Darius

Darius ( 480 BCE – 420s BCE), born Artabanus,Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted – Protector of Persia was the assassin of King Xerxes I of Persia. He was the father of several children, including Natakas and Neema, and later became the grandfather of Elpidios, Natakas' son with the misthios Kassandra. Through Elpidios, he was an ancestor of Aya of Alexandria, one of the co-founders of the "Hidden Ones", the precursors to the Assassin Brotherhood. 
A member of the Persian elite, Darius fought to ensure Persia would forever remain free of tyranny. To this end, he and his allies formed a secret group committed to stopping Xerxes' plans. His assassination of Xerxes I in 465 BCE was the first recorded usage of the Hidden Blade, a weapon of his own creation which would, later on, become the iconic weapon of the Assassin Brotherhood. For this, Darius would be retroactively honored by the Assassins as one of their own.
Following Xerxes' assassination, Darius sought to kill his son and successor Artaxerxes I to prevent him from falling under the sway of the Order of the Ancients like his father. However, he was betrayed and stopped by his friend Amorges, who had decided to join the Order to bring peace to Persia. Left for dead and his group disbanded, Darius fled Persia with his family, though most of them were subsequently hunted down by the Order, leaving Darius alone with his son Natakas.
By 429 BCE, Darius and Natakas had settled in Makedonia, Greece, where they came into contact with Kassandra, who helped them eliminate the Order of Hunters, a branch of the Ancients led by Darius' former ally Pactyas. Years later, the two worked with Kassandra again, this time to eliminate the Order of the Storm led by the Tempest, who had set up a blockade around Achaia to prevent their escape from the Greek world.
Following the Tempest's defeat, Darius and Natakas decided to settle down in Achaia with Kassandra, becoming a family after Natakas and Kassandra had a son together, Elpidios. However, their quiet life in Achaia was short-lived, as they were soon tracked down by the Order of Dominion, led by Amorges, who killed Natakas and abducted Elpidios. Seeking revenge, Darius and Kassandra traveled to Messenia, where they eliminated the Order of Dominion, killed Amorges and found Elpidios. Fearing for her son's safety, Kassandra entrusted him to Darius, who subsequently took Elpidios to Egypt to start a new life.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Artabanus was present at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE where he witnessed the Spear of Leonidas' full power.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Home At one point, he also fathered at least two children, Natakas and Neema.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted
During the 5th century BCE, the Order of the Ancients supported the reign and conquests of the Achaemenid kings Darius I and his son Xerxes I.Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia – History of the Brotherhood: Early Assassins Opposing the Persian kings' tyranny over the people, Artabanus and his allies Amorges, Pactyas, and others planned Xerxes' assassination in August 465 BCE.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted – Shadow of a Legend
While Artabanus infiltrated Xerxes' convoy as it passed through a canyon, his allies attacked the king's guard as a distraction. With Xerxes left unprotected, Artabanus sneaked behind the king and stabbed him in the neck with his Hidden Blade, in what would become the first recorded use of the Assassins' iconic weapon.Assassin's Creed II – Floating conversations: Unlocking Monteriggioni's SecretsAssassin's Creed: Origins – Aya
===Escape from Persia===
After Xerxes' son Artaxerxes I ascended the throne, feared he too would be manipulated by the Order and thus plotted his assassination as a preemptive measure. However, his close friend Amorges opposed his decision and later joined the Order to bring "true peace" to Persia. As Artabanus was about to assassinate Artaxerxes, he was confronted by Amorges, who called for the guards. Branded a traitor and pursued by the Order, Artabanus fled Persia with his family, taking on the new name of Darius.
