Editing Father of Understanding

{{Era|Culture|Isu|Ancients|Templars}}
{{Update|the [[Assassin's Creed (series)|''Assassin's Creed'' series]]}}
{{Quote|May the Father of Understanding guide you.|Masun, writing the Templar blessing to a Masyaf basket weaver, 1191 CE.|Assassin's Creed|Pickpocketing (Masun)}}
The '''Father of Understanding''' is a title originating in the [[Isu]] [[Isu Era|Era]]. Originally part of a triad of titles alongside the [[Mother of Wisdom]] and the [[Sacred Voice]], the secretive religious cabal known as the [[Order of the Ancients]] took these titles and its holders as divine beings to worship until being reformed into the [[Templars|Templar Order]]. Thereafter, the "Father of Understanding" became a subject often mentioned in reverence by Templars, particularly during ritual ceremonies, blessings, or as a form of greeting to one another.

==Symbolism and reverence==
It is unknown what the title symbolized in the Isu Era. Following the [[Great Catastrophe]],<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' – [[In Bocca al Lupo]]</ref> the titles of the Father of Understanding, the Mother of Wisdom, and the Sacred Voice were adopted as a trinity of deities by the Order of the Ancients,<ref name="ThePoorFellowSoldier">''[[Assassin's Creed: Valhalla]]'' – [[The Poor Fellow-Soldier]]</ref> who strictly revered them as divine beings in secluded [[Temple (Isu)|Temples]] throughout the world.{{Cite|17 March 2021}} It was not until the rise of an early incarnation of the Templar Order, founded by King [[Alfred the Great]] of [[Wessex]], that this trinitarian practice was abolished for being regarded as "pagan blasphemies".<ref name="ThePoorFellowSoldier"/>

By the time the Templar Order became a public monastic order, only reverence for the Father of Understanding remained. In addition to its religious significance,<ref name="ThePoorFellowSoldier" /> the title also came to allude to the principle of order that the Templars embraced. As part of Templar dogma, it not only served as a reverence for a divine supreme being, but also as the "divinely given" logic the Templars appealed to in their ambition to shepherd and transform the [[Earth|world]] and [[human]]ity as a whole into an [[New World Order|eternally peaceful utopia]] which would blossom and advance under their secluded leadership.<ref name="The Essential Guide2">''[[Assassin's Creed: The Essential Guide]]'' {{c|2nd edition}}</ref>

==History==
===Isu Era===
On the 24th day of 2161 Isu Era, [[Samael]], an Isu official tasked with the preparatory work for [[Project Anthropos]] as ordered by the [[High Council]], referred to [[Yaldabaoth]] as the Father of Understanding alongside [[Saklas]] as the Mother of Wisdom and [[Samael]] as the Sacred Voice.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Layla Hassan's personal files]] – SecureShare: "PRE_trslt_Canterbury.odt <v. 1 by ahenry>"</ref> As part of the later [[Capitoline Triad]], [[Jupiter]] was titled the Father of Understanding in counterpart to [[Juno]] as the Mother of Wisdom and [[Minerva]] as the Sacred Voice.<ref name="Price of Wisdom">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[The Price of Wisdom]]</ref>

===Antiquity and early history===
{{Dialogue|Aya|So Caesar is the King of the Order now?|Septimius|Caesar is the Father of Understanding.|Aya and Lucius Septimius during their fight, 44 BCE.|Assassin's Creed: Origins|Fall of an Empire, Rise of Another}}
Various humans took the title for themselves throughout the millennia,<ref>{{Twitter|@125qwert|status/927114977701396480|EeshanK|quote=@DarbyMcDevitt So Julius Caesar was the father of understanding all along? Can you shed some light on this topic please? :>|image=File:ACO Darby MDevitt on Caesar as Father of Understanding.png}}<br>{{Twitter|DarbyMcDevitt|status/927125564707700737|Darby McDevitt|quote=@125qwert He was the current father, it seems. Or so S[eptimius] believed. But the title goes back a long way...|image=File:ACO Darby MDevitt on Caesar as Father of Understanding.png}}</ref> though its first known use was in the waning years of the [[Ptolemaic dynasty]] when [[Gaius Julius Caesar]] adopted it.<ref name="FallOfAnEmpire">''[[Assassin's Creed: Origins]]'' – [[Fall of an Empire, Rise of Another]]</ref> In 47 BCE, the [[Medjay]] [[Bayek]] of [[Siwa]] first heard the title upon entering [[Cyrene]] in order to assassinate the [[Egypt]]ian Order member [[Flavius Metellus]]. As Bayek made his way to the [[Rome|Roman]] [[Roman Akropolis|Akropolis]], he heard an orator who served the Order proclaim that the organization's rule was fated to happen before invoking the Father of Understanding to guide humanity, but the Medjay did not investigate whether this Father was a newly conceived divine being or a true person.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[The Final Weighing]]</ref>

[[File:ACO Fall of an Empire, Rise of Another 6.jpg|thumb|250px|Lucius Septimius with the "Father of Understanding", Julius Caesar]]
The Father's identity would remain anonymous until three years later on 15th March 44 BCE, when the leader of the Order [[Lucius Septimius]] engaged in a fatal battle with the [[Assassins|Hidden One]] [[Amunet|Aya]]. When Aya questioned whether Julius Caesar was the Order's new king, Septimius corrected her, insisting that Caesar was the Father of Understanding. However, with Caesar's [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|assassination]] shortly thereafter in the [[Theatre of Pompey]] at the hands of Aya, [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]], [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]], and 38 other {{Wiki|Roman Senate|Roman Senators}}, the title was not passed on to a successor and eventually fell out of use.<ref name="FallOfAnEmpire"/>

By the time of the 9th century [[Viking expansion]] into [[England]], members of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] Order of the Ancients revered the trinity of the Father of Understanding, the Mother of Wisdom, and the Sacred Voice. It was noted in King Alfred's research that these beliefs came from the {{Wiki|Gnosticism|Gnostic}} texts and were therefore sacrilegious to his accepted religion of [[Christianity]]. He stated that the Mother of Wisdom and the Sacred Voice were vile blasphemies and maintained that the true Father of Understanding was God. After destroying the Order in England through the unwitting help of the [[shieldmaiden]] [[Eivor Varinsdottir]], Alfred privately vowed to create a new order in which the Father of Understanding would be revered as an almighty source of goodness, harmony, and order for all mankind.<ref name="ThePoorFellowSoldier"/>

===Middle Ages and Renaissance===
{{Quote|Gentlemen. Tomorrow, a new sun rises over Firenze. May the Father of Understanding guide us.|Rodrigo Borgia to the Pazzi conspirators, 1478.|Assassin's Creed II|Novella's Secret}}
Over the next 200 years, worship of the Father as an entity ceased with the rise of Christianity and the name instead became a symbolic catchphrase among Templars, representing their goal to lead humanity by adopting the role of a concerned "father" instructing a wayward child.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' – [[Abstergo Files]]: "File.0.15\Hst_NewOrder"</ref><ref name="ThePoorFellowSoldier"/>{{Cite|2 July 2024}} Its shift from a being to a symbol did not stop the Templars' continued use of the Father's title among themselves in a practice which began as early as the [[Third Crusade]], when the [[Knights Templar|Levantine Templars]] would sign the name as a closing in their letters.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' – [[Pickpocketing (Masun)]]</ref>

In the late 13th century, the [[Parisian Rite of the Templar Order|Parisian Templars]]' [[Grand Master of the Templar Order|Grand Master]] [[Jacques de Molay]] wrote the ''[[Codex Pater Intellectus]]'', or "Codex of the Father of Understanding", which detailed his views on his order, their goals, as well as his knowledge of the Isu after he learned that he was a [[Sage]]. In 1307, when the [[Parisian Brotherhood of Assassins|French Assassins]] conducted a [[Persecution of the Templars|night attack]] on the Templars at the [[Temple (Paris)|Temple]] in [[Paris]], de Molay commanded his [[Jacques de Molay's advisor|advisor]] to hide both the Codex and a [[Sword of Eden 1|Sword of Eden]] in the [[fort]]'s underground vaults.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Unity]]'' – [[The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay]]</ref> The artifacts remained there until they were unearthed 400 years later by the new Sage [[François-Thomas Germain]], who took de Molay's written words to heart and sought to reorganize how the Templars functioned.<ref name="TheTemple">''Assassin's Creed: Unity'' – [[The Temple]]</ref>

