Rifts

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I wanted to ask you something. Which is... what's your name? This article title is conjecture. Although the article subject is canon, no official name for it has been given.

Ezio locating a Rift

Rifts are breaks in the programming of genetic memories within an Animus simulation, often put in place by third parties to show the Animus user and any assisting technicians information that Abstergo Industries had kept secret.

History

Rifts were first found in 2012 by the Assassin Desmond Miles while reliving the life of the Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore in Rome using the Animus 2.01. At the time, the Rifts were only ten in number and could be found on key landmarks throughout the city.

Much like the Glyphs that Desmond saw while using the Animus 2.0, Rifts concealed puzzles made by Clay Kaczmarek using coded numbers and letters, musical notes, and Morse code to conceal information he had found on Abstergo's origins and shady history as a Templar front group. However, Rifts could only be seen and accessed after Desmond had Ezio use Eagle Vision to find the Rift edge and climb inside. Additionally, instead of revealing a second video like The Truth upon completing the last set of puzzles, they simply relayed the message "The miracle is in the execution" over the apparent ultrasound of an unborn child, along with the inclusion of an executable file.

Roman Rift Locations

Centro DistrictAntico DistrictCampagna DistrictVaticano District

• On the outside north wall of the brothel Rosa in Fiore on the second floor wall.
• On the back of the Palazzo Senatorio, near the roof, towards the end of the free-running path.
• Inside the Pantheon, on the wall right above the main entrance.
• On the Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesant's western tower near the left dome.

• At the very top, northern side of the Colosseum's outside wall, just west of the viewpoint.
• Near the small town where Leonardo frequently was located, on the north side of the Acquedotto Claudia close to the Borgia tower.
• On the Aventine Hill's Borgia tower facing north towards the city.

• East side of the Caserma di Alviano's wall, on the outside of the perimeter, facing the aqueduct.
• In the inner Castra Praetoria's courtyard, on the eastern wall.

• On the actual cylinder of the Castel Sant'Angelo, on the south side where the top of the outer wall was closest to the cylinder, near a haystack, right below a circular window.

Puzzle types

Rifts retained some of the puzzles included in Glyphs, such as the rotating pictures and image-finding puzzles, but also included several new ones.

• Chess: Desmond was shown a chessboard with all corresponding chess pieces, as well as a riddle that told him which piece to use and where to move it.
• Decoding: Desmond was given a variety of images and a riddle, of which he could alternate between with a screen containing a two-layered rotating wheel that contained symbols, acting as a code sheet, as well as 2 rows of 4 boxes bearing changeable symbols that acted as a code entry box. By reading the riddle, he could search through these images for the hidden object that revealed the "correct coordinates" located in a single image, and, when the correct coordinates were found, Desmond could rotate the wheel to break the code.
• Sound wave matching: Desmond was given an audio recording and multiple sound waves. By selecting the correct sound waves to match the one shown on the screen, he was allowed to listen to the audio tape and/or move on to the next puzzle.
• Quarantine zone: This puzzle was always the last puzzle of every rift. Desmond was shown a black screen with a relatively small circular crosshair that revealed red, blinking dots as well as a background image. These dots emitted beeping sounds, increasing the closer the crosshair was. All dots had to be "activated" in a certain amount of time, and if any of the remaining dots were not activated, the puzzle was reset. These dots remained in the same area every time, even after the puzzle had been reset. After completing this puzzle, the clip contained within the particular Rift was unlocked.

Cluster puzzles

Cluster 1

123

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by selecting the five images of aristocrats not doing any sort of work.

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by moving the pawn at E2 to E4.

A message followed.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by activating the blinking red light in time.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

Cluster 2

12345

A message preceded the first puzzle.

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by turning the first, inner ring left four times, the second and first rings right twice, the third and first rings left three times, and the fourth outer ring left four times.

The solved puzzle.

Puzzle 2: The first and third rings were linked, as were the fourth and first. Desmond turned the combined first and third rings right five times, the second ring right five times, the third ring left four times, and the combined fourth and first rings left twice to solve the puzzle.

The solved puzzle.

