Shimazu Saito
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Shimazu Saito was a member of both the Shimazu clan and the Japanese Rite of the Templar Order during the early 18th century. She was of mixed-heritage and wore a metallic oni mask to conceal her identity. She is also an ancestor of the 21st-century Abstergo Industries doctor and Templar Shimazu Sei.[1]
In 1725, Saito led a group of ninja loyal to the Shimazu clan in the search for the lost city of the Khmer Empire, an alleged Precursor site, attacking a number of people in Macau who were connected to it. One of those people was the British Assassin Edward Kenway, who was also on the site's trail and who ended up clashing with Saito and her ninja several times while in the city.
During her mission, Saito allied herself with the Macau-based businessman Master Sun and recruited a number of ninja native to the Qing Empire to reinforce her ranks. However, this infuriated the full-blooded Japanese ninja serving under her, and they ultimately defected to form their own faction, seeking to eliminate Saito for the perceived dishonor she had brought to the Shimazu clan.
Biography
Attacks in Macau
In February 1725, Saito, alongside her loyal ninja followers, attempted to silence anyone in Macau who knew about the ruins of Angkor to conceal the site's existence. Their first targets were the Dutch explorer Hendrik, who had stumbled upon the ruins during his travels, and his friend and fellow navigator John Young, who had stolen Hendrik's story and was boasting about his alleged discovery.[2]
Saito dispatched three of her ninja to kill Young, but the navigator was protected by Edward Kenway, who was also on Angkor's trail and had approached Young after hearing about his story. Hendrik was not as lucky, as he was attacked by Saito's ninja in his room at the Dutch East India Company's dormitories in Macau and succumbed to his wounds shortly after being found by Kenway.[3]
Saito encountered Kenway for the first time while the latter was trying to hide in an alley from Hendrik's company mates, who had mistaken him for Hendrik's killer. Unaware of his identity or Assassin affiliations, Saito ordered her ninja to capture Kenway alive and they ended up chasing him to Macau's port, where Saito watched from afar as Kenway effortlessly fought off many of her men. Impressed by the stranger's skills, she ordered her men to find out everything they could about him.[4] After Kenway was saved by Young and his ship, Saito loosed an arrow at the pair as they sailed away, which Kenway dodged.[5]
Attack on the Mandarin's House
After Hendrik's sea log was acquired by businesswoman Madam Lee upon his death and she refused to hand it over to the Templars,[6] Saito led her ninja in an attack on Lee's private residence, the Mandarin's House, in order to retrieve the book. There, Saito once again ran into Kenway, who had also come for the log and had managed to grab it shortly before the attack.[7]
Kenway helped Lee's guards fend off some of the ninja before realizing Saito was their leader and attempting to kill her to quickly end the battle. The two engaged in a duel, with Saito coming out on top and managing to break the Assassin's sword. As one of her ninja arrived to pick her up on horseback, Saito revealed her name to Kenway and asked for his in return. After the latter complied, Saito told him that she would remember his name before she and her ninja retreated, their mission seemingly a failure. Upon making it to safety, however, Saito revealed to one of her followers that she had successfully acquired Hendrik's log, having taken it from Kenway during their duel.[8]
After inspecting the log, Saito discovered that the information the Templars sought was encrypted. Deducing that Kenway had the cipher needed to decode it, she ordered her men to find and capture the Assassin.[6]
Alliance with Master Sun
During her time in Macau, Saito formed an alliance with Master Sun, the head of the Hualien Trading Company, who offered his protection to the Templar and her ninja in exchange for their loyalty. After an opium shipment belonging to the Far East Company, whom Sun had allied himself with against Madam Lee, was confiscated by the Dutch East India Company, Sun reached out to Saito in order to recover it. Meeting at a temple in Macau, Sun gave Saito permission to kill anyone who got in her way, and reminded her that once Lee and the Europeans foreigners had been driven out of Macau, his merchants would dominate the market, greatly benefiting the Shimazu clan.[9]
As Saito escorted Sun out of the temple, she became suspicious of one of her men, who was actually Kenway in disguise, having taken the outfit of a ninja he had killed. Nevertheless, Saito mobilized her followers to attack the Far East Company ship which held the opium. When one of her men expressed concern regarding the mission's risks, Saito told him that it was in fact an opportunity to purge the clan's weak links.[9]
Making their move at midnight, Saito and her ninja attacked the guards protecting the ship, though Saito quickly noticed one of her men sneaking away from the fight and into the ship. Deciding to follow the suspicious ninja, she confronted him in the gunpowder storage room, where the ninja attempted to ignite the gunpowder with a candle. Saito stopped him and recognized the ninja to be Kenway, threatening him with her sword.[9]
