Engine of History

"The engine is not a tower. I don't know if that makes sense. She said, 'It's predictions. Ada's tables. They know what will happen'. "

―Spider Wallin to Simeon Price, regarding the true nature of the Engine of History, 1889.

The Engine of History was a method of complex mathematical calculations which allows the user to predict the future plans and actions of individuals they were targeting with nearly 100% accuracy. This allows the user to be able to plan accordingly and manipulate them to concoct a future which benefits them and their plans. The Templars sought to use the Engine of History to predict the future plans of the Assassins and to frame them as international terrorists by tricking them into blowing up the Eifel Tower.

Development

This proposed invention was originally concocted by the works of both computer programmer Countess Ada Lovelace, and the mysterious figure called "the Magus". Before it could be finished, Ada cut off their letter correspondences once she realized their work led to this weapon that would prove fatal and dangerous if constructed. However, plans for this weapon were revitalized by Austrian Templar Countess Konstanze von Visler, who sought to find a way to control the world through science rather than Piece of Eden. She finished the development of the Engine of History after briefly pretending to defect to the Zurich Brotherhood of Assassins to study their beliefs, history and heuristics to complete the missing pieces of the Engine of History.

History

In 1851, however, the Magus sent thugs to apprehend Ada for her notes, but the acrobat Pierrette Arnaud stopped the kidnapping. For the next couple of years, a dying Ada gave Pierrette her notes about the invention and a request to find her friend, Simeon Price, to stop the Magus from using her invention. Within two decades, Pierrette and Simeon ultimately kept the notes away from both the Magus and his Templar conspirators.

In 1870, the Engine of History was mentioned again when British Assassin Simeon Price interrogated his target Virgile Donat, who revealed that it was interwined by Art Hennighan's possession of the Ankh, before dying. The plans of the invention was ultimtately resurrected by Countess Konstanze von Visler, who was initially met with resistance from her fellow Templars. With Ada's notebook, she tried to comprehend her notes but was constantly interrupted by Simeon and his Assassin allies. Tinkering with Ada's notes, Konstanze devised to make an alliance with Simeon and to learn about his creed for the next three years.

As a result, Konstanze left the Templar Order, began a relationship with Simeon, and joined the Assassins in order to learn from them for the next three years. However, in 1876, after her success on her first mission as an Assassin, she later betrayed Simeon and the Assassins. After re-joining the Order, she used her knowledge about how the Assassins worked and went back on creating the Engine again. Using all of her experience, she created a prototype of the Engine of History, which was a method that was able to make predictions about Assassins' actions and how the Templars can act on beforehand.

In 1889, she and a mysterious figure "F" tested out her engine by setting up the Assassins to blow up the Eiffel Tower by making her messages be intercepted and interpreted by the Assassins as an attack by the Templars using the tower. However, Pierrette figured out Konstanze's plan and tried to tell Simeon and their allies within the French Assassins. Although she was stopped and injured by von Visler, she was able to tell her ward Spider Wallin, who later found and saved Simeon from Konstanze and their alleged daughter Gisela. Telling him of Konstanze's plan, Simeon and Spider thwarted their plans atop the tower and used Morse code to tell French Master Assassin Michel Moulin and their allies below to stop their planned explosion.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy (first mentioned)
• Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot (mentioned only)