Abstergo Industries

Ezio, my friend! How may I be of service? This article is in desperate need of a revamp. Please improve it in any way necessary in order for it to achieve a higher standard of quality in accordance with our Manual of Style.

"We change the world. Every day, in a hundred different ways. Did you know that every single breakthrough of the last millennia, be it medical, mechanical or philosophical, has come from Abstergo, or its predecessors?"

―Warren Vidic to Desmond Miles.

Abstergo Industries was by 2012 one of the largest multinational corporations in the World, outwardly labelled as being aa pharmaceutical development company. It was responsible for the majority of technological development that occured it the past millenia. However, it was also secretly a primary front for the Templar Order and it's goal was to establish a New World Order, in which the humans would be mind controlle by artifacts known as Pieces of Eden.

History

1940's

File:Henry Ford.jpg

Henry Ford, a Templar in the 1940's.

On July 22, 1944, an unknown member of the company sent out a message to his fellow members. In it, the assembly line to control capitalists and workers was mentioned. Ransom "Ranny" Olds and Henry Ford were credited for its creation. This unknown individual also expressed hope that they would not have to use such means again.

It was mentioned that Abstergo's founding memvers designed the "World War II " in 1910. This individual also brought up the Communists and said it was Abstergo's duty to save (neutralize) them and their followers. The reasons given were that they were to be allowed to eat and reproduce.

The sender of the message mentioned that their duty was "to shepherd those beneath us through life, even if force is required".He also mentioned his fellow Templars Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler and credited them for the bringing of "turmoil and fear", reffering to World War II. Towards the end of the message, he also brought up " the succesful ruse of Rockfeller's dimes".

1950's

Abstergo was responsible for British mathematician Alan Turing's criminal prosecution and possibly his death. In a phone recording dating to June 1954, also recorded by Subject 16, two Templars only known by the initials "V." and "N" mention the need for Turing to be arrested.

They feared "mass unemployment" if the mathematician did end up creating a computer, as the artificial intelligence would substitute human workers. The two men also mentioned American economist and senior U.S. Treasury Department official Harry Dexter White.

1960's

Glyph puzzle proof.

In one of the glyphs it was shown that there was an Apple of Eden on the Moon, the picture being subtitled: "With Jack deep underground, it was easy.", "Jack" being former American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

As the glyph stated, Kennedy was assassinated by the Templars because he had planned to do a joint moon landing with the Soviet Union. However, the Templars knew that one of the artifacts was hidden on the Moon and they weren't considering sharing it. Thus they killed Kennedy, went on with the moon project and assigned a Templar, Nixon, for presidency, to recover the Piece of Eden in 1969.

1970's

Abstergo involved itself in the economic and political affairs of South Africa, Argentina, Chile, and Iran. This information was also revealed by Subject 16 via a company message hidden in a glyph.The message stated that if they were to succed, the company's agent must moove freely between countries and mantain power within all of them.

In Argentina, the message tells members to inform capitalists that if they helped ensure that the junta stays in power, Abstergo would pass all their corporate debt onto the Argentine people, thus quelling any attempts of popular revolt.

The author of the message also added that they wanted Argentinian trade unions there to be destroyed. The actions of Abstergo likely contributed to the disappearance of at least 30,000 Argentinian people in the 1970s.

File:Allende.jpg

Salvador Allende, former president of Chile.

In neighboring Chile, Abstergo wanted the free markets to proceed. The memo mentioned a Templar known as "F.", who visited the country last year, thus helping things along. The memo went on to state that all public companies would need to be sold to the private sector, preferably at a cheap price.

It was said that the price of bread and other staples must rise, ensuring that the Chilean people remain in poverty, unable to resist. Abstergo's efforts ended up thwarting President Salvador Allende's socialist efforts to allow the people to own Chile's corporations, which ended with his apparent suicide in 1973. This helped future dictator Augusto Pinochet to assume power. Abstergo escaped detection because it deliberately hid its involvement and implicated the U.S. government.

In Iran, Abstergo backed monarch Shah Pahlavi, Sha'baan Ja'fari, and the National Intelligence and Security Organization, otherwise known as SAVAK, against democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. This resulted in Mosaddegh being overthrown in 1953 and dying under house arrest in 1967.

Subject 4, Daniel Cross.

1980's

In September 1985, the research division of Abstergo worked on a prototype capable of mimicking Piece of Eden capabilities across a network. They also began testing on Subject 4.

1990's

In 1991 in Russia, they helped Boris Yeltsin to overthrow Gorbachev, the legitimate head of the state and reformer of the Soviet Union to democracy. Privatization started, the people were deceived and state property was overtaken by oligarchs.

2000's

In November 2004, a member of the CIA named Gary discovered Abstergo through research and wrote a book about it.. He told a female associate via a phone call that Abstergo had holdings in numerous global companies (Kraft, Coke etc.) and that in fact, Abstergo had interests in all companies over a certain size. He was going to publish the book so people could know the truth. His call was, however, intercepted by the Templars and it is presumed that he was threatened.

Justice of the Supreme Court and Templar Antonin Scalia convinced Sandra O'Connor to retire. He sent a letter to his fellow Templar "S." It it, he mentioned that "W". (George W. Bush) would restart animosities with Iraq, giving "C."'s (Dick Cheney) contractors more work. After the destruction of the Campaign finance laws, the company would be free to elect anyone they choose to the Senate, House, and eventually the Presidency.

Abstergo used closed circuit television to spy on civilians and used online gaming to distract them. The secret menu was located between channels 172 and 173 and it has the owner's names, credit card number, their likes, EEG, and ARAS. In April 2011, a man named Mr. Jameson found out about this and called his cable company, Comstatic. In response, Abstergo sent someone to 'deal with' him and his twelve year old son Paul.

In January 2012, the head of the company left the company to an unknown person. He warned his successor of a crisis, that once the free market falls, the people will turn against them.

Products

"Guess the shit's really hit the fan this time."

―An Abstergo employee e-mailing Warren V. about the Fluoride failure.

In one of Desmond's conversations with Lucy, she revealed that Abstergo was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with their primary focus being anti-depressants. Vidic mentioned that Abstergo was responsible of nearly every single breakthrough over the past millennia to enhance everyday life, helped by their discovery of Pieces of Eden, but without taking any credit for it.

It was also stated in an e-mail to Warren Vidic, that Abstergo was secretly experimenting their products on people, and that one of their experimentations had failed, poisoning an entire town. Information about this incident had partly been leaked, causing the whole pharmaceutical division of the company to be closed down for investigation. The product Abstergo was experimenting with was named "New Fluoride".

Abstergo Industries was also planning to launch a telecommunication satellite; however, this was just their cover-up story. Secretly, they were planning to launch a Piece of Eden into orbit by satellite. The date of the launch was set forward when the US goverment began investigating Abstergo because of the "New Fluoride"..

Goals

File:Apple-of-Eden.jpg

The Apple, a Piece of Eden.

As the greatest industrial force the Templars owned, Abstergo shared the same beliefs as the Templars; order and discipline, through force and control. Since the late Middle Ages, the Templars started realizing the power the Pieces of Eden had over mankind, and thus started searching for them. In Modern Times they used Desmond Miles to access the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, to get a hold of a map of these artifacts, which they then started searching for; being more interested in total control, and possession of all Pieces.

Their goals changed as they sought control to unify the entire world using these artifacts, going from "lasting peace, no matter what the cost" to the "New World Order". To accomplish this, they had to reach their ultimate goal; launching a Piece of Eden into orbit around Earth and using it to control people.

The Animus Project

The Animus Project's purpose was to research the subject's genetic memory via an Animus. There have been 17 subject so far.

Subject 4

Main article: Daniel Cross

Subject 4, or Daniel Cross, was mentioned in a letter dated September, 1985, in which an individual signed "W.V." (Warren Vidic) reported on making a prototype Piece of Eden replica, and its use on Subject 4 between their Animus sessions.

During his captivity, Cross not only had his memories explored, but was embedded with an impulse that would force him to kill the Mentor if he was ever presented with the opportunity. In the year 2000, Cross acted upon this impulse and succeeded in his objective.

Subject 12Edit

Subject 12 was the direct descendant of an individual involved in (or subjected to) the Philadelphia Project; an event wherein the USS Eldridge manifested itself in a future state for approximately eighteen minutes.

Subject 15Edit

Main article: Subject 15

Subject 15 was female and pregnant. She suffered the bleeding effect by seeing memories of her ancestors and other people from different time periods. She also experienced "memory-within-memory" patterns due to being pregnant, as the memories of the fetus's father conflicted with Subject 15's own ancestors' memories. After Lucy discovered some adverse effects of the Animus on the subject, she e-mailed Warren Vidic, warning him of said effects. Warren told Lucy that the experiments on Subject 15 would stop, and then sent a disposal unit and had James Morse file an "accident" report.

Subject 16

Main article: Subject 16

Subject 16 was, as his moniker suggests, the sixteenth individual to undergo Abstergo's experiments. As a result of the bleeding effect, Subject 16 went insane and used his own blood to write cryptic messages throughout the Abstergo laboratory and his sleeping quarters.

Like his successor, Subject 16 was a direct descendant of Ezio Auditore. During his time at Abstergo Industries, 16 managed to hack into the Animus, and placed several hidden glyphs and rifts throughout the Animus' projection of Ezio's genetic memories. These puzzles were later located by Subject 17, who, upon solving them, was granted access to one of 16's own memories.

Subject 17

Main article: Desmond Miles

Subject 17, or Desmond Miles, was brought to Abstergo against his will, and was threatened with a coma and death if he did not participate in Warren Vidic's experiments. Upon agreeing to the experiment, Desmond explored the memories of his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. Just before escaping Abstergo with Lucy Stillman, Desmond entered the original Animus one final time to witness the birth of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore. Desmond and Lucy sneaked out of the facility and fought off Abstergo guards before entering Lucy's car. Later, he arrived at one of the Assassins' hideouts and explored the memories of Ezio Auditore in order to exploit the bleeding effect and learn the skills necessary to become a true Assassin.

Known employees

File:Abstergoppl.png

Some employees at Abstergo

Current employees

• S.
• Erica Nichols
• Robert Klein
• Caroline Grey
• Carson Kairns
• Alan Rikkin – CEO of Abstergo.
• Warren Vidic – Head of Research for genetic memory and the Animus project.
• Nancy Nilop – Human Resources agent.
• Jane Birkam – Position is unknown, friend of Warren Vidic.
• Audrey Jacobs – Alan Rikkin's assistant.
• Richard – One of the three men that threatened to kill Lucy Stillman, before being stopped by Vidic.
• James Morse - Abstergo employee whose Abstergo e-mail can be accessed from their website by inputting the login password "PFRDVJ5aLLg".

Former employees

• Lucy Stillman
• Leila Marino (deceased)

Trivia

• Abstergo is a Latin verb, meaning "I cleanse."
• In the Truth file regarding Apollo, scanning the American flag on the Eagle shows the Abstergo logo, suggesting that Abstergo Industries was behind the moon landings. Similarly, scanning the white flag planted on the moon reveals the Templar cross.
• During Ezio's visit to the vault, the Abstergo logo can be seen on several images projected by Minerva.
• During the Retrieval of the Apple, when Desmond activated the Sixth Apple, several symbols started to appear around him. Of the symbols that appeared, the Abstergo Logo is one that appears quite frequently.
• In the concept art for the Vault, what looks like the Abstergo logo can be seen on the floor of the circular room in which Ezio fights Rodrigo.
• Abstergo's Animi room has a wall with a large window in the shape of the Templar cross.
• The doors within the laboratory are marked with blue lights in the shape of the Templar cross.
• In Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy, the player is an Abstergo employee. However, the player does not seem to be aware of the company's association with the Templar Order or their war against the Assassins.
• Abstergo has a Twitter page for Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy.
• The multiplayer mode of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is played from the point of view of Abstergo employees undergoing training in the Animi.
• In the game Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles the Abstergo logo is present in many forms throughout the games (visibility meter and loading screen).
• The Abstergo logo symbolises the Penrose Triangle, first created by the Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd, he described the triangle as "impossibility in it's purest form".

Gallery

Locations

• Philadelphia facility.
  Philadelphia facility.
• An Animus in the Florence facility.
  An Animus in the Florence facility.
• A symbol on the floor of Abstergo, Florence facility.
  A symbol on the floor of Abstergo, Florence facility.
• Abstergo's Animi room
  Abstergo's Animi room
• File:AbstergoAnimusRoom.png

People

• 
  Doctor Warren Vidic.
• 
  Subject 4, 'Daniel Cross'.
• 
  Subject 17, Desmond Miles.
• Vidic's assistant, Lucy Stillman.
  Vidic's assistant, Lucy Stillman.

Notes and references

{{ACFC}