Following a failed attempt to interrogate Kenway about the cipher needed to decode Hendrik's log, Saito caught the Assassin's candle with her sword after the latter had dropped it, leaving her vulnerable for an attack. This was Kenway's intention, as he quickly turned around to disarm Saito and managed to punch her in the face, knocking off her mask. Kenway then pinned Saito to a wall to try and interrogate her, but was interrupted by the arrival of two of her ninja who had come to check on their master.[1]
Managing to free herself from Kenway's grasp, Saito fought him, but the Assassin escaped after grabbing one of the two ninja present and tossing him into the other. As Saito moved to retrieve her mask, she vowed to make Kenway pay for the humiliation he had made her endure, to which the Assassin told her she was welcome to try.[1]
Saito subsequently questioned one of her ninja about the situation on the ship's deck. He informed her that the mainland Japanese ninja had deserted out of discontent towards their treatment and that Madam Lee had arrived with armed men to seize the opium shipment. Outnumbered and outgunned, Saito deemed the battle lost and ordered a retreat.[1]
Shimazu clan civil war
Saito later gave Hendrik's log to Master Sun, hoping that the latter could use his connections to find someone to decipher the book's contents. However, her search for the lost city had to be postponed after a war broke out between her faction of mixed-blood ninja and the Japanese deserters, who sought to eliminate Saito, viewing her as a traitor of the Shimazu clan.[10]
When some of Saito's men came under attack by the Japanese ninja, Sun went to protect them, albeit only after the fight had already been broken up by Kenway. After Madam Lee, who had allied herself with the Japanese ninja, and the Dutch East India Company, now working with Kenway, both joined the confrontation, resulting in a three-way standoff, Sun decided to retreat.[11]
As Saito walked with Sun following the standoff, the latter talked about their alliance and reminded the Templar that she owed him her loyalty because he had protected her men. However, Saito had not failed to notice that Sun had only intervened in the fight when her men were close to defeat, and deduced that Sun was using their partnership to acquire Angkor's treasure for himself. Despite this, she believed that she had no choice but to follow Sun's lead until they deciphered Hendrik's log.[11]
Personality and traits
While loyal to the Templar cause, Saito's main commitment was to the Shimazu clan and she sought to ensure its prosperity by any means necessary.[9] She was shown to care about the well-being of the ninja serving under her, knowing when to order a retreat after they were overwhelmed,[1] though she also believed that the clan also had some "weak links" that she wished to purge.[9] Despite this, she was not held in high regard by the full-blooded Japanese members of the clan due to her mixed-heritage, and eventually came to be seen as a traitor due to her decision to recruit mixed-blood ninja into her ranks.[10]
Saito was shown to be very observant of her surroundings and the people she allied herself with, and as such could not be easily fooled. She quickly saw through Edward Kenway's disguise when the latter tried to infiltrate her ranks using a ninja uniform,[9] and was aware that Master Sun was only using their alliance to further his own goals. Despite this, she decided to continue working with him because Sun possessed the necessary resources to ensure the protection of Saito's subordinates and help her in her search for Angkor.[11]
When Saito first encountered Kenway, she was intrigued by his skills and wished to learn as much about him as possible.[4] After deducing that he was a foreigner, she came to resent him because she believed the Assassin was interfering with affairs that did not concern him.[8] Her resentment of Kenway only grew when the Assassin removed her mask during one of their encounters, thus "humiliating" her.[1]
Equipment and skills
Saito was a proficient fighter, rivaling Edward Kenway in both swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat. During their duel at the Mandarin's House, she was able to claim victory after breaking the Assassin's sword with her own weapon,[8] and again overpowered him during their fight in the hull of the Far East Company's ship, where Kenway was only able to escape after using two of Saito's own ninja as a distraction.[1]
Saito was also shown to be skilled in the use of a bow, shooting an arrow at Kenway, who was a long distance away, and only missing because the Assassin saw the arrow and dodged it.[5]
Trivia
- Saito shares several similarities with Maria Thorpe, as they are both Templars who wore masks to conceal their true identities and were mistaken for a man by an Assassin until being unmasked.
- One of the Japanese ninja referred to Saito as "a half-breed woman with continental blood", indicating that she may be half-Chinese.[1]
Appearances
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 20
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 2
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 3
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 4
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 5
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 12
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 10
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 11
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 19
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 30
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 31