Alexander Burnes

"I am impressed, Arbaaz. It's a shame that we find ourselves on such different sides."

―Alexander Burnes to Arbaaz Mir, 1841.^[src]^-[m]

Sir Alexander Burnes (1805 – 1841), also known as Bokhara Burnes,^[1] was a Scottish traveller and explorer who took part in The Great Game. He was also secretly a member of British Rite of the Templar Order, serving as the right-hand man of the Master Templar William Sleeman.

Biography[edit | edit source]

Early career[edit | edit source]

Born in 1805 in Montrose, Burnes enlisted in the army at the age of 16. He was stationed in India for ten years before King William IV tasked him to bring a present to the founder and first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh. Burnes soon embarked on an expedition to explore Western Asia, including Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Persia. During his travels, he wrote Travels Into Bokhara, a book that saw him recognized by the Royal Geographical Society and made him a Fellow in its ranks.^[2]

In 1835, Burnes returned to India, which had underwent various political changes. Around this time, he met the English administrator William Sleeman, who was a member of the Templar Order. Burnes was recruited into the Order, aiding Sleeman in his research of various Pieces of Eden, including a Staff once wielded by Alexander the Great.^[2]

After the First Anglo-Afghan War, Burnes became an official political agent for The Crown and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1838. In 1841, he became famous for surviving an insurrection that claimed the life of fellow officer William Broadfoot, killing six assailants in the process.^[2]

Hunt for the Koh-i-Noor[edit | edit source]

Burnes: "It will be an honorable death at your hands, Assassin..."

Arbaaz: "No. You will have to live knowing an Assassin beat you. The men who stand here now will know you were defeated."

—Burnes and Arbaaz Mir following the former's defeat, 1841.^[src]^-[m]

That same year, Burnes assisted Sleeman in his hunt for the Koh-i-Noor diamond, a powerful Piece of Eden which had been stolen two years prior by the Assassins.^[3] Using information from the dossier of Sleeman's predecessor Francis Cotton,^[4] the Templars managed to locate the Indian Brotherhood's hideout in Amritsar and retrieved the Koh-i-Noor, while also brutally kidnapping the Assassin Mentor Hamid.^[5]

Taking Hamid back to the Templar headquarters in the city, Burnes tried to interrogate him to learn what he knew about the Koh-i-Noor. However, he failed to make the Assassin talk, so Sleeman decided to head to an Isu temple that the Templars had found in Amritsar,^[5] where he used a Precursor box to unravel the diamond's secrets.^[6] After unlocking a map showing the locations of other Isu temples, Sleeman and Burnes led a small army to occupy the Herat Citadel in Afghanistan, where one of the temples was located.^[7]

When the Assassin Arbaaz Mir, who was trying to recover the Koh-i-Noor, followed Sleeman into the temple, he ended up captured by the Templars.^[8] They knocked him unconscious and took him to Katasraj, Pakistan, but as Sleeman had been called to deal with an Afghan uprising, he trusted Burnes to guard both the Assassin and the Koh-i-Noor until his return.^[9]

After Arbaaz awoke, Burnes taunted him with the Templars' knowledge of his personal life, including his relationship with Princess Pyara Kaur, before leaving him to enjoy the Templars' "hospitality." Using a knife he had stolen from Burnes, Arbaaz escaped his bindings and, after retrieving his equipment,^[9] made his way to a courtyard where Burnes and several of his men were waiting.^[10]

Impressed by the Assassin's skills, Burnes challenged him to a duel, promising to let him live if he won. Sure enough, Arbaaz emerged victorious, but rather than take Burnes' life as the Templar had expected, he decided to let him live with the humiliation of having been bested by an Assassin; however, he promised to finish the job, should they meet again. Burnes simply replied that they would not and kept his word, allowing Arbaaz to leave with not just his life, but also the Koh-i-Noor and the Precursor box.^[10]

Legacy[edit | edit source]

In 1853, over a decade after Burnes' encounter with Arbaaz, the Templar was brought up in a conversation between the Assassin, his wife Pyara, and Ethan Frye regarding Arbaaz's exploits, which was secretly overheard by a young Jayadeep Mir.^[11]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

Alexander Burnes is a historical character first mentioned in the 2015 novel Assassin's Creed: Underworld before appearing in the 2016 video game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India. Historically, Burnes died on 2 November 1841, when he was hacked by an Afghan mob during an uprising in Kabul.^[1] Coincidentally, the events of Chronicles: India also take place in 1841, but the game does not address Burnes' fate.