Elephant

The elephant (Elephas) is the largest living terrestrial mammal, found in regions with warm climates, such as Africa and southern Asia.

History[edit | edit source]

In the mid-1st century BCE, elephants were used by wealthy Egyptians as transportation means, showing off their wealth, and as animals of war. The Medjay Bayek of Siwa encountered and killed several war elephants used by bandits and Romans across Egypt; Jumbe in the Herakleion Nome, Surus in the Green Mountains, Qetesh and Resheph in the Uab Nome, and Herwennefer in the White Desert Oasis.^[1]

Bayek also faced and killed two other war elephants during the Battle of the Nile in 48 BCE, the first while riding in a chariot with Julius Caesar to the Roman fleet, and the other during his fight with Pothinus, Ptolemy XIII's regent and a member of the Order of the Ancients, who rode an elephant named Yugr Tn. Despite its size, the creature fell to Bayek's blade, leaving its master vulnerable and allowing the Medjay to kill Pothinus.^[2]

In 754 CE, a troupe of elephants and acrobatic dancers made up part of a parade in celebration of the annual Flower Banquet held in the market place of Chang'an, China.^[3]

During his reign in the early 9th century, the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid sent several gifts to Emperor Charlemagne's court in Francia, one of which was an elephant named Abul-Abbas.^[4]

In 1725, during their expedition to Angkor to access the Forgotten Temple and retrieve its artifact, the Qing merchant Madam Lee and the Chinese Assassins' Mentor Xiao Han rode elephants.^[5] Xiao Han's elephant was later struck and killed by cannon fire from the East India Company,^[6] while Madam Lee notably used hers to knock down a large stone guardian they encountered.^[7] Several of the temple guardians also took the form of elephants, but despite their imposing size and strength, they were easily destroyed by Xiao Han using the power of the artifact in his possession.^[8]

In 1841, elephants were adorned and kept in the gardens of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's summer palace in Amritsar. While infiltrating the palace, the Indian Assassin Arbaaz Mir took advantage of the animals' size to hide from the guards.^[9] Elephants were also used by soldiers in the British army under the employ of the East India Company, but were prone to easily spooking and wreaking havoc due to the army carelessly firing mortars around them in a failed attempt to kill Arbaaz.^[10]

In 2023, when Abstergo Industries' task force, Sigma Team, ventured to the Forgotten Temple in the hopes of seizing control of the complex for the Templars, their Humvee was turned into an elephant by the temple's time-altering powers. After this elephant was struck by cannon fire, similarly to the one ridden by Xiao Han three centuries prior, it turned back into a Humvee.^[6]