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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning recent or upcoming releases from the Assassin's Creed series. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. This template should be removed from the article three months after release.

Minerva is the only known representative of "Those Who Came Before"

"Those Who Came Before," is the name of an ancient and incredibly advanced race of beings who created the Pieces of Eden, as well as the human race itself. Exactly who they were, how long ago, or there origins is still, for the most part, largely unknown. It is heavily insinuated that they were missunderstood as gods and worshiped by ancient human cultures; i.e. Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, Egyptian gods, etc. The woman known as Minerva, said that they were not gods, but, in fact, a race more advanced in time who "simply came before."

Domination of Humans

Minerva revealed that at some point; her kind created humanity "In [their] own image", likely as some sort of slave race as shown in The Truth video. In the recorded memory, Those Who Came Before appear to have enslaved humans into doing their bidding through the hypnotic power of the Pieces of Eden. Despite their attempts at mind control, The Truth video shows how Adam and Eve stole one of the mythical fruits of the tree of knowledge described in the Bible. It is possible that this was an attempt to free mankind from the oppression of their masters. Adam and Eve were most likely naturally immune to the Pieces of Eden, much like Altair and several other Assassins were, as seen in the first Assassins Creed when Al Mualim attempted to use it on Altair.

According to Minerva, humans and her species had lived peacefully for some time, however, humans were not treated equally. Although the Ones Who Came Before have not yet been shown to hold any malice against humans, this master slave relation was non-negotiable. Somehow Adam and Eve had some degree of resistance to the apples and managed to rebell.

Past Events

File:Zw-eden-slave.png

A frame from The Truth video, showing "Those Who Came Before" using a Piece of Eden to control humans

While the ancient race was more technologically advanced and powerful, humanity had the advantage of numbers. Minerva stated that both sides craved war (possibly ignited by Adam and Eve stealing the Apple) but they were so preoccupied with their fighting; Those Who Came Before failed to notice the signs that an impending danger was approaching from the "heavens." Shaun Hastings and Lucy Stillman hypothesize that this "danger" could have been a massive solar flare which would have had a catastrophic impact on the Earth's weakening magnetic field, reversing the polarity, and making the planet geologically unstable. This hypothesized by Lucy in an Email that Desmond can read in the first game. This is insinuated further in glyph puzzle #19 The Forth Day, the player must choose five images with key similarity using the clue "Once worshiped now ignored, at a distance it watches and waits." (referring to the sun). All the correct pictures show religious scenes involving the sun. We are then shown an image of the sun, and across its surface the following four texts can be found: "They died in the fire from the heavens." Further hinting that it was a celestical event that wiped out the anciant race's civilisation. "Near the day of purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky. - Hopi" and "A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans. - Hopi" Both quotes from Hopi prophecy desribing catastrophic celestial events. And "Toba, 75ka was not a volcano" Toba 75ka being a "mega-colossal volcanic eruption" which occured 75 thousand years ago and killed off much life on Earth. Scientists have observed a thick burried layer of ash around the world attributed to this event. But this text tells otherwise, hinting that the solar flare that devestated Those Who Came Before occured around 75,000 years ago.

Both Humanity and The Ones Who Came Before survived the disaster, but in dwindling numbers. It is clear that Those Who Came Before were far fewer than humans, possibly of a low birth rate to compensate for their extremely long life spans. Because of this, there were not enough survivors of Those Who Came Before to maintain a viable population, whereas humans were greater in number and their population was able to recover. Knowing that soon they would be extinct, Those Who Came Before set aside their former role as master and the two races worked together to rebuild. However as humans were still primitive, The remaining Ones Who Came Before were assumed to be gods, their advanced technology taken as proof of their divine status.

"'Even When we walked the world, your kind struggled to understand our existence.'" -Minerva-

However Minerva warns that the catastrophy that caused the extinction of her race was due to reoccure, furthering Lucy's speculation. Minerva warns Desmond that he and his comrads must find the other "Temples", describes by Minerva as "built by those who knew to turn away from war". This implies that Those Who Came Before used their final days to devise a way to prevent such an event from reoccuring.

"'We endeavored to ensure this tragedy would not be repeated.'" -Minerva-

Glyph puzzle #19 opened with Subject 16 saying "The end... Almost the end... It happened once before. The pieces were once part of a whole." Implying that the pieces of eden are likely somehow involved in The Ones Who Came Before's plan. It is more than likely that the date predicted for this reoccurance is December 21, 2012 (the final date of Mayan calander, supposed by many to be the end of the world) as this date is fast aproaching in the Assassin's Creed universe and is also the date Abstergo intends to launch their satalite initiating their new world order. This date was probebly first prophesized by Those Who Came Before in their warning to man kind, and over time as their message and records of their existance warped into the various religions and legends across Earth, this date was preserved in the Mayan calander but the warning was gradually forgotten.

Characteristics

Those Who Came Before appear in the mythologies of many of Earth's religions (especially religions that feature pantheons) as gods. As seen with the Monteriggioni statues, Minerva is associated with the Roman gods. Her kind is very similar to the Sumerian gods, who were believed to have created mankind to serve the gods. Furthermore, Minerva also showed an ancient Egyptian picture of the people rebelling against the Egyptian gods, but still labels the Egyptian gods as "us." It can at least be established that by Ezio's time, the race was effectively extinct - Minerva states that she is the last of her kind.

