not end their alliance until they had dealt with Lee.

Working with the Shimazu clan

To recover the Far East Company's seized opium shipment, Sun again reached out to Shimazu Saito, meeting with her at a temple in Macau. There, Sun granted the Templar permission to kill anyone who got in her way, and assured her that once Lee and the European foreigners had been driven out of Macau, his merchants would dominate the market, greatly benefiting the Shimazu clan. Following this, Sun left the temple, unaware that Kenway had infiltrated Saito's ranks after acquiring a ninja's disguise and had eavesdropped on their conversation.

After Kenway destroyed the opium shipment to prevent anyone from stealing it, Sun retaliated by using his influence to blacklist the Assassin's recently-established organization, the Zhang Wei Union, so that its members would not find any clients to hire them.

Around this time, Sun also began searching for the lost city of Angkor, which was believed by the Templars to be a Precursor site. Seeking the city's treasure, Sun coerced Saito into giving him a sea log in her possession, which contained encrypted information on Angkor's location. However, Sun and Saito had to postpone their quest for the lost city due to a conflict between the ninja in their employ and the Japanese ninja formerly employed by Saito, who had decided to abandon her and form their own faction.

Following an altercation between Saito's men and the Japanese ninja, which was stopped by Kenway, Sun arrived with several guards and confronted the Assassin. Aware that Kenway sought the sea log given to him by Saito, Sun told him that it was his property and warned the Assassin against picking a quarrel with him, claiming that those who did rarely lived to tell the tale.

Sun and Kenway's standoff was soon broken up by the arrival of Lee, who had allied herself with the Japanese ninja. As Sun and Lee were about to clash, soldiers from the Dutch East India Company came to back up Kenway, revealing that Jan van Aert had betrayed Sun and sided with the Assassin. Eventually, the three-way standoff came to an end when Lee decided to retreat, and Sun followed suit. Walking with Saito afterwards, Sun reminded the Templar that she owed him her loyalty because he had protected her men, and promised to find someone to decipher the sea log soon.

Meeting with Xiao Han

In order to decode the sea log, Sun reached out to his nephew Xiao Han, arranging for him and his companions, Liu Qing and Xue Yan, to be escorted to his floating gambling hall. While awaiting their arrival, Sun and Saito were informed that Kenway had been allegedly spotted partaking in the casino games. Sun was amused by the Assassin's boldness and ordered Saito not to interfere, as he did not want any bloodshed in his establishment. He then tasked Saito to make sure his guests arrived safely, but the Templar secretly decided to search for Kenway, having deduced that the Assassin was using a decoy to distract them.

Once Xiao Han and his companions arrived, Sun welcomed his guests and quickly told them why he had summoned them, promising that they would be generously rewarded for their assistance. He then gave the sea log to his nephew, who claimed that he was familiar with the language as it had been passed down from their people, but it would take time to decipher. As an ecstatic Sun took back the log, Xiao Han questioned what he intended to do with Angkor's treasure once he retrieved it.

Claiming that Precursor technology was not to trifled with, Sun revealed his plans to gift the artifact to the Qing Emperor, expecting to be greatly rewarded in return. He also stated that Xiao Han and his people would be pardoned once the Emperor learned of their assistance, but this infuriated his nephew, who used a rope dart to snatch the log back from Sun. As Xiao Han reprimanded his uncle for surrendering himself to the Manchu regime and being a disgrace to their homeland and the Creed passed down in their family for generations, he and his companions drew arms, preparing to kill Sun in the name of the Assassin Brotherhood.

Personality and traits

Sun was a greedy and ruthless businessman who sought to increase his company's profits by any means necessary. As such, he was not above breaking the law or sabotaging his rivals to achieve his goals. Sun proved himself several times to be the most rational and cool-headed member of the alliance against Lee, breaking up Jan van Aert and Alan Jacob's fight and trying to maintain the alliance until they achieved their goal of driving Lee out of Macau.

However, Sun lacked any true loyalties and saw all his allies as nothing more than a means to accumulate more wealth and power. He only used Jan and Alan to try and remove his main opposition, Lee, believing that with her gone, he would be able to easily dominate Macau's market. He also viewed his partnership with Shimazu Saito as a means to acquire Angkor's treasure, and arrogantly told the Templar that she and her men were his "loyal servants" because he had offered them his protection. Despite his greed, however, he was aware of the dangers of Isu techonology and believed that no man should wield it; as such, he intended to deliver Angkor's artifact to the Qing Emperor rather than use it himself.

While he maintained the appearance of a defenseless old man, Sun was actually a cunning tactician. Rather than get his own hands dirty, he typically employed others to do his bidding, such as Saito and her ninja. His ruthless side was shown when he coldly ordered Saito to kill anyone who got in her way while attempting to steal the Far East Company's opium shipment, as well as when he threatened Edward Kenway. Sun was also shown to despise Westerners like Kenway, believing that they did not belong in Macau and taking it upon himself to remove them.

Gallery

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  Close-up of Sun

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple