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Not solutions if they failed. No proof Isu DNA alters human phenotypes (see: Eivor/Odin). All human genes already part Isu at birth, cells don't trigger a release to change us full Isu DNA. Seems only Sages look like original self
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==History==
==History==
===Pre-catastrophe===
===Pre-catastrophe===
The Isu, too embroiled in their war with humanity who had risen up in a [[Slavery|slave]] rebellion against their [[Project Anthropos|creators]],<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' – Abstergo Files: "File.0.14\FC_Origin"</ref> did not foresee the coming apocalypse until it was too late.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo">''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' – [[In Bocca al Lupo]]</ref> Despite this, a few scientifically-minded individuals—most notably the [[Capitoline Triad]] of [[Jupiter]], [[Minerva]], and [[Juno]],<ref name="ACRevModern">''Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' – [[21st century conversations|Modern day]]</ref> as well as the engineer [[Rah Cel'eze]] and his [[Valkyrie]] aide [[Hildr]]<ref name="TombsOfTheFallen">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Floating conversations]]: Tombs of the Fallen</ref>—worked to find a means of either suppressing it or at least protecting future generations from predicted recurrences by researching ways of combatting the cataclysm from within underground [[Temple (Isu)|vaults]]. They tested six different methods that showed the most potential, but none of them succeeded<ref name="ACRevModern" /> due to a variety of factors such as time constraints, the amount of resources required, or coordinating efforts for any initiative.<ref name="AC3Modern">''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'' – Modern day</ref>
The Isu, too embroiled in their war with humanity who had risen up in a [[Slavery|slave]] rebellion against their [[Project Anthropos|creators]],<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' – Abstergo Files: "File.0.14\FC_Origin"</ref> did not foresee the coming apocalypse until it was too late.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo">''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' – [[In Bocca al Lupo]]</ref> Despite this, a few scientifically-minded individuals—most notably, the [[Capitoline Triad]] of [[Jupiter]], [[Minerva]], and [[Juno]],<ref name="ACRevModern">''Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' – [[21st century conversations|Modern day]]</ref> as well as the engineer [[Rah Cel'eze]] and his [[Valkyrie]] aide [[Hildr]]<ref name="TombsOfTheFallen">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Floating conversations]]: Tombs of the Fallen</ref>—worked to find a means of either suppressing it or at least protecting future generations from predicted recurrences by researching ways of combatting the cataclysm from within underground [[Temple (Isu)|vaults]]. They tested six different methods that showed the most potential, but none of them succeeded<ref name="ACRevModern" /> due to a variety of factors such as time constraints, the amount of resources required, or coordinating efforts for any initiative.<ref name="AC3Modern">''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'' – Modern day</ref>


The first solution was to build four [[Towers]] to siphon the solar flare into the Grand Temple and dispel it.<ref name="AC3Modern" /><ref name="AFeastToRemember">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[A Feast to Remember]]</ref> While the Isu had the means and resources to accomplish it, the projected time taken was more than Earth could afford. The first tower<ref name="AC3Modern" /> [[Maekinn]]<ref name="Ragnarok">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – [[Dawn of Ragnarök]]''</ref> was never completed and the researchers turned elsewhere, but even after the project was abandoned, a few Isu<ref name="AC3Modern" /> like [[Surtr]]<ref name="Ragnarok" /> returned to make the construction process automated before the solar flare hit the Earth.<ref name="AC3Modern" /> Although the sole tower would never have been able to protect Earth, it and the other three towers' assembly by drones over many thousands of years afterwards ensured they would be complete to provide the power necessary for the [[global aurora borealis device]],<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide]]'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 312</ref> which would save the world by the time of the Second Disaster at the cost of some comparatively minor global damage from short-lived seismic and volcanic activity, electrical storms, and power blackouts.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
At first, the Isu planned to build four [[Towers]] to siphon the solar flare into the Grand Temple and dispel it.<ref name="AC3Modern" /><ref name="AFeastToRemember">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[A Feast to Remember]]</ref> While the Isu had the means and resources to accomplish it, the projected time taken was more than Earth could afford. The first tower<ref name="AC3Modern" /> [[Maekinn]]<ref name="Ragnarok">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – [[Dawn of Ragnarök]]''</ref> was never completed and the researchers turned elsewhere, but even after the project was abandoned, a few Isu<ref name="AC3Modern" /> like [[Surtr]]<ref name="Ragnarok" /> returned to make the construction process automated before the solar flare hit the Earth.<ref name="AC3Modern" /> Although the sole tower would never have been able to protect Earth, it and the other three towers' assembly by drones over many thousands of years afterwards ensured they would be complete to provide the power necessary for the [[global aurora borealis device]],<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide]]'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 312</ref> which would save the world by the time of the Second Disaster at the cost of some comparatively minor global damage from short-lived seismic and volcanic activity, electrical storms, and power blackouts.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


The second solution was to enhance metallic rings known as [[Rings of Eden]],<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> [[Piece of Eden|Pieces of Eden]] that emitted a forcefield around them to repel projectiles and energy bursts. The concept was to use the principle behind the technology to create a magnetic forcefield around the Earth, but the scale of the project proved too large to construct and would have been infeasible. Still determined, the Isu tried saving portions by doing so on a reduced capacity, ranging from half the world to a tenth of it, but even building a Ring for one city would have been too costly, and so the solution was abandoned.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
The Isu then thought to enhance their [[Rings of Eden]],<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> [[Piece of Eden|Pieces of Eden]] that emitted a forcefield around a wearer's body to repel projectiles and energy bursts. The concept was to use the principle behind the technology to create a magnetic forcefield around the Earth, but the scale of the project proved too large to construct and would have been infeasible. Still determined, the Isu tried saving portions by doing so on a reduced capacity, ranging from half the world to a tenth of it, but even building a Ring for one city was too costly, forcing the project's termination.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


The third solution was discovered by using the [[Apples of Eden|Apple of Eden]]<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> on humans. If enough humans were told to believe in one idea, it would take form in reality. As such, the third solution was to launch an Apple of Eden into orbit, aim it at the planet, and command all humans to have one thought, "Make us safe." This thought alone would theoretically take form and protect the Earth, but the critical issue lay in aiming the Apple in the right direction to then convey the message that the Isu wanted. After sending a dozen Apples into orbit, with the result being identical in its difficulty, the solution was abandoned.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
A third potential method was discovered by using the [[Apples of Eden|Apple of Eden]]<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> on the [[neurotransmitter]]s built into humans. If enough humans were influenced to have one idea, it would take form in reality. As such, the idea was to launch an Apple of Eden into orbit, aim it at Earth, and forcibly compel humanity to have one thought, ''"Make us safe"''. This thought would theoretically take form and protect the Earth, but the critical issue lay in the Apple's lack of coverage to "enthrall the world" as the Isu wanted. After sending a dozen Apples into orbit without any improved coverage, this endeavor was scrapped.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


The fourth solution was to attempt traveling back in time and trying to prevent the disaster beforehand, but the means to do so could not be found and it was abandoned. Instead, Isu used the [[Nexus]] to look forward in time and see what was to come. They used it to see if various methods could succeed, but as every result was the same, prognostication was set aside to redirect focus on new methods. However, Minerva did not abandon this study and continued seeing into the future.<ref name="AC3Modern" /><ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> She discovered through divinations that there was a [[Calculations|pattern of numbers and equations]] to existence that could tame time itself if understood correctly, leading her to create the [[Eye]] to aid in calculating them in the hopes of preventing the disaster.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
Some Isu proposed traveling back in time to prevent the disaster beforehand, but as they could not do so, the concept was dropped. Instead, the Isu used the [[Nexus]] to look forward in time to see if various methods could succeed, but as every result was the same, prognostication was set aside to redirect focus on new methods. However, Minerva did not leave this study and continued seeing into the future.<ref name="AC3Modern" /><ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> She discovered through divinations that there was a [[Calculations|pattern of numbers and equations]] to existence that could tame time itself if understood correctly, leading her to create the [[Eye]] to aid in calculating them in the hopes of preventing the disaster.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


Minerva continued testing the Eye until she received a reply from<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> and appeared before the [[Italian Brotherhood of Assassins|Italian Assassin]] [[Ezio Auditore da Firenze|Ezio Auditore]] inside the [[Vatican Vault]] in the distant future on 28 December 1499 CE. In their brief conversation, she delivered a message warning him and his descendant [[Desmond Miles]]—who was reliving Ezio's [[Genetic memory|memories]]—about the impeding solar flare and hoped Desmond would understand, seek the Grand Temple, and prevent a disaster of the same magnitude that was projected to reoccur in 2012 CE.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo" />
Minerva continued testing the Eye until she received a reply from<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> and appeared before the [[Italian Brotherhood of Assassins|Italian Assassin]] [[Ezio Auditore da Firenze|Ezio Auditore]] inside the [[Vatican Vault]] in the distant future on 28 December 1499 CE. In their brief conversation, she delivered a message warning him and his descendant [[Desmond Miles]]—who was reliving Ezio's [[Genetic memory|memories]]—about the impeding solar flare and hoped Desmond would understand, seek the Grand Temple, and prevent a disaster of the same magnitude that was projected to reoccur in 2012 CE.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo" />


The theoretical solutions then pivoted to focus on matters of the body; in this vein, the fifth solution was to physically enhance the Isu externally.<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> The idea behind it would compose of transforming their bodies into something better able to withstand a hostile environment. Juno's husband [[Aita]] volunteered to test the method. Although his body survived, his mind became brittle; within an instant, his mind degenerated and he became increasingly catatonic, made "a prisoner of the machines". With enough will, Aita wished for Juno to euthanize him, and she fulfilled it.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: Letter 13</ref><ref name="Twentieth">''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: Letter 20</ref> The solution was abandoned and the researchers continued on similar matters.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
With no way to save wider parts of their civilization, the now-desperate Isu focused on individual body alterations, starting with enhancing their physical forms<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> to something better able to withstand a hostile environment. Juno's husband [[Aita]] volunteered to test the method. Although his body survived, his mind became brittle; within an instant, his mind degenerated and he became increasingly catatonic, made "a prisoner of the machines". With enough will, Aita wished for Juno to euthanize him, and she fulfilled it.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: "13. Another Fryghtfull Reverie"</ref><ref name="Twentieth">''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: "20. A Secret Incomprhensible"</ref> The modifications stopped, but the researchers continued on similar matters.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


Following on from its predecessor, the sixth solution was to create entirely new vessels that could safely house the consciousness.<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> With this in mind, the new vessels would be able to withstand the new environment, but the ability to transfer the consciousness into and out of the vessel could not be developed properly, requiring an unspecified "wrong" element to leave, and so this idea was also abandoned even though Juno wondered if it was foolish to give up early.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
Following this, the Isu began creating entirely new vessels that could safely house the consciousness<ref name="AFeastToRemember" /> and withstand the new environment. However, the ability to transfer consciousnesses back out of the vessel could not be developed properly, requiring an unspecified "wrong" element to leave, and so this idea was also rejected, though Juno wondered if it was foolish to give up early.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


Seeing that humanity would survive and thrive while the Isu die out, a seventh solution was created to allow the Isu's essence to be "remembered" and grant a form of [[Reborn Isu|rebirth]] through the human survivors. Through the use of a catalyst later remembered in Norse myth only as "[[Mead of poetry|the mead]]" and the powerful supercomputer [[Yggdrasil]] to store and preserve a being's consciousness by manipulating the human genome, the method would save Isu from the Catastrophe by a randomly-activated hidden trigger which would alter an individual's genetic make-up, slowly imbuing them with a chosen's Isu DNA and, with it, their memories, and changing the humans physically as a result. It was through this method that the [[Æsir]] were able to be [[Reborn Isu|reborn]] through history,<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Animus Anomalies]]</ref> and how Juno created Sages from her late husband's genetic sequence.<ref name="Twentieth"/> However, due to the process of merging surfacing memories leading to most Sages to be driven mad,<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Uprising]]'' – {{Cite|14 Feb 2023}}</ref> other Isu grew concerned and feared that it would change humanity to the worse, so it was locked away and abandoned.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[The Price of Wisdom]]</ref>
Seeing that humanity would survive and thrive while the Isu died out, Jupiter and Minerva began clandestinely testing a seventh experiment to have the Isu be [[Isu incarnation|incarnated]] through humanity. Through the use of a catalyst—later remembered in Norse myth only as "[[Mead of poetry|the mead]]"<ref name="AFeastToRemember"/>—and the powerful supercomputer [[Yggdrasil]], which could take and transfer Isu genetic samples, the procedure would save select Isu from the Catastrophe<ref name="AnimusAnomalies">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[Animus Anomalies]]: "AA_Complete"</ref> through {{Wiki|brood parasitism}},<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Official Game Guide]]'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 309</ref><ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Uprising]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Uprising 11|Issue #11]]</ref> altering an infant human host's genes by implanting Isu DNA that carried their memories<ref name="AnimusAnomalies"/> which the host would gradually awaken to as they aged.<ref>{{Twitter|DarbyMcDevitt|status/1573407072850518016|Darby McDevitt|quote=I have always written Sages as if they were people with a severe amnesia that is slowly starting to lift. Someone who, one day, begins to remember that they were someone else for many years. And that someone else might be an entirely different person than they are today. (2/?)|image=File:ACV Darby McDevitt thread on Isu incarnations and Sages.png}}</ref> It was through this method that the [[Æsir]] were able to be incarnated millennia later.<ref name="AnimusAnomalies"/> However, Jupiter and Minerva feared that genetic manipulation would change humanity for the worse,<ref name="ThePriceOfWisdom">''Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'' – [[The Price of Wisdom]]</ref> especially since the process was later shown to drive most Sages mad with the conflicting memories,<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]'' – [[Thom Kavanagh's letters]]: "1. On My Name and Origin"</ref><ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Unity]]'' ~ [[The Temple]]</ref> and so the research was locked away, but not before Juno stole it with [[Odin]]'s help<ref name="ThePriceOfWisdom"/> and modified it further<ref>{{Twitter|KasaiKnight|status/1337725926717747201|Kasaix|quote=@DarbyMcDevitt Lore question: are the Mad One and his people reborn like Aita the Sage? Every so often, coming back and rediscovering their former lives?|image=File:ACV Darby McDevitt Sage and Isu incarnation difference.png}}<br>↑ {{Twitter|DarbyMcDevitt|status/1337737125677109248|Darby McDevitt|quote=@KasaiKnight Just once. Juno tweaked the technology further for her own use, as she hints in Jotunheim.|image=File:ACV Darby McDevitt Sage and Isu incarnation difference.png}}</ref> to allow her to make [[Sage]]s from Aita's genetic sequence.<ref name="Twentieth" />


Eventually, Minerva<ref name="AC3Modern" /> and Jupiter<ref name="AC3Guide">''Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide'': "Analysis and Speculation", pg. 308</ref> learned that Juno had tampered with the Eye to send Desmond a message for her own ends.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' – Modern day</ref> Furious at the sabotage and attempted rebellion, the two Isu attacked and killed Juno and her allies in the Grand Temple.<ref name="AC3Guide" /> After Jupiter sent Desmond yet a third message,<ref name="ACRevModern" /> he and Minerva destroyed the divination sphere and sealed the dead in the Grand Temple,<ref name="AC3Guide" /> though they were unaware that Juno had in fact survived and transferred her consciousness into the Temple's walls, allowing her to exist unharmed when the Catastrophe struck.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
Eventually, Minerva<ref name="AC3Modern" /> and Jupiter<ref name="AC3Guide">''Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide'': "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 308</ref> learned that Juno had sabotaged the Eye to send Desmond a message for her own ends.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' – Modern day</ref> Furious at her act and for also attempting another rebellion, the two Isu attacked and killed Juno and her [[Instruments of the First Will|followers]] in the Grand Temple.<ref name="AC3Guide" /> After Jupiter sent Desmond yet a third message,<ref name="ACRevModern" /> he and Minerva destroyed the divination sphere and sealed the dead in the Grand Temple,<ref name="AC3Guide" /> though they were unaware that Juno had in fact survived and transferred her consciousness into the Temple's walls, allowing her to exist unharmed when the Catastrophe struck.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


=== Disaster and aftermath===
=== Disaster and aftermath===
The coronal mass ejection hit the Earth just as predicted,<ref name="ACRevModern" /> flipping Earth's magnetic field polarity and exposing the planet to the Sun's deadly radiation.<ref>''Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide'': "The Story So Far", pg. 30</ref> The entire planet burned for weeks afterward, and earthquakes and catastrophic blazes ravaged what remained of Earth. The surface was rendered barren, and less than ten thousand humans and "far fewer" members of the Isu survived the catastrophe. In order to recover from the event, the remaining Isu and humans ended their war and began to work together to restore life to the planet.<ref name="ACRevModern" /> Minerva spent the next few centuries wandering the ravaged Earth with what few Isu remained teaching what they could to the surviving humans to help reignite the spark of civilization, but despite humanity's misconceptions about the Isu, they were not immortal.<ref name="AC3Modern" />
The coronal mass ejection hit Earth just as predicted,<ref name="ACRevModern" /> flipping Earth's magnetic field polarity and exposing the planet to the Sun's deadly radiation.<ref>''Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide'': "The Story So Far", pg. 30</ref> The entire planet burned for weeks afterward, and earthquakes and catastrophic blazes ravaged what remained of Earth. The surface was rendered barren, and less than 10,000 humans and "far fewer" of the Isu survived the catastrophe. In order to recover from the event, the remaining Isu and humans ended their war and began to work together to restore life to the planet.<ref name="ACRevModern" /> Minerva spent the next few centuries wandering the ravaged Earth with what few Isu remained teaching what they could to the surviving humans to help reignite the spark of civilization, but despite humanity's misconceptions about the Isu, they were not immortal.<ref name="AC3Modern" />


Before she died, Minerva looked into the future one last time with a second Eye she had created to see if they had succeeded in preventing the Second Disaster. She saw that Juno had deceived them and lived, and was still manipulating Desmond, this time into freeing her through the same method meant to save the world.<ref name="AC3Modern" /> Because their numbers were too few, the Isu failed to survive long as an independent species. Humans, on the other hand, who had been built by the Isu with robust constitutions ideal for hard labor, successfully managed to reconstruct their society and flourished.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo" /> Over time, the reshaping of the Earth's landscape and geography would eliminate nearly all physical evidence of the Isu.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations Official Game Guide]]''</ref>
Before she died, Minerva looked into the future one last time with a second Eye she had created to see if they had succeeded in preventing the Second Disaster. She saw that Juno had deceived them and lived, and was still manipulating Desmond, this time into freeing her through the same method meant to save the world.<ref name="AC3Modern" /> Because their numbers were too few, the Isu failed to survive long as an independent species. Humans, on the other hand, who had been built by the Isu with robust constitutions ideal for hard labor, successfully managed to reconstruct their society and flourished.<ref name="InBoccaAlLupo" /> Over time, the reshaping of the Earth's landscape and geography would eliminate nearly all physical evidence of the Isu.<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations Official Game Guide]]''</ref>
Line 63: Line 63:
ACR-Toba 4.png|Earth in the wake of the catastrophe
ACR-Toba 4.png|Earth in the wake of the catastrophe
ACR Toba Bodies.png|Earth's surface after the catastrophe
ACR Toba Bodies.png|Earth's surface after the catastrophe
ACV The Hidden Truth 2.png|The Æsir watching live footage of the Catastrophe striking North America
ACV The Hidden Truth 2.png|The Æsir watching the Catastrophe strike North America
</gallery>
</gallery>


Revision as of 06:40, 11 January 2025

Patience, brothers. Soon we will reveal the secrets of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Dawn of Ragnarök and Tombs of the Fallen.

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"The earth shook for days. The fires burned for weeks. And when the ash had settled, less than ten thousand of your kind still lived... and far fewer of ours. But we carried on, together. To rebuild. To renew."
―Jupiter to Desmond Miles, 2012.[src]-[m]

The Great Catastrophe,[3] also known as the First Catastrophe,[4] the Toba Catastrophe[5] or Toba Disaster, or the First Disaster, [citation needed] was a cataclysmic event during human prehistory dated to around 75,000 BCE,[1] or 2306 of the Isu Era.[2] The global devastation caused by a coronal mass ejection saw the near-total extinction of both humanity and the Isu, both of whom were involved in a military conflict at the time.

While the few surviving humans would attempt to understand and remember the events and the Isu by passing them down in filtered oral tales like the Ragnarök cycle of Norse mythology,[6] by modern times, the disaster was often misconceived to have been the eruption of a super-volcano that occurred at the same time.[5] A second, equally powerful, but ultimately less destructive coronal mass ejection took place in the year 2012 CE.

History

Pre-catastrophe

The Isu, too embroiled in their war with humanity who had risen up in a slave rebellion against their creators,[7] did not foresee the coming apocalypse until it was too late.[8] Despite this, a few scientifically-minded individuals—most notably, the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno,[9] as well as the engineer Rah Cel'eze and his Valkyrie aide Hildr[10]—worked to find a means of either suppressing it or at least protecting future generations from predicted recurrences by researching ways of combatting the cataclysm from within underground vaults. They tested six different methods that showed the most potential, but none of them succeeded[9] due to a variety of factors such as time constraints, the amount of resources required, or coordinating efforts for any initiative.[11]

At first, the Isu planned to build four Towers to siphon the solar flare into the Grand Temple and dispel it.[11][12] While the Isu had the means and resources to accomplish it, the projected time taken was more than Earth could afford. The first tower[11] Maekinn[13] was never completed and the researchers turned elsewhere, but even after the project was abandoned, a few Isu[11] like Surtr[13] returned to make the construction process automated before the solar flare hit the Earth.[11] Although the sole tower would never have been able to protect Earth, it and the other three towers' assembly by drones over many thousands of years afterwards ensured they would be complete to provide the power necessary for the global aurora borealis device,[14] which would save the world by the time of the Second Disaster at the cost of some comparatively minor global damage from short-lived seismic and volcanic activity, electrical storms, and power blackouts.[11]

The Isu then thought to enhance their Rings of Eden,[12] Pieces of Eden that emitted a forcefield around a wearer's body to repel projectiles and energy bursts. The concept was to use the principle behind the technology to create a magnetic forcefield around the Earth, but the scale of the project proved too large to construct and would have been infeasible. Still determined, the Isu tried saving portions by doing so on a reduced capacity, ranging from half the world to a tenth of it, but even building a Ring for one city was too costly, forcing the project's termination.[11]

A third potential method was discovered by using the Apple of Eden[12] on the neurotransmitters built into humans. If enough humans were influenced to have one idea, it would take form in reality. As such, the idea was to launch an Apple of Eden into orbit, aim it at Earth, and forcibly compel humanity to have one thought, "Make us safe". This thought would theoretically take form and protect the Earth, but the critical issue lay in the Apple's lack of coverage to "enthrall the world" as the Isu wanted. After sending a dozen Apples into orbit without any improved coverage, this endeavor was scrapped.[11]

Some Isu proposed traveling back in time to prevent the disaster beforehand, but as they could not do so, the concept was dropped. Instead, the Isu used the Nexus to look forward in time to see if various methods could succeed, but as every result was the same, prognostication was set aside to redirect focus on new methods. However, Minerva did not leave this study and continued seeing into the future.[11][12] She discovered through divinations that there was a pattern of numbers and equations to existence that could tame time itself if understood correctly, leading her to create the Eye to aid in calculating them in the hopes of preventing the disaster.[11]

Minerva continued testing the Eye until she received a reply from[12] and appeared before the Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore inside the Vatican Vault in the distant future on 28 December 1499 CE. In their brief conversation, she delivered a message warning him and his descendant Desmond Miles—who was reliving Ezio's memories—about the impeding solar flare and hoped Desmond would understand, seek the Grand Temple, and prevent a disaster of the same magnitude that was projected to reoccur in 2012 CE.[8]

With no way to save wider parts of their civilization, the now-desperate Isu focused on individual body alterations, starting with enhancing their physical forms[12] to something better able to withstand a hostile environment. Juno's husband Aita volunteered to test the method. Although his body survived, his mind became brittle; within an instant, his mind degenerated and he became increasingly catatonic, made "a prisoner of the machines". With enough will, Aita wished for Juno to euthanize him, and she fulfilled it.[15][16] The modifications stopped, but the researchers continued on similar matters.[11]

Following this, the Isu began creating entirely new vessels that could safely house the consciousness[12] and withstand the new environment. However, the ability to transfer consciousnesses back out of the vessel could not be developed properly, requiring an unspecified "wrong" element to leave, and so this idea was also rejected, though Juno wondered if it was foolish to give up early.[11]

Seeing that humanity would survive and thrive while the Isu died out, Jupiter and Minerva began clandestinely testing a seventh experiment to have the Isu be incarnated through humanity. Through the use of a catalyst—later remembered in Norse myth only as "the mead"[12]—and the powerful supercomputer Yggdrasil, which could take and transfer Isu genetic samples, the procedure would save select Isu from the Catastrophe[17] through brood parasitism,[18][19] altering an infant human host's genes by implanting Isu DNA that carried their memories[17] which the host would gradually awaken to as they aged.[20] It was through this method that the Æsir were able to be incarnated millennia later.[17] However, Jupiter and Minerva feared that genetic manipulation would change humanity for the worse,[21] especially since the process was later shown to drive most Sages mad with the conflicting memories,[22][23] and so the research was locked away, but not before Juno stole it with Odin's help[21] and modified it further[24] to allow her to make Sages from Aita's genetic sequence.[16]

Eventually, Minerva[11] and Jupiter[25] learned that Juno had sabotaged the Eye to send Desmond a message for her own ends.[26] Furious at her act and for also attempting another rebellion, the two Isu attacked and killed Juno and her followers in the Grand Temple.[25] After Jupiter sent Desmond yet a third message,[9] he and Minerva destroyed the divination sphere and sealed the dead in the Grand Temple,[25] though they were unaware that Juno had in fact survived and transferred her consciousness into the Temple's walls, allowing her to exist unharmed when the Catastrophe struck.[11]

Disaster and aftermath

The coronal mass ejection hit Earth just as predicted,[9] flipping Earth's magnetic field polarity and exposing the planet to the Sun's deadly radiation.[27] The entire planet burned for weeks afterward, and earthquakes and catastrophic blazes ravaged what remained of Earth. The surface was rendered barren, and less than 10,000 humans and "far fewer" of the Isu survived the catastrophe. In order to recover from the event, the remaining Isu and humans ended their war and began to work together to restore life to the planet.[9] Minerva spent the next few centuries wandering the ravaged Earth with what few Isu remained teaching what they could to the surviving humans to help reignite the spark of civilization, but despite humanity's misconceptions about the Isu, they were not immortal.[11]

Before she died, Minerva looked into the future one last time with a second Eye she had created to see if they had succeeded in preventing the Second Disaster. She saw that Juno had deceived them and lived, and was still manipulating Desmond, this time into freeing her through the same method meant to save the world.[11] Because their numbers were too few, the Isu failed to survive long as an independent species. Humans, on the other hand, who had been built by the Isu with robust constitutions ideal for hard labor, successfully managed to reconstruct their society and flourished.[8] Over time, the reshaping of the Earth's landscape and geography would eliminate nearly all physical evidence of the Isu.[28]

Gallery

  • Concept art of the Great Catastrophe
    Concept art of the Great Catastrophe
  • Concept art of Earth after the disaster
    Concept art of Earth after the disaster
  • The solar flare heading to Earth
    The solar flare heading to Earth
  • Earth during the catastrophe
    Earth during the catastrophe
  • An ancient city before the catastrophe
    An ancient city before the catastrophe
  • An ancient city in the midst of the catastrophe
    An ancient city in the midst of the catastrophe
  • Lightning striking a skyscraper
    Lightning striking a skyscraper
  • A woman seen during the catastrophe
    A woman seen during the catastrophe
  • The woman looking towards an explosion
    The woman looking towards an explosion
  • A fissure swallows the local populace
    A fissure swallows the local populace
  • Citizens falling into lava
    Citizens falling into lava
  • Earth in the wake of the catastrophe
    Earth in the wake of the catastrophe
  • Earth's surface after the catastrophe
    Earth's surface after the catastrophe
  • The Æsir watching the Catastrophe strike North America
    The Æsir watching the Catastrophe strike North America

Appearances

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Timeline
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Hopton's
  3. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins – Layla Hassan's personal files – The Empirical Truth
  4. ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Essential Guide
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Abstergo Files: "File.0.18\FC_Apocalypses"
  6. ↑ Assassin's Creed Valhalla – View Above All
  7. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Abstergo Files: "File.0.14\FC_Origin"
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Assassin's Creed II – In Bocca al Lupo
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Modern day
  10. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Floating conversations: Tombs of the Fallen
  11. ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 Assassin's Creed III – Modern day
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Feast to Remember
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Dawn of Ragnarök
  14. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide: "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 312
  15. ↑ Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Thom Kavanagh's letters: "13. Another Fryghtfull Reverie"
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Thom Kavanagh's letters: "20. A Secret Incomprhensible"
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Animus Anomalies: "AA_Complete"
  18. ↑ Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Official Game Guide: "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 309
  19. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Uprising – Issue #11
  20. ↑ Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "I have always written Sages as if they were people with a severe amnesia that is slowly starting to lift. Someone who, one day, begins to remember that they were someone else for many years. And that someone else might be an entirely different person than they are today. (2/?)" (screenshot)
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Price of Wisdom
  22. ↑ Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Thom Kavanagh's letters: "1. On My Name and Origin"
  23. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity ~ The Temple
  24. ↑ Kasaix (@KasaiKnight) on Twitter "@DarbyMcDevitt Lore question: are the Mad One and his people reborn like Aita the Sage? Every so often, coming back and rediscovering their former lives?" (screenshot)
    ↑ Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@KasaiKnight Just once. Juno tweaked the technology further for her own use, as she hints in Jotunheim." (screenshot)
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide: "Analysis & Speculation", pg. 308
  26. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Modern day
  27. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Official Game Guide: "The Story So Far", pg. 30
  28. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations Official Game Guide

Timeline
Before Common Era
Prehistory
13th–6th centuries BCE
5th century BCE
4th–2nd centuries BCE
1st century BCE
5th–13th centuries
5th–7th centuries
8th century
9th century
10th century
11th century
12th century
13th century
14th–17th centuries
14th century
15th century
16th century
Siege of Monteriggioni • Liberation of Rome (Skirmish in the Campagna District) • Search for Cesare Borgia (Attack on Valencia • Siege of Viana) • Italian Wars (War of the League of Cambrai (Battle of Agnadello) • Assassination of Niccolò di Pitigliano) • Little Judgment Day • Prince of Anhua rebellion • Ottoman Civil War (Attack on Prince Suleiman) • Riot at the Harbor of Theodosius • Prince of Ning rebellion • Destruction of the Great Chain • Fight for the Masyaf Keys • Age of Discovery (Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (Night of Sorrows) • Battle of Mactan • Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire (Siege of Cuzco)) • Assassin expedition to the Mekong • Great Rites Controversy • 1526 Macau fires • 1527 Sack of Rome • Roman Inquisition • Battle of Gogunda • Sengoku period (Battle of Okehazama • Siege of Kanegasaki • Battle of Anegawa • Siege of Mount Hiei • Ishiyama Hongan-ji War • Tenshō Iga War • Honnō-ji incident • Imjin War • Battle of Sekigahara)
17th century
18th century
1701–1730
1731–1769
1770–1785
1786–1800
19th–21st centuries
19th century
20th century
Modern times • Tunguska explosion • World War I (Battle of Mons • Christmas truce) • Russian Revolution (Execution of the Romanov family • Kazan Operation) • Irish War of Independence • Red Scare (Palmer Raids) • Shanghai massacre of 1927 • Invergordon Mutiny • Spanish Civil War • World War II (The Blitz • Operation Weserübung • Operation Sealion • Operation Barbarossa • Operation Silver Fox • Manhattan Project • Second Battle of El Alamein • Normandy landings • Japanese invasion of Burma • Battle of Tinian • Battle for Brest • Yalta Conference) • Philadelphia Project • Bretton Woods Conference • Cold War (1954 Guatemalan coup d'état • Vietnam War • Assassination of John F. Kennedy • Apollo 11 • 1973 Chilean coup d'état • Operation Gardel • Iranian Revolution • Dissolution of the Soviet Union)
21st century

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