Bleeding Effect

"Prolonged exposure to the Animus caused a 'Bleeding Effect' within Subject Sixteen's genetic structure. The result was a blending of genetic and real-time memory."

―Lucy Stillman's e-mail to Warren Vidic.

File:Crypticmessages.jpg

Due to the bleeding effect, Desmond develops the ability to use Eagle Vision, allowing him to see Subject 16's Cryptic Messages.

The Bleeding Effect is a disorder caused by overexposure to the Animus, suggested by Lucy Stillman to be similar to 'certain forms of multiple personality and delusional disorders'. With increasing exposure, subjects begin to experience a blending of their own real-time memories and their genetic memories, leading to difficulty in distinguishing the two, and ultimately mental breakdown. The effect is suffered notably by Subject 16, Desmond Miles, and Daniel Cross.

Symptoms

"Though the specific symptoms may vary from subject to subject, the end result is the same: they lose their minds."

―Lucy Stillman's email to Warren Vidic.

Desmond

Desmond gains the fighting and free-running abilities of his ancestors, as well as the ability to use Eagle Vision. This is followed by hallucinations; in Assassin's Creed II, Desmond is told that as long as the visions are shorter than thirty seconds, "he'll be fine." They start out ghost-like and indistinct, but become longer and more vivid, at one point causing Desmond to black out.

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, it is shown that Desmond's symptoms are getting much worse, and Desmond despairs to Lucy Stillman about what might happen if he can't stop the slowly lengthening visions, wondering how much longer it would be before he started "painting symbols on the walls." Despite his concern, these hallucinations prove quite useful, with Desmond being able navigate through the tunnels under the Auditore Villa, and later the Colosseum, by following his visions of Ezio Auditore; even performing his first Leap of Faith at the modern Monteriggioni by doing so. However, it is seen in concerned e-mails shared between Rebecca and Lucy that Desmond has started screaming in his sleep since being at the Sanctuary.

It can also be discovered when looking through Lucy's emails in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, that a "William M" has been messaging her on the subject of "The Bleeding Effect". The email expresses his opinions on its affects on Desmond. He states that Lucy must not let her "feelings get in the way of their plans" and it also says that she should not put Desmond in any danger and that future tests will be run on Desmond.

Subject 16

Subject 16, known as an extreme case, is seldom described before his breakdown. In his messages to Desmond through the glyphs, he has difficulty remembering who he is and what year it is; however, he thinks clearly enough to keep the goal of revealing The Truth in mind, and to leave messages and clues to do so. He becomes increasingly obsessed with this, leading him to drain his own blood to write with, which ends in his apparent suicide.

Daniel Cross

In Assassin's Creed: The Fall, Daniel suffers the Bleeding Effect in normal life. He seen images of people and objects from the past, unknown symbols, and experienced memories from his ancestor, Nikolai Orelov. It is currently believed that the Bleeding Effect occured naturally in Daniel. However, the opening scene of the comic also suggests that he had been in an Animus.

Assassin's Creed

The bleeding effect is at first only hinted at, with Lucy and Vidic implying that using the Animus for prolonged periods was dangerous. Later, Lucy's email to Vidic describes it in much more detail: having been forced to use the Animus for days at a time, Subject 16 gradually became unable to control the bleeding effect, and was driven to insanity by the genetic memories he experienced outside the Animus. Eventually, after writing warnings to future subjects in his own blood, Subject 16 committed suicide.

Meanwhile, by the end of Assassin's Creed the bleeding effect is starting to show its side-effects with Desmond, as he had learned to use new skills such as Eagle Vision outside of the Animus.

Assassin's Creed II

After their escape from Abstergo, Lucy attempts to use the bleeding effect to train Desmond as an Assassin much more quickly than would otherwise be possible. He is quickly able to learn skills such as Free Running in the Animus by following the life of Ezio. The bleeding effect gets progressively worse as Desmond begins to hallucinate about his other ancestor Altaïr, who he recollected memories from in the first Animus. This allowed him to uncontrollably venture into memories without using the Animus. In one recollection, Altaïr was seen chasing Maria up a tower in Acre, where the conception of their child happened. Despite these side-effects Desmond continues to use the Animus.

Subject 16, apparently able to see Abstergo's past plots through the bleeding effect, leaves an intricate trail of evidence through the memories of his and Desmond's common ancestor, Ezio.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

In Assassin's Creed Brotherhood the bleeding effect has an important role in the multiplayer mode. Present day Templars are using Animi to increase their abiltites, in the same manner as Desmond, by training as their ancestors and letting the bleeding effect transfer their skills to them.

Assassin's Creed: The Fall

In Assassin's Creed: The Fall, Daniel Cross, a recovering drug and alcohol addict, suffers from unsettling visions of a past life, as the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov, during the Russian Revolution. He is first seen in a psychiatrist's office, then viewing Nikolai Orelov's life as an Apprentice Assassin.

Trivia

• It is interesting to question how Daniel Cross was suffering the bleeding effect, since it is not known if he was ever put in an Animus before he started to suffer its side-effects.
• One of Lucy's e-mails in the first game posits that some phenomena such as past life regression and mental illnesses such as multiple personalities could stem from a rare naturally occuring bleeding effect