Tulum

Tulum is a former Maya city on the coast of Mexico, which served as the headquarters for the Caribbean Assassins up until 1722, at the conclusion of the Golden Age of Piracy. It was also the location of an armor made of Isu metals, locked behind a door that required gathering the Mayan stelae scattered across the Caribbean to open it.

History

Becoming an Assassin stronghold

Tulum was founded by the Maya thousands of years ago, on the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. It consisted of a handful of temples and several smaller stone buildings. The largest temple, nestled at the heart of the city, housed an ancient underground cavern. Within this cavern was a smaller temple, capped with a stone bust of Aita, whom the native people saw as a god.

The statue of a Sage beneath Tulum

After European explorers arrived in the Americas, various branches of the Assassin Order operating in Europe sent members across the Atlantic Ocean; their aims were to expand their Order, as well as to counter the efforts of their enemies, the Templars. Seeing that their Creed was similar to the ideals of the native people, the Assassins united with several local Maya, Aztec, and Taíno tribes. Tulum eventually became the largest Assassin settlement in the region, and was used as their local base of operations.

In 1673, the Caribbean Mentor Bahlam was able to rescue the Sage Thom Kavanagh from the Caribbean Templars' clutches, and brought the man to Tulum to rest and focus on the Observatory. After telling Thom of the secret war between the Assassins and Templars, Bahlam and his son Ah Tabai saw Kavanagh off as the Sage set sail for the hidden Observatory.

Exposed to the Templars

By 1713, Ah Tabai had taken his father's place as Mentor of the Caribbean Assassins, and trained many Assassins, including Mary Read and Duncan Walpole, deep within Tulum's jungles and temples. Unaware of Walpole's impending betrayal, Ah Tabai sent him to free the newest Sage, Bartholomew Roberts, from the Templars in 1715. Before Walpole could carry out his betrayal, he was killed by the pirate Edward Kenway, who subsequently assumed his identity and sold the information the turncoat was carrying to the Templars, including the location of the Assassins' hidden base in Tulum.

Edward freeing the Assassins from British troops

A year later, when Kenway finally arrived in Tulum on the invitation of his friend Mary Read and met the Assassins, the Templars launched an attack on the stronghold. Led by Laurens Prins, slavers stormed the settlement, killing or imprisoning most of the population, along with Edward's crew. However, Kenway and Read were able to free the captive Assassins and pirates, driving the slavers from Tulum.

Relocating to Great Inagua

For the next six years, the Templars used both the English and Spanish navies to relentlessly attack Tulum. After Kenway allied himself with the Assassins, he helped to repel one last onslaught before setting out to eliminate the Templars in the region.

After assassinating Grand Master Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Kenway offered his island hideout on Great Inagua to Ah Tabai. Knowing that Tulum would continue to be a Templar target, the Mentor accepted Edward's offer, although the Assassins continued to use Tulum as a base of operations.

Gallery

• 
  Concept art of Tulum
• 
  Edward navigating the jungles of Tulum
• 
  Edward and Mary entering the Sage's temple
• 
  Laurens Prins' ship docked in Tulum's cove
• 
  Edward returning to Tulum
• 
  Edward and Ah Tabai walking through Tulum
• 
  Edward Kenway and Ah Tabai in the temple courtyard
• 
  Edward fighting off Spanish invaders
• 
  Edward unlocking the secret door
• 
  Edward gazing at the Mayan armor
• 
  A Mayan temple in Tulum
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  The Assassin insignia at the foot of the temple
• 
  The door relief

Behind the scenes

The door relief on the vault that seals away the Mayan armor copies its design from a prop made for the English film director Ridley Scott's 2012 movie Prometheus from the Alien franchise. The prop was inspired by the lid for the Maya monarch Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal's sarcophagus. The coffin, which was found in the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, Mexico, has been cited as possible evidence for the unfounded ancient astronauts theory ever since the Swiss pseudoscientist Erich von Däniken mentioned it in his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?.

Since said conspiracy theory is a core plot point in Prometheus, the props team made a doctored variant of the original lid before shrinking it to be tablet-sized: the bird-demon Vucub Caquix perched on the Mesoamerican world tree is removed and replaced with the 1968 star map made by the New Hampshirite self-proclaimed alien abductee Betty Hill, the upper-right floating mask was replaced with a waxing crescent moon, the world tree's top branch was cut, the floating flower beneath the left side of the double-headed snake was erased, the reclining Pakal is stripped of his clothes and maize god-themed accessories to more closely resemble the "Space Jockey" from Alien (1979) with a wholly made-up breathing tube and chair back, the upper half of Kinich Ahau's head on which Pakal rests has been erased and redesigned to feature a Crystal Skull, the maw of Xibalba that reaches to consume Pakal has been simplified to show two hooks instead of four, and the entire border that bears his six ancestors' names has been thinned and features entirely new symbols. Ubisoft later digitally rendered the final prop during its development of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) and used it as an overworld asset.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
• Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned only)