Piri Reis
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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning recent or upcoming releases from the Assassin's Creed series. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
- "I am a navigator in the Sultan's navy, currently on leave to study cartography. But through my soldiering, I have also gained an appreciation for artillery and explosives. And it has served the Assassins well."
- ―Piri Reis, 1511.[src]
Haci Ahmed Muhiddin Piri (c. 1467 - c. 1554), more commonly known as Piri Reis for his legendary stature in the Ottoman Navy, was a famed admiral and cartographer.
Unknown to most, Piri was also a member of the Assassin Order, and a Master Assassin of the Ottoman Assassin Brotherhood. Though not involving himself in missions of violence, Piri served the Assassins as a technician, primarily providing them with materials and methods for crafting bombs.
He was a trusted friend of the Turkish Assassin leader Yusuf Tazim, and also later befriended Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the Mentor of the Italian Assassins.
Biography
Early life
- "For ten months I have been working on a new map for Bayezid. But he is old, and I am a perfectionist... Perhaps the next Sultan will appreciate my efforts."
- ―Piri speaking of Sultan Bayezid II.[src]
Piri was born in the Ottoman Empire, and became a seafarer from a young age. By his early teens, Piri travelled as a privateer with his uncle Kemal, with whom he completed several expeditions in and around the Mediterranean; though their work was described to be of "dubious legality."[1]
Eventually, by the time Piri was in his twenties, he and his uncle turned to a more respectable trade, and joined the naval forces of Sultan Bayezid II. As a navigator in the Ottoman Navy, Piri fought in the Ottoman-Venetian War from 1499 to 1503, losing many friends in the fight.[1]
In 1503, after the war had ended, Piri decided to halt his military adventures, and took a leave from the navy. He resided in Constantinople in order to shift his interests to a more intellectual area, setting up a small studio in the Grand Bazaar, where he began to study cartography.[1]
Assassin alliance
- Ezio: "We fight to end the fighting. It is a sad irony."
- Piri: "It will always be an irony, evet. But perhaps one day it will not be so sad."
- —Ezio and Piri, regarding the Assassins' motives.[src]
Despite some initial conflicts with the Assassin Order, Piri joined the Turkish Brotherhood to serve as a scholar and technician,[1] and even eventually progressed to the rank of Master Assassin.
Having witnessed and grown tired of the many artificial boundaries that had divided the nations he had travelled to, Piri was drawn to the Assassin philosophy, which he saw as the "truest intellectual freedom."[1]
Using his experience as a sailor, Piri invented specialized bomb variants and casings, all specifically for the Assassins' use. These he offered for a price at his workshop, given that those who wished to buy them were willing to learn how to use them first.[1]
In 1511, Piri heard of Ezio Auditore's arrival in Constantinople from Yusuf, and met the Mentor himself shortly afterwards. Yusuf had directed Ezio to Piri to ask for directions to the trading post of Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, which Piri readily gave. The cartographer also introduced Ezio to the variety of bombs he had for sale, as well as offered to instruct him in their use.[1]
The following year, in 1512, Ezio discovered the delivery of several firearms to equip the Byzantine Templar army, and reported his findings to Prince Suleiman I. Suleiman ordered Piri to bring Ezio safely to Cappadocia, where the Templars' headquarters was located.[1]
Despite the Janissaries' attempts to stop any ships from leaving by raising Great Chain across the Golden Horn, Ezio managed to destroy the chain, and set the Ottoman fleet ablaze; clearing the way out of the port. Piri only commented on Ezio's less than subtle approach, before setting sail.[1]
After arriving in Cappadocia, Piri awaited Ezio aboard his ship, as the Mentor set off to kill the Byzantine heir and Templar Manuel Palaiologos, and to retrieve the last of the Masyaf Keys. After Ezio had succeeded, setting much of the underground city ablaze as he did, he returned to the ship, which Piri directed back to Constantinople.[1]
Later life
By 1513, Piri continued his work as a cartographer, and produced what would come to be known as his most famous map, which contained one of the earliest, accurate depictions of the eastern shore of South America.[1]
In around the 1550s, by the time he was 80, Piri had become a legend in the Ottoman Navy, and was officially granted the title of "Reis" or "Admiral."[1]
Characteristics and personality
- Ezio: "Piri Reis? I think I have seen some of your earliest work."
- Piri: "Reis? Did Yusuf Tazim send you? That sounds like one of his exaggerations."
- —Piri, regarding his title as "Reis," 1511.[src]
Piri was an intelligent and witty man, who would appear disgruntled if interrupted.[2] He was a self-proclaimed perfectionist, who initially felt that his drafting skills were under appreciated by his patron. Regardless, he was described to be a man of "rare artistic and technical talent."[1]
Piri was a close friend of Yusuf, whom he spoke with regularly. Yusuf thought quite highly of him, referring to him as "Reis" forty years before he had even officially received the title.[1]
Trivia
- In Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, Christoffa Corombo's atlas contains a Piri Reis map, which was rescued from Templar hands by Ezio.
- In one of the contracts in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy, Piri is not portrayed as an Assassin. Instead, a group of Italian Assassins traveled to Constantinople to steal some of Piri's maps, after which they founded an Assassins Guild in the city.
- In one of Abstergo Industries' dossiers, it is speculated that Piri's map of Europe is secretly a map of the First Civilization Temples.
Gallery
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Original concept art by Martin Deschambault.
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Piri showing Ezio the location of the Polo trading post.
References
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