1. Templar

2. Hospitaller

3. Lazarite

4. Teuton

And bonus: Saladin and Baldwin IV

Bataille d'Arsur, 1191

Artist: Eloi Firmin Feron (French, 1802–1876)

Date: 19th century

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection

The Battle of Arsuf

The Battle of Arsuf took place on 7 September 1191, as part of the Third Crusade. It saw a multi-national force of Crusaders, led by Richard I of England, defeat a significantly larger army of the Ayyubid Sultanate, led by Saladin.

Following the Crusaders' capture of Acre, Saladin moved to intercept Richard's advancing army just outside of the city of Arsuf (Arsur in Latin) as it moved along the coast from Acre towards Jaffa. In an attempt to disrupt the cohesion of the Crusader army as they mobilized, the Ayyubid force launched a series of harassing attacks that were ultimately unsuccessful at breaking their formation. As the Crusaders crossed the plain to the north of Arsuf, Saladin committed the whole of his army to a pitched battle. The Crusader army maintained a defensive formation as it marched, with Richard awaiting the ideal moment to mount a counterattack. However, after the Knights Hospitaller launched a charge at the Ayyubids, Richard was forced to commit his entire force to support the attack. The Crusader charge broke the Ayyubid army; Richard was able to restrain his cavalry from a rash pursuit, regrouping them to achieve victory.

However, because the devs want to expand this conflict in each of their games, and because they want to explore different time periods and regions of the world, this specific conflict rooted in the historical realities of the Levant during the High and Late Medieval period has been stretched out into this shadow war that has been raging for thousands of years from Japan to Britain to the Caribbean.

It's not a problem, but I think it's been very interesting watching this conflict transform as the story expands to meet the needs of the gameplay. It presents this weird alternate history where the historical Templars and Assassins are just one facet of this ongoing ideological conflict. The historical Knights Templar were named after their fortress on the Temple Mount, but the in-game Templars existed for millennia before that point. It's like that joke of two Roman soldiers wondering what their calendars are counting down to.

Happy 860th birthday to Altair Ibn McSassafrass!!

This man is lean, mean and fights like a machine but he's also managed to worm his way into the hearts of many an Assassin's Creed fan.