The Creed

Patience, brothers. Soon we will reveal the secrets of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. This article has been identified as being out of date. Please update the article to reflect recent releases and then remove this template once done.

Ezio, my friend! How may I be of service? This article is in desperate need of a revamp. Please improve it in any way necessary in order for it to achieve a higher standard of quality in accordance with our Manual of Style.

File:AssassinLogo.png

The Assassin insignia

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

―The Creed's maxim.

The Assassin's Creed, often referred to as the Creed, was a code and guiding philosophy of the Assassin Order upheld from the High Middle Ages until the modern era. It restricted unnecessary slaughter of innocents, preserved the reputation of oneself and of the Order, and was meant to create peace not only within the world, but within the individual.

The Creed began to take shape in 38 BCE when the Medjay Bayek of Siwa and Aya of Alexandria founded the Hidden Ones. After generations of the Assassins handing the Creed down orally to ensure that its message was delivered to and upheld by every member, they settled on their three tenets sometime in the 9th century. Al Mualim, one of the Mentors of the Order, once remarked that "[they] are nothing if [they] do not abide by the Assassin's Creed".

In the Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex, it was stated that the Creed cannot be killed, even if all of its followers were. He went on to explain that the Creed was an idea, and even if all records of it were destroyed, it could eventually be reinvented by another.

The three tenets

The Creed mainly emphasized three simple moral tenets that focused on ensuring a successful mission, mastery of emotions, and the safety of the Brotherhood.

Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent

"There is freedom, and there is the life of innocents. Both must be balanced on the scale."

―Bayek to Gamilat, 38 BCE.

The goal of the Assassins was to ensure peace in all things. The Assassins believed that political assassinations and the death of the corrupt would bring peace and a true sense of security to the common people. Slaying innocents and civilian bystanders who did not need to die could spread strife and discord, in addition to ruining the name of the Assassin Order itself. It also prevented them from achieving their higher purpose as a precise killer instead of an indiscriminate butcher. This tenet was implemented by Bayek after Gamilat, the leader of the Nabatean rebels in the Sinai Peninsula, had used the slaughter of innocents as martyrs to recruit more people to the cause.

Hide in plain sight

"Let the people mask you such that you become one with the crowd."

―Al Mualim to Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, 1191.

Altaïr blending with a group of scholars

Be unseen. The Assassins' aim was to get close to their target stealthily and escape just as quickly. In more ancient times, Assassins aimed to perform ostentatious, awe-inspiring assassinations, usually in public. The greatest illusion from such an assassination was that the Assassin seemingly materialized from nowhere, killed a corrupt public figure, and vanished into the depths of the crowd or environment. If an Assassin was spotted while stalking their target, the supernatural effect would be diluted, and it became more difficult for the Assassin to reach his target.

Never compromise the Brotherhood

"Its meaning should be obvious. Your actions must never bring harm upon us—direct or indirect!"

―Al Mualim chastising Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, 1191.

The actions of one must never bring harm to all. If an Assassin failed in their duty, and was captured or chased, they must never commit any action or say anything that could be tied back to the Brotherhood, or bring harm to any member of it.

The three ironies

"Do we bend the rules in service to a greater good? And if we do, what does it say of us?"

―Altaïr's Codex, page 4.

The three great ironies were observations that had been noted as early as the Roman Empire, and described the contradictions between the Creed and the actions of the Assassins who followed it. They were:

1. The Assassins seek to promote peace, but commit murder.
2. The Assassins seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to rules.
3. The Assassins seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet practice it themselves.

Though seemingly hypocritical, the ironies did not undermine the Assassins' cause. Rather, they demonstrated the way in which they embraced contradiction, "that one may be two things – opposite in every way – simultaneously." Another core part of the Creed is the importance of knowledge, which allows one to learn and advance. This was reflected on by Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad when about to kill a target who was ordering a mass burning of books.

The Maxim

"Our Creed does not command us to be free. It commands us to be wise."

―Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad on the Creed's meaning, 1191.

The Initiation ceremony in Rome

"Nothing is true; everything is permitted" was the Creed's maxim and primary guideline. A rudimentary version of the phrase was first used by members of Artabanus' group, a precursor to the Brotherhood, in the 5th century BCE. Scribes of the Persian sect of the Order of the Ancients under Amorges, a former member of Artabanus' group, were also familiar with the phrase.

