Levant
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The Levant is a geographic and cultural region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus, and parts of southern Turkey.[1]
Throughout much of recorded history, the region has been a cultural and spiritual center, birthing the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Due to this, however, it has also been embroiled in countless wars and conflicts as different nations have attempted to control the land.[1] The Third Crusade was one such conflict, taking place in the late 12th century.[2]
The Levant was also home to one of the oldest branches of the Assassins: the Levantine Brotherhood. Based in Masyaf, the Assassins there were a public organization, openly fighting the Knights Templar in the Crusades,[2] before declining into obscurity after the Mongol siege of Masyaf in 1257.[3]
History
Antiquity
At least one Isu vault was located in the Levant, underneath what would become the city of Jerusalem. In the 10th century BCE, Solomon, a King of Israel, built a temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, which was situated above the vault and guarded the Ark of the Covenant.[4][5]
As early as 38 BCE, the Hidden Ones, under the leadership of the Mentor Bayek, began spreading their influence from Egypt to the Levant.[6] The Hidden One Kawab planned to travel to Judea to help end the rule of King Herod I, whose reign was seen as tyrannical.[7]
In the 1st century CE, Jesus of Nazareth, a preacher and wielder of a Shroud of Eden, was condemned and crucified in Jerusalem by the Order of the Ancients, who sought to acquire the Shroud. However, Jesus' disciples recovered the artifact and attempted to resurrect him with it.[8][9]
Middle Ages
In 870 CE, Oisel, a young member of the Frankish Brotherhood of Hidden Ones based in Chinon's local bureau, received a letter from Basim Ibn Ishaq, the leader of the local branch of Hidden Ones in Constantinople, which asked him to follow Basim's travels in the Levant, starting in Antioch. Accompanied by his friend Matthias, as well as the Egyptian Hidden Ones Jessamyn, Kalim, Rashid, and Sihem, the group would travel along the Silk Road as they fought against the Snake-Eaters, a mysterious organization that was extorting travelling merchants.[10]
Around this time, Stowe, a member of the Order of the Ancients based in England, acquired a piece of an Isu dagger from a slain Hidden One, which he sent to Syria.[11] The blade would remain there for centuries, until the Templar agent known as "The Hideout" was tasked with smuggling it out of Syria in 1189. The Templar enlisted the help of the Assassin Faisal to do so, and Faisal ultimately delivered the artifact to Constantinople.[12]
In 1191, at the time of the Third Crusade, the Levant was occupied by both Crusader and Saracen forces, who waged war for control of Jerusalem. While the Crusaders established their stronghold in the city of Acre, the Saracens were based in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Templars, operating as a public knightly order that ostensibly fought alongside the Crusaders, began to spread their influence to the region, planting agents in each of the major cities and searching for an Apple of Eden that would allow them to "liberate" the Levant.[2]
Opposing the Templars' goals, the Levantine Assassins retrieved the Apple and tasked Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad with the deaths of several influential individuals, Crusader and Saracen alike, who were secretly members of the Templar Order. All of these individuals were located in either Damascus, Acre, or Jerusalem, and their deaths severely weakened the Templars,[2] forcing them to flee to the island of Cyprus.[13] After each assassination, Altaïr would return to the Assassin fortress located in the village of Masyaf to report to the head of the Levantine Brotherhood, Al Mualim.[2]
Following Altaïr's assassination of Al Mualim, who had betrayed the Brotherhood,[14] the former became the new Mentor and led the Levantine Assassins into a golden age with the help of the Apple of Eden.[3][15] He drove the Templars out of their base on Cyprus, ridding the Levant of Templar influence,[13] and halted the Mongol Empire's inexorable march by helping the Mongolian Assassin Qulan Gal eliminate Genghis Khan in 1227.[15][16] However, the Mongols would eventually reach the Levant three decades later, laying siege to the Assassin strongholds in Alamut and Masyaf.[15] Realizing that the Brotherhood could not survive as a public organization, Altaïr trusted Niccolò and Maffeo Polo to continue the Assassins' work in secret and establish guilds elsewhere in the world.[15][17]
Renaissance
By the Renaissance era, despite their respective declines centuries prior, both the Assassins and Templars continued to operate in the Levant, primarily in the cities of Damascus and Jerusalem. With the help of the Ottoman Brotherhood, the Levantine Assassins were able to stabilize their guild and diminish the Templars' influence.[18]
In 1511, Ezio Auditore, the Mentor of the Italian Assassins, journeyed to Syria in search of Altaïr's fabled library. He arrived in Masyaf to find it seemingly abandoned, only to be ambushed by a regiment of Templars that also sought to access the library and captured the Mentor.[19] After escaping the Templars' attempted execution, Ezio pursued and assassinated the Templar captain Leandros, from whom he recovered Niccolò Polo's journal, informing him of the six Masyaf Keys hidden by the Polos in Constantinople.[20]
Upon recovering the keys, Ezio returned to Masyaf with Sofia Sartor and entered the library, finding Altaïr's skeleton holding a sixth key and his Apple of Eden.[21] After learning that Altaïr had sealed himself inside the library to protect the Apple, Ezio chose to leave the artifact there and retired from his life as an Assassin, returning to Italy.[22]
Modern Era
Around 1724, the British Assassin Edward Kenway visited the Levant during his search for Isu sites across the globe. After discovering a vault underneath the remains of Alamut Castle in Persia,[23] he contacted the Brotherhood, who performed additional excavations in Syria, hoping to find other Precursor ruins.[24]
In 2012, when Desmond Miles relived the genetic memories of Altaïr during his imprisonment by Abstergo Industries, the Animus rendered the Levantine countryside visited by Altaïr as a virtual environment simply called "the Kingdom". This region was highly condensed compared to its real counterpart and mostly geographically inaccurate.[2]
Appearances
- Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
- Assassin's Creed II
- Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel
- Assassin's Creed: Memories (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Hidden Ones (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Eagle's Shadow
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Geirmund's Saga (mentioned only, as "Syrland")
- Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road
- Echoes of History (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book (appears as Syria)
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple (mentioned only, as Syria)
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (mentioned in Database entry only)
References
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