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Pirates are seafaring criminals, who engage in activities ranging from theft and murder to naval warfare and coastal raids. They should not be confused with privateers, state sponsored sailors allowed to steal from the ships of enemy countries.

History

Pirates sailed the Mediterranean Sea during the Middle Ages, and were allied with the Templars controlling Cyprus. During Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's trip in Cyprus in 1191, a pirate named Pasha sailed him to Kyrenia. However, the majority of the pirates there attempted to capture him for the Templars. When Altaïr returned to Limassol, he assassinated their captain.

Around 1321, the Templars in Italy hired pirates to steal the Codex from Domenico Auditore, murdering his wife in the process.

In 1511, Al-Scarab was an honorable pirate who sought revenge on Ezio Auditore da Firenze for humiliating him, but after they worked together to fight off some watchmen, he returned the favor by sailing him to Acre. The Ottoman Assassins allied with the corsair Hayreddin Barbarossa to undermine Spanish control of Algiers. Also active at the time were the Templar pirate, Eveline Guerra, and Blaise Legros, whose only loyalty was to money, transporting Templars and Assassins wherever they would pay him.

The Golden Age of Piracy was considered to have taken place from the late 17th century to the early 18th century in the Caribbean Sea. William Kidd was a Scottish privateer active in the area. He was captured and executed on charges of piracy in 1701, but in truth, the accusations were made by Templars hoping he would reveal the location of the Shard of Eden he found.

Edward Kenway was a British privateer-turned-pirate active in the Caribbean who joined the Assassins. In the pirate republic of Nassau, Edward interacted with many pirates such as Blackbeard, Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny.

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

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." 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."

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. 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."

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." 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."

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."

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.