Assassin’s Creed – Kenway Family Legacy (BF)

Overview

The Kenway Family was a wealthy Anglo-American family who held a central role in the Assassin-Templar War during the 18th century, particularly during the Golden Age of Piracy, the Seven Years’ War, and the American Revolutionary War. It was also an ancestor line of Desmond Miles.

Modest Beginnings:

The oldest known member of the Kenway family was Bernard Kenway, an English sheep farmer from Manchester at the end of the 17th century. He married a Welshwoman named Linette Hopkins and settled in Swansea. They had a daughter who died during infancy, and in 1693 they had a son, Edward. In 1703, the Kenway family moved to Hatherton, near Bristol.

The Kenway’s at this time had a reputation as honest farmers. Bernard gave the sales part of his farm to his son, but Edward passed most of his time in taverns. In 1712, Edward married Caroline Scott, the daughter of the wealthy tea merchant Emmett Scott and his wife Elizabeth.

The young couple lived modestly in the Kenway’s farm, as Emmett, a Templar, refused to accept that his daughter had married Edward, seeing him as beneath the Scotts’. Desiring to give to his wife a privileged life, Edward decided to become a privateer and sail to the West Indies, intending to earn riches and return. Caroline, who was pregnant, disagreed with her husband’s decision and moved back to her father’s home.

To be sure that Caroline never returned to the Kenway’s, Emmett sent a group of Templars to burn the Kenway farm. Edward saved his parents but his father disowned him. Trying to understand why his parent’s home was burned, Edward was knocked out by Wilson and woke up aboard the Emperor, which was sailing for the West Indies.

The Assassin’s Order:

Early in his career as a privateer, Edward met Edward Thatch (Blackbeard) and Benjamin Hornigold and, when the Peace of Utrecht – which ended the War of the Spanish Succession and rendering Britain’s privateers jobless – was signed, the three turned to piracy. In 1715, after a battle at Cape Bonavista,

Edward, oblivious to the existence of either organisation, killed the Assassin turncoat Duncan Walpole and, impersonating him, met with the Grand Master of the Caribbean Templars, Laureano de Torres y Ayala, in an effort to claim the reward that had been promised to Walpole. Then he gave information which jeopardised the position of the Caribbean Assassins and he was inducted in the Templar Order.

Edward’s tenure with the Templars was brief, and over the course of the next four years found himself embroiled in the Assassin-Templar War as it raged across the Caribbean and their race for the Observatory and the Sage Bartholomew Roberts. Eventually, following the example set by his friend and quartermaster, Adéwalé, Edward aligned with the Caribbean Assassins, killing Roberts and protecting the Observatory from the Templars.

Return To England:

After the Assassins’ victory in the Caribbean, in 1722, Edward learned in a letter both that his wife Caroline had died two years prior from smallpox, which she contracted from her father, and also that he had a daughter, Jennifer Scott, who had been born a few months after his departure for the West Indies. Returning to England with his daughter, Edward tracked the men responsible for the burning of his family farm, who he now knew to be Templars.

In 1723, during a meeting with his mother, Edward revealed his new intentions, but she refused to accept him back due to his infamy as the last of the pirates. Nevertheless, Edward killed Emmett Scott and was about to burn Matthew Hague before Robert Walpole, a cousin of Duncan Walpole, gave him a pardon from his former life as a pirate.

Moving to London, Edward married Stephenson-Oakley, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, and together they purchased a mansion in the city. In London, Edward joined the British Assassins and alongside Miko, came to lead the branch. Under the guise of his commercial enterprises, Edward traveled the globe for the Assassins, visiting numerous First Civilization sites, including some in Italy, as well as the Alamut Temple. He retrieved a Shroud of Eden, a Piece of Eden which could heal fatal injuries. He hid the Shroud in a box made by the First Civilization in the Tower of London and the key to the box in a secret room in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

In December 1725, Edward and Tessa had a son, Haytham. On his son’s eighth birthday, Edward began to train him as an Assassin, though took pains to keep the nature of the training secret. In parallel, Edward searched for the Grand Temple and, though he was ultimately unsuccessful in his investigations, made prestigious notes in his journal on the investigation’s progress. Reginald Birch, an employee of Edward’s and, unbeknownst to his employer, Grand Master of the British Rite of the Templar Order, also sought the Grand Temple and so took steps to ingratiate himself with the Kenway family.

Birch began his search courting Jennifer, Edward’s daughter, in the hopes of accessing the journal’s location that way. He also sought to trick Edward’s young son, Haytham, into revealing the journal’s location; a route that proved successful.

On Haytham’s tenth birthday, Birch sent several masked men to the Kenway Mansion. They burned it; kidnapping Jennifer, killing Edward, and stealing his journal. Birch sold Jennifer as a slave to Turkish merchants, and she later became a concubine in the Topkapı Palace. Since nobody knew of Birch’s involvement in the attack, Birch took Haytham on as his ward and begun to indoctrinate him in the Templar ways, promising the young Kenway that he would help to find his sister.

The Templar Son:

In 1747, Haytham, now an invested and deadly member of the Templar order, killed Juan Vedomir, a Templar turncoat who had stolen Edward’s journal from Birch. Giving it back to Birch, the Grand Master informed Haytham of the death of his mother.

Later Haytham continued the search of the men who burned his family mansion, going to Germany to find Jack Digweed, a servant of Edward who was accused of the attack. Haytham and Birch found Digweed had been tortured by the men who attacked the mansion. Haytham pursued one of them and Birch killed Digweed to ensure his part in the attack remained a secret.

Mortally wounding his target, Haytham learned that his father had been an Assassin and that he had been killed protecting something. On the body, Haytham found a document that proved the man served the Templar and general Edward Braddock. Arriving in the Dutch Republic, Haytham found the other man, Tom Smith, but he was executed for desertion by Braddock.

After serving with Braddock at the Siege of Bergen op Zoom, Haytham saw the cruelty of the former Templar. In 1753, Haytham kidnapped Lucio Albertine in Corsica to decipher his father’s journal. Fighting the Assassin Miko, Haytham lost his family sword but gained Miko’s hidden blade.

In 1754, Haytham killed Miko at the Theatre Royal and took the Grand Temple Key from him. Birch sent Haytham to the Colonies to find the Grand Temple and build up the Templars’ presence in the New World. With the help of several other Templars already in the Colonies, and a Kanien’kehá:ka guide named Kaniehtí:io, Haytham stopped the Braddock Expedition and mortally injured the former Templar. After this, Haytham founded the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order and began a brief relationship with Kaniehtí:io.

Weeks later, Charles Lee gave Haytham a letter from Jim Holden who informed him that they had discovered Jennifer’s location. Lee also told Haytham that Braddock died from his wounds. Kaniehtí:io discovered that Haytham had lied about his allegiances and ordered him to leave. Haytham left America in search of his sister, unknowing of the fact that Kaniehtí:io was pregnant with his son.

In 1757, Haytham and Holden traveled to Istanbul and discovered that Jennifer had been sent to Qasr al-Azm, in Damascus. After they rescued her, they fled the palace but Holden was captured. Haytham later saved Holden in Egypt, at the Abou Gerbe monastery on Mount Ghebel Eter, but not before he had been forcefully castrated. Haytham burned the monastery in recompense.

Afterward, Jennifer revealed the truth about Edward’s death and Birch’s part in it. The siblings and Holden attacked Birch’s chateau in Troyes and killed the Templar Grand Master. After that, Haytham and Jennifer decided to remain in contact; Jennifer settled into the Kenway Mansion while Haytham returned to America.

A Family War:

In 1758, Haytham bought a plantation in Virginia to expand the Colonial Rite’s influence. With the help of the Assassin turncoat Shay Cormac, the Templars largely destroyed the Assassin presence in the New World, with Haytham personally crippling the Assassin Mentor, Achilles Davenport, to ensure he could never again return to the field. In 1763, Haytham again attacked a resurgent Assassin presence at the Davenport Homestead, killing the remaining Assassins but again sparing Achilles, who remained in exile at the Manor.

In 1760, Haytham’s son, Ratonhnhaké:ton, was assaulted by a group of Templars led by Charles Lee, none of whom were aware of the boy’s familial connection to the Grand Master. Asking for a meeting with the Kanatahséton’s leaders, the boy refused to give the village’s location. Knocked out, Ratonhnhaké:ton woke up to see his village being burned by the British troops.

His mother died in the flames. Beliving it was the Templars, Ratonhnhaké:ton developed a burning desire for revenge against Charles Lee. In 1769, with a Crystal Ball, Ratonhnhaké:ton came in contact with Juno, who tasked him with joining the Assassins so as to protect the Grand Temple and his land from the Templars. After an initially ruthless rejection, Ratonhnhaké:ton finally became an Assassin under the watch of Achilles and began to recruit new apprentices.

During the beginning of the American Revolution, Haytham and the Templars searched to transform the Colonies into Templar’s State, Ratonhnhaké:ton, who took the name of Connor, fought to decrease the Templar influence on the conflict. The action of the two factions led to a more violent conflict. In 1776, Haytham ordered the assassination of George Washington to place Charles Lee as the Commander in chief of the Continental Army. Ratonhnhaké:ton tried to stop them but was captured and condemned to death by Lee. During the execution, Haytham decided to save his son by cutting the rope, which led to the assassination of the Templar Thomas Hickey.

Assassin’s / Templar’s Truce:

In 1778, the Templar Benjamin Church, one of Ratonhnhaké:ton’s targets, betrayed his Templar brothers and sided with the British, stealing a significant amount of Continental supplies in the process. Ratonhnhaké:ton tracked Church to New York, where he came into contact with his father, who also wanted to kill Church, albeit for his treachery. Realizing that, for now, their goals were aligned, the two formed a truce and pursued Church together.

After assassinating Church, the father and son discovered that the British would attack from New York. While Ratonhnhaké:ton wanted to give the information to Washington, Haytham wanted to pass it on to Charles Lee. At Valley Forge, Haytham exposed to his son the truth around his mother’s death and Washington’s role in it. Angered that his father withheld this information, Ratonhnhaké:ton broke all ties with his father.

In 1781, Achilles died from illness, bequeathing both the Homestead and the leadership of the Colonial Assassins to Ratonhnhaké:ton. Ratonhnhaké:ton sought to infiltrate Fort George in order to kill Lee and to attempt to convince his father to abandon the Templars. Knowing his son would come for Lee, Haytham gave the Grand Temple Key to him and decided to engage his son and give Lee time to execute their plan. During the duel, Haytham knew he couldn’t kill his own son and instead forced Ratonhnhaké:ton to kill him.

In 1782, Ratonhnhaké:ton tracked down Lee, killed him, and took the Grand Temple Key. Six months later, Ratonhnhaké:ton returned to his village where he entered in contact with Juno who ordered him to hide the key for someone. Ratonhnhaké:ton hid the artifact in the grave of his mentor’s son, Connor Davenport. After the end of the war, Ratonhnhaké:ton decided to continue the Assassins’ struggle for liberty.

In 1788, Jennifer received a visit from Élise de la Serre, a French Templar who searched Haytham Kenway’s letters for the Carroll family. Jennifer agreed to gave the letters to Élise if she pursued the goal to end the war between the Assassins and the Templars. She also gave to the young Templar a Templar pendant, a gift she received from Haytham.

In 1805, Jennifer died in London and the Kenway Mansion was taken by the Templars.

The Kenway Legacy:

The actions of the Kenway family impacted the Assassin-Templar War in many ways. Edward nearly destroyed the Caribbean Assassins by giving their headquarters location to the Templars. But when he joined the Assassins, he strengthened their position by killing the Grand Master Torres, which would end the Templar influence in the region for decades.

Edward also gave to the Assassins Great Inagua, which permitted them to live and work among the people they protect. With the discovery of the Observatory, the Assassins protected the site by burying it. The Observatory was only discovered three centuries later by the Templars.

In London, Edward joined the British Assassins and became their co-leader with Miko. While Miko traveled through the world to aid other brotherhoods and searching Pieces of Eden, Edward used his charm to make connections in the city, in both high society and the criminal underworld. With these two, the British Brotherhood was stronger than ever. With Edward’s death, the British Templars began to control London for over a century.

With Haytham, the Templar Order could establish the Colonial Rite which became later the American Templar Rite. During the French and Indian War, Haytham and the Templars supported the British Crown against the French and also nearly destroyed the Colonial Assassins. After the peace, Haytham projected to free the Colonies from the Crown and established a Templar State.

Ratonhnhaké:ton helped the reconstruction of the Davenport Homestead and the Colonial Assassins. Liberating Boston and New York from Templar influence, Ratonhnhaké:ton recruited new apprentices for the Brotherhood, sending them through the Colonies to help the Patriots and to prevent casualties during the American Revolution. Ratonhnhaké:ton also secured the trade passages from Louisbourg to the Virgin Islands.

During the Revolutionary War, Ratonhnhaké:ton sided with the Continental Army and participated in numerous conflicts as the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill or the Battle of the Chesapeake. His help decreased the Templar’s grip on the War. Ratonhnhaké:ton also prevented George Washington from becoming the king of United States.

The truce between Haytham and his son made the Grand Master believe in peace between the Assassins and the Templars. He wrote letters about his dream to his half-sister. After his death, Jennifer wanted to stop the conflict which killed his father and half-brother, then she gave the letters to Élise de la Serre to continue the peace with the Assassins. In 1794 after the death of Élise, her lover, Arno Dorian, inherited Haytham’s letters and promised to improve the peace between the two factions.

In 1868, with the clues left by Edward in his journal and his mansion, the British Assassin Evie Frye and the British Templars fought for the retrieval of the Shroud of Eden in London.

At some point, Ratonhnhaké:ton married and had multiple children, continuing the Kenway bloodline. During the following centuries, the Kenways prospered and intermingled with other Assassin bloodlines, as the House of Auditore. The Kenway lineage extended to William Miles, an Assassin who lived in the Farm and became in 2015 the Mentor of the last remnants of the Assassins Brotherhood. William had a son, Desmond, who, by reliving the memories of Haytham and his son, could reach the Key of the Grand Temple and sacrificed himself to save the world from the 2012 coronal mass ejection.

In 2013, Abstergo Entertainment used Edward’s memories through the Sample 17 Project to find the location of the Observatory and the corpse of Bartholomew Roberts.

Family Tree:

Final Thoughts:

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