Still Life

                             Template:WPmemories 

Still Life is a memory in the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC pack for Assassin's Creed II.

Description

Girolamo Savonarola is using the Apple to control the influential nobles of Florence. A painter is one of the nobles controlled by Savonarola. The painter orders the people of Florence to burn every piece of scripture and source of knowledge.

Dialogue

Ezio Auditore begins to find a way to get close to the Painter.

• Painter: Reject the base and material! Seek salvation in the flames! The brush, the pen, the sculptor's clay! These are the Devil's tools, and what wretched things they birth!So today I call upon you to cast off these abominations; and consign them to the flames that you may be cleansed, that you may be FREE! Give them up – or my guards will do it for you!

When I first became a painter, I did so as a means to express my devotion to God. Here, there was an opportunity to grow closer to him. For, if divinity was perfection, then surely capturing it would be divine? It seemed a righteous work. A form of prayer – of worship. And if others might gaze upon my creations and see something of the Lord within – well, would they not be also brought closer to Him?

And so I thought myself an altruist. A speaker. A preacher. A guide to those who had lost their faith. But in truth, I was deceived.

The Devil is a crafty sort, his manipulations, many. I thought my works were windows, but in truth, they were doors. Doors that allowed his corrupting influence to enter into our world. My art did not comfort people – but poisoned them instead! Made them lustful and base and immoral when before they were not. I had been deceived!

But now I have a chance to make amends. To undo the damage I have wrought. I pray that you will join me! Free yourselves of deception and corruption! Give up your blasphemous works! Ink and canvas evoke desire, which in turn, births jealousy and rage. Destroy them! Suppress such emotions for they are dangerous! Dedicate yourselves wholly unto our Lord and his prophet, Savonarola!"

Ezio assassinates the painter.

• Painter: What have I done... What have I done...
• Ezio: Your actions were not your own.
• Painter: But they were! My own self-doubt let him hold me has he did. I am sorry.
• Ezio: As am I. Non è una scelta che compio a cour leggero. Requiescat in pace. (This is not a choice I make lightly. Rest in peace).

Outcome

Ezio succeeds in assassinating him. The Medici guards take control of the district.