A Story Primer For Assassin's Creed

Pre-Game Show: An ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Story Primer

Next week, the biggest ‘Assassin’s Creed’ to date descends upon the gaming world, joined by a smaller PS Vita edition. At the same time, an ‘Assassin’s Creed’ movie is reportedly back on track with Michael Fassbender attached. For the uninitiated, let me try to sort out the many levels of this franchise as it expands into mainstream media.

“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”
– The Assassin’s Creed

Most of the elements that should form a primer for the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ franchise can be found in the first of the half dozen titles that have already been released. The moody, conspiratorial nature of the games, and the dramatically segmented threads of the mythos are not easy to explain quickly. In an attempt to bring new players up to date, Ubisoft has produced a video that relates the progress of the story’s true protagonist, Desmond. However, the brevity and rapidity of the summary might gloss over a few details necessary to get a handle on the story.

https://youtu.be/YbwQU64FZsA

In contrast to the historical and shadowy figures that are seen on the box art of the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games, you actually play as Desmond, a young, shiftless individual in modern times. In the first game, we meet Desmond after he has been plucked from ho-hum society and imprisoned in a sleek lab-like environment. Quickly, we learn two important details about the game’s world: First off is the idea that our DNA contains the memories of all our ancestors. Secondly, secret technology has been developed to access those memories. This brings us to the Animus, a device that allows a person (with the help of a few external operators) to experience segments of memories as real as virtual reality can be. Several sub-details of using the Animus are also important.

Attempting to pull a single detail from one of the many lifetimes of memories contained in a strand requires some trial and error. It’s almost like pressing a great Rewind button, but you have to check multiple spots as the big picture is assembled before you can focus down on a detail like, “Where did this artifact wind up during this thirty year period?” Also, when accessing memories in the form of their original owner, the user (say, Desmond) must stick to recreating the events as they really happened. Deviating from history will cause a loss of sync, and the user will have to retry. The Animus can also place the user in a virtual space, which is useful for training (something like the Matrix). Finally, time spent in the Animus (as well as for those monitoring) moves at a different pace. Mundane moments can be skipped, so events that may have taken years can be accessed and assessed quickly through many Animus sessions.

During his incarceration, Desmond learns that he is the descendant of a great assassin, Altair. In a series of events during the Third Crusade, Altair rose to lead the entire Assassin Order. At the time, the Assassin society was known by many, and even had a fortress for training and diplomatic relations. The Order’s goal was to oppose another even more public organization, the Knights of the Templar. As Desmond relives Altair’s fall from grace and eventual resurgence, the lines between the two organizations’ motives and actions become blurry. The Templars seek the power to dominate mankind, while the Assassins attempt to maintain man’s freedom. Yet the Templars’ goal to acquire a “Piece of Eden” (an artifact that gives the holder miraculous power and an incredibly deceitful charm) eventually pits Altair against the assassin’s leader, who has clearly become corrupted by the artifact.

Returning to Desmond’s current state of imprisonment, we learn that the modern-day Templar organization has him captive and is using him to locate the Pieces of Eden. However, by forcing Desmond to relive Altair’s life, they’re inadvertently training him in the ways of the Assassins. In fact, Desmond’s time in the Animus has not only brought Altair’s influence into his mind and body, but has also has brought him into contact with the Animus’ former occupant, Subject 16. We also learn that the modern Assassins are barely able to operate and are being exterminated by the Templars. As Desmond is rescued by the Assassins, we learn that the Templars plan to launch a satellite in 2012, a move related to the Pieces of Eden and ominously associated with the end of the world.

In ‘Assassin’s Creed 2’, Desmond, now linked up with some of the few remaining modern Assassins, accesses a different set of memories, those of a great Renaissance Assassin named Ezio. Ezio’s story, which starts with the assassination attempt on the Medici family in Florence, is filled with history. The architecture recreated in the game is worthy of study on its own. The alliance and friendship between Ezio and Leonardo Da Vinci is just one of the historical reimaginings that make the game fascinating.

More central to understanding the overall story is a series of revelations regarding the Pieces of Eden. Here, we learn about the First Civilization, a race of celestial beings that created the Pieces of Eden and used them to control the early human race. Treated as gods and later regarded as “those who came before,” the downfall of the First Civilization happened in two parts. First was a war with humanity that began when two humans stole the Apple of Eden and incited a rebellion against the First Civilization. What followed next is referred to as “the First Disaster,” a solar flare that destroyed most life on earth, ending the conflict but dooming the First Civilization.

It’s important to point out that some members of the First Civilization avoided the conflict and instead focused on preventing the solar flare. One of these members, Minerva, left Desmond a message that he received through reliving Ezio’s memories. Ultimately, what we learn is that some members of the First Civilization survived the solar flare and guided the surviving humans as deities. Before their race expired, they foresaw the conflict central to Assassin’s Creed and understood that it would play a paramount role in another similar disaster. They left a series of messages designed to reach Desmond through his ancestral memories to help him, among other things, find the temple that contained the power to save the human race from a second disaster.

In case it’s not obvious, the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series has several levels of story at play. I haven’t even mentioned the American Revolution, the obvious focal point of the next installment. Let me just conclude by saying that as good as the evolving gameplay of the series is, its style and the techniques it uses to convey the story are strong enough to stand on their own. It will be interesting to see if Ubisoft can carry the story’s essence into a film series with any degree of success.

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