Levant
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The Levant is a West Asian geographic and cultural subregion located along the Mediterranean Sea's eastern end, consisting of Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus, and parts of southern Turkey.[1]
Throughout much of recorded history, the region has been a cultural and spiritual center, birthing the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Due to this, however, it has also been embroiled in countless wars and conflicts as different nations have attempted to control the land.[1] The Third Crusade was one such conflict, taking place in the late 12th century.[2]
The Levant was also home to one of the Assassins' oldest branches, the Levantine Brotherhood. Based in Masyaf, the Assassins there were a public organization, openly fighting the Knights Templar in the Crusades[2] before declining into obscurity after the Mongol Empire's attack on Masyaf in 1257.[3]
History[edit | edit source]
Antiquity[edit | edit source]
At least one Isu vault was located in the Levant, underneath what would become the city of Jerusalem. According to legend, Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and back to the Levant with a Staff of Eden.[4] David, the Kingdom of Israel's third monarch, possessed a Shroud of Eden which helped him defeat the Philistine Goliath.[5] In the 10th century BCE, his son and successor Solomon built a temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, which was situated above the Isu vault and guarded the Ark of the Covenant.[6][7]
As early as 38 BCE, the Egyptian Hidden Ones, under the leadership of the Mentor Bayek, began spreading their influence from Egypt to the Levant.[8] The Hidden One Kawab was assigned a mission to the Herodian kingdom to help end the rule of its eponymous king Herod I, whose reign was seen as tyrannical.[9]
In the 1st century CE, Jesus of Nazareth, a preacher and wielder of a Shroud of Eden, was condemned and crucified in Jerusalem by the Order of the Ancients, who sought to acquire the Shroud. However, Jesus' disciples recovered the artifact and attempted to resurrect him with it, but to no avail.[10][11] Jesus' cousin John possessed a Staff, which presumably passed to his disciple Peter and his successors to the Papacy.[5]
Middle Ages[edit | edit source]
In 870 CE, the young Frankish Hidden One Oisel was stationed in Chinon's local bureau and received a letter from Basim ibn Ishaq, the Ottoman Hidden Ones' leader in Constantinople who asked Oisel to follow his travels in the Levant, starting in Antioch. Accompanied by his friend Matthias, as well as the Egyptian Hidden Ones Jessamyn, Kalim, Rashid, and Sihem, the group would travel along the Silk Road as they fought against the Snake-Eaters, a mysterious organization that was extorting travelling merchants.[12]
Around this time, the English Ancients member Stowe acquired an Isu dagger piece from a slain Hidden One. He had it sent to Syria,[13] where the blade remained for centuries until the Templar agent known as "The Hideout" was tasked with smuggling it out of Syria in 1189. The Templar enlisted the help of the Assassin Faisal to do so, and Faisal ultimately delivered the artifact to Constantinople.[14]
In 1191, at the time of the Third Crusade, the Levant was occupied by both Crusader and Saracen forces, who waged war for control of Jerusalem. While the Crusaders established their stronghold in the city of Acre, the Saracens were based in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Templars, operating as a public knightly order that ostensibly fought alongside the Crusaders, began to spread their influence to the region, planting agents in each of the major cities and searching for an Apple of Eden that would allow them to "liberate" the Levant.[2]
Opposing the Templars' goals, the Levantine Assassins retrieved the Apple and tasked Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad with the deaths of several influential individuals, Crusader and Saracen alike, who were secretly Templars. All of these individuals were located in either Damascus, Acre, or Jerusalem, and their deaths severely weakened the Templars,[2] forcing them to flee to the island of Cyprus.[15] After each assassination, Altaïr would return to the Assassin fortress located in the village of Masyaf to report to the Levantine Brotherhood's head, Al Mualim.[2]
Following his assassination of Al Mualim, who had betrayed the Brotherhood,[16] Altaïr became the new Mentor and led the Levantine Assassins into a golden age with the help of the Apple of Eden.[3][17] He drove the Templars out of their base on Cyprus, ridding the Levant of Templar influence,[15] and halted the Mongol Empire's march by helping the Mongolian Assassin Qulan Gal kill Genghis Khan in 1227.[17][18] However, the Mongols reached the Levant 30 years later, laying siege to the Assassin strongholds in Alamut and Masyaf.[17] Realizing the Brotherhood could not survive as a public organization, Altaïr trusted Niccolò and Maffeo Polo to continue the Assassins' work in secret and establish guilds elsewhere in the world.[17][19]
Renaissance[edit | edit source]
By the Renaissance era, despite their respective declines centuries prior, both the Assassins and Templars continued to operate in the Levant, primarily in the cities of Damascus and Jerusalem. With the help of the Ottoman Brotherhood, the Levantine Assassins were able to stabilize their guild and diminish the Templars' influence.[20]
In 1511, the Italian Assassins' Mentor Ezio Auditore journeyed to Syria in search of Altaïr's fabled library. He arrived in Masyaf to find it seemingly abandoned, only to be ambushed by a regiment of Templars that also sought to access the library and captured the Mentor.[21] After escaping the Templars' attempted execution, Ezio pursued and assassinated the Templar captain Leandros, from whom he recovered Niccolò Polo's journal, informing him of the six Masyaf Keys hidden by the Polos in Constantinople.[22]
Upon recovering the keys, Ezio returned to Masyaf with Sofia Sartor and entered the library, finding Altaïr's skeleton holding a sixth key and his Apple of Eden.[23] After learning that Altaïr had sealed himself inside the library to protect the Apple, Ezio chose to leave the artifact there and retired from his life as an Assassin, returning to Italy.[24]
Modern Era[edit | edit source]
Around 1724, the British Assassin Edward Kenway visited the Levant during his search for Isu sites across the globe. After finding a vault beneath the remains of Alamut Castle in Persia,[25] he contacted the Brotherhood, who performed additional excavations in Syria, hoping to uncover other Precursor ruins.[26]
In September 2012, when Desmond Miles relived Altaïr's genetic memories during his imprisonment by Abstergo Industries, their Animus 1.28 rendered the Levantine countryside that Altaïr visited as a virtual environment simply called "the Kingdom". This region was highly condensed compared to its real counterpart and mostly geographically inaccurate.[2]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
- Assassin's Creed II
- Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only, as "Syria")
- Assassin's Creed: Memories (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Hidden Ones (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Eagle's Shadow
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Geirmund's Saga (mentioned only, as "Syrland")
- Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road
- Echoes of History (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book (appears as Syria)
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple (mentioned only, as Syria)
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Valley of Memory (mentioned in Database entry only)
References[edit | edit source]
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