Orelov family

The Orelov family was a Czech-Russian family during the 19th and 20th centuries, and an ancestor line of Daniel Cross.

The family's most notable member was Nikolai Orelov, who operated as a Russian Assassin at the turn of the 20th century and spearheaded the hunt for the Imperial Sceptre, a Staff of Eden in the possession of the Russian royal family.

History[edit | edit source]

Working for the Brotherhood[edit | edit source]

The oldest known member of the family was Andrei Orelov, a Czech member of the Narodnaya Volya, a branch of the Russian Brotherhood of Assassins which sought to bring down the aristocratic rule over the country. When his son Nikolai was old enough, he had him inducted into the Order as he had been, despite his son's own reservations.^[1] Andrei would later pass away at some point before 1917.^[2]

Nikolai eventually married a Russian woman named Anna, who was aware of her husband's Assassin background. By 1888, Anna was pregnant with her and Nikolai's first child.^[1] However, the baby died before birth; a grievous blow to the Orelov family, which caused Nikolai to become bitter and filled with hate.^[3]

By 1917, Anna gave birth to Nikolai's first surviving child, a daughter they named Nadya. The two were present with Nikolai when he exhumed the body of Grigori Rasputin to retrieve a shard of the Imperial Sceptre,^[2] which had been destroyed during Nikolai's mission to Tunguska a decade prior.^[3]

In July 1918, months after the October Revolution, a disillusioned Nikolai decided to retire from the Assassins and leave the country with his family. Needing false documents to escape the turmoil in Russia and unable to get it through the Assassins without revealing his departure, Nikolai decided to accept one last mission for the Brotherhood, hoping to find some money to buy new identities for his family.^[4]

After betraying his Brothers to save Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, Nikolai finally carried out his plan to definitely leave both his country and the Assassin Order.^[4] Along with their daughter, Nikolai and Anna crossed Russia's borders and boarded a ship that was bound for the United States, aided by the power of the Sceptre shard retrieved by Nikolai.^[2] Some time later, Anna gave birth to their second child, a son by the name of Innokenti.^[5]

New life in United States[edit | edit source]

During the Palmer Raids of 1919, while Nikolai and his family were in a bar, federal officers arrived and began to round up Russian immigrants. In the ensuing chaos, Anna and Nadya were separated from Nikolai and Innokenti, and were deported back to Russia. The Assassin Brotherhood later claimed that they had ensured Anna's and Nadya's safe arrival in Russia, to protect "their own".^[5]

For the next two years, Nikolai tried to find clues to their whereabouts, breaking into compounds where immigrants were held for deportation, though he only managed to uncover that they had been transferred to Finland, a country at war with Russia. After hearing a rumor that some prisoners were shot by Finnish soldiers after having crossed the Russian border, and not hearing anything that indicated Anna or Nadya's survival, Nikolai became convinced that they had perished.^[5]

For the rest of his life, Nikolai lived in seclusion with his son in a cabin near Manchester, Connecticut. They scraped together a life, cutting wood from trees and hunting the wildlife in the forest. In 1926, Nikolai was tracked down by the Assassin Sergei, who was sent to retrieve Nikolai by the Mentor, as the Assassins claimed ownership of his Staff shard and the knowledge of Nikolai's vision at Tunguska. After Sergei threatened Innokenti's life, Nikolai attacked and strangled him to death. Nikolai then discovered an FBI badge in Sergei's pocket, and realized that more Assassins would come for them.^[5]

Over the next two years, Nikolai trained Innokenti in combat and stealth, in the hope that they might be well prepared for the inevitable. Nikolai's training consisted of himself being Innokenti's practice target, and his harshness often resulted in Innokenti being forced to sleep outside with a meager meal upon his failures. One day, when Innokenti was able to overpower his father and held his knife at Nikolai's throat, the latter knew his son was ready, and together they began to prepare for the oncoming Assassin attack.^[5]

When the Assassins came for Nikolai and Innokenti, the pair ambushed them, killing many with an explosive trap set in their cabin. Shortly afterwards, Nikolai was shot in the leg, but despite his injury, he and Innokenti managed to reach a river crossing. However, after Innokenti used a zipline to cross over, his father was shot in his other leg by the last remaining Assassin, who wanted to bring him to Washington to learn what Nikolai had been shown by the Imperial Sceptre. He also wanted to bring Innokenti in, and tried to persuade him by telling him that his mother and sister were alive.^[5]

However, Nikolai did not believe him, and prayed for his son to be strong. To this, Innokenti understood his father's intention and shot him through the back, killing both Nikolai and the Assassin. With the threat removed, Innokenti retrieved his father's Hidden Blade from his body.^[5]

Modern times[edit | edit source]

Innokenti would eventually father a child who became a parent of Daniel Cross, a test subject for Abstergo Industries' Animus Project in the late 20th century. After being released by Abstergo, Daniel would go on to join the Assassin Brotherhood at the turn of the century while struggling with hallucinations of both Nikolai^[1] and Innokenti's memories.^[5] After meeting the Assassins' Mentor in 2000, Daniel killed him due to an impulse secretly implanted within his brain by Abstergo, which allowed the Templars to launch a global purge against the Brotherhood.^[2]

Daniel subsequently joined the Templars, whom he came to see as his only family left,^[5] and helped them hunt many Assassins who had survived the purge.^[6] In 2002, during a mission to Moscow, Daniel briefly met and spoke with his great-aunt Nadya in a church, who had started a family of her own. Nadya remarked Daniel's resemblance to her son but was unaware of his identity, and the two never met each other again.^[5]

In 2012, Daniel was tasked with capturing the fugitive Assassin Desmond Miles and acquiring an Apple of Eden in his possession. However, he was defeated by Desmond during both of their encounters in New York City and São Paulo, and finally killed when Desmond stormed the Abstergo facilty in Rome to rescue his father.^[6]