Kelly's Shroud was the Piece of Eden wielded by the Infamous Australian Bush Ranger, Ned Kelly.
History[]
France[]
The first recorded human wielder of the shroud was French Aristocrat and ally of the French Brotherhood of Assassins, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame du Pompadour, who wore it around her neck as protection from Templar blades. It is presently unknown where she obtained it from, though it is thought it may have been given to her by an Assassin disguised as an admirer. Eventually, after finding papers detailing an attempt to steal the Piece of Eden from her chambers, she gave the Shroud, under the pretence of a gift, to King Louis XV.
Louis wore the Shroud at almost all times until the 5th of January, 1757, when he was almost killed by Templar Robert-François Damiens. In a conversation between the two, Louis was told of the Shroud's true purpose and the lengths the Templar Order would go to acquire it. In a letter written to Madame
Madame du Pompadour. The Shroud of Eden around her neck can be seen in the mirror.
du Pompadour, Louis explains that he can no longer hold onto the Shroud under the fear of what could happen to him and those around him. Madame du Pompadour afraid of what the king might do with it, took back the Shroud and attempted to send it to the French Brotherhood. On route from Versailles to Paris, the carriage was stolen by Templars and redirected to a small Templar-controlled port to take it across the English Channel to London, which had come entirely under the control of the British Rite.
British Army[]
By this point in time, the Seven Years War had been raging for several years, and it was decided by the Order that the Shroud would be put to better use in the battlefields of the Colonies. The Shroud was to be sent to James Wolfe, a General of the British Army and member of the Templar Order. Wolfe recieved the shroud after landing on an island just offshore of Rochefort and slipping away from the group to meet with the courier. Upon returning with the Shroud now on his person, he was overcome with a feeling of great strength and suggested that he would need only 500 men to take Rochefort from the French. A fellow officer and Templar by the name of Sir John Mordaunt, however, refused, whispering to Wolfe that, though he may have had a protective artifact, the rest of the men present did not.
Death of John Wolfe[]
Two years later, Wolfe led the British side of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, not knowing that the Assassins had sent one of their own to retrieve the Shroud at all costs. During the heat of battle, the agent quietly slipped the shroud from Wolfe's person. As the French forces began to retreat, Wolfe was shot three times by several Assassins hidden in the French army so that he would not be able to retrieve the Shroud. Wolfe, who hadn't noticed the Shroud's disappearance was slightly surprised that the wounds did not heal, but still died a "contented" man, seeing the French forces retreating.
Due to the purging of the Colonial Brotherhood, the Shroud soon made it's way back into Templar hands and was, once again, sent back to London.
Captain James Cook[]
It was by this time when an ally of the Assassin-turned-Templar Shay Cormac by the name of James Cook came to the attention of the British government, and by that effect, the Templars. It was discovered that some of the maps he had received from Cormac detailed the whereabouts of an island, not too dissimilar to one mentioned in ancient records of Precursor vaults. The Templars in the British Rite convinced King George III to fund an expedition to this southern island with the intention of secretly searching for Precursor sites said to be located there before the assassins could, as well as set up a templar presence. To this end, the templars smuggled aboard the Shroud as well as an Apple of Eden that had belonged to Sir Isaac Newton, a scientist and puppet of the Order.
Australia[]
On the 19th of April, 1770, two years after the ship had parted, the destination finally came into view and, 10 days later on the 29th, they made landfall at an area near present-day Point Hicks, before journeying north to what would be called Botany Bay. Some time after this landing, Cook found two crew members dead. Though Cook would not know this, the two men were the Templars guarding the Pieces of Eden both of which the killer, an Assassin, had stolen along with some supplies. Cook figured that the man couldn't have gone far, yet the search parties failed to turn up any leads.
The Assassin, who ran for several days and nights, all the while being watched, but mostly disregarded, by the natives, eventually managed to befriend a local tribe by giving some of what remained of the supplies. Over time he grew to trust the tribe and handed the Pieces of Eden to them for safekeeping, believing that, should he be found by the Templars, they would not find what they sought.
The Kelly Gang[]
By the time of Queen Victoria's reign, Australia had become a bustling settlement under the keen eye of the Templars. Sometime after 1864, an 11 year old boy named Ned Kelly came into contact with the Shroud while saving another boy, by the name of Richard Shelton, from drowning in a river. He had found it in the bottom of the river, buried in the mud and carried it, along with Shelton, back to shore.
Kelly's green sash. He hid the Shroud under this and kept it with him for a large part of his life.
For saving the boy's life, Shelton's family gave Kelly a green sash for his bravery, under which he would wear the Piece of Eden so that it wasn't seen.
Kelly was inducted into the Assassin Brotherhood after coming into contact with, as well as being mentored by, the Assassin, and bush ranger, Henry Power. With the Shroud protecting him from harm, he went on to form the Kelly gang of bushrangers and used it to try and drive the templars out of Victoria, Australia.
In an area known as Glenrowan, Templar agents in the police force engaged in a shootout with Kelly, believing him to hold the Shroud on his person. Kelly, however, had given the Shroud to an Aboriginal Assassin to keep it from them, knowing that they would be hot on his trail. After a gunfight, the Templars were able to incapacitate Ned Kelly so they could get close enough to him but upon investigating his person found nothing but the green sash. Kelly was executed but the Shroud was never found.