Temple (Isu)

"You must find the other temples, built by those who knew to turn away from war. They worked to protect us - to save us from the fire. If you can find them... If their work can be saved... so too might this world."

―Minerva.

The Temples, also referred to as Vaults, were locations throughout the world built by the First Civilization in an attempt to discover a way to prevent the First Disaster.

The Temples were built by members of the First Civilization who Minerva claimed "knew to turn away from war." The temples were placed underground, as a way both to protect them from the Human-First Civilization War raging on the surface and to preserve them as a "precaution" in the event that the cataclysm could not be averted.

Each Temple researched a different way to prevent the disaster. The work of every Temple was transmitted to a single location underneath a First Civilization city located in the Northeastern region of the present day United States. From there, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva would "sort and sample all that was collected" and test the solutions most likely to succeed. The three tested six possible solutions in succession, "each more encouraging than the last," but all six solutions ultimately failed. Before any further solutions could be tested, the First Disaster occurred, decimating the planet and nearly wiping out the First Civilization.

Minerva and Jupiter later spoke to Desmond Miles through the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and urged him to locate the Temples in order to save the world from another coming cataclysm. However, both warned Desmond that they were unsure as to whether the Temples could successfully prevent the cataclysm.