When the Order failed to manipulate Artaxerxes to their side, they sought to have him dethroned and assassinated. Taking advantage of Darius' status as a fugitive, they used his name as a guise for the assassination,Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline working with Artaxerxes' brother Hystaspes. The assassin, using the guise of Darius, poisoned the young king, taking the man's sight, but was unsuccessful in his assassination attempt. Artaxerxes later spread the tale that Darius had succeeded, so that he might safely escape Persia.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Prince of Persia
===Hiding in Makedonia===
During their escape from Persia, Darius lost both his wife and Neema to the Order, fleeing to Greece with only Natakas by his side. By the time of the Peloponnesian War, the two had managed to lose their pursuers and had taken refuge in an abandoned tomb in Makedonia. For a time, they managed to avoid being detected until the Order sent a branch to Greece to eliminate a "Tainted One" named Kassandra, who had gained a reputation as the "Eagle Bearer".Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted – The Horsemen Cometh
Around 429 BCE, the Order of Hunters, led by Darius' former ally Pactyas, arrived in Makedonia to find and eliminate Kassandra, allying themselves with the Spartan army in the process. Darius decided to track the Ancients and attempted to ambush a meeting between an Order member, two Spartans soldiers, and a Persian Immortal. However, his plan was inadvertently thwarted by a group of mercenaries, who had heard tales of the lauded "Eagle-Bearer" and hoped that helping eliminate this Order branch would be a worthy enough feat to join their crew.Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Hunter's Hounds – The Serpent Coils
After the Ancient fled the scene and the mercenaries killed the Immortal and one of the Spartan soldiers, Darius revealed himself and assassinated the last soldier. He then briefly explained the Order's nature and their goals to the mercenaries before returning to his and Natakas' camp to check on his son. However, he found the camp ransacked and Natakas missing before being attacked by several Spartan soldiers, though he defeated almost all of them alone before the the mercenaries arrived. Rejecting the mercenaries' offer of help, Darius insisted that he worked better alone and ran off to find and rescue Natakas.Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Hunter's Hounds – Achilles' Heel
Darius tracked his son to a cave, where he was being held hostage by six Order members and a Spartan ekdromos. Initially hiding behind a stalagmite, he dashed to the cave's opposite end to flank the group upon noticing the mercenaries had followed him inside and were about to directly confront the Order. When one of the mercenaries mentioned Darius' name, Natakas used the distraction to knock down the Order leader.Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Hunter's Hounds – The Hydra's Nest
In response, another Order member and the ekdromos attacked the mercenaries, but were killed. The Order leader then stood up, only for Darius to quickly assassinate him from behind. Before dying, the leader taunted his killer, boasting that they had called for Pactyas and his Hunters. Shocked at the mention of his old friend's name, and despite Natakas' interest in the mercenaries' tales of the "Eagle Bearer", Darius knew that he and Natakas had to hide once more and parted ways with the mercenaries.
===Meeting Kassandra===
Not long after this encounter, Pactyas arrived in Makedonia and sent his men to attack the village of Potidaia in an attempt to draw out Kassandra. Deciding to help, Natakas aided Kassandra against the Spartan soldiers employed by the Order, while Darius eliminated the Order Elite leading them. When Kassandra tracked the Order Elite and found his body, she was ambushed by Darius, who assumed the misthios had been sent by the Order. After briefly fighting her in an abandoned tomb, their duel was broken up by Natakas, who introduced Kassandra to his father.
As Darius and Natakas returned to their hideout, the latter invited Kassandra to join them there so that she may receive answers to her questions. When Kassandra arrived at the hideout, Darius explained his past to her and invited her to fight against the Order. The misthios reluctantly accepted to help Darius and Natakas, as she was distrustful of the former and believed his claim to have assassinated Xerxes I to be fabricated.
===Hunting the Hunters===
Beginning their hunt of the Order of Hunters, Darius worked with Kassandra to track down the Ancient known as "the Conspirator" who was recruiting troops for the Order. The misthios infiltrated Olynthos Fortress and discovered an encoded note from the Conspirator discussing a ceremony that was to take place at a nearby farm that night. Darius and Kassandra waited for the ceremony to commence and subsequently killed the Conspirator. However, Kassandra became suspicious of Darius due to the amount of information he seemed to possess about the Order.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted – Revealing the Recruiter
Once Kassandra had eliminated the remaining Ancients in Makedonia and defeated Pactyas, Darius and Natakas arrived and dealt with the last of his soldiers. As he died, Pactyas revealed that Darius had once been his friend, which prompted Darius to reveal his former alliance with Pactyas and Amorges to Kassandra and Natakas, as well as the true reason why he and his family had to flee Persia.
After burying Pactyas, Darius met with Kassandra back at his and Natakas' hideout, where they informed the misthios that they would be leaving Makedonia soon, to go into hiding from the Order once more. They then bid Kassandra farewell as she promised to fight against the Order if they tracked her down again.
===Fighting the Order of the Storm===
A few years after their encounter with Kassandra in Makedonia, Darius and Natakas traveled to Achaia, where they looked for a way to leave the Greek world. However, they were tracked down by the Order of the Storm, another branch of the Ancients led by the Tempest, who set up a blockade around Achaia with the help of the Spartan forces in the region. After Natakas went to secure passage for himself and his father aboard a ship and never returned, a concerned Darius wrote to Kassandra, requesting her aid.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Stranger Tides
Once Kassandra had arrived, Darius explained the situation to her and they went to search for Natakas, finding him trying to liberate several refugees held prisoner at the Teichos of Herakles. After Kassandra freed the refugees, Natakas and Darius argued and the latter eventually acquiesced to help the refugees by dealing with the Order of the Storm.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Into the Storm
Setting up a hideout in Patrai within the hull of an unfinished ship, Darius spied on the Tempest's forces and learned that Gyras, the Tempest's chief engineer, wanted to flee Achaia. After Kassandra joined him, Darius directed her to the amphitheater, where Gyras was located, in order to interrogate him and learn more about the Tempest's newest weapon that the engineer was developing. After Gyras was murdered by the Ancient Megakreon for agreeing to help Kassandra, the misthios and Darius avenged his death by killing Megakreon and his guards.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Theatrics and Espionage
After helping Natakas and Kleta to sabotage the Order's operations around Achaia, weakening its position, Kassandra met with them and Darius to organize their final attack on the Tempest's fleet in order to remove the blockade and allow Darius, Natakas and the refugees to leave Achaia. Deciding they needed a place to hide in the meantime, Natakas took Kassandra to an abandoned home at the Ionian Watch, on a cliff looming over the village of Dyme. After hunting an ibex for dinner, Darius prepared to join them, but stopped when he heard Natakas seemingly scream in horror.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Calm Before the Storm
Readying his Hidden Blade, Darius prepared to ambush his son's attackers, but upon getting closer he discovered that it was just Natakas and Kassandra drinking and joking together. As he eavesdropped on their conversation, he learned that Natakas had been feeling lonely due to never getting the chance to make any friends, until meeting Kassandra. Darius smiled to himself as he began contemplating whether it was time for him and son to finally stop running from the Order and settle down.
After Kassandra had destroyed the Tempest's fleet and mortally wounded the Ancient, Darius arrived to encourage the Tempest to turn away from the Order, which she agreed to do before succumbing to her wounds.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Leviathan's Maw Afterwards, Darius and Natakas decided to go against their initial plan of leaving Greece and instead chose to stay with Kassandra in Achaia.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Shadow Heritage – Home
===A quiet life===
====Settling down====
Over time, Natakas developed a relationship with Kassandra, resulting in the birth of a child, Elpidios, who became Darius' grandson. The four lived together in the abandoned home at the Ionian Watch, where Darius and Natakas looked after Elpidios while Kassandra was away performing mercenary work. Darius enjoyed his newfound quiet life and spending time with his grandson, but constantly lived in fear that Amorges and the Order would eventually track them down.
One day when Kassandra returned to Achaia from a contract, she went to collect shellfish with Natakas while Darius took Elpidios home to prepare dinner. Following dinner that night, Natakas took Elpidios to bed as Darius and Kassandra remained to talk, reflecting on the peaceful life they had.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – The Simple Life
====Attack on Dyme====
During their conversation, Darius and Kassandra spotted smoke in the distance and realized that it was coming from Dyme. Racing back to the village, they discovered that the Order of Dominion was attacking Dyme and that Amorges was leading them. After confronting his former friend, Darius helped Kassandra fight the Order's soldiers before searching for Natakas and Elpidios. Content that they were safe, Darius bid farewell to his family and trusted Kassandra to keep them safe while he would serve as bait to allow them to escape.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – A Flight in Fire
Setting up an ambush for the Order, Darius was caught by surprise by the Immortals, who nearly killed him before Kassandra came to his rescue. After the misthios defeated the Immortals, she and Darius raced to the shore where Kassandra had left Natakas and Elpidios, only to find the former dead and no sign of the latter. Devastated by the loss of his son, Darius blamed Kassandra for abandoning Natakas and Elpidios to save him, and left to exact revenge on the Order and find his grandson alone.
===Hunting the Order of Dominion===
Darius managed to track the Order of Dominion to Messenia, where he set up a hideout in Aipeia to investigate the Order's activities in the region and hopefully find Amorges and Elpidios. Eventually he learned that the Order had complete control over Messenia and discovered the whereabouts of two of its members: an unnamed commander who was overseeing a large production of weapons and supervising imprisoned helots, and Dimokrates, who was negotiating a deal with the Cult of Kosmos to send reinforcements. He also managed to secure an alliance with an Athenian general against the Order, though the general was later captured, needing to be rescued.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – Answers from Ashes
During his investigation, Darius was unexpectedly reunited with Kassandra, who had also traveled to Aipeia and managed to find his hideout. Darius reluctantly allowed her to help and told her about his findings, claiming that they needed to cripple the Order's operations to draw Amorges out of hiding. He subsequently worked with Kassandra to identify and assassinate Dimokrates during a meeting with the Cult.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – The Ordering of the Kosmos
After Kassandra had investigated all of Darius' leads, she met up with him in order to prepare the last step of their plan. However, the misthios then received an invitation to meet the Ancient Gergis, which she decided to accept.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – The Trap Is Set 
====Confronting Amorges====
Once the Order of Dominion had been weakened enough, Darius and Kassandra set fires in Aipeia to force the helots to flee, drawing the Order's attention. The two then split up to eliminate the soldiers sent by the Order, though Darius managed to capture one guard whom he interrogated with Kassandra's help. The solider revealed that the Order's headquarters was located in the Andania Mine, so Kassandra decided to go there while Darius helped their Athenian allies fight the Order's forces.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – Smoke and Fury
Eventually, Darius learned that Amorges was located at the Temple of Zeus and went there to confront him, arriving shortly after Kassandra. Darius tried to reason with his former friend and asked for Elpidios' whereabouts, but as Amorges refused do disclose them, he and Kassandra were forced to fight him. Darius eventually managed to disarm Amorges and tackled him down the hill.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline – Legacy of the First Blade
There, the mortally wounded Amorges revealed that Elpidios was located on an island south of Messenia and tried to warn them that the Order could not be destroyed, meaning that Kassandra and her family would never be safe. However, Darius reminded Amorges of their vow to always fight against tyranny, and the two old friends were able to reconcile before Amorges finally passed away.
====Finding Elpidios====
Traveling to the island mentioned by Amorges, Darius and Kassandra were greeted by a young man carrying Elpidios, confirming Amorges' words that he would never hurt the infant. The man handed Elpidios back to his mother and introduced himself as Darius II, the son of King Artaxerxes I whom Darius had sought to assassinate decades prior. Believing that Artaxerxes had managed to escape the Order's manipulation, Darius called on the young prince to keep Persia safe.
Later, as Darius decided to leave Greece, Kassandra realized that Amorges' warnings about the Order were true and that Elpidios would never be safe with her. As such, she reluctantly chose to abandon her son and leave him in the care of Darius, who promised to protect the boy as they continued to evade the Order. Subsequently, Darius became a guardian to Elpidios and took him to Egypt, where he raised and trained his grandson in his ways.
==Legacy==
Darius' teachings would be passed on from generation to generation through Elpidios until his distant descendant, Aya. By 48 BCE, Darius' Hidden Blade had wound up in the hands of Queen Cleopatra, who later passed it on to Aya. After building a Hidden Blade of her own, Aya gave Darius' blade to her husband Bayek, who went on to wield it for the rest of his life, regularly upgrading it. After Bayek and Aya founded the Hidden Ones, it became the signature weapon of their organization,Assassin's Creed: Origins still used centuries later when their Brotherhood was rechristened as the Assassins.
By the 860s CE, the Greek Hidden One Itamos had acquired a sketch of Darius' Hidden Blade and decided to send it to his fellow Hidden One Roshan at Alamut, believing that Darius would have wanted the sketch to return to his homeland.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – A New Beginning
By the time of the Renaissance, Darius had become a legendary figure among the Assassins for his deeds, and he was posthumously honored as one of their own. A tomb dedicated to him was built beneath the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy. In 1478, the Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore explored the tomb and took the hidden seal from its sarcophagus, which later allowed him to obtain the Armor of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad sealed in the Sanctuary beneath the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni, where statues of Darius and other celebrated Assassins had been erected.Assassin's Creed II – Novella's Secret
==Personality and traits==
Darius devoted himself to his fight for freedom, seeking to protect his homeland of Persia from tyranny at all costs. However, in his desire to prevent the Order of the Ancients from taking power again following his assassination of Xerxes I, he was willing to kill Artaxerxes I despite the young king having done nothing wrong yet. This ended his friendship with Amorges, who joined the Order to bring what he viewed as "true peace" to Persia, and Darius was subsequently branded a traitor, forcing him to flee Persia with his family. After most of his family was killed by the Order, Darius blamed himself for and was haunted by their deaths for the rest of his life.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade
Amorges' betrayal also caused Darius to have severe trust issues. He was initially hostile towards Kassandra, even after learning that she was the "Eagle Bearer" targeted by the Order, and refused to disclose his past to her. Over time, however, he learned to open up more and warmed up to Kassandra, seeing her as family. He also decided to settle down with Kassandra alongside Natakas, despite the risks of the Order tracking them down, as he wished both his son and grandson to have a chance at a normal life.
Darius loved his family and was deeply affected by Natakas' death, setting out to exact revenge on the Order and rescue the kidnapped Elpidios by himself. This was in part due to him blaming Kassandra for failing to protect their family and refusing her help, though in time he forgave her and the two resumed their partnership. Darius was also able to reconcile with Amorges prior to the latter's death, having realized that despite his actions, his friend still believed in their initial goal of protecting Persia.
After being informed by Darius II that Persia was at peace and prospering thanks to his father Artaxerxes, Darius realized that he had misjudged the king, who had not repeated his father's mistake of allowing himself to be manipulated by the Order. He subsequently decided to put his faith in Darius II that he would keep their homeland safe like his father before him.
===Skills and equipment===
By the 420s BCE, despite his age, Darius had the strength and reflexes of a man half as old. According to Natakas, he never missed a day of his training regimen. He was skilled enough to match Kassandra in combat and trained with her regularly during the time they lived together. He was an expert at stealth, being able to appear and disappear at will, where even Kassandra couldn't track him. He preferred to work and assassinate silently rather than engage in open battle, though he proved to be a skilled duelist when the situation demanded it.
Darius built and maintained his Hidden Blade by himself, considering it a "choice" to use it as his main weapon, with the skill required for its usage being part of the reason for him doing so. Unlike most later users of the Hidden Blade, Darius wore his blade on the outside of his arm.
==Behind the scenes==
Darius is a character first mentioned in the 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II, as the first Assassin to wield the Hidden Blade. Early artworks depict Darius with the Blade under his right arm but with no amputated fingers. 
The character of Darius is loosely based on , who historically served as regent of Persia for a short time after Xerxes I's death, and before that is believed to have been the king's vizier or head bodyguard. According to Aristotle's accounts, Artabanus murdered the Crown Prince Darius just prior to killing Xerxes himself. The Latin historian , however, offers an alternative account where Crown Prince Darius was executed for the patricide of Xerxes after being framed by Artabanus. Other accounts have Artabanus naming Artaxerxes I as king while he acted as the power behind the throne, and him being killed by Artaxerxes as revenge for his father's assassination.
Darius made his first in-person appearance in Legacy of the First Blade, a three-part downloadable expansion for the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, where he was voiced by the Canadian actor Michael Benyaer. With the Assassins' origins retconned in 2017's Assassin's Creed: Origins, Darius is no longer a proper Assassin, but rather a resistance fighter whose ideals matched those of the eventual Brotherhood.
Darius' age during the events of Legacy of the First Blade is a point of contention. If he had witnessed the Battle of Thermopylae in his youth in 480 BCE, it would place Darius' age at his late 60s by the time of the Peloponnesian War. If he was 20 at the time of the Battle of Thermopylae, the age required for full-time military service in the Persian Empire, he would have been born in 500 BCE and been in his 70s during the events of the DLC.
During the battle with Amorges at the end of Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline, Darius executes a move wherein he jumps on Amorges' shoulders before back-flipping off to slice his sword down Amorges' back. This move resembles one used by the in Ubisoft's 2003 game .
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed II 
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 
*Assassin's Creed: Origins 
*Assassin's Creed: Odyssey 
**Legacy of the First Blade 
*Assassin's Creed: Rebellion — The Hunter's Hounds
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice 
*Assassin's Creed: Mirage 
==References==
de:Darius
fa:داریوش
fr:Darius
it:Darius
pl:Dariusz (asasyn)
pt-br:Darius
es:Darío
zh:大流士
Category:Individuals
Category:5th century BCE births
Category:Iranians
Category:Persians
Category:Regicides
Category:Protectors of Persia
Category:Assassins
Category:Persian Assassins
Category:Assassin leaders
Category:Ancestors of Khemu