Editing Great Catastrophe

{{Era|Timeline|Isu}}{{WP-REAL|Toba catastrophe theory}}
{{Update|''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]], [[Assassin's Creed: Valhalla]], [[Dawn of Ragnarök]]'' and ''[[Tombs of the Fallen]]''}}
{{Quote|The earth shook for days. The fires burned for weeks. And when the ash had settled, less than ten thousand of your kind still lived... and far fewer of ours. But we carried on, together. To rebuild. To renew.|Jupiter to Desmond Miles, 2012.|Assassin's Creed: Revelations|21st century conversations}}
{{Event Infobox
|prev = [[Human-Isu War]]
|next = [[Assassin-Templar War]]
|image = Earth post catastrophe.jpg
|name = Great Catastrophe
|timeframe = Prehistory
|conflict = 
|date = c. 75,000 BCE<ref name="InitiatesTimeline">''[[Assassin's Creed: Initiates]]'' – Timeline</ref> (2306 [[Isu Era|IE]])<ref name="Hoptons">''[[Assassin's Creed: Syndicate]]'' – [[Hopton's]]</ref>
|place = [[Earth]]
|outcome = *End of [[Human-Isu War]]
*Near extinction of both species
|key = *[[Isu]]
*[[Human]]s
|participants = 
}}
The '''Great Catastrophe''',<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Origins]]'' – [[Layla Hassan's personal files]] – The Empirical Truth</ref> also known as the '''First Catastrophe''',<ref name="The Essential Guide">''[[Assassin's Creed: The Essential Guide]]''</ref> the '''Toba Catastrophe'''<ref name="AbstergoFilesApocalypse">''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' – [[Abstergo Files]]: "File.0.18\FC_Apocalypses"</ref> or '''Toba Disaster''', or the '''First Disaster''',{{Cite|6 Jan 2025}} was a cataclysmic event during [[human]] prehistory dated to around 75,000 BCE,<ref name="InitiatesTimeline"/> or 2306 of the [[Isu Era]].<ref name="Hoptons"/> The global devastation caused by a {{Wiki|coronal mass ejection}} saw the near-total extinction of both humanity and the [[Isu]], both of whom were involved in a [[Human-Isu War|military conflict]] at the time.

While the few surviving humans would attempt to understand and remember the events and the Isu by passing them down in filtered oral tales like the [[Ragnarök]] cycle of [[Norse mythology]],<ref name="ViewAboveAll">''[[Assassin's Creed Valhalla]]'' – [[View Above All]]</ref> by [[Modern times|modern times]], the disaster was often misconceived to have been the eruption of a super-volcano that occurred at the same time.<ref name="AbstergoFilesApocalypse"/> A [[Second Disaster|second]], equally powerful, but ultimately less destructive coronal mass ejection took place in the year 2012 CE.

==History==
===Pre-catastrophe===
The Isu, too embroiled in their war with humanity who had risen up in a [[Slavery|slave]] rebellion against their [[Project Anthropos|creators]],<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' – Abstergo Files: "File.0.14\FC_Origin"</ref> did not foresee the coming apocalypse until it was too late.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo">''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' – [[In Bocca al Lupo]]</ref> Despite this, a few scientifically-minded individuals—most notably, the [[Capitoline Triad]] of [[Jupiter]], [[Minerva]], and [[Juno]],<ref name="ACRevModern">''Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' – [[21st century conversations|Modern day]]</ref> as well as the engineer [[Rah Cel'eze]] and his [[Valkyrie]] aide [[Hildr]]<ref name="TombsOfTheFallen">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Floating conversations]]: Tombs of the Fallen</ref>—worked to find a means of either suppressing it or at least protecting future generations from predicted recurrences by researching ways of combatting the cataclysm from within underground [[Temple (Isu)|vaults]]. They tested six different methods that showed the most potential, but none of them succeeded<ref name="ACRevModern" /> due to a variety of factors such as time constraints, the amount of resources required, or coordinating efforts for any initiative.<ref name="AC3Modern">''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'' – Modern day</ref>

At first, the Isu planned to build four [[Towers]] to siphon the solar flare into the Grand Temple and dispel it.<ref name="AC3Modern" /><ref name="AFeastToRemember">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[A Feast to Remember]]</ref> While the Isu had the means and resources to accomplish it, the projected time taken was more than Earth could afford. The first tower<ref name="AC3Modern" /> [[Maekinn]]<ref name="Ragnarok">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – [[Dawn of Ragnarök]]''</ref> was never completed and the researchers turned elsewhere, but even after the project was abandoned, a few Isu<ref name="AC3Modern" /> like [[Surtr]]<ref name="Ragnarok" /> returned to make the construction process automated before the solar flare hit the Earth.<ref name="AC3Modern" /> Although the sole tower would never have been able to protect Earth, it and the other three towers' assembly by drones over many thousands of years afterwards ensured they would be complete to provide the power necessary for the [[global aurora borealis device]],<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide]]'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 312</ref> which would save the world by the time of the Second Disaster at the cost of some comparatively minor global damage from short-lived seismic and volcanic activity, electrical storms, and power blackouts.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

