Indian Brotherhood of Assassins

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"The Assassins in this part of the world are like ghosts. We know they are here, but we can never find them. They have woven themselves into the very mythology of this place."

―John Harrison describing the Indian Assassins in a letter to William Johnson, 1748.

The Indian Brotherhood of Assassins is the branch of the Assassins which has been operating in India since at least the 1st century CE. Following the reforms of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Mentor of the Levantine Assassins, in the early 13th century, the branch was reconstituted as an Assassin Guild.

During the 16th century, the Indian Assassins maintained a headquarters in Calicut and were responsible for defending the region from incursions by the Portuguese Templars. Nevertheless, they failed to hold back the tide of British conquests in the 19th century, a development that led to clashes between the British Templars and Sikh Assassins over Isu temples and Pieces of Eden in Punjab and Afghanistan.

Unique to the Indian Brotherhood was the strategy of exploiting fear to minimize the need for bloodshed. To that end, they developed a myriad of tools and techniques specially tailored for instilling fright in their enemies, innovations that they shared with the British Brotherhood in the latter half of the 19th century.

Like many other Assassin Guilds, the Indian Assassins were nearly wiped out in the modern era by the Templars, but some of their members were still active a decade later.

History

Establishment

Prior to the establishment of the Indian Brotherhood, the Hidden Ones were known to operate within the territories of modern-day India as early as the 1st century CE.

Renaissance

Calicut, the headquarters of the Indian Assassins in the 16th century

During the early 16th century, the Indian Assassins operated out of Calicut and received help from the Italian Assassins to fight off Portuguese fleets sent by King Manuel I, who was influenced by the Templars. The first fleet to arrive was led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, and the Assassins fought back by setting several storehouses and shops on fire and taking out a number of key commanders. After Cabral's departure, the Assassins found out that Manuel knew the location of the Calicut Assassins Guild.

After Manuel I sent Vasco da Gama to Calicut to enforce the Portuguese rule, the Indian Assassins hid several relics and documents before evacuating their families and friends. They established an army of disguised Assassins and killed most of Gama's commanders in plain sight, sending a clear message to the Portuguese and forcing them to flee.

Age of Enlightenment

By the time of the Seven Years' War, the Assassins continued to operate in the Indian subcontinent and became so skilled at concealing their presence that the Templar John Harrison once compared them to ghosts in a letter to fellow Templar William Johnson. The growing power of the Kingdom of Mysore meant that the East India Company and, by extension, the Templars were unable to properly conduct their operations in India, allowing the Assassins to maintain their dominance in the region.

Sikh Empire

Quest for the Koh-i-Noor

"Take good care of it, Ethan. It is truly unique; it would be a shame if its fate was to remain hidden in a safe."

―Arbaaz Mir entrusting the Koh-i-Noor to Ethan Frye, 1841.

Arbaaz and Hamid inside the Amritsar hideout

At some point in the early 19th century, the Master Assassin Hamid rescued a young Kashmiri thief, Arbaaz Mir, from a meeting gone wrong. Taking pity on Arbaaz following his home's conquest by the Sikh Empire, and sensing his potential, Hamid recruited him into the Brotherhood. Arbaaz would subsequently rise to the rank of Master Assassin while Hamid became the Brotherhood's Mentor.

In 1839, Arbaaz was in search of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, a powerful Piece of Eden, which was held by the Sikh Empire's ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. This artifact was also sought after by the British Templars, notably General Francis Cotton. While the Templars' plan to assassinate Singh was successful, transgressions led to the Koh-i-Noor being shattered into many shards. However, the artifact would later rebuild itself and was recovered by Hamid, who kept it safe at the Indian Brotherhood's headquarters.

In 1841, British Templars led by William Sleeman managed to locate the Assassins' hideout in Amritsar and ransacked it, kidnapping Hamid and stealing the Koh-i-Noor. After saving his Mentor, Arbaaz embarked on a quest to recover the artifact from the Templars, which led him to Herat in Afghanistan and Punjab in Pakistan.

