Shay Cormac is the former Assassin who becomes the player character in Assassin’s Creed Rogue.
Shay begins the game as an Assassin operating in the North Atlantic during the Seven Years’ War. After a disastrous mission and a crisis of conscience, he turns against the Brotherhood and joins the Templar Order. The story therefore presents the series’ conflict from a Templar-aligned perspective.
Rogue connects several earlier games. It features characters such as Achilles Davenport and Haytham Kenway, and its events lead directly into the opening circumstances of Assassin’s Creed Unity. Shay also appears in the wider Kenway family storyline, although he is not a Kenway himself.
The game’s setting includes icy waters, coastal settlements, and parts of colonial North America. Its naval gameplay builds on systems developed for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.