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Description

Name: Arend Michaël
Born: December 31, 1614: Fort Nassau, New Netherland
Died: August 26, 1678; Sundra Strait (age 63)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: Arend was born to a small fur trading couple who left the Dutch Republic for the American colonies in the early 17th century in hopes of earning a better living there. He grew up amongst the small settlements of New Netherland as his family moved from trading post to trading post. They didn't fully start to settle down until the Dutch colonists purchased the island of Manhattan from the local Lenape Natives in 1624. The city of New Amsterdam was founded and became the central hub of the entire colony, marking it as the perfect permanent home for Arend’s family. Arend spent most of his childhood and preteen years helping out with the family trading business, but his life took a bit of a turn in 1628.

That year, the Kanien'kehá:ka people conquered the Mahicans after a long brutal war, a conflict which the Dutch seemed rather passive about due to their perpetual intolerance towards the Native peoples. Arend always saw this as rather unfair, and one day he ventured out into the frontier under the guise of doing some hunting. He intended to learn more about the Native struggle, only to end up stumbling across a much bigger, much more ancient war, that of the Assassins and Templars. He accidentally got caught in the crossfire between a Templar squadron and an innocent village they intended to burn. Arend tried to fight them off, but was very nearly killed while doing so. He was rescued when a woman he'd come to know as Kahente charged in to save his life and that of the village. After the fight, she took him to a local Assassin hideout, where she taught him of the Assassins’ fight to preserve humanity's freewill and harmony. Arend was returned to New Amsterdam when he recovered from his wounds, but he quickly sneaked back to find Kahente. The two began to frequently work together to end Templar plots in the colonies, and he eventually became an official member of the Brotherhood when Kahente extended the offer to him.

Arend became one of Kahente's most treasured students, and as such in 1637 she trusted him with the responsibility of guarding a Piece of Eden that she had held onto. She told him to take it far away from the colonies, and so, as he reluctantly left her behind on what was a guaranteed suicide mission at the Mystic Massacre, he boarded a ship heading for his parent's homeland. When he arrived, he found that the land was being ripped apart by war. The Dutch Revolt saw a cry for independence from the Protestant Dutch people against their Catholic Spanish rulers. The Assassins were working to topple the Spanish Templars, and so Arend took to the battlefield alongside his brothers and sisters and they worked tirelessly until the war came to an end when the Treaty of Münster was signed in 1648 and the Dutch Republic had claimed their victory.

Arend, who by then had risen to the rank of Mentor of the Dutch Brotherhood, was glad for the time of peace. It felt nice to finally be able to sit down and take in the wealth and splendor that defined what we now call the Dutch Golden Age. Grant it, the peace didn't last. The Dutch went to war with England on three separate occasions, from 1652-1654, from 1665-1667, and from 1672-1674. While there was an instant where he returned to Amsterdam in 1666 in order to investigate reports of supposed supernatural activity, Arend found himself at sea quite a lot during this time frame, as most of the battles took place on the ocean. He captained his ship, the Adelaar, throughout the war, hunting down the major Templar players in the conflict.

His voyage took him farther than ever in 1678. He had lost the Piece of Eden that Kahente had given him to a Templar agent and VOC captain named Bernard Fokke. Fokke used the Piece to make his trade voyages in impossible time frames, and his legendary status made it easy for Arend to hunt him down. On August 26, 1678, the two men clashed at sea in the Sundra Strait, right in the midst of a volcanic eruption that ultimately sank them both. Arend managed to kill Fokke and take the Piece back, but ended up being dragged to the seabed where he drowned to death. He allowed death to take him honorably and without fear, dying with the comforting knowledge that he'd continue to guard the Piece at the bottom of the sea for centuries to come.

Description

Name: Arend Michaël
Born: December 31, 1614: Fort Nassau, New Netherland
Died: August 26, 1678; Sundra Strait (age 63)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: Arend was born to a small fur trading couple who left the Dutch Republic for the American colonies in the early 17th century in hopes of earning a better living there. He grew up amongst the small settlements of New Netherland as his family moved from trading post to trading post. They didn't fully start to settle down until the Dutch colonists purchased the island of Manhattan from the local Lenape Natives in 1624. The city of New Amsterdam was founded and became the central hub of the entire colony, marking it as the perfect permanent home for Arend’s family. Arend spent most of his childhood and preteen years helping out with the family trading business, but his life took a bit of a turn in 1628.

That year, the Kanien'kehá:ka people conquered the Mahicans after a long brutal war, a conflict which the Dutch seemed rather passive about due to their perpetual intolerance towards the Native peoples. Arend always saw this as rather unfair, and one day he ventured out into the frontier under the guise of doing some hunting. He intended to learn more about the Native struggle, only to end up stumbling across a much bigger, much more ancient war, that of the Assassins and Templars. He accidentally got caught in the crossfire between a Templar squadron and an innocent village they intended to burn. Arend tried to fight them off, but was very nearly killed while doing so. He was rescued when a woman he'd come to know as Kahente charged in to save his life and that of the village. After the fight, she took him to a local Assassin hideout, where she taught him of the Assassins’ fight to preserve humanity's freewill and harmony. Arend was returned to New Amsterdam when he recovered from his wounds, but he quickly sneaked back to find Kahente. The two began to frequently work together to end Templar plots in the colonies, and he eventually became an official member of the Brotherhood when Kahente extended the offer to him.

Arend became one of Kahente's most treasured students, and as such in 1637 she trusted him with the responsibility of guarding a Piece of Eden that she had held onto. She told him to take it far away from the colonies, and so, as he reluctantly left her behind on what was a guaranteed suicide mission at the Mystic Massacre, he boarded a ship heading for his parent's homeland. When he arrived, he found that the land was being ripped apart by war. The Dutch Revolt saw a cry for independence from the Protestant Dutch people against their Catholic Spanish rulers. The Assassins were working to topple the Spanish Templars, and so Arend took to the battlefield alongside his brothers and sisters and they worked tirelessly until the war came to an end when the Treaty of Münster was signed in 1648 and the Dutch Republic had claimed their victory.

Arend, who by then had risen to the rank of Mentor of the Dutch Brotherhood, was glad for the time of peace. It felt nice to finally be able to sit down and take in the wealth and splendor that defined what we now call the Dutch Golden Age. Grant it, the peace didn't last. The Dutch went to war with England on three separate occasions, from 1652-1654, from 1665-1667, and from 1672-1674. While there was an instant where he returned to Amsterdam in 1666 in order to investigate reports of supposed supernatural activity, Arend found himself at sea quite a lot during this time frame, as most of the battles took place on the ocean. He captained his ship, the Adelaar, throughout the war, hunting down the major Templar players in the conflict.

His voyage took him farther than ever in 1678. He had lost the Piece of Eden that Kahente had given him to a Templar agent and VOC captain named Bernard Fokke. Fokke used the Piece to make his trade voyages in impossible time frames, and his legendary status made it easy for Arend to hunt him down. On August 26, 1678, the two men clashed at sea in the Sundra Strait, right in the midst of a volcanic eruption that ultimately sank them both. Arend managed to kill Fokke and take the Piece back, but ended up being dragged to the seabed where he drowned to death. He allowed death to take him honorably and without fear, dying with the comforting knowledge that he'd continue to guard the Piece at the bottom of the sea for centuries to come.