Memory Seals

"These devices—powerful in function but limited in scope—were used by the precursor First Civilization to record brief memory impressions, which could then be played back or re-experienced by another user at a later date."

―Abstergo Industries' description of the Memory Seals

Memory Seals are Precursor relics with the ability to contain the recorded memories of their users, whether Isu or human.

History

Isu Era

While the Isu Capitoline Triad of Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno worked within the Grand Temple to avert a solar catastrophe, Minerva and Jupiter recorded messages on several seals that were intended for Desmond Miles to view thousands of years later. However, after Juno was imprisoned within the Temple, she found the seals and threw them into the chasm below the compound, believing them to be "filled with lies".

Middle Ages

Abbasid Caliphate

A Memory Seal in Al-Mutawakkil's chest

By 861, a Memory Seal was in possession of Al-Mutawakkil, ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate and a puppet of the Order of the Ancients, who kept it within a locked chest. On 11 December, the caliph organized a meeting with five Order members at his Winter Palace in Anbar to present them the artifact, which the Ancients had forbidden him from laying his eyes on.

During the meeting, Al-Mutawakkil asked that he may be allowed to take a look at the contents of the chest, but the Ancients threatened him in response and ordered him to keep the artifact safe until their work was done. After the Ancients left, the thief Basim Ibn Ishaq attempted to steal the contents of the chest to ingratiate himself with the Hidden Ones. Upon picking the seal up, it projected a hologram of an unknown male striking a prisoner, shortly before Basim was interrupted by Al-Mutawakkil.

Roshan taking the Memory Seal from Basim

In the ensuing struggle, Basim inadvertently killed the caliph before fleeing the palace in shock with the seal still in his pocket. When he returned to his dwelling, the Hidden One Roshan visited him the next morning and took the seal from him, bringing it, along with Basim, back to Alamut.

Years later, when Basim entered the Isu temple underneath Alamut, he found dozens more Memory Seals locked away. One of them contained a recorded memory of Loki, who had been imprisoned inside the temple, and helped Basim, who was the Isu's reborn form, to unlock the dormant memories of his past life.

Usage by Altaïr

In the early 13th century, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Mentor of the Levantine Assassins, was exiled from Masyaf and took refuge in Alamut, where his Apple of Eden guided him to the Isu temple underneath the fortress. Altaïr subsequently claimed six of the Memory Seals he found there, using them to record important events in his life for an unknown person to view centuries later. Following his return to Masyaf, Altaïr began construction on a secret library and used five of his seals as the keys.

Altaïr passing the Memory Seals to Niccolò Polo

In order, the events chosen by Altaïr to be recorded involved a Crusader skirmish in 1189, the revolt shortly after Al Mualim's death in 1191, Maria Thorpe's death and Altaïr's exile in 1228, Altaïr's return to Masyaf in 1247, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo's departure in 1257 during the Fall of Masyaf, and Altaïr's death shortly thereafter.

Prior to his death, Altaïr passed the five seals used as the keys to his library to Niccolò Polo, trusting him to hide them. Upon arriving in Constantinople, Niccolò hid the seals in several secret locations around the city, and left behind clues to their whereabouts in his book, The Secret Crusade. Respectively, the five seals were placed within Topkapı Palace, the Yerebatan Cistern, Galata Tower, the Forum of the Ox, and the Maiden's Tower. Meanwhile, the sixth and final seal remained with Altaïr inside his library, where he recorded his final moments.

Renaissance

In 1509, the Byzantine Templars recovered the Memory Seal hidden by Niccolò Polo underneath Topkapı Palace after an earthquake struck Constantinople, allowing them to claim the artifact. They subsequently set out to retrieve the remaining four seals and uncover the secrets of Altaïr's library.

In 1511, two Memory Seals in Alexandria were located by Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri's soldiers during the excavation of the Library of Alexandria. These seals, kept within a chest dated to 331 BCE, were recovered by both the Egyptian Assassins and their Ottoman brethren shortly afterwards. The seals were later taken to the local Assassins' headquarters, where they were studied by an woman initiate. As she worked to "unlock the mysteries" of the seals, the Templars led an attack on the headquarters, though they were thwarted again by the Ottoman Assassins.

Ezio retrieving a Memory Seal

That same year, the Italian Assassins' Mentor Ezio Auditore journeyed to Constantinople after learning about Altaïr's library and the five Memory Seals required to access it. Using information from The Secret Crusade, Ezio was able to find and recover the seals kept within the Yerebatan Cistern, Galata Tower, the Forum of the Ox, and the Maiden's Tower ahead of the Byzantine Templars. Later, he journeyed to Cappadocia where he reclaimed the fifth seal from a dying Manuel Palaiologos, and found the final one upon entering Altaïr's library. Following his return to Constantinople, Ezio entrusted all six seals to the Ottoman Assassins, who hid them within the Yerebatan Cistern.

Modern times

By the 21st century, Abstergo Industries had found a number of Memory Seals, though very few of them contained recorded memories, none of which belonged to the Isu. Nonetheless, research of the artifacts helped the company in their early breakthroughs in genetic memory technology, which ultimately led to the development of the Animus.

In 2013, an embedded file in the Abstergo Entertainment mainframe focused on several different Isu technologies, including Memory Seals. The file mentioned that fewer than 40 seals had ever been found or accounted for, leading Abstergo to speculate that the artifacts were not widely used by the Isu and were instead reserved for the wealthiest and most powerful members of their society. The file also revealed that Abstergo knew of the six Memory Seals used by Altaïr and believed they could still be functional, but had been unable to locate them.

Behind the scenes

While first introduced in the 2011 game Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Memory Seals were not identified by name until Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), which features a document discussing Abstergo's research of various Precursor relics. As such, it is unknown if "Memory Seals" is the actual name of the artifacts or just the one given to them by Abstergo.

The Memory Seals featured in Assassin's Creed Mirage (2023) differ from the ones seen in Revelations, both in design (lacking the golden ring near the center) and usage. In the latter game, the seals simply allow the user to relive the memories stored on them, similarly to the Animus, but in Mirage, the seals project a holographic recording of the memory, which can be seen by multiple people at once.

Gallery

• Minerva's Vatican Vault projection depicting a glowing Memory Seal
  Minerva's Vatican Vault projection depicting a glowing Memory Seal
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  The Memory Seal found by Basim
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  Basim staring at an inert Memory Seal
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  A Memory Seal displaying a recorded memory
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  Ezio reliving a memory stored in one of the Memory Seals
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  Memory Seals in the Galata headquarters
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  A Memory Seal on an extract of the Voynich manuscript
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  Abstergo Industries comparing a Memory Seal to the Phaistos Disc

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (first identified as Memory Seals)
• Assassin's Creed: Brahman (picture only)
• Assassin's Creed: Where's the Assassin? (non-canonical appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage