Seismic Temple

"We haven't found an apple, but... a tree. These Temples hold the earth together like roots. Disturb them, and Haiti falls or... Lisbon. Or any other place the Manuscript shows."

―Shay Cormac explaining his theory of the structures to Haytham Kenway, 1758

A Seismic Temple under Lisbon

The Seismic Temples are subterranean complexes built by the Isu that hold together a vast underground network beneath the Earth's crust. Each Temple holds within it a core component vital to its structural integrity, which, if removed, triggers a violent seismic reaction within the underground network. Although their original function is lost to humans, Seismic Temples may have been erected to stabilize the planet's crust or otherwise as a monumental defense system.

Characteristics

Shay Cormac handling a core component

The Seismic Temples are vast underground structures, located across the globe, that serve a purpose unknown to humans. They are typically built within large, cavernous spaces with protective walkways leading to a central pedestal residing at the base of a singular, large pyramid. Atop the pedestal sits a core component that appears to control or stabilize the Earth's crust within a localized area; any disturbance of the component risks disrupting the entire region above ground.

During the 18th century, when the Assassins and Templars discovered a number of Seismic Temples, they erroneously believed that the core components were Pieces of Eden in and of themselves, and so were sought out by both parties, often with cataclysmic results.

History

A number of Seismic Temples were discovered by the Assassins and Templars in the middle of the 18th century via a Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript. Owing to their historical experience with Isu Vaults, the two factions initially mistook the sites revealed by the manuscript to be more Vaults and assumed that Pieces of Eden could be found within. Tragic consequences ensued from this error, beginning with the Haitian Assassin Vendredi causing a massive earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1751 that killed untold thousands. As Vendredi died at the hands of the Colonial Templar Lawrence Washington before he could escape the site, he failed to report back with details of how the disaster was linked to the Port-au-Prince Temple.

Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake

Oblivious to the Seismic Temples' destructive nature, the Templars and Assassins continued vying for these locations, and in late 1755, the Colonial Assassin Shay Cormac was sent to Lisbon, Portugal, to uncover the relic supposedly hidden within the Isu complex below the city. Upon reaching the Temple, Shay removed its core component, which promptly disintegrated in his hands. The entire complex summarily collapsed, taking all of Lisbon down with it in a colossal earthquake exceeding a Moment magnitude of 8.5. While Shay narrowly escaped with his life, thousands perished. The grief-stricken and traumatized Assassin returned to the Davenport Homestead, where he furiously blamed his Mentor Achilles Davenport's perceived reckless pursuit of power for the catastrophe.

Miscommunication between Shay and the Colonial Brotherhood ultimately led to his defection to the Templars with the Voynich manuscript in hand. For the next few years, with the Assassins still holding the Precursor box and the manuscript now with the Templars, both factions strove to unlock each pieces' secrets without the other.

In June 1758, Shay presented his theory on the Seismic Temples' nature and functions to Grand Master Haytham Kenway, analogizing them to underground "roots" that maintained the planet's integrity. Thereafter, the Colonial Rite redirected their objective to preventing the Assassins from tampering with more Temples rather than uncovering their secrets themselves.

Achilles and Liam finding a core component

In October 1759, the Assassins powered the Precursor box once more despite the missing manuscript and located a Temple in the Arctic. Achilles and his lieutenant, Liam O'Brien, arrived there in March 1760. Upon seeing the core component for himself, Achilles recognized the validity of Shay's account years prior and quickly stopped Liam from touching it. It was at this point that they were confronted by Haytham and Shay, who had tracked them from New York. In the altercation that followed, Liam accidentally knocked the device off its pedestal, unleashing another earthquake as the complex tore itself apart.

Behind the scenes

The name "Seismic Temple" was originally coined by the Assassin's Creed Wiki shortly after the 2014 release of Assassin's Creed: Rogue as a conjectural name for the game's Isu sites, beating the other proposed fan name, "Trees of Eden". It was eventually adopted in 2016 by the authors of the Assassin's Creed: The Essential Guide (1st. ed.), thereby canonizing it.

In Rogue's files, the core component is called the "Merkaba Artifact". "Merkabah" comes from the Hebrew word מֶרְכָּבָה (merkāḇā) and has a number of different meanings. Literally, it means "thing to ride on", or more specifically, "chariot", including the "divine throne-chariot" seen by the prophet Ezekiel in a vision; a school of Jewish esoteric thought focused on such visions is called Merkabah mysticism. Finally, "merkabah" is another name used by current mystics for the "counter-rotating energy field" they claim is represented by a stellated octahedron, a 3D representation of the shape when enclosed in an overlapping circles grid sometimes called the Fruit of Life or Metatron's Cube, which the core component is depicted as.

Gallery

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  The Seismic Temple in the Arctic
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  Render of the "Merkaba Artifact"

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Rogue