The Isu then thought to enhance their [[Rings of Eden]],<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> [[Piece of Eden|Pieces of Eden]] that emitted a forcefield around a wearer's body to repel projectiles and energy bursts. The concept was to use the principle behind the technology to create a magnetic forcefield around the Earth, but the scale of the project proved too large to construct and would have been infeasible. Still determined, the Isu tried saving portions by doing so on a reduced capacity, ranging from half the world to a tenth of it, but even building a Ring for one city was too costly, forcing the project's termination.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

A third potential method was discovered by using the [[Apples of Eden|Apple of Eden]]<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> on the [[neurotransmitter]]s built into humans. If enough humans were influenced to have one idea, it would take form in reality. As such, the idea was to launch an Apple of Eden into orbit, aim it at Earth, and forcibly compel humanity to have one thought, ''"Make us safe"''. This thought would theoretically take form and protect the Earth, but the critical issue lay in the Apple's lack of coverage to "enthrall the world" as the Isu wanted. After sending a dozen Apples into orbit without any improved coverage, this endeavor was scrapped.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

Some Isu proposed traveling back in time to prevent the disaster beforehand, but as they could not do so, the concept was dropped. Instead, the Isu used the [[Nexus]] to look forward in time to see if various methods could succeed, but as every result was the same, prognostication was set aside to redirect focus on new methods. However, Minerva did not leave this study and continued seeing into the future.<ref name="AC3Modern" /><ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> She discovered through divinations that there was a [[Calculations|pattern of numbers and equations]] to existence that could tame time itself if understood correctly, leading her to create the [[Eye]] to aid in calculating them in the hopes of preventing the disaster.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

Minerva continued testing the Eye until she received a reply from<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> and appeared before the [[Italian Brotherhood of Assassins|Italian Assassin]] [[Ezio Auditore da Firenze|Ezio Auditore]] inside the [[Vatican Vault]] in the distant future on 28 December 1499 CE. In their brief conversation, she delivered a message warning him and his descendant [[Desmond Miles]]—who was reliving Ezio's [[Genetic memory|memories]]—about the impeding solar flare and hoped Desmond would understand, seek the Grand Temple, and prevent a disaster of the same magnitude that was projected to reoccur in 2012 CE.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo" />

With no way to save wider parts of their civilization, the now-desperate Isu focused on individual body alterations, starting with enhancing their physical forms<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> to something better able to withstand a hostile environment. Juno's husband [[Aita]] volunteered to test the method. Although his body survived, his mind became brittle; within an instant, his mind degenerated and he became increasingly catatonic, made "a prisoner of the machines". With enough will, Aita wished for Juno to euthanize him, and she fulfilled it.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: "13. Another Fryghtfull Reverie"</ref><ref name="Twentieth">''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: "20. A Secret Incomprhensible"</ref> The modifications stopped, but the researchers continued on similar matters.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

Following this, the Isu began creating entirely new vessels that could safely house the consciousness<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> and withstand the new environment. However, the ability to transfer consciousnesses back out of the vessel could not be developed properly, requiring an unspecified "wrong" element to leave, and so this idea was also rejected, though Juno wondered if it was foolish to give up early.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

Seeing that humanity would survive and thrive while the Isu died out, Jupiter and Minerva began clandestinely testing a seventh experiment to have the Isu be [[Isu incarnation|incarnated]] through humanity. Through the use of a catalyst—later remembered in Norse myth only as "[[Mead of poetry|the mead]]"<ref name="AFeastToRemember"/>—and the powerful supercomputer [[Yggdrasil]], which could take and transfer Isu genetic samples, the procedure would save select Isu from the Catastrophe<ref name="AnimusAnomalies">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Animus Anomalies]]: "AA_Complete"</ref> through {{Wiki|brood parasitism}},<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Official Game Guide]]'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 309</ref><ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Uprising]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Uprising 11|Issue #11]]</ref> altering an infant human host's genes by implanting Isu DNA that carried their memories<ref name="AnimusAnomalies"/> which the host would gradually awaken to as they aged.<ref>{{Twitter|DarbyMcDevitt|status/1573407072850518016|Darby McDevitt|quote=I have always written Sages as if they were people with a severe amnesia that is slowly starting to lift. Someone who, one day, begins to remember that they were someone else for many years. And that someone else might be an entirely different person than they are today. (2/?)|image=File:ACV Darby McDevitt thread on Isu incarnations and Sages.png}}</ref> It was through this method that the [[Æsir]] were able to be incarnated millennia later.<ref name="AnimusAnomalies"/> However, Jupiter and Minerva feared that genetic manipulation would change humanity for the worse,<ref name="ThePriceOfWisdom">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[The Price of Wisdom]]</ref> especially since the process was later shown to drive most Sages mad with the conflicting memories,<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: "1. On My Name and Origin"</ref><ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Unity]]'' ~ [[The Temple]]</ref> and so the research was locked away, but not before Juno stole it with [[Odin]]'s help<ref name="ThePriceOfWisdom"/> and modified it further<ref>{{Twitter|KasaiKnight|status/1337725926717747201|Kasaix|quote=@DarbyMcDevitt Lore question: are the Mad One and his people reborn like Aita the Sage? Every so often, coming back and rediscovering their former lives?|image=File:ACV Darby McDevitt Sage and Isu incarnation difference.png}}<br>↑ {{Twitter|DarbyMcDevitt|status/1337737125677109248|Darby McDevitt|quote=@KasaiKnight Just once. Juno tweaked the technology further for her own use, as she hints in Jotunheim.|image=File:ACV Darby McDevitt Sage and Isu incarnation difference.png}}</ref> to allow her to make [[Sage]]s from Aita's genetic sequence.<ref name="Twentieth" />

Eventually, Minerva<ref name="AC3Modern" /> and Jupiter<ref name="AC3Guide">''Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 308</ref> learned that Juno had sabotaged the Eye to send Desmond a message for her own ends.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' – Modern day</ref> Furious at her act and for also attempting another rebellion, the two Isu attacked and killed Juno and her [[Instruments of the First Will|followers]] in the Grand Temple.<ref name="AC3Guide" /> After Jupiter sent Desmond yet a third message,<ref name="ACRevModern" /> he and Minerva destroyed the divination sphere and sealed the dead in the Grand Temple,<ref name="AC3Guide" /> though they were unaware that Juno had in fact survived and transferred her consciousness into the Temple's walls, allowing her to exist unharmed when the Catastrophe struck.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

=== Disaster and aftermath===
The coronal mass ejection hit Earth just as predicted,<ref name="ACRevModern" /> flipping Earth's magnetic field polarity and exposing the planet to the Sun's deadly radiation.<ref>''Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide'': "The Story So Far", pg. 30</ref> The entire planet burned for weeks afterward, and earthquakes and catastrophic blazes ravaged what remained of Earth. The surface was rendered barren, and less than 10,000 humans and "far fewer" of the Isu survived the catastrophe. In order to recover from the event, the remaining Isu and humans ended their war and began to work together to restore life to the planet.<ref name="ACRevModern" /> Minerva spent the next few centuries wandering the ravaged Earth with what few Isu remained teaching what they could to the surviving humans to help reignite the spark of civilization, but despite humanity's misconceptions about the Isu, they were not immortal.<ref name="AC3Modern" />

Before she died, Minerva looked into the future one last time with a second Eye she had created to see if they had succeeded in preventing the Second Disaster. She saw that Juno had deceived them and lived, and was still manipulating Desmond, this time into freeing her through the same method meant to save the world.<ref name="AC3Modern" /> Because their numbers were too few, the Isu failed to survive long as an independent species. Humans, on the other hand, who had been built by the Isu with robust constitutions ideal for hard labor, successfully managed to reconstruct their society and flourished.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo" /> Over time, the reshaping of the Earth's landscape and geography would eliminate nearly all physical evidence of the Isu.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations Official Game Guide]]''</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="180" position="center" captionalign="center">
Fall of The First Civilization Concept Art.JPG|Concept art of the Great Catastrophe
First Disaster aftermath.jpg|Concept art of Earth after the disaster
ACR-Toba 5.png|The solar flare heading to Earth
Earthtoba.jpg|Earth during the catastrophe
ACR-Toba 8.png|An ancient city before the catastrophe
Tobacity.jpg|An ancient city in the midst of the catastrophe
ACR-Toba 10.png|Lightning striking a skyscraper
ACR-Toba 9.png|A woman seen during the catastrophe
ACR-Toba 3.png|The woman looking towards an explosion
ACR-Toba 2.png|A fissure swallows the local populace
ACR-Toba 1.png|Citizens falling into lava
ACR-Toba 4.png|Earth in the wake of the catastrophe
ACR Toba Bodies.png|Earth's surface after the catastrophe
ACV The Hidden Truth 2.png|The Æsir watching the Catastrophe strike North America
</gallery>

==Appearances==
*''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' {{1stm}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' {{1st}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Syndicate]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Odyssey]]'' {{Mo}}
**''[[The Fate of Atlantis: Judgment of Atlantis]]'' {{Imo}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Valhalla]]'' {{c|referred to as "Ragnarök"}}
**''[[Wrath of the Druids]]'' {{Imo}}
**''[[Dawn of Ragnarök]]''
**''[[The Last Chapter]]'' {{Mo|"Ragnarök"}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice]]'' {{Imo}}
*''[[The World of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Journey to the North – Logs and Files of a Hidden One]]'' {{Mo|"Ragnarök"}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game]]'' {{Mo|"Toba catastrophe"}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Timeline}}
[[fr:Catastrophe de Toba]]
[[ru:Великая катастрофа]]
[[uk:Катастрофа Тоба]]
[[Category:Timeline]]
[[Category:Norse mythology]]