| “ | The Hidden Blade has been a constant companion of ours over the years. Some would say it defines us – and they would not be entirely wrong. Many of our successes would not have been possible without it. | „ |
| ~ Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex, page 13. |
Summary
The Hidden Blade is the signature weapon of the members of the Assassin Brotherhood, designed as their primary means of enacting assassinations. Consisting of a blade that can be discreetly extended or retracted from a bracer or gauntlet, the Hidden Blade's portability and concealability complement the Assassins' trademark affinity for stealth and freerunning. It allowed an Assassin to eliminate a target while drawing virtually no attention to themselves, and the techniques developed for its use often ensure near instantaneous death.
Aside from its practical applications; it possesses a ceremonial status that owes to the long history of the weapon, dating back to at least the Achaemenid Empire when the Assassin Darius used it to kill the Persian king Xerxes I of Persia. This same blade was later passed on to Bayek who then included it as the signature weapon of the Assassin Brotherhood. Since then, the Hidden Blade has continued to evolve throughout the millennia. Originally requiring the removal of a ring finger to facilitate the extension of the blade, the weapon was modified during the Mentorship of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad so that such a sacrifice was no longer necessary. Further modifications were carried out by various branches of the Brotherhood in subsequent centuries, often by individual users seeking to adapt it to their personal styles. Such examples include the Hidden Footblade of Shao Jun; the Pivot Blade of Ratonhnhaké:ton, the Trident Blade of Arbaaz Mir, and most recently, the Shock Blade.
Powers and Stats
Tier: At least 9-A
Name: Hidden Blade, Wristblade, Hidden Dagger, Hookblade, Pivot Blade, Wire-Razor Blade, Switchblade, Telescopic Blade, Bi-jointed blade, Trident Blade, Shoeblade, etc.
Origin: Assassin's Creed
Age: Varies. The oldest Hidden Blade in use is over 2450 years old, still in pristine condition.
Classification: Personal blade designed to activate at the slightest muscle tensions (via the "flick of the wrist") or via a ring-based mechanism, signature assassination weapon of the Assassins and even the Templars
Inventor: Darius
Powers and Abilities: Electricity Manipulation (Shock Blade only), Poison Manipulation (Ezio and Altaïr's variation)
Users: Various people throughout history, including both Assassins, Templars and even those not involved in their conflict
Attack Potency: At least Small Building level+ (Even the weakest copper-based Hidden Blades have been able to clash and hold their own against Pieces of Eden, as in the case of Ezio and Darius, and could easily penetrate and tear apart thick mail-plated armor and even thick kevlar body armor designed to stop medium caliber rounds with the slightest of slices, and could only be broken at their weak points. Also used to slice through rocks and metal. Some of the Hidden Blades could not be broken with brute force alone, as in the case of Edward Kenway, when he saw that Duncan Walpole's blades were only bent out of shape. Capable of easily cutting through thick bone without any resistance whatsoever, and can even be used to sever spines. Darius' copper Hidden Blade was easily capable of swatting aside attacks from Kassandra's Spear of Leonidas and the Sword of Damokles despite the Pieces of Eden being made of adamant, a metal stated to be one of the strongest in the verse and being near-indestructible. The Hookblade was designed to withstand immense loads and could easily send peak-bodied Assassins like Ezio straight into the air and still be in completely good condition, and it could even survive latching onto ledges at the last moment without snapping or showing a single sign of stress at all. The Wire Razor Blade is capable of chopping up elite Templar soldiers in thick tactical body armor with ridiculous ease. Both the Hidden Blade and Hookblade in combination are capable of twisting armored humans with utter ease. Easily capable of withstanding air assassinations from great heights and can even penetrate stone, as seen in Galina Voronina's fight with Juhani Otso Berg. Is extremely reliable for fending off large animals and is also useful for skinning them. Weaker variations of the Hidden Blade could also easily hold up scaffoldings making use of chains without the slightest signs of stress, as seen when Desmond held up some beams and planks via holding onto the chains that lifted them. The Hidden Gun is capable of easily wittling down massive reinforced siege towers and is capable of blowing up heads with ridiculous ease, much like Cesare Borgia's guns)
Speed: None by itself, depends upon the user. Subsonic with the Hidden Bolt and the Phantom Blade (Both of them were similar in design and were capable of shooting bolts at similar speeds to crossbows). Supersonic with the Hidden Gun (The Hidden Gun is based on a wheel-lock mechanism and would thus have comparable speeds to a wheel-lock pistol, which can hit 438 m/s)
Durability: Varies, at least Small Building level+ for the best examples (Can only be broken at their weak points, where the blade meets the slider, and even then the actual blade still remains in good condition, while the broken part itself can be used as a weapon if one desires. Even the weakest Hidden Blades are capable of surviving full-powered slash attacks from axes, swords, Pieces of Eden and even capable of casually swatting them aside. The metal alloy designed by Altaïr enhances the blade's durability even further, although it was rare at his time and thus only reserved for the best of Assassins, including himself. The hookblade was capable of easily latching on to ledges in such a manner that most other metal hooks would suffer severe stress or outright shatter, but the Hookblade did not suffer from this weakness)
Range: Extended melee range. Several meters with projectiles
Weaknesses: Initially, one could lose their ring finger accidentally if they were to make a fist and then flex their forearm muscles, the mechanism by which the blade used to work. Later the flaw was fixed, but this mechanism now comes with the dangerous risk of accidentally activating the Hidden Blade while flicking the wrist unintentionally, which can result in the death of a person or the wielder themselves. The blade can be broken at the point where it meets the slider with a sufficiently powerful blow, however, shattering the actual blade itself is much more difficult. Using weaker hidden blades in close-quarter-combat would mean that one would be unable to deflect melee weapon attacks with that specific blade. The Poison Blade's materials were extremely weak and further alteration of the blade material's composition would result in the blade shattering altogether, forcing Ezio and Altaïr to restock their poison blades once in a while.
Gallery
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 Altaïr's Hidden Blade  Giovanni Auditore da Firenze's Hidden Blade  Ezio's Hidden Blade (Assassin's Creed II)  Ezio's Roman Hidden Blade (Assassin's Creed Brotherhood)  Ezio's Roman Hidden Blade bracer  Hookblade  The First Hidden Blade  Bayek's Hidden Blade  Bayek's Hidden Blade upgrades (Main game)  Bayek's Hidden Blade (Hidden Ones)  Bayek's Hidden Blade (Curse of the Pharaohs)  Connor's Pivot Blade Edward Kenway's Hidden Blades  Arno's Phantom Blade  The Frye Twins' Hidden Blade gauntlet  Darius's Hidden Blade Modern Hidden Blade  Shock Blade  Kiyoshi Takakura's Wire Razor Blade  Bi-Jointed Blade  Telescopic Blade  Switchblade  Arbaaz Mir's Trident Blade Nikolai Orelov's Hidden Blade  Hidden Footblade  Maria's Dual-Pronged Hidden Blade |
