Cryptic Messages

The markings on Desmond's bedroom wall

The Cryptic Messages refer to a number of images and texts scrawled by the Assassin Clay Kaczmarek while Abstergo Industries held him captive in the Animus Project's laboratory in Rome.

History

On 8 September 2012, Desmond Miles used the Animus 1.28 to finish reliving his Levantine Assassin ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's final genetic memory, in which Altaïr saw an Isu map of places on Earth that held other Piece of Eden. With the Templars' supervising Inner Sanctum members Alan Rikkin, David Kilkerman, and Henry Liman having acquired the information they sought, they left him unsupervised in the laboratory. Alone, Desmond experienced a Bleeding Effect episode and learned he had gained Altaïr's ability of Eagle Vision, which enabled him to perceive a number of markings around the laboratory and within his bedroom. Desmond quickly realized they were painted in blood by his predecessor "Subject 16", Clay Kaczmarek, who had been kept in the Animus for so long that he eventually went mad and took his own life after he drew the symbols.

Messages

The messages appeared along the walls and floors of the Animus room, and above Desmond's bed in his quarters.

Animus room messages

Picture	Location	Description
	On the ground before the Animus, at the end where Desmond's head rested.	The Eye of Providence
	Immediately before the door that Warren Vidic and Lucy Stillman used to leave the laboratory.	Triangle and Apple, an original design resembling a pyramid which consists of a series of eyes bound within a triangle with a radiating apple directly above it. It symbolizes the Templars' plan to send the Eye-Abstergo satellite with a Piece of Eden to join the Akashic Satellite Plexus in orbit to control humanity.
	On the ground before the Animus, between the Eye of Providence and Pyramid of Eden.	The Square of Writing, when read from bottom to top and right to left, spells out "Artefacts sent to the skies to control all nations, to make us obey a hidden crusade. Do not help them." Note the British English spelling of Artefacts.
	On the ground before the Animus, next to where Desmond's right hand lay.	The upside-down pentagram is usually associated with evil and Satanism. Note that one prong of the star points directly to the head of the Animus: this is an attempt by Subject 16 to show that the Animus is used for evil purposes. Whilst throughout history the pentagram is usually affiliated with Satanic rituals, its origin comes from the Roman goddess Venus, as the planet Venus forms a pentagram in space. This is Clay's way of explaining that Venus and many other gods from Greek and Roman mythology were actually Isu.
	On the floor before the Animus, where Desmond's feet rested.	The Pyramid of Letters, when read from bottom to top and right to left, spells out "They drained my soul and made it theirs. I drain my body to show you where I saw it."
	On the floor before the Animus, behind the Pyramid of Letters.	Barcode and Date: Both the Interleaved 2 of 5 barcode and numbers in middle-endian format make reference to the date 21 December 2012.
	Found on the floor before the Animus, near where Desmond's head rested.	Borromean Rings
	In a corner, past the Pyramid of Letters.	Nazca Lines of a hummingbird, monkey, and spider.
	Between the entrances to the conference room and Desmond's quarters.	Yonaguni is a Japanese island with an underwater formation that could be man-made. Adjacent to the text are 3 symbols: outlines of Mount Fuji, a Japanese torii, and two Nara-style pagodas.
	Next to the platform near to the entrance of the Animus laboratory.	The Eye of Ra. While this may be a reference to Ra, Egypt, and all related Pieces of Eden, it can also refer to the Ordo Templi Orientis, a Germano-Austrian esoteric order similar to the Freemasons which was believed to be related to the Knights Templar and which had the Eye of Ra drawn at the top of their lamen.
	On the platform near to the entrance of the Animus laboratory.	Three Triangles, most likely indicating the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt.
	On the platform near to the entrance of the Animus laboratory.	Step pyramid, a common symbol of Mayan and Egyptian architecture.
	On the platform near to the entrance of the conference room.	Mountain Valley, most likely Machu Picchu.

Desmond's room messages

Message	Description
	Mandelbrot Set
zn+1 = zn2 + c	A Mandelbrot Set formula
עולם הבא	Hebrew for Olam Haba, or "The world to come" in Judaism after the Messiah's arrival.
13.0.0.0.0	In the Mayan Long Count calendar, this corresponds to the date 21 December 2012.
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each of them lies an IRREPARABLE truth	The 'books' are an analogy for humans, with the 'thousands of pages' symbolizing countless ancestors' memories; therefore, the truth cannot be erased or 'repaired', even when the Templars try to 'rewrite' history.
الزلزلة	Al-Zalzala; Arabic for "The Quake", the title of Sura 99 in the Quran.
	An Omega symbol with a dot in the center. See also 22.13, below.
22.13	A Bible reference to Revelation 22:13: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." This verse is a declaration of God's power over the world, which the Templars strove to achieve.
	Lorenz system
Within Emperor Jiajing's sin and Quetzcoaltz's hunger lies the Answers	The Jiajing Emperor's sins include ignoring established rites, isolating himself from court and relying on unqualified individuals to handle affairs of state, exiling or killing dissidents, overspending public funds on monuments, religious intolerance, self-aggrandizement, and cruelty. 'Quetzcoaltz' is a misspelling of Quetzalcōātl, the Aztec sun god. The Aztecs believed the gods required regular human sacrifices for nourishment.
I've entered the Abyss and never returned	Subject 16 briefly explains who he is and what happened to him.
不聞不若聞之 聞之不若見之 見之不若知之 知之不若行之	Chinese for "Hearing is better than not hearing, observing is better than hearing, knowing is better than observing, and doing is better than knowing."
個人生死個人了 個人業報個人消	Chinese for "You reap what you sow."
欲知未來果 今生作者是	Chinese for "One who wants to read into his future simply needs to write his own present."
人無遠慮 必有近憂	Chinese for "A man without far considerations, must have near worries."
若人欲了知 三世一切佛 應觀法界性 一切唯心造	Chinese for "As a human being, if you want to know the spiritual realm of Buddha, you have to observe, you have to know that everything you see in the world comes from your own mind."
前事不忘後事之師	Chinese for "One who does not forget what was before is the master of what comes after."

Glyphs

Main article: Glyphs

When Desmond next entered the Animus, he discovered the messages were pointing him to files that Subject 16 had secretly planted in the Animus software. Once unlocked, these files provided information about the Templars, Assassins, and Pieces of Eden throughout history.

Trivia

• When Desmond slept between Animus sessions in Assassin's Creed, and during the introductory narration of Assassin's Creed II, there were flashes of the cryptic messages.
• At the very start of Assassin's Creed II, if the Animus lab was viewed with Eagle Vision, all of the cryptic messages from the ending of Assassin's Creed were present, with the exception of the "Pyramid of Letters" and the "Barcode and Date".
  • During the infiltration of the Abstergo facility in Rome in Assassin's Creed III, Desmond was once again able to see the cryptic messages using the Eagle Vision. The "Pyramid of Letters" and the "Barcode and Date" were once again present. However, due to the changes to the game's engine, the symbols glowed white instead of red.
• Although the Assassin’s Creed II official guide mentions an oblique connection between the barcode and Revelations 13:16-18, associated with the number 666, also known as the Number of the Beast, the barcode lines do not match with this number when decoded but instead to the date 12/21/2012. The game guide also misidentifies the Eye of Ra as the Eye of Horus although this could have been a mistake on Ubisoft's part.
• The "Triangle and Apple" and "Square of Writing" symbols also appeared in the Lair of Romulus of Catacombe di Roma in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, although it is not clear who left them there.
• The many mentions of the date December 21, 2012 refer to the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, most notably used by the Maya. Some held that its advent marked the end of the world while others claimed that it would mark the beginning of a new era accompanied by a shift in the human consciousness.
• The mention of "Quetzalcoatl's hunger" is likely erroneous; though many Aztec gods demanded human sacrifice, Quetzalcoatl hated the practice.
• Most of the symbols were present in The Lost Archive memory "The End Of The Line" in a hallway preceding the river Styx.