The Creed

Here we seek to reveal the danger of blind faith. This article has yet to be sourced. Please add citations and a list of appearances verifying its relevance to Assassin's Creed. Failure to do so will result in the article being deleted.

"Nothing is true; everything is permitted."

―The Creed's maxim

The Creed is the code and guiding philosophy of the Assassin Order, upheld from the Third Crusade, until modern days. Al Mualim, one of the Grand Masters of the Assassins, once stated that, "We are nothing if we do not abide by the Assassin's Creed."

The Creed restricts unnecessary slaughter of innocents, preserves the reputation of one's self and of the Order, and is meant to create peace, not only within the world, but within the individual. The Assassins have been handing the Creed down orally from generation to generation, ensuring that the message the Creed brings is delivered to every member of the Assassin Order.

In the ancient Codex of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, it is stated that the Creed cannot be killed, even if all of its followers are.

The Three Tenets

The Creed mainly emphasizes three simple, moral tenets that focus on ensuring a successful mission, mastery of emotions, and the safety of the Brotherhood.

Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent

"I would not have drawn attention to us. I would not have taken the life of an innocent."

―Malik A-Sayf at Solomon's Temple

The goal of the Assassins is to ensure peace in all things. The Assassins believe that political assassinations and the death of the corrupt will bring peace and a true sense of security to the common people. Slaying innocents and civilian bystanders who do not need to die goes a long way towards spreading strife and discord, in addition to ruining the name of the Assassin Order itself.

Always be discreet

"Let the people mask you such that you become one with the crowd."

―Al Mualim

Be unseen. The Assassins aim is to get close to their target stealthily, usually in public, to perform awe-inspiring assassinations. The greatest illusion from an assassination is, an Assassin seemingly materializes from nowhere, kills a corrupt public figure, and vanishes into the depth of the crowd or environment. If an Assassin is spotted stalking their target, the supernatural effect is diluted, simply making it more difficult for the Assassin to reach his target.

Never compromise the Brotherhood

"Your actions must never bring harm upon us - direct or indirect!"

―Al Mualim

The actions of one must never bring harm to all. If an Assassin fails, is captured, or is being chased, he must never commit an action or say anything that can be tied back to the Brotherhood.

The Maxim

"Laa shay'a waqui'n moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine."

―Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted" is the Creed's maxim and primary guideline. The phrase was created during the 11th century (1000's) by Hassan-i Sabbah, the first recorded Grand Master of the Assassin Order.

The quote simply means that nothing anyone says about how we should be or should act is true, and that everything we could ever think of doing within the realm of actual possibility is permitted to happen, and so it does.

Penalty for Disobedience

"Your selfish act beneath Jerusalem placed us all in danger!! Worse still: you brought the enemy to our home! Every man we lost today was lost because of you!"

―Al Mualim before stabbing Altaïr.

When Altaïr breaks all three tenets during an extremely important mission at Solomon's Temple, he is stripped of all his weapons and equipment, and demoted to the lowest rank of Novice. By murdering an innocent (an old man who he thought could have alerted the guards), revealing himself to Robert de Sable, and leading the Templars back to the – until then, secret – location of Masyaf, he jeopardized not only his own safety, but the livelihood of the entire Brotherhood.

History

Third Crusade

After the shame of his demotion, Altaïr more closely followed the Creed by never killing anyone other than guards or his assigned assassination targets, and remaining discreet as he performed his investigations. He was also careful to never compromise the Brotherhood, by avoiding Assassin Bureaus when under pursuit.

Nevertheless, Altaïr unknowingly broke the third tenet after dispatching eight of the high-ranked Templar members. Upon deducing his mission, Robert de Sable hoped to trick Altaïr into inadvertently allying two opposing forces. Since the targets were of both Saracen and Crusader origins, their respective leaders, Saladin and Richard I of England, would likely be more willing to join together, in order to combat a considerable, new threat: the Assassins. Robert attempted to convince Richard to join forces with Saladin in an attack against Masyaf; wherein he planned to recover the Piece of Eden lost to Al Mualim at Solomon's Temple. However, Altaïr's subduing of Robert in front of Richard convinced not to attack the Assassins, and Altaïr went unpunished for this transgression.

Renaissance

"You are not Vieri, do not become him."

―Mario Auditore to Ezio.

When Ezio Auditore killed Vieri de' Pazzi during one of his early assassinations, he showed disrespect to his corpse, cursing him and calling for his everlasting suffering. Seeing this as a violation of the Creed, his uncle Mario intervened, chastising the young Assassin for his vengeance, which prevented both the victim and the Assassin from finding the peace that all assassinations through the Order wished to achieve.

Throughout the course of his life subsequently, Ezio followed his uncle's example, showing respect for the dead by closing their eyes and saying "Requiescat in pace" (or "Rest in peace").

Modern Times

Though an Assassin in his own right, Desmond Miles mostly adhered to the Creed in order to maintain synchronization with his ancestors, whose lives he observed through the Animus. He did, however, follow the second tenet to a certain extent before his incarceration at Abstergo, and was careful about hiding his identity. For years, he was able to bypass Templar detection by avoiding the use of his real name or of credit cars; and was only caught after applying for a driver's license for his motorcycle.

Trivia

• Interestingly, the player can slaughter Masyaf guards with no special repercussions. These Assassin guards have the same abilities as Saracen or Crusader guards, despite the typical Assassin training being far more specialized in close combat than regular military training.
• After completing the main storyline of Assassin's Creed, the player can kill civilians without losing sync with their ancestor.
• The Creed's maxim, that nothing is true and everything is permitted, has a somewhat disputed history; occasionally being incorrectly attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky, although the idea, if not the exact phrase forms a very crucial part of the philosophical backdrop for his "Brothers Karamazov." Intriguingly, one of the characters in this novel postulates what is essentially the Templar mindset in the "the grand inquisitor parable", although Dostoevsky clearly is critical himself of this mindset, and attempts throughout the novel to refute it, as the Assassins did, seeing free will as a fundamental quality of humanity.
• The exact phrase "Nothing is true; everything is permitted" is taken from the novel Alamut, by Vladimir Bartol, a book that served as a primary inspiration for Assassin's Creed. In it, the maxim is the highest truth of the Ismaili, the sect of Islam that gave rise to the historical Hashashins.