Helix Initiate

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.

This article is about the Helix user. You may be looking for another Initiate, or the research analyst.

"Good choice. Welcome to the Assassins, Initiate."

―Bishop to the Helix initiate, 2014.

The Helix initiate is an individual who was occasionally contacted by the Assassin known as Bishop. They were tasked by her to relive the genetic memories of Arno Dorian in order to find the Sage François-Thomas Germain and, later, those of the twins Jacob and Evie Frye to locate the Shroud of Eden.

Biography

Exploring the French Revolution

In 2014, the Helix user was contacted by Bishop after they had completed a playthrough of the memories of a French Templar serving under the Templar Grand Master and a Sage Jacques de Molay. She explained to them that they were being manipulated by Abstergo Industries to sift through memories, following which she asked them to experience an unsequenced set of Arno Dorian's memories. Once the Initiate had completed the first sequence, Bishop offered them a chance to join the Assassins.

After the Initiate accepted, Bishop sent them a video file of Abstergo's Phoenix Project, explaining that the Templars were searching for Sages both in the present and the past so they could sequence a full Precursor genome. The Initiate was tasked with exploring Arno's memories, as he had reportedly encountered a Sage at some point during his life. In this way, the Assassins hoped to find out where said Sage's remains had ended up and recover them before the Templars could.

When the Initiate completed certain memory sequences, Abstergo began performing a server sweep, forcing the Initiate's avatar to flee through Helix rifts to avoid being detected, transporting them into other historical periods in Paris.

The Initiate's research eventually revealed that Arno had buried François-Thomas Germain's remains in the Parisian catacombs. This left Bishop satisfied with the results, as the bones would be too degraded for Abstergo to collect genetic memory data from them. She then asked the Initiate to continue searching Arno's memories for any information that could aid the Assassins. An additional sequence of Arno's memories was later explored by the Initiate, who discovered that Arno had found an Apple of Eden underneath Saint-Denis and sent it to Egypt.

Exploring the Victorian Era

In 2015, the Initiate was contacted again by Bishop, this time to help herself and fellow Assassins Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane locate a Piece of Eden in London. Through camera drones, the Initiate watched the pair of Assassins conduct their field work and download the memories of Jacob Frye and his twin sister Evie Frye. Later on, the Initiate discovered that the artifact the Templars were after was a Shroud of Eden.

During their explorations of Victorian London, the Initiate was contacted by Juno and sent forward into time, following Jacob's granddaughter Lydia Frye as she fought German spies in war-torn London. Through Lydia's memories, the Initiate found another Sage. Juno spoke of her past, her working to save the world with other members of the Isu and the death of her husband. Though the Assassins saw it as their duty to fight her, she told the Initiate that another Assassin had "sided" with her previously and hoped they would too.

Thanks to the Initiate's work, Shaun, Rebecca and Master Assassin Galina Voronina were able to find the vault where the Shroud had been stored. The Initiate then watched via the drones as the group of Assassins engaged Isabelle Ardant and her escorts, Juhani Otso Berg and Violet da Costa. During the struggle Violet was ultimately able to escape with the artifact, while Rebecca was seriously wounded.

Despite the loss of the Shroud, Bishop was confident they would recover it in time and thanked the Initiate for their efforts. She then sent them a final piece of footage from Abstergo's computers. The footage showed Violet and Dr. Álvaro Gramática discussing their plans with the Shroud: instead of cloning a member of the First Civilization, they intended to recreate one from scratch using the Shroud's cellular level healing ability. The footage then showed Violet talking to a woman, telling her that she was scared of what would happen to her if anyone found out what she was doing. The woman, revealed to be Juno, told Violet not to worry for she had played her part well, and that she would save the world.

Exploring the Whitechapel murders

The Initiate was one of the many approached once more to relive the memories of Evie Frye as she returned to London in 1888 to investigate the disappearance of Jacob and the string of murders committed by 'Jack the Ripper'.

Over the course of this investigation, the Initiate also intel between the Assassins discussing their current state and future. Ultimately, Bishop relayed a directive from William Miles, thanking the Initiates for their help and telling them to go dark and stay safe.

Personality and Traits

File:Acunity-initiate-serverbridge.png

The Helix Initiate in 2014 using an Arno avatar in the Animus, as they evade an Abstergo server sweep.

As they are a stand-in for the player, the Helix Initiate's appearance and personality are up to the player's interpretation. However, there are very brief instances in which the player can see the Helix Initiate behave autonomously in server bridge cutscenes outside of Arno's memories. Though they still appear as Arno, in the interim between his memories, the actions they take when not in the player's control give glimpses into the character proper (though this is likely not intentional on the developers' or writers' parts).

When the player isn't directly controlling the avatar of Arno in the Animus, the Helix Initiate is shown to have the same level of agility as Arno, and appears to be a quick thinker and problem solver. In the broken simulation set in 19th Century Paris, the Helix Initiate displays adept agility when evading the locomotive of a train or cutting a lift to avoid flying debris, as well as keeping a level composure enough as to move on toward their objective. When they arrive in the simulation of Occupied Paris, the Helix Initiate shows improved evasion, dodging incoming bullet fire from passing airplanes. The Helix Initiate shows further skill with Arno's tools, using their Hidden Blade to cut one elevator cable, and shooting the other with the Phantom Blade to propel themselves further along the interior of the Eiffel Tower. No cutscenes in the Medieval Paris server bridge displayed any of the Helix Inititate's abilities.

Whether or not these abilities are a result of the Helix Initiate's improvement with the Animus controls throughout reliving Arno's memories, or is a result of the Bleeding Effect, is not expressed. While Bishop's statements about server bridges granting more time in hours to the Helix Initiate implies they may have not spent enough time in the Animus to cause the Bleeding Effect, as many Animus users took nearly a week of continuous exposure to experience side effects, the Helix Initiate experiences the genetic memories of at least four Assassins, which could be enough to trigger side effects from Animus overexposure.

Trivia

• According to Melanie Lemay, Abstergo had trouble finding researchers who could extensively explore the genetic memories of individuals with a high count of Isu DNA.
• Though it is likely an artifact of the game's mechanics and not indicative of character lore, the Helix Initiate is capable of using Eagle Vision when not reliving Arno's memories, during server bridges and Helix Rift missions. Given Abstergo's statements about Arno's memories and researchers' inability to handle them, it is possible that the Helix Initiate possesses enough Isu genetics to trigger Eagle Vision on their own, or have awakened to their own Eagle Vision, through the Bleeding Effect.