Al Mualim taught Altaïr that the maxim commanded the Assassins not to be free, but to be wise. Altaïr later explained that for a person to abide by the maxim, they had to transcend the illusion which was the world, and to "recognize that [...] laws do not arise from divinity, but reason".

During the Renaissance, the Italian and Spanish Assassins recited the maxim at every new Assassin's induction into the Order. The maxim would first be said in its original Arabic by the Master Assassin or Mentor performing the induction, and then repeated by all Assassins present, including the inductee.

In 1512, Ezio Auditore spoke of the maxim at length with Sofia Sartor, who found it rather cynical. However, he told her that the maxim was not a doctrine to be followed, but merely an observation of the nature of the world, explaining thusly:

"To say that nothing is true, is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile, and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization. To say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."

In 1721, the pirate Edward Kenway discussed the maxim with Ah Tabai, the Mentor of the West Indies Assassins, prior to joining the Brotherhood. Edward pondered why the Assassins believed in anything at all if "nothing is true" and why they did not chase their every desire if "everything is permitted", before concluding that:

"This idea is only the beginning of wisdom, and not its final form."

Arno reflecting on the Creed

Around 1794, Arno Dorian, a member of the French Brotherhood, ruminated that the maxim merely served as a guide and a warning, rather than as a principle meant for an individual to follow, having witnessed directly how ideals led to dangerous extremism, elaborating that:

"Ideals too easily give way to dogma. Dogma becomes fanaticism. Only we can decide whether the road we walk carries too high a toll. All that we do, all that we are, begins and ends with ourselves."

Penalty for disobedience

Middle Ages

"Your selfish act beneath Jerusalem placed us all in danger! Worse still, you brought the enemy to our home! Every man we lost today was lost because of you!"

―Al Mualim reprimanding Altaïr, 1191.

On most occasions, the breaking of one or more of the tenets of the Creed led to the execution of the involved Assassin, though there have been exceptions. During the siege of Masyaf in 1176, Ahmad Sofian was captured and interrogated by the Saracens about the identity of the Assassin who had infiltrated their camp. Ahmad broke and gave the name of Umar Ibn-La'Ahad. This resulted in him breaking the third tenet of the Creed, as Umar was executed for this, and though he was spared, Ahmad could not bear the shame and guilt and took his own life after begging Umar's young son Altaïr for forgiveness. Umar himself also technically broke the first and third tenets as well by killing a Saracen nobleman, who was not his target and which resulted in the Saracens electing to continue the siege unless the killer surrendered himself, which would have resulted in many Assassin deaths. Umar elected to give himself up for execution to save his fellow Assassins.

Al Mualim forcefully reminding Altaïr of the Creed

In 1191, Altaïr broke all three tenets during an important mission at Solomon's Temple. By murdering an innocent, an old man whom he thought could have alerted the guards, and revealing himself to Robert de Sablé, Altaïr inevitably led the Templars back to Masyaf, jeopardizing not only his own safety, but the livelihood of the entire Brotherhood in the resulting attack.

Upon his return to Masyaf, Altaïr was publicly chastised and "executed" via stabbing as punishment by the Mentor. However, the execution was only an illusion created using an Apple of Eden, as Al Mualim wished to grant him a second chance. Instead, Altaïr was merely stripped of all his weapons and equipment, and demoted to the lowest rank of novice, forced to re-earn his rank through the Hunt for the Nine.

Following his return from his self-imposed exile in 1247, Altaïr decided to eliminate those of Abbas Sofian's followers who had compromised the Brotherhood by harming civilians, while leaving alive those that still lived by the Creed.

Renaissance

"Our tenets are clear. One of our brothers has decided to disobey them and must pay with his life."

―An Assassin of Jerusalem, 1511.

In 1498, Perotto Calderon also broke the tenets of the Creed out of his love for the Templar Lucrezia Borgia and their newborn son Giovanni. He broke his cover as a spy amongst the Borgia, compromising the Brotherhood in the process, and killed several of his fellow Assassins in an effort to steal the Shroud of Eden they protected, which he thought could cure his child's deformities. Though he was successful, a team of Assassins later tracked Perotto down, and executed him as punishment.

