User:Alientraveller/Sandbox

A Crusader ship in Acre harbor

Ships are large seafaring vessels used to transport goods and passengers. During the Medieval Ages, ships were often used as outposts for merchants, guards or thieves, and fleets could form a blockade.

The introduction of cannons on ships turned them into weapons and guards for the colonial powers in America, while enabling the Assassins and pirates to become naval powers in their own right.

Medieval ships

During Medieval times, ships were divided into the smaller two-masted traghetti and larger, triple-masted carracks. The former were normally used as ferries, while the latter could serve as warships. Most Italian ferries were painted blue, although the ones in Rome appeared brown. Italian and Ottoman carracks were identical in shape, but Ottoman ferries were a different model, and could be rowed if necessary.

Building ships required elm, oak and fir wood, while sails were made of flax. Dockworkers at the Arsenale di Venezia were capable of building a ship every day at the height of Venice's power. Ships were typically defended by archers, although the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires utilized Greek Fire. Ships were susceptible to sticky bombs, which would detonate after being thrown onto the hull.

• 
  Traghetti
• 
  Carrack
• 
  Ottoman ferry

Colonial ships

Cannons meant naval engagements were common in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea by the 18th century. Ships would line up against each other and fire cannons, swivel guns or mortars, or ram each other. Chain shot could be fired to demast a ship if the captain decided to board instead of sink them. The Colonial Assassins formed their own navy by the 18th century.

Ship types of this era, from smallest to largest, included:

• Gunboats were small, inexpensive and easy to assemble ships armed with one or two large cannons. They would grouped together to fire in numbers.

• Schooners were small light craft, armed with several cannons. They were the preferred ships for privateers during the American Revolution. Their speed meant they could scout ahead and dump gunpowder kegs in the sea, causing them to explode on impact with pursuing enemies (similar to laying naval mines).

• Brigs were larger than a schooner and equipped with a bow ram and 24 cannons, allowing them to flank and heavily damage targets in battle. Brigs and schooners had two sailing masts.

• Frigates were long, relatively light warships loaded with 24-46 cannons. Due to their size and speed, they were often used for reconnaisance, or to escort merchant ships.

• Man-of-war was a catch-all term for the largest and most powerful warships, many of which were Ships of the Line, designed with multiple gun decks bearing 16-50 cannons and all avaliable types of ammunition. Men-of-War and frigates had three sailing masts.

Customized ships like the Jackdaw and the Aquila appeared to be a cross between a brig and frigate, while possessing the firepower of a Man-of-War, giving them the advantage in strength and speed. In 1754, Haytham Kenway sailed to Boston on the Providence, an English merchant ship that resembled a Man-of-War, due to her number of sails and gun decks.

Ships needed to be crafted with spruce lumber, Oak bark and bear grease, while sails could be sown with Linsey-woolsey. Ships could be damaged by extreme weather, but this could be avoided by having the crew brace during a storm. Harbormasters could be paid to outfit a ship's hull with more wood or iron to make it more durable.

• 
  The Aquila escorting merchant schooners and gunboats
• 
  La Belladonna, a French frigate
• 
  The Providence resembled a Man-of-War

Modern times

The modern Assassins operated a surveillance ship, the Altair II, which was captained by Gavin.

Swimming (real world write-up)

Ezio swimming in Romagna

Swimming is a game mechanic introduced in Assassin's Creed II, allowing Ezio Auditore da Firenze to navigate through water, or to use it as a hiding spot.

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is unable to swim in Assassin's Creed. In the instruction manual of Assassin's Creed II, Lucy Stillman attributes this to a bug in the Animus.

Ezio's swimming moves consists of breaststrokes, but he uses the front crawl for fast swimming. He is able to dive and hold his breath for several seconds. The mechanics went unchanged for the three subsequent console games, including for the Assassin's Creed III playable characters Connor and Haytham Kenway. Civilians, guards and other nonplayable characters will instantly drown in water, while apprentices will disappear but not be killed.

