Assassin’s Creed Shadows: A Fresh Take on the Templars

Beware: if you continue reading, you’re bound to run into some major spoilers for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

It’s been ages since the enduring clash between Assassins and Templars stood at the forefront of the Assassin’s Creed saga. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey took us way back, more than a millennium before these legendary factions even came into existence. Origins unveiled their tentative beginnings as the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients, while Valhalla hinted at the Templar’s rise. Finally, Assassin’s Creed Shadows brings this age-old conflict back into the fold, though it still doesn’t dominate the scene completely.

Shadows’ gripping narrative largely revolves around the enigmatic Shinbakufu organization, accused of murdering Naoe’s father and leaving her to fend for herself at the game’s onset. After a relentless pursuit to eradicate the Shinbakufu from Japan, players are shockingly introduced to the Templars, who reemerge with a chilling display of their malevolence.

Let’s take a closer look at the true malevolence of the Templars in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

As players advance toward the game’s climax, they unlock special missions for Yasuke, targeting Templars tied to his past. Initially, these connections remain shrouded in mystery.

The first target is none other than Duarte de Melo, a character immediately painted as nefariously vile. As Yasuke approaches his ship, we witness de Melo’s cruelty firsthand as he tortures a victim onboard, callously declaring, “What did I say about crying? I hate crying,” right before taking the man’s life.

This confrontation brings Yasuke face to face with the abhorrent truth—Duarte de Melo was the slave trader responsible for capturing him and his mother years earlier. A brutal duel unfolds, during which Duarte’s disdain for Yasuke, rooted disturbingly in racial prejudice, comes to light. Duarte’s final words, “Filth like you does not deserve a name,” echo his profound contempt as he meets his end.

Next on Yasuke’s list is Kimura Kei, a key figure in Japan’s Templar faction. Though not the leader, he’s been instrumental in shaping new Templar recruits. Yasuke challenges Kimura, urging him to abandon his Templar loyalties and surrender. But Kimura staunchly believes that only the Templars can usher in peace and end Japan’s civil strife.

Nuno Caro emerges as Yasuke’s most notorious nemesis, potentially serving as the game’s final adversary depending on how players tackle the missions. Caro was the captain of the ship that transported Yasuke and his mother, and Duarte de Melo discovered Yasuke’s mother searching Caro’s cabin. Nuno Caro cruelly shot her as a warning to everyone onboard.

Though Caro attempted Yasuke’s execution, an unexpected intervention by an Assassin Brotherhood member rescued him, allowing Yasuke to leap into the ocean. Jesuit missionaries Luis Frois and Alessandro Valignano later found him. Over the years, Nuno Caro has been a sinister force in Japan, slowly infesting the nation with his Templar influence.

As Yasuke stands victorious over Caro, now defeated and wounded on the ground, Caro forewarns that his death marks the “beginning of the end” for Yasuke and his comrades—a harbinger of the coming war between the Templars and the League of the Hidden Blade.