User:Alientraveller/Sandbox
Slavery is the subjugation of another person, to be bought and sold for forced labor. The First Civilization created humans to be their slaves, and the Assassins believe the Templars intend to return humanity to that state.
History
The First Civilization controlled humanity with the Pieces of Eden. However, interbreeding led to the birth of hybrids like Adam and Eve, who were immune to the power of these devices, causing the Human-First Civilization War.[1]
The ancient Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, but were liberated by the prophet Moses, who was armed with the Staff of Eden.[2]
Gladiators in the Roman Empire, like Anacletos, were typically slaves.[3]
The Templar Talal ran a slave ring in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade.[4]
Jenny Kenway, half-sister of the Templar Haytham Kenway, was kidnapped in 1735 and sold into sexual slavery in Topkapı Palace.
Eunuchs[7]
Europeans enslaved many Africans to work in their colonies in North America. In 1754, Silas Thatcher, an officer in the British Army, began enslaving members of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation. Haytham and his band of Templar brothers freed the slaves and killed Silas.[8]
At the start of the American Revolutionary War, Lord Dunmore offered freedom to any slave who would join the British Army.[9]
Gallery
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One of Talal's slaves
References
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Moral ambiguity
- "What follows are the three great ironies of the Assassin Order: (1) Here we seek to promote peace, but murder is our means. (2) Here we seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to a master and set of rules. (3) Here we seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet we are practitioners ourselves."
- ―Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex[src]
Despite their relative benevolence to the majority of Templar activities, many Assassins expressed discomfort with their Order. When Desmond Miles was rescued by the Assassins, he assumed they were the "good guys", but Shaun Hastings advised him to "not get carried away", reminding him their function was to kill people. Rebecca Crane acknowledged "it's not ideal. And taking a life is never easy. But sometimes there's no other way. Sometimes, Desmond, people have to die for things to change."[1] Desmond's ancestor Connor tried to avoid killing William Johnson, and when he had to, he told his Mentor Achilles that "I thought it might bring clarity. Or instill a sense of accomplishment. But all I feel is regret." Achilles comforted him, explaining to "hold fast to that. Such sacrifices must never come lightly."[2]
Both Desmond and Lucy Stillman fell out with their leader William Miles: his cold demeanour and the harsh training he put them through since childhood led Desmond to regard his father as a "[prison] warden" rather than a father.[3] Lucy defected to the Templars after being sent to infiltrate them, telling Clay Kaczmarek that William was "using" them and claimed "he doesn't think about the lives he's hurting. We aren't people to him."[4]
Nikolai Orelov served the Order to please his father, with whom he had a negative relationship. When he left, he felt "I began as a crusader for change and now I am no better than a common grave-robber."[5] When the Assassins in the FBI began holding his family hostage to make him give up his secrets, he opined to his son Innokenti "These are not honourable men, Kenya. They are killers. They live by old laws which apply only to them and then call themselves heroes." However, Orelov was also brutal towards his son when training him to fight the Assassins. Viewing these events via his genetic memory, Orelov's great-grandson Daniel Cross deemed the Assassins "a family of wolves, opportunistic, savage. They'll turn on each other at a moment's notice: they're anarchists. And anarchy can never lead to a unified world."[6]
Connor expressed disdain for the Assassins' secrecy, an opinion shared centuries earlier by some Assassins under Altaïr's leadership, who disagreed with him taking the Order back underground. Altaïr wrote "They grow angry, insisting it is a mistake to shroud ourselves. They say it slows our work. But they do not understand the risks. To expose ourselves now would be too dangerous. I fear we would be branded madmen and attacked."[1]
The Assassins also allied with dubious figures such as members of the House of Medici or Vladimir Lenin, or would spare the likes of Tomas de Torquemada, simply because they were not Templars. Vali cel Tradat left the Assassins before the Templars because they did not try to stop the Ottoman Empire's conquest of his native Wallachia.[7]