Callum Lynch

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Callum "Cal" Lynch (born 1979) is a modern day member of the Assassin Order and a descendant of the 15th century Spanish Assassin Aguilar de Nerha.

Biography

Early years

Callum was born to Joseph and Mary Lynch on 21 October 1979, both members of the Assassin Order. At the age of seven, he witnessed the death of his mother at his father's hands, as well as his father's subsequent capture by Templar agents led by Alan Rikkin. For the next 30 years Callum lived "in the shadows", avoiding both the Assassins and Templars, until his eventual arrest for the murder of a pimp who had tried to rob him.

"Execution", imprisonment, and the Animus

On 21 October 2016, Callum was publically executed by the State of Texas, though he later learned that, with the help of the Abstergo Foundation, a Templar run initiative led by Dr. Sophia Rikkin, that his execution had been staged.

Sophia Rikkin informed Callum that he had been brought to her facility in Madrid, Spain, in order to help Abstergo find the "cure to violence" inherently present in mankind - and more specifically, the numerous descendants of historical Assassins. In order to do so, he would need to locate an artefact known as the "Apple of Eden", which was last known to be in the possession of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, a 15th century Spanish Assassin.

Callum was hooked up the Animus and equipped with Aguilar's Hidden Blades, which had previously been retrieved from the dead Assassin's burial site. Inside the machine, he was forced to relive the genetic memories of his ancestor, before being suddenly pulled out. Whilst collapsed on the floor, Callum began to see images of Aguilar in the modern day.

The next day Callum was introduced to the wider population at the facility, including Moussa, a descendant of the 18th century Haitian Assassin Baptiste. During a confusing encounter for Callum, he learned that the Assassins had protected, and continued to protect, the Apple from the Templars. Upon returning to his cell, Callum was once again greeted by a vision of Aguilar, and this time engaged in combat with the vivid image. It was at this moment that he was forcibly returned to the Animus at the insistence of Dr. Alan Rikkin, who was under pressure to locate the Apple in a timely fashion.

This time, Callum's Animus session ended violently when he rapidly desynchronized from Aguilar, following the latter's Leap of Faith within the Animus. Any cerebral damage from the rapid desynchronization was quickly prevented by Sophia’s medical team, though Callum was briefly forced into a wheelchair due to the onset of a temporary paralysis.

Reunion

The next day, Callum was greeted by Sophia's father, Alan Rikkin, who in an attempt to coerce Callum into willingly entering the Animus, informed him that his father was also present at the facility. Alan correctly assumed that Callum, rather than wanting to come to terms with his past, wished to destroy it.

Presented with his father's Hidden Blade, Callum confronted his father. Joseph informed Callum that his mother’s death had been necessary in order to keep the Templars from placing her in the Animus, and locating the Apple. Though Callum was unwilling to kill his father in cold blood, he promised to aid the Templars in locating the Apple, so that they might use it to destroy the Assassins in the modern day.

Callum once more returned to the Animus, this time willingly, in order to locate the Apple through Aguilar's memories. This time he was confronted by the facility's head of security, McGowan, who gave Callum a brief history on the Assassins. McGowan admitted that he respected the Assassins' integrity and commitment to a cause, comparing Callum unfavourably against them.

Inside the Animus, Callum witnessed the betrayal of the Templars, when Aguilar's companion, Maria, was murdered to Ojeda in order to regain the Apple. As Aguilar, in the past, escaped his Templar pursuers, Callum remained fully synchronised enough the successfully perform a Leap of Faith. Landing forcefully on the ground, the Animus arm attached to Callum jerked violently and broke, though he remained connected long enough for those present to witness Aguilar handing the Apple to Christopher Columbus. Having successfully located the Apple in Columbus' tomb in the Seville Cathedral, Sophia and Alan Rikkin were forced to evacuate the facility due to a revolt led by Moussa and his fellow Assassin captors.

Meanwhile, Callum remained connected to the Animus and was greeted by ghostly visions of several of his Assassin ancestors, from a number of historical periods, including not only Aguilar, but Callum's mother and father too. Accepting his place among the Assassins, Callum resolved to escape the facility and retrieve the Apple. Together with Moussa, Nathan, Emir, and Lin, Callum fought his way out of the facility.

Retrieving the Apple

Despite the deaths of Nathan and Emir, the Assassins were successful in escaping the facility and tracked Rikkin to London, where the Templar Order was meeting en masse to celebrate the retrieval of the Apple. Callum, Moussa, and Lin managed to infiltrate the meeting by breaking down their Hidden Blades into separate parts, before reconstructing them inside.

Callum briefly confronted Sophia who, having become disillusioned with her father's priorities - eliminating the Assassins, over eliminating violence in general - did nothing to prevent Callum from retrieving the Apple and killing her father.

Trivia

• "Callum" is a masculine Gaelic name meaning "dove" in Scottish and Irish Gaelic, continuing the trend of Assassin's Creed protagonists having avian-themed names.
• In the scene with the bulletin board showing Callum's family tree, the photograph of a young Callum has his name written as "Cal", with the "A" written as the Assassin insignia.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Movie (First appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization