Assassin-Templar War

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.

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Charles Lee: "Why do you persist...? You put us down. We rise again. You end one plot – we forge another. You try so hard... But it always ends the same. Those who know you think you mad and this is why... Even those men you sought to save have turned their backs on you. Yet you fight. You resist. Why?"

Ratonhnhaké:ton: "Because no-one else will!"

—Charles Lee, a Templar, and Ratonhnhaké:ton, an Assassin, discuss their continual conflict, 1782.

Template:War The Assassin–Templar War was a covert war of devastating proportions between the Assassin Order and their enemies, the Templars.

Said to have started with the killing of Abel by his brother Cain, the "first Templar", for his Apple of Eden, the Assassin-Templar War was fought in shadows of history. The conflict was largely fought by proxy through the manipulation of governments and organisations in order to achieve each Order's various aims. It was rare for the conflict to ever become particularly conspicuous, although there were occasions, such as the Third Crusade, where the Assassins and Templars openly fought alongside those they were manipulating.

More concrete reasons of the war can be found in the aftermath of the Human-First Civilization War.

After the Disaster, the leaders of the humans had in their possession multiple Pieces of Eden, and an idea of how best to lead humanity into the future. They were heavily scarred by the knowledge that their former slavers had interfered with their evolutionary destiny, and sought to bring about humanity's "rightful" path by any means necessary. Justified with this belief, they utilized the Pieces of Eden as tools, but were distrustful of any who had made peace with the First Civilization.

Those who represented the Assassins had always wanted to free humanity and envisioned a world where all beings could live according to their own will. As such, the Creed "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" became their philosophy, exemplifying the belief that all were free to determine their own existence. They also believed that the misuse of the Pieces of Eden to control others was against all they had worked and suffered for, as it would enslave humanity once more.

Throughout the conflict's long history, a number of different powers became embroiled, such as; the newly forming United States and Soviet Union, the Ottoman and Holy Roman Empires, on the side of the Assassins; and the Byzantine Empire, the Sikh Empire, and the Renaissance-era Papacy - dominated by the House of Borgia - on the side of the Templars. These affiliations were rarely exclusive, however, and often changed along with the country's leaders.

By the 20th century, the conflict had truly removed itself from the public eye, with the Templars' operating mainly through their public-front; Abstergo Industries, while the Assassins struggled to survive on the fringes of society.

The conflict was also integral to the plans of the First Civilization, namely Juno, Jupiter and Minerva, and their plans to avert the Second Disaster. In the Grand Temple in 2012, Juno commented to Desmond Miles that the two factions had "quarreled over our refuse, and wasted centuries", centuries that could have been better used to locate the Temple and continue the work of the First Civilization, saving the world without requiring Desmond to sacrifice himself. 

Trivia

• Despite the secretive nature of both the Assassin and Templar Orders, the conflict sometimes gained the attention of a number of other, equally clandestine, organizations. Such organizations included the Erudito hacking collective, the Hermeticists, and the Initiates.