Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be the first mainline Assassin’s Creed game set in East Asia. It will take place in the latter half of the 16th Century in 1579, focusing on the Japanese Shinobi Fujibayashi Naoe and the African Samurai Yasuke in feudal Japan. With its 16th Century Asian setting, Ubisoft has the potential to bring back an old Assassin’s Creed expanded media classic character: the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun.

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7 Things We Hope To See In Assassin's Creed Shadows

With the official reveal of Assassin's Creed Shadows, due out later this year, here are all the thing we hope to see in this upcoming Ubisoft title.

The History of Assassin Shao Jun

Nearly 75 years before Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Shao Jun was born in 1505 Ming Dynasty China under the rule of the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao. Jun was a concubine for the emperor until his death in 1521, where she would be rescued and trained by the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins. This group of Assassins were nearly destroyed, however, when the Templars influenced the new Jiajing Emperor, Zhu Houcong, to wipe them out. Jun and her Mentor Zhu Jiuyuan survived, the two fleeing to Italy to seek aid from the legendary Assassin Ezio Auditore. Jiuyuan was killed by Templars on the journey, leaving Jun the last hope for the Chinese Brotherhood.

Jun first appeared in the animated short film Assassin’s Creed: Embers in 2011. Following 2011’s Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Embers told the final story of Ezio Auditore, where he helped Jun before he died of a heart attack in 1524. Auditore educated Jun to use love and hope to gain the support of people and recruit followers. After a brief conflict with Chinese Templars, Auditore gifted Jun a Precursor box later seen in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed Rogue, and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles.

The Rebirth of the Chinese Brotherhood

With Auditore’s mentorship and the Precursor Box, Jun returned to China in 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China to begin liberating it from Templar influence alongside another Chinese Mentor, Wang Yangmin. A side-scrolling platformer, Chronicles’ saw Jun take down the Eight Tigers, a group of eunuchs and Templar co-conspirators who influenced the Chinese Emperor. Once defeated, Jun began rebuilding the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassin’s from the ground up, taking many new apprentices.

Influencing the Rise of the Japanese Brotherhood

During the Eight Tigers conflict in 1526, Jun rescued a young Japanese man called Kotetsu who was a son of a fellow Chinese Assassin survivor. Kotetsu’s father was tortured to death by the Templars; he would go on to help Jun throughout the conflict. By 1532, Kotetsu became Jun’s first official apprentice, and together they stopped a Mongol invasion and assassinated the Eight Tiger’s leader Zhang Yong at the Great Wall of China.

Years later, Kotetsu discovered that the Templars had begun influencing and causing turmoil in Japan. With this knowledge, Kotetsu informed Mentor Shao Jun of his plans to return to Japan and build a Japanese Brotherhood of Assassins. Kotetsu’s story can be found in the manga Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun.

Shao Jun and Kotetsu in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Both Jun and Kotetsu have no official death dates, meaning they could still be alive by 1579, returning as elders of the Assassin Brotherhood. Kotetsu could be Naoe and Yasuke’s Mentor, acting similarly to how Achilles taught Connor in Assassin’s Creed 3. Jun is last seen at the end of Chronicles speaking with an unknown Assassin about the death of Houcong in 1567. While Jun asserts her Assassin’s will protect China from then on, perhaps she could travel to Japan to help her former student over a decade later.

The Assassin’s Creed Shadows World Premiere Trailer showcases Naoe using what may be a form of rope dart to scale a building. Jun perfected the weapon following her encounter with Ezio Auditore. Her version of the rope dart would become popular among Assassins worldwide, going on to appear in Assassin’s Creed 3, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed Rogue, and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles. Kotetsu or Jun could directly teach Naoe how to use the rope dart, and Naoe may even use some lessons from the rope dart to improve her chained kusarigama. At the very least, it’d be nice to see Shao Jun finally appear in a mainline Assassin’s Creed game.

Shao Jun claimed responsibility for the death of Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houcong via mercury poisoning. This is not the Emperor’s official cause of death in real life, but he did take numerous elixirs containing mercury and other metals, believing they would grant him immortality despite the harm they caused him.