Department of Immortality

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The Department of Immortality was a military department of the Qin established by Qin Shi Huang with the goal of researching ways to extend his lifespan. It was commanded by Yang Duanhe, who secretly reported to an agent known as The Fox, whose real name was Nie Jing. Its placement in the official Qin military chain-of-command was controversially defined, as Grand General Meng Tian mistakenly believed he had authority over them while Duanhe and his troops maintained otherwise. Their soldiers dressed in distinctive purple uniforms and conducted covert operations for their own ends, even going as far as to collude with the Xiongnu against Qin national security interests.

History

Massacre of Jade Spring

In 215 BCE, the Department of Immortality under Yang Duanhe's orders launched a surprise attack on Jade Spring, a village west of Yangzhou City in Shang Commandery, in retaliation for the theft of a treasure case that contained a talisman with seemingly magical powers. The troops pillaged at will and indiscriminately rounded up civilians for torture and interrogation. Any who resisted or could not divulge information regarding the treasure were executed on the spot despite Nie Jing reacquiring it from the village's great hall in short order. The only defenders were the village's youxia and their martial arts master Ji Wei, who was killed in a fight with three of the soldiers. Of the troops who invaded the village, casualties were high because one of the youxia, with the aid of their sworn brother Chu Huan, took out all who were present.

Nonetheless, the Department of Immortality successfully retrieved the talisman and exacted retribution on the village to the fullest extent, having put almost the entire populace to the sword. Yang Duanhe personally killed Chu Huan in an ambush while he and his sworn sibling were escaping the village. More survivors were killed when the Qin soldiers attacked their safehouse on the outskirts. Subsequently, Nie Jing tricked the two remaining youxia, Yu Ying and Chu Huan's sworn sibling, into gathering into one place the rest of the villagers who were either away in Yangzhou City or had escaped there. As they met together at the city's rear gate as Nie Jing had directed, the Department of Immortality launched an ambush. Once again, although all the ambushers were killed in action against the youxia, the aim of extermination was completed. Only the two youxia remained as survivors of Jade Spring.

The entire operation was orchestrated by Nie Jing from the start, as even the youxia's theft of the treasure had been a ploy devised by Nie Jing to create a pretext for the Qin massacre.

Conspiracy with the Xiongnu

As the operation against Jade Spring had not been authorized by Grand General Meng Tian, he immediately put the Department of Immortality under investigation the following day, ordering its officers to report to his then posting at the Great Wall. Yang Duanhe did not comply with the command, sending a subordinate in his stead to repudiate his authority over their division. The meeting was interrupted by a Xiongnu assault on the wall that was then repelled.

At this time, Touman Chanyu was the leader of the Xiongnu, and Yang Duanhe had covertly forged an alliance between him and the Department of Immortality. The department harboured their own secret goals which they believed would be facilitated by a full-scale Xiongnu incursion into Qin territory. To that end, Duanhe plotted to destroy a section of the Great Wall at Tulu Pass just as Touman led his army into an all-out assault onto it. The two surviving youxia of Jade Spring and Modu, Touman's son and rival claimant as chanyu, caught wind of the plan and worked to thwart it. At the battle of Tulu Pass, Yang Duanhe succeeded with his own hands in creating the breach in the wall, but he was slain by one of the youxia shortly afterwards. Upon his demise, Nie Jing confronted the youxia in mortal combat but fled when Yu Ying and Meng Tian arrived to assist the youxia. The Department of Immortality thus failed in their objectives for the battle.

Behind the scenes

The Department of Immortality featured in the closed beta test of Assassin's Creed: Jade as an enemy faction. Their soldiers were distinguished from the regular Qin guards by their purple uniforms instead of red. Described as a "new military department" and "rogue Qin elements" in an antagonistic relation with Grand General Meng Tian, as of the beta test, the motives and goals of the Department of Immortality has not yet been revealed.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Jade