Great Purge (1757-1763)
The Great Purge[1] was a full-scale assault on the Colonial Assassins in the Thirteen Colonies by the Colonial Templars. The purge lasted approximately six years, from 1757 to 1763, and resulted in the near-total destruction of the Colonial Brotherhood, which would not return to its former strength until almost two decades later, during the American Revolutionary War.
History
Haytham's arrival
Prior to Haytham Kenway's arrival in the colonies, the Colonial Brotherhood under the Mentor Achilles Davenport controlled a number of forts and settlements along North America's Atlantic coast and maintained their hold through the use of gangs as enforcers. The Assassins also possessed an established network of spies and allies. As such, they were more powerful than the Templars in the area.[2]
Between 1752 and 1754, the high-ranking Templars Lawrence Washington,[3] Samuel Smith,[4] and James Wardrop[5] were assassinated after stealing the Precursor box and Voynich manuscript from the Assassins in Saint-Domingue following the 1751 earthquake.[6]
After Haytham arrived in the New World in 1754[7] and established the Colonial Rite as its first Grand Master,[8] the resurgent Templars quickly came into conflict with the well-established Colonial Assassins. Beginning as a proxy war between the Templars and mercenaries recruited by the Assassins, the conflict escalated when the two factions sided with opposing European powers during the Seven Years' War.[2]
Turning the tide
From 1757 onward, the former Assassin Shay Cormac helped the Templars track down and kill several of his former comrades, including the high-ranking Assassins Kesegowaase,[9] Hope Jensen,[10] and Chevalier de la Vérendrye.[11] In addition to his former colonial brothers, Shay also eliminated Adéwalé, a legendary member of the Caribbean Brotherhood.[12]
Shay also used his ship the Morrigan, a heavily modified sloop-of-war, to cripple the Assassin navy. Among the ships which fell victim to his actions were Adéwalé's vessel, the Experto Crede,[12] the Gerfaut captained by Chevalier de la Vérendrye,[11] and the Storm Fortress, the flagship of the Assassin navy.[13] Shay also cleared out Assassin-allied gang headquarters in New York, liberated several forts in the River Valley and along the Atlantic coast, intercepted several Assassins during their contracts, and killed a number of stalkers sent after him personally, further weakening the Assassin presence in the colonies.[2]
In 1760, in a decisive battle at an Isu temple in the Arctic, the Brotherhood's leadership was broken. The Assassin Liam O'Brien was killed, and Haytham crippled Achilles. Thereafter, the Brotherhood's influence in the colonies was severely diminished and they were left on the brink of destruction, while the Templars' power continued to grow. Confident that he was no longer a threat, the Templars spared Achilles' life, on the condition that the Assassins stop searching for more Isu sites.[14]
Final assault
In 1763,[15] three years after the Assassins' defeat at the Arctic, the Templars launched their final attack on the Davenport Homestead, killing all of the remaining Colonial Assassins save for Achilles[16] and Robert Faulkner.[17] Convinced that the lone Mentor no longer posed any threat, the Templars spared Achilles' life once again, this time on the condition that he give up his life as an Assassin.
However, some Assassins survived the purge, such as Benjamin Tallmadge, who went into hiding.[18] The French Assassin Pierre Bellec, who was training in the colonies at the time, left for France before the Templars could claim his life.[19] Nevertheless, the ruthless acts committed by Haytham during the purge had a lasting effect on Bellec, who later claimed to his apprentice Arno Dorian that he had seen Templars "put entire villages to the sword, just for the chance of killing one Assassin".[20] These experiences deepened his hatred for the Templar Order and made him resistant to the very idea of the truces proposed by Mentor Mirabeau[21] or Arno.[22]
A depressed and embittered Achilles would spend the next six years in isolation at his manor, allowing it to fall into disrepair. It was not until the arrival of Haytham's son Ratonhnhaké:ton that the Colonial Brotherhood would rise from the ashes.[23] Under Achilles' training, Ratonhnhaké:ton would go on to exterminate most of the Colonial Templars and rebuild the Colonial Brotherhood during the American Revolutionary War.[24]
Known victims and survivors
Victims
- Atasá:ta's father[24]
- Adéwalé (West Indies Brotherhood)[2]
- Hope Jensen[2]
- Kesegowaase[2]
- Liam O'Brien[2]
- Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye[2]
Survivors
- Pierre Bellec (Parisian Brotherhood)[25]
- Lawrence Cato[26]
- Achilles Davenport[24]
- Robert Faulkner[24]
- Benjamin Tallmadge, Sr.[24]
Behind the scenes
The Great Purge is an event first mentioned in Assassin's Creed III, occurring off-screen during the time skip from playing as Haytham in 1755 to playing as a young Ratonhnhaké:ton in 1769. Further details are provided by Shaun Hastings in some of the Database entries, but the purge would not be depicted until Assassin's Creed: Rogue, where it serves as the main focus for the latter half of the story. Even then, the final stages of the purge are not shown, due to Shay leaving for Europe in 1760.
The Great Purge is similar to the identically-named event in the year 2000, which was first depicted in Assassin's Creed: The Fall. However, the 2000 purge was much bigger in scale, as it involved the eradication of multiple Brotherhoods across the globe.
Appearances
- Assassin's Creed III (first mentioned) (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Forsaken (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Unity (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (indirect mention only)
References
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Infographics
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Assassin's Creed: Rogue
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – By Invitation Only
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – One Little Victory
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – We the People
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Lessons and Revelations
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – Journey to the New World
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – The Braddock Expedition
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Scars
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Caress of Steel
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Cold Fire
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Bravado
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – The Storm Fortress
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Non Nobis Domine
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – Database: Achilles Davenport
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – Database: Davenport Homestead
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – Database: Robert Faulkner
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – Something on the Side
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Pierre Bellec
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – Confrontation
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – Graduation
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – A Cautious Alliance
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – A Boorish Man
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Assassin's Creed III
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR
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