Colosseum Vault

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"We have found traces of whatever pulled us towards this place. Whispers. Lights flickering through cracks in the earth. A doorway that is also a puzzle. We must find the solution."

―Marcus Junius Brutus regarding the Colosseum Vault.

The center of the Colosseum Vault

The Colosseum Vault was an ancient chamber created by the Isu, located beneath the Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, but accessed from a secret entrance beneath the Colosseum. The Vault was created to store an Apple of Eden on a pedestal at the center of a large chamber, and also contained a projection of the Isu Juno.

To enter the Vault's central chamber, one needed to speak aloud the number "72". To reach the higher tier where the Piece of Eden could be placed, a correct series of levers needed to be pulled, which were in turn accessed by traversing several thin platforms. After all were activated, a set of stairs would rise up to form an easy path up to the Piece of Eden. The pedestals and levers within the Vault could only be activated by the touch of a descendant of the Isu.

History

Classical antiquity

Amunet in the vault, reading through one of Brutus' scrolls

The earliest known visitor of the Vault was the Roman Hidden One Marcus Junius Brutus, as evidenced by his recording of the incident in the Scrolls of Romulus. While in the Vault, Brutus saw visions of what would happen after Julius Caesar's assassination, and was inspired by them. He and his fellow Hidden Ones, all of whom were also Roman Senators, would go on to plot Caesar's downfall within its chambers.

Brutus also made a drawing of the Vault, as well as of the pedestal it contained; one of these would later hold an Apple of Eden. Brutus eventually committed suicide in 42 BCE following his defeat at the Battle of Philippi that ended the Liberators' civil war, but his fellow Hidden One Amunet later discovered the vault and read through his scrolls.

Italian Renaissance

Ezio at the entrance of the Vault

The next known visitor was the Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore, who once passed the entrance hall while seeking out the scroll hidden within one of the Lairs of Romulus. Upon securing the Apple of Eden, he entered the Vault again in 1506, and left it upon the pedestal. Upon his entrance, Ezio knew the password to enter, although how he had discovered it is unknown. Some time afterwards, he inscribed the password to the Vault upon the Villa Auditore's Sanctuary wall.

Modern era

The last known visitors of the Vault were the Assassin team composed of Desmond Miles, Lucy Stillman, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane, who had figured out the password from the etching left by Ezio in the Villa Auditore.

Desmond Miles the other Assassins in the Vault

While making his way towards the Vault, Desmond met with Juno, who spoke to him four times during his attempt to acquire the Apple of Eden. Out of all the Assassins present, Desmond was the only one able to see and hear her. After Desmond activated the stairs and walked up to the Apple of Eden, symbols began to appear around the Assassins.

Upon touching the Apple, the others appeared to be frozen in time, and Desmond suddenly lost physical control of his body. Juno then took over his actions and, revealing to him that Lucy was in fact a Templar turncoat, influenced him into fatally stabbing Lucy in the abdomen with his Hidden Blade, after which both Desmond and Lucy collapsed to the floor.

Trivia

• Shaun remarked on two of the symbols that appeared when the Apple was activated, the Phrygian cap and the Masonic eye. He began to say "Now those two come together in only one place–" before being frozen. The two symbols only appeared together on the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen", which was written in August 1789 during the French Revolution.
• Many of the symbols that were displayed could also be found in the Glyphs and the Cryptic Messages Clay Kaczmarek left behind. These included a Shinto torii, the Eye of Horus, the Eye of Providence, an inverted pentacle, the Monkey Nazca Line, the Borromean Rings, a barcode and date, three triangles, a mountain valley, a Mandelbrot set, the Hebrew phrase "עולם הבא" (English: Olam Haba, "the world to come"), and the Chinese phrase「前事不忘後事之師」(English: "One who does not forget what was before is the master of what comes after.").
• By using Eagle Vision at the entrance of the Temple of Juno, the symbol of the Lorenz system could be seen on the gate of the Vault. This was also present in the messages Clay had left.
• By using Eagle Vision on the platform between the entrance to the Vault and the central platform where the Apple sat, the blue-lined symbol on the floor turned red, showing the correct freerunning path around the central platform.
  • The correct levers to be pulled could also be seen with Eagle Vision; the ones pulsing in gold were the correct switches, not the ones steadily illuminated in white.
• The interior architecture and layout of the vault bore striking similarity to the 11,000 year old ancient monolithic site of Göbekli Tepe, situated in the modern-day country of Turkey.
• The triangle that appeared on the Vault's door and in Monteriggioni was the Tetractys, an invention of Pythagoras.

Gallery

• 
  Brutus' sketch of the Vault
• 
  Ezio discovering the entrance to the Vault
• 
  Ezio depositing the Apple within the Vault
• 
  Art Concept of the Entrance Door to the Apple Chamber
• 
  Equilateral triangle on the Vault's entrance
• 
  The entrance to the Colosseum Vault
• 
  The modern day Assassins entering the outer chamber
• 
  The team overlooking the Vault's entrance
• 
  The modern day Assassins at the Vault door
• 
  The entrance seen through Eagle Vision
• 
  The interior of the Vault
• 
  The correct route to the obstacle course, shown in red with Eagle vision
• 
  Desmond freerunning inside the Vault
• 
  Juno warning Desmond
• 
  The team approaching the Apple
• 
  The artifact activated inside the Vault

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood novel
• Assassin's Creed: Origins comic
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice
  • Roma
  • Tokyo XXI (indirect mention only)