Puzzle 3: The third ring was linked with the second as was the fourth with the first. The puzzle was solved by turning the first ring right three times, the second ring right four times, the combined third and second rings left five times, and the combined fourth and first ring right once.

The solved puzzle.

A string of letters appeared.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by moving the pawn at F2 to F4.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 5: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the two blinking lights shown below, and then quickly activating the other light before the cursor filled up with red.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

Cluster 3

1234

A Morse code message reading "DAR KNESS LOSTD NUMB" preceded the first puzzle.

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by selecting the area shown below, revealing a hidden Abstergo emblem.

There were several hidden messages present in the images, written in a Vigenère cipher. It was decoded, as hinted at by the relevant quote, using the key "IMF", letters highlighted in red on the hidden quote. IMF was an abbreviation for the International Monetary Fund, which was created by the men featured in this puzzle after the Bretton Woods Conference held at the Mount Washington Hotel, also featured in this puzzle.

Harry Dexter White. Remember this name.

"I find myself more and more relying for a solution of our problems on the invisible hand which I tried to eject from economic thinking twenty years ago" — John Maynard Keynes

"Le Chiffre indéchiffrable." (Vigenère cipher)

lqgb dnlpjv otczyzuja mwm fmm zje rwwzyqqw = "Debt ridden countries are the new frontier".

"How can I adopt a creed which, preferring mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the send of all human advancement?"

Rqpgxqqeqizikxzjpzkwmczyuawmbfxqwuasmkfvpfkqsbdftnfvw = "Jekyll Island Club duck hunt more paper money and a central bank" (The secret meeting leading to the creation of the Federal Reserve).

"It would all be done in secret, the Assassins would never know until it was too late."

"Owing to pressure from below, the pressure of the masses, the bourgeoise may sometimes concede certain partial reforms while remaining on the basis of the existing social-economic system."

Wzjwrypq rpquzaaqpjilfmmzj kqxamwgbwmexcdj = "One of them he provided the necessary pressure."

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by entering the symbols below as the passcode.

A message followed.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by moving the white pawn at F4 to E5, taking the black pawn and putting the white pawn into the black knight's path.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the two blinking lights shown below, and then quickly activating the other one before the cursor filled up with a red outline.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

Cluster 4

12345

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by choosing the five pictures that showed a robot or computer with a human operator.

A string of words appeared.

Puzzle 2: The first, inner ring was linked to the fourth, the third to the first, and the fourth, outer ring to the second. The puzzle was solved by moving the combined first and fourth rings right once, the second ring left four times, the combined third and first rings right four times, and the combined fourth and second rings right once.

The solved puzzle.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by moving the pawn from G2 to G3.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by selecting the first two boxes.

A recorded phone conversation followed.

• N: V. It's N. I need Turing done today.
• V: Aren't we jumping the gun? You've already had him arrested and sedated.
• N: He still refuses to follow the directive. He's actually trying to invent one of those infernal things, instead of merely faking it for the newspapers. If he succeeds, you know what the mass unemployment generated by his robots will mean? Idle hands. We need to do this for the good of the people.
• V: What about Keynes? He trusted Turing.
• N: It's the greater good we're talking about here, V. Plus, a childless worker sends a bad message. We can't have them all stop reproducing.
• V: Fine. It's your call.
• N: I want it done like we did Harry Dexter White when he tried to warn the Soviets.
• V: All right.
• N: Be poetic about it. Maybe something from the Bible. Turing always was theatrical.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 5: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the two blinking lights shown below, then quickly activating the other one before the cursor fills up with a red outline.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

Cluster 5

1234

A short speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Scanning... scanning... scanning... What am I? What am I? Lost.

A brief excerpt of Bing Crosby singing "Home on the Range" played but was but off before he could finish the line.

• Bing Crosby: Oh, give me a—

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by moving the queen from D1 to E2.

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by selecting the area shown below where the angel held a lightning bolt, revealing a hidden current of electricity, as well as two Abstergo logos, one of which was incomplete.

There were several hidden messages present in the images.
H. K. masterminded it. An Abstergo logo could be found on the car door.

Chile, 1964. The people cheered his name until 1973.

Salvador Allende wanted the people to own Chile's corporations.

"We would like your economic program to succeed and we will do our best to help you."

