Assassin Council

Throughout the history of the Assassins, several branches adopted an Assassin Council or Council of the Brotherhood as their governing body. The practice began sometime in the first millennium under the Levantine branch of Hidden Ones, who outlined in their founding statutes a provision for the creation of a Council and its dissolution as required by a chapter's Mentor, and was carried over in 1090 when their leader Hassan-i Sabbāh formally organized the Levantine Brotherhood.
During the Renaissance in Italy, the Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood led an Assassin Council comprised of several local Master Assassins. The French Brotherhood during the French Revolution and the British and Egyptian Brotherhoods during the Industrial Revolution were also led by their own respective Assassins Councils.
==History==
===Alamut Council===
During their early years in the Levant, the sect of Hidden Ones operating in the region set rules establishing the conditions for a Council. Its duties included judging the readiness of their members for missions, meeting to discuss the group's actions against the Order of the Ancients moving forward,Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – To Serve the Light... and overseeing the brotherhood in the event that a suitable Mentor could not be appointed.Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade – 
By the 860s, the Council in Alamut was led by the Mentor Rayhan, the Rafiq and Eagle Master Fuladh Al Haami, and the Master Assassin Roshan.Assassin's Creed: Mirage In addition to overseeing the brotherhood's activities in the region, the Council was also responsible for formally inducting new recruits into the Hidden Ones once they had completed their training.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Taking Flight Following the events in the Alamut Temple, Roshan renounced her membership within the Alamut brotherhood and thus the Council, tossing her Hidden Blade into a fire.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – In Pursuit of Truth
In 873, Rayhan wrote a letter to Hytham, an acolyte studying under Basim Ibn Ishaq, informing him that the Council was pleased at Basim's apparent initiative to hunt the Order of the Ancients in England and at his decision to bring Hytham to accompany him. Seeing that Hytham had potential, Rayhan advised him to follow his teacher's lead if he sought to "ascend to greatness".
However, Basim later attempted to kill his new allies Eivor Varinsdottir and Sigurd Styrbjornsson of the Raven Clan while in Hordafylke, only to be defeated and trapped in the Yggdrasil supercomputer.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brother's Keeper On returning to the Norse settlement of Ravensthorpe in Ledecestrescire, Eivor told Hytham of the sudden turn of events, and he informed Rayhan and the Alamut Council of the news in his subsequent report.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Breaking the Order
In 879, Fuladh, now a Mentor of the Hidden Ones based in the of Persia, was set to host a council at the newly-constructed fortress of Alamut in . Rayhan invited Hytham to attend the council and give a full account of Basim's betrayal to the rest of the brotherhood, and to be present when the Council promoted him from the rank of Acolyte.
===Levantine Council===
In 1090, Hassan-i Sabbāh formally re-organized the Hidden Ones into the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins,Assassin's Creed: The Essential Guide but still maintained the decrees set by his predecessors centuries prior regarding Councils and how the Order was to function. The next notable Council would not be seen until nearly 140 years later. Following the departure of the Mentor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad from Masyaf—the Levantine Assassins' seat of power in the 13th century—to combat the growing threat of the Mongol Empire, and the imprisonment of the interim Mentor Malik Al-Sayf on the false charge of murder, the Assassins convened a council headed by Altaïr's rival, Abbas Sofian.
Abbas' council numbered ten Assassins in total, and upon Altaïr's return to Masyaf in 1228, consisted of men the former Mentor considered to be among the Order's most weak-minded and conniving, including the likes of Farim. Soon after his return, Altaïr met with Abbas and the Council to discuss his quest to halt the Mongols' advances and his success in assassinating Genghis Khan. Though the statutes of the Levantine Brotherhood once would have allowed the returned Altaïr to assume leadership again and dissolve the sitting council, Abbas' scheming had altered the statutes' ordinances so he and his council could stay in power, having declared Altaïr too compromised to lead.
When Altaïr later took back control of the Levantine Brotherhood from Abbas upon kiling him in 1247, the Mentor elected not to continue the Assassin Council, though he retained several trusted advisers.
