Grand Temple
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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning recent or upcoming releases from the Assassin's Creed series. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
- "Each Vault's knowledge was transmitted to a single place."
- ―Jupiter in the Synch Nexus[src]
The Grand Temple or The Central Vault was created by people of the First Civilization. It's location is North America, in modern upstate New York. Like the other temples across the planet, its purpose was to create different methods of saving and preserving the world. The Grand Temple was the location where Jupiter, Minerva and Juno collected and tested the discoveries of the other temples, hoping to find the most effective methods of the Earth's salvation from the incoming solar flare.
Like the other Vaults, it was buried under ground in order to protect their contents from the war with humanity and the solar flare. It was hidden beneath a statue dedicated to the Capitoline Triad. However, the statue was destroyed in the First Disaster, and its location remained hidden until Desmond's revelation.
History
Before the war with humanity and after, all information from the other temples about any way to prevent the first disaster would be sent there for Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva to "sort and sample all that was collected." The three tested six possible solutions in succession, "each more encouraging than the last," but all six solutions ultimately failed. The solar flare destroyed most of Those Who Came Before, and less than 10,000 humans survived. However, the two groups worked together, starting around the remains around the Grand Temple. The members of the First Civilization attempted to pass on their gifts to humans through cross breeding, resulting in some individuals being able to access eagle vision and the ability to use the Pieces of Eden. As time went on, the memories of Those Who Came Before, the location of the Grand Temple, and the disaster itself dissolved into other cultures and was ultimately forgotten.[1]
However, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva created a plan for the planet's salvation for 2012, where they believed a similar disaster that killed their people would occur again. In 1499, Minerva spoke to the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a descendent of Those Who Came Before, in the Vatican Vault. Unbeknownst to Ezio, his memories were being viewed by his descendant Desmond Miles in 2012 via the Animus. Minerva spoke directly to Desmond through Ezio, telling Desmond about her people, the war with humanity, the disaster, and their efforts to rebuild the world. She warned Desmond to act quickly, and beware the Templars.
In 1506, Ezio Auditore and Leonardo da Vinci discovered a smaller vault in Rome. Unlike the Vatican Vault, the Pythagorean Vault contained a set of coordinates: 43 39 19 N 75 27 42 W. Leonardo was baffled, but Ezio inherently understood that these numbers were intended for Desmond. William Miles, Desmond's father and the de facto Mentor of the Assassin Order, was observing these memories outside the Animus, and set out to these coordinates, which he believed to be the location of another temple.[2]
In 1511, Prince Ahmet, the Templar leader in Constantinople, desired the location of the Grand Temple in order to end the differences between men, and create a unified world. He believed that Altair Ibn La Ahad discovered the temple's location, and hid that knowledge in his library beneath Maysaf castle. He organized an excavation, which Ezio Auditore discovered. From 1511 to 1512, Ezio stayed in Constantinople to recover the keys to Altair's Library, which ultimately led to him opening it. However, the library was empty-- minus the corpse of Altair, a sixth key, and Altair's Apple of Eden.
Weary of his life as Assassin, Ezio chose not to take the Apple from the Library. The Apple began to glow, and Ezio began speaking directly to Desmond as Minerva had. Ezio asked Desmond to make sense of the questions that had plagued him, and to make the suffering he endured worth something. Desmond's image appeared through the Apple, and Ezio sent Desmond into a Synch Nexus.
References
