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India is a civilization encompassing the whole of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia.

History[]

Ancient India[]

After the Great Catastrophe, the surviving members of the First Civilization continued to interact with and influence the surviving humans in modern day India.[1] Some of these members were eventually revered as deities in the Hindu pantheon, including Durga[2] and Saraswati.[3]

Around ten to six thousand years BCE, an ancient city located in modern day Rajasthan was irradiated by a Piece of Eden.[4] In 326 BCE, the Macedonian King Alexander the Great subdued part of the Punjab region of India, after defeating King Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes.[5]

Classical period[]

Following the foundation of the Hidden Ones in Egypt in 47 BCE, the Brotherhood began to expand its influence further, first through the reaches of the Roman Empire. By the end of the 1st century CE, the Hidden Ones' eastern reach extended as far as modern-day India, having established guilds in the area from which to operate.[6]

Medieval India[]

By 1217, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad began to fear the expanding influence of Genghis Khan, leader of the Mongol Empire. In order to stop the Mongols' rapid expansion, Altaïr set out with his wife Maria Thorpe and Darim Ibn-La'Ahad on a journey east in 1217. Before reaching their final destination of Mongolia, their ten-year journey would first take them to India.[7]

Age of Discovery[]

In 1498, Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut and discovered a sea route between Portugal and India. Under the rule of King Manuel I, Portugal started to colonialize several port cities along India's coast line. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral was sent to Calicut to ferret out the local Assassin Guild. Upon facing resistance from the Assassins and Calicut's population, Cabral was driven back to Portugal.[8]

In response, Manuel sent Vasco da Gama to Calicut with a fleet of 800 men. The Assassins attempted to evacuate the city, but many civilians could not be coerced. Upon da Gama's arrival, he demanded the expulsion of all Muslims, realizing that it would only instigate more violence; the city was bombarded and hundreds of men and women were slaughtered. Da Gama installed captains to retain control of the city, who were eliminated by the Assassins with aid from the local population.[8]

Mughal Empire[]

By the mid-16th century, large parts of India had come under the control of the Mughal Empire, and flourished under Emperor Akbar, who conquered Rajputana.[9]

British Raj[]

During the mid-19th century, India had been largely colonized by the British Empire. The Sikh Empire, under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was one of the remaining bastions of defiance. In 1839, both the Indian Assassins and British Templars started a quest for the Koh-i-Noor diamond, a powerful Piece of Eden said to be in the possession of Singh.[10]

That year, the British emissaries William Hay Macnaghten and General Francis Cotton, a Templar, as well as the Assassin Arbaaz Mir attended a feast thrown by Singh in his summer palace in Amritsar. While both Cotton and Mir sought to obtain the Koh-i-Noor, the British also intended to kill the Maharaja, which they succeeded in doing by poisoning his tea. During the following struggle between the Assassin and Templar, the Koh-i-Noor was destroyed.[10] Though the Piece of Eden was lost, Singh's death resulted in the eventual fall of the Sikh Empire and the start of Templar rule over India in the name of the British Empire.[1]

After Ranjit Singh's death, his youngest son Duleep Singh was proclaimed the next Maharaja, with his mother Jind Kaur as Regent. After the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, Duleep was deposed by the British and exiled to Britain in 1854, thus ending his reign and dissolving the Sikh Empire.[11] With the fall of other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent, British Raj was officially proclaimed in 1858.

By the 1930s, the Indians had started an independence movement to free themselves from their British oppressors. Using an Apple of Eden[12], Mahatma Gandhi became the political and spiritual leader of India. On 30 January 1948, after the country had claimed independence from Britain, Gandhi was assassinated by the Templars, who stole his Apple of Eden.[13]

Appearances[]

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References[]

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