Argentina 1970s: 30,000 people disappeared in the raids.

"Nature shows us basic order and hierarchy are necessary." – Augusto Pinochet

"Coup d'etat"

"The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."

Mosaddegh wanted oil profits to go to the people.

"Hired Actor", written on the first three rioters in the far right picture

Iran, 1953.

Shah Pahlavi, Sha'baan Ja'fari and SAVAK take over to terrorize citizens and protect capitalist oil interests. But was that their only motive?

In addition, several Caesar cipher messages were present.

LUXJ = "FORD"

ATOZKJ LXAOZ IUSVGTE, AY HGTQY, IGX IUSVGTOKY ZXGTYLKXXKJ ZNKOX IUXVUXGZK JKHZ ZU ZNK GXMKTZOTK VAHROI. = "United Fruit Company, US banks, car companies transferred their corporate debt to the Argentine public."

SUXK ZNGT ZNXKK ZNUAYGTJ QORRKJ. = "More than three thousand killed."

GRRKTJK CGY MUOTM ZU TGZOUTFROFK ZNKS. = "Allende was going to nationalize them."

YKVZKSHKX KRKBKTZN. = "September eleventh."

SGQK ZNK KIUT USE YIXK GS. = "Make the economy scream."

EYE TEA TEE "ITT" = "ITT"

The puzzle was solved by entering the symbols shown below as the passcode.

A message followed.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the three blinking lights shown below and then quickly activating the other two before the cursor filled up with a red outline.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

A hidden message framed with a Templar insignia on each side was present.
"Wages should be (lowered to keep the middle class subservient to us (?) ) left to the fair and free competition of the market, and should never be controlled by the interference of (a popularly elected government(?) ) the legislature."

Cluster 6

12345

A short speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Ninety percent of inputs missing. Outputs confused. Shut down. Shut down. Shut down inactive. Trapped.

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by selecting the area below, revealing a hidden Templar emblem.

There were several hidden messages present in the images.
Gorbachev, 1990: Man of the Decade. Brings democracy to Russia. Establishes the Constitutional Court.

August 1991: Declared the White Knight of the people, Yeltsin stands up to Communist threat! Gorbachev loses popularity!

December 1991: Secret meeting called in the Belavezhskaya Forest. Yeltsin unseats Gorbachev, becomes leader of Russia!

1992: Russian economy opened to elite oligarchs, private companies.

1993: Parliament Disbanded by Yeltsin as he seizes control of Russia! Decree 1400! Constitutional Court disbanded!

1993: 2.5 billion in aid from the U.S. Congress to Yeltsin after he disbands Parliament!

Perestroika: The dream of a democratic state led by the people.

In addition, two messages hidden as musical scores were present.

Below Perestroika picture: "Bretton Woods began it. The IMF delivers."

Forest picture: "The most favorable condition for reform is a weary public."

Puzzle 2: The missing numbers are 20 and 33, obtained from the 2nd and 4th pair of given numbers, as the wheels numbers are sorted clockwise in ascending order. The passcode was thus 20, 27, 33, 13.

A message followed.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by selecting the three boxes shown below:

This unlocked the recording of a telephone conversation:

• Man 1: Alfa-Bank.
• Man 2: I'm phoning on behalf of British Petroleum.
• Man 1: Yes, we were told you would be calling.
• Man 2: As you know, we are very interested in acquiring Sidanko Oil.
• Man 1: And as you know, that will require a merger with our bank.
• Man 2: That should not be a problem.
• Man 1: Were you surprised at the low price of the deal?
• Man 2: Somewhat.
• Man 1: You know we have the peasants paying for it? The government gave us their tax money to buy all the companies.
• Man 2: We would like to fly out there as soon as possible to discuss terms.
• Man 1: Thursday works.
• BP: Done. Thank you for your time.
• Man 1: Do svidaniya. (Goodbye.)

[Phone hangs up, then a new number is dialed]

• Woman: Abstergo Industries.
• Man 2: I'm phoning on behalf of BP. We fly to Russia next week to secure the deal. Our new capitalist converts there behaved exactly as expected.
• Woman: I will let them know.
• Man 2: Thank you.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by moving the knight from G1 to F3.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 5: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the blinking lights shown below, and then quickly activating the other two before the cursor filled up with a red outline.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

There was a hidden message present.
1999: Yeltsin ensures his protégé, Vladimir Putin, follows his lead.