Eventually, Arbaaz managed to secure the Koh-i-Noor, as well as a Precursor box in the Templars' possession, after defeating Alexander Burnes, Sleeman's right-hand man. Upon his return to Amritsar, however, Arbaaz learned that the Templars had taken his lover, Princess Pyara Kaur, hostage to exchange her for the lost artifacts.

Arbaaz confronting William Sleeman

During a confrontation with Sleeman inside the Maharaja's Summer Palace, Arbaaz was forced to give up the Koh-i-Noor and the Precursor box to save Pyara. As the Assassin tossed the artifacts into the air, Pyara stabbed Sleeman with a knife, allowing her and Arbaaz to escape. Having recovered the Koh-i-Noor during the confusion, Arbaaz later entrusted the diamond to his friend Ethan Frye, a British Assassin, who proceeded to hide it.

In 1847, Arbaaz began training his son Jayadeep Mir as an Assassin with the help of Ethan, until 1853, when Ethan returned to England. In 1859, Arbaaz accompanied his son on his first mission to assassinate the Templar Tjinder Dani and was forced to intervene when Jayadeep failed to eliminate his target due to his reluctance to kill. Jayadeep's incompetence was seen as a breach of the Creed's tenets and he was sentenced to death by Hamid. Hearing of his student's plight, Ethan returned to India and was able to negotiate a deal to have Jayadeep banished to England instead.

Liberation of London

"Brother George. It is as I feared. London has fallen. Thrice I have written to you, begging your aid. Thrice you've responded - with silence. And yet I write again, so desperate my need, so few my options. I need you. London needs you."

―Henry Green in a letter to George Westhouse, 1868.

In England, Jayadeep, posing as the migrant worker Bharat Singh, investigated the Templars in London, who were searching for an Apple of Eden. When the Templar Cavanagh began to suspect Jayadeep's true identity, he had the Indian Assassins Ajay and Kulpreet captured and interrogated. While Kulpreet killed herself along with one of her captors, Ajay betrayed the Brotherhood to save himself and confirmed Cavanagh's suspicions, only to later commit suicide due to his guilt. Despite knowing the truth, Cavanagh was ultimately unable to eliminate Jayadeep, and was later killed by a fellow Templar, Marchant, for plotting to overthrow Grand Master Crawford Starrick.

Jacob and Evie Frye meeting Henry Green

After the Templars killed his friend Maggie, Jayadeep sank into a deep depression and left the Brotherhood until his parents came to visit him a few years later and helped him regain his resolve. Jayadeep would thereafter become the leader of the Assassin bureau in London and focus on liberating the city from the Templars' control and locating an artifact known as the Shroud of Eden. During this time, he would also adopt a new name, Henry Green.

In 1868, Henry succeeded in both of his goals thanks to the assistance of Ethan's children, Jacob and Evie, who travelled to London after his death. After securing the Shroud and eliminating the London Templars, Jacob stayed in the city to rebuild the weakened Brotherhood while Henry married Evie and moved with her back to India. Around 1873, the couple would welcome Jacob and several of his Assassin initiates, including a boy named Jack, whom they trained in the fear tactics of the Indian Brotherhood.

Modern times

The Indian Brotherhood was among the Assassin guilds that were targeted by the Templars in their Great Purge in December 2000. However, some members managed to survive the Templars' purge and were still active over a decade later.

Search for the Koh-i-Noor

"Abstergo is a front for some really bad people. Templars. They're combing India for anyone linked to the diamond. We're doing what we must to keep it out of their hands. Let's just say it would be bad for life as we know it if they find the diamond before we do."

―Jasdip Dhami to Jot Soora, on the Koh-i-Noor, 2013.

In 2013, Jot Soora stumbled upon secret coding which allowed him to use the Brahman V.R. to view the genetic memories of his girlfriend Monima Das and himself, discovering their ancestry as descendants of Arbaaz Mir and his servant Raza Soora, respectively. As a result, Jot was highly sought out by both the Templars and the Assassins, after lying that he was Arbaaz's descendant due to his shame over his actual heritage. The Assassins sent agents Siobhan Dhami and her brother Jasdip to find Jot, while the Templars sent a strike team led by Juhani Otso Berg.

