Bleeding Effect

Desmond's Eagle Vision, a symptom of the 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.

The Bleeding Effect was a disorder caused by overexposure to the Animus virtual machine, suggested by Lucy Stillman to be similar to "certain forms of multiple personality and delusional disorders." With increasing exposure, subjects began to experience a blending of their own real-time memories and their genetic memories, leading to difficulties in distinguishing between the two, and this eventually resulted in mental breakdown. Notably, Subject 16, Desmond Miles, and Daniel Cross suffered from the Bleeding Effect.

Manifestations

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Subject 16's messages on the floor.

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

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

Subject 16

Initially, the bleeding effect was only hinted at, with Lucy and Warren Vidic simply 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.

Subsequently, Subject 16 was labeled as an extreme case, and is thus seldom described before his breakdown. In his messages to Desmond through the Glyphs, he shows difficulty in remembering who he was and what year it was, going so far as seeming unable to recall his own name. However, he thought clearly enough to keep the goal of revealing the Truth in mind, and to leave messages and clues to do so. He became increasingly obsessed with this, leading him to write warnings to future subjects in his own blood, which resulted in his apparent suicide.

Desmond Miles

Desmond suffering from the bleeding effect.

Desmond, also referred to as Subject 17, gained the fighting and free-running abilities of his ancestors, as well as the ability to use Eagle Vision, through prolonged exposure to the Animus. This was followed by several hallucinations of his ancestors' memories, however, Desmond was told that as long as the visions were shorter than thirty seconds, he would be fine. The visions started out ghost-like and indistinct, but became longer and more vivid, at one point causing Desmond to black out.

Over time, Desmond's symptoms began to grow much worse, and he despaired to Lucy Stillman that, if he could not stop the slowly lengthening visions, it would not be much longer before he started "painting symbols on the walls." Additionally, Desmond had even begun confusing his ancestors' memories with his own; notably when he told Lucy about "the last time (he) was here" while exploring the tunnels beneath Monteriggioni, prompting Lucy to correct him that it had been Ezio who had been there.

Despite his concerns, the hallucinations proved quite useful, with Desmond being able navigate through the tunnels under the Villa Auditore, and later the Colosseum and Santa Maria Aracoeli, by following his visions of Ezio Auditore; even performing his first Leap of Faith at modern-day Monteriggioni by doing so.

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Daniel suffering from the bleeding effect.

However, Rebecca also once e-mailed Lucy that Desmond had started screaming in his sleep since they had arrived at the Sanctuary. This concern was expressed in turn by Lucy to an Assassin contact, William Miles, who sympathized with Desmond's well-being, but reminded her that they needed him in order to locate the Apple.

Later, Desmond's condition worsened to the point where he fell into a comatose state, effectively fragmenting his mind from within the Animus. To revert the damage done to his psyche, Desmond finished the remaining memories from Altaïr and Ezio to create a Sync Nexus and ultimately regain his own consciousness.

Daniel Cross

Daniel Cross' bleeding effect manifested in the form of images of people and objects from the past, as well as unknown symbols. Additionally, he experienced memories from his ancestor, Nikolai Orelov. It was formerly believed that the bleeding effect occurred naturally in Daniel, without prior exposure to an Animus, however, it was later discovered that he had in fact been placed in an older version of the Animus around 1985.

Templars

"Once you enter the machines and the transfer is complete, you will have the skills necessary to crush the remnants of Assassin Order, ending this war once and for all."

―Warren Vidic, introducing the Animus project to several Abstergo agents.

Perhaps following in the Assassins' attempts to train Desmond more quickly through use of the bleeding effect, Abstergo Industries also began to instruct present-day Templars in a similar manner. Using multiple Animi, the trainees were exposed to the memories of certain past Templars in order to incorporate their skills.

Trivia

• One of Lucy's e-mails in Assassin's Creed posits that some phenomena (such as past life regression) and mental illnesses (such as multiple personality disorder) could stem from a rare, naturally occurring bleeding effect.