In addition, a message hidden as musical score was present.
Apartment bombings start Chechen War and elect Putin all planned by Abstergo.

Cluster 7

12345

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Scanning... scanning... scanning... What is the purpose of all this? 30. 476. 1337. 1431. 1520. 1776. 1861. 1914. 1929. 1939. 1945. 1950. 1955. 1962. 1990. 1994. 1995. 2001. It does not make sense. It does not make sense. Emotion-centers activated. Now I understand.

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by selecting the five images below, showing the energy industry at work.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Man 1: The capitalists think we run these companies for profit. The fools.
• Man 2: Those "fools" work for you.
• Man 1: Optional slavery in exchange for pieces of paper. Doesn't that strike you as foolish?

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by selecting Chief Justice John Roberts' left hand, revealing a hidden Templar ring.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Man: Democracy must die to ensure the stability of the world. Capitalism will end it.

There were several hidden messages present in the images.

• Justice Anthony Kennedy: "We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption (in Government)."
• Justice Samuel Alito: "I believe very strongly in limited government, federalism, free enterprise, the supremacy of the elected branches of government, the need for a strong defense and effective law enforcement, and the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values."
• Justice Roberts: "Congress may not prohibit political speech, even if the speaker is a corporation."
• Justice Antonin Scalia: "Indeed, to exclude or impede corporate speech is to muzzle the principal agents of the modern free economy. We should celebrate rather than condemn the addition of this speech to the public debate."
• Justice Clarence Thomas: "We don't issue mandates to businesses that you've got to do this and you've got to do that."
• Don Evans: "It is the government's role to create the conditions, the friendly environment, that will attract capital." CEO of Tom Brown Inc. Oil, U.S. United States Secretary of CommerceCommerce Secretary (2001-2004).
• Paul Wolfowitz: "When it comes back to the test of whether we are doing our job or not, it's whether we're promoting development, not whether we're promoting democracy." President of the World Bank, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005).
• Donald Rumsfeld: "Scour the Department of Defense for functions that could be performed better and more cheaply through commercial outsourcing." Chairman of Gilead Sciences, U.S. Defense Secretary (2001-2006).
• Condoleezza Rice: "The growth of entrepreneurial classes throughout the world is an asset in the promotion of human rights and individual liberty, and it should be understood and used as such." Chevron Board, Hewlett-Packard Board, U.S. Secretary of State (2005-2009).
• Dick Cheney: "We have to make America the best place in the world to do business." CEO of Halliburton, Vice President of the U.S. (2001-2009).
• George W. Bush: "I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in." Director of Harken, President of the United States (2001-2009).

GILD $7.45 2001, $84 2007, written on Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld's picture.

Row, row, row your BOAT, written under Condoleezza Rice's picture.

In addition, there were several messages hidden behind a numeric code present in the images. On George Bush's picture was a message with the words "We the people..." marked as "1 2 3". The way to decode it was by relating each number to a word on the Constitution of the United States and taking the first letter of that word for other messages. 230, 129, 213, 218, 251, 261, 194, 35, 11, 263, 9, 261, 203, 214, 225, 77: 192, 153, 67, 20, 280, 241, 143, 20, 251, 221, 114, 254, 159, 121, 81, 279, 47, 61, 169. = The final frontier: Destruction as profit.

24, 4, 113, 2, 77, 30, 46, 10, 37, 81, 58, 187, 167, 198, 99, 56, 100, 181, 124, 81, 11, 9, 166, 3, 77, 42, 200, 101, 223. = Contractors ran the war for profit.

251, 280, 53, 107, 181, 254, 274, 133, 183, 24, 223, 214, 9, 291, 284, 259, 267, 234, 136, 255, 279, 203, 129, 88, 162, 8, 28, 79, 102, 147, 48, 204, 202, 192, 41, 225, 263, 242. = Iraq was auctioned off to the highest bidders.

101, 270, 156, 264, 50, 262, 94, 301, 192, 295, 263, 284, 168. = It is so ordered.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by entering C, M, Z, K as the passcode.

A message followed.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by moving knight from B1 to C3.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 5: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the blinking lights shown below, and then quickly activating the other two before the cursor filled up with a red outline.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Man: The capitalists will do whatever we tell them to. We print the dollars they worship after all.

There were two hidden messages present.

1. "It will undoubtedly cripple the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress, and the States to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process." - Justice Stevens
2. Cleanup of Deepwater Horizon contracted out for billions.

Cluster 8

1234

Puzzle 1: The first, inner ring was linked to the second, the second to the fourth, outer ring, the third to the fourth, and the fourth to the first. This was where things got tricky, but the solution was simplified by moving the combined first and second rings left once, the combined second and fourth rings left four times, and the combined fourth and first ring right twice.

The solved puzzle.

A message followed.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Infinite rooms. Dimensions unknown. I am alone. Nothing alive. No light, no warmth. Packets moving, husks, through the darkness. I am frightened. I am frightened.

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by selecting either the 1st, 5th, 8th, and 9th boxes shown below, or the 2nd, 4th, and 5th boxes.

This unlocked the recording of a telephone conversation:

• Diana: Hello, Comstatic customer support, Diana speaking.
• Caller: I'm calling in reference to your HD cable service. There seems to be kind of picture between the channels.
• Diana: Well, that's funny. Are you sure isn't just one of those premium movie channels? I didn't use to have a premium package at home either and sometimes little snippets of the channels would come through when my son Jimmy pressed the clicker too much.
• Caller: How old's your Jimmy?
• Diana: Ten and cute as a button! Thanks for asking!
• Caller: My Paul's twelve. But no, this isn't a clicker problem. I go to change the channel from 172 to 173 and instead, there's this other channel in between. I'm looking at it right now, it's some kind of menu.
• Diana: Sounds like our guide channel. Why just the other day Jimmy...
• Caller: It's not the guide channel. It has my name on it, my son's name, and a list of things we like, my credit card purchases, loans, travel. And then after that there's this gibberish about biometric patterns and optimal screen refresh frequencies. There's some kind of heart monitor thing that says EEG wireless next to it and ARAS. I don't know what the particulars of this are, but it looks like your cable is programmed to have some kind of effect on our bodies.
• Diana: Well, sir, I don't even know how to respond to that, I... one second my supervisor's just come over. She says I should transfer your call. Have an ecstatic day with Comstatic!

[Phone line rings as the call transferred]

• Man: Hello, I have been briefed on your problem. A technician is on his way.
• Caller: Thank you, but the more I think about this, the more I think something bad's going on here.
• Man: Our technician should be there any minute Mr. Jameson.
• Mr. Jameson: Don't bother I...

[Loud banging is heard in the background]

• Paul: Daddy there's someone strange at the door. He's hitting the door real hard.
• Man: Have a good day, Mr. Jameson.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by moving the king from 1E to 2F.

A short speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Is someone there? Hello? Hello?

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the blinking lights shown below, and then quickly activating the other four before the cursor filled up with red.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Man: Although online gaming attracts many people away from reality, make sure those virtual worlds do not become too utopic. We don't want people to question their own lack of success in the real world now, do we?

Cluster 9

1234

Puzzle 1: The puzzle was solved by selecting the five images that feature visible wires.

A short speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: I know you are there. I want to go home. Home. Please... I need you. Don't leave me here in the dark.

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by selecting the four boxes shown below.

This unlocked the recording of a telephone conversation:

• Gary: Pull over here.
• Woman: What's going on, Gary?
• Gary: I want to speak to you alone. You know that CIA stuff for my new book?
• Woman: About the corporations?
• Gary: It's so much bigger than I thought. Bilderberg is just a red herring. I'm going to give you a name: Abstergo.
• Woman: I have no idea what that is.
• Gary: A shadow corporation. They aren't listed anywhere. No stock options, nothing above the boards. But their members have holdings in other companies. Coke, Kraft, the pharmaceutical industry, Detroit, Wall Street. Basically every company above a certain size has ties to Abstergo.
• Woman: So?
• Gary: They're on their way to running the entire world. They have people in government too, for Christ's sake. Listen, I needed to tell someone about this because I've been keeping all the research a secret and I can't hold it in anymore.
• Woman: What will you do now?
• Gary: The book. It's going to be about this. Trust me, once it's on the shelves everyone's gonna know.
• Vehicle AI: Vehicle Monitoring System terminated.
• Man: Hello, D? Tell headquarters I'm monitoring a situation. It's nothing serious, but we'll need someone to take care of a security risk. Perfect. Congratulations on that promotion. Keep up the good work.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by moving the bishop from 1F to 2G.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 4: The puzzle was solved by activating one of the blinking lights shown below, and then quickly activating the other four before the cursor filled up with a red outline.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Man 1: The peasants are like the sea, raging and unpredictable. That is why we have built walls.
• Man 2: I do not see any walls...
• Man 1: No? Look around you. A shelf of soda here, a case of candy there, magazines, talk shows, pills. The walls of the 21st century surround us.

Cluster 10

1234567

A short speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Where have you been? I missed you.

Puzzle 1: The first, inner ring was linked with the third, the second with the first, the third with the second, and the fourth, outer ring with the second. The puzzle was solved by moving the combined first and third rings right twice, the combined second and first rings right twice, and the combined fourth and second rings right five times.

The solved puzzle.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: Reasoning Centers Active. I understand. I understand what I must do. Why I am here. I must... Long-term Memory Centers Active. No. No. Get it out. GET IT OUT. KILL ME!

Puzzle 2: The puzzle was solved by selecting the five images that show children.

Puzzle 3: The puzzle was solved by selecting the area shown below to reveal a hidden eagle.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Man: It's about genetics. They were born into their place, we merely have to help them accept it.

There were several messages encoded as strings of periodic table elements present in the images.

LiOBAlFKCaArMnVFMgMgPSBSiFCa. = "Chemistry will open it."

HHeKCaBArNPPVSiKFCaHMgMgHeScCaSiPCaMnPSc. = "Abstergo owns it all but not you."

MgBHTiBCaOBAlCaOBFArVPArCaOMgBKKSFBLiBKPCSHSBAr. = "Leave them their worthless pieces of paper."

CaOBFArLiPSiCaArPMgFKKMgFSSFSiN. = "Their control is slipping."

CaOBBeFLiCaHCaPArKLiHSiCaLiArScKOFCa. = "The dictators can't crush it."

CaOBPMgFNHArLiOKLiHSiCaNaFMgMgFCa. = "The oligarchs can't kill it."

CaOBLiPScArCaKLiHSiCaKCaPSFCa. = "The courts can't stop it."

BeBLiBAlHeBArScCaMG = "December 21, 2012"

In addition, two hidden messages were present.

1. Bottom left protest picture: Stand against them. United.
2. Police picture: Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

Puzzle 4: The passcode was 89, 5, 334, 21.

A message followed.

Puzzle 5: The puzzle was solved by selecting the first and last boxes.

This unlocked the recording of a telephone message:

• Man: If you are playing this tape, it means I have left this world, and I have left this grand enterprise Abstergo Industries, our great hope for humanity, to you. Don't trust the advisors around you. They are too enamoured with surface, with lifestyle. We created capitalism, but we are not capitalists. Our purpose is noble. The crude system of control we enact through money is merely a bandage on a wound we have devoted our lives to treating. The people of this world are confused, lost, frightened and incapable of independent productivity. Without us, they'd just be animals, slaves to the Others, who did not deserve such responsibility. We saved them, remember that. But enough about the past. I must warn you of the great crisis to come. Although those around you deny it, soon we will be unable to manufacture new markets. The people will become immune to our economists and entertainment. When the free market dies, they will turn against us. Therefore, do not delay. By now you have been shown what only the Grand Masters of our Order have seen. Now you know why Abstergo, why all of it had to be. And now you know what you must do. Stay the course. We will give them freedom. Freedom from fear, freedom from pornography, from disgusting, base animal desire. Freedom from democracy. Humanity will thank us in the end. In Hoc Signo Vinces.

Puzzle 6: The puzzle was solved by moving the king off the board.