Jasdip Dhami interrogating Jot Soora

The Assassins were ultimately successful in retrieving Jot and tried using the Brahman V.R. to view Arbaaz's memories and discover the location of the long-lost Koh-i-Noor. However, just as they discovered that Jot had lied about his ancestry, the Templars found their hideout and killed Siobhan. Jasdip managed to escape with Jot, triggering an explosive in Siobhan's Hidden Blade so Abstergo Industries could not extract her DNA, causing Jot to become separated from him.

Jasdip later came to Jot's rescue after he and Monima were abducted by Abstergo, accidentally causing their vehicle to plunge into the water. Jasdip managed to rescue Jot, but Monima tragically drowned. Jasdip brought Jot to a safehouse run by Dinesh, where Jot connected the Brahman V.R. to their computers, inadvertently alerting Abstergo to their location. Dinesh then discovered that Monima was Arbaaz and Pyara Kaur's descendant. Realizing her genetic memories could lead to the Koh-i-Noor, Dinesh backed up the data and wiped it from the Abstergo Cloud.

The Templars soon attacked, killing Dinesh, but Jasdip and Jot escaped separately, the latter having gotten away with the phone containing the information that could lead to the Koh-i-Noor. With the Brahman V.R. destroyed and the false information on the cloud, the Templars were led to believe that they were no closer to finding the Koh-i-Noor than the Assassins.

Jasdip's defection

"Jasdip went dark after he was sent to Australia to look for a Phoenix Project lab, Arend. Maybe Juno got to him..."

―Kiyoshi Takakura, regarding Jasdip's betrayal, 2017.

In 2015, Jasdip was assigned to find Álvaro Gramática's secret laboratory, with no success. His search eventually led him to Australia, though while there, he mysteriously went dark. Unbeknownst to the Assassins, Jasdip was convinced to defect to the Instruments of the First Will, becoming a servant of Juno, which would eventually bring him into conflict with his former Brothers.

Weapons and gadgets

Arbaaz Mir was equipped with a variation of the Hidden Blade known as the Trident Blade, though other Assassins employed the traditional blade.

A fear bomb

The Indian Assassins were equipped with typical Assassin gear, as well as a variety of knives like the kukri. After marrying Henry Green and moving to India around 1868, Evie Frye was introduced to fear-inducing weapons including spikes and fear bombs. Initially nonlethal, Evie used these tools in London while tracking her brother Jacob's former apprentice Jack in 1888.

Indian Assassins in the late 19th century also seemed to use a fear-inducing hallucinogenic in their clothing that they could release at will, such as during brutal, non-lethal takedowns of enemies or in conjunction with their spikes. They also utilized golden discs known as fighting karas in close combat in a manner akin to brass knuckles.

Practices

The Indian Assassins practices were heavily influenced by the culture in which they lived. They were known to execute those members of their own Order who were seen to have breached the Creed, either through dangerous incompetence or by bringing attention to the Order, as in the case of Jayadeep Mir in 1860, though on this occasion the execution was ultimately suspended.

Members

Sikh Empire and British India

• Ajay (betrayed)
• Evie Frye (British Brotherhood)
• Hamid (Mentor)
• Kulpreet
• Arbaaz Mir
• Jayadeep Mir

Modern times

• Jasdip Dhami (betrayed)
• Siobhan Dhami
• Dinesh

Allies and puppets

Renaissance

• Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Italian Brotherhood)

Sikh Empire and British India

• Ethan Frye (British Brotherhood)
• Jacob Frye (British Brotherhood)
• Pyara Kaur
• Duleep Singh
• Raza Soora

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy (first mentioned)
• Assassin's Creed: Brahman (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue (indirect mention only)
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (mentioned only)
  • Jack the Ripper (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Underworld
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage (indirect mention only)

References

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