Crawford Starrick

"I am at the very top of the Order."

- Starrick's last word.

Crawford Starrick is the main antagonist in the videogame Assassins Creed: Syndicate. He is the Grand Master of the British Rite of the Templar Order who controls London, controlling every level of her infrastructure through seven henchmen. To prevent the city from staying in the templars hands, Jacob and Evie make it their goal to destroy Starricks empire and end his life.

Biography
Born as the youngest son of the wealthy Robert Starrick in the West End of London, Crawford and his siblings were trained for competition. The Starrick brothers were educated in academics and sports as they often challenged and fought each other, much to their mother's oblivious pride.

Turning twelve, Crawford took the opportunity to enter the boarding school wherein he was excluded by his peers. Due to the boy's imperious attitude, the students called him "Lord Starrick". He then began to see the two strata of humanity: those who served and those who ruled.

Realizing that he would earn no acquaintances, he sharpened his charm and hid his disdain with smiles and compliments to bend teachers and his classmates to his will.

Upon graduation, he fancied himself as a railroad baron. To achieve this, Starrick took it upon himself for smart business and purchasing and eliminating his competitors to eventually rise to the top. Crawford continued in his business' expansion and created several industries that reached across London.

In-Game
""This tea was brought to me from India by a ship, then, up from the harbor to a factory, where it was packaged and ferried by carriage to my door, unpacked in the larder and upstairs to me. All by men and women who work for me. Who are indebted to me, Crawford Starrick, for their jobs, their time, the very lives they lead. They will work in my factories and so too shall their children.""

- Starrick's first quote

Crawford first appears in Sequence 5, after you kill John Elliotson and the destroy the manufacture of Starrick's soothing syrup. While his henchmen are deeply concerned about the Fryes' actions, Starrick remains calm, even refrencing the melticulous process his Indian Tea was delivered to him.

Having inherited his first rail factory from his father, Starrick nevertheless proved to be a brilliant businessman of his own, building an empire that continued to grow. He was also ruthless towards his employees and installed Rupert Ferris as manager to maximize profit and keep spending to a minimum.

Sometime during the 19th century, Crawford participated in an auction alongside Lucy Thorne, who managed to outbid him and subsequently acquired an occult manuscript. Starrick later inducted Lucy into the Templar Order, making her his lieutenant.[3] Despite their collaboration to locate theShroud of Eden, Starrick had no intention of sharing the Shroud with Lucy. He nonetheless planned to provide her with financial compensation as a form of gratitude for her aid in locating the Shroud.

Through his network of Templar agents, he controlled London and oppressed the working class to keep the Order in power. During this time, the British Assassins worked to reclaim power in the city, and bring down Starrick, principally through their members Henry Green, and the twins Jacob and Evie Frye.

Following John Elliotson's assassination at the hands of Jacob Frye, who also destroyed Starrick's Soothing Syrup production, the Earl of Cardigan and Philip Twopenny met with Starrick to discuss action against the Assassins. Starrick dismissed Jacob's efforts against his corporate empire, referencing the meticulous process in which his own Indian tea was delivered to him.

Subsequently, Starrick met with his cousin, Pearl Attaway, who had manipulated Jacob into acquiring internal combustion engines from his lackey, Malcolm Millner, as well as assassinate him. Starrick promised to arrange transportation for the engines, unaware that Jacob was spying on them and had learned of Pearl's true colors.

Some time after their meeting, Jacob assassinated Pearl. Upon hearing of her death, a grief-stricken Starrick began playing his piano, shooting a Templar out of annoyance for disturbing him. Lucy then entered the room, believing him unaware of Pearl's death before being told otherwise. Deciding to take the Frye twins seriously, Starrick declared his intention to bring them to justice.

Shortly after, Starrick was informed of Lucy's assassination by Evie Frye's hands. To Starrick's fury, the key to the Shroud's crypt was taken as well.

After Twopenny was assassinated by Jacob Frye, public trust in the currency dropped as inflation increased. To counter the inflation, Starrick raised the wages of his workers. At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli introduced the Corrupt Practices Bill to fight electoral fraud.

While meeting with Starrick, Cardigan expressed frustration at Parliament's lack of action and pledged to have Disraeli eliminated in order to end the Bill and maintain the Templars' influence on politics. However, Starrick scolded Cardigan for idling in the Sinopean Club rather than taking a more active role in defending Templar interests in Parliament. The Grand Master threatened him by putting a knife to his crotch and ordered him to keep the Bill from passing.

After all of his collaborators were assassinated by the Frye twins, including Lucy, Starrick decided to track down the Shroud of Eden himself. He managed to locate it beneath Buckingham Palace while attending a party, planning on eliminating the heads of state and church once he obtained his prize. He encountered Evie and asked her for a dance. He revealed that he had snipers on the rooftops ready to take her and the other guests out once the music had ended. However, Jacob eliminated all of Starrick's men and freed the captive royal guards. Upon being signaled that she was in the clear, Evie kneed Starrick, but he managed to escape with the key to the crypt of the Shroud that she kept on her necklace.

Descending into the vault, Starrick found the Shroud and donned it. Using its powers of instant cell regeneration and enhanced strength, he began to overwhelm the Frye twins, with all of their would-be fatal attacks rendered ineffective. Before he could kill them, Henry Green intervened and joined the fight. In spite of Green's best efforts, he proved to be no match for Starrick's new found powers.

However, Jacob managed to pin down Starrick long enough for Evie to remove the Shroud from him, making Starrick lose its powers. Now vulnerable, Starrick was no match for the twins, who both managed to fatally wound him.

As he lay dying, Starrick proclaimed that with his death, London would perish without him, as he had intended to create a paradise. He was then rebuked by the twins, before succumbing to his wounds. With Starrick's death and the defeat of all of Starrick's "leftovers", the Templars' control over London had ended.

Personality
At a young age, Crawford Starrick and his brother were trained for competition. He is an arrogant, egotistical, manipulative and traitorous individual who showed great disdain to those who tormented him and eventually saw himself as a ruler among servants. Using his charm, he managed to bend people to his will.

Above all, Starrick desired order and control. A staunchly conservative and orthodox man, Crawford's actions in respect of his role as Grand Master of the British Rite all looked to maintain the status quo, whilst gradually improving the quality of life for his workers, and the city whole. Crawford initially viewed the interference of the Frye twins as little more than an inconvenience, but as their actions began to upturn the order he established, he took personal grievance with them.

During the temporary collapse of the British currency, following the death of Philip Twopenny, the Governor of the Bank of England, at the hands of Jacob Frye, Crawford increased the average wage of his entire workforce in order to stave off the affects of inflation, and maintain his grip on power; he did this despite the incredulity of his fellow Templar, James Brudenell.

Crawford also saw himself as a fair man. Before learning of her death, Crawford penned a letter promising to support Lucy Thorne financially for her remaining years, in gratitude for her aid in locating the Shroud of Eden. Crawford claimed that only one could wear the Shroud, and that it could only be him.

Starrick fell in love once, to his cousin Pearl Attaway, but she refused to marry him. Despite this, as well as Pearl serving as Starrick's business rival, Starrick still held feelings for her. Upon hearing of her death, Starrick was suspicious and grief-stricken, ruthlessly executing one of his men for interrupting his mourning.

Powers and Skills

 * Vast Resources: He had a vast business empire, with near-limitless fundings at his will. He is a master of manipulation, being able to carry out many incidents in London, while sitting on his chair. All of these events were carried out by Templar Minions working for him.
 * Charismatic Leadership: He was a master criminal and a master leader, who could possibly envision a better future. He has shown remarkable militia tactical skills, while controlling his army of Templars and Blighters as well as the ability to use his charm to manipulate people to his will.
 * High Intelligence: He can even use threats to bend people to his will, such as when he was "dancing" with Evie Frye in the Palace Ball. He has also shown himself to be remarkable in academics, business management, playing musical instruments and even doing the Waltz.
 * Martial Artist: He has always been an expert in hand-to-hand combat and athletics as well as marksmanship. He was even capable of going toe-to-toe with Sir Jacob Frye, an advanced martial artist, in a one on one hand-to-hand combat, before overpowering Jacob with his enhanced strength.
 * Escape Artist: He was able to instantly escape from Evie Frye at the Palace Ball, without her even noticing him leave.
 * Shroud of Eden: Upon donning the shroud he gained a set of supernatural powers; such as
 * Enhanced Strength: His physical strength was increased dramatically, allowing him to overpower Jacob, Evie and Henry with some difficulty. He even overpowered Jacob's brute physical strength with almost no effort at all.
 * Enhanced Healing: He was capable of instantaneously healing all of his injuries. He was capable of instantly healing large slashes and fatal wounds, with even the stains of blood disappearing.
 * Immorality: Evie Frye has stated that those why donned the Shroud of Eden do not continue to age.
 * Life-Force Siphoning: He was capable of siphoning the life force of any living beings. This was seen when he tried to kill the Frye twins this way. This possibly further enhances his supernatural powers.