Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: The Gang’s Real-Life Counterparts

By Alexander Espinosa

Staff Writer

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was first released Oct. 23, 2015. It takes place in Victoria, London during the Industrial Revolution.

In the game, you play as twin assassins, Jacob and Evie Frye, who are in the middle of a different revolution. Jacob and Evie are fighting against the templars who run most of the city and they do so by forming a gang that goes by the “Rooks.”

The gang is made up of both working men and women. This is abnormal because most of the gangs that existed during this age were made up of only men, except for the Forty Elephants Gang. The Forty Elephants Gang were an all-women’s gang that used the women’s lack of social status to their advantage.

At this time, women could not vote, own homes, get a divorce or do anything by themselves, except for one thing: shop. When women went shopping, any male shop owners would leave them alone and not even give them the time of day. This is how the gang made their mark.

With the shop owners leaving the women alone, the gang members stole everything from right under their noses. They weren’t interested in killing, unlike the predominantly male gangs. It was all about gaining property in an era were women really were second class citizens.

The gang members were specifically chosen either for their beauty or brawn. The smaller and more delicate members were the ones handling the shoplifting, while the larger and more intimidating women were ones who made sure the plans went off without a problem.

While it is true in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate assassins are trying to kill the people in charge of the city, the gang is taking over the streets, getting rid of corrupt government officials, crime lords and gaining property. The goal is to gain property, money and other material things that the members have been denied since the templars took over, just like the women in the Forty Elephants Gang.

Although the Forty Elephants Gang was comprised of women, it had a partnership with another gang called the Elephant and Castle Mob. This male gang helped the women move all the stuff they stole. This partnership created one of the first equal-opportunity gang experiences, just like we see in the game.

With all the similarities between having male and female gang members and both gangs’ ultimate goal of making bank, there is little doubt that the “Rooks” is the video game version of the partnership of these two historical gangs.