Domenico Auditore

Domenico Auditore is the great-grand father of Ezio, and consequently a descendant of Altaïr and an ancestor of Desmond. He lived around the 14th Century (it is unknown if he survived until the 15th century). He constructed the Auditore Family Villa in the town of Monteriggioni. We can learn about his life reading the autobiography he left on stone plaques in the Auditore Family Crypt.

Biography

Domenico was raised in Venice. He became a sailor as an apprentice in the Atlantic sea first when he was "barely old enough to walk", and then while carrying cargo for his father's patron, Marco Polo.

One day, while looking for work in the harbor, he fell in love with a young woman. After that, he still went to sea but kept his relation with the woman who would eventually become his wife, and had a son with her.

One summer's afternoon, Marco Polo called him. Domenico's father was also there, as well as an older man dressed in a "strange hooded cape". Then, Domenico's father revealed he was an Assassin. The man in the hood called Dante Alighieri would become his master to teach him, and in return, Domenico would carry him to Spain.

To prepare for the trip, Dante met several times with Domenico, purchasing supplies and talking about important things such as life, love, honor and justice. He taught him that society was set up by its rulers to control the people, to stop them from thinking and seeing the truth. Then, Dante showed him the codex of Altaïr that Marco Polo brought from the court of Genghis Khan.

While returning to Ravenna to pick up his belongings, Dante died. Domenico went to announce the sad news to his father and Marco Polo, but before he could even speak a word, they revealed him that Dante was about to take the codex to Spain where it would be safe. But he was being watched, and murdered by the enemies of the Assassins, the Templars that still existed. His father told him to leave immediately for Spain, taking the codex and his family with him. Marco Polo gave him a bank account with an important amount of Ducats.

He set sail the night with a ship filled with cargo to be sold in Barcelona. To avoid a coming storm, they had to laid anchor in the Otranto harbor. Some pirates sneaked into the ship in the darkness. Domenico couldn't see them until they were already boarding the ship. He hid with his family in the hold, he broke the codex into pages, and placed them into boxes and containers. The pirates found them, and they asked about the codex: they were sent by the Templars. Domenico said he had thrown it overboard. The drunk men then began to rape his wife, while two of them held him down. They eventually threw her into the sea, they took his cargo and sunk his ship. he was able to reach the beach with his son. The next morning, they discover the corpse of his wife washed up on shore. He never saw the sea again...

He went to Florence, rented a small room and retrieved money from Polo's account he memorized its number. He then used it to return to Venice in disguise, looking for his father. But he and Marco were already dead. After that, he began to collect treatises on architecture, studied the classics and took vocal lessons. He took the name of Auditore, impersonating a noble at the Florentine Court where he was accepted as one of their own.

He built the Family Villa in 1290. He trained his son to be an Assassin and to kill his enemies the Templars, while Domenico himself hunted them as well. He left his memories, engraved in the stone plaques of his Family Crypt in 1296.