Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic sovereign state in Southeast Asia composed of 7,641 islands that are situated in the South China Sea. The nation was formed after the indigenous states were conquered by the Spanish Empire and merged into a single colony, a united identity they retained after achieving independence from the Spanish and the Americans who replaced them.[1]
History[edit | edit source]
Battle of Mactan[edit | edit source]
In 1521, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived on the island of Cebu in the Philippines to search for an Isu artifact he had tracked to the region. Magellan met with the island's leader Rajah Humabon and converted him and the local indigenous population to Catholicism, intending to turn Cebu into a colony of the Spanish Empire.[2]
Magellan eventually located the Piece of Eden hidden on Cebu—a crescent amulet—but Humabon informed him that it was just a piece of a larger artifact, with another fragment possessed by Mactan Island's chieftain Lapu-Lapu. Magellan subsequently led his forces to invade Mactan and seize the Piece of Eden, but Lapu-Lapu used the artifact to repel the attack and kill Magellan.[2]
Though Magellan failed in his attempt to colonize the Philippines, the Spanish Empire would continue to send expeditions to the archipelago and eventually succeeded in occupying it in the latter half of the 16th century, establishing the Spanish East Indies.[1]
Spanish colonial rule[edit | edit source]
Golden Age of Piracy[edit | edit source]
Sometime in the early 18th century, the Dutch navigator Hendrik, who was investigating Magellan's legend, visited the Basilica del Santo Niño in Cebu and met a monk who told him of Magellan's search for Isu artifacts and his fate. The monk made no mention of what had happened to the Pieces of Eden after Magellan's death, so Hendrik resolved to continue investigating by himself.[2] He eventually found one of the artifacts in the lost Khmer city of Angkor and left behind clues in his personal sea log before he was killed in Macau.[3]
In 1719, Manilan supporters of Archbishop Francisco de la Cuesta, enraged at Governor-General Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda's orders to imprison him, stormed Bustamante's mansion and dragged him into the streets, where they killed him.[4]
In 1725, the British Assassin Edward Kenway, who had traveled to Southeast Asia in search of Angkor's Piece of Eden, was hired by a merchant to escort his trading vessel from Macau to Manila. Alongside his recently-established organization, the Zhang Wei Union, Edward travelled to the Filipino capital to fulfill the contract. While in the city, Edward's friend John Young found evidence that the Templars were close to locating Angkor and were influencing companies such as the East India Company and the Far East Company to organize an expedition in Indochina.[5]
After deciphering the contents of Hendrik's sea log and learning of the navigator's investigation into Magellan's story, the Zhang Wei Union's members sailed to the Philippines on the Fenghuang in order to follow Magellan's trail and find Angkor's treasure.[2] Along the way, they fended off an attack by Admiral Zheng's fleet and the Chinese Assassins Xiao Han, Liu Qing, and Xue Yan,[6] and ran into their ally Jan van Aert, the Dutch East India Company's chief navigator who wanted to accompany them on their expedition.[7]
However, the Spanish authorities soon arrested the Union members and Jan's crew and brought them to Manila due to Jan's alleged involvement in Governor Bustamante's assassination six years prior.[7] The Union members were imprisoned on their ship under the watch of several guards, but managed to escape not long after.[4] Taking advantage of a protest in the streets to infiltrate Fort Santiago, Edward rescued Jan and his men from captivity. However, he then witnessed the protest turn into a violent riot, led by a monk who wielded the same crescent amulet found by Magellan.[4]
Together with Shimazu Saito, Edward went to confront the monk and take his amulet. They cornered him in an alley, but the monk used the Piece of Eden against them,[8] and Saito was defeated.[9] Edward was able to overcome the amulet's powers and cornered the monk,[10] but ultimately lost the artifact to Rajah, the leader of a Visayan resistance against the Spanish colonists.[11]
While Rajah killed the monk and escaped with the amulet, Edward and his fellow Union members were forced to flee Manila as the Spanish Army arrived in the city to quench the riot.[11] Thanks to a distraction by Jan, who lured away the Spanish ships pursuing them, the Fenghuang was able to sail away to safety and resumed its voyage to Cebu.[12]
In the aftermath of the Manila riot, the Lieutenant Governor-General blamed the incident on the Dutch East India Company and was approached by the Qing businesswoman Madam Lee with a proposition. In exchange for Lee's company trading with the Spanish, the Lieutenant Governor granted her ships free passage to the Southern Seas. This allowed Lee's allies – Zheng and the Chinese Assassins – to continue their pursuit of the Zhang Wei Union in their race to find Angkor's treasure.[13]
Meanwhile, en route to Cebu, the Union members passed by Monkey Island, which had been occupied by Rajah and his resistance,[14] who were engaged in a conflict with the island's Japanese settlers.[15] The native warriors used their fort's artillery to trap the Fenghuang, forcing Xialun Qing to use the Celestial Chariot, a prototype hot air balloon, to survey the island and locate the fort.[16] However, the balloon suffered a malfunction, forcing Qing to parachute onto the island.[17]
Half of the Fenghuang's crew, led by Edward, went to the island to search for Qing,[17] while the remaining Union members remained on the ship and fended off an attack by Rajah's men. Edward's expedition eventually found Qing in a village, whose inhabitants had rescued her from the jungle.[18] After learning that many villagers had been forcefully recruited to Rajah's resistance and brainwashed by the crescent amulet, Edward captured some of them to use in an assault on the resistance's fort, during which the stronghold was destroyed.[15]
Shortly after the Union members departed Monkey Island, its villages were ravaged by the Chinese Assassins and Shimazu clan ninja led by Fuma Sukuna, who were searching for the amulet. Learning that Rajah and most of his resistance had left the island and sailed to Cebu, the Chinese Assassins decided to follow them.[19]
The Fenghuang also followed Rajah's trail to Cebu, leading to Edward and Saito confronting the Visayan chief inside the Basilica del Santo Niño, where Hendrik had hidden a second sea log containing clues to Angkor's treasure.[20] Although Rajah managed to flee with the sea log, his plan to escape from the Cebu harbor was thwarted by John Young, who used the Fenghuang's cannons to sink his fleet.[21]
Subsequently, Rajah and his men took over Fort San Pedro, but after the rebels protested against Rajah's orders to execute the civilians inside the fort, the Visayan chief killed them all in a blind rage. Moments later, Rajah was again confronted by Edward and Saito, who had used a second Celestial Chariot built by Yun Pyeong-Gyu to infiltrate the fort.[22] While Edward fought and defeated Rajah, taking the amulet from him, Saito recovered Hendrik's sea log.[23]
At the same time, the Chinese Assassins arrived in Cebu and confronted Edward and Saito at Fort San Pedro.[24] Edward used the amulet to subdue them, but Xue Yan stole the sea log from Saito, who was unable to recover it because she and Edward were forced to escape the city.[25] Regrouping with their fellow Union members, John assumed command of the Fenghuang's crew in lieu of Edward, who was recovering from the amulet's effects, and set a course for the Sultanate of Sulu to reconvene with Jan van Aert.[26]
En route to Sulu, the crew docked on an island to resupply, where they encountered a group of Japanese mercenaries hired by Fuma Sukuna to pursue them.[27] Saito managed to strike an alliance with the mercenaries and their leader, Nagamasa,[28] who helped the Union members fight Sukuna and his ninja, as well as the Rattan Shield Company deployed by Madam Lee.[29] Saito ultimately killed Sukuna,[30] and the Fenghuang's crew resumed their voyage to Sulu.[31]
Seven Years' War[edit | edit source]
In 1742, the British Templar John Harrison was stationed in Manila to look for Isu sites throughout Asia. Although unsuccessful in his search, the time there allowed Harrison to pick up the trail of the Precursor box once held by the Assassin Shao Jun and trace its journey out of China and into the West Indies.[32]
When the Seven Years' War broke out between Britain and France a decade later, the Templars sent agents to Manila to disrupt the interests of the Spanish presence in the city. As a result, Manila was conquered by the British, though it was returned to Spain a year after the war.[33]
Struggle for independence[edit | edit source]
After three centuries of Spanish colonial rule, the Filipino people eventually waged a war of independence against the Spanish Empire at the end of the 19th century.[34] This revolution was entwined with the Spanish–American War, at the end of which Spain ceded the territory of the Philippines to the United States.[1]
The resulting Philippine–American War saw the United States emerging victorious and occupying the Philippines until the Japanese invasion of the archipelago during World War II.[34] After the United States retook the Philippines from Japan in 1945, the country was finally granted its independence.[1]
Modern times[edit | edit source]
In 2013, the Assassins' interim leader, Gavin Banks, decided to buy firearms from Emmanuel Barraza's contact, a weapon supplier in the Philippines near the Sulu Sea, to be prepared for the worst once they arrived in Osaka to assist the Japanese Assassins.[35]
In 2023, an Abstergo Industries team including Doctor Shimazu Sei and her bodyguard Yuki traveled to Cebu on the Exitus to track Edward Kenway's footsteps and locate the Piece of Eden he had found.[36] Alongside Noa Kim, a descendant of Edward who had been abducted and forced to relive his ancestor's genetic memories, Sei and Yuki traveled around Cebu looking for leads. However, during their search, they were ambushed by Doom Eagle, a criminal organization led by the Assassin Nathan Zhang, who sought to rescue Noa.[37]
Despite managing to escape the ambush and head to a shopping mall, Noa, Sei and Yuki were again attacked by Doom Eagle, who injured Yuki in a shootout, forcing Noa and Sei to flee into the mall.[38] There, the former fought Nathan, who informed him of the truth regarding his father's Assassin affiliations.[39]
With Abstergo's Sigma Team closing in, Nathan was forced to abort the rescue mission and escape, though not before giving Noa the sea log of the Zhang Wei Union's captain Rupiya.[39] Noa and Sei subsequently used the information from the journal to relive Edward's memories of his time in the Philippines.[40] This led them to discover the crescent amulet's location in the Strait of Malacca, whereupon the Exitus sailed there to retrieve the Piece of Eden.[26]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue (appears on map only)
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple (first appearance)
References[edit | edit source]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||