In the portable game Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, swimming is expanded for missions where Aveline de Grandpré explores the flooded caverns beneath Chichen Itza. The camera follows her underwater, and she can hold her breath for under a minute.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's main playable character is Haytham's father Edward Kenway, a pirate who can dive to the seabed to find treasure. His ship, the Jackdaw, is equipped with a diving bell allowing him to dive for extended periods of time by placing his head in it whenever he needs to take a breath. The game also introduces underwater combatants in sharks.

Gallery

• 
  Aveline swimming through sea caves
• 
  Edward using a diving bell
• 
  Edward searching for sunken treasure
• 
  Edward swimming by a shark

Kenway family

The Kenway family were a British family during the 18th century, whose members individually swore allegiance to the Assassins and Templars.

History

The earliest known member of the Kenway family was the pirate Edward Kenway, born to an English father and Welsh mother. He married Caroline Scott and had a daughter named Jenny. After joining the Assassins and ending his life in the Caribbean, Edward remarried to Tessa Stephenson-Oakley, and they had a son named Haytham in London.

In 1735, Edward was murdered by men secretly working for Reginald Birch, who also kidnapped Jenny and sold her into slavery. Birch took in Haytham under his wing and trained him to become a Templar. In 1757, Haytham rescued Jenny from Damascus and learned the truth, and they killed Birch. Despite this, Haytham remained loyal to the Order.

Two years beforehand, while searching for the Grand Temple in North America, Haytham conceived a child with the Kanien'kehá:ka woman Kaniehtí:io. Their son Ratonhnhaké:ton became the Colonial Assassin Connor, who eventually killed his father when it became clear their ideologies were irreconcilable.

Connor eventually had children, whose bloodline continued to Desmond Miles.

And that's it for now, until we learn about Connor's kids or if Haytham had a French child or something. :S

Tactics

Edward, Haytham and Connor were masters of hand-to-hand combat and dual-wielding, and trained in freerunning and swimming. They were also adept at being inconspicuous while blending and eavesdropping, making more of an effort to socialize while doing the former.

As he was trained by Templars rather than Assassins, Haytham lacked skills his father and his son shared, like the ability to balance on tree branches or hunting and fighting wild animals. He also never commanded his own ship.

Calculations

The First Civilization's mathematical studies made them proficient in the studies of alternate timelines.

• The Apple of Eden showed Ratonhnhaké:ton that if his mother Kaniehtí:io had never died, then he would not have been around to confiscate it from George Washington and prevent him from being corrupted by its power.
• Juno showed Desmond Miles what would happen if Lucy Stillman had lived: Abstergo would have arrived to claim Ezio's Apple of Eden, and then failed to prevent the cataclysm after placing it in the Eye-Abstergo satellite.
• She later showed Desmond that if he did not release her from the Grand Temple, then the cataclysm would have destroyed humanity, and he would have led the survivors in a restart of civilization. Long after his death, history would have repeated itself, as Desmond would have been worshipped as a god, and his teachings used to justify mass murder.

Other stuff

• Bribery (merge Heralds and Town criers?)
• Smuggling?

“He has such a mixed heritage and upbringing and exposure to so many different ideas, so he’s quite unique in the world,” May said. “It makes him more thoughtful. He’s more considerate of different perspectives. He spends a lot more time observing and thinking than he does making snap judgments and proclamations.”

Unlike previous Assassin Altaïr, who was motivated by his desire to restore his honor, and Ezio, who was motivated by revenge, Connor is motivated by a desire to “just do good in the world,” May said.

“He sees a lot of wrong in the world … and he finds that there’s no one else out there willing to do anything about it,” May said. “It definitely makes him a bit of an idealist and in some sense, it makes him a little bit naive, that he thinks that one person can make a difference, but he clings to that belief and remains very firm in his convictions, so I think it makes him endearing in a way that previous assassins haven’t been.”

Saint Augustine

• Henderson in Distress
• Paving the Way
• Dread of Night

Louisbourg

• Troubled Waters
• Raiding the Prospector
• One of a Kind

The Bahamas

• Blistering Dawn
• A Call for Help
• Search for the Somerset
• The Ghost War, Act 1
• The Ghost War, Act 2

Virgin Islands

• The Sea Wolves
• A Midnight Engagement
• The Giant and the Storm