User blog:Smoke3723/AC3 Theories

News of Assassin's Creed 3 is now all over the Wiki, and people are putting forward their current theories about what's going to happen. So here's my 2 cents.

Currently everyone is speculating that Altair will return, or perhaps a descendant of Ezio. I think our ancestor will be a forefather of Altair, from before the Crusades.

The latest previews imply it will be set in Constantinople/Istanbul. Well, before it was Constantinople it was Byzantium, the capital of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines pursued a policy of keeping their enemies at each other's throats, and so their name has become synonymous with complicated polital conspiracies.

An interesting side note: as Byzantium was getting its butt kicked in its wars with Persia, it pleaded with the Western Roman Empire for military support. This was what kicked off The Crusades in Western Europe.

8 May 2011

It's been announced that the latest AC chapter will be another Ezio spin-off, although Altair will still play a part. So what do I think will happen?

Desmond's still trapped in the Animus, in a coma. Perhaps Des will experience Ezio's memories as Ezio treks to Constantinople to trace the origins of the Assassin order and prepare for its future. As Ezio researches and discovers artefacts, Desmond starts reliving them due to some kind of glitch in the Animus. Or maybe Ezio, through the Apple, relives Altair's life? Desmond reliving Ezio as he relives Altair?

24 May 2011

AC: Revelations has been confirmed as part 2.x of the trilogy. But what about AC3?

That can be my new focus for the blog: jot down the various points in history I'd like to experience AC-style. First, some criteria:

• It has to occur before Desmond's birth, otherwise he won't have the genenic memories. The cutoff is hereby deemed 1970.
• It can't be too reminiscent of any of the previous games. Therefore, all the Crusades are out; anything between 1450 and 1520 is out; the Bolshevik revolution has been done in the comics so that's out.
• It must have a reasonable chance of making it to AC3. Ubisoft have already said they're trying to set them during periods that aren't normally explored in video games, so it has to be a relatively untouched history period. Therefore the following events are out:
  • The World Wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) and the various intermediate & subsequent wars. Even if the Great War/Korea/Vietnam/etc hasn't been done too much, game-wise it will be indistinguishable from the Second World War -- and Ubi have said AC3 won't be set during WW2.
  • The Napoleonic wars. There's been a few real-time strategy games revolving around those.

Thus the question becomes:

Where/When to set AC3??

• The Gunpowder Plot.
• The execution of Charles I of England
• Catherine The Great's Russia. Or Russia during the time of Elizabeth (Katerina's mother-in-law) or Peter The Great. Here's a hint: Catherine The Great was able to convince the Orlov family to hasten the death of her husband.
• Pre-Revolutionary France, especially Versailles in the 16-1700s.
• Filibuster South America, such as the armies of William Walker
• The golden age of guano

What will happen?

As we enter the final innings of the AC series, we need to have some of the in-game questions answered. So what questions will we need to see answered?

• The Chalice: What is it? Apart from a beautiful lady? My pet theory: Desmond will be obliged to track down Adha's descendants, because the combination of Assassin and Chalice genes are....somehow important.
• Templar Satellite Launch. I think the FINAL battle will see the Satellite launched with an Apple on board and the world will become zombies, with only a handful of survivors. The zombies don't know to report the early signs of the Great Disaster and so after Des & other survivors undo the satellite's effects, the Templars see the error of their ways and become Assassins. Or, at least, the nice ones who appear in the ACB multiplayer intro cinematic do.
• The Templar Agents. We've killed Brother Ristoro et al, but what about those that came with the Da Vinci Disappearance? I want to see them as the story mode assassination targets.

Templar Speculation

After replaying various assorted AC games, it's time for some speculation about the Templars.

Mark of Cain

In AC2's Glyphs, 16 calls the Templar cross The Mark of Cain. My first reaction (and the popular one on the wiki) is that Cain, the son of Adam & Eve who killed his own brother in jealousy, was the first Templar. Even the Morse code on the glyph indicates this is the "adapted" history of the Templar order.

Could it be that the Templars were entrusted with the Pieces Of Eden after the First Civilisation perished? That the Templars are descended from those who successfully averted the First Disaster? Maybe someone amongst them realised their potential for world domination and turned them to evil, thus becoming the modern Templars.

Maybe, once upon a time, the Templars were more like the Assassins: good guys acting as guardians of the various PoEs. But something changed and they became the "slavery is good" brigade.

Name of the Brotherhood

The Assassins call their mortal enemies Templars, and that's the name that has stuck. But is that their ACTUAL name? Al-Mualim merely recites their slogan and then lets them be. The only other one who calls them Templars is the informant we beat up in Masyaf, and one can hardly expect him to be in on all their secrets.

While the Assassins call them Templars and that name has stuck, I think the Templar Knights were just another front like Abstergo Industries. What could their real name be?