Memory Corridor

Memory Corridor of the Animus 2.0

The Memory Corridor was a digital construct that allowed the Animus to recreate accurate images from a subject's genetic memory. It appeared to the user as an empty virtual space located within the Animus. When the memory loaded, the virtual environment would be recreated over the memory corridor.

Usage

The corridor was mainly used as a "loading screen" between memories, where the user could roam around while a memory was being compiled. The memory corridor appeared to be an endless void, having a different appearance in each software version of the Animus. If the user was desynchronized while reliving a memory, his or her avatar returned to the corridor, allowing the memory to reload.

Additionally, the final moments of assassination targets were displayed in the memory corridor, where they would have shared their final words with their killer, the source of the respective genetic memory, before receiving their last rites.

Animus renditions

The Animus was the primary exemplar of using memory corridors. Within the Animus, memory corridors were a computer-constructed method to allow the user to interact with the avatar while the memory compiled. The appearance, complexity, and duration the user was left in a corridor varied between Animus versions.

Animus 1.28

The Abstergo Industries Animus 1.28 originally had an icy-blue background, in which simulated fog and strings of computer code existed. The user could move the avatar of their ancestor freely around this simulation and could use all weapons. This provided the user with the opportunity to experiment with their weapons while allowing new memories to load. This version of the corridor was utilized as a location for the tutorial for Desmond Miles during his first use of the Animus while reliving the memories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad at Abstergo's facility in Rome.

Animus 2.0 and 2.01

The background of the Animus 2.0 and its 2.01 update was light grey with white lines. It existed as the main corridor used within the virtual machine, coming to be known as the "White Room". In the Animus 2.0, an avatar could only be made to run or walk around, but this restriction was removed in the upgraded versions, allowing the user to use weapons as well. In the Animus 2.01, the corridor was used as an interface for Rebecca Crane's Animus Virtual Training Program, in which Desmond retained complete control over the avatar of Ezio Auditore da Firenze to test his skills in challenges composed of enemies transferred from his ancestor's memories and digital constructs that mirrored the White Room's background.

Memory Corridor of a repressed memory

During some instances, the background changed for certain memories, such as repressed ones or traumatic parts of the subject's life. Examples of repressed memories included some of Ezio Auditore's experiences with Cristina Vespucci, one of his lovers from his youth, and were rendered with a ghost-like Ezio chasing a phantom of Cristina through a dark, red-hued corridor with floating binary code. This corridor remained for a much longer time than most other memories, and the memory could take a very long time to compile.

"Pax Romana" was another example of a traumatic memory, in which the memory corridor took on an orange coloration with broken fragments of data. This occurred when Desmond first tried accessing the memory immediately after witnessing Minerva's message in the Vatican Vault, leading to an error. As a result, Desmond had to relive some of Ezio's earlier memories during the liberation of Rome to increase synchronization with his ancestor and be able to access the "Pax Romana" memory.

Animus safe mode

The safe mode program built into the Animus, known as the "Black Room", had a varying dark and bright blue background with black lines, the polar opposite of the appearance of the Animus 2.03 in its stable condition. Like its predecessors, the "Black Room" allowed the user to roam freely while the memory compiled. This portion of the memory corridor was used when Desmond Miles fell into a coma following his first encounter with Juno in the Colosseum Vault; when he roamed in the corridor during loadings, the color of his clothes appeared to be inverted much as the space itself.

Animi Training Program

During the first training stage of the Animi Training Program, the memory corridor appeared to be a combination of the Animus 1.28's and 2.03's. It had both a blue, fog-filled background and white lines. The corridor within the Animi used for the second stage of Abstergo's training program had a gray background with cubical fragments. Unlike other memory corridors, these did not allow for free roaming.

Animus 3.0

Desmond in the Memory Corridor of the Animus 3.0

The Animus 3.0's background was similar to that of the Animus 1.28, in that it was icy-blue but withheld fog. It also appeared to be composed of triangular fragments, which appeared to mesh themselves together to form the environment of any loading memory, replacing the code strings of the Animus 1.28. Much like its predecessors, the Animus 3.0's corridor allowed the user to roam freely. Desmond used the corridor to test the features of the new Animus after he arrived at the Grand Temple to ensure a good synchronization with Haytham Kenway and Ratonhnhaké:ton's memories.

Animus console

As part of Abstergo Entertainment's rendition of the Animus as a game console for consumer interaction with the objective of influencing the general public, the virtual machine was displayed in a similar manner to the "Black Room" of the Animus 2.03. Accompanying this, a large symbol of Abstergo Industries' logo could be seen spinning in some instances, alongside a bokeh graphical design that transitioned from blue to orange.

Animus Omega

The Animus Omega's Memory Corridor

In the Animus Omega installed at the Abstergo Entertainment headquarters in Montreal, the corridor exhibited a blue-green coloration and seemed to have ocean waves formed by light dots in the background, both indications that the space may have been tailored to fit the naval theme of the Sample 17 Project that the Animi were all focusing on. The Animus used for the Identity Project featured an identical background, despite the project not being related to the ocean.

Helix-based Animus Omega

The Helix-based Animus Omega's Memory Corridor

The corridor of the Helix-based versions of the Animus Omega featured a darker, deeper blue color with fog, triangles and waves composed by lines and particles. As this Animus version was used to explore the memories of Shay Cormac, the background appeared to once again reflect the project's naval theme. A different colored variation was seen when a specific memory of Shay was accessed, in which the subject had been poisoned.

Helix Navigator

The Helix Navigator's Memory Corridor

While the first iterations of the Helix servers did not feature a memory corridor, as seen when a Helix Initiate relieved the memories of Arno Dorian, by the time of the Helix 4.0, when said Initiate relived Jacob and Evie Frye's memories, a corridor was present, being mainly an off-white color with grey fog in the background and a cloudy sky that was meant to evoke the rainy weather of London, witnessed by the Frye twins in their prime. Additionally, white rectangular prisms of varying heights could be seen near the ground, while taller structures rose up in the distance, with some of them even disappearing among the clouds.

Portable Animus HR-8

The Animus HR-8's Memory Corridor when accessing a new memory sequence

Layla Hassan's Portable Animus HR-8 had a memory corridor which consisted of a transparent floor made of small yellow dots that resembled desert dunes. A bright setting sun would appear on the horizon while the background was black. In this space, Layla could use Bayek's or Aya's weapons as well as sprint, crouch and dodge. In the loading of a new memory sequence, several panels filled with golden hieroglyphics could be seen phasing in different directions until the next memory was compiled.

When Bayek and Aya interrogated one of their assassinated targets in the memory corridor, it would conjurate different visual representations of objects and environments that were related to the target's schemes and machinations, as well as their own passage to the Duat, as supported by Egyptian mythology.

Portable Animus HR-8.5

The Animus HR-8.5's Memory Corridor

The Portable Animus upgraded by Layla with Victoria Bibeau's help only displayed a memory corridor when one first entered or was extracted from a simulation while exploring Kassandra's memories. It exhibited a constant vortex of blue light surrounded by several waving letters from the Greek alphabet in bright white. While reliving the Spartan's memories of her time in Aletheia's simulations, various flickering bright lines of orange light would appear within the vortex and would sometimes destabilize the corridor.

Layla in another iteration of her Animus' Memory Corridor

The corridor returned to be displayed normally and its appearance changed when Layla and later Basim ibn Ishaq relived Eivor Varinsdottir's memories, now with a flooded floor and a background filled with stars and aurora borealis, reflecting the skies seen by the Viking in her time. However, the background of the corridor turned darker during interrogations of assassinated targets, who would, at times, be surrounded by objects that alluded to their lives and motives. Eivor herself even commented on the corridor and its aspects once, comparing it to Niflheimr, the realm of the dead according to Norse mythology.

In some instances, a depiction of Odin would interact with Eivor in the memory corridor, either counseling her during some key interrogations or appearing to her in visions. This was later revealed to be caused by Eivor's nature as an incarnation of Odin, whose memories slowly resurfaced inside the Viking. While Eivor was plugged into the Yggdrasil supercomputer, a psychic battle between her and Odin was fought in a recreation of the memory corridor, which ended with Eivor victorious and rejecting Odin's influence.

Other Animi

Basim ibn Ishaq

Basim in the Memory Corridor

When the Assassins relived Basim's memories in an unidentified Animus, the corridor was displayed similarly to its iteration on the Portable Animus HR-8.5 and assumed two states. The first one—which depicted an endless, dark desert from where various silhouettes emerged under a desaturated setting sun—was used when Basim's memories were being loaded or when the Hidden One interrogated a dying target; the victim would be accompanied by their mask and the tool Basim had used to kill them.

The other state emerged when Basim was plagued by visions or nightmares of the djinn, in which the sun and the shadows disappeared, and the sand would turn a dark blue. The color of the sky would match the sand and could sometimes make way for storm clouds.

