Warren Vidic

"The human race calls out for direction! They want to know why they're here, what they're meant to do. Well, we're going to tell them. And once they understand how to live their lives, everything will be better."

―Warren Vidic, 2012.

Warren Vidic (c. 1940s – 2012) was a member of the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order and the Director of the Animus Project at Abstergo Industries. His latter position was acquired as the world's leading pioneer of research on genetic memory and the inventor of the Animus. For decades, he was in charge of finding new subjects for the Animus, through which he could explore their genetic memories to uncover vital intelligence on both the Assassins and the Pieces of Eden.

His advances in the realm of genetic memory, spanning from the 1970s to his death in 2012, were characterized by sabotage of competitors such as Aileen Bock of the Surrogate Initiative and coercion of individuals against their will to serve as his subjects for the Animus. Although he himself was designated as Subject 2, a vast majority of his subjects were obtained via abductions, most notably the Assassin descendants Daniel Cross, Clay Kaczmarek, and Desmond Miles.

For his part in twisting Cross into a sleeper agent, Vidic was a major catalyst of the Great Purge of 2000, whereby the Assassins were almost annihilated across the world due to Cross's assassination of their leader, the Mentor, and his subsequent flight back to Abstergo with knowledge of their bases.

As one of the nine members of the Inner Sanctum, Vidic was party to the full extent of the Templars' plots for their New World Order, which they hoped to achieve by launching the Eye-Abstergo, a key component of the Akashic Satellite Plexus that would entail world domination. To that end, he was assigned the critical mission of locating a Piece of Eden to power the Eye-Abstergo especially in the aftermath of the Denver International Airport incident that destroyed the Apple of Eden 2.

In September 2012, after Clay Kaczmarek, known as Subject 16, was driven to suicide from the Bleeding Effect, Vidic replaced him with Desmond Miles, a descendant of the legendary Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. While he was able to force Desmond into reliving Altaïr's memories until he witnessed a map detailing the sites of Isu temples, he nevertheless allowed Desmond to be rescued by the Assassins in the hopes that his double agent Lucy Stillman could subsequently steal whatever Piece of Eden they discovered through Desmond's willful cooperation. Ultimately, this scheme, termed Project Siren, was foiled when Desmond killed Lucy under the influence of the Isu Juno, just after he had acquired another Apple of Eden.

This setback did little to discourage Vidic, who in the meantime operated the Animi Training Program to flash-train new recruits such as Juhani Otso Berg, a Finnish mercenary who would become the Order's deadliest field operative. Through Berg, Vidic was able to facilitate the capture of Desmond's father, the Assassin leader William Miles, on 12 December 2012, whom he was confident could be ransomed to the Assassins in exchange for Desmond's Apple of Eden. His prediction proved to be wrong when, two days later, Desmond stormed his facility in Rome and used the Apple to force Vidic's own guards to kill him.

Biography

Early life

A former Ivy League professor of ill repute, Warren Vidic was disgraced and facing possible jail time over numerous ethical violations from his scientist days. He was given a second chance at Abstergo Industries however, though with a few restraints. Working for the company since at least 1964. He was often said to be unpleasant to work with, and was constantly engrossed in his work, concentrating on the progress that he and his employees made.

A young Vidic holding an infant Nathalie in 1964

On 4 August 1964, the young Templar was onboard the USS Maddox near Vietnam, where under the orders of William King Harvey, a CIA director and high-ranking Assassin who was in fact a Templar double agent, he took charge of the pregnant and seriously injured Assassin Zenia. Unable to save the mother, Vidic nevertheless managed to save the child, whom her father, the Assassin Boris Pash, named Nathalia.

Harvey, using the newborn's life as leverage, informed Pash that "Nathalie" would be raised by Vidic to ensure that Pash would now serve the Templars, and ordered him to give all his research on Project BLUEBIRD to the young prodigy, who was impatient to study the concept of genetic memories uncovered by Pash. A reluctant Pash complied and surrendered his research, as well as his Apple of Eden, to the Templars.

During the following years, Vidic raised the young Nathalie while expanding his understanding of genetic memory to the point where he was able to create early prototypes of what would one day become the Animus. However, around 1977, Vidic made the mistake of using Nathalie as his test subject, who through the memories of her father discovered that she was in fact a hostage of the Templars. Decided to take her revenge, the thirteen-year-old girl escaped Vidic's laboratory with Pash's Apple of Eden and a copy of the Animus blueprints, the latter of which she gave to the Assassin William Miles.

Developing the Animus

Vidic's development of the Animus was in fierce competition with the Surrogate Initiative, spearheaded by his colleague Aileen Bock. In order to ensure that his project would keep the upper hand between the two, Vidic secretly wiretapped the offices, laboratories, and phones of Bock and her co-workers. Vidic later transferred countless hours of these illegal recordings onto a set of 160 reel-to-reel tapes and kept them in his home.

While the Animus was based on Vidic's theories and research, he was not the one who physically constructed the device. Lucy Stillman oversaw the assembly of the units, which were built by a team of Abstergo engineers, though Vidic retained authority over the Animus Project from its inception. It was around this time that Vidic himself took part in the Animus Project, as Subject 2, and viewed, among others, the memories of his ancestor Geoffroy Thérage, the executioner of Jeanne d'Arc.

Sometime before this, Vidic had recruited Lucy into working for Abstergo. Though Lucy was attempting to finish her doctorate in the university she studied at the time, her professors disliked the subject of her doctorate, calling it a "pseudo-science" that would discredit and embarrass them if she were to pursue it.

From there, Lucy approached several other universities and companies, receiving the same reactions ubiquitously, until she eventually received a letter from Vidic. He claimed that he had been following her work since she was an undergraduate, and that he found great promise in it, as well as her. Flattered and being left with little other choice, Lucy accepted the position she was offered at Abstergo. Later though, she wondered whether Abstergo had been behind the widespread rejection of her theories from the beginning.

Vidic kept a close eye on Lucy when she joined the Animus Project, and once rescued her from an attempt on her life by three men, who were her co-workers. After Vidic saved her, he promised her that they would never bother her again.

Early subjects

"I admit, I felt a certain sense of almost fatherly pride, seeing our boy grown and carrying on our work."

―Vidic in an email to Alan Rikkin, regarding Daniel Cross, 2000.

Vidic operating on Subject 4 in the 1980s

In 1983, Vidic began to experiment on Subject 4 of the Animus Project, a young boy who would later be named "Daniel Cross." Placing Daniel in the Animus to relive the memories of his ancestor, the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov, Vidic also experimented on him using a replicated Piece of Eden. Before setting him free, however, Vidic embedded Daniel with a subconscious impulse to kill the Mentor of the Assassin Order if he would ever meet him.

In 2010, Vidic was already laying the groundwork for the experimental Animi Training Program, recruiting promising subjects such as Juhani Otso Berg. One night, Vidic led an Abstergo strike team into Berg's home in Helsinki, where he supplied Abstergo-brand medicine to Berg's ailing toddler, Elina. Promising more of the medicine to help cure the girl, Vidic was able to convince Berg to join the program.

Together, Vidic and Lucy worked on Subject 15, who was a pregnant woman. Their experiments did have difficulties with the Animus though, which began reading the genetic memories from both Subject 15 and her baby's father, stemming from the fetus. Lucy eventually became concerned about the subject's well-being and advised Vidic stop exposing her to the Animus; the latter agreed, but secretly contacted Steve Gibbs to dispose of the subject.

Over time, Vidic grew impatient with how long it took for his subjects to gain enough synchronization with their ancestors and access further memories. This, along with receiving much pressure from his superiors, led him to ignore Lucy's warnings and force Subject 16, Clay Kaczmarek, into the Animus for days on end.

As a result, Clay began to suffer severely from the Bleeding Effect, which caused him to hallucinate and confuse the lives of his ancestors with his own. This eventually led him to a mental breakdown, wherein he had to be restrained by several Abstergo employees and injected with Paliperidone.

It was too late however, as Clay had come into contact with the Isu Juno during his hallucinations, and after creating a digital duplicate of his consciousness inside the Animus, he committed suicide, using his blood to inscribe several cryptic messages on the wall of his room. Vidic later requested Lucy to assign a linguist and a historian to research and decipher these messages.

Subject 17

"I'm about ready to pull the plug on your Subject Seventeen. So either get me results or get another person into that Animus."

―An e-mail from Alan Rikkin to Vidic, 2012.

Vidic explaining the Animus to Desmond

In September 2012, Vidic authorized the capture of the seventeenth test subject, a bartender named Desmond Miles from New York City. After his retrieval, Vidic and Lucy personally oversaw Desmond's interactions in the Animus 1.28 at the Abstergo laboratory in Rome, Italy. At first, Vidic found the new subject both unwilling and subconsciously insecure enough to explore his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's memories. He only managed to gain his cooperation after threatening to medically induce a coma, force Desmond into the Animus, and discard his body afterwards.

However, despite Desmond's cooperation, progress was slow. After Clay had committed suicide, Lucy was overly protective of Desmond's health, and insisted on short sessions within the Animus to avoid the Bleeding Effect. Irritable over the strict deadlines imposed by his superiors, Vidic initially accused Stillman of "insubordination" when she questioned his authority. However, after Lucy argued that overworking the subject was "stupid" and would result in having "nothing", Vidic reluctantly consented to her requests for Desmond to rest.

Vidic waking Desmond

As the week went on, though, and as Desmond made progress within the Animus, Vidic's mood swung from short-tempered to calm and collected. This shift in temperament followed modifications Lucy made to the Animus, which allowed Desmond to remain in the simulation for extended periods without risk. During one such day, whilst looking out over the skyline outside his laboratory, Vidic deliberately left his access pen in plain sight in his pocket, allowing Desmond to steal it "without him noticing".

At the beginning of each day, Vidic was often the one to wake Desmond and order him into the Animus. During these intervals, Vidic lectured Desmond on the Templar Order's historical influence and their pursuit of a world guided by "order and discipline". Vidic further claimed that Abstergo or its predecessors were behind nearly every major historical breakthrough, asserting that the company did not invent these advancements but rather "found" them as gifts from "Those Who Came Before".

Towards the end of the week, as Desmond began to approach the conclusion of his journey within his ancestor's memories, Vidic started to become much more eager and insistent on a quick closure. After witnessing the death of Al Mualim and the activation of the Apple of Eden in Desmond's genetic memories, Vidic recorded the map displayed within the memory. Declaring triumphantly, "We've got it", he confirmed that the map had revealed the locations of at least half a dozen other Pieces of Eden.

Vidic and Lucy overseeing Desmond

As Desmond awoke, he observed three men in business suits—Alan Rikkin, David Kilkerman, and Henry Liman—in the laboratory's observation room. The men began discussing the session results with Vidic, and insisted upon Desmond's immediate termination. Though Vidic agreed, Lucy interrupted, claiming that Desmond could still be of use to them. She and Vidic argued to the point of Warren claiming that Lucy was undermining his authority. Ordering Desmond back into his room, Vidic left the laboratory.

Soon after this, realizing the threat on Desmond's life, Lucy revealed herself to be allied to the Assassins and helped Desmond escape Abstergo. Secretly, however, this was part of a plot masterminded by Vidic to take Desmond to a more comfortable environment, where he would willingly continue to explore his ancestors' memories.

Pursuing Desmond

"We miss you terribly. There's still so much work for us to do together."

―Vidic to Desmond, during his attempt to recapture him, 2012.

The next day, Vidic received word of Desmond's escape and Lucy's "betrayal". Abstergo quickly started tracking the Assassins down, and within three days, Vidic led an assault on the Assassins' warehouse hideout.

Vidic confronting Desmond and Lucy in the hideout

Accompanied by a contingent of Abstergo security guards, Vidic attempted to apprehend Desmond and Lucy, arriving just as Desmond finished exploring the memory of another of his ancestors, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, after the conflict at the Vatican Vault and Minerva's message. Vidic attempted to coerce Desmond into coming peacefully, whilst berating Lucy for turning on him.

Both Assassins rejected his offer, and so Vidic ordered his guards to take them by force, while he himself merely watched from the open back of a truck. Minutes later, however, following the death or incapacitation of his men, Vidic was confronted by Desmond.

Desmond challenged Warren to face him, but Vidic only told him that it was a matter of time until he and Lucy were "both back where they belonged." Then, after commenting that the Assassins should enjoy their temporary victory, he fled.

Unbeknownst to the Assassins, the true intention behind the attack was to obtain the tapes of Desmond's Animus sessions that were intentionally left at the hideout by Lucy. Following the attack, Vidic maintained contact with Lucy via e-mail, using the name "William M." as a pseudonym. He reminded her to not let her friendship with Desmond jeopardize the Templars' plans.

Animi Training Program

"You serve Abstergo well, and your skills in the Animus continue to impress."

―Vidic to Juhani Otso Berg, 2012.

Vidic with the second stage operatives of the Animi Training Program

Upon his return to Abstergo, Vidic began to lead a mass training of several of Abstergo's loyal agents, using Animi in the same way as the Assassins had trained Desmond. Purposefully using the Bleeding Effect, he began to infuse them with the skills necessary to track down and defeat the Assassins.

Impressed by some of the recruits, Vidic progressed them to the next training program and awarded them with wealth and a privileged status in society. He even appeared to Juhani Otso Berg with a toast upon arriving at their new mansion. Berg was eventually inducted into the Inner Sanctum and was soon sent after the leader of the Assassins, William Miles, who had finally been located.

Death

Vidic: "Not so fast, Mister Miles. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm the one calling the shots here. Now give me the Apple."

Desmond: "You want it? Fine. Here it is."

—Vidic and Desmond, before the latter used the Apple to kill him, 2012.

When the Templar agents successfully captured William Miles in December 2012, Vidic sent Desmond and his team a video proposing a deal: the Apple of Eden recovered by Desmond in exchange for William's safe return. Despite the fact that William told the team to forget him, Desmond decided to rescue his father.

Vidic pleading for his life before being killed

Once Desmond arrived at the Abstergo facility in Rome, Vidic ordered him to come in peacefully. Desmond refused, killing any security guards who crossed his path. In retaliation, Vidic sent Daniel Cross to deal with the Assassin. However, once Cross had Desmond cornered, he began to suffer from the Bleeding Effect and fled, trying to deal with his mental breakdown.

Vidic, frustrated with Desmond, stated that he was no longer an asset to Abstergo and authorized the guards to kill him on sight. Meanwhile, Desmond pursued Cross through the Animus Training Facility and killed him. Vidic was furious at Cross's death, screaming that the Assassins only took while Templars gave the world order and peace.

Eventually, Desmond reached Vidic's office, where his father sat surrounded by armed guards. As Vidic demanded that Desmond hand over the Apple, Desmond pulled out the artifact, but instead of surrendering it, he used it to influence the guards. Vidic, having failed to anticipate this outcome, could only plead for his life as the guards, under the Apple's mind-control, turned their weapons on Warren and shot him before killing themsleves.

Legacy

Desmond: "You think killing Vidic set Abstergo back?"

William: "I doubt it. Sure, he pioneered the Animus, but they've had the technology for decades now. Plenty of other people can take his place."

—Desmond and William Miles discussing Vidic's death, 2012.

Vidic's memorial message

Warren Vidic's commitment to genetic memory research and the development of Animus technology significantly advanced the Templar Order's rediscovery of Isu relics, lost human ancestry, and ancient but lost historical knowledge. His work initiated decades of DNA exploration and explotation that was researched at many of Abstergo facility's worldwide to recover insights that would help the Templars shape their agenda for years to come.

Through his experimentation on a young Daniel Cross, Vidic also played a central role in the downfall of the modern-day Assassin Brotherhood. Thanks to the secret mental implant in Cross' brain, the unknowing double agent killed the Assassins' Mentor, dealing a devastating blow to the Brotherhood that allowed the Templars to catch their sworn enemies off-guard and raid countless of their safehouses around the world. This event decimated the Brotherhood and reduced it to a shadow of its former self.

Abstergo also profited financially from Vidic’s research by launching entertainment products such as the Animus Omega and films based on genetic memories, further expanding the reach of the Templar agenda through mass media. After his sudden death in 2012, Abstergo discovered a hidden set of tapes concerning the Surrogate Initiative in his home. The tapes were transferred into Abstergo's mainframe and a select few were accessed via hacking by the research analyst "Noob" working for Abstergo Entertainment in 2013.

After killing Vidic, Desmond asked William whether his death had dealt a major blow to the Templars. William responded that it was unlikely, as Abstergo still had others just as capable as Vidic. Nonetheless, Vidic's death threw the Inner Sanctum into disarray. His replacement and rival, Álvaro Gramática, was unable to unify the Templars around a common goal as effectively as Vidic had. As a result, the Templars were eventually forced to indefinitely suspend the Eye-Abstergo project after failing to retrieve the Apple of Eden in time.

