Ezio Auditore da Firenze

"Nulla è reale, tutto è lecito."

―Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze (born 1459) is one of the protagonists of Assassin's Creed II. He is an ancestor of Desmond Miles and a descendant of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, as well as being the earliest known link between the lineages of "Subject 16" and that of Miles.

Assassin's Creed: Lineage

Ezio in Lineage playing chess with his brother Federico. He is portrayed by Devon Bostick.

Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, is a young member of the Florentine nobility and the second son of Giovanni Auditore, who is secretly an Assassin. He is oblivious to his father's true profession, and his hereditary duties.

Assassin's Creed II

Ezio watches a group of Templars

Ezio Auditore da Fierenze's story begins just moments before he his born. Originally it seemed like Ezio was a stillborn, but after his father, Giovanni, arrives the newborn begins to move his limbs and cry. Giovanni Auditore, his father, welcomes Ezio into the world and bestows his name upon him.

We rejoin Ezio years later during a rousing pre-fight speech, addressing his friends. Ezio is holding one side of a bridge against Vieri Di Pazzi and his men, whom insult the house of Auditore, and Ezio's mother and father. During the fight, his brother Federico joins him, aiding him against Pazzi's followers. After the fight, Ezio develops a scar above his lip, similiar to the scar his ancestor Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad and his decendent Desmond Miles both have. After visiting the local doctor, Ezio visits Cristina Vespucci, which later leads on to sex. The next day, Ezio's father, Giovanni, and another man, Uberto Alberti are talking privatley in Giovanni's office. Later that day, during nighttime, city guards raid Plazzo Auditore and arrest Giovanni, Federico, and Petruccio. Ezio delivers evidence that can prove his family's innocence to Uberto, who promises to defend them at the hearing. Alberti betrays the Auditore family, by destroying the evidence and sentences Ezio's father and his two brothers to death. After swearing vengeance, Ezio hides his mother and his sister and learn the ways of the Assassin, after finding his father's robes. He is first taught stealth by Paula, a courtesan, and later combat, by his uncle, Mario Auditore da Firenze. After finally murdering Uberto, a city official in charge of the law, Ezio has to balance his life between his plot of revenge and protecting his sister and mother, whom refuses to speak after Giovanni, Federico and Petruccio were murdered. Now wanted in the city of Florence, Ezio flees Firenze to Tuscany with what's left of his family to his Uncle's villa. He meets up with his uncle, whose army of merceneries save his family from an attack by Pazzi.

Background

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A young Ezio being approached by a guard after protesting at the execution of his family

Ezio is a young Florentine nobleman who lives during the 15th and 16th century. Unlike Altaïr, he is a "ladies' man", and can easily blend with any social hierarchy. He has an affluent lifestyle, until his father and his two brothers were betrayed and murdered, being the victims of a vast conspiracy. Forced to protect his mother and his sister, Claudia, he becomes an Assassin and plots the revenge on the conspirators who betrayed his family. After the murder of his first victim, Uberto Alberti, Ezio and the rest of the Auditore family are considered criminals and traitors. Ezio escorts his remaining family to the Tuscan countryside. Ezio is helped not only by his uncle, Mario Auditore, but also Leonardo da Vinci, who becomes his best friend and his personal engineer, as well as Niccolò Machiavelli, Lorenzo de' Medici and other famous Renaissance figures.

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Ezio talking with Lorenzo de Medici

Ezio will travel across Italy to various locations like Venice, Tuscany and Rome. In Assassin's Creed II, the player will live approximately 23 years of Ezio's life from when he was 17 years old, to 40 years old.

Equipment

Ezio is able to use a variety of weapons including two hidden blades underneath his sleeves, allowing him to eliminate two enemies simultaneously.

Combat is also available with the hidden blade, as when countering an enemy, Ezio will kill the enemy, whether by jabbing

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Ezio assassinating two guards at once with two hidden blades

repeatedly in the stomach, or stabbing in the forehead. He can also steal (and use) several enemy weapons such as axes, hammers, maces, spears, halberds and two different sword types (one, and two-handed). Ezio is also able to use Da Vinci's famous "flying machine" in some parts of the game, gaining altitude from fires lit throughout the city. Ezio will gain many upgrades from Da Vinci on his wrist gauntlet like a wheel lock firearm concealed
near his left hidden blade, and poison needle. Ezio possesses the ability to use Eagle vision while moving. He can visit blacksmiths to purchase weapons and armors including Helmschmeid and Metal plate, or tailors to customize the colors of his robes. After obtaining all six seals from the ancient Assassin's tombs, Ezio can open the locked gate to Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's armor, created by Altaïr after the defeat of his mentor, Rashid ad-Din Sinan.

The "sword of Altaïr" can also be bought from the Monteriggioni blacksmith any time after the eighth memory block.

Trivia

• The Italian name "Ezio" derives from the Greek word 'Aetos', which means "Eagle", similar to Altaïr whose name means "The Flying One".
• Unlike Altaïr (who had his ring finger removed to make way for the Hidden Blade), Ezio has all ten fingers. A modification to the hidden blade made sometime after Altaïr defeated "Al-Mualim" spared Ezio's ring finger. Leonardo Da Vinci deciphers a Codex page written by Altaïr on which said modification was illustrated. Assassins have a mark burned into the ring finger as a sign of their lineage.
• It is stated in the Philosophical Codex that after Altaïr defeated "Al-Mualim" at the end of the first game and became the leader of the Assassin order, the Assassins were forced to realize the scope of their fight against the Templars, and had to abandon many of their traditions: like the removal of the ring finger or the ban on using poison, in order to survive.
• Ezio uses a wheel lock firearm, a type of weapon that Europe didn't start developing until the very late 1400's and early 1500's, making this weapon most likely one of the very first of its type to appear in Europe. Thus, many in-game citizens do not know what the weapon is. The earliest firearms were single shot and took time to reload, so will most likely be only used as a last resort weapon. Leonardo Da Vinci didn't create the hidden gun, but found instructions to make one from a Codex page, meaning Altaïr invented the gun (and most likely the first firearm) through knowledge gained from the "Apple of Eden". Also note that Da Vinci created some of the first modern wheel lock pistols, so this could be a shortened version of one.
• Ezio's face in Assassin's Creed II seems to be a mixture of Desmond's (Francisco Randez) and Devon Bostick's from "Assassin's Creed: Lineage".
• It would appear as though Ezio is unaware that he is the decendant of Altaïr, despite learning about Altaïr and what kind of assassin he was, he never truly understands why he is such a sucessful assassin himself.
• Ezio is 40 years old in 1499 (15 years older than Altaïr's age in 1191); the same age as his father when his father was murdered in 1476.