Alamut stood here, once.
The word Assassin, in variant forms, had already passed into European usage as a term for a hired professional murderer in this general sense. The Italian chronicler Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348, tells how the lord of Lucca sent 'his assassins' (i suoi assassini) to Pisa to kill a troublesome enemy there. Even earlier, Dante, in a passing reference in the 19th canto of the Inferno, completed in 1320, speaks of 'the treacherous assassin' (lo perfido assassin); his fourteenth-century commentator Francesco da Buti, explaining a term which for some readers at the time may still have been strange and obscure, remarks: 'Assassino è colui che uccide altrui per danari' (An assassin is one who kills others for money).
You are not a loser who kills people for money.
You (and other correctly-minded killers of various sorts) are aware of those freaks and their black pocketbooks that hand out random murders for paltry rewards. You, and all other correctly-minded killers of various sorts, despise them.
The Asasiyun (Those Faithful to the Foundation of the Faith)
A Nizari Ismaili order founded in 1090 by a man named Hassan Al-Sabah. The order was something akin to a state, scattered across around 200 self-sufficient castles, many captured covertly, across Fatimid and Seljuk territory. The most famous was Alamut - officially, the Kursi Ad-Daylam, a castle of knowledge, learning, and paradisiacal gardens. It was all destroyed when the Mongols came, and scattered the order to the four winds. There is a very small chapter in London - not the only “assassins” in London, but certainly the only Asasiyun.
The sub-sect who perform the killings are the fida’i, “those who sacrifice themselves”. For them, the use of the word “assassin” in its current meaning is a very dreadful insult.
Based In: Have tiny sects in nearly every major city between London and Dhaka.
Symbols: Dagger embedded in the ground, black eagle, blooming flower.
Membership: Nizari Ismaili men.
Secret Magic: Entry into locked places through means unknown.
Wants: The restoration of the Asasiyun to glory and the recapture of their castles in the Levant and Iran.
By: Try and guess.
And Also: Most members of the Asasiyun were just fairly ordinary people living under the Order’s protection, the same way most Templars were proto-bankers.
The Assassins (The Brothers of St. Judas Sicarius)
An extremely radical sect of Catholic Christianity, who have as a patron saint a very, very contentious interpretation of Judas Iscariot. Taking as their warning the great sinner who is chewed this very moment in the teeth of Satan (so says Dante), and taking as their example the ancient sicarii, they kill the enemies of the faith as an act of penitence, expecting this shall condemn them to Hell.
For them, the word “assassin” is a term of penitence and disgrace, like a noöspheric hair shirt.
Based In: North Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the Balkans, with small chapels in Porto, New York and London.
Symbols: Hands stained red with blood, a sica, thirty pieces of silver.
Membership: Penitent Christians who consider themselves already damned.
Secret Magic: To turn a dagger red and blazing, even able to harm demons and angels, like the sword of Shamsiel.
Wants: To pave the way for goodness on the earth by undertaking evil acts, so that the innocent do not have to.
By: Try and guess.
And Also: A few of their members have snuck into the Swiss Guard at the Vatican.
The Assassins (The Last Defenders of Antioch)
Last remnants (so they say) of the Crusader States, especially the Principality of Antioch, around whose founder, Bohemond of Taranto, they have formed a sort of bizarre and extremely specific cult of personality. They wish to destroy the current rulers of the Holy Land (so, the Ottoman Empire), and reinstate the rule of Christendom there. They go about this with all the care and precision of an opiate-dosed bull with flaming branches tied to its horns. The Knights Templar hate the absolute shit out of them.
For them, the word “assassin” is a self-applied moniker, based on the famous actions of the Asasiyun during the time of the Principality of Antioch.
Based In: Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearics, Ceuta and Gibraltar (and through Gibraltar, now, London).
Symbols: Hauteville coat-of-arms, Jerusalem cross in sky blue, cruciform sword set with a piece of lapis lazuli.
Membership: Italian and Spanish Catholics.
Secret Magic: Rituals to summon and invoke Sahaquiel, an angel, in multifarious ways.
Wants: The restoration of the Principality of Antioch (this was a more reasonable and achievable goal a few hundred years ago).
By: Try and guess.
And Also: They have a secret magical castle that floats on a cloud, currently moored above the Atlantic Ocean, very far from land. They nicked it from a Kurdish wizard in 1301.
The Assassins (The Brethren of Baal-berith)
A mid-society cult to the veiled devil Baal-berith, a fettering prince of Hell who blasphemously claims to be the grandfather of God and the ruler of the primordial waters. They kill for Baal-berith, or to fulfil their goals to place themselves in positions of kingship - or sometimes just kill for fun. Their membership is extremely eclectic, extremely awful and extremely internally competitive.
For them, the word “assassin” is a pejorative label received from other demonic cults operating in western Europe, which they have taken to with great enthusiasm.
Based In: London, Paris, Nice, Copenhagen, Bremen, and surroundings.
Symbols: Flies, Goetic Sigil of Baal-berith, blue-black Circle (representing primordial water).
Membership: Anyone willing to sell their soul to Baal-berith.
Secret Magic: Supernaturally binding contracts, and opening of gateways into the tehom.
Wants: Political power on the Earth, (and, secretly, to get one over on Baal-berith).
By: Try and guess.
And Also: Many of the Brethren are seeking out paths to eternal life (but not in concert with each other - their temperament ultimately disallows cooperation in this matter).
The Assassins (of Execution Dock)
An entirely irreligious (except in a nervous sense at Christmas, Hallowmas and Candlemass) group of thugs operating in the East End, working for the various organised crime clans of east London. An allowed insanity, these half-esoteric half-exoteric maniacs (drunk, high, or just plain crazy) are allowed to gather in a building near the remains of Execution Dock in Wapping, a reservoir of sudden and fearless violence to be tapped for the general community good. Beginning as nothing more than stupid murderers, some dreadful change is taking hold, and they are sliding unstoppably into the arcane world - appearing in hidden places and interrupting occulted meetings when they, surely, could not have.
For them, the word “assassin” is a term of glory - as much glory as one can achieve when one is face down in a puddle of spilled rum in Wapping, anyway.
Based In: Wapping (in London)
Symbols: Butcher’s knife, noose, gibbet.
Membership: Convicts and career criminals
Secret Magic: Not that they know it, but their utter fearlessness has attracted the gory eyes of a genuine valkyrie, who watches over them.
Wants: Money, power, fame, attractive evening company, and so on.
By: Try and guess, if you think you fucking can.
And Also: They keep having screaming nightmares about swans, gilded skulls and fairy smiths.
The Assassins (Iga-ryū)
The Iga School is one of the main traditions of the shinobi - ninjas, we all know what ninjas are. The Iga School were gathered in Edo to guard the castle gates - history records a fading of ninja skills around this time, but it’s more like the bakumatsu is driving them to ever deeper secrecies. There’s not a huge amount of them in London, naturally (in fact, there is precisely one), due to the distance from here to Tokyo. However, due to the ongoing turmoil in Japan, the Iga-ryū are both busy at home and looking for new opportunities elsewhere.
For them, the word “assassin” is a curious word of foreign origin which, for convenience, is used as a term of art.
Based In: Edo (it’s still called this, until 1868, upon which it will become Tokyo).
Symbols: Dark blue cloth - beyond that, no other definite symbols. Why be identifiable?
Membership: Members of the Iga-ryu families settled in Edo.
Secret Magic: Walking on water and the summoning of giant animals (the hand-seals are for meditation purposes).
Wants: The survival of the bakufu (a failing hope), and their own survival into the coming era (a near-certainty).
By: Espionage and sabotage for hire (They only kill when absolutely necessary.)
And Also: They are intensely studying the occult underworld of Europe - knowing is easily two thirds of the battle.
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