Personality and traits

"I believe there was a book that claimed the world was created in seven days. Best-seller too!"

―Vidic to Desmond Miles, regarding the Bible, 2012.

Warren Vidic was a hardened scientist and fanatical member of the Templar Order who did all he could to make progress in his work, even if it meant undermining others, as evidenced in his illegal tapping of the Surrogate Initiative's phones. Although he was an intelligent man, he was also somewhat absent-minded, and often needed reminding of passcodes. He was also careless with his access pen, which he often allowed to hang loosely out of his pocket; this resulted in him losing it once in the parking lot, and again, far more seriously, to his test subject Desmond in the Abstergo laboratories.

Vidic talking with Desmond Miles

His total devotion to scientific breakthroughs to further the Templar cause resulted in exceptionally poor bedside manners for a doctor. When attempting to coerce Desmond into complying during his captivity, Vidic expressed disdain for the "barbaric" and "stupid" nature of human society, which he believed had failed to improve in the thousand years since Altaïr's time. Despite acknowledging that Miles exhibited a far better adoption rate in the Animus than previous test subjects, Vidic remained clinical and ruthless, viewing Desmond primarily as a container for information "locked away" in his head. Vidic made it clear that Desmond's cooperation was merely a matter of convenience, threatening to induce a coma and discard his body once the necessary data was retrieved.

As an atheist, Vidic lacked belief in any god, asserting that many religious artifacts such as the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Apple were simply technology left behind by Those Who Came Before. Ruthless, yet clumsy, he had a short temper and showed little care for the welfare of his test subjects. However, Vidic could be devious, orchestrating a plan with Lucy Stillman for her to take Desmond away from Abstergo and retrieve the Piece of Eden when it had been discovered by her and her Assassin colleagues, Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings, dubbed "Project Siren".

While Vidic may be unrelenting, he was not entirely without compassion or compromise. He approached Juhani Otso Berg with a generous offer into Abstergo in exchange for further medical treatment for the latter's daughter; he even accepted Berg's request to let him kill the guard who had upset young Elina. Vidic had grown fond of Lucy Stillman and Daniel Cross. After convincing Lucy to defect from the Assassins, he took her into his confidence, teaching her the Templar ways. Unlike with most of his subordinates, he was willing to grant whatever requests Lucy made, if it would help serve the mission. Likewise, he expressed great pride in Daniel, considering him as a sort of son, albeit a "sickly son." Both Lucy and Daniel's deaths hit Vidic hard, and he would not rest until they were avenged.

Trivia

• Warren is a name related to the word warden via the Germanic root *war-, meaning "to protect, to defend, to guard": the word's sense of "enclosed area" comes from the Gaulish word varenna, of the same meaning.
• An e-mail from Alan Rikkin confirmed that Vidic was in possession of a Crystal Skull.
• In the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer, Vidic features in the introductory video and as the narrator for the training program.
• A letter within the Cluster puzzles, discussing the partial reproduction of the Pieces of Eden's mind control signal over a television network, was signed with the initials W.V.
• In Assassin's Creed, Vidic has a pin on the left side of his coat that was identical to the cloak clasps worn by Robert de Sable in Jerusalem, featuring a variant of the Templar insignia.
• Vidic was part of the development team for Abstergo’s Liberation video game.

Gallery

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  Concept art of Vidic
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  Vidic as he appears in Assassin's Creed
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  Vidic's I.D
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  Vidic's email profile picture
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  A poster of Vidic found in the Abstergo Rome facility
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  Vidic receiving a call about the Assassin raid
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  Vidic reporting his progress to three Abstergo executives
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  Vidic escaping the failed raid on the Assassin hideout
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  Vidic briefing the Animi Training Program recruits
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  Vidic speaking to Juhani Otso Berg
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  Vidic toasting Berg
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  Vidic and Laetitia England briefing the Master Templars
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  Vidic holding William Miles captive
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  Vidic demanding the Apple from Desmond

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed II
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: The Fall
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
  • The Lost Archive
• Assassin's Creed: The Chain
• Assassin's Creed III
• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (name only)
• Assassin's Creed: Initiates
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (voice only)
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue (voice only)
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Heresy (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone
• Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game (mentioned only)