“We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins”
When I first encountered the
above phrase in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, during the Assassin initiation
ceremony, I took it at face value. “We
work in secret to do good.” Then I
noticed throughout the game the number of people who perceived the Assassins as
the bad guys. After all, you the player
know that you are killing bad guys, but to the NPC townsfolk, these are the pillars
of society. At one point Ezio says to
the jeering crowd something like, “you speak of things you know nothing about”.
This got me thinking that the Assassins
may serve the light, but they are perceived as being dark. Recently, I began to see this phrase in a new
way. I remembered that light can mean
both goodness and enlightenment. What if
serving the light is the serve enlightenment?
What if it’s about serving The Enlightment?
WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?
Five hundred years ago, Western
Civilization was pretty rubbish.
Compared with the Chinese and Islam, Europeans were definitely in last
place. Then something changed. Economic historian Professor Niall Ferguson
set-out to discover how and why the West came to dominate the world in such a
short span of time. He concluded that a
combination of six key factors tipped the scales for the West: competition,
science, property rights, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work
ethic. All but one of these were born of
the Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment, the exception being competition
which was endemic to a continent born of warring tribes.
The Scientific Revolution, from
roughly 1543 to 1687, established in the common mind that the universe operated
according to fixed principles rather than the whims of the gods. Upon this foundation was built The
Enlightenment which sought to apply reason and the scientific method to society
and politics. The result were concepts
like human rights, the freedom to think, act, and believe as we choose, and the
right to own property. The ultimate
expression of Enlightenment values is the United States Declaration of
Independence and the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.
Today, we take these concepts for
granted, however when we look at the big picture of the human experience across
the globe for the past 50,000 years we find only an insignificant percentage of
the human who have ever existed could even conceive of these notions. Nonetheless, we want to see these values
expressed in the historical fiction we produce. The Assassin’s Creed series is no
exception. Here we have a secret society
fighting to promote Enlightenment values millennia before the everyday person
could accept them as being normal. However,
there is an ancient source for these particular values and it is possible to
draw a straight line from it to the fictional Assassins.
MAN VS SOCIETY
Humans are small group animals.
This is an inescapable fact of nature and far too often ignored. According to the Monkeysphere theory, our
brains are only capable of recognising from 100-150 people as being unique
people. Everyone else is just “them”,
NPCs, moving scenery who we de-humanise with labels and stereotypes. If someone says that they are concerned about
the poor, they are really saying that they are concerned about the poor as a
general concept and may not really know any actual impoverished people as unique
individuals. This is not to
criticise. It’s just important to
understand how things are.
This basic tribal mentality
hardwired into our brains is further reinforced by 50,000 year of
tribalism. Even today, our caveman
brains seek to fit in, be part of the crowd, identify with our idea of us as a
people, race, or nation. This is manifested
in the current trend of identity politics, not to mention the multi-billion
dollar industries built around the basic impulse to be fashionable among our
peers in our tastes in entertainment and appearance.
The tribe can be a good place to
be. It provides security, safety, identity,
purpose, and emotional support. The
ideal tribe is like the ideal family where the wise and caring father takes
care of everyone. For millennia, this
ideal image has been translated from father, to chief, to king, to
president. We want a government of wise
and caring leaders who will take care of us, the people.
Being part of a tribe requires
each individual to put their selfish desires aside and to put the needs of the
tribe first. You need to join the group
if you want the benefits. As a result,
tribal societies have no concept of individual identity to the same high degree
that we in the modern West possess.
Considering this in the context of the 50,000-year history of human
consciousness, our modern notions are a blip on the radar – a freakish
abnormality.
The Templars in Assassin’s Creed
recognise this fact. They understand
that humankind is hardwired to submit to the will of the tribe, to society, and
that the ideal situation is for wise leaders to take control of society and
shepherd it into a better world. The Templars see themselves as the wise
leaders who will lead a populace yearning to be led. But it’s not that
simple. Humans are small group animals, but every person is possessed of a
unique consciousness. We are all
individuals. This is where the Assassins
come into the story.
The Assassins ascribe the ideas
of the Enlightenment. That each person is
an individual with his own mind with which to think and to make the life
choices that he thinks will benefit himself.
With this choice comes the responsibility of consequence, be the results
beneficial or negative. “Nothing is
true” reminds us to be critical thinkers and to challenge the accepted “truths”
enforced by the tribal authorities of state, religion, and society. “Everything is permitted” is both a
liberation and a warning. We are free to
act, but our actions, and the actions of others, may or may not lead to a
positive outcome – life has no safety rails.
Human are small groups animals
with individual consciousness. At one
extreme, the individual receives all the benefits of being in the tribe, but at
the cost of freedom. At the other
extreme, the individual is free, but alone and responsible. The struggle is to maintain the balance of
the two, but this is not possible when the degree of social participation
ceases to be voluntary but is forced upon us.
The ideal society for the Assassins is one where the power of tribal
authorities is held in check to allow people to have that balance.
FINDING THE SOURCE
In the real world, the Assassins
were a Muslim sect operating in Iran and Syria during the Crusades. The leap of faith from the games comes from
stories where Hassan i Sabbah, the founder and leader of the order, would
command followers to leap to their deaths to demonstrate their unquestioned
obedience. That sounds nothing like the anti-authoritarian
Assassins from the game the series. The fictional
Assassins have a more fanciful origin story dating back to the dawn of time and
the actual historical Assassins were re-interpreted to fit this fictional
narrative. It is true that the Assassin’s Creed
is historically attributed to Hassan i Sabbah, but it does not seem consistent
with the beliefs of a devout Muslim. So
what is the origin of the Creed, or at least the philosophy behind it?
In Assassin’s Creed Black Flag,
the Assassin Mary Read asserts
Cultures and religions and languages keep folks divided, but there's something in the Assassins Creed that crosses all boundaries. A fondness for life and liberty.
This reflects the Enlightenment
idea that the values of the Enlightenment are based on rational principles and
are therefore universal. As Thomas
Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”. Any rational being can discover these ideas
if they choose. Yet, in the course of
human history they are rare finds with most folk falling back on the default tribal
model. However, there is a historic
precedent dating back 3500 years which provides an interesting alternative
theory for the origins of the Assassin’s enlightenment ideology.
This story begins with a man
named Zarathustra. No one really knows
when Zarathustra lived, but the best guess in around 1000 BC, give or take a
few centuries. This is roughly the same
period given for the Biblical kings, Saul, David, and Solomon. No one really knows where he was from
either. Modern scholars tentatively
place him in eastern Iran. What is
important is the influence he had on human history.
Zarathustra is more commonly
known by the Greek version of his name Zoroaster and the religion he founded,
Zoroastrianism. To put the religion
into context, it is basically the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as
the first monotheistic religion.
Concepts like the war between good and evil, the existence of angels,
demons, and Satan himself, a day of judgement, and heaven and hell all come
from Zoroastrianism.
Zarathustra taught that human
consciousness was a unique gift from the one god, Ahura Mazda, the “wise
lord”. With this gift comes the individual
responsibility to choose between good or evil.
This consciousness was bestowed upon all humans, regardless of race or
gender. In a time when women were
property and marriage was a financial arrangement, Zoroastrians saw women as
equals to men with equal responsibility to choose good. The Zoroastrian Creed
is “Good thoughts, Good words, and Good deeds” implying that we must constantly
be exercising our free will to choose good.
Professor Kaikhosrov D. Irani, a retired
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy from City College of New York, explains it
like this:
"In the Zoroastrian doctrine, there are no specific prescriptions which state, "do this" or "don't do that." The individual is left to think it through. The responsibility for what should be done rests with each individual. The acceptance of this responsibility becomes a way of life. The world is a moral reality and your way of life is good thoughts, good words, and good deeds."
This passage reminded me of Mary
Read’s interpretation of the Creed in Black Flag, “it does not command us to
act or submit - only to be wise.”
It is incredibly difficult for
the modern mind to comprehend how revolutionary Zarathustra’s teachings were in
1000 BC. It is like finding an iPhone
buried under the pyramids. Up until this
point you were the tribe. There was no
I. Now here comes a religion that places
free will in the centre of its belief system.
Zoroastrianism would go on to
become the dominate religion in Persia for the next 1700 years until the
conquering armies of Islam gave their usual convert or die option. Well, there was a third option. Those refusing to convert could pay a special
tax and be allowed to live without converting to Islam. Over time the number of Zoroastrians dwindled
and today only an estimated 200,000 remain.
Possibly the most famous modern Zoroastrian was Freddy Mercury, the lead
singer of the band Queen. For the
Christians, the Persian word for a follower of Zarathustra was Magi. The three wise men from the East who brought
gifts to the baby Jesus were Zoroastrians, so thank Zarathustra for your
Christmas presents. And if you drive a
Mazda, your car was named after Ahura Mazda.
Possibly the most important historical
Zoroastrian was the Persian king Cyrus the Great (576 – 530 BC). Cyrus has always been held in high regard
throughout history. In the Bible, he was
the Persian king who allowed the captive Jews to return to Palestine and paid
to have their temple rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity. His cupbearer had been the Jewish scribe
Ezra, who many scholars believe to have been the chief editor of what we have
today as the Old Testament of the Bible.
The prophet Isaiah referred to Cyrus as “the anointed one”, or as the
phrase is more commonly known, the messiah.
The Greek historian Xenophon is
most famous for his book, Cyropaedia, a mixture of fact and political theory
centred around the life of Cyrus and a key resource for the American Founding
Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson who owned many copies in several
languages.
Today, Cyrus is most regarded for
the Cyrus Cylinder. After Cyrus
conquered the Babylonian Empire he issued a decree to his newly conquered
subjects in which he guarantees their right to worship as they please. Among human right advocates, this is widely
viewed as being the first great human rights documents.
Professor Irani refers to this
period of Persian history as, “The First Enlightenment” with Zoroastrian
philosophy as the centrepiece. Both this
First Enlightenment and The Enlightenment as we know it were based on the same principles. As beings of individual consciousness we must
be free to exercise and cultivate that consciousness regardless of social
authorities. This is the battle line
between the Assassins and Templars, the individual and the tribe, Man and
Society, and Classical Liberalism and Authoritarianism.
The role of Zoroastrianism in the ancient world is
comparable to that of Christianity in 19th century Britain or 20th century
United States as the primary religion of the greatest power of the day. With
the coming of Islam, we see the enlightenment-oriented culture that the
Zoroastrians had cultivated in Persia continue under the new religion to create
the so-called Golden Age of Islam in science and learning. This would
eventually spread through the Moors in Spain and Venetian traders returning
from Istanbul to spark the Renaissance in Europe, followed by the Scientific
Revolution, and then The Enlightenment.
These are the dots connecting the first and second Enlightenment.
However,
there is a fundamental difference.
Although both Enlightenments reached the same destination, they did so
from different routes. For the
Zoroastrians, the path was a religious one using reason, yes, but within the
context of the supernatural. This first
form of enlightenment worked, but not as efficiently as version 2.0 which
arrived through reason with any irrational justification.
So there is an actual ancient precedent for the
Enlightenment values expressed by the Assassins of the game. Making the connection requires a bit of
conjecture, as the game series never mentions Zarathustra, but there are some
interesting parallels. Whether by
accident or design much of the symbolism of Assassin’s Creed reflects this
First Enlightenment. The following is
not intended to be anything more than observations of interesting parallels
between Zoroastrianism and the fictional Assassins found in the Ubisoft game
series.
The Persian Connection
Zoroastrianism was founded in
Persia where it was practiced as the primary religion for over a millennium
until the Islamic conquest of Iran, but even then it took centuries for the
full Islamification of Iran. In 1056,
four hundred years after the Muslim invasion, Hassan-i Sabbah was born in the
scholarly Persian city of Qom. He would
go on to inhabit the mountain fortress of Alamut in Iran as the founder of the
historic Assassins.
Meanwhile back in the 21st
Century, the games company Ubisoft was running their successful game series,
The Prince of Persia. They had intended
to feature the Assassins in a sequel to Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time,
however during development the Assassins took on a life of their own and it was
decided to launch a new game completely separate from the Prince of Persia
series.
The original Assassin’s Creed game
was inspired by the book, Alamut by Vladimir Bartol. He was a self-proclaimed Existentialist and
may have been inspired by Friederich Nietzsche who made mention of the
Assassin’s Creed in his book, On the Genealogy of Morals, and was himself a
student of Persian history and culture.
Among Nietzsche’s most important works is Thus Spoke Zarathustra in
which he creates a second Zarathustra who brings atheism where the real
Zarathustra brought monotheism.
Within the Assassin’s Creed
Universe, there once existed a highly advanced species called the Isu who
genetically designed humans to serve as ignorant slaves. Due to interbreeding with the Isu, some
humans were born with individual consciousness.
These special humans led a revolt against their creators and were the
first Assassins. The centre of the
conflict was the city of Eden, the source of our Garden of Eden myth. In the garden, humanity achieves individual
consciousness by rebelling against God by eating the forbidden fruit. There are of course those who believe the Eden
story was real, and one of the prime contenders for the location of Eden is an
area outside the city of Tabriz in Iran.
I find it interesting that
ideologically through Zoroastrianism, historically through Hassan i Sabbah, and
fictionally through the game development, it’s literary inspiration, and in the
story itself, we can trace the Assassin’s origin to Persia.
Why White?
The original model designs for
the Assassins depicted them wearing all white and concealing themselves with a
hood. Why white? It’s not the best colour choice for sneaking
about in dark or concealing blood spatter.
This white design remained with various characters in the series until
Arno Dorian in AC Unity in 1789 and the Frye twins also abandoned the white
garb in 1868. This change may have more
to do with decisions at Ubisoft since characters created earlier but inhabiting
a later period in history, such as Nikolai Orelov in 1918, are still wearing
white.
Many religions feature white
clothes for special occasions or rituals, but not necessarily as standard
dress. Two religions stand-out. The religious leaders of the Zoroastrians
wear all white and in Islam men are encouraged to wear white regularly as their
principle colour choice. In both
instances, white is symbolic of purity.
In the game series, the use of
white may be intended to harken back to the historical Islamic inspiration for
the game Assassins. However, the first
Assassins Creed game depicts the Assassins as being apart from the Islamic
sects of the time which is contrary to the true history. One might argue that the decision was to
dress the Assassins so that they might disappear in a crowd of Muslims clothed
in white, but why continue the convention into the 20th century? Perhaps the designers felt that they had
established a theme in the first game and wanted to continue. Who knows?
Personally, I like the Zoroastrian theory. Here’s why.
The Fire of Enlightenment
Back in September 2013, I
received a comment on one of my posts stating that the Assassin’s Creed symbol
is derived from an earthen lamp called a diya.
I found it interesting and asked for evidence but received no reply. I looked into it a bit deeper. The diya is used in the festival of Diwali,
the most important festival in the Hindu calendar. I discovered that these earthen lamps are
also used in the practice of Zoroastrianism, particularly among the Parsis of
India.
Fire and light play a very
important role in the practice of Zoroastrianism to such a degree that those
ignorant of the religion assume them to be fire worshipers. Without going into too much detail, suffice
to say that the fire represents the force of creation, science, and
wisdom. In short, it means
enlightenment. Their places of worship
are referred to as fire temples with prayers, hymns, and meditations being
directed towards the flame. The same is
done in home worship through the use of oil lamps such as the diya.
The commenter directed me to a
link illustrating the diya drawn from the front where a protruding lip is
evident. The oil fills the basin and a
large wick rests on the lip. Whether
this theory is true or not, the resemblance is uncanny as illustrated below and
seems to explain the separated lower portion of the symbol as the rim and lip
of the lamp.
As I have written before, the
word creed means both a belief and the symbolic representation of the
belief. So when asked, “what does that
symbol you wear mean?” I can answer that it means “Nothing is true, everything
is permitted.” However, more and more I
am content to say that it means enlightenment, particularly the Enlightenment
values of wisdom and freedom demonstrated by the Assassins.
The Autodidact
It has been said that the only
people who know the meaning of the word autodidact are autodidacts. The word simply means self-taught and is used
to describe people who became experts in a subject or field through their own
pursuit of knowledge rather than through a formal education system. As Mark Twain famously said “I have never let
my schooling interfere with my education.”
This relates to the first half of
the Creed as an invitation to critical thinking. Nothing is true, so don’t believe everything
you are told. Think and discover for
yourself. This principle is behind
calling the leaders of the Assassins “mentor”.
The role of the mentor is to aid in discovery and not to impose
answers. Ultimately, it is the
responsibility of each individual to choose wisdom. The Zoroastrians also employ the concept of
“the mentor”. Among the many titles
given to Zarathustra, one is interpreted as “thought provoker” or mentor. This has carried on into the modern day where
the various degrees of religious leaders among the Zoroastrians act more as
mentors rather than authoritarian priests or ministers.
Every person is a potential
autodidact by virtue of having a mind.
Whether they choose to be one or merely accept the “truths” that they
are given is also their choice. The role
of the mentor is to provoke thinking, to guide but not control the process, to
inspire but not to impose.
The Paradox of Tolerance
The Assassins differ from the Zoroastrians in their
chosen battlefield against the forces of evil.
Zarathustra taught that the two opposing forces of Asha (truth, order,
justice) and Druj (falsehood, deceit) exist within each person and each person
has a responsibility to choose truth over lies. In a larger sense, it is the
choice between wisdom and enlightenment over ignorance and darkness. For the Zoroastrians, there is no external
evil to be fought but an internal conflict that all people must wage on a
personal level. This is very different from those religions that seek to fight and punish others whom they perceive as being evil.
An Assassin would not deny this internal field of
battle, but they go further by taking a proactive approach against those
conditions that promote or encourage ignorance, such as slavery and bigotry. Their
justification is expressed in a concept laid out by the philosopher Karl Popper
called the Paradox of Tolerance.
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them."
Many of the Templars are
portrayed negatively in the game series, but there are a few good ones through whom
we are shown the ideal Templar society.
Their ultimate goal is a collectivist system were wise paternal rulers
control the thoughts and actions of the people so that each person can live
peaceful and prosperous lives in blissful ignorance. The Assassins see this as reducing people to
the role of slaves or cattle. Goodness
must be chosen freely and not imposed on people with laws backed by force.
Like all do-gooders throughout
history, the Templars have a plan for society and any opposition to that plan
will not be tolerated. For the Assassin’s,
the only sin is a lack of tolerance for the rights of others to think and act
as they choose. So they will oppose any
attempt to infringe on these rights regardless of the alleged morality of “the
plan”. They will not tolerate
intolerance.
In this context, intolerance is a
denial of the rights of others to think and act as they please provided they
cause no real and direct intentional harm.
The word tolerance means to endure something. I am disgusted by the guy picking his nose in
public, but I endure it because it’s a free country. I am deeply offended by a comment on the
internet, I may challenge him using reason, but I will fight for his right to
be a dick. That’s tolerance.
While both the Assassins and the
Zoroastrians recognise the sanctity of individual consciousness and respect it,
the Assassins take a proactive stance to actively protect and defend the
conditions that allow for the expression of that consciousness against those
who seek to manipulate and control it.
FAN FICTION
According to the game series, the
Assassins have existed for millennia, since the time of the precursor city of
Eden and the historical Assassins of Hassan i Sabbah were just one faction of
the larger Assassin Order. I would
propose an addition which is basically just a bit of fan fiction.
I would suggest that the
precursor city of Eden is in fact in Iran as some people claim, that
Zarathustra was of a remnant from that city, and that the Assassins emerged as
a break-away sect of Zoroastrians who sought to take a more proactive approach by
protecting the Enlightenment values and using violent means if necessary. Over time they dropped the religious aspects
and became a wholly secular philosophical organisation, but retained some of
the religious trappings. It’s just a
theory and a bit of fun. I would love
for Ubisoft to use this, but judging from the forthcoming Empire story, it
looks as if they will take an Egyptian rather than a Persian route for an
origin story.
In a sense, this entire article
can be called a piece of fan non-fiction.
I was inspired to write it because it seems as though the Enlightenment
values that we take for granted are gradually disappearing in a world where
people give and take offense so easily with no respect for the minds of others;
where people trust their feelings over reason and call anyone who disagrees
with them stupid; where we seem to be allowing ourselves to be manipulated by
elites burying us in propaganda that gets repeated by our friends as
truth. In the face of all this, I could
think of only one response:
Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember,
Nothing is True.
Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember,
Everything is Permitted.
We work in the dark to serve the light.
We are Assassins.
