Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project is an Abstergo Industries initiative, aiming to sequence the First Civilization's triple-helix genome and explore the genetic memories encoded within through the Animus.
The project began in the late 2013, following the death of the Sage John Standish at the Abstergo Entertainment office in Montreal. Following the examination of his body and discovering precursor DNA, Abstergo set out to locate genetic records of Sages both past and present, in order to use their high concentration of First Civilization DNA as a basis for sequencing, in hopes of understanding the Pieces of Eden and other precursor technology.
History
Origins
The inspiration behind the project can be seen in the initial model of DNA proposed by Rosalind Franklin in 1952, being an inaccurate triple-helix model that was disregarded with the latter discovery of the double helix theorem. Due to this discovery, her work was wholly ignored, aside from being an example of an inaccurate conclusion.[1]
Death of John Standish
For many years, Franklin's proposition was struck down as fallacy, until Abstergo Entertainment analyzed the genome of the Sage John Standish following his death, upon which they found that he had an extremely high quantity of triple-helix DNA. This helped to elaborate Franklin's research as a correct but merely misdirected model, gathered from small traces of First Civilization DNA hidden in the human genome.[1]
To this end, Abstergo planned to gather more samples of people like John Standish and collate the findings, promoting the top-secret discovery to investors for funding. Where possible, Abstergo also attempted to recover blood vials containing Sage DNA, as those would be the most pure samples available if they indeed had managed to preserve the samples into the 21st century.[1]
By late 2014, the Assassins became aware of Abstergo's plans, and set out to counter them by recruiting the Initiates, led by their operative Bishop, in an aim to try to track down and find historical Sages' remains and safeguard them, therefore concealing traces of their DNA from falling into Abstergo's hands.[1] In October 2014, Gavin Banks led an Assassin team which destroyed the Phoenix Project facility in Paris,[2] including all samples of Precursor DNA,[1] causing the initiative to suffer a major setback.[2]
Trivia
- A phoenix is a mythical bird that was said to resurrect from its own ashes, much like how Abstergo plans to have the First Civilization be brought back through its own remains in humankind's DNA, and similar to the continuous cycle of rebirth of Sages.