Granada

Granada is a major city in Andalusia, Spain which served as the capital city of the Moorish Emirate of Granada during the last stages of the Reconquista. It is home to the Alhambra, the former royal palace of the emirate.

History

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, the Nasrid family founded in Granada what would become the last Muslim state in Iberia. The Emirate of Granada, as it was known, waged war intermittently against the Christian kingdoms on the peninsula for the next centuries. The protracted conflict rarely escalated into full-scale war until 1482, when the newly-unified Crowns of Castile and Aragon were convinced by Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada that the peninsula must be unified under the Catholic faith. That year, Castile and Aragon resolved to a decisive campaign for the reunification of Iberia.

Granada War

"For many years, the Brotherhood has done everything in its power to protect Granada and the Apple of Eden that the Sultan holds for us. Despite our many sacrifices and efforts, the city has finally fallen to the Templar Order in the guise of the Spanish army, directed by Torquemada."

―Aguilar de Nerha, 1491.

Torquemada, who was secretly a Master Templar of the Spanish Rite, used the Granada War as a cover to try and infiltrate the city, where the Emir Muhammad XII safeguarded an Apple of Eden on the Assassins' behalf. During the months-long siege of Granada, the Templars made various attempts to enter the city to steal the Apple. However, the Spanish Assassins were constantly one step ahead and sabotaged their efforts, destroying the besieging forces' supply line to hinder the assault. They also eliminated a traitorous Royal Engineer who planned to meet with the Templars and inform them of a secret entrance into Granada.

The palace of Alhambra

By 1491, most of the Emirate of Granada had fallen to the combined armies of Castile and Aragon, with only the capital city left uncoquered. Even when faced with imminent defeat, Muhammad XII refused to relent, goaded on in part by the machinations of a Templar spy in his court. It was the Templars' goal to exhaust the Castilian treasury by keeping them embroiled in the war as long a possible, thereby eliminating any prospect of them financing the voyage of Christoffa Corombo; this would, in turn, allow the Templars to stage their own expedition to the Americas first.

After rescuing their allies in Barcelona and Zaragoza, the Assassins Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Raphael Sánchez journeyed to Granada to uncover what they believed to be a Templar conspiracy. At this time, the outskirts of Granada were under occupation by the Templars who had infiltrated the ranks of the besieging Spanish Army. Moreover, the contested territory led to a breakdown in military discipline, and Spanish soldiers harassed civilians throughout the countryside; the towns outside the Granada walls nearly descended into anarchy. Raphael and Ezio acted swiftly in neutralizing all the Templar commanders and saving civilians from the lawless soldiers, though Ezio himself was lured into an ambush at an amphitheater. After escaping the trap, Ezio assassinated the Templar spy at the Spanish camp, in the process learning of the Templars' plot to deliberately prolong the war.

Without further ado, Ezio infiltrated Alhambra through the catacombs to convince Muhammad XII to surrender. In the meantime, another assault on Granada commenced, and the Templars, having received news of the their spy's death, took the emir hostage altogether. Ezio rescued Muhammad XII from his captors and persuaded him to abdicate, effectively ending the war. The Assassin then personally rushed to the city gates to carry this news before the armies, though he was forced to defeat the Moorish garrison at the gate to do so.

Granada burning

The Spanish Army marched triumphantly into the city that night, but the Templars, aggravated by their failure, incited the victorious soldiers into razing the city even while Queen Isabella I of Castile was in the midst of negotiations with Muhammad XII. Once again, the timely response of the Assassins cut short these atrocities, and peace terms were settled between Isabella and Muhammad without an issue, granting a temporary ceasefire while the emirate prepared for the formal transfer of Granada's sovereignty.

On 2 January 1492, the scheduled date of the transfer and formal capitulation, the palace of Alhambra was stormed by the Templars working under Tomás de Torquemada. With them was the son of Muhammad XII, Prince Ahmed, who they had abducted to use as ransom for the Apple of Eden in the emir's possession. While Muhammad XII resigned to the exchange, the meeting was interrupted by the Spanish Assassins Aguilar de Nerha and María, who killed all the Templars save Torquemada and seized the Apple themselves, though María perished during the fight.

Castile control

"It has been years since Granada fell, and the Inquisition has begun to break the treaty it made with Muhammad XII. The people of Granada suffer under the Templars' puppet regime."

―A Spanish Assassin on the state of Granada, 1499.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Granada, the religious rights of the Muslims were to be respected by Castile, a development that infuriated Torquemada, not least of all because he had wanted Muhammad XII executed. In stark violation of the treaty, Torquemada secretly ordered an Inquisitor, Juan de Marillo, to carry out a purge throughout the city. Ezio prevented this operation from running its course by hunting down the Inquisitors conducting the arrests, and assassinating Juan in the sewers without anyone noticing.

During Muhammad XII's abdication ceremony, the Templars targeted Queen Isabella for assassination, but rumors of the imminent attack reached the ears of the former French Assassin Helene Dufranc, who alongside Ezio, intercepted the Templars outside the ceremony and killed them, saving Isabella's life.

By 1499, Granada remained firmly under Castile's rule, which allowed the Spanish Inquisition to operate in the city and persecute its Muslim population, breaking the treaty between Queen Isabella and Muhammad XII. Aguilar, by now Mentor of the Spanish Brotherhood, assigned a team of Assassins to investigate the Inquisition's operations, after receiving word from their informants in Granada that the Templars had begun hunting Assassin sympathizers.

Garza's villa

During their investigation, the team encountered the Libyan Assassin Najma Alayza, who was hunting her brother Ubayd, an Assassin turncoat working with the Templars to capture the Brotherhood's allies. After rescuing three informants and failing to eliminate Ubayd, the Spanish Assassins were directed to a villa belonging to Ubayd's Templar handler Garza. The team confronted Garza as he was torturing captured Assassin sympathizers to death, but the Templar managed to escape to the Alhambra.

Following him, the Assassins witnessed an argument between Garza and Ubayd, which ended in the latter being stabbed to death after expressing remorse for the harm they inflicted on Granada. Garza fled once again, but was eventually cornered by the Spanish Assassins and killed by Najma, who then accepted her Spanish brethren's invite to join them and work together to restore order to Granada.

Gallery

• 
  The insignia of Granada from Assassin's Creed: Identity
• 
  Granada in Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
• 
  Granada's outskirts

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II: Discovery (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Identity (appears in deleted scene(s) only)
• Assassin's Creed film
• Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
  • Kinslayer
  • Echoes Through the Animus