SamuelT said:
Yankeedoodles said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Elizabethan Era England and Dutch Revolt Netherlands have awesome Assassin's Creed story potential.
[...]
The Dutch Revolution was nothing more than a few nobles and their mercenaries getting all pissy about the Spanjards owning them, though. Sure, there were a few critical points, but they were mostly political rather than militaric. Nothing as far reaching as the crusades in the Holy Land, or the entire liberation of Rome/several Italic cities.
I don't know. You might know better than I but the Eighty Years War sounded pretty important when I learned about it. Sure it started out as a struggle against taxation and the increasing control of the Netherlands by the Spanish Monarchy but it quickly escalated into a war for religious freedom and ended in the creation of a semi-republican, semi-religiously tolerant confederation which at one point nearly dominated world trade. Sounds like the work of the Assassins we've been introduced to.
Plus it just so happens that there's a noticeable Dutch connection in a lot of the plots against Queen Elizabeth. That Ridolfi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridolfi_plot] fellow I mentioned earlier was known to operate in the Netherlands and many of the instigators of the Rising of the North [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rebellion] fled to the Netherlands after their Rebellion failed.
Here's the way I thought a story might go:
You're born sometime in the mid-1500s to the lord of Barnard Castle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard_Castle]. As a younger son with older brothers you are not expected to inherit so you are put under the charge of a mysterious stranger who takes you to York [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York] for training. Time passes and in late 1569 while on a training assignment you overhear a plot to hand York and the entire North of England over to the Templar backed Northern Rebellion. You and your teacher work quickly to foil the plot. You succeed, but in doing so the Rebellion decides to take the Assassin stronghold of Barnard's Castle - your home - in retribution. Against your teacher's advice you race back to the castle to discover it already overrun by the Rebellion and your family and friends have all been slaughtered. Looming over your slain mother are ominous figures (Ridolfi, Charles Neville [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Neville,_6th_Earl_of_Westmorland], Thomas Percy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Percy,_7th_Earl_of_Northumberland], Leonard Dacre [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Dacre]) who you realize must be the leaders. You attack one of them out of anger but he's a more experienced swordsman than you. Just when it looks like he'll strike you down your teacher comes to your rescue and chases them off but is mortally wounded in the process. As he dies he tells you that you need to go to London and meet someone there who will explain everything to you. In your grief you chase after the army. One of the leaders (Thomas Percy) breaks off and heads into York where you chase him down and kill him. The others disappear as the Rebellion is routed.
1571. With the trail gone cold and nothing better to do you journey to London to meet the contact mentioned by your dying teacher. He turns out to be none other than Sir Francis Walsingham [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Walsingham] who in addition to being Queen Elizabeth's secretary and spymaster also happens to be leader of the Assassins. He explains that earlier that century the Assassins had put their full weight into breaking the control of the Catholic Church because of how the Templars used it as a weapon to control the people. They succeeded to an extent but the Templars were able to take advantage of the Protestant Reformation. In Italy and Iberia the Assassins were hunted down and chased out by the Inquisitions there. In the Protestant North the Templars were able to control the the monarchs through power and influence the way they always had and used the specter of Catholic conquest to keep the peasants in line. All of it orchestrated by the new leading family of the Templars: the Habsburgs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Habsburg]. The Assassins used their last bit of power to help Elizabeth secure the throne and gain a gain a refuge from the Templar onslaught. Walsingham promises you vengeance but first there is a plot [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridolfi_plot] to unseat Elizabeth and put her cousin Mary Queen of Scots [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots] on the Throne. You resolve it in the usual AC fashion.
1573. Walsingham has kept you busy but now is your time for vengeance and to make trouble for King Phillip II of Spain. He sends you to the Netherlands where most of the conspirators of the Northern Rebellion have taken refuge and land at Antwerp [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antwerp], at the time probably the richest city in the world. You track down and kill Leonard Dacre and a number of other conspirators.
1576. You learn that Ridolfi is going to be in Antwerp with the Spanish troops and you lie in wait for him. However when you attempt to move in for the kill he manages to convince the troops to sack the city [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Antwerp] and he escapes in the chaos.
1581. You uncover a plot [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_J%C3%A1uregui] against William the Silent [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_The_Silent] who happens to be in Antwerp at the time. You barely manage to stop it in time but do so and gain his trust and another ally for the Assassins.
July 1584. The Spanish have recaptured most of the southern Netherlands and are in the process of putting Antwerp under siege [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Antwerp_%281584-1585%29]. A mysterious man [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthasar_G%C3%A9rard] contacts you and says that he has urgent, critical information for William the Silent. You escape Atwerp en route to William in Delft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delft] with the Spanish in hot pursuit. You arrive in Delft and meet with William who is then shot by your mysterious companion. You chase him down and kill him but William's son Maurice [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_of_Nassau,_Prince_of_Orange] confirms his alliance with the Assassins but still blames you for his father's death and tells you to leave.
1586. You've returned to London and learn from Walsingham that there is another plot [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babington_Plot] against the Queen. You go to assassinate someone involved in the plot (Babington) who laughs that you're too late and Elizabeth should already be dead. You rush to Windsor Castle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Castle] to find it already under attack. You fight through the onslaught to Elizabeth and Walsingham who then tell you that England and the Assassins will never be safe so long as Mary Queen of Scots is alive. However ever since your first encounter in 1571 you've gradually come to admire and even love Mary over the several times you've visited her. Realizing your feelings for her Walsingham does not ask you to kill her. Instead he goes to do the deed. You go to Mary and tell her that the two of you need to run away together and you agree to agree to take her to Scotland. You manage to make it back to York or Barnard Castle (to avoid overworking the programmers) where Walsingham catches up to you and scolds you for being a fool and then kills Mary himself after his guards take you prisoner. You're brought back to London where you're brought before Elizabeth in her private chambers. She tells you it needed to be done and that the Templars would have used Mary as a pawn and that she truly regretted having to order the execution of her beloved cousin. You resignedly agree and the two of you 'comfort' each other in your mutual grief.
1588. The Spanish are set to invade. With Sir Francis Drake [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake] at your side you take on the Spanish Armada [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_battle_of_Gravelines]. You are launched on a fire boat and then swing from ship to ship taking out the captains and much of the crew. You manage to take out Charles Neville the final English conspirator from all those years ago.
1598. You go to Madrid to take out the leader of the Templars King Phillip II of Spain [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip_II_of_Spain] but he has acquired a Piece of Eden from the New World and uses its powers against you. But he uses too much of it and dies the slow agonizing death described in the wiki article.
Sorry for the megapost of fanfic but I had an idea in my head and some time so I thought I'd just type it out. Hope someone likes it. And Ubisoft, if you're reading this, feel free to use the story if you like.
