Master Assassin

The title of Master Assassin is one of the highest attainable ranks within the Assassin Order, and those who hold this title are presumed to have reached the peak of their training as an Assassin. The rank garners a large amount of respect from other members within the Order and indicates individuals who possess uncommon skill and talent, most often in the arts of stealth and assassination. 
A Master Assassin is meant to embody the Creed: they have never harmed an innocent, always hid in plain sight, and never compromised the Brotherhood.
==History==
===Origins with the Hidden Ones===
The title originated from that of Master, which was held by the most esteemed members of the Hidden Ones, the Assassins' previous name. The earliest known Hidden One to become a Master was Hakor, an Egyptian Hidden One who lived during the 1st century BCE, around the same time as the brotherhood's formation.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Magas Codex
During the era of the Roman Empire, the Roman Hidden Ones operating in Britannia used the Latin title of Magister, but it held the same meaning. Between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, several Hidden Ones rose to attain the rank, including Eghan, Khloe, Marcellus, Maya, Sebastos, and Vitus.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brief History of the Hidden Ones
The earliest known use of the Master Assassin title was in the mid-8th century, when the Chinese Hidden One Li E attained the rank for his efforts in fighting against the Order of the Ancients' influence in China.Assassin's Creed: Dynasty
During the mid-9th century, two Master Assassins of the Alamut Brotherhood, Roshan and Fuladh Al Haami, sat on the council that governed over the branch. Roshan later trained Basim Ibn Ishaq, who also rose to attain the rank while fighting the Order of the Ancients in Baghdad. However, Roshan eventually left the Hidden Ones after disagreeing with Mentor Rayhan over how to handle the revelation of Basim's true nature as an Isu incarnation.Assassin's Creed: Mirage Basim himself would betray the Hidden Ones in 877 to pursue his own agenda and would become trapped in the Grey for centuries, losing his rank in the process.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
===Middle Ages===
In 1176, Umar Ibn-La'Ahad and his fellow Assassin Faheem Al-Sayf held the title of Master Assassin within the Levantine Brotherhood. However, Umar gave his life to spare the Brotherhood from a siege by Sultan Saladin's forces, in retribution for an assassination gone wrong.Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
In 1189, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Umar's son, attained the rank of Master Assassin after saving the life of his Mentor, Al Mualim, during a Templar attack on Masyaf.Assassin's Creed: Revelations However, he lost it two years later, when he was demoted to a novice following his failure to obtain the Apple of Eden beneath Solomon's Temple, along with his arrogance and disregard of the Creed's tenets. Altaïr eventually regained this title through several assassinations in support of the Order's interests, and held it during the assassinations of Robert de Sablé and Al Mualim.Assassin's Creed Eventually he became Mentor of the Levantine Brotherhood, leading it until his death in 1257.
In the early 13th century, William of Cassingham, a member of the English Brotherhood, became a Master Assassin. However, during the First Barons' War, he operated independently from the Brotherhood, because unlike his fellow Assassins, he supported the reign of King John, viewing it as the lesser evil compared to baronial rule.Assassin's Creed: Memories
In the early 14th century, Thomas de Carneillon held the rank of Master Assassin before becoming Mentor of the French Brotherhood.Assassin's Creed: Unity
===Renaissance===
In 1492, Aguilar de Nerha and María held the position of Master Assassins within the Spanish Brotherhood. Aguilar would later assume the mantle of Mentor,Assassin's Creed: Rebellion following his predecessor Benedicto's death that same year.Assassin's Creed film
Around 1500, Ezio Auditore da Firenze obtained the rank, before rising to become Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood, following the liberation of Rome from the House of Borgia's grasp.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Ezio's fellow Italian Assassins Lucas Bellini and Girolamo da Lucca, who accompanied him on his travels to Spain, also attained the rank at some point.
During the early 16th century, both Yusuf Tazim, the leader of the Ottoman Brotherhood, and Piri Reis, the famed Ottoman cartographer and bomb specialist, were Master Assassins, as were two of Yusuf's lieutenants, Dogan and Kasim.
Wang Yangming, the Mentor of the Chinese Brotherhood in the early 16th century, was a Master Assassin, as was Zhu Jiuyuan, who briefly led the Chinese Assassins during Yangming's disappearance to escape the Great Rites Controversy. Jiuyuan's apprentice Shao Jun would later be elevated to this rank during her hunt of the Eight Tigers, and eventually Mentor following Yangming's death in 1529.Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
The renowned samurai and ninja Hattori Hanzō was also secretly a Master Assassin of the Japanese Brotherhood during the mid-to-late 16th century.