In 1511, one of Ezio Auditore's Ottoman apprentices broke the first tenet after mistaking a cleric for the Templar Cyril of Rhodes and rashly assassinating him. Instead of punishing them, Ezio ordered the apprentice to reflect on their mistake and gave them the chance to redeem themselves when they confronted Cyril again.

Ezio's actions in Cappadocia can be seen as a violation of the Creed's first tenet

Ironically, Ezio himself indirectly broke the first tenet several times that year, such as when he instigated a riot at the Arsenal in order to gain access to the harbor, getting several civilians killed in the process; and when he rashly assassinated the Janissary captain Tarik Barleti, who both Ezio and Prince Suleiman mistakenly believed was working with the Templars. However, Ezio's biggest violation of the Creed came the following year, when he ignited the Templars' cache of gunpowder in Derinkuyu to destroy it, resulting in a firestorm that engulfed the underground city and killed many of its civilians. This last incident caused Ezio to later reflect on his actions and realize he was doing more harm than good, ultimately deciding to retire from the Order.

During this time, an Assassin of Jerusalem broke the Creed, and the Ottoman Assassins were asked to intervene. Despite his treachery, the other Assassins of his guild asked that their former brother be executed covertly with a crossbow.

Seven Years' War

Hope: "Give back the Manuscript, Shay. I'm sure Achilles-"

Shay: "I cannot. I will not let this happen again. All those souls lost... One more hardly matters."

—Hope Jensen trying to reason with Shay Cormac following the latter's betrayal of the Brotherhood, 1756.

In 1756, Shay Cormac betrayed the Colonial Brotherhood by stealing the Voynich manuscript in the possession of the Mentor Achilles Davenport, after Achilles had sent him to Lisbon to recover a Piece of Eden from an Isu temple, inadvertently resulting in an earthquake that destroyed the city. Shay, believing Achilles had known the removal of the Piece of Eden from the temple would cause the earthquake, hoped to destroy the manuscript to prevent the Assassins from finding more temples. However, Shay was caught in the middle of his theft by Achilles, who ordered his Assassins to capture the traitor.

The Assassins cornering Shay

While most of the Assassins pursued Shay, Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye resolved to bombard the Davenport Homestead indiscriminately with his ship to prevent Shay's escape, thus violating the first and third tenets of the Creed; despite this, de la Vérendrye was not known to have faced any consequences for his actions. Once the Assassins eventually cornered Shay, Hope Jensen tried to reason with him, but as the former refused to stand down, de la Vérendrye shot him and Shay was presumed dead when he fell from a cliff.

After the Assassins learned about Shay's survival and his joining of the Templars, they dispatched numerous gang stalkers to assassinate him, but Shay managed to outsmart and kill them each time. When Shay later confronted Achilles and Liam O'Brien in the Arctic Temple, the latter attempted to shoot his former brother-in-arms for his betrayal but was stopped by Achilles, who had realized that Shay had been right about the dangers of meddling with the temples.

Haitian Revolution

In 1791, Eseosa, the leader of the Saint-Domingue Brotherhood, sentenced fellow Assassin Jeannot Bullet to death for breaking the first tenet of the Creed.

French Revolution

"You've defied the orders of this Council repeatedly, pursued targets without sanction, and flouted our Creed at every step. [...] In light of these actions, I find I have no choice but to call for a vote of expulsion."

―Sophie Trenet chastising Arno Dorian and calling for his expulsion, 1793.

In 1793, the French Assassin Council expelled Arno Dorian from the Brotherhood for repeatedly assassinating targets without consulting them. He was accused of compromising the Brotherhood and pursuing a personal vendetta. However the expulsion was temporary as the Council decided to reinstate the young Assassin years later, after he had matured and demonstrated true fidelity to the Creed.

History

Ancient Egypt

Early Creed

"Egypt has fallen, Greece also, and Rome will fall too. All will fall to the creed, yet no one will know."

―Bayek to Aya, referring to their compromise in enforcing a veil of secrecy over their actions, 46 BCE.

Bayek and Aya laying the foundations of the Creed

In 46 BCE, after hunting the Order of the Ancients members responsible for the death of his son Khemu, Bayek found a thoughtful Aya outside the Alexandrian shores. Concluding that there was still work to do fighting tyrants and still feeling driven by this higher calling, the two agreed to separate and sacrifice their personal lives for the greater good. Together, they developed a creed emphasizing two simple tenets: to work in the shadows and to kill only those who deserved it.

The First Tenet

"From this day, no Hidden One will raise a sword against an innocent. So it shall be written."

―Bayek to Gamilat, 38 BCE.

The first tenet was formulated in 38 BCE after an ally of the Hidden Ones, Gamilat, provoked Romans to kill villagers with the purpose of inspiring the people to fight back against them. After Bayek killed him, Gamilat realized what he had done and said he deserved his death. Bayek assured him that from now on, all Hidden Ones would stay their blades from the flesh of the innocent.

Middle Ages

"Though I ask my brothers now to abandon their rituals, I do not ask that they abandon the Creed. This is what makes us Assassins. Not the removal of a finger. Not a false promise of paradise. Not the prohibition of poison. Our duty is to the people, not to custom."

―Altaïr's Codex, page 6.

In 1189, the Assassin Haras betrayed the Order and helped the Templars launch an assault on Masyaf. The attack was repelled thanks to the efforts of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, who killed Haras. Before dying, Haras tried to justify his actions by claiming that the Assassins put too much faith in humanity and that the Templars knew the truth: that humans are weak, base and petty. Though Altaïr tried to argue that the Creed was proof to the contrary, Haras passed away before his beliefs could be changed.

After the shame of his demotion in 1191, Altaïr more closely followed the Creed by never killing anyone other than guards or his assigned assassination targets, and remaining discreet as he performed his investigations. He was also careful to never compromise the Brotherhood, by avoiding Assassin bureaus when under pursuit.

Altaïr confronting Richard and Robert

Nevertheless, Altaïr unknowingly broke the third tenet after dispatching eight, highly-ranked Templars. Upon deducing his mission, Robert de Sablé hoped to trick Altaïr into inadvertently allying two opposing forces. Since Altaïr's targets were of both Saracen and Crusader origins, their respective leaders, Saladin and Richard I of England, would likely have been more willing to join together in order to combat a considerable, new threat: the Assassins.

Robert attempted to convince Richard to join forces with Saladin in an attack against Masyaf; wherein he planned to recover the Piece of Eden that he had lost to Al Mualim at Solomon's Temple. However, Altaïr's subduing of Robert in front of Richard convinced him not to attack the Assassins, and Altaïr went unpunished for this transgression.

After discovering that Al Mualim had conspired with the Templars to find an Apple of Eden, which he then used to seize power for himself and enthrall the population of Masyaf, Altaïr killed his master for betraying the Creed. Succeeding Al Mualim as Mentor of the Levantine Assassins, Altaïr began bringing the Order underground in extension of the second tenet, believing their obligation was to hide and shape the world in secret. His fellow Assassins disagreed, but Altaïr countered that having them become a public organization had led them to be branded as madmen.

Altaïr and Maria discovering Abbas' coup

Around 1226, after Altaïr and his family had left Masyaf to deal with the threat of Genghis Khan's empire, Abbas Sofian staged a coup d'état, creating an Assassin council with himself at its head and ordering the deaths of Malik Al-Sayf, the interim Mentor, and Sef Ibn-La'Ahad, Altaïr's youngest son. Although Abbas justified his actions as necessary, convincing his fellow Assassins that Altaïr was a poor Mentor that needed to be replaced, in reality they were born from his own desire for power and jealousy towards Altaïr and as such a gross violation of the Creed. Abbas would eventually receive his comeuppance in 1247, when Altaïr returned from his exile and killed Abbas with the backing of the Order, who had turned on Abbas due to his poor leadership.

Renaissance

"You are not Vieri, do not become him."

―Mario Auditore to his nephew Ezio Auditore, 1478.

Mario reprimanding Ezio for dishonoring Vieri's corpse

In 1478, after Ezio Auditore killed Vieri de' Pazzi during one of his early assassinations, he showed disrespect to his corpse, cursing him and calling for his everlasting suffering. Seeing this as a violation of the Creed, his uncle Mario intervened, chastising the young man for his vengeance, which prevented both the victim and the Assassin from finding the peace that the Order wished each assassination to achieve.

Throughout most of the remaining course of his life, Ezio followed his uncle's example, showing respect for the dead by closing their eyes and saying "Requiescat in pace" ("Rest in peace"). However, by his 50s, Ezio had become more jaded and no longer showed his targets the same amount of respect. For instance, he called the Byzantine Templar captain Leandros a "bastardo" ("bastard"), and told Shahkulu that "Men who make a fetish out of murder, deserve no pity".

