Glyphs

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Ezio and the Borromean rings glyph

Glyphs were data entry points scattered around the virtual representation of Renaissance Italy rendered by the Animus.

Desmond Miles was able to locate several of them while reliving the genetic memories of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Each Glyph revealed historical details about humanity, the Pieces of Eden, and the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars.

History

Origins

Ezio activating one of the Glyphs

The Glyphs were created by Clay Kaczmarek, Desmond's predecessor in the Animus Project. Clay had discovered "The Truth" during the prolonged Animus sessions, but he could not share this information during his captivity. Instead, he hacked the Animus and hid a video file in a number of encrypted data fragments, in the form of Glyphs on certain structures.

In an effort to inform the next Animus subject of the hack, Clay left a number of cryptic images drawn in his own blood scattered across the Animus Project laboratory, as a clue to look for such symbols in the environments rendered by the Animus.

Abstergo laboratory

Clay's messages on the bedroom wall

Before Desmond Miles was placed in the Animus, Abstergo had cleaned away Clay's blood messages. However, through the Bleeding Effect, Desmond eventually gained the ability of Eagle Vision, which allowed him to perceive Clay's blood writing. Although he was able to see it, Desmond could not comprehend its meaning at the time of his captivity.

In the Animus 2.0

During the escape from Abstergo facility, Lucy Stillman took the Animus memory core, unaware that it contained the data which Clay had tampered with. When the core was transferred to the Animus 2.0, the Glyph data was transferred along with it.

Rebecca holding the memory core with the Glyph data

While reliving the memories of Ezio Auditore, Desmond and his fellow Assassins discovered the existence of the Glyphs and guessed how they appeared in the Animus 2.0, eventually concluding the data had been tampered with by Clay and came with the Abstergo memory core.

Desmond found symbols echoing the ones in Clay's blood writing scattered across various landmarks, which contained the encrypted file fragments. Clay placed a safeguard in the files, however, as each Glyph had to be scanned with Eagle Vision to access it, and the files were only compatible with the Animus itself.

Desmond solved the puzzles contained within each Glyph, allowing him to access a short clip of The Truth video. Once all the Glyphs were solved, these short clips combined to form a complete footage from one of Clay's classified session at Abstergo, depicting Adam and Eve running through Eden with a stolen Apple of Eden.

The puzzles revealed some of the activities of the Assassins and Templars and instances where Pieces of Eden had emerged across human history.

Rome

Ezio locating a Rift

When Shaun Hastings analyzed the results of the Glyph puzzles, he discovered the puzzles also contained coordinates to additional certain locations within the Animus. These led Desmond to a series of Cluster puzzles, accessible through the Rifts in programming in the city of Rome.

These Rifts were also safeguarded, as they did not physically appear on the landmarks at all unless seen with the Eagle Vision. Another notable difference was that Ezio had to physically enter a Rift, rather than just scan it.

After solving all ten of the Rift puzzles, a video message titled "The miracle is in the execution" appeared, though the Assassins figured it was not a video at all, but rather an encrypted file. Rebecca managed to make it accessible to Desmond. The file contained a course similar to the Animus Virtual Training Program. At the end, Desmond was presented with a digital image of Clay Kaczmarek, which spoke to him about Eve, the Sun, Desmond's son, Eden and the darkness, before disappearing.

Glyph locations

Each Glyph was located on a historical landmark within the Animus. After approaching a landmark with a Glyph on it, the landmark's Database entry was marked with an eye icon. Proximity to a Glyph was also noticeable by an Animus-produced shimmering sound effect, identical to what Desmond heard near feathers and treasure chests when reliving Ezio's life.

Picture	Location	Description
	Facing south on the roof of La Rosa Colta San Marco District, Florence	An Omega symbol with a dot in the center.
	Facing north on the eastern rooftop of the Ospedale degli Innocenti San Marco District, Florence	The Eye of Horus. While this may be a reference to Horus, Egypt and all the Pieces of Eden related, it can also refer to the Ordo Templi Orientis, a German-Austrian order similar to the Freemasons which was believed to be related to the Knights Templar, and which had the Eye of Horus drawn at the top of their Lamen.
	Facing west on the northern lower roof of the Basilica of Santa Croce San Marco District, Florence	A Japanese torii
	On the south face of the northern bell tower of the Basilica of San Lorenzo Santa Maria Novella District, Florence	Nazca Lines of a monkey
	Facing east in the northeast corner of the Mercato Vecchio courtyard Santa Maria Novella District, Florence	Chinese for "One who does not forget what was before is the master of what comes after."
	Facing south on the southwest corner of Villa Auditore, Monteriggioni	Barcode and Date: Both the Interleaved 2 of 5 barcode and numbers in middle-endian format make reference to the date 21 December 2012.
	On the east face of the Monte Oliveto Maggiore tower, Tuscany	Step pyramid, a common symbol of Mayan and Egyptian architecture.
	Just outside San Gimignano, facing west in the curved tunnel at the rear of Antico Teatro Romano, Tuscany	Lorenz system
	Facing north on top of Torre del Diavolo, San Gimignano	The Eye of Providence
	Facing south in the gap between the Torri dei Salvucci, San Gimignano	Two Nara-style pagodas
	Facing east at street level in Santa Maria Assunta, San Gimignano	Mountain Valley, most likely Machu Picchu
	On the north face of the Avamposto Veneziano lighthouse, Romagna	Outline of Mount Fuji
	Facing east above the west colonnade of the Abbey of San Mercuriale, Forlì	Hebrew for Olam Haba, or "The World To Come" after the arrival of the Messiah in Judaism
	Facing west beneath the east end of Ponte di Rialto San Polo District, Venice	Nazca Lines of spider
	Facing east between the dome and bell tower of San Giacomo di Rialto San Polo District, Venice	Pyramid of Eden, an original design consisting of a series of eyes bound within a triangle with a radiating apple directly above it. It symbolizes the Templar plan to use the Apple in the Eye-Abstergo satellite to control all humanity.
	Facing east on the roof top of Gilda dei Ladri di Venezia San Polo District, Venice	Three Triangles, most likely indicating the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.
	Facing up on top of Torre dell'Orologio, above the clock San Marco District, Venice	Borromean Rings
	Facing up in an open section near the top of Campanile di San Marco San Marco District, Venice	An upside-down Pentagram. Whilst the pentagram is usually affiliated throughout history with Satanic rituals, its origin comes from the Roman goddess Venus, as the orbit of the planet Venus forms a pentagram in space as seen from Earth.
	Facing north on top of Scuola Grande di San Marco Castello District, Venice	Nazca Lines of a hummingbird
	Facing east on top of San Pietro di Castello Castello District, Venice	Mandelbrot Set

Glyph puzzles

The puzzles were solved in numerical order, regardless of which Glyph they were accessed through, and they often were preceded by a soundbite from Clay. Whenever stuck on a puzzle, a help option appeared and Shaun Hastings offered a hint upon activating it.

1234567891011121314151617181920

In The Beginning

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Hello. This is... they call me Subject Sixteen. Listen, I don't have much time. There's something I have to show you. We've been lied to this whole time. Everything we know, everything we've been brought up to believe. It's wrong. Okay, umm... I've uploaded the evidence, the file, that proves it all. But I've split it into twenty pieces and locked each with a code. Queen Isabella... no, not her, hmm... what century is it? Umm... nevermind. I've hidden the code to the first file inside this program. Find it... find them all—and along the way you'll begin to see the truth.

The puzzle involved finding the core similarity in each painting. It was solved by selecting the images containing apples.

The solved puzzle.

Sixty-Four Squares

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: The past: a vast web of connections and interconnections, all ruled by chance. Or is it?

The puzzles were solved by rotating the various rings in turn until they formed an image. The first solved image.
The second solved image.
The third solved image.

Descendants

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Power doesn't die. It's passed on.

The puzzle was solved by locating a hidden Apple of Eden in each image, under the infrared light. The first solved image.
The second solved image.
The third solved image.
Hidden Morse code and Pigpen cipher symbols containing messages were present in the images.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt: On the blackboard was a Pigpen cipher which read "The Masons brought it across the sea. George Washington passed it on."
• Harry Houdini: Above Houdini's feet was a Morse cipher that read "They hit him in the stomach."
• Mahatma Gandhi: A Morse cipher hidden in the image read "The bullet hit him in the chest."

Infinite Knowledge

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: It's getting easier and easier to hack into Abstergo's mainframe. It's like I know what data I'm looking for. Like I've already lived it.

The puzzle was solved by locating a hidden image in each photo. The first image's location.
The second image's location.
The third image's location.
The fourth image containing an Apple of Eden.
Hidden messages were present in the images.

• Outskirts of Brest, France, 1944: On the road was hexadecimal cipher that read "Antikythera mechanism, much older than 150 BCE."
• Beaufort, South Carolina, 1862: Above the hidden image was a Caesar cipher that read "Ancient city, Rajastan, India, irradiated by PoE."
• First pictorial representation of a gun, 900: Near Buddha's face was a binary code reading "Sumerian. Me 23".

Instruments of Power

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: You see? Do you see what's going on? Not yet. But you will.

The puzzles were solved by selecting images which shared a common theme. A sword in the first set, a staff in the second set. The first solved puzzle.
The second solved puzzle.

Brothers

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: They were mostly heroes. But see, how the lineage is disrupted. The web of history traps the good, and the evil take what is not theirs!

The puzzles were solved by rotating the various rings in turn until they formed an image of Cain slaying Abel. The first puzzle required rotating Ring One 2 times to the left, Ring Two 3 times to the left, Ring Four once to the right, Ring Five 3 times to the right, and Ring Three around to complete the image.
The second puzzle required rotating Ring One 3 times to the left, Ring Three 1 time to the left, Ring Four 4 times to the left, Ring Five once to the right, and Ring 2 around to complete the image.
The third puzzle required rotating Ring One 3 times to the left, Ring Three 1 time to the right, Ring Four 5 times to the left, Ring Five once to the left, and Ring Two around to complete the image.
The fourth puzzle required rotating Ring Three once to the right, Ring Five 2 times to the left, Ring Four 2 times to the left, Ring Two 6 times to the right, and Ring One around to complete the image.
The quotes accompanying the images were taken from the Pearl of Great Price, and the Morse Code underneath the final image read "Templar texts adapted by Mr. Smith".

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Behold: The mark of Cain!

Keep On Seeking, And You Will Find

The first puzzle required finding the core similarity in each painting. It was solved by selecting the images containing the red shroud.
The second part of the puzzle involved scanning a picture of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, in search for the Shroud of Eden. The Templar insignia and the words "They took it." were hidden in the image.

Martyrs

The first puzzle was solved by locating a Piece of Eden using the sonar signals. The first solved image.
The second solved image.
Each image contained a hidden message.

• Nicholas II of Russia: A binary cipher which read "17th July 1918", the date Nicholas and his entire family were murdered, was hidden within the image.
• Joan of Arc: Hidden binary message in the image read "30th May 1431", the date Joan was burned at the stake.

The next phase of this puzzle involved picking up the flame and placing it over the image of Joan, and placing the image of Grigori Rasputin over the image of Nicholas. Image showing Joan's burning.
Image showing the Russian Revolution.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Without the staff, the Czar was powerless. He could no longer control his subjects... Revolution! Revolution!

Hat Trick

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Three thefts. Hidden by the murderers. People only see what they're trained to see. What the Organization wants them to see.

The first puzzle involved using sonar to locate a Piece of Eden in the images. The first solved image.
Image of Houdini's grave.
The second solved image.
Image of Gandhi's funeral procession.
The second puzzle involved solving a Caesar cipher to obtain the access code. The solved Caesar wheel.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: The wolves are out hunting. Where, oh where, has Jack gone?

A message followed.

Apollo

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Something was up there. Something abandoned long ago.

The first puzzle involved using sonar to locate and identify the Apollo 11 landing module. The solved image.
A Masonic pigpen cipher that read "Johnson was one of them. The bee's drone too. Follow the money" was hidden in the image. The next puzzle was solved by correctly aligning the gaps across the rings. The solved image.
The third puzzle involved using sonar signals to locate the Apple of Eden. The solved image.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: With Jack deep underground, it was easy.

Hidden messages were present in a negative visible underneath the official image. When scanned, the flag on the landing module contained the Abstergo logo, and the white flag contained the Templar insignia.

The Inventor

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: He wanted to stop the cycle, to tell the secret. Shit. I've got to keep thinking through the headaches.

A message preceded the first puzzle.
The first puzzle involved activating all the lightbulbs across the world map. The first solved image.
The second puzzle was solved by finding hidden images in the photos. The second solved image.
The third solved image.
Hidden message were present in the images.

• Wardenclyffe Tower: The image hid three quotes from Nikola Tesla.
• Nikola Tesla c. 1900: A Caesar cipher reading "He used it to develop a bottomless source of energy. Telefunken Wireless Station" was hidden in arcs of energy shooting from the coil.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: He found it in Croatia. They would find it in his lab.

Titans of Industry

The first puzzle puzzle involved solving a Caesar cipher to obtain the access code. The solved puzzle.
A message followed.
The second puzzle involved breaking all lightbulbs across the globe. The solved image.
The third puzzle involved selecting the Apple of Eden held in Mark Twain's hands.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: He wanted everyone to know the secret. To set us all free. They used it to drive him insane.

A hidden Morse cipher reading "They used it to make Tesla go insane. The organization took his research. Alien Property Custodian Office." was present in the image. The fourth puzzle involved solving a Caesar cipher to obtain the access code. The solved puzzle.
A message followed.

I Am Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds

The first puzzle puzzle involved solving a Caesar cipher to obtain the access code. The solved puzzle.
A message followed.
The next image presented a big red button, which had to be pressed to continue.
A recording of the atomic bomb test followed.
The second puzzle involved using a Geiger counter to locate the numeric code. The solved image.

Bloodlines

An full speech by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: I don't know what's happening to me. I've been in the machine, they keep putting me back in. And I am losing control. It's all blurring together. I'm holding a rifle. Gettysburg is in the distance. I just stabbed a man, and there's blood on my waistcoat. I'm at the opera, the soprano is so beautiful. I'm in bed with her, she cries as I fuck her. I'm speaking at the Forum, no one listens. I'm in the forest hunting. The moon. I can see the moon. I'm here. I have to stay here until you understand! Listen. Why do we have these gifts, these abilities? Because it's in our blood.

The puzzle was solved by selecting the paintings which portrayed a union of gods and mortals. The solved image.

Guardians

The first puzzle was solved by rotating the various rings in turn until they formed an image. The solved image.
The second puzzle involved highlighting various assassination targets across the globe. The solved image.

The Cavalry

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: It happened in 1908. Uhh... Or was it 2008? 1708? I can't remember!

A message preceded the first puzzle.
The first puzzle involved selecting Tunguska on the map.
The second puzzle involved dragging the Staff of Eden to the portrait of Nikola Tesla.
A recording of the Tunguska explosion was displayed afterwards.

The Bunker

The first puzzle involved solving a Caesar cipher to obtain the access code. The solved puzzle.
A message followed.
The second puzzle was solved by locating the Assassin insignia in the image of the Führerbunker. The solved image.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: They engineered the war, they engineered the peace, but they weren't going to get away with it. Find our mark.

A hidden Caesar cipher which read "The double was killed in the bunker" was present in the image. An image of the destroyed bunker was displayed afterwards.

Synapses

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: It's getting harder. All the pain across time, it hurts too much. She sees me raise the knife. Only a little bit longer now.

The first puzzle puzzle involved solving a Caesar cipher to obtain the access code. The solved puzzle.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: In the beginning. Genesis. Genesis.

A message followed.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: The Organization wanted the pieces. They'd tasted their power. But what were the pieces? Why did they work so well? It's as if our minds were made for them. Manufactured to obey.

The second puzzle involved moving the cursor over all of the synapses.

The Fourth Day

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: The end. Almost the end. It happened before. The Pieces were once part of a whole.

The first puzzle was solved by selecting the images containing depictions of the Sun. The solved puzzle.
The second puzzle involved using sonar signals to locate the Earth within the Sun. The solved image.

A hidden message of a Hopi prophecy reading "A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which would burn the land and boil the ocean. – Hopi" was present in the image.

Origin of the Species

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: A few still know the truth. It is around us in signs, and paintings, faces, documents, but... but we don't see it. See, we are... we are blind to our own creation.

The first puzzle was solved by rotating the various rings in turn until they formed an image. The solved puzzle.
The second puzzle was solved by locating the hidden image. The solved image.
The third puzzle had the words "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted" written in it, meaning this puzzle had no right or wrong answer to it.
A message followed.

An audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: I can't do it. Can I do it? Will it set me free from this endless ring of time? I feel the guillotine cut my throat, the bullet hit my chest, the water fill my lungs. The blood spills out thick and red. It's time to get out.

The fourth puzzle was solved by using the Apple of Eden to alter the hominid skeleton into a human one. The image of skeleton being altered.

A final audio clip by Subject 16 played.

• Subject 16: Ah, the moon. I can see the stars. My mind is gone. Lucy, I can't wait any longer. I'm ready to go. She sees me raise the knife.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed II
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Unity