Southeast Asia
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Southeast Asia is a geographical south-eastern region of Asia that is located south of mainland China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and north-west of Australia. The region includes the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam on the mainland, as well as the island countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Timor-Leste.
History[edit | edit source]
Age of Colonialism[edit | edit source]
In the early 18th century, Southeast Asia became the "latest stage for the great game" among world powers, including the Qing, Dutch, British, Portuguese, French, and Spanish Empires, all of which competed to hold as much territory and influence in the region and established numerous colonies there.[1]
In 1725, the British Assassin Edward Kenway travelled to Southeast Asia after being informed of potential Isu vaults in the region that could contain Pieces of Eden.[2] Initially conducting much of his investigation within the Portuguese colony of Macau, Edward later established his own organization, the Zhang Wei Union, alongside the allies he had made in the city.[3] These allies accompanied Edward when he left Macau to continue his investigation in the Philippines, where the Union clashed with other factions seeking the Pieces of Eden for themselves.[4]
In Manila, the Union members came across a monk wielding a crescent amulet—a Piece of Eden—which he used to start a city-wide riot.[5] Edward and his ally Shimazu Saito fought the monk,[6] who was ultimately killed by Rajah, the leader of a group of Visayan rebels.[7] Rajah subsequently claimed the amulet and used it to further his resistance's cause, intending to drive the Spanish colonists out of the Philippines.[8]
Edward eventually defeated Rajah in Cebu,[9] where the latter had retrieved a sea log containing clues to the whereabouts of two other Pieces of Eden.[10] Although Edward and his allies managed to escape with the amulet, they lost the sea log to members of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins, who sought to use the Pieces of Eden to overthrow the Qing dynasty and rebuild their collapsed Order.[11]
The Union members were later betrayed by their ally Jan van Aert, the Dutch East India Company's chief navigator, and imprisoned in the Sultanate of Sulu as a result.[12] After escaping, they sought to recover the crescent amulet but were forced to fight against the Chinese Assassins.[13] The latter ultimately won the battle and fled with the amulet after killing the Union's doctor Xialun Qing,[14] while Edward and his remaining companions were forced to escape from Sulu empty-handed.[15]
While recuperating in Singapore, Edward was unexpectedly reunited with his wife Tessa and daughter Jennifer, who had come to warn him that the Assassins had uncovered a Templar plot to kill him.[16] After parting ways with his family, Edward and his allies sailed to Burma in search of the second Piece of Eden, which was hidden in the Shwedagon Pagoda.[17]
Edward successfully retrieved the artifact,[18] but was later betrayed by his friend John Young, who revealed himself as a Templar spy. Blaming Edward for Xialun Qing's death, John stole the Piece of Eden and delivered it to Grand Master Alan Jacob in the hopes that the artifact's powers could be used to resurrect Qing.[19] After a failed attempt by the Zhang Wei Union to recover the Piece of Eden,[20] Edward, realizing he needed additional allies, resumed his partnership with Jan and the Dutch East India Company,[21] and recruited Batavia's pirates to the Union's cause.[22]
The Union's fleet subsequently sailed to Indochina, where it was forced to fight through a blockade formed by the East India Company and a Qing fleet commanded by Admiral Zheng.[23] Successfully sinking both enemy fleets, the Union members proceeded to the mainland, where they used the Celestial Chariot Mk. 4, a prototype blimp, to fly to Angkor and find the Forgotten Temple, which housed the last Piece of Eden.[24]
Modern times[edit | edit source]
By the 21st century, the Zhang Wei Union had been reformed as the Zhawang Corporation, but continued to operate throughout Southeast Asia, having their headquarters in Jakarta.[25] In 2023, the company attempted to rescue Noa Kim, a Korean-American descendant of Edward Kenway who had been abducted by Abstergo Industries[26] in order to use his genetic memories to find the crescent amulet encountered by Edward.[27]
After two failed attempts to retrieve Noa in both Macau[3] and Cebu,[28] and following Abstergo's retrieval of the amulet from the Strait of Malacca,[29] Nathan Zhang made a deal with Dr. Shimazu Sei, who sought to save Noa after Abstergo ordered his termination.[30] Nathan helped Sei, her bodyguard Yuki, and Noa escape from Abstergo with the amulet and brought them to a safehouse in Singapore. There, while Noa recovered from the amulet's effects, Sei used the Animus to relive the memories of her ancestor Shimazu Saito in the hopes they would lead her to another Piece of Eden that could speed up Noa's recovery.[31]
When Sei began to suffer from the Bleeding Effect, Noa took her place in the Animus,[12] and his genetic memories ultimately revealed the location of the Piece of Eden hidden in the Shwedagon Pagoda.[15] Sei, Noa, Yuki, and Nathan subsequently traveled to Myanmar, which was in the midst of a civil war, to recover the artifact while avoiding Abstergo.[32]
Although successful in their mission,[33] the group found themselves being hunted by Abstergo's Sigma Team as they attempted to flee Myanmar.[18] While infiltrating Yangon's harbor to steal a seaplane, Yuki sacrificed herself to buy the others time to escape,[34] and Sei used the crescent amulet to temporarily subdue the Sigma Team members, allowing Noa and Nathan to flee with the second artifact.[35]
Flying to an uncharted island, Noa decided to continue exploring Edward's memories in search of the third and final Piece of Eden.[35] Sigma Team again tracked down Noa and Nathan,[22] but the operatives were defeated by a group of Assassins sent by Nathan's sister Claire Zhang, the Zhawang Corporation's director. With the help of the DedSec hacker group, Noa, Nathan, and the Assassins escaped from Sigma Team and traveled to the Corporation's headquarters in Jakarta, where they all formed an alliance to stop Abstergo.[25]
With the Templars already having retrieved the third Piece of Eden from Shimazu Saito's grave, the group resolved to eliminate Sei and prevent Abstergo from extracting any more information from her genetic memories. Noa, wishing to rescue the doctor instead, volunteered to carry out the mission and traveled to Osaka, Japan, where Sei was being held at the Abstergo Genetic Research Lab.[36] Although he successfully saved her, Sei's aggravated Bleeding Effect caused her to slip into a coma-like state. After returning to Jakarta, Sei was left to recover while Noa used the Brahman 3.0 to relive the remainder of Edward's memories and find the Forgotten Temple.[37]
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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Map of Southeast Asia -
An 18th-century map of the Philippines -
A map of the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed III (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue (appears on map only)
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice – Apocalypse
References[edit | edit source]