Juhani Otso Berg

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Juhani Otso Berg (born 1985) is a former member of the Finnish Special Forces, and by 2012, a high-ranking agent of the Operations Division of Abstergo Industries. Later, in December of that year, Berg was inducted into the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order.

Biography

Early life

Before joining the Templars, Juhani was a part of the Utti Jaeger Regiment, which composed Finland's special forces. However, around 2010, he opted to become a mercenary, believing the pay would be better than the Jaegers. He needed the money to afford his cystic fibrosis treatments for his newborn daughter, Ilena.

One night, an Abstergo team headed by Dr. Warren Vidic broke into Berg's home and apprehended him. As Berg watched, Vidic gave Ilena Abstergo-brand medication that he promised would cure her condition, and promised more if Juhani would join him.

Faced with a solution to his daughter's illness, Berg agreed, on one condition. Vidic granted it, and Berg ruthlessly killed the Abstergo agent who had caused Ilena to wake up and cry.

Rise as a Templar

Warren Vidic briefing Juhani and other second stage operatives

On 12 October 2012, Berg was briefed alongside several other Abstergo operatives who had impressed Vidic enough to begin training in the second stage of their Animi Training Program. Warren promised Juhani and the other operatives greater power, wealth, and information on the Templars if they succeeded, but also warned that there was no backing out from that point.

On 28 October, Berg had interested his superiors within Abstergo with his training in the Animus, enough to be promoted and given greater power, wealth and freedom within the ranks of the Templar Order.

In an agent evaluation report conducted on 8 November, Ctibor Hašek identified Berg as a potential candidate for the Inner Sanctum, noting him as an obedient, loyal agent who was dedicated to the Templar cause. However, Hašek was concerned that Juhani's daughter could be a weakness.

On 16 November, Berg was sent to New York by Laetitia England, in order to investigate a cyber-security breach related to artifacts that Abstergo was tracking, one of which was located in a Manhattan penthouse.

There, he found Daniel Cross, who had escaped the Philadelphia facility the previous day and had been subsequently injured during a confrontation with the Assassin Desmond Miles. Though Berg was attacked by Daniel, who apparently suffered another attack of the Bleeding Effect, he was able to neutralize Cross and returned him to Abstergo. Nine days later, in Helsinki, Finland, Juhani was seen spending time with his daughter.

Raid in Florence

On 28 November 2012, after an attack on the Abstergo campus by the Assassin Harlan T. Cunningham killed four Abstergo hackers and destroyed servers, Berg tailed Cunningham on the regional road SR2 in Italy. From there, Berg called his superiors and convinced them to allow him to follow the Assassin back to his base, instead of killing Harlan.

Successfully, Juhani tracked Cunningham to an Assassin base in Florence led by Adriano Maestranzi. Afterwards, he called for backup and was given command of Abstergo's Sigma strike team, before leading the Templar assault on 30 November.

Maestranzi, not wanting to abandon the base, detonated a bomb that destroyed the Assassins' hideout and files, and killed all of Sigma team except for Berg, who suffered burns that left facial scarring. Despite the outcome, Juhani's superiors were pleased with his performance, crediting him for the deaths of three Assassins – even though Cunningham escaped – and did not hold him responsible for the loss of Sigma team.

Master Templar

Daniel Cross injecting Juhani with a transmitter

On 6 December, Berg was brought to a hidden chamber in Abstergo's Philadelphia facility, where he met with Laetitia. There, she made him a Master Templar and inducted him into the Templar Order's Inner Sanctum, but also had Daniel Cross inject Berg with a tracking device so they could monitor all of his movements.

Four days later, Juhani met with Vidic, England, Cross, and several other Templar operatives within the same room in Philadelphia, where England revealed that Abstergo had located the leader of the Assassins, William Miles, in Cairo, Egypt. Soon after, Berg was dispatched with a team to capture the Assassin.

On 12 December, Berg led the reformed Sigma team in cornering William inside a museum in Cairo, and successfully captured and extracted him from the city, taking him to Abstergo's facility in Rome.

In 2013, Berg led an Abstergo team to India assigned to retrieve Jot Soora, an employee of MysoreTech and a descendant of Raza Soora. The Templars' goal was to extract memories relating to the Koh-i-Noor from Soora.

Abstergo Entertainment

By 2014, Berg took over security in Abstergo Entertainment's Montreal facilities as an "independent contractor" working for Abstergo. He, alongside Violet da Costa supervised a research analyst as they dove into the memories of Shay Cormac located in the Helix, which had a virus implanted in them.

Trivia

• Juhani is a Finnish cognate of the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "God is gracious". The name Otso is also Finnish, though archaic, meaning "bear". His last name, Berg, means "mountain" in several Germanic languages.
• In an audio file Juhani reveals to Victoria that he used the Animus to view his own ancestry once and discovered that one of his ancestors was a Viking raider.

Gallery

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  Juhani accessing the Inner Sanctum office
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  Berg being caught in an explosion during the raid on the Florentine Assassins
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  Berg in the Mumbai Assassin safehouse
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  Berg bearing the marks of his encounter with Assassins