===Italian Council===
During the era of the Renaissance, the Italian Assassins maintained an Assassin Council, otherwise known as the Council of the Brotherhood. Comprised of several notable Master Assassins, often under the oversight of the current Mentor, the Assassin Council was responsible for choosing the Italian Brotherhood's leader and ratifying significant decisions regarding the direction of the Order.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood novel – 
In 1500, several members of the Italian Council—including the Assassin leader Mario Auditore and Niccolò Machiavelli—met at the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni to hear Ezio Auditore da Firenze recount his confrontation with Rodrigo Borgia and the discovery of the Vatican Vault beneath the Sistine Chapel. In the aftermath of Cesare Borgia's devastating attack on Monteriggioni that cost the life of Mario Auditore, Ezio and Machiavelli were appointed dual chiefs of the Council by virtue of their deeds furthering the Assassin cause.
The Assassin Council later ratified the ascension of Ezio to the role of Mentor and leader of the Italian Assassins in 1503. During Ezio's tenure as Mentor, the Italian Council could count Machiavelli, Bartolomeo d'Alviano, Rosa, La Volpe, Paola, and Claudia Auditore among their numbers,Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel – each offering the Mentor aid, intelligence, and advice.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood When Ezio eventually stepped down as Mentor in 1513, and named Lodovico Ariosto as his chosen successor, the Council was left to ratify his decision.
===French Council===
The French Assassin Council was active since at least the mid-18th century, dispatching John de la Tour to the early American Colonies. Operating under the Council's orders, de la Tour aided in establishing a new Colonial Brotherhood around 1746, though his death at the battle of Louisbourg left control of the Colonial Assassins in the hands of the Mentor Achilles Davenport.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – War Letters – 
In 1748, Gaspar Velasquez and his associates in Spain began working on the blueprints for a powerful new brig to bolster the Colonial Assassins. However, they were unable to build the ship themselves due to the threat posed by the British Templars. The following year, the plans were given to the French Council, who had the ship—dubbed the Aquila—constructed in Brest, France, and delivered into the possession of the Colonial Brotherhood.
By 1789, the French Council was led by the Mentor Mirabeau and operated out of the Assassin sanctuary beneath the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Aside from Mirabeau, the Council was composed of four other Master Assassins: Pierre Bellec, Sophie Trenet, Hervé Quemar, and Guillaume Beylier. In July 1789, they inducted Arno Dorian into the Brotherhood,Assassin's Creed: Unity – Rebirth and as the French Revolution broke out, sought to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Graduation
In 1791, Mirabeau was poisoned by his fellow Council member Pierre Bellec, for attempting to establish peace with Élise de la Serre, a French Templar betrayed by her own Order.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Meeting with Mirabeau Bellec, having been witness to Templar atrocities committed in the name of purging the Assassins, viewed Mirabeau's push for peace as treason against the Assassins. Bellec's crime was uncovered not long after by Arno, leading the two Assassins to engage in a fight that left Bellec dead and the Assassin Council deprived of two of its members.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Confrontation
Thereafter, chairmanship of the French Council fell to Sophie Trenet,Assassin's Creed: Unity – The King's Correspondence who later led the Council to expel Arno from the Assassin Order. They did not approve of his selfish reasons for joining the Brotherhood, nor the manner in which he repeatedly acted outside the tenets of the Creed, brashly killing targets without the Council's consent in order to pursue a personal vendetta. The Council thus banished Arno, but did not seek to punish him furtherAssassin's Creed: Unity – Bottom of the Barrel and would ultimately welcome the young Assassin back years later,Assassin's Creed: Unity – The Temple after he had matured and demonstrated true dedication to the Brotherhood's cause.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Dead Kings – A Crown of Thorns
===British Council===
By the year 1868, the British Brotherhood in England was overseen by an Assassin Council that was reluctant to take action against the Templars that so thoroughly controlled London at the time. Against the orders of the Council, the young British Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye nevertheless traveled to London to help Henry Green, the leader of the city's remaining Assassins.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – A Simple Plan
===Egyptian Council===
By 1869, the Egyptian Brotherhood was led by an Assassin Council based in Cairo, which counted Mustafa Hussein and the French Assassin Amira Benyamina among its members.Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 2
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 
*Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
*Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel 
*Assassin's Creed: Unity
*Assassin's Creed: Syndicate 
*Assassin's Creed: Underworld 
*Assassin's Creed: Valhalla 
*Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Highlands Children
*Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot
*Assassin's Creed: Mirage
==References==
ru:Совет Ассассинов
zh:刺客议会
Category:Assassin Brotherhood