===Age of Imperialism===
In the early 17th century, the Master Assassin Avicenne oversaw Assassin operations in southwest France,Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Witches of the Moors – Chapter 11 - Margaux until her death in 1609 during an ambush by the Master Templar Pierre de Lancre's forces.Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Witches of the Moors – Chapter 15 - Margaux By 1690, Maréchal was a Master Assassin of the French Brotherhood.
In the late 17th century, Thomas Stoddard, a member of the British Brotherhood renowned for his skills as a tracker of Pieces of Eden, held the title of Master Assassin.Assassin's Creed Volume 1: Trial by Fire
In 1714, Duncan Walpole, a Master Assassin of the British Brotherhood, secretly defected to the Templars. However, before he could meet with the West Indies Templars in Havana to officially join the Order, he was killed by the pirate Edward Kenway in 1715. After Edward joined the Brotherhood and returned to England years later,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag he would come to attain the rank of Master Assassin.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Edward's acquaintance Rhona Dinsmore, a member of the West Indies Brotherhood who led their bureau in Havana, also became a Master Assassin by 1751.Assassin's Creed: Rogue
In the 18th century, Achilles Davenport was a Master Assassin and later Mentor of the Colonial Brotherhood. Following the near complete collapse of the branch in 1763, Achilles removed himself from the Assassin affairs, but eventually returned to prominence as the Mentor of the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton.Assassin's Creed III Ratonhnhaké:ton himself obtained the rank at some point later in his life.
By the late 18th century, the French Brotherhood was led by a Council, which consisted of four Master Assassins: Pierre Bellec, Sophie Trenet, Guillaume Beylier and Hervé Quemar, with the Mentor Mirabeau presiding over them. Arno Dorian, another notable member of the French Brotherhood, also attained the rank of Master Assassin at some point after being reinstated around 1794.
===Early modern era===
In the early 19th century, the Master Assassin Hamid, who would later serve as the Mentor of the Indian Brotherhood, rescued a young thief named Arbaaz Mir and inducted him into the Brotherhood.Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India – Database: Hamid By the 1840s, Arbaaz would come to attain the rank of Master Assassin for his efforts in keeping various Pieces of Eden, most notably the Koh-i-Noor, out of Templar hands.Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India
Arbaaz's close friend Ethan Frye, a member of the British Brotherhood, also attained the position during this period.Assassin's Creed: Underworld Following Ethan's death in 1868, his children Evie and Jacob worked alongside Arbaaz's son, Jayadeep, to liberate London from Templar influence, an act which saw all three being promoted to Master Assassins.
Around 1867, the French Assassin Henri Escoffier attained the rank of Master Assassin and left for Zürich, Switzerland to establish his own Brotherhood.Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 11 His fellow Assassin Amira Benyamina also attained the rank at some point before 1869 and relocated to Cairo, Egypt, where she joined the local Assassin Council.Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 2 By 1870, Michel Moulin had become a Master Assassin and the leader of the French Brotherhood. In 1873, Pierrette Arnaud was elevated to the rank of Master Assassin by George Westhouse upon her return to England from Egypt.Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 22
During the period between the 19th and 20th centuries, Nikolai Orelov, a member of the Narodnaya Volya sect of the Russian Brotherhood, was a Master Assassin.Assassin's Creed: The Fall However, in 1918, Orelov abandoned the Brotherhood in order to rescue Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, whom the Russian Assassins intended to perform dangerous experiments on.Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia
===Contemporary era===
By 2015, the latest Assassin known to have held the position of Master Assassin was Galina Voronina of the Russian Brotherhood.
==Attire==
===Abbasid Caliphate===
The Hidden Ones of Alamut wore different colored sashes to indicate their rank, with Initiates sporting blue sashes while Master Assassins wore red sashes.The Art of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Chapter 1: Characters In some instances, a member of the brotherhood may have received a new set of robes upon being promoted to the rank of Master, as was the case of Basim Ibn Ishaq. However, by the 870s, this practice was seemingly abandoned, with Basim and his apprentice Hytham wearing a pair of near-identical robes, except for the aforementioned sashes.
===Crusades===
Like other Assassins of the Levantine Brotherhood, most Master Assassins possessed the eagle beak-like design upon their hoods, but their robes were generally longer, forming a bird-like "tail" that fluttered whenever they were in an area of strong wind. In addition, their leather belts were larger, their red sashes wider and longer, and they had permission to carry any weapon they desired.
===Renaissance===
When the order retreated underground after the Levantine Brotherhood's supposed collapse, a uniform guideline as to the attire of a Master Assassin no longer existed. The Master Assassins of the Renaissance in Europe were a small, underground group with broader access to knowledge and weapons. Most retained their freerunning, Hidden Blades and hooded traditions, though Master Assassins were the only ones permitted to wield dual Hidden Blades.Assassin's Creed II
As Assassin Dens were erected within Constantinople, Ezio Auditore promoted several high-ranking Assassins to be Master Assassins who guarded the structures. These new Master Assassins would be trained specially by Ezio to be able to fulfill their role, and this extra training allowed them to hold the Dens against Templar attacks.
==Examples of Master Assassins==
Wiki noimage.jpg|Hakor(c. 30 BCE)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Eghan(c. 164)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Khloe(c. 211)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Marcellus(c. 383)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Maya(c. 423)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Sebastos(c. 423)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Vitus(c. 423)
ACD - Li E Fullbody colored render.png|Li E(c. 755 – ?)
ACMirage DB Fuladh.png|Fuladh Al Haami(9th century)
ACMir Roshan render.png|Roshan(? – 860s)
ACMirage Master Assassin Basim render.png|Basim Ibn Ishaq(860s – 877)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Umar Ibn-La'Ahad(? – 1176)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Faheem Al-Sayf(c. 1176)
ACR Altair Render2.png|Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad(1189 – 1257)
William of Cassingham.png|William of Cassingham(c. 1215 – 1257)
ACU De Carneillon Render.png|Thomas de Carneillon(c. 1307 – 1323)
Maria ACF render.png|María(? – 1492)
ACMovie Aguilar full body render.png|Aguilar de Nerha(c. 1492 – 1526)Assassin's Creed DNA – Character profiles: Aguilar
Lucas Bellini render.png|Lucas Bellini(c. 1490s – ?)
Girolamo da Lucca render.png|Girolamo da Lucca(c. 1490s – ?)
ACI-Ezio.png|Ezio Auditore da Firenze(c. 1500 – 1513)
ACR Yusuf v.png|Yusuf Tazim(c. 1509 – 1512)
Piri ReisRender.png|Piri Reis(c. 1511)
Advanced Tactics 1.png|Kasim(c. 1511)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Castor(? – 1511)
On the defense 1.png|Dogan(1512 – ?)
ACCC Zhu Jiuyuan.jpg|Zhu Jiuyuan(? – 1524)
ACCC Wang Yangming.png|Wang Yangming(? – 1529)
ACCC-Shao Jun Render.png|Shao Jun(c. 1526 – ?)
ACM Hanzo Hattori 3.jpg|Hattori Hanzō(c. 1542 – 1596)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Avicenne(c. 1609)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Maréchal(c. 1690 – ?)
AC-Assassins Thomas Stoddard Fullbody render.png|Thomas Stoddard(c. 1692)
AC4 Duncan Walpole render.png|Duncan Walpole(? – 1715)
Edward Render.png|Edward Kenway(c. 1735)
ACRG Achilles render.png|Achilles Davenport(c. 1746 – 1781)
AC4 Rhona Dinsmore render.png|Rhona Dinsmore(c. 1751 – ?)
ACI-Connor.png|Ratonhnhaké:ton(c. 1781 – ?)
ACU Bellec Render.png|Pierre Bellec(? – 1791)
ACU Mirabeau Render.png|Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau(? – 1791)
ACU Trenet render.png|Sophie Trenet(c. 1780s – ?)
ACU Quemar render.png|Hervé Quemar(c. 1780s – ?)
ACU Guillaume Beylier.jpg|Guillaume Beylier(c. 1780s – ?)
ACU Arno Dorian render.png|Arno Dorian(c. 1794 – ?)
ACCI Hamid.png|Hamid(19th century)
ACCI Arbaaz Mir Render.png|Arbaaz Mir(c. 1841 – ?)
ACCI Rescue (9).jpg|Ethan Frye(? – 1868)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Henri Escoffier(c. 1867 – ?)
ACS Henry Green Render.png|Jayadeep Mir(c. 1868 – ?)
ACS Evie Frye Render.png|Evie Frye(c. 1868 – ?)
ACS Jacob Frye Render.png|Jacob Frye(c. 1868 – ?)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Amira Benyamina(c. 1869 – ?)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Mustafa Hussein(c. 1869 – ?)Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 7
Wiki noimage.jpg|Michel Moulin(c. 1870 – ?)
ACTEH - Pierrete Arnaud.png|Pierrette Arnaud(1873 – ?)
ACI-Nikolai.png|Nikolai Orelov(c. 1917 – 1918)
ACS Galina Voronina render.png|Galina Voronina(c. 2015 – present)
==Appearances==
==References==
Category:Assassin ranks