Assassin’s Creed’s Modern Day Story Explained

Here's your cheat sheet.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag sees the Templars recover Desmond’s corpse and they then use newly developed technology to use his DNA to see more of his ancestors’ lives. We then travel to the Golden Age of Piracy where we follow Edward Kenway (father of Haytham, grandfather of Connor) as he works as a pirate/assassin. In the present day story, players assume the role of a nameless Abstergo employee who works as a researcher and is going through Desmond’s genetic past to search for a Precursor artifact called the Observatory, a device which allows anyone to be monitored with a simple blood sample. During his time with the Assassins, Edward discovers the Observatory and helps the Assassins deliver another blow towards the Templars’ control of the world.

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In the present day, the player is contacted by Abstergo’s IT manager, a guy named John, who suspects there’s more to Abstergo than the company presents to the public and convinces the player to hack the security system. The hacked information is passed on to two of the people who helped Desmond: Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. Abstergo discovers the hack and John allows the player to tap into the Animus where Juno appears.

assassin's creed

Juno reveals the existence of the ‘Sage,’ who is a human reincarnation of a member of the Precursor race and is in fact Juno’s husband. It is revealed that John is the Sage and he was trying to resurrect Juno’s physical form by having her take the body of the player. His plan failed due to Juno not being strong enough to take over the Abstergo employee and the Sage attempts to kill the player but is killed first by Abstergo security who think he is the one who hacked the company.

Edward encountered this Sage during his adventure and the Sage told him he cares not for the Assassins or the Templars, he simply aligns with whichever he feels is best suited to allow him to achieve his ends. The Abstergo employee is then contacted by the Assassins.

Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and Assassin’s Creed: Unity were both released alongside one another in 2014. Unity was released only on the shiny new PS4 and Xbox One and Rogue was only available to those still playing PS3s and Xbox 360s. Rogue is set just after Black Flag but a few years before Unity so we’ll cover that first.

assassin's creed

Rogue has players step into the boots of Shay Cormac who was an Assassin who turns to the side of the Templars after a mission to recover a Piece of Eden ends in disaster and causes countless civilian deaths. Working with the Templars, Shay discovers that several new Pieces of Eden the Assassins are after will cause even more chaos in the form of natural disasters and rushes to get them before the Assassins unknowingly wreak havoc on the world. Shay works with Haytham and encounters a younger Achilles from Assassin’s Creed III. The Assassins finally realize they were in the wrong this time and Shay spends the rest of his life trying to locate Pieces of Eden. The modern day story to Rogue is fairly light, but still important.

Players once again play as an Abstergo employee who is living through Shay’s memories. Upon discovering that the Assassins almost caused the end of the world, a senior Templar leader uploads this information to the Assassins which causes chaos with the group. The player is then given an option: join the Templars, or die. The screen fades to black before the player’s character decides.

These events lead into Assassin’s Creed: Unity which follows a young Assassin named Arno during the French Revolution in Paris. After his father is killed by a Templar, revealed to be Shay from Rogue, Arno is looked after by Templar Grand Master of Versaille De La Serre. Arno is unaware that he is living with the people who killed his father and befriends La Serre’s daughter Elise. The revolution heats up and an Assassin recruits Arno and reveals to him the truth behind his father’s murder. Unity then sees Arno fight as an Assassin whilst struggling with his relationship with his Templar girlfriend Elise as he finds the Sage has plotted the revolution to destroy the monarchy of France. Arno fails to prevent the revolution but kills the Sage, though Elise dies in the fight. Arno decides to dedicate his life to the Assassin’s order.

assassin's creed

The present day story of Unity is pretty meta and sees the player playing as a gamer playing the story of Arno through a gaming device created by Abstergo. Your device is hacked by the Assassins who want you to play through the game to locate the Sage Arno goes on to kill.

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is the latest Assassin’s Creed game and sees us travel to Victorian London where we play as the Frye twins Evie and Jacob as they join the Assassins to stop another Templar scheme to destroy the British monarchy. In London, the Frye twins learn of another Piece of Eden called the Shroud which can heal all wounds and make the user immortal. The Templars want it but Evie and Jacob work to prevent it from falling into their hands.

assassin's creed

The present day story of Syndicate sees the player from Unity, now working with the Assassins, going through the Frye twins’ lives to locate the Shroud. Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings have infiltrated Abstergo and are set to spy on a secret meeting. Their cover is blown but they manage to get away. After the game is beat, the Assassins know the location of the Shroud and Shaun, Rebecca, and a Russian Assassin called Galina Voronina race to get it. They are confronted by Templars and Rebecca is shot and injured. It is then revealed that the Templars intend to use the Shroud to create a living Precursor. One of the Templars escapes with the Shroud but the rest are killed. Hacking into a Templar computer left behind, Shaun discovers a recording of Juno which reveals Juno is manipulating Abstergo to serve her own ends. Juno then contacts the player and has them relive the memories of the Fyre’s descendant, Lydia Frye, who kills a Sage in war-torn London during WWI. This suggests Juno may be planning to take advantage of the Assassins to reach her goals.

assassin's creed

And now you’re up to date with the present day story of the Assassin’s Creed series. Of course, there have been numerous spin-off games, comics, books, and even a movie, which expand the universe if you’re interested, but now you know the main plot. The next game, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, is set to be released later this year on October 27 and will follow the origins of the Assassins order ion ancient Egypt. We know nothing about the present day storyline, or if it will even be featured, but it seems likely. Ubisoft has conformed there will be other playable characters and Assassin’s Creed Origins game director, Ashraf Ismail, recently stated that the developers haven’t forgotten about the modern day story. We look forward to seeing what Origins has in store for us.


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Thom Peart
Gamer, writer, honey badger wrangler.