Noa Kim and Shimazu Sei

Edward's avatar with Noa's facial features in the Memory Corridor

The corridor of Abstergo Industries' Animus used by a captive Noa Kim to relive Edward Kenway's memories was remarkably similar to the Animus Omega's first iteration of it, given the resurgence of the previous project's naval themes. Still, it revealed some differences in design and use: the corridor exhibited more grid lines, distorting its wave elements to some extent, and a bright light in the distance would perpetually light the space. The avatar of the user would also slowly turn into the subject's avatar as their synchronization rate increased, instead of being either one or the other as was the case with other corridors.

While Noa was under the influence of a crescent-shaped Piece of Eden encountered by Edward, the corridor's background changed colors to dark blue and grey, and it somewhat resembled the Animus 3.0's corridor, being similarly composed of triangular fragments. When Noa interacted with several apparitions of Edward through the Bleeding Effect, the background became light grey with white lines, resembling the Animus 2.0's corridor.

The corridor of the makeshift Animus HR-8 used by Shimazu Sei to explore Shimazu Saito's memories was virtually identical to the one seen with Abstergo's Animus. Similarly to Noa, while in the corridor, Sei's avatar slowly turned into that of Saito as her synchronization rate with her ancestor increased.

Assassin hacker

The memory corridor of the Animus in which an Assassin hacker relived the memories of Ezio Auditore, Kassandra, and Ratonhnhaké:ton stored in the Abstergo Cloud possessed a background that appeared to be a combination of the Animus 1.28's and 2.0's, exhibiting the latter's white lines and the former's blue foggy background. The corridor was only briefly visible when a memory finished loading, right as it receded and vanished to signify its complete compilation. In addition, the corridor would overlap the simulation in certain situations, either by manually pausing it or by freezing it, which would occur when accessing a historical construct or when a memory was effectively seen to its end.

Alternate renditions

Effects similar to the Animi memory corridors appeared elsewhere. The corridors did, however, always relate to the conveying of memories. They appeared in both the Memory Seals and the Forgotten Temple, as well as when an individual began experiencing the Bleeding Effect.

Memory Seals

Ezio in a Memory Seal's corridor

While viewing the memories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad that were stored on Memory Seals, the corridor developed golden symbols similar to those embedded on the Masyaf Keys. Accompanying this, once Desmond had completed the remainder of Ezio Auditore's genetic memories, he achieved a Synch Nexus and conversed with Jupiter, a member of the First Civilization. During this meeting, golden symbols surrounded the group in the memory corridor.

Bleeding Effect

When a person experienced the symptoms of the Bleeding Effect, they would encounter an occurrence similar to a memory corridor. At first, figures and objects in the memory would appear to be white on a black background, though they would optimize in more detail, until a point where the memory corridor disappeared and was replaced with an actual memory, in a similar manner to the Animus' virtual representation of one. As the Bleeding Effect receded, so did the corridor.

Forgotten Temple

The Forgotten Temple, a First Civilization vault located in Cambodia, was capable of creating simulations based on the personal memories of those who ventured inside. While the simulation was being rendered, individuals would be transported to a digital space akin to a memory corridor, where their avatars would change to fit the environment that was being simulated. It was reminiscent of the Animus Omega's corridor, featuring bright green and blue colors, and being composed of either rectangular or triangular fragments.

Following the confrontation that occurred at the Forgotten Temple in both 1725 and 2023, Noa Kim was transported to a different corridor. While it was similarly composed of blue-green triangular fragments, it transitioned into a dark void as Noa walked along a golden path and observed events surrounding the fates of each of the Southeast Asian Pieces of Eden. The path led to a brightly lit doorway, which enabled Noa to access a Synch Nexus and speak with Edward Kenway across time.

Trivia

General

• No matter what position or method the assassination target was killed in or how far away the character was from the target, upon entering the corridor, the character would always be right next to them.
• Majd Addin, Checco Orsi, Shahkulu, and Edward Braddock required being stabbed a second time while inside the memory corridor before finally dying.
• The memory corridor was also used in several failed assassinations, or those where the protagonist deliberately spared their target. These include Maria Thorpe (spared), Rodrigo Borgia (failed, later spared), Micheletto Corella (spared), Shahkulu (failed), Nicholas Biddle (spared), Benjamin Franklin (failed), Charles Vane (spared), and Woodes Rogers (survived).

Assassin's Creed

• During a sufficiently long loading period, it was possible for Altaïr to run far enough that glitches and other symbols surrounding him were left behind.
• Glitches appeared frequently in the corridor of the Animus 1.28 while interrogating felled targets, prompting Desmond to change the angle of the scene and allowing an assassinated target to walk around as they spoke with Altaïr, appearing unharmed.

Assassin's Creed II

• Dante Moro and Silvio Barbarigo appeared in the memory corridor together, even if they were killed separately.
• Ezio could only use his fists while he was displayed in the corridor.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• When the Templar agents situated in Rome were killed and entered the corridor, they did not speak. Ezio simply gave them their last rites before closing their eyes and walking away.
• It was possible to run out of ammunition if Ezio used the Hidden Gun, throwing knives, or the crossbow in the memory corridor.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

• The memory corridor allowed Ezio to freely test bombs without the risk of harming civilians.
• Ezio wrote letters to his sister Claudia inside the corridor.

Assassin's Creed III

• Neither Desmond Miles, Ratonhnhaké:ton, nor Haytham Kenway could equip a weapon inside the memory corridor with the exception of the start of a new memory sequence.
• Kaniehtí:io was briefly playable during the memory corridor between the end of Haytham's memories and the start of their son's, making her the first woman to be playable in Desmond's ancestry.

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation

• Aveline de Grandpré could not equip a weapon inside the memory corridor, but was able to sprint, even in guises that technically would not allow her to do so.
• If Aveline jumped upward, the memory corridor's background would lightly shift upward, before returning to its original position when Aveline landed.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

• Edward Kenway could not use any weapon or tool in the memory corridor. However, in the aptly-named memory "Delirium", he could consume enough alcohol to stumble about before falling over drunk.
• Like Dante Moro and Silvio Barbarigo, John Cockram and Josiah Burgess appeared in the corridor together, even if they were killed separately.
• In most other versions of the Animus, the memory being viewed would slowly dematerialize upon transformation into the corridor when assassinating a target. In the Animus Omega, the memory simply halts with a black screen before immediately jumping to the corridor.

Assassin's Creed: Identity

• Lo Sparviero could only enter the memory corridor in the tutorials.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

• While in the memory corridor, Jacob and Evie would always have their hoods down, even if they were raised at the moment of the assassination.
• Like in the memory corridors with Altaïr and his victims, Jacob and Evie's victims had the opportunity to walk around, with the sole exception of Malcolm Millner.

Assassin's Creed: Origins

• Mirroring past memory corridor iterations, Bayek and Aya's victims could simultaneously walk around the space and appear injured at their arms in some instances.

Assassin's Creed: Mirage

• While in the memory corridor, Basim could perform every action except for using his tools.
• The shapes present in the corridor would turn into sand and disappear if Basim approached them.

Gallery

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  Altaïr and Sibrand in the Animus 1.28's memory corridor
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  Ezio and Jacopo de' Pazzi in the Animus 2.0's memory corridor
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  Ezio and Cesare Borgia in the Animus 2.01's memory corridor
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  The memory corridor at the end of one of Ezio's traumatic memories
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  Ezio and Manuel Palaiologos in the Animus 2.03's memory corridor
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  Ratonhnhaké:ton and John Pitcairn in the Animus 3.0's memory corridor
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  Aveline and Baptiste in the Animus Console's memory corridor
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  Edward and Julien du Casse in the Animus Omega's memory corridor
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  Lo Sparviero in the Animus Omega's memory corridor
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  Shay and Le Chasseur in the Animus Omega's memory corridor
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  Shay poisoned with Hope Jensen in the Animus Omega's memory corridor
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  Jacob and Rupert Ferris in the Helix Navigator 4.0's memory corridor
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  Evie and David Brewster in the Helix Navigator 4.0's memory corridor
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  Bayek and Medunamun in the Animus HR-8's memory corridor
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  Aya and Julius Caesar in the Animus HR-8's memory corridor
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  The Animus HR-8.5's corridor being disrupted by Aletheia's simulations
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  Eivor fighting a manifestation of Odin in the Animus HR-8.5's memory corridor
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  Basim with a target in the memory corridor
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  Noa in the memory corridor, surrounded by apparitions of Edward
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  Noa in the memory corridor while under the crescent amulet's influence
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  Saito in the Animus HR-8's memory corridor
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  The memory corridor featured in Assassin's Creed: Jade

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
• Assassin's Creed II
• Assassin's Creed II: Discovery
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Assassin's Creed III
• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
• Assassin's Creed: Identity
• Assassin's Creed: Heresy
• Assassin's Creed: Origins
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
• Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book
• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows
• Assassin's Creed: Jade