Assassin’s Creed’s Full Story, Summarized For a Refresher Before Origins

Birth of the Creed

Assassin’s Creed Full Story

THERE WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF ASSASSIN’S CREED’S STORYLINE.

Born to Assassins, warriors trained to kill in order to protect human free will, Desmond Miles grew disillusioned with the Assassin Brotherhood as a child and eventually fled from his training compound at the age of 16. He survived as a bartender for many years, until Abstergo Industries kidnapped him at the age of 25. There he met the scientists Dr. Warren Vidic and Dr. Lucy Stillman, who informed him that Abstergo was really a front for the Templar Order, an organization in direct conflict with the Assassins. The Templars believe humanity is too weak to deserve free will, and only through a controlled society can the world truly prosper.

Warren and Lucy inform Desmond that his blood is valuable. Apparently, both of his parents are exceptionally racially diverse, giving Desmond a rich ancestry. The Templars have been looking for Desmond because they seek something from the past that one of Desmond’s ancestors interacted with. When asked what they are looking for, Warren remains coy and Lucy silent. The two scientists force Desmond, now christened Subject 17, into the Animus, a machine that reads a person’s genetic code and allows them to relive the memories of any of their ancestors.

Desmond awakens in the shoes of Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad, a 12th-century Syrian Assassin. Altaïr is a skilled, yet arrogant killer who is stripped of his rank after endangering the Assassin Brotherhood. He is given a chance for redemption when the Mentor of the Assassins, Al Mualim, orders him to kill nine prominent Templars in exchange for regaining his honor.

In his quest, Altaïr encounters a strange artifact that the Templars called the Apple of Eden. The device can provide its wielder with forbidden knowledge, but it strains the mind. Only those with a strong will can wield it. After he retrieves the artifact, Altaïr gives the Apple to Al Mualim before departing to kill the remaining Templars.

His final target, Robert de Sablé reveals a shocking truth: Al Mualim is actually a Templar. He had ordered Altaïr to kill the nine others so that he would be the sole wielder of the Apple. Altaïr returns to the home of the Assassins to confront Al Mualim and confirms that Robert was telling the truth. Upon killing his Mentor, the Apple reveals a map of the world. Altaïr remarks on the strange continents that have yet to be discovered, and pinpoints of light appear on the globe to hint at the locations of additional Pieces of Eden.

Desmond awakens to congratulations from Warren. The Templars were in pursuit of Pieces of Eden, and now they have the map of where each generally was. Warren orders Desmond’s execution, but Lucy quickly reminds him that Desmond may yet still prove useful. He’s got plenty of other ancestor’s after all, and wouldn’t it be amazing to discover that one of them knew the specific hiding place of one of the Pieces? Amending his order, Warren departs, and Lucy quickly gives Desmond a hint that she’s an Assassin before following her boss. Not knowing what to do, Desmond tries to get some sleep in his room, only to see his walls suddenly become covered in blood. The blood is drawn across the walls in strange markings and signed as Subject 16.

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.

The New World

Assassin’s Creed Full Story

Despite Desmond’s confident outburst, it’s soon clear that he does not know exactly how to the save the world. He does have a clue of where to start though. He leads his father, Rebecca, and Shaun to an underground temple that he believes holds the secret to saving the human race from the solar flare. A door bars the Assassins’ path, and Desmond hops back into the Animus to find the key. Initially, he awakens as Haytham Kenway, who takes the key from Britain to North America. In his quest to discover the purpose of the key, Haytham becomes smitten with a Native American woman. The two start a relationship and eventually conceive a child. Before Desmond’s consciousness turns to following the growing child, it shows one more of Haytham’s memories. Desmond watches, horrified, as Haytham swears Charles Lee into the Templar order, revealing that Desmond has both Assassin and Templar ancestors. Pushing past the shock, Desmond then follows the memories of Haytham’s son, Ratonhnhaké:ton.

Ratonhnhaké:ton loses his mother at a young age, seemingly killed by Charles Lee. He grows up vowing revenge. After Juno gives him a vision of the symbol of the Assassins and a picture of the key in his father’s possession, Ratonhnhaké:ton travels in search of both. He finds Achilles Davenport, the last remaining Assassin in the British colonies, and begs the old man to be his teacher. Initially against training Ratonhnhaké:ton, the old man eventually relents to Ratonhnhaké:ton’s pestering and trains the boy in the art of assassination. Achilles also shows Ratonhnhaké:ton the pictures of the men who make up the Templar Order in the colonies. Upon seeing Charles Lee, Ratonhnhaké:ton vows to kill the entire Order. He doesn’t even flinch when he sees that Haytham is currently the head of the Templars, and Achilles tells him that becoming an Assassin means that Ratonhnhaké:ton will have to kill his father too. To make it easier for others to interact with Ratonhnhaké:ton, Achilles gives his new ward the name Connor.

Connor would grow into a Master Assassin, who systematically killed the Templars in the colonies with brutal efficiency. He also took the time to strengthen the Brotherhood, recruiting men and women from many walks of life that he would train as Assassins. He also renewed his Brotherhood’s connection to the Brotherhood that operated out of the French colonies, by working with Aveline de Grandpré, a Master Assassin of African and French descent that, like Connor, would come to lead her own Brotherhood to new heights.

Although he was loath to admit it, Connor would come to realize that the Templars were not wholly evil. He disagreed with their methods but saw that they did wish for the best when it came to the people, both British and native. So when he met his father, the two struck up an uneasy alliance. However, neither would sway from the convictions of their respective orders, and the two would part ways. Achilles reminded Connor that he was sworn to kill every Templar, even his father, so when Connor went hunting for Charles Lee and found Haytham instead, the duo engaged in mortal combat. The battle ended with Connor’s blade in Haytham’s throat, and Haytham’s gives his son his first, and final, words of fatherly praise.

Although the key is no longer on Haytham’s person, Connor does find a journal that reveals Haytham did indeed love his son. The journal also reveals that Haytham’s father, Connor’s grandfather, was a pirate named Edward Kenway, who would go on to become an Assassin. Haytham had already become a Templar before he learned the truth, and refused to follow in his father’s footsteps after discovering his heritage. Talk about your family history!

Connor goes on to kill Charles Lee, completing his quest to annihilate the entire Templar presence in the British colonies. He returns to find Achilles dead and takes up the mantle of leading the colony’s new Brotherhood. He buries the key in a grave. Desmond and his allies retrieve the key in the present day, enter the deepest part of the temple, and encounter the spirits of both Minerva and Juno.

The former wishes for the Assassins to leave, but Juno demands that Desmond place his hands upon a pedestal. If the Assassins do nothing, the world will burn and Desmond will lead any of the humans that manage to survive. However, his memory would eventually be misconstrued into a Christ figure, leading to human history repeating all over again. If Desmond places his hands on the pedestal, he will die, but his life energy will allow Juno to fully awaken and deflect the sun’s harmful energy. Humanity will continue, and Juno will rule over them with an iron fist. Desmond opts for the latter solution, telling his companions to escape the temple and make sure they stop Juno.

The Helix Initiate

Assassin’s Creed Full Story

Although Desmond dies in the temple, his legacy lives on. Abstergo recovers Desmond’s body and harvests his DNA. Conveniently, Abstergo scientists discover a means for someone to relive the ancestry of anyone else. So the company begins hiring workers who are tasked with searching through genetic memories for Pieces of Eden.

One such worker is ordered to relive the memories of Edward Kenway. Through the pirate’s adventures, they discover the existence of Sages, beings who are the same person reincarnating every few hundred years. These Sages seem drawn to Juno, and the worker even discovers that one of Abstergo’s maintenance guys is the current Sage in the present day. The Sage is killed, shot down by security when he becomes violent and attacks the worker. Arriving at the conclusion that these Sages, and the Templars who now know of their existence, are a threat, the employee begins aiding the Assassins. They copy data from their sessions and send them to Rebecca and Shaun. The Assassins give the worker the codename “Initiate” as Juno begins to make her move.

Meanwhile, a different employee is hunting through the memories of Shay Patrick Cormac, a Master Assassin who served under Achilles during the Seven Years War. Achilles’ grief over the loss of his wife and son cause him to make foolish decisions that end in the loss of innocent life. Disillusioned with the Brotherhood, Shay leaves. He’s found and recruited by the Templars, who welcome him with open arms. Shay goes on to become a new type of Templar: the Assassin Hunter. Shay uses the teachings of the Assassins to hunt down and kill all of his old comrades, reducing the Brotherhood to the sorry state that Ratonhnhaké:ton would eventually find it in. Shay’s memories are used to create a propaganda video that inspires confusion and discord in the present day Assassins and earns the employee a place in Abstergo as the newest member of the Templar Order.

In retaliation, the modern day Assassins ask the Initiate to search through the memories of France-native Arno Victor Dorian, the son of one of Shay’s last victims. The Assassins hope that Arno’s memories will inspire hope, and lead them to the discovery of the final resting place of the Sage that Arno is rumored to have encountered.

Arno grows up in the household of the Templar’s Grandmaster and falls in love with the Grandmaster’s daughter, Elise. However, when Arno’s adoptive father is killed, Arno becomes an Assassin to learn the skills to avenge his death. As he becomes an Assassin and Elise becomes the Templar’s new Grandmaster, the French Revolution begins. Amongst the bloodiest revolution in French history, Arno and Elise attempt to keep the country from completely falling apart. However, traitors within both of their orders keep the Assassins and Templars from putting aside their differences long enough to aide the country. Both the Assassins and Templars fall apart, and France right along with them. Arno and Elise learn the French Revolution was a Sage’s doing, and they decide to kill him to save France. The task won’t be easy, as the Sage has discovered the Sword of Eden, a weapon that can fire lances of energy. In their attempt to take the Sword of Eden away from the Sage, Arno is injured and Elise is killed. Arno finishes off the Sage, recovers the Sword, and hides the Sage’s body in the catacombs beneath France. A pile of bones hidden in miles of unmapped tunnels that are filled with even more piles of bones? Yeah there’s no chance anyone is recovering the Sage’s body in the present day.

