William Miles

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"Beware the easy path. Knowledge grows only through challenge."

―William Miles.

William "Bill" Miles (born 1948) was a member of the Assassin Order, who acted as a contact for the Assassin teams spread throughout the world. Based in the Assassin headquarters, he regularly kept the teams informed about the situation of the others. He had a wife and one son, Desmond.

Initially working from a remote compound known as "the Farm", William's dedication to the Assassin Brotherhood allowed him to slip into the role of unofficial leader, and he would oversee the activities of Assassin cells spread around the globe.

In late 2012, William joined the Assassin team consisting of Desmond, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane, who had managed to obtain one of the Apples of Eden. Together, they relocated to New York to find the Grand Temple left behind by the First Civilization.

Biography

Early life

"One day you'll understand. All this unease will be worth something, I promise."

―William during Desmond's training.

William was born in 1948, into the Brotherhood of Assassins, and he eventually chose to devote his life to the Assassin cause. By 1987, William lived with his wife in an Assassin compound called "the Farm", located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States, outside Rapid City. He lived in the compound with approximately thirty other members, and it was there that William's son Desmond was born and raised.

William was responsible for the training of the young recruits, most notably his own son, and Lucy Stillman. When Lucy reached the age of 17, he made the decision to raise her outside the Order. This was to ensure that she would be able to infiltrate Abstergo Industries with ease, and all of her ties to the Assassin Order were cut as a result. However, unbeknownst to William, this plan later backfired, as Lucy slowly began to distrust him, and eventually defected to the Templars due to her belief that she had been abandoned by the Assassins.

William raised his son strictly, and would always insist on the importance of being careful, as well as in being ready for an attack from their enemies at any time.

Researching Daniel Cross

In 1998, William was contacted by Paul Bellamy, the Assassin in charge of an Assassin compound located outside Philadelphia. Paul asked William to look for information about an individual named Daniel Cross, who was brought into the compound by Hannah Mueller, under the assumption that Daniel was an Assassin.

William found information about Daniel's ancestry, which led to the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov, who was closely tied to the Tunguska event. William relayed this information to Paul, and Daniel was accepted into the Assassin Brotherhood.

In November 2000, Daniel was personally introduced to the Mentor, and assassinated him upon an impulse secretly implanted into his brain by Abstergo Industries during his youth. The Templar sleeper agent also revealed the locations of all Assassin camps he had visited during his search for the Mentor, through being injected with various chemicals. This resulted in the Templars initiating "The Great Purge" to destroy these camps, though as William was warned pre-emptively, the Farm was left practically unscathed.

Overseeing the Order

With the loss of the Mentor and nearly all the Assassin compounds fallen to the Templars, the Assassins went into hiding, operating from remote and secluded compounds and cells. Eventually, control of the Order slipped into William's hands, and William began to oversee the Order's activities.

However, in 2003, Desmond ran away from the Farm, fed up with his parents' paranoia about the Templars, and believing them to be nothing more than conspiracy freaks. Despite efforts to find Desmond, William and the Assassins were unsuccessful in retrieving him.

William continued to loyally serve the Order nonetheless, keeping in contact with the Assassin cells via the Hephaestus Email Network, the Assassins' private e-mail network.

In 2012, Lucy Stillman was working undercover in Abstergo Industries as the assistant of Warren Vidic, a member of the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order. After the death of her teammate Clay Kaczmarek, who had been used in Abstergo's Animus Project as "Subject 16", Abstergo's Lineage Discovery and Acquisition division managed to track down Desmond and capture him, also using him in the Animus Project as "Subject 17".

Around this time, William and the other Assassins deserted the Farm, some time before a team sent by Abstergo arrived there.

Retrieving Desmond

Lucy eventually broke Desmond out of Abstergo's facility in Italy, and the two of them joined Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane to continue Desmond's Animus sessions, though this time pursuing the Assassins' interests. William kept in contact with Lucy's cell, occasionally hearing of Desmond's progress.

Eventually, by reliving the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Desmond was able to attain the location of his ancestor's Apple of Eden, hidden for centuries in the Colosseum Vault. There, the team entered the Vault and Desmond retrieved the Apple; however, his body was influenced by Juno, a member of the First Civilization, who made him stab Lucy with his Hidden Blade, killing her.

William dispatched some Assassins to retrieve the team from the Vault, and placed Desmond inside the Animus due to his conscious state worsening from the event, as well as from his prolonged exposure to the Bleeding Effect.

Desmond continued to relive Ezio's memories, and eventually found a restored memory sequence from 1506. From there, he received an e-mail from William which stated that the memory sequence he had found would lead the Assassins to some highly valuable information.

At the end of the memories, Leonardo da Vinci and Ezio Auditore found another Vault in Rome, located beneath the Temple of Pythagoras. When Ezio's DNA activated a pedestal, the room projected a set of coordinates: 43 39 19 N 75 27 42 W, which led to Turin in the American state of New York; the location of the Grand Temple left behind by the First Civilization.

Once the sequence was completed, William instructed Harlan T. Cunningham to sedate Desmond, though it was too late; Desmond had entered a coma, and had fallen into the Animus' Black Room. Despite this, William was confident that his son would recover, and so he and Harlan left in order to investigate the coordinates.

Relocating to New York

William: "Desmond, can you hear me? Son?"

Desmond: "I know what we need to do."

—William and Desmond, upon the latter's awakening.

While Desmond was still in the Animus, William transported Rebecca and Desmond to New York, while Shaun stayed behind to attend Lucy's funeral. During this time, William examined the Apple of Eden, though he surmised that he didn't have the genes to properly wield it as Desmond presumably could.

Upon arrival, William helped Rebecca stabilize Desmond, as well as monitor his vitals. While watching over Desmond, William asked Rebecca and Shaun about him, such as what his relationship had been with Lucy. He also mentioned that Desmond's DNA had a high concentration of First Civilization DNA, allowing him to wield the Apple of Eden, as well as discussing the team's next move with the pair, and how to safely transport Desmond in his comatose state.

William beside Desmond, as the latter regains his consciousness.

When his son finally woke from his coma, William was the first to greet him, with Desmond seeming surprised to see him, but recognizing him immediately. Desmond, after seeing the Apple nearby, told his team that he knew what to do next, and William proceeded to open the doors of the van they were in.

Meanwhile, Abstergo had been tracking William for some time, as they knew he had become the de facto leader of the Assassin Order. Once William's location was made known, Warren Vidic and Laetitia England assigned their Master Templars to find and eliminate him.

Grand Temple

Upon entering the Grand Temple, William ordered his son back into the Animus when Desmond suffered from the Bleeding Effect again. After completing Haytham Kenway's memories, Desmond exited the machine, to which William demanded that Desmond enter it again, in order to find the key to the Temple's gate faster.

Finally having enough, Desmond yelled at his father for pushing his own son too far, and accused him of being no better than the Templars, to which William punched his son in the face. William revealed that the driving force of his whole career as an Assassin was to make a better place for his son, and that the impending countdown didn't afford Desmond the luxury of time to relax. However, he did acknowledge that he had been a lousy father to Desmond, but the two avoided each other for some time.

Later, Desmond conversed with his father, who apologized for snapping at him, and the two set their differences aside, with Desmond asking about his father's activity upon leaving the Farm. Later, on discover two power sources for the Grand Temple, Shaun found another in Cairo, Egypt, though William decided to go by himself, to give Desmond more time to explore his ancestors' memories.

Captured

Despite William's attempts to relieve his son of a distraction, the Assassin was caught attempting to take the First Civilization artifact, and Abstergo captured him. Vidic then sent the team a video message which bargained for a trade between William and the Apple of Eden in Desmond's possession. In response, Desmond decided to comply, but chose instead to begin a raid on Abstergo's Roman headquarters before reaching William and Vidic.

On his arrival, Desmond used the Apple to influence the guards into killing Vidic and then themselves, before leaving the Templar facility with his father.

Opening the gate

On finally discovering the Grand Temple Key's location and retrieving it from the grave of Achilles Davenport's son, Connor Davenport, Desmond unlocked the final barrier that seperated the group from the Grand Temple's inner chambers.

Inside, the group found a pedestal, to which Juno explained that it would shield the planet from the solar flares with Desmond's touch. However, Minerva suddenly appeared in order to discourage Desmond, commenting that touching the pedestal would also unleash the still-living Juno to conquer the Earth for herself.

However, on deciding that Juno could be combatted, as opposed to letting billions of lives be needlessly wasted, Desmond made his choice and went to touch the pedestal. William made a final attempt to dissuade him, but Desmond remained unmoved and simply told his allies to run far from the Temple. Following William, Shaun and Rebecca's departure, Desmond touched the pedestal, giving his life to save the planet.

Characteristics and personality

"Focus, Desmond, focus! Strength, speed, agility, no excuses!"

―William training his son.

Concept art of William.

William was truly devoted to the Assassin Order, sacrificing the social relationships he had with those around him (including his own family) for its sake. While William's wife was able to deal with his emotional distance, his son could not, which became one of the reasons why Desmond decided to run away from his parents. To this effect, William would admit to Desmond years later that he did a terrible job at raising him.

William was also a highly proud man, going so far as to punch Desmond when his son compared to the Templars. Despite this, he had no value for his own life when his death may have been necessary to safeguard the Assassins, scolding Desmond on one such occasion for rescuing him from the Templars.

Following Desmond awakening from his comatose state, William seemed to remain focused more on the world's plight than his son. However, this is not to say that he didn't care, as during Desmond's period of inactivity, Shaun reveals in a following e-mail that William never left Desmond's side, even sleeping in the same room as him, next to the Animus. Following his rescue from Abstergo, his feelings toward his son are made clearer, as he admits to Desmond that though he finds it hard to express himself, he does love his son.

His somewhat cold personality also occasionally disturbed other members of the Order, including Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane; portrayed after William showed little remorse over Lucy Stillman's death. However, this may have been because he was aware of Lucy's betrayal, whereas Rebecca and Shaun were not.

Nonetheless, the driven personality and intelligence that William used to serve the Order earned him the loyalty of the Assassins, allowing him to become their de facto leader in the absence of an official Mentor.