[[File:WGA 10 v.png|left|thumb|250px|Rodrigo Borgia and the Pazzi taking the Templar pledge during a meeting]]
Similarly, the [[Roman Rite of the Templar Order|Italian Templars]] during the [[Renaissance]] would invoke him when resolving meetings. Notably, their Grand Master and then-[[Cardinal]] [[Rodrigo Borgia]] twice called upon the Father to bless his fellow Templars. The first time was after the [[Milan]]ese Duke [[Galeazzo Maria Sforza]]'s [[Assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza|assassination]] in 1476,<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Lineage]]''</ref> and the second was two years later upon finalizing the plan to [[Assassination|assassinate]] both [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] and his brother [[Giuliano de' Medici|Giuliano]] at the [[Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore]] as part of the [[House of Pazzi]]'s [[Pazzi conspiracy|conspiracy]] to remove the [[House of Medici|Medici family]] from power over [[Florence]].<ref>''Assassin's Creed II'' – [[Novella's Secret]]</ref>

Knowledge of the Father was not restricted to Western [[Europe]] as it eventually made its way to [[Asia]], specifically to 16th-century [[China]] during the [[Ming dynasty]]. In 1526, the [[Zhu Houcong|Jiajing Emperor]]'s Templar court [[eunuch]]s known as the [[Eight Tigers]] captured [[Shao Jun]],<ref name="TheEscape">''[[Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China]]'' – [[The Escape (China)|The Escape]]</ref> one of the last members of the [[Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins|Chinese Assassins]] following a [[Great Rites Controversy|purge]] enacted on the pretense of removing the Emperor's political opponents.<ref>''Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China'' – [[Database: Scroll 9 (China)|Database: Scroll 9]]</ref> After unsuccessfully questioning her in the [[Maijishan Grottoes]] on the nature of the mysterious [[Precursor box]] found among her effects,<ref name="TheEscape"/> the Tiger [[Gao Feng]] retired briefly to meet with fellow Tiger [[Qiu Ju]]. Qiu Ju granted Gao Feng permission to torture the information out before stating that he would depart for [[Beijing]], prompting Gap Feng to call on the Father of Understanding to guide the Tigers in their mission.<ref name="BladeChapter1">''[[Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun]]'' – [[Homecoming (manga)|Homecoming]]</ref>

The Tiger [[Gu Dayong]] used the phrase later that year.<ref name="BladeChapter4">''Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun'' – [[The Slave Trader]]</ref> Having since escaped her cell and reunited with her Mentor [[Wang Yangming]],<ref>''Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China'' – [[The Return]]</ref> Shao Jun infiltrated the port city of [[Macau]] to assassinate Dayong,<ref>''Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China'' – [[The Slaver]]</ref> who had made a fortune selling political and Templar opponents into [[slavery]] under the [[Portuguese Empire]].<ref>''Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China'' – [[Database: Yu Dayong]]</ref> After cornering Dayong on his fortress balcony, Shao Jun stabbed him in the liver with her ''[[jian]]'' before leaving him to bleed to death. Dayong survived long enough to warn a visiting Qiu Ju of Shao Jun's presence, before uttering the traditional blessing as his final words and dying.<ref name="BladeChapter4"/>

===Golden Age of Piracy===
{{Quote|Mark and remember our purpose. To guide all wayward souls 'til they reach a quiet road. To guide all wayward desire 'til impassioned hearts are cooled. To guide all wayward minds to safe and sober thought. By the Father of Understanding's Light, let our work now begin.|Laureano Torres addressing the Templar initiates, 1715.|Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag|Mister Walpole, I Presume?}}
With the Europeans' finding of the [[Americas]] and [[Caribbean]] during their [[Age of Discovery]], the Father of Understanding's name was carried over the [[Atlantic Ocean]] and saw brief use in the [[Golden Age of Piracy]]. In 1715, the phrase was used briefly by the [[West Indies Rite of the Templar Order|Caribbean Templars]]' Grand Master [[Laureano de Torres y Ayala]] during his first meeting with the [[Piracy|pirate]] [[Edward Kenway]], who was impersonating the late [[Assassins|Assassin]] turncoat [[Duncan Walpole]].<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Mister Walpole, I Presume?]]</ref>

Continuing across the [[Pacific Ocean]], in February 1725, [[Shimazu Saito]] uttered the phrase while she stood at Macau's docks and watched in amazement as Edward fought a group of [[Shimazu clan]] [[ninja]] sent to kill him for his supposed knowledge about the [[Khmer Empire]]'s lost city of [[Angkor]].<ref name="ForgottenTemple4">''[[Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple Episode 4|Episode 4]]</ref>

===Age of Revolutions===
{{Quote|I'm not really there, either. At the moment, I'm bleeding out on the floor of the Temple. But it seems the Father of Understanding has seen fit to give us this time to talk.|A dying François-Thomas Germain in a vision experienced by Arno Dorian, 1794.|Assassin's Creed: Unity|The Temple}}
[[File:ACIII-BraddockExpedition 18.png|thumb|250px|The Colonial Templars taking the Templar pledge at Charles Lee's initiation]]
Before and during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] in [[United States|America]], the phrase was used multiple times by members of the [[American Rite of the Templar Order|Colonial Templars]], with the majority of its occurrences coming from their Grand Master, [[Haytham Kenway]]. His first use of it was during [[Charles Lee]]'s [[Initiation into the Templar Order|induction]] to the Order in 1755,<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'' – [[The Braddock Expedition (memory)|The Braddock Expedition]]</ref> again with [[Shay Cormac]]'s induction in 1758,<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Rogue]]'' – [[Scars]]</ref> and lastly in 1778, as a password to enter the [[Smith and Company Brewery]] with his son [[Ratonhnhaké:ton|Connor]].<ref>''Assassin's Creed III'' – [[Father and Son]]</ref> 

Shay himself would later use the phrase in December 1776 after killing the French Assassin [[Charles Dorian]] in the [[Palace of Versailles]] and reclaiming the lost Precursor box. As he exited the building, Shay quietly repeated the words spoken to him at his induction, reaffirming his loyalty to the Templars, before invoking the Father of Understanding to guide humanity.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Rogue'' – [[QXNzYXNzaW5hdGlvbg0K]]</ref>

The phrase also had minor usage before and during the [[French Revolution]]. In May 1789, the French Templar [[Chrétien Lafrenière]] sent a private missive to Grand Master [[François de la Serre]]<ref name="HighSociety">''Assassin's Creed: Unity'' – [[High Society]]</ref> warning him of a plot against de la Serre's life before closing the message with the traditional line.<ref name="Imprisoned">''Assassin's Creed: Unity'' – [[Imprisoned]]</ref> However, François never received the letter, as it remained where [[Arno Dorian]] had left it unopened under the office door<ref name="HighSociety" /> until two months later in July, by which time François had been murdered as Lafrenière feared and the Revolution was sweeping through Paris.<ref name="Imprisoned" /> 

Lafrenière was not the only prominent French Templar to call on the Father, either, as the Sage and new Grand Master François-Thomas Germain twice mentioned the Father of Understanding in his life, and lower-ranking Templars also knew the phrase. The first time was upon concluding a meeting with [[Aloys la Touche]] at the [[Hôtel de Beauvais]],<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Unity'' – [[Rise of the Assassin]]</ref> and again upon his death in the Temple, when he suggested to Arno that the Father of Understanding had apparently wished for both men to meet and discuss Germain's life while reviewing his memories.<ref name="TheTemple" /> During the Revolution, Arno also investigated the French Templars' affiliation with the [[Cult of Baphomet]], which required a password to gain entrance to their lair. He was quickly informed by a cult recruiter that the password was "The Father of Understanding", confirming his suspicions.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Unity'' – [[The Cult of Baphomet]]</ref>

===Modern era===
{{Quote|The Father of Understanding guided you to us. And for that we are grateful.|Juhani Otso Berg to the research analyst, 2014.|Assassin's Creed: Rogue|21st century conversations}}
The use of the blessing continued, though much more sporadically, into the modern era. In 1868, the [[British Rite of the Templar Order|British Templars]]' Grand Master [[Crawford Starrick]] dictated a letter to his butler in which he thanked his second-in-command [[Lucy Thorne]] for her service to the Order and then informed her that he was dissolving their partnership, before closing the missive with the historical phrase. However, upon learning moments later that the [[British Brotherhood of Assassins|British Assassin]] [[Evie Frye]] had killed Thorne, Crawford ordered the sealed letter be burned.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Syndicate]]'' – [[A Thorne in the Side]]</ref>

Shortly afterward, Starrick's underling and {{Wiki|Tory}} politician [[James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan]] wrote to inform him that killing Prime Minister [[Benjamin Disraeli]] would indefinitely stall the {{Wiki|House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons}} in passing the {{Wiki|Parliamentary Elections Act 1868|Corrupt Practices Act}}. He added that [[William Gladstone]] would be far more pliable to puppeteering as Prime Minister, before also signing the letter with the traditional blessing.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Syndicate'' – [[Playing Politics]]</ref>

Over 140 years later, in September 2012, [[Abstergo Industries]]' CEO [[Alan Rikkin]] emailed [[Warren Vidic]] regarding historical events or artifacts to investigate further and placed the phrase at the end of his message.<ref>''Assassin's Creed'' – [[Emails|Email subject header: "Analysis"]]</ref> In 2014, the [[Master Templar]] [[Juhani Otso Berg]] voiced a belief that the Father of Understanding had fatefully guided the research analyst pejoratively known as "[[Numbskull]]" to [[Abstergo Entertainment]] in order to relive Shay Cormac's [[Genetic memory|memories]]. In Berg's eyes, the Father had sent this employee to "prove" his theory that Assassins truly wanted order in spite of the freedom [[The Creed|their Creed]] promised to its adherents, despite any evidence suggesting divine motives.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Rogue'' – [[21st century conversations|Modern day]]</ref>

In 2019, the Templar doctor [[Kaori Kagami]] called upon the Father of Understanding while in her Abstergo lab in [[Yokohama]], [[Japan]]. After convincing her patient [[Kō Risa]] that her [[Animus]] sessions reliving the genetic memories of her ancestor Shao Jun were to help curb her aggressive tendencies, Kagami ended their appointment and asked Risa to consider continuing the treatment. Finally alone as Risa began walking home, Kagami called an associate and informed them that she had found "the treasure", before ending the call by appealing to the Father of Understanding to guide her sessions with Risa.<ref name="BladeChapter1"/>

[[File:ACFT - Shimazu Sei and Mitsuko Nakamura.png|thumb|230px|Mitsuko Nakamura wishing for the Father of Understanding to guide Shimazu Sei on her mission]]
In 2023, the Templars' [[Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order|Inner Sanctum]] member [[Mitsuko Nakamura]] flew to Abstergo's research vessel ''[[Exitus]]'' in Macau<ref name="ForgottenTemple42">''Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple Episode 42|Episode 42]]</ref> and ordered agents to abduct the [[Korea]]n-American college student [[Noa Kim]], whom they had lured to the city with a vacation prize trip upon learning he was a descendant of Edward Kenway. When Abstergo forcibly connected Noa into an Animus,<ref name="ForgottenTemple1">''Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple Episode 1|Episode 1]]</ref> Nakamura watched as he relived Edward's life in [[Southeast Asia]], but was unimpressed by his repeated [[Synchronization|desynchronization]] errors. After Nakamura stressed to Dr. [[Shimazu Sei]] on the importance for the Templars' goals and the Shimazu clan's well-being of promptly learning what Edward had uncovered in Asia, she left to return to Abstergo's headquarters and wished for the Father to guide the doctor, which Dr. Sei repeated.<ref name="ForgottenTemple4" />

==Known Fathers of Understanding==
<gallery captionalign="center" position="center" spacing="small" widths="180">
Wiki noimage.jpg|[[Yaldabaoth]]
Jupiter-render.png|[[Jupiter]]
</gallery>

==References==
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