The Assassins write off Arno’s memories as a wash, and order the Initiate to wait for further instructions on more memories to explore. However, before giving up on Arno for good, the Initiate relives Arno’s memories a week after Elise’s death. The Initiate learns that Arno discovered a Piece of Eden, deemed it too dangerous to remain in France, and sent the artifact off to Egypt. Arno then returns to the French Brotherhood as a Master Assassin.

A New Generation

Assassin’s Creed Full Story

Now an official Assassin Initiate, the Initiate is tasked with reliving the memories of the twin Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye, who operated out of London during the Industrial Revolution. The two found a Piece of Eden, and the Assassins want to find it before the Templars do. Shaun and Rebecca follow the Initiate’s progress, ready to secure the Piece of Eden whenever its final location is confirmed.

Although they are twins, the Frye siblings could not be more different. Jacob fully believes that the world can only be saved through killing Templars, while Evie argues that securing Pieces of Eden will lead the Assassins to victory. The two meet up with Henry Green, an Indian Assassin who prefers studying to violence, and the three set out to wrestle control of London away from the Templars. The Templars control every aspect of London’s infrastructure, so as Jacob kills them, London begins to fall apart. Evie is left to fix most of her brother’s mistakes, while Henry assists her in researching for a Piece of Eden known as the Shroud.

Evie soon discovers that the Shroud can cure any illness, even death (which I guess is technically an illness). She, her brother, and Henry eventually kill all of the Templars, secure the Shroud of Eden, and hide the artifact beneath Buckingham Palace. Evie leaves with Henry to visit the Indian Brotherhood while Jacob remains in London to rebuild the Brotherhood that Edward Kenway once led (and his son helped destroy). The twins would not reunite until Evie heard rumors of a mysterious killer, named Jack the Ripper, stalking the streets of London with the methods of an Assassin.

In the present day, the last remaining Russian Assassin, Galina Voronina, joined Shaun and Rebecca, and the three traveled beneath Buckingham Palace to secure the Shroud of Eden. There they met the Templars, who had been one step ahead the whole time, and the three realized they had to kill them all to recover the Shroud. However, Rebecca was injured and the Shroud lost to the Templars. Back at Abstergo, the Templars began talking about using the Shroud to bring a Sage back to life. Juno watched on, smiling.

During the hunt for the Shroud, Abstergo busied themselves with reliving more memories in search of more Pieces of Eden. They explored the memories of Shao Jun, a Chinese Assassin, Arbaaz Mir, an Indian Assassin, and Nikolai Orelov, a Russian Assassin. Abstergo’s Spanish branch even managed to find and secure an Apple of Eden by forcing Callum “Cal” Lynch to relive the memories of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, a Spanish Assassin who lived during the Spanish Inquisition who gave an Apple of Eden to Christopher Columbus for safe keeping. Cal would ultimately steal the Apple away from the Templars, kill one of the Templar’s highest-ranking officials, and lead a new generation of Spanish Assassins.

Assassin’s Creed Origins: Desert Oath

Assassin’s Creed Full Story

Assassin’s Creed Origins comes out Friday, October 27, but players already know a little bit about Bayek, the protagonist of the game, from the novel Assassin’s Creed Origins: Desert Oath. Bayek is trained to be a Medjay, a protector of the old ways of Egypt. Although he gladly accepts the responsibility, his wife, Aya, is less than thrilled. His role as Medjay means that he both protects the people and prevents progress from taking place. Aya is from Alexandria and longs for the people of Egypt to industrialize and grow. However, for the sake of their son, the two put aside their differences. Yup, a son. Bet you didn’t see him in any of the Origins’ trailers.

Although Bayek is trained in the customs of combat and survival, much of the Medjay’s history was lost when Bayek’s father, the second to last Medjay, was killed. However, he does know that the Medjay are represented by a bird, specifically a crane. He also knows that Medjay are created via blood. He believes this is a foolish practice. If his bloodline is extinguished, the Medjay are no more. Then who will protect Egypt? Just in case he should die before he has a chance to train his son, Bayek has passed on the ways of the Medjay to Aya. She now uses the skills of the Medjay to dispose of those who would hinder Egypt’s advancement in the world. However, the rest of the Medjay’s customs are up to Bayek and Aya to interpret. They have no firm direction.

The assassin that exterminated the Medjay had a code of conduct, a creed if you will. He always made sure to be standing over the body of his prey, and look into their eyes as they passed on. If the enemy had been formidable, like Bayek’s father, the assassin would even honor his quarry with final rites. Bayek chooses to do something similar, wiping the blood of his targets with a white feather, and interrogating them for information only after they have fallen and are at death’s door.

The pieces are there. A hooded man symbolized by a bird. A protector who puts the people first. A warrior with honor and a skill for killing. He may not have a beaked hood, or a Brotherhood behind him, but, with his wife guiding him towards a new way of thinking, Bayek is clearly the origin of the Assassin’s Creed.