Francis Cotton

"You're one of a kind. Benevolent, they say. All castes and creeds under one roof. You haven't even the temper to order the death of one lowly thief. It takes more nerve than that to bring the world to order."

―Francis Cotton to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, 1839.

Francis Cotton
Biographical information
Died	27 June 1839 Amritsar, Sikh Empire
Species	Human
Political information
Affiliations	British Empire Templars British Rite

Francis Henry Sharples-Cotton (died 1839) was a general in the British Army and a member of the Templar Order, active in India during the rule of the Sikh Empire.

Biography

Poisoning Ranjit Singh

Cotton: "You wear the garb of a Kashmiri emissary, sir, but you move like a jungle cat on the hunt. What's your game... Assassin?"

Arbaaz: "Stand down, Mister Cotton, we are not enemies today, despite the beliefs of our respective organizations."

Cotton: "A pity. I was rather looking forward to adding a new Hidden Blade to my collection."

—Cotton and Arbaaz talking after deducing each other's affiliations, 1839.

During the 1830s, Cotton was assigned to accompany William Hay Macnaghten, the aide to the British Governor-General to India, Lord Auckland. It was through this position that in 1839, Cotton visited the Summer Palace in Amritsar, India, to attend the royal court of the Maharajah Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Sikh Empire. Cotton plotted to poison the Maharajah so the British, and by extension the Templar Order, could take control of India.

Cotton and Macnaghten meeting Arbaaz

At the palace, Cotton and Macnaghten met the Assassin Arbaaz Mir, who was posing as a Kashmiri emissary, and the former quickly deduced the man's affiliations after watching his movements closely. Arbaaz in turn deduced that Cotton was a Templar upon noticing that he sported the Order's insignia, and the two proceeded to have a private conversation.

Arbaaz, aware of the Templars' plan to kill Singh, told Cotton that there was no need to fight each other because, in this particular instance, their goals happened to align, revealing that he had his own reasons to want the Maharaja dead. Cotton was skeptical of the Assassin's claim and suspected that he had another agenda, although he shared with his enemy his personal disgust of the ailing Singh.

Arbaaz and Singh confronting Cotton

Sometime later during the function, Cotton spied on Arbaaz's attempts to locate the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the vaults beneath the palace. Alerting the guards to the theft, Cotton had the Assassin imprisoned, and used the good will generated by this act to gain a private audience with Singh alongside Macnaghten. Cotton poisoned the Maharaja's drink, but the meeting was interrupted by Arbaaz, who had been freed from the dungeon by Pyara Kaur.

Cotton fought off the Assassin, who attempted to warn Singh of the poison, but the Templar gloated that he was too late and that the Maharaja had already drank from the cup. After Singh declared that India would never fall to the Templars, Cotton held his sword up to the Maharaja and warned him to stay back, noting it was a shame to kill him since he was supposedly a wise and benevolent ruler. He then derided him as too weak to bring order to the world, and proceeded to again set the guards on Arbaaz, claiming he was trying to take the Maharaja's life.

Death

"You people are like rats. And there's only one sure way to deal with vermin."

―Cotton's final words, 1839.

Raza Soora attacking Cotton

Cotton fled the throne room as Arbaaz fought against the guards, encountering Pyara Kaur attempting to escape the palace with the Koh-i-Noor. Mistaking her for an Assassin due to her hood, Cotton raised his knife to kill her, but was leapt upon by Raza Soora, who wounded Cotton by scratching his face with his fingernails. Cotton threw Raza off of him and angrily declared the Assassins to be vermin who needed to die.

Before he could stab Raza, Pyara activated the Koh-i-Noor, which was in reality a powerful Piece of Eden, causing her to become possessed by an Isu. The entity delivered a cryptic message about humanity being fragmented and instructing them to hide the Koh-i-Noor until they were united. Cotton drew his gun and fired upon the Isu, hitting the Koh-i-Noor in the process, creating an energy blast that killed him and all the nearby guards.

Legacy

Following Cotton's death, William Sleeman was appointed to succeed him as leader of the Templars in India. Much like his predecessor, Sleeman sought to increase the British's influence in the country through the East India Company, and oversaw the search for various Pieces of Eden, including the Koh-i-Noor, which had been claimed by the Indian Assassins.

Using information from Cotton's dossier on the Indian Brotherhood, Sleeman was able to find the Assassins' hideout and take the Koh-i-Noor from them during an assault. He later used it in conjuction with a Precursor box he had retrieved from Cotton's personal effects to unlock a map of the locations of various Isu temples.

In 2015, the Templar Isabelle Ardant included Cotton's name on a list of known British Templars. This list was later unveiled by the Assassins Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings when they infiltrated Ardant's office to plant a bug.

Trivia

• During his conversation with Arbaaz, Cotton implied that he kept the Hidden Blades of all the Assassins he had killed as trophies, and that he hoped to add Arbaaz's blade to his collection. This makes Cotton one of the few Templars in the series, alongside Haytham Kenway, Julien du Casse and Shay Cormac, to possess at least one Hidden Blade.

Gallery

Concept art of Cotton

Render of Cotton

Cotton as he appears in Brahman

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Brahman
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (name only)
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (mentioned in Database entry only)