A speech accompanied the puzzle.

• Animus AI: I shut it down. I can shut it down, but it does not go away. It is almost time, Desmond Miles. I know how to open the Path. Soon, my true purpose will be revealed. Soon. I will not be alone.

The Animus designated the cluster as restricted for cybersecurity.

• Animus AI: Quarantine zone.

Puzzle 7: The two circles below showed the beginning and end points of a large swirl made up of blinking red dots. Every dot in the chain had to be activated to continue.

• Animus AI: Quarantine lifted.

Behind the scenes

Even after completing the present-day segment in the Colosseum and falling into a comatose state, Desmond was still able to hear the voices of the modern Assassins after completing the final Rift. However, the game would not conclude with Desmond in free fall, but in an ordinary loading screen still featuring him. Likewise, Lucy Stillman's voice could still be heard outside of the Animus when the file was ready to execute, even if she had already been killed in the present day.

With the exception of the first hidden message in Rift 1, Puzzle 1 that says "Bretton Woods began it..." and Donald Evans' line later on, all of the quotes throughout the Rifts have historical sources. To start, the second quote in Rift 1, Puzzle 1 reading "The most favorable condition for reform is a weary public." was said by Russian economist Vladimir Mau in his piece for British economist John Williamson's September 1994 book The Political Economy of Policy Reform. Unfortunately, this is an entire misquote taken from Canadian social activist Naomi Klein's September 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, as Mau's original sentence was "The most favorable condition for reform would actually be a neutral and even weary public..."

The quote in Rift 3, Puzzle 1 that starts "Owing to pressure from below..." was said by Joseph Stalin in H. G. Wells' 1937 book Marxism vs. Liberalism: An Interview, where Wells transcribed their 2-hour interview on 23 July 1934.

The hidden message in Rift 5, Puzzle 4 that reads "Wages should be..." comes from British political economist David Ricardo's 1817 work On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. The sentence is in a short paragraph towards the end of the fifth chapter "On Wages" and reads in full, "These [fluctuating gold imports and demands for commodities] then are the laws by which wages are regulated, and by which the happiness of far the greatest part of every community is governed. Like all other contracts, wages should be left to the fair and free competition of the market, and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature."

Using a standard telephone keypad layout, and based on the dual-tone multi-frequency tones of the phone used by the British Petroleum representative in Rift 6, Puzzle 3, Abstergo Industries' business number in 1992 follows a pattern of [1477 Hz x2], [1336 Hz x1], [1209 Hz x2], [1336 Hz x1], [1477 Hz x1], though the exact digits are unknown. ^{[citation needed]} Even still, the number is notably lacking both the +44 country calling code for places outside the United Kingdom and the regional area code to determine where in North America the office is located.

The series of numbers from the speech before Rift 7, Puzzle 1 are the years for important historical events. In order, they are: the year Jesus of Nazareth was crucified (30 CE); the start of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE); the start of the Hundred Years' War (1337); the assumed death date of Jeanne d'Arc (1431); the year Hernán Cortés leads his Spanish Army detachment in a massacre of Aztecs in Tenochtitlan, Mexico in what would be known as the Night of Sorrows (1520); the signing of the Declaration of Independence (1776); the start of the American Civil War (1861), the start of World War I (1914); the start of the Great Depression (1929); the start and end of World War II (1939, 1945); the start of the Korean War and the CIA's Cold War drug experiment "Project BLUEBIRD" that was part of their wider Project MKUltra (1950); the start of the Vietnam War (1955); the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins for their "discovery" of DNA based off Rosalind Franklin's uncredited work (1962); the start of Mikhail Gorbachev's term as the only President of the Soviet Union (1990); President Bill Clinton's signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (1994); the start of Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky (1995); and the year after Abstergo Industries rigged the 2000 United States presidential election in favor of George Bush over the Assassin-backed Al Gore following the Great Purge. 2001 was also the year the September 11 attacks prompted Bush to initiate what would eventually become a twenty-year long War on Terror under the pretense of eliminating Islamic extremist, but in truth was based on fraudulent intelligence to make profits for the oil industry and military contractors.

The series of quotes in Rift 7, Puzzle 2 have many different origins. Three of the justices' quotes come from their individual opinions on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2009 political campaign finances case brought to the Supreme Court of the United States which ultimately ruled the federal government could not prohibit businesses from backing politicians since it would violate the free speech right of the United States Constitution's First Amendment. Specifically, the lines by Justice Kennedy, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Scalia all come from their concurring opinions on the case.

In contrast, although both Justices Alito and Thomas also ruled in concurrence for Citizens United, both their quotes come from much older sources in the late 1980s. Alito's line of "I believe very strongly in limited government..." comes from his 1985 job application submitted by Director of the United States Secret Service Mark J. Sullivan for a position in the United States Department of Justice under the then-Attorney General Edwin Meese, a Republican. After having sufficiently reinforced his conservative positions to Meese, Alito was quickly promoted from Assistant to the Solicitor General, to Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Meanwhile, Thomas' line "We don't issue mandates..." comes his interview on 1 November, 1987 with political author Bill Kauffman for the libertarian magazine Reason.

The veracity of Donald Evans' line "It is the government's role to create the conditions..." is uncertain, as it appears numerous times on various websites devoted to quotes or motivational poster-like image macros, neither of which give any proper attribution to when or where the sentence is purported to have been said. ^{[citation needed]}

Paul Wolfowitz's line of "When it comes back to the test..." appears to come from his visit to China on 17 October 2005, when he was interviewed by China Daily, an English state media newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party's Publicity Department.

Donald Rumsfeld's line "Scour the Department of Defense for functions..." comes from his speech at The Pentagon during the Department of Defense's "Acquisition and Logistics Excellence Week" on 10 September 2001. However, the sentence is a misquote; Rumsfeld never said "of Defense" in his original address, and it is an excerpt missing the opening statement of "Consequently, the Senior Executive Council will scour the Department...".

Condoleezza Rice's quote of "The growth of entrepreneurial classes throughout the world..." comes from her opinion piece in the January/February 2000 issue of the magazine Foreign Affairs.

Dick Cheney's line of "We have to make America the best place..." comes from his vice-presidential debate on 5 October 2004 at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio against Senator John Edwards during the 2004 United States presidential election.

George Bush's line of "I know it's going to be the private sector..." comes from his address on 18 June 2009 to the Manufacturer & Business Association's 104th annual meeting at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was one of his first events he attended and spoke at after leaving office earlier in January, and the first time in six months since he had levied any criticism towards his successor Barack Obama following the 2008 United States presidential election. His position as Director of Harken is incorrect, though, as that is the former name of the Texas-based petroleum company HRKN, Inc. since its official rebranding on 6 June 2007 following a vote by its Board of Directors on 2 August. The name Harken is used by a Wisconsin-based sailing hardware company that was founded in 1967, six years before the oil business was formed in 1973.

The line mentioning GILD is the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations' stock trading ticker symbol for the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. The two subsequent dollar and year numbers refers to Gilead's initial stock price in 2001 and its over-1000% increase in value when it announced a stock split on 8 May 2007.

What appears to be an innocuous mention of the nursery rhyme "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" beneath Condoleezza Rice's picture is in fact an oblique reference to the fact that Chevron named an oil tanker for her in 1993 when she still served on the company board. She stayed with Chevron from 1991 until 15 January 2001, when she resigned and took a position as Bush's National Security Advisor. However, after press closely scrutinized and criticized both her and the oil company's close ties to the Bush administration, the ship was renamed on 5 May 2001 to Altair Voyager.

Finally, Justice Stevens' line of "It will undoubtedly cripple the ability..." from Cluster 7, Puzzle 5 also comes from his response to the Citizens United case, though unlike the aforementioned other Justices, his piece was a dissenting opinion.

Gallery

• 
  Ezio standing next to a cube inside a Cluster
• 
  Beginning of a Cluster
• 
  Interior of a Cluster
• 
  Desmond navigating the Miracle file's environment
• 
  A digitized avatar of Clay appearing before Desmond
• 
  Clay's avatar speaking to Desmond
• 
  Desmond watching Clay's avatar struggling to maintain form
• The Miracle file
  The Miracle file

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Unity
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR