Animus Project
The Animus Project was an initiative by the Templar-owned pharmaceuticals company Abstergo Industries to exploit the Animus for their own benefit.
Operating since at least the year 1985[1] and led by Dr. Warren Vidic with Lucy Stillman[2] joining the project some time prior to 2010,[3] the Animus project was one of the most important Abstergo initiatives in their history. The project mainly included the kidnapping of Assassins or their descendants,[2] via the Department of Lineage Research and Acquisition,[4] the exploration of said captives' genetic memories, and the acquisition of Pieces of Eden.[1]
History
Subject 4
In 1985,[1] Subject 4 (codenamed "Daniel Cross") was an 11-year old[5] orphaned[6] boy delivered to Warren Vidic by Lineage Discovery and Acquisition.[4] Daniel was used in the Animus for his genetic memory to be explored, but also for his brain to be experimented upon[6] using a replicated Piece of Eden.[1] His brain was implanted with an impulse that would unknowingly make him climb the ranks of the Assassin Order and make him to kill the Mentor should the opportunity arise. After the experiments were finished,[6] Daniel was released on to the streets, though he would suffer from a sever case of the bleeding effect for most of his life,[7] and later on 6 November 2000, Daniel's subconscious forced him to kill the Mentor. He later returned to an Abstergo facility in Philadelphia, where he was again placed in the Animus under the supervision of Warren Vidic,[6] where his own memories were viewed to obtain the locations of all Assassin camps he had visited[8] and more of his ancestor Nikolai Orelov's memories.[6] Daniel later ended his Animus sessions, and joined the ranks of the Templar Order.[5]
Subject 12
Subject 12 was forced to relive the memories of an ancestor related to the Philadelphia Project, in which the USS Elridge briefly manifested in a future state for approximately 18 minutes, due to the usage of a Piece of Eden. Using recovered date, Abstergo was able to reconstruct the original artifact used in the experiment.[2]
Subject 15
During 2010,[3] the Animus Project was focusing on Subject 15, a pregnant woman who eventually started suffering from the bleeding effect. She experience "memory-within-memory" patterns due to the memories of the fetus' father were conflicting with Subject 15's ancestors' memories.[1] Eventually, in mid December 2010, Lucy Stillman noticed that Subject 15's Raphe neurons were activating at an accelerated rate, and that the Animus was somehow inducing an incomplete state of dream-sleep. When Lucy informed Vidic of Subject 15's dangerous state, Vidic concluded that they had already gathered enough material from her and contacted Steve Gibbs to send the disposal unit to get rid of Subject 15.[3]
Subject 16
In 2012, Abstergo kidnapped Clay Kaczmarek, a member of the Assassin Order who specialized in computer hacking and engineering.[5] Dubbed Subject 16,[2] Clay was put in the Animus in an Italian Abstergo facility for several months to obtain the location of one of the Apples of Eden,[5] sometimes for days at a time. Not being psychologically able to continue his Animus sessions for such long periods of time, the personalities of his ancestors began overlapping with his own.[9] Eventually, Vidic discovered that Clay was a direct descendant of Adam, one of the first human-First Civilization hybrids and one of the first to rise up against the First Civilization. Through reliving Adam's memories, Clay and Vidic obtained the secrets of the Assassins and the First Civilization.[5] Realizing his mind would soon disappear entirely, Clay hacked the Animus and placed an AI copy of his own personality inside that only his Animus successor would be able to activate,[10] and placed several hidden Glyphs and Rifts throughout the memories of his ancestor Ezio Auditore da Firenze.[9] Going mad as a result of the bleeding effect, Clay wrote various cryptic messages with his blood across the Animus room and his own cell[2] before eventually committing suicide using a knife, with Lucy bearing witness.[9]
Subject 17
In September 2012, Abstergo captured their next Subject, number 17, a bartender named Desmond Miles. Desmond ran away from his Assassin parents at a young age,[2] and had a high concentration of First Civilization DNA in his genes.[10] Desmond was directly put in the Animus and forced to relive the memories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, a Levantine Assassin. Upon reaching the target memory, a map showing the locations of the Pieces of Eden around the world erupted from an Apple of Eden and Vidic had no further use for Desmond. Vidic's superiors ordered Desmond's disposal, but Lucy Stillman managed to convince them of Desmond's use to them.[2] Not too soon afterwards, Lucy, who was secretly an Assassin herself, escaped the Abstergo facility with Desmond and relocated to an Assassin hideout where Desmond relived the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze in a recreated Animus.[9]
After Desmond's escape, Vidic instead turned his attention to a new project, the Animi Training Program, which held the objective of training Abstergo agents using several Animi and making them relive the memories of Templars, so that they would be able to combat the remnants of the Assassin Order.[1] The project eventually resulted in the promotion of one Abstergo recruit being promoted to the rank of Master Templar, who was assigned to kill the Assassin leader William Miles alongside another man named Daniel.[10] Abstergo also started Project Legacy after Desmond's escape, which made subjects relive the memories of certain individuals using another machine known as the Data Dump Scanner to find out more about the Assassin Order and the Pieces of Eden.[11]
Trivia
- In the non-canonical modern day storyline of the Assassin's Creed (French comic), an Assassin named Jonathan Hawk was placed in a futuristic Animus to relive the memories of his ancestor Accipiter.[12]
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Assassin's Creed
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://abstergoindustries.com/portal/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Assassin's Creed: The Fall - Issue #1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Assassin's Creed: The Fall - Issue #3
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Fall - Issue #2
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Fall - Epilogue
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Assassin's Creed II
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
- ↑ Assassin's Creed (French comic): Vol 3, Accipiter
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||