Cem

Prince Cem (22 December 1459 – 25 February 1495) was a pretender to the Ottoman throne, and a son of Mehmed II and brother of Bayezid II. Cem was also a member of the Templar Order.

After his brother became Sultan, Cem was placed under house arrest in Italy. He secretly became a close friend of Rodrigo Borgia, or Pope Alexander VI, and became closely allied with the Borgia family. Rodrigo intended to use Cem's ambition to conquer Constantinople for himself. However, the Assassin Brotherhood, realizing this plan, assassinated Cem in Capua in 1495.

Cem was responsible for locating the memoirs of Niccolo Polo, beginning the Templar goals (later continued by Ahmet) to unite the East and West into one Empire, and for revealling the location of the Apple of Eden to Rodrigo Borgia.

Biography

When a young man, Cem learned that Sultan Mehmet II, his father, had an Apple of Eden in his possession and that he had used to secure Constantinople. After failing to secure the throne of the Ottoman Empire after his father's death, he took the Apple and looked to it for aid. The Apple, however, did not listen to Cem, nor would it 'speak' to him.

Because of this Cem decided that the Apple should be passed to the Templars in the West, to men who had done more research into the Apple's power. Cem was, however, fearful that while accepting the Apple, the Borgia would shun him, the man to bring them the Apple, due to him being a more recent convert to the Order. He therefore decided to hide the Apple, until he could establish the Borgia's trust.

Before going to Rhodes to meet with the Templars, Cem hid the Apple in the Templar Archieve on Cyprus. Upon arrival in Rhodes the Hospitalliars arrested Cem and took him before their 'Masters in Europe'.

During his many years in imprisonment, Cem wrote to his nephew Ahmet, teaching him guiding him and shaping the way he thought and acted. It was through these letters that Ahmet learnt of the memoirs of Niccolo Polo and the secrets that the memoirs contained, it was through Cem's directions that Ahmet found the memoirs and learnt of the Vault in Masyaf.

Knowing that Cem alone knew the wherabouts of the Apple, the Borgia spent many years persuading and appealling to Cem's better nature, eventually they managed to draw the Apple's location from their prisoner. After securing the location of the Apple, Cem was of no more importance or use to the Borgia, and so left him. Cem spent another nine years in various prisons across Europe before being assassinated by the Assassin Brotherhood, who believed that the Borgia were planning to use Cem to conquer Constantinople. The Ottoman/Bzantine Templars were unaware of Asssassin involvement in Cem's death.

Legacy

Ahmet told the Templar, Hasan Pasha, through a letter, that it was Cem who began the project to use the vast knowledge in Altair's Libary to bring peace through uniting the East and the West into one Empire, moving as one body with one head.

Source

• Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel
• Assassin's Creed Recollection