During his later years, Ezio also unwittingly violated the Creed several times, instigating a riot at the Arsenal in Constantinople that got several civilians killed, assassinating Tarik Barleti after a case of mistaken suspicion, and causing the deaths of many civilians when he started a fire in Derinkuyu to draw out Manuel Palaiologos. Regardless, he espoused the virtues of the Creed to his apprentices, advising them to be patient in planning their assassinations so as to not compromise the Brotherhood.

Around the same time, the Wallachian Assassin Vali cel Tradat betrayed the Order after the Assassins made a truce with the Ottoman Empire. Because the Ottomans were responsible for the oppression of his people and the murder of his secret idol, Vlad Tepes, Vali lost his faith in the Creed and joined the Byzantine Templars, who promised him revenge against both the Ottomans and the Assassins. Vali subsequently became an Assassin hunter in Constantinople, where he was ultimately killed by one of Ezio's apprentices.

Golden Age of Piracy

"For if nothing is true, then why believe anything? And if everything is permitted... why not chase every desire?"

―Edward Kenway to Ah Tabai, 1721.

By 1714, the British Assassin Duncan Walpole, although initially a firm believer in the Creed, had become disillusioned with the Brotherhood due to his slow rise in its ranks and as such was easily convinced to betray his brethren after the Templars promised him the fortune and recognition he desired. However, Walpole kept his change of allegiance secret and was killed not long after by the pirate Edward Kenway, after a chance encounter in the West Indies.

Edward reflecting on the Creed with Ah Tabai and Adéwalé

A few years later, when Edward first heard the Creed, he used it to justify his selfish pursuit of gold and glory—in his words, "thinking what I like and acting how I please"—even though the Assassins he had come into contact with advised that he was misinterpreting its meaning. When Edward informally joined the Brotherhood in 1721, he expressed his new belief in the Creed to the Mentor Ah Tabai; that it was only a first step to understanding, and not its final form.

Edward's ally and fellow Assassin Mary Read, when telling Edward of the Creed, said that it did not call for the Assassins to act or submit, but to be wise and to choose for themselves when and how to act.

The Assassin Adéwalé was another who followed the Creed's words, particularly in regards to innocents as, between 1735 and 1737, he freed hundreds of slaves from plantations and ships, where they endured cruel and often short lives. After a slave ship was scuttled deliberately to prevent the liberation of its cargo, Adéwalé furiously vowed revenge on the man responsible, the Marquis de Fayet of Port-au-Prince, stating that the Creed demanded his death as retribution. When he assassinated the governor, he technically violated the Creed's peace accord by stating that he wanted de Fayet to suffer and beg for his life before tearing his stomach with a machete, ensuring the man's painful death.

Seven Years' War

Shay: "WE are responsible for killing innocents and destroying cities. This... mad grab for power. It ends now."

Achilles: "I will not let you destroy everything we have built!"

—Shay Cormac and Achilles Davenport arguing over the principles of the Assassin Order, 1756.

Gang headquarters flew flags with the Assassin insignia, breaking the Creed's second tenet

Shortly before and during the Seven Years' War, the Colonial Brotherhood under Achilles Davenport grossly violated the Creed on multiple accounts, but as their actions were directly endorsed by the Mentor, they rarely faced consequences. For instance, Hope Jensen had her gangs manufacture poisonous gases which the Assassins planned to use against colonial authorities in New York, and Kesegowaase led an assault on Albany, killing British soldiers and civilians alike, as a distraction for Liam O'Brien to assassinate the Templar George Monro; both of these were breaches of the first tenet.

Additionally, the Colonial Assassins' support of the French war effort can be seen as a violation of the second tenet, as the Assassins did not try to conceal themselves and openly collaborated with the French. Most notably, Adéwalé, captaining the Experto Crede, fought side by side with the French Navy during the Siege of Louisbourg.

However, most of the breaches of the Creed's tenets came from Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye. Despite his high position in the Brotherhood, de la Vérendrye had a clear misunderstanding of the Creed, telling Shay Cormac at one point that being a proper Assassin meant "obeying your Mentor without question" in order to "ensure freedom for the human race" while failing to realize the irony of his own words. As such, he did not hesitate to bombard the Davenport Homestead to prevent Shay's escape following his betrayal, violating the first and third tenets. This, combined with de la Vérendrye's generally arrogant and aggressive behavior, made Shay question why the Assassins had welcomed him into the Order in the first place.

The destruction of Lisbon was caused by the Assassins' recklessness

Achilles' recklessness also led the Assassins to indirectly break the first tenet through their pursuit of Isu temples that they mistakenly believed to contain Apples of Eden, but caused devastating earthquakes once their core components were removed. Despite being told by Adéwalé that one such earthquake had occured in Port-au-Prince at the same time as the Assassins' investigation of a temple in the area, Achilles failed to connect the dots and later sent Shay to Lisbon to investigate another temple. The resulting earthquake destroyed the city and left Shay guilt-ridden and disillusioned with the Assassin cause.

Upon his return to the Thirteen Colonies, Shay angrily confronted Achilles, believing that the Mentor had known about the cause of the earthquakes and was indifferent to killing innocents. After being thrown out of the Davensport Homestead, Shay decided to abandon the Assassins and steal the Voynich manuscript in their possession, to prevent them from finding more temples. However, his betrayal was discovered by Achilles and, after narrowly surviving the Assassins' attempts to kill him, Shay went on to join the Templars and help them purge the Colonial Brotherhood. Achilles, who eventually realized his error of judgement, was left as the sole survivor.

Around this time, François Mackandal, the Mentor of the Saint-Domingue Brotherhood, held an extremist view of the Creed, supporting a policy of aggression and unrestrained use of power. This made him a controversial figure among his fellow Assassins and ultimately led to his death in 1758, after he was caught while attempting to poison the white colonists of Saint-Domingue—in a gross violation of the Creed's first tenet—and subsequently burned at the stake.

Agaté defeated by Aveline

Following Mackandal's death, one of his disciples, Agaté, went on to found the Louisiana Brotherhood, but proved to have the same extremist views as his late Mentor, as he too harbored a deep hatred for Louisiana's white colonists. Additionally, by refusing to disclose sensitive information to his apprentice Aveline de Grandpré and later attacking her when she called him out on his failings, he broke the Creed's third tenet; a fact he seemingly became aware of, as he asked Aveline to kill him, before taking his own life when she refused to do so.

Aveline also killed another one of Mackandal's former disciples, Baptiste, who had become disillusioned with the Creed and sought to join the Templars while continuing his Mentor's legacy.

American Revolution

"Assassins are meant to be quiet. Precise. We do not go announcing conspiracies from the rooftops to all who pass by!"

―Achilles Davenport to Connor, 1777.

Connor arguing with Achilles

During the American Revolutionary War, the Assassin Connor allied himself with the Continental Army and became close friends with George Washington. However, his mentor Achilles deplored the idea of telling Washington of the Assassins and Templars, as he felt the Assassins should be a secretive group. On the other hand, Connor's Kanien'kehá:ka upbringing, which taught him compassion and respect for all living things, led him to extend the first tenet of the Creed to trying to spare the Templars, including William Johnson and his father Haytham Kenway. Achilles had to repeatedly remind his protégé that the Assassins deemed it necessary for people like them to die.

Achilles warned against Connor's hope to reconcile with his father Haytham, who served as the Grand Master of the Colonial Templars. Though Connor went against his mentor's wishes and managed to establish a short-lived truce with his father, Haytham ultimately forced his son to kill him, having realized that peace between Assassins and Templars is unachievable. Following his father's death, Connor chose to compromise in a small way by acknowledging that Haytham was right about human nature, but continuing to hope for a better future instead of lapsing into following Templar logic.

Modern times

Though an Assassin in his own right, Desmond Miles mostly adhered to the Creed in order to maintain synchronization with his ancestors, whose lives he observed through the Animus. He did, however, follow the second tenet to a certain extent before his incarceration at Abstergo Industries, and was careful about hiding his identity. For years, he was able to bypass Templar detection by avoiding the use of his real name or of credit cards, and was only caught after giving fingerprints when applying for a driver's license for his motorcycle.

During the search for the second prong of the Trident of Eden, the Assassin Yanmei enlightened Natalya Aliyev, who disagreed with Assassins' absolute obedience to the Creed, on the ironies of the Creed and how it truly commands them to be wise.

Trivia

• In Assassin's Creed, Altaