British Templar admiral
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I wanted to ask you something. Which is... what's your name? This article title is conjecture. Although the article subject is canon, no official name for it has been given. |
An unidentified British Templar admiral was a member of the Templar Order who commanded an East India Company fleet during the early 18th century.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Battle of the Strait of Malacca[edit | edit source]
- Admiral: "They may have caught us off guard somewhat, but I assure you, we'll soon get the better of them yet! We shall have payback for the two of our ships they sank! Hard to port! Steer clear of the enemy ship!"
- John: "Listen to me, you pompous dullard! You're walking head first into their trap!"
- —The admiral and John arguing after being attacked by the Fenghuang, 1725.[src]-[m]
In 1725, the admiral served under Grand Master Alan Jacob and assisted him in his search for a set of three Pieces of Eden in Southeast Asia. After their spy John Young tipped them off to the location of one of the artifacts in Burma, the admiral led three East India Company ships to retrieve it and John.[1]
Arriving at the Yangon River, the admiral ordered his men to fire on the Zhang Wei Union's flagship, the Fenghuang. While the Company ships battled the Fenghuang, a rowboat was sent to pick up John, who had fallen into the river after the destruction of the ship carrying him, Edward Kenway, Shimazu Saito, and Yun Pyeong-Gyu. Once John boarded his ship, he informed the admiral that he had successfully acquired the Piece of Eden, as well as information on the whereabouts of another artifact.[1]
The admiral eagerly attempted to take custody of the notebook containing said information, only to be rebuffed by John, who insisted on delivering it and the artifact to the Grand Master in person. The admiral acquiesced to his request and ordered his crew to set sail towards the Strait of Malacca, leaving the other two ships behind to deal with the Fenghuang.[1]
However, the Fenghuang sank the attacking vessels and chased the East India Company flagship, intercepting it before it could rendezvous with the rest of the fleet. After the Fenghuang opened fire on their vessel, the admiral ordered his crew to stop the ship and return fire, ignoring John's warnings that they were falling straight into the Zhang Wei Union members' trap. Sure enough, the vessel was soon flanked by more enemy ships, which immobilized it with their harpoons before their crews boarded it.[2]
During the resulting chaos, the admiral watched in horror as his men began to be slaughtered by Japanese and Ayutthayan pirates while a furious Saito ran straight in his and John's direction. Panicking, John pushed the admiral aside and ran away after declaring that it was every man for himself. The admiral was thus left defenseless in the face of a rapidly approaching Saito, though fortunately for him, he was not the samurai's intended target. As a result, the admiral survived the onslaught by sheer luck,[2] and was later rescued when Alan Jacob's fleet arrived to chase away the Zhang Wei Union members.[3][4]
Blockade of Indochina[edit | edit source]
After the information acquired by John Young revealed the location of the Forgotten Temple in Angkor, Alan personally led an expedition to the jungles of Cambodia to find the temple and retrieve its treasure. Meanwhile, the East India Company's fleet formed a blockade around the Indochinese Peninsula, as the Templar admiral was ordered to eliminate anyone attempting to interfere with the Grand Master's search for the temple.[5]
Before long, the admiral was alerted to the arrival of two fleets of pirate ships, one commanded by Edward Kenway and the other by Admiral Zheng. As Zheng's fleet did not show any signs of aggression, the Templar admiral deduced that it also sought to prevent the Zhang Wei Union members' passage, and ordered his men to focus their efforts on sinking the Union's armada. The East India Company's fleet engaged the enemy ships, but despite vastly outnumbering them, the Union members' superior firepower allowed them to easily sink most of the attacking vessels.[5]
Outraged, the admiral ordered his men to target the Fenghuang and dispatched two Men O' War to sink the Union's flagship.[5] However, their efforts proved futile, and the Fenghunag continued its voyage towards the mainland. Baffled by his own men's incompetence and inability to stop the advance of a single pirate ship, the admiral decided to take matters into his own hands and prepared to ram the Fenghuang with his flagship.[6]
However, before it could engage the Fenghuang, the flagship was boarded by Shimazu Saito and a group of Japanese pirates, who began killing the crew. The Templar admiral ordered his men to form a firing line to halt the enemy's advance, but Saito loosed an arrow that narrowly missed the admiral's head and hit a rope holding a weight. This caused the rope to snap back and trip the British sailors, breaking the firing line.[6]
After the pirates shot the ship's helm with their ōdzutsu, destroying it, they returned to the Fenghuang. Meanwhile, one of the surviving sailors informed the admiral that, without their helm, they had lost control of the vessel, which was now veering off course. With their ship adrift, the admiral and his men were left stranded at sea and were thus powerless to prevent the Fenghuang from resuming its voyage towards Indochina.[6]
Personality and traits[edit | edit source]
The Templar admiral was a patriotic man who took great pride in his position within the Royal Navy, which he regarded as the greatest maritime power in the world.[6] He was also honored to serve the Templar Order and the interests of Grand Master Alan Jacob, and sought to ensure that the Templars' "grand cause" was achieved by any means necessary.[5]
However, the admiral's patriotism and unwavering loyalty to the Templar cause often manifested in the form of extreme arrogance. He refused to allow the Zhang Wei Union, whom he regarded as little more than a band of pirates, to interfere with the Templars' mission, and was baffled when the Union prevailed over his fleet time and time again.[2][5][6] Because he constantly underestimated his adversaries, the admiral failed to realize that his own incompetence and lack of tactical prowess were to blame for his defeats as much as his crew's ineptitude.[6] Even when warned by John Young about the Union trying to bait him into a trap, the admiral ignored him, refusing to acknowledge any scenario where his enemies could outsmart him.[2]
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
The unnamed Templar admiral is a character introduced in Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. His exact rank in the Royal Navy is slightly ambiguous, as his subordinates address him as "Captain", but his command over an entire fleet suggests that he held the position of Admiral instead.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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Close-up of the admiral -
The admiral talking to John Young -
The admiral ordering his men to form a firing line -
An arrow narrowly missing the admiral's head
Appearances[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 106
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 108
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 109
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 110
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 115
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 116