"Those Who Came Before" seems to posses some form of precognition, or ability to predict future events. This is shown when Minerva told a confused Ezio within the The Vault that he was simply a conduit, and she spoke directly to the invisible Desmond, showing she knew that he would receive the message over 500 years into the future by viewing it through Ezio in the Animus. Altaïr mentions in one of the codex pages that the apple is not just a catalog of past events, but also of things to come, making it clear that the apples are capable of some degree of forsight. There are some scientific theories involving the information that time-space is made of, that could allow the apples this ability, considering their advanced technological nature.

Interestingly, Minerva is one of the 8 statuettes you can collect in Monteriggioni. As Minerva is one of "Those Who Came Before', the other statuettes could be as well. The figures depicted by the statuettes are Neptune and Pluto, Jupiter and Minerva, Dianna and Apollo, and Mars and Venus. It is also worth noting that they are all Roman mythological Gods - perhaps this means that they are remnants of "Those Who Came Before" and survivors of the cataclysmic event described by Minerva, or that they were the ones that helped humans build the temples that she mentioned.

Of further interest, is that Minverva mentions her former name and those of her compatriots; Mera, Uni and Tinia (Minerva, Juno and Jupiter respectively). The former names mentioned by Minerva correspond to the Etruscan supreme Triad of Dieties, who were later modelled by the Roman Dieties, in the Capitoline Triad. (Jupiter, his daughter Minerva and wife Juno). From the Assassin's Creed II perspective, this may explain why and how understandings of Those who Came Before bled into one another across different cultures. Most pantheons tend to have strong analogues in different cultural lore; i.e. Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, etc.

Genetic History

It is implied in glyph puzzle #20 The Origin of the Species, that humans were created by Those Who Came Before. A Templar letter is shown which displays concern that there is no genetic link between early homonids and modern homo-sapiens. So they created fake skeletons and placed them near Tim White's expedition in Ethiopia (famous for producing 'Lucy' the most complete known fossil of an Australopithecus afarensis). We are then shown the skeleton of an early evolutionary ancestor of humans, and using a cursor modelled around an apple of eden, we must go over each part of the skeleton which then changed into that of a human. This puzzle implies that humans were not made from scratch, but from already existing homonids, which quite possibly were the evolutionary ancestors of Those Who Came Before themselves. Minerva said "We built you in our own image" making it clear that those who came before made humans with themselves in mind, to the point where (taking puzzle #20 at face value) they took their own genetic predecessors and derived humans from them. Possibly through vastly accelerated evolution via pieaces of eden (thus the apple of eden cursor). If this is the case, it would explain why humans and those who came before are visually identical, because they are just about the same species.

Glyph puzzle #18 Synapses opens with subject 16 franically asking why it is that the pieces of eden work so well on humans, then going on to say it is as if out minds were made to obey them. And puzzle 18 goes on to show that this is exactly the case. An article from a ficitonal science magazine tells of two doctors; Dr. Yije and Dr. P. J. Traunero, who have discovered a neuro-transmitter within the human brain. Yet dispite their efforts, they cannot stimulate it. They also fail to find a predecessor of the transmitter in other primate species, priving that this neuro-transmitter is exclusively found in humans. We are then shown what appears to be the inside of a brain, and severel neuro-transmitters are present. Using a cursor, the player must stimulate each transmitter, once all of them are lit, the curser turns into an apple of eden. Knowing that the Ones Who Came Before were able to engineer humanity down to the tiniest detail, it seems that humans were given an extra neuro-transmitter that activated only in the presence of a piece of eden. Thus humans are unable to resist the pieces because not only are they made to control humans, but humans are programmed to obey them.

Glyph puzzle #14 Bloodlines, the player must highlight all of the paintings depicting sexual unions between humans and divinities with the clue, "Behold the Assassins, the children of two worlds!" Aditionally, the puzzle opens with subject 16 yelling "Why is it we have these gifts, these abilites? Because, it's in our blood!" Desmond, Subject 16, Altaïr and Ezio are all of the same bloodline, and all four posess eagle vision. With all this in mind, the puzzle insinuates that Those who came before and humans were able to interbreed and were close enough genetically to produce vertile offspring, which eventually became the assassins. Ezio and Altaïr are also the only humans known to be able to resist the pieces of eden. If they are indeed of part Ones Who Came Before blood, than the neuro-transmitters that make humans subservient to the pieces are either not present or at least not fully functional. Altaïr interacted on with the apple on a level that possibly only he could, and Ezio was able to activate the staff when Rodrigo Borgia could not. Since Altaïr speaks of an assassin order that predates the one Al Mualim started, and that some of the assassins depicted beneath Monteriggioni are responsable for the deaths of historic figures who lived well before Al Mualim's time, there is some speculation among fans that the original assassin order could have been of all human/Ones Who Came Before ancestry, yet somehow Altaïr and his descendants are unaware of their own origins. Knowing this, the supposed origins of the "assassins" it is most likely that the ones who came before posessed eagle vision or something similar, and possibly deliberately made sure their human slaves did not.

Trivia

In the first Assassin's Creed title, at the beginning of Memory Block 4 before Desmond enters the Animus, Doctor Vidic enters to wake him. A conversation ensues where Vidic explains that Abstergo, or its descendants, are basically responsible for every major historical invention or medical breakthrough for the past thousand years. When Desmond questions how they discovered all these things, Vidic replies "They were gifts, Mr. Miles! Gifts from those who came before". Although unbeknownst to players at the time, Vidic is citing that Abstergo has accomplished all that it has so far with the Pieces of Eden belonging to Minerva's race.