Finale · 1582 · playing as Naoe / Yasuke
The Isu vault and the Black Cross
In this chapterThe Templars send the Black Cross inquisitor Sir Eamon Hathaway to kill them while he looks for the Observatory.
After collecting glyphs across Japan, Naoe and Yasuke open a vault in Wakasa that once belonged to Kassandra. The Templars send Sir Eamon Hathaway and Nirmala of the Black Cross to stop them and find the Observatory.
Yasuke is nearly killed, but recovers. In the end Nirmala dies and Hathaway is mortally wounded. Yasuke breaks the key to hide the vault, and Naoe keeps a crystal cube as a link to the Assassins. The side missions broaden the world: foreign traders, outlaws and ships show Japan's contacts with other regions.
The vault connects Shadows to the oldest layers of the franchise, tying Japan to Odyssey's Greece and the Isu. Yasuke's recovery hints at a hybrid nature, a link to the Isu that the game leaves open. Sealing the vault matches the League's philosophy: some knowledge is too dangerous to use.
The Black Cross is an organisation within the Templars. Its members are inquisitors who hunt those who interfere with their search. The Observatory the Templars seek is the same Isu device from Black Flag, connecting Shadows to Edward Kenway's story.
What unfolds
- After collecting glyphs across Japan, the League opens a door in Wakasa and finds an Isu vault that Kassandra once used.
- Hathaway and his protege Nirmala mortally wound Yasuke, who survives by overcoming his inner darkness.
- The group kills Nirmala and mortally wounds Hathaway; Yasuke breaks the vault's key to conceal it and Naoe keeps a crystal cube for future contact with the Assassins.
- Rufino, a Portuguese translator, helps the League recover Templar assassination contracts from a coastal ship.
- The outlaws Kane and Kinu trade a trinket and a glyph map, leading to the Isu vault in Wakasa.
- Nirmala, a Black Cross inquisitor from Java, kills the Chinese captain Yang before the League can.