Calculations

"A strange place, this nexus of time. I am not used to the... calculations. That has always been Minerva's domain."

―Jupiter.

Minerva projecting herself into the future

Minerva's calculations made the First Civilization proficient in the studies of alternate timelines. From the Nexus, she, Jupiter and Juno influenced individuals in the future to prevent a solar flare from devastating the planet.

Examples

• Minerva constructed the Eye, based on her studies, to alter existence itself to prevent a second solar flare.
• Ratonhnhaké:ton communed with Juno via a Crystal Ball; she instructed him to join the Assassins, or the Templars would breach the sanctuary of Kanatahséton.
• The Apple of Eden showed Ratonhnhaké:ton that if he never became an Assassin, then he would not have been around to confiscate the Apple from George Washington, and prevent him from being corrupted by its power.
• When Nikolai Orelov touched the Staff of Eden during the Tunguska event, he saw events from the past and future. Through the Bleeding Effect, his descendant Daniel Cross saw his eventual meeting with the Mentor.
• Juno showed Desmond Miles what would happen if he did not kill Lucy Stillman: Abstergo would have arrived to claim Ezio's Apple of Eden, and then failed to prevent the cataclysm after placing it in the Eye-Abstergo satellite.
• Minerva later showed Desmond that if he did not use the Eye and release Juno from the Grand Temple, then the cataclysm would have destroyed humanity, and he would have led the survivors in a restart of civilization. Long after his death, history would have repeated itself, as Desmond would have been worshiped as a god, and his teachings used to justify mass murder.

Trivia

• Darby McDevitt confirmed "Calculations" was the in-house term for parallel universes in the series, and added Clay Kaczmarek went insane because he saw too many possible futures, in addition to the Bleeding Effect.