Never Compromise the Brotherhood: Contrasting Religious Brotherhoods and Orders. The Case of the Assassin's Creed Series

‘Never compromise the Brotherhood’.

Contrasting religious brotherhoods and orders. The case of the Assassin’s Creed series. Abstract.

Brotherhoods and guilds play an important role in video game lore, e.g. World of Warcraft (Blizzard, 2004), The Elder’s Scroll 5. Skyrim (Bethesda, 2011) and the Assassin’s Creed series (Ubisoft, 2007-2017), either as an in-game group of non-player characters (npc’s) which can be joined by the player (single player mode), or a group of players joining forces within the game (multiplayer mode). Brotherhoods of the first category frequently have implicit or explicit religious traits. In this lecture, I want to focus on one specific case, the (semi) religious Assassin Brotherhood from the Assassin’s Creed series. Molded after the historical Nizari Isma’ilites, a Shi’ite sect from the Middle Ages that fought against both Christian crusaders and Sunni Muslims, the in-game Assassin Brotherhood is portrayed by developer Ubisoft as an organic, universal, inter-racial, inter-confessional and ultimately virtuous organization with its own creed, hierarchy, and tradition.

Keywords.

Brotherhoods, Orders, Nizari Isma’ilites, Knights Templar, digital game studies. +++

In the history of monastic traditions, orders and congregations, two distinct tensions appear again and again (Agamben 2013:12). 1 _{The first tension is between the anchorite model and the cenobitic monasticism,} appearing as soon as Pachomius (292-348) decided to enable multiple anchorites living together (Rousseau 1999). All monastic life exists somewhere between those two ideal types: solitude versus community, loneliness versus gossip, freedom versus rule, aimlessness versus structure, privacy and common life. The second tension is between two models of the cenobitic monastic life, that of a brotherhood versus that of an order, which became acute in the rise of the ‘religious movements’ in the 11th _{and 12}th _{century (Agamben} 2013:44). The model of the order can be described as focusing on doctrinal, theological, or juridical aspects of the monastic life, championing order and structure, while the brotherhood model, championed by the Franciscans, is more focused on the religious life grounded in the Gospel itself (Flood and Matura 1975). Théophile Desbonnets (1988) used the formation history of the Franciscans to describe the inevitable transition between brotherhood an order as going ‘from intuition to institution’.

The tension between those two models of religious communal life is not restricted to the realm of monastic traditions. Orders and brotherhoods are also prominent present in our modern cultural domain, including the world of digital games. In video game lore, games like World of Warcraft (Blizzard, 2004), The Elder’s Scroll 5. Skyrim (Bethesda, 2011) and the Assassin’s Creed series (Ubisoft, 2007-2017), feature brotherhoods and guilds, either as an in-game group of non-player characters (npc’s) which can be joined by the player (single player mode), or a group of players joining forces within the game (multiplayer mode).

In this article, I want to focus on one specific case, the Assassin’s Creed game series, which feature prominently two (semi) religious groups: the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order. Both in-game organisations are inspired after their historical religious counterparts: the historical Nizari Isma’ilites, a Shi’ite sect from the Middle Ages that fought against both Christian crusaders and Sunni Muslims, and the Templar Order, one of the most important military order operating in the Holy Land during the Crusades.

Assassin’s Creed developer Ubisoft depicts this Brotherhood (at least in its own self-perception) as a relatively small, democratic and horizontal organization aimed at safeguarding the freedom of humanity, while the Templar Order is portrayed as a global, dictatorial and vertical organization dedicated to bringing order to humanity. The Assassins accuse the Templars of robbing humanity of its freedom, while the Templars accuse their opponents of plunging Earth into chaos and anarchy. In this article, I will contrast the ‘model’ of the Assassin Brotherhood, as depicted by Ubisoft, with that of the Templar Order, the

Brotherhood’s eternal enemy, and demonstrate the ideological threat to the Brotherhood of becoming what they oppose, i.e. an Order.

First, I will sketch the meta-narrative of the Assassin’s Creed series (section 1), including a discussion on the position of ‘religion’ in the series. In the next two sections (2 and 3), I will describe both the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order, as depicted by Ubisoft, in terms of their fictional origins, historical inspiration, doctrine, rituals and hierarchy. In the last section (4), I will compare both organizations in order to verify my hypothesis that Ubisoft not only contrasts both types of organization, but also points out the danger for the Brotherhood of becoming what it opposes, e.g. an Order.

Beforehand, I would like to give a few words on the methodology used. In this article, I consider games to be ‘digital (interactive), playable (narrative) texts’. As a text, a video game can be an object of interpretation. As a narrative, it can be conceived of as communicating meaning. As a game, it is playable. And as a digital medium, it is interactive (Bosman 2016a). Treating the video games as playable texts and using a gamer-immanent approach in this article (Heidbrink /Knoll /Wysocki 2015), I will use the close-reading of the primary sources of my research, the actual video games themselves, as well as secondary sources, i.e. material provided by critics and scholars discussing the same games (Bosman 2016a). The close-reading of the video game series is done by playing the games themselves (multiple times), including all possible (side) missions. While the Assassin’s Creed franchise consists of primary and secondary games for multiple devices, together with novels, comics and (animated) films, in this article I will concentrate exclusively on the PC versions of the main video games).

1 ‘Those Who Came Before’. The meta-narrative of the Assassin’s Creed series.

The meta-narrative of the Assassin’s Creed series is a multi-leveled allohistorical complex. At the core of the meta-narrative lies the assumption that the origin of humankind was not the result of a natural process, but of an active force creating humankind for their own benefit (Keder 2002; Von Däniken 1969). This ancient earth-bound civilization, known as the Isu or ‘those who came before’, created humankind some 110,000 years ago. Eventually, humanity rebelled against their creator, spearheaded by human-Isu hybrids, named Adam and Eve. Eventually, the Toba Catastrophe (a cosmic disaster involving the sun) destroyed the Isu civilization, leaving humanity to take control of the earth as the dominant species. After centuries, the memory of the Isu was disformed into the legends and mythologies of the world’s religions.

Secondly, the extinct Isu civilization left some powerful artefacts behind, known as the ‘Pieces of Eden’. These artefacts, according to Assassin’s Creed mythology, are the motive of an era-long conflict between two powerful groups, collectively named the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order, but also known under other names in pre-medieval times. The Templars strive for world domination and their believe in the benevolence of order and discipline. The Assassins want to prevent their adversaries to succeed, even if chaos and anarchy are the only alternatives.

Thirdly, the story of the individual Assassin’s Creed instalments take place against this ancient conflict, following one or two historical Assassin brothers in their fight against the Order over the possession of one or more Pieces of Eden. Sometimes, the game protagonist is a Templar, but this is the exception. For an overview of games, release dates, primary protagonists and internal timeframes, see Table #1 below.

Fourthly, the Assassin’s Creed narrative provides a present day storyline, in which the Assassin Brotherhood faces devastating losses against the Templars and their primary front Abstergo (Latin for ‘I cleanse’) Industries. Abstergo is credited for the majority of technological developments of past and present. In 2000, in an operation known as the ‘Great Purge’, the Templars succeeded in eradicating almost all remaining Assassins by infiltrating the brotherhood’s highest circles. The Templars’ agent was able to kill the Assassins’ mentor, and reveal all their hidden training facilities.

In every instalment of the series, the player is given control over a contemporary and/or historical Assassin (sometimes a Templar) to venture into the past in search for the location of previous hidden Isu artefacts.

Table #1

GAMES Ab. Period Title Protagonist Release

Hellenistic Greece ACOd 431 BC Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey Kassandra & Alexios 2018

Ptolemaic Egypt ACOr 49-43 BC Assassin's Creed: Origins Bayek & Aya 2017

Renaissance

AC2 1476-1499 Assassin's Creed II Ezio Auditore di Firenze 2009 ACB 1499-1507 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Ezio Auditore di Firenze 2010 ACRe 1511-1512 Assassin's Creed: Revelations Ezio/Altaïr 2011

Colonial era

AC3 1754-1783 Assassin's Creed 3 Haytham Kenway/Connor 2012 ACL 1765-1777 Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation (HD) Aveline de Grandpré 2012 AC4 1715-1722 Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag Edward Kenway 2013 ACF 1735-1737 Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry Adéwalé 2014 ACRo 1752-1776 Assassin's Creed: Rogue Shay Cormac 2014

French Revolution ACU 1776-1808 Assassin's Creed: Unity Arno Dorian 2014

Victorian age ACS 1868 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Evie & Jacob Frye 2015

Caption text: Overview of all main instalments of the Assassin’s Creed series, in order of their internal timeframe. ACL is not always considered a ‘main game’, and ACF has been released both as a stand-alone and as a dlc for AC4.

Within the meta-narrative of the Assassin’s Creed universe, religion plays an important role, although it is addressed in a highly critically way. The Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order are modelled after their very religious and real-life name-givers (which I will address in a more detailed manner below), but religion is more or less rejected by both factions, at least in the sense of institutionalized religion, in which devotees worship a metaphysical, transcendent and divine being.

The meta-narrative of the first Assassin’s Creed series produces a radically immanent and rationalistic perspective on the religious phenomenon. Monotheistic religion - whether it be Judaism, Christianity or Islam - seems to be nothing more than an obscuring of the ‘real truth’. There is no reference to a God (only to fake godheads manipulating mankind), to the sacred, the transcendent or the numinous. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, and all the other major religious figures of the Christian traditions are reframed as possessing or fighting over the possession of one of the Isu artefacts (Bosman 2016b).

2 ‘Nothing is forbidden; everything is permitted’. The Assassin Brotherhood.

The Assassin Brotherhood is the main group of interest of the series, and is based upon the historical Shi’ite sect of the Nizari Isma’ilites. The Nizari’s were a small sect within Shia, which was itself a small minority within Sunni-dominated Islam. Tthey seized their most famous fort, Masyaf, in 1140. Caught between the slowly retreating Crusader armies of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291) and the increasing power and influence of the Arab General Saladin (1137/8-1193) in the whole region, Sinan succeeded in

establishing more freedom, independence and influence than would have seemed possible with an army as small as the one he commanded.

The Nizaris entered European consciousness as Assassins by means of Christian chronicles (especially in Marco Polo’s travel stories) who transcribed the Arabic word hashishiyya (used by Sunni scholars as a prerogative term for all kinds of heretic (Shi'ite) groups, literally 'users of hash') as Assassini, which found its way into numerous European languages as a term for serial killers (Daftary 1994 /Pages 2014).This is also the reason why the historical Assassins are (falsely) associated with drug abuse in European modern fiction and by pre-modern European scholars, an association nevertheless corrected by Ubisoft in their game series (Bosman 2016c)

In the Assassin’s Creed lore, the origins of the Assassin Brotherhood can be traced to ancient Egypt. When the people of Egypt get caught in the political machinations of a mysterious organisation, the ‘Ancient Ones’, manipulating Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII against Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire, two freedom fighters, Bayek and Aya, found their own secret organisation, the ‘Hidden Ones’, which mission is, in Bayek’s own words:

Under the leadership of Aya, ‘the Hidden Ones’ are founded, individual fighters lurking in the shadows, searching for high-profile men and women who oppress the common people. It is only when the series reach the medieval time frame, more precisely the Third Crusade (AC1), that the proper name ‘Assassins’ is used. Doctrine

The ‘doctrine’, so to say, of the Assassins, the ‘Creed’ from the title of the game series, is developed fully by the time of the Crusades. The Assassin’s Creed consists of the Creed itself and three tenets. The Creed is philosophical in nature, while the tenets are more pragmatic in nature. The Creed: “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.” The second part seems a consequence of the first: if nothing is true, then everything is permitted. At a first glance, this Creed seems epistemologically to be rather nihilistic and, ethically, unrealistically tolerant.

Throughout the series, this enigmatic feature of the Creed is often addressed and – for that matter – misinterpreted. In ACRe, Renaissance Assassin Ezio explains the Creed to his future wife Sofia Sator:

Ezio: “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. Sofia: That is rather cynical.

Ezio: It would be if it were doctrine. But it is merely an observation of the nature of reality. To say that nothing is true, is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile, and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization. To say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic.” (ACRe) At its core the Creed is not normative in nature, but phenomenological. The world, according to the

Assassins is basically ‘an illusion’, or rather, human knowledge of the world is illusive. This is illustrated by the meta-narrative of the game series itself: only the Templars and the Assassins know the true origin of humankind and the true mechanisms that drive human development, and then only very partially. No

Assassin or Templar has the grand overview of history and of the manipulations by the various possessors of the Pieces of Eden, with the possible exception of the player who has played all the instalments of the game series.

The second part of the Creed is, therefore, not a license for libertine behaviour. To say that nothing is true, means that there is no ultimate knowledge by which we can direct our moral behaviour. There is no supreme godhead who upholds the fabric of moral life. All moral responsibility lies with ourselves: we have to learn to live with the consequences of our decisions, our words and deeds. There is no possibility of shrugging this responsibility off onto other people or onto a superhuman entity. As the French Arno Dorian formulates: “No higher power sits in judgment of us. No supreme being watches to punish us for our sins” (ACU).

According to the French Assassin, the Creed is essentially anti-dogmatic: “ideals give way to dogma”, as “dogma becomes fanaticism”. This explanation is, of course, paradoxical in nature. How can a creed, a confession of shared faith, not be dogmatic in nature? This paradox is discussed most explicitly by the Syrian Assassin Altaïr, years after his exposure of Al Mualim as a corrupt leader of the Brotherhood:

(1) Here we seek to promote peace, but murder is our means.

(2) Here we seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to a master and set of rules. (3) Here we seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet we are practitioners ourselves.

(AC2, Codex page 4)

The Creed should have been a warning against all forms of dogmatism, but – ironically – it became one itself: uncompromising, rigid, and fanatically upheld by its followers without further reflection or necessary criticism.

obedience of its members and followers? Individual freedom should be a part of the Brotherhood’s internal life, but without discipline and order no organization can continue to exist.

This is exactly the dilemma of the Assassin Brotherhood: the constant threat of becoming what it opposes. As we will see later on, the Templars do not have such considerations. The Brotherhood fights against the Templars, but struggles even harder against its own transformation into an ‘Order’, a process that seems to be inevitable and can only be stopped (temporarily) by the (involuntary, but periodical) decimation of the Brotherhood into apparent extinction or exile by their opponents. It is ironic that the Brotherhood seems to be in need of its opponent’s violence against the Brotherhood in order to remain loyal to its original Creed.

Rituals

The ritual practices of the Assassin Brotherhood are twofold, at least as far as is shown in the game series. In AC2, ACB, AC3 and ACU initiation rites are shown, while the assassination rites are – in one form or another – common to all (primary) games of the series (Bosman 2018).

Let us begin with the initiation rite. With the term ‘initiation’ I refer to a particular rite of passage (Van Gennep 1909), defined by Eliade (1975) as ‘a body of rites and oral teachings, whose purpose is to produce a decisive alteration in the religious and social status’ of the initiate. The initiate’s ‘existential condition’ changes; once he has undergone the ritual ‘he has become another’.

While the individual instalments of the initiation rite can vary from game to game, an ideal typical description can be given. The initiate has to present him- or herself to a council of elder brothers and sisters, possibly witnessed by the community of Assassins. The ceremony is performed in solemn silence. All attendees usually keep their hands folded in reverence. The presiding Assassin, usually a master of mentor, the community present, and the initiate begin with a ritual exchange of questions and answers, all directly connected to the Creed.

After the recitation of the Creed itself, the initiate is ‘marked’, either physically or mentally by an elder member of the brotherhood. In medieval times (AC1), the marking had the form of an amputation of the ring finger of the initiate’s left finger. In Renaissance times (AC2, ACB, ACRe), the initiate’s finger is branded with a iron poke, while in later periods (ACU), the initiate is given a chalice to drink inducing psychedelic vision. After the marking ceremony, the initiate is either given his or her former clothes and/or is encouraged to perform a leap of faith, one of the key characteristics of the Assassin agility.

The other ritual performed in one way or the other in all instalments, is the assassination ritual. The assassinations in Assassin’s Creed are a combination between the delivering of judgment, punishment, execution and sacrifice in one (Bremmer 2007 /Duyndam et al. 2017). Usually, the assassiniation of a target is ordered by a master of the order (the role of the judge), while an initiate has to do the actual killing (the role of executioner). The Assassins take great pride in only killing those who are in powerful positions, and spear the common people.

While elements of the assassination ritual are different from instalment to instalment, a more or less typical description can be given. When specific key targets are struck down with a blade (or by other lethal means), the ‘memory corridor’ is triggered. It is a in-game device that allows time to freeze, concentrating on the target and the assassin, without the possibility of outside interference.

The first aspect of an ‘ideal’ assassination is the holding of the target, expressing respect towards the dying, and functioning as an expression of the impersonal nature of the assassination itself. The Assassins are supposed to execute their deadly task not out of personal gain or because of personal grudge against the target, but out of ‘necessity’ to obstruct the Templars from taking over the world. The second aspect is the exchange of final words, usually in the form of a confession by the target in which he or she explains his or her motives, asks for mercy or mocks the Assassin. The exchange gives room for moral doubt in the executing Assassin, who is frequently questioning the morality of his own deeds.

Other elements of the assassination ritual include the closing of the eyes of the dead person, the collecting of a sample of the victim’s blood and the uttering of a final short prayer like ‘rest in peace’ or something of similar content. The collection of blood is the ‘proof’ the Assassin needs to present to his master, while the closing of the eyes and the prayer are both indicative of the respect and reverence to be given to the diseased by the Assassin.

The organization of the Assassin Brotherhood is, generally speaking, horizontal and small-scale in nature. The Brotherhood is basically comprised of individual branches from all over the world, such as the Levantine, French, American or English branches. Contact between the individual branches exists, but is more personal in nature than institutional. High-ranking members of the Brotherhood, especially the mentors (see below), occasionally travel to one another for the exchange of tactics and knowledge. Not all branches exist in the same time period: the history of the Brotherhood shows that individual branches emerge, usually from the ashes of another one, grow, thrive, decline and are finally destroyed.

No international organization overseeing all branches exists. The advantage of such a loosely built Brotherhood is that the individual branches and individuals can quickly adapt to new situations and circumstances; the disadvantage of course is that the lack of a central leadership leaves the individual branches vulnerable in terms of continuation and protection against external (and internal) conflicts. In AC1 and ACU, the internal troubles of a particular branch within the Brotherhood (the Levantine and French ones) lead to a ‘purge’ in which many individual Assassins are torn between the old and the new ‘management’, leaving the whole branch open for the Templars to gain the upper hand.

Within the Assassin Brotherhood, the figure of the mentor is the most important one. The mentor stands at the top of a local branch of the Brotherhood. He (or she) is depicted as: (1) a very well-trained Assassin, (2) a great manager and organizer, and (3) as a wise human. In this last capacity, the mentor is (a) responsible for upholding the essence of the Creed, and (b) for communicating the necessity of upholding it to all members, young and old. The mentor has (c) usually a relatively extensive knowledge of the ‘real’ history of humankind involving the Pieces of Eden and the Isu. Individual Assassins-to-be are trained by their mentor, while even accomplished master-Assassins obey his (or her) orders without much debate.

Some branches have erected a governing body known as the ‘Assassin Council’, usually because a certain branch has grown considerably. For example, the French branch of the Brotherhood (ACU), consists of a mentor (acting as president of the council) and three senior members. But even in the case of a Council, all different branches of the Brotherhood remain absolutely independent. Help, in terms of knowledge, organizational capacity, training and mutual assistance, is commonly asked for and given, but without any organizational merger.

The members of the Brotherhood ask for and get help from allies from all levels of society: from aristocrats and wealthy industrials to the lowest street-rats and pilferers, but in different amounts. Whereas the Templar Order recruits primarily from the upper classes, the Brotherhood aims at recruiting from the lower ones. This is an ideological choice (instead of the Templar’s more rational one) of never targeting the innocent, but instead of protecting them from abuse by the powerful. As Bayek rhetorically asks: “Who are the ones who work in the shadow of the people?” (ACOr).

In several games, the game protagonist (usually an Assassin) receives help from certain groups of NPC’s (non-playable characters). These allies are exclusively from the lower classes of society or even from outside civil society, among which prostitutes, politically correctly dubbed ‘courtesans’ in the series (AC2, ACB, AC4, ACU and ACS); thieves (AC2, ACB and ACRe); Romani (ACRe); slaves (ACL and ACF) and street children (ACS). In AC2, Antonio de Magianis (1443 - unknown), leader of the thieves in Renaissance Rome, echoed this sentiment towards Ezio:

“When I was a child, we were taught that the nobles were just and kind. I believed it, too. Though my father was only a cobbler and my mother a scullery maid, I aspired to be much more. I studied hard, I persevered, but the nobles would never have me. If you are not born one of them, acceptance is impossible. So I ask you, Ezio, who are the true nobles of Venezia? Men like Carlo Grimaldi and Marco Barbbarigo? No! I say: we are. The thieves and mercenari and whores. While we work to save this city and its people, the nobles seek to make it their plaything.”

3. ‘May the Father of Understanding guide us’. The Templar Order.

The description of the Templar Order is less extensive than that of the Assassin Brotherhood, because as the Assassins are considered to be the protagonists of the series (with the exception of (parts of) AC3 and ACRo), there is less in-game information on the Templars.

The Templar Order is modelled after the historical Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar or simply as Templars. Originally founded in Christian-occupied Jerusalem in 1199 for the protection of European pilgrims by Hugues de Payens (1070-1136) and King Baldwin II (reigned 1118-1131), the Templar Order quickly became one of the most powerful organizations of the known world. Backed by the influential Cistercian theologian Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Pope Innocent II (reigned 1130-1143), the Order received official ecclesiastical approval at the Council of Troyes (1129). Even when the Crusaders lost their

strongholds in the Holy Land, the Order retained its power and influence because of its charisma of sanctity and its elaborate structure of banking facilities (Haag 2009).

In 1307, the Order came to a quick and sudden end through the joint efforts of Pope Clement V (reigned 1305-1314) and King Philip IV of France (reigned 1285-1314). Based on false accusations of sodomy, devil-worship and heresy, Grandmaster Jacques de Molay (reigned 1292-1314) and hundreds of his subordinates were subsequently captured, imprisoned, tortured and executed. The Order was officially disbanded by the pope, and has never since been reinstated. The sudden and spectacular end of the influential Order has kindled several enduring conspiracy theories and inspired many novels and films, among which the pseudo-scientific The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (Baigent /Leigh /Lincoln 1982) and the fictional The Da Vinci Code (and its film adaption) are the most well-known (Brown 2003).

References to the origins of the Templar Order within the Assassin’s Creed universe are scarce, certainly when compared to references to the origin of the Brotherhood. The Templars are the ideological offspring of Cain, just as the Assassins are of Abel. And just as the Brotherhood was formed as the ‘Hidden Ones’ in ancient Egypt, the Templar Order has its predecessor in the so-called ‘Order of the Ancients’ (ACOr).

Doctrine

The doctrine of the Templars is less elaborate than that of the Brotherhood. The Templars’ shared doctrine revolves around an unknown deity called the “Father of Understanding”. The precise qualities of this apparent god-like figure remain vague throughout the series. It appears for the first time in AC2, when the Templars’ Grandmaster, Rodrigo Borgia, opens a secret meeting of the Italian rite of the Order: “May the Father of Understanding guide us.” This phrase is commonly used throughout the series as a kind of cross between a secret password (AC3), by which the members recognize each other without having made earlier acquaintance, and a ritual prayer (ACRo, ACU and ACS). It is also an integral part of the Templars’ initiation ritual (AC3, AC4 and ACRo; see below).

In ACU (French Revolution), the background of this Templar phrase becomes a bit clearer. When Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), a member of the Order in the Assassin’s Creed universe, celebrates the ‘Festival of the Supreme Being’, the Assassin Elise Dorian remarks that Robespierre’s cult of the same name is nothing more than a popularized version of the Order’s true doctrine. The Cult of the Supreme Being was an historical cult established by Robespierre during the French Revolution, and was a form of classic deism aimed at replacing Roman Catholicism (and its competitor, the Cult of Reason) as the state religion. Robespierre’s religion included a belief in a supreme being, an eternal human soul and a life dedicated to ‘civil virtues’ (Scurr 2014). It lost its momentum with the execution of Robespierre in 1794, and was abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte, an ally of the Brotherhood according to Ubisoft, in 1802.

Rituals

The Order does not have any rituals concerning the assassination of their targets, but maintains an initiation ritual, like the Brotherhood. In the primary game series four of those rituals are seen, two in a deviated form (AC4 and ACRo), and two in a ‘pure’ form (AC3 and ACRo).

The ‘pure’ form consists of a group of Templars, initiating a new recruit into their ranks, under the presidency of their Grandmaster. All attendees are standing, folding their hands together at the front of their bodies. The Grandmaster (Haytham twice) asks the initiate (Charles in AC3; Shay in ACRo) to confess his allegiance to the Templars’ cause by asking three questions, to which the initiate has to answer “I do”:

(1) Do you swear to uphold the principle of our Order and all that for which we stand? (2) Do you swear never to share our secrets nor divulge the true nature of our work? (3) Do you swear to do so from now until death, whatever the cost?

After the swearing of the oath, the initiate is presented with a silver ring he has to put on his right ring-finger. The Grandmaster ends the ceremony with the ritual uttering “May the Father of Understanding guide us”, and all – including the initiate – repeat the same words.

In ACR, Grandmaster of the West Indian rite, Laurano de Torres y Ayala presents his accomplices, including the later-to-be Assassin Edward, with a ring they have to put on, declaring: “By the Father of Understanding's light, let our work now begin.” And at the end of ACRo, an employee of Abstergo (a Templar-controlled multinational, see below) is given the choice to join the Order: “Join us, and a bright future will be all yours. Refuse...” Neither the swearing of the oath, nor the presentation of the ring, occur.

The primary goal of the Order is to maintain order and discipline for all humankind, convinced as it is that this is the only way to ensure a great, new and bright future for humankind as a whole. As the Templar scientist Vidic explains:

“The world's a mess. It's pathetic, really. (…) The world needs order. That is what we're working towards. (…) The human race calls out for direction! They want to know why they're here, what they're meant to do. Well, we're going to tell them. And once they understand how to live their lives, everything will be better.” (AC1)

Everything and everyone that stands in the way of achieving this goal has to be eradicated without further consideration. Vidic again:

“If the deaths of a few people, evil people no less, could save the lives of thousands more… Well, it seems a small sacrifice. To use a rather tired analogy, corruption is no different than cancer. Cut out the tumours, but fail to treat the source and... Well, you're buying time at best. There's no true change to be had, without comprehensive, systemic intervention. Education, re-education, to be more precise. But it's not easy. And it doesn't always take.” (AC1)

The possession of the Apples of Eden is one of the primary ways by which the Order hopes to control all of humankind simultaneously.

Organization

Whereas the Assassins are organized in highly independent branches, the Order is structured in rites, for example the West Indian, French or English rites. Every rite is led by a Grandmaster. The rites have strong ties to one another, much stronger at least than their Assassin counterparts. And whereas the Assassins do not maintain a higher degree of organisation than a council overseeing just one branch of the Brotherhood, the Templars have developed multiple international bodies to govern all the rites over the world.

movements and policies of the Order as a whole; (2) three ‘Guardians’ who act as messengers between the Inner Sanctum and the real leader of the Order; (3) the ‘General of the Cross’, the true leader of the Order, whose identity and location are only known by the three guardians.

(4) The Inner Sanctum also has the power to call into action the so-called ‘Black Cross’ department which is given the authority to maintain discipline within the Order, including the execution of rogue

members. (5) The ‘Council of Elders’ is also a governing body of the Order, but its exact status or relation to the other layers within the organization is vague.

Table #2

The Outer Temple The Inner Temple

9 Master General of the Cross (unique) 8 Senechal

7 Advisor The Council of Elders

6 Commander

5 Preceptor Guardians (3 members) 4 Knight

3 Warrior The Black Cross

2 Celric

1 Disciple The Inner Sanctum (9 members)

Caption text: The organisation of the Templar Order at the beginning of the 21st _century.

Whereas the Assassins recruit primarily from the lower social levels of society, the Order has always aligned itself with the powerful: nobility, royalty, and captains of industries. The most important way in which the Templars succeed in their endeavour to dominate the world, is through Abstergo Industries, founded in 1944. Abstergo has been involved in multiple regime changes in the past century, manipulating the USA/Soviet Union ‘race to the Moon’, and is more or less the actual owner of BP, the US Federal Reserve and Coca Cola.

By all means and purposes, the Abstergo company is the in-game equivalent of a real-life conspiracy theorist’s wildest dreams. The Abstergo – Templar connection is a reference to conspiracy theories

surrounding both the historical Templars and modern-day US organisations like the FBI and the CIA. 5 In Case of a Rogue. Comparing the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order.

Twice in the Assassin’s Creed series, an Assassin defects to the Templar Order. Haytham Kenway (AC3) switches teams at a rather young age after the violent death of his father Edward (from AC4), and Shay Cormac (ACRo) changes allegiance too, in mid-life, because of his discontent with the (supposed) ‘hunger for power’ of his mentor Achilles Davenport. The change of perspective for the player, especially in ACRo, underlines a basic narratological fundament of the Assassin’s Creed series.

Ubisoft tries to portray the Brotherhood and the Order as two sides of the same coin (although the gamer’s sympathy automatically lies with the Assassins, since the majority of protagonists are of that origin). Both organizations are aware of the ‘true nature’ of human civilization, both want to promote and realize peace and harmony for all people, both want to educate the people into a higher degree of wisdom, and both utilize the principle that a lesser evil (assassination, manipulation and the like) is morally justified to gain a larger good (the bonum commune for the whole world).

But nevertheless, there are a significant number of differences one could point out when comparing the two ‘sides of the coin’. In matters of doctrine, the Brotherhood utilizes a form of epistemological

relativism, while the Templars use epistemological realism. Assassins question, out of principle, all claims of universal truth, even their own. The Templars do not worry about the quality of their accepted ‘truth’, but claim actual and real access to ultimate reality as it is in itself, the effect of Isu-manipulation.

Assassins want to educate people in the hope that more knowledge will lead to more wisdom and better moral behaviour. The true calling of humankind is freedom, and this freedom is suggested though not forced. The Templars want to educate the masses through a kind of mass-manipulation to keep them docile and obedient, presupposing that the majority of people are not ready to know the truth, nor able to handle it properly in their everyday lives.

The Order is globally and vertically organized: the Inner Temple overseeing all ‘rites’ over the world, maintaining order and harmony between the rites, and keeping rogues in line. The Brotherhood is horizontally organized, divided in more or less independent branches with only personal contact between them. The Order recruits its new members from and forges new alliances with the mighty and powerful: nobility, royalty and – later – the wealthiest and most powerful captains of industries. The Assassins recruit from and mingle with the lower classes in traditional society – mercenaries, slaves, whores, thieves – and, later on, with working class employees.

When we look at the portrayals of the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order in the Assassin’s Creed series through the eyes of Agamben’s and Desbonnets’ reflections on the (often reluctant) transition of religious orders, especially the Franciscans, from a more fluid and natural form of organization to a more rigid and stringent one, we can identify some interesting parallels. Both the young Franciscan brotherhood and the Assassin brotherhood are, in their core at least, small, horizontally organized, conscious, self-critical, and (relatively) individualistic in nature, while the rapidly growing Franciscan order and the Templar Order are prone to become hierarchical, vertically organized structures, stressing discipline and order within the ranks, without any doubt about its own existence and its presuppositions about truth, faith and discipline.

Theologically speaking, the Assassin-Templar dichotomy of the Assassin’s Creed series is a critically commentary on and illustration of the historical transition within monastic traditions, from ‘intuition to institution’, as Desbonnets put is. Brotherhoods, Ubisoft seems to claim, both the in-game Brotherhood and the real-life brotherhoods, are in constant danger of developing into what they oppose. The in-game Templar Order is nothing more than a brotherhood ‘gone sour’. When a brotherhood becomes (too) successful, it faces grave dangers, such as losing its ideological core.

Like the Franciscan brotherhood was an answer to both the ecclesiastical and worldly situation of its time - against the establishment, radically opting for a new spiritual way based on the Gospel, eradicating social and spiritual boundaries between people – so the Assassin Brotherhood was erected and maintained to prevent the powerful abusing the common people. But to guarantee its continuation through the ages, the Assassins have been forced to adopt an institutional form, leaving themselves vulnerable to become what they oppose, an order like that of the Templars.

The Assassin’s Creed series shows the beauty of the ideal of the concept of brotherhood, but simultaneously shows the constant perils such a idealistic organization faces, from equality to hierarchy, from freedom to order, from ideal to reality, from intuition to institution.

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