Renaissance Man
Assassin’s Creed Full Story
Desmond awakens when Lucy comes running into his room covered in blood. They’re breaking out of Abstergo. The two escape and meet up with two of Lucy’s fellow Assassins: Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. Lucy, Shaun, and Rebecca tell Desmond that they want him to become an Assassin. Wanting to help, but skeptical that he can succeed, Desmond reminds the three that it takes years of training to become a killer. Lucy tells him that the Animus provides a “bleeding effect,” where the process of reliving memories can pass on more than just knowledge. Anyone who uses the Animus can learn his or her ancestor’s skills and abilities in a matter of days. Unfortunately, the bleeding effect can also cause insanity. Using the Animus in moderation lowers the risk, but using the machine long enough will break the brain eventually. That’s what happened to Subject 16.
Trusting his new allies, Desmond agrees to relive one of his ancestor’s memories. All they need is an Animus, and as it turns out, Rebecca is a programming prodigy who just so happens to have made one. Desmond straps himself in and prepares to dive into the mind of another Assassin. This time, he will be becoming Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Florentine nobleman living at the dawn of the Italian Renaissance. Curious as to why he’ll be reliving the life of Ezio, and not one of Altaïr’s earlier memories, Lucy tells Desmond that she believes that there are additional Pieces of Eden in Italy and that Ezio encountered them. Reliving his memories will both train Desmond into an Assassin and pinpoint the location of Pieces of Eden before the Templars can get to them.
Desmond quickly learns that Ezio is a far departure from the somber Altaïr. Ezio is charismatic, charming, and a ladies man. However, the young man falls into darkness when his family is betrayed, and his father and brothers hung. In order to avenge their deaths, Ezio trains as an Assassin, unknowingly passing on his skills to his future descendant. Having a peculiar knack for revenge, Ezio carves a bloody path across Italy that puts him in direct conflict with the Templar Order. His journey ends with a final showdown with Rodrigo Borgia, Pope of the Catholic Church and Grand Master of the Templar Order. Ezio spares Rodrigo’s life, taking the Staff of Eden and Apple of Eden from the Pope to enter a vault beneath the Vatican. There, Ezio is confronted by a vision of Minerva, and the goddess uses Ezio as a conduit to speak directly to Desmond. She explains that she, and her fellow gods, are not gods at all, but merely a race that came before. They were highly advanced but were wiped out by a natural disaster that some humans, somehow, survived. She warns that the disaster is coming again, and Desmond will have to be ready in order to save the human race.
Before he can see what happens next, Desmond is yanked from the Animus. Abstergo has found the Assassins. Desmond displays his new fighting prowess by fighting off Warren and his goons, before the four Assassins escape. They reach an Assassin safe house, Ezio’s abandoned villa, and Desmond jumps back into the Animus to see what Ezio encountered next. Watching Ezio rebuild the Italian Assassins and become Mentor of the Brotherhood, Desmond learns the location of Ezio’s Apple of Eden. Exiting the Animus, Desmond leaves with Lucy, Rebecca, and Shaun to find the Apple, but upon touching it, the goddess Juno appears. She reveals that Lucy is a triple agent and now working for the Templars. Juno takes control of Desmond’s body and forces him to stab and kill Lucy.
The shock throws Desmond into a coma. He’s put into the Animus, where he meets the consciousness of Subject 16. Subject 16 shows Desmond the final years of both Ezio and Altaïr, showcasing how the Assassin Brotherhood eventually split and formed many Brotherhoods across the world in different locations. He also helps Desmond repair his broken mind so he doesn’t end up like 16. Before fully regaining consciousness, Desmond relives one of Ezio’s final memories. The old Assassin, intuitive to a fault, somehow guesses that someone is somehow watching him. He tells Desmond to give purpose to the lives he’s observed, and find meaning where Ezio only sees confusion. One final vision shows Desmond how the ones that came before ultimately met their end: a massive solar flare that scorched the Earth and disrupted the planet’s magnetic poles. Desmond awakens to see Shaun, Rebecca, and, surprisingly, the current Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood, Desmond’s father, standing over him. Desmond tells the trio that he knows what he has to do to save the world.
