AN: This is just my headcanon for how the Syrian Assassins ran Masyaf before Altair became Mentor. Like many things, Ubisoft has left many conflicting plot holes in the system of the Third Crusade Assassins. This is just how I think things would have been done in order to justify what information we're given based on dialog, visuals, game guides, and interviews. Not all of it is confirmed canon, but I think it all should make sense and run along with the canon facts.

Lets face it, even though the Assassin's Creed franchise is a wonderfully imagined world, you can tell that the game designers never really sat down together and fully thought things through. They pretty obviously liked to make short cuts, and didn't think fans would notice.

Well we do Ubisoft. We do and we don't appreciate it.

There are more plot holes in the first game of Assassin's Creed that it would be tedious to fucking list them all. As if that wasn't bad enough, most of the 'canon' facts from later (and spin-off) games clash against previously established facts from the first game, and not even pouring over Wikipedia can make it make sense.

In this rant - or essay if you will - I will be putting my headcanon for how Assassins in Masyaf ended up being born and brought up in the order, and what the fuck they actually ended up wearing during their various ranks.

To start us off, go look at some gameplay of Masyaf. Just playing the game without any productions notes or art books or game guides or bullshit, it seems like new Assassins are recruited into the order in their late teens (18-19) and are then trained through the Assassin's 'ranking system' from novice to Assassin. However on many accounts by Altair, the Codex, and the game's producers, it sounds more like the Masyaf born Assassins were taken at an extremely young age to begin training, to prevent them from really getting to know their parents.

So which one is it?

Since Ubisoft has presented us with two canon outputs for one game, I like to blend the two ideas together in a system of ranking that starts with children around the age of 8, who begin life at the Masyaf fortress as 'Apprentices'. When they are around 16 they enter the order as Novices, to begin their work as actual Assassins. It's like taking the best of both stories and mushing it into one. Everyone wins, everyone is at least slightly canon.

A quick section on what I think is up with the Apprentice system

Every year at the beginning of winter (after the harvests are finished and the first frost is settling in), the Assassins go into the village of Masyaf for a reaping of children. They take in those who are around 7-8 years old, who seem fit to begin training for life as an Assassin. Children and orphans from outlying villages can also be brought in to be evaluated, and possibly accepted. Very few are turned away, even those with disabilities are often found jobs in the libraries, kitchens, and other servant work.

Children who are healthy bodied and able to pursue the life of an Assassin are referred to as apprentices, and live in a small section of the Fortress's east wing. Apprentices train mostly in areas that they will not have time to focus on once they are Novices, as all their time will then be spent in the field doing hands on learning. Subjects like language, mathematics, writing, and reading are taught to Apprentices, as well as the basics of fighting, medicine, good training habits, food foraging, wilderness survival, and many other useful skills an Assassin could potentially need to use. Once they are older, usually starting around 13, they will begin learning more physical skills, such as free running, climbing and jumping, or how to use a long and short blade, hidden blade, and throwing knives. Once they have some skills in these areas, they are allowed to go (unarmed) with older Novices on basic missions, to gain experience in the field. They may not go on so many missions that they would fall behind in their studies though.

Amongst the Apprentices, there is still another divide, informally sorting the children into 'Youths' and 'Olders'. As their titles show, it's an unsupervised system the children use to establish a pecking order. Some responsibility does come with being an Older, as the oldest of them (usually 15-16 year olds) are expected to help take care of the Youths in ways that instructors and masters wouldn't have time to fuss with. Olders are responsible for keeping the peace amongst the younger children, getting them roused and into the courtyard for stretches in the morning, giving them tasks, and keeping the Apprentice hall clean (usually done by tasking younger children to do certain jobs).

The chain of command does not end there, however. Novices of the first rank are additionally in charge of making sure that the Older children aren't being too cruel to the youngers. They're housed just down the hall from the Apprentices, and as long as they're not away on a mission, the Apprentice's overall well being (aside from their teachings and meals) falls to them to maintain.

It is through this time old system of letting the children establish their own order that incredibly strong bonds are formed between the Apprentices, Novices, and Assassins of all ages. By investing time into the well being of those below them, they naturally learn to care about them, and while feuds between children will always occur, they are rarely anything that would inhibit the Order or require a change in the system. Quite literally, they become a Brotherhood, even if they are not initially bound by blood.

The attire of Apprentices comes from hand me down robes of whoever can spare them, and as long as it's some variation of grey or white it is considered acceptable. Apprentices do not wear hoods unless they are being sent to assist with a mission, in which case they will be given a 1st Rank hood which they may only wear for the duration of their mission. Upon returning, they must take it off and give it back.

And, of course, there were some Apprentices who were eventually deemed unfit to become Assassins. They were given other jobs within the Brotherhood, like training to become a scholar or helping in city Bureaus or doing kitchen work. Not quite as glorious as being a killer, but they were never just kicked out if they could be used.

Novice Robes and Rankings

Once an Apprentice reaches 16 years old, they are usually deemed ready to rank to to being a 1st rank Assassin. Here it should be noted that all men in the Order, regardless of whether they're at the 1st rank or the 10th, are considered Assassins. The term 'Novice' is applied to those below rank 5, as they have not yet shown that they have the all skills required of an Assassin.

Now, the ranking of Assassins is where Ubisoft has me a bit confused. Just from running around the game, it seems like the Novices wear one style of clothing, with higher ranked Assassins wearing another. Your robes seem to reflect your rank, except, we're shown many high-ranking side characters with clothes unbecoming to their rank.

The first we see of this skewed example is Kadar. From the way he acts he sounds like a Novice, and many fans immediately assume him as such. We see him in white, short robes with dark grey for his hood and sleeves, and our first assumption is 'okay, cool, this is the outfit lower ranking Assassins wear'. Comparatively, Altair and Malik seem to be wearing matching all white outfits, and so it's easy to assume that is the outfit higher ranked Assassins wear.

Now, once we get back to Masyaf, we see many different Assassins, and many who are wearing the robe style Kadar had on are leading other all-white/grey robed Assassins around the fortress courtyard. They are also posted as guards, and look to be rather high ranking. They clearly aren't novices.

Even more confusing is being greeted by Rauf. When we see him in the clips before the Defense of Masyaf, he is wearing all dark-grey robes, which are very clearly not white. Why is he wearing these? And why, after that memory, does he change into the 'Kadar' style robes? Rauf is an Instructor, so he obviously has to be a fully ranked Assassin. So why was Kadar wearing such highly ranked robes, or why are all of these leader-figures wearing such low ranking robes? Abbas is also shown to be wearing robes of this style, even though we know he is a fully ranked Assassin.

We also see many of the Assassins hanging around in the village wearing darker grey robes, why is this?

On the subject of Altair and Malik's robes, it becomes clear that they aren't the norm. No one else in Masyaf is wearing robes in that style, so it's easy to assume that Altair and Malik are both Masters. This however, doesn't seem to be true either. Even though their robes match, Altair makes a comment about out ranking Malik in both skill and station. Since you don't get much higher than being a Master Assassin, it's clear Malik is a normally ranked Assassin. To further prove this, Malik doesn't have the weaponry of a Master Assassin, in fact, he doesn't even have the upgraded short blade like a fully ranked Assassin should. I don't think Malik is a novice, but he very clearly isn't a Master Assassin, either.

So why the heck is he in Master Assassin clothes?

I know clothing is a rather silly detail to fuss about, but it makes writing fanfiction between characters of different ranks rather hard, as I don't know what the heck to dress them in. I'd like to go with the canon, but the canon (like much of the bullshit Ubisoft has thrown into this world) makes no sense. So in an attempt to force it to adhere to some sort of structure, I've created my head canon to be something like this:

Ranks 1-4: For these ranks, Assassins are made to wear white-grey robes with slightly darker grey hoods. Their robes are not true white, but are not dark enough to be considered a light grey.

Ranks 5-9: Beginning at rank 5, an Assassin is no longer considered a Novice. They are allowed to wear all white-grey robes, or all grey. Typically they will wear their grey robes during normal days with no missions or events planned, to keep their lighter, more formal robes from becoming too dirty.

Rank 10 - Assassin: Fully ranked Assassins may wear pure white robes, and are given dark grey hoods/sleeves to set them apart.

White Hoods: White hoods are worn by Rafiqs, scholars, and honorary Assassins. An Assassin may be presented with a white hood as a token of praise for doing something exceptionally well, or as a symbol of respect. Only the Mentor may give out white hoods.

Special Outfits: Like the white hood, special robes may be given out to Assassins who have proved themselves exceptionally loyal/worthy/brave in the eyes of the Master (like Altair and Malik are shown to wear). An Assassin promoted to the rank of Master Assassin will automatically receive a set of these long robes to wear, although you can have the long robes without being a Master Assassin.

While not a perfectly canon system, I think this system at least makes some sense while sticking to the guns Ubisoft has given us. I also like to imagine that there are at least 3 or 4 more Assassins running around the Masyaf fortress with robes like Altair's (and Malik's, before he was injured).

So if Kadar was chosen to be sent along with Altair and Malik to Solomon's Temple, perhaps he was given high ranking clothes to wear on account of the special occasion of their mission? It would look rather silly to send a Novice on such an important quest, I'd imagine.

That is, in the very least, how I like to imagine the fortress was run during the time of Al Mualim (Rashid ad-Din Sinan) and the Mentors before him. Once Altair took command of the order, it appeared that he also changed the clothing system so that all the Brothers were dressed the same.

AN: In closing, this is only my headcanon for how things might have worked. A few of my ideas, like the older Apprentices helping the younger ones, spawned from Xazz's story A Lilly in the Valley. Gotta give credit where it's due! ;)

Most of it was complied and strung together by me sobbing grossly in front of my television as I made Altair wander the streets of Masyaf to stare at various Assassins and take note of their clothing and weaponry to try and guess their rank and then tally my results. And by results I mean worthless tick marks that essentially got me no where except for the realization that I wasted about 3 hours of my life staring at video game pixels with no real set order of rank.

I didn't really proof read this, so if there are any errors, I'm terribly sorry. This was really made just so I could look back at it as reference for a fic I am writing, but I thought I'd post it here because why not.