Great Purge (1757-1763)

The Great PurgeAssassin's Creed: Infographics (1757–1763) was a full-scale assault by the Colonial Templars under their Grand Master Haytham Kenway against the Colonial Assassins in the Thirteen Colonies. With the Templars greatly aided by the Assassin turncoat Shay Cormac, the Colonial Brotherhood was effectively destroyed, reduced to its Mentor Achilles Davenport and a mere handful of members, and would not return to its former strength until almost two decades later during the American Revolutionary War.
==History==
===Haytham's arrival===
Following their founding in 1746,Assassin's Creed: Rogue – War Letters: "All Over the World" the Colonial Brotherhood under their Mentor Achilles Davenport rapidly expanded their influence. By 1752, they controlled a number of forts and settlements along North America's Atlantic coast and maintained their hold through the use of gangs as enforcers. The Assassins also possessed an established network of spies and allies. As such, they were more powerful than the Templars in the area.Assassin's Creed: Rogue 
From 1752 to 1754, the high-ranking Templars Lawrence Washington,Assassin's Creed: Rogue – By Invitation Only Samuel Smith,Assassin's Creed: Rogue – One Little Victory and James WardropAssassin's Creed: Rogue – We the People were assassinated by the young Assassin Shay Cormac after they stole the Precursor box and Voynich manuscript from the local Assassins in Saint-Domingue following the 1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Lessons and Revelations
In 1754, Haytham arrived in the AmericasAssassin's Creed III – Journey to the New World and established a Colonial Rite independent from the British Templars as its first Grand Master.Assassin's Creed III – The Braddock Expedition The nascent Templars quickly came into conflict with the well-established Assassins. Beginning as a proxy war between the Templars and mercenaries recruited by the Assassins, the conflict escalated when the two factions sided with opposing European powers during the Seven Years' War.
===Turning the tide===
From 1757 onward, the disillusioned former Assassin Shay Cormac helped the Templars track down and kill several of his former comrades, including the high-ranking Assassins Kesegowaase,Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Scars Hope Jensen,Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Caress of Steel and Chevalier de la Vérendrye.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Cold Fire In addition to his former brethren, Shay also eliminated Adéwalé, a legendary member of the Caribbean Brotherhood.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Bravado
Shay also used his ship Morrigan, a heavily modified , to cripple the Assassin navy. Among the ships which fell victim to his actions were Adéwalé's vessel the Experto Crede, the Man O' War Gerfaut captained by Chevalier de la Vérendrye, and the Assassins' flagship Storm Fortress.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – The Storm Fortress Shay also eliminated seven Assassin-allied gangs within New York City, liberated many forts in the River Valley and along the Atlantic coast, intercepted a number of assassination contracts, and killed any stalkers sent after him personally, weakening the Assassin presence further.
In 1760, in a battle at the Arctic Temple in the Arctic, the Brotherhood's leadership was broken. The Assassin Liam O'Brien was killed and Haytham crippled Achilles. Thereafter, the Brotherhood's influence in the Colonies was severely diminished and they were left on the brink of destruction, while the Templars' power continued to grow. Confident that he was no longer a threat, the Templars spared Achilles' life on the condition that the Assassins stop searching for more Isu Temples.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Non Nobis Domine
===Final assault===
In 1763,Assassin's Creed III – Database: Achilles Davenport three years after the Assassins' defeat at the Arctic, the Templars launched their final attack on the Davenport Homestead, killing all of the remaining Assassins save for AchillesAssassin's Creed III – Database: Davenport Homestead and Robert Faulkner.Assassin's Creed III – Database: Robert Faulkner Convinced that the lone Mentor no longer posed any threat, the Templars spared Achilles' life again, this time on the condition that he give up life as an Assassin.
However, some Assassins like Benjamin Tallmadge, Sr. and Lawrence Cato survived by going into hiding.Assassin's Creed III – Something on the SideAssassin's Creed: Nexus VR – A Greater Cause The French Assassin Pierre Bellec, who was training in the colonies at the time, left for France before the Templars could claim his life.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Pierre Bellec Nevertheless, the ruthless acts ordered by Haytham during the purge had a lasting effect on Bellec, who later claimed to his apprentice Arno Dorian that he had seen Templars "put entire villages to the sword, just for the chance of killing one Assassin".Assassin's Creed: Unity – Confrontation These experiences deepened his hatred for the Templars and made him resistant to the very idea of truces proposed by Mentor MirabeauAssassin's Creed: Unity – Graduation or Arno.Assassin's Creed: Unity – A Cautious Alliance
A depressed and embittered Achilles spent the next six years in isolation at his manor, allowing it to fall into disrepair. It was not until the arrival of Haytham's son Ratonhnhaké:ton that the Colonial Brotherhood would rise from the ashes.Assassin's Creed III – A Boorish Man Under Achilles' training, Ratonhnhaké:ton would go on to exterminate most of the Colonial Templars and rebuild the Colonial Brotherhood during the American Revolutionary War.Assassin's Creed III
==Behind the scenes==
The Great Purge is an event that was first indirectly mentioned in the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed III, occurring off-screen during the time skip from players controlling Haytham Kenway in 1755 to playing as a young Ratonhnhaké:ton in 1769. Further vague details are provided by the Assassin historian Shaun Hastings in some of the database entries, but the purge would not be depicted until the 2014 video game Assassin's Creed: Rogue, where it serves as the main focus for the latter half of the story.
Even then, the purge's final stages are not shown due to Shay Cormac leaving for Europe in 1760, and it would not be named until the release of the 2017 French artbook Assassin's Creed: Infographics, which reuses the name of the 2000 global Assassin purge depicted in the 2010–2011 Ubiworkshop comic Assassin's Creed: The Fall.
Although Assassin's Creed: Rogue shows Haytham as being the one to cripple Achilles Davenport, in the 2016 novel Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants by Matthew J. Kirby, the Brotherhood believed the culprit to be Shay. During the New York City draft riots, the Assassin Varius sought revenge on Shay's family for this reason and attempted to kill Shay's grandson Cudgel Cormac.Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Chapter 12
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed III 
*Assassin's Creed: Forsaken 
*Assassin's Creed: Rogue 
*Assassin's Creed: Unity 
*Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants 
*Assassin's Creed: Rebellion 
*Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR 
==References==
fr:Purge des Assassins coloniaux
Category:Timeline
Category:Assassin purges
Category:Templar conspiracies
Category:French and Indian War
Category:Seven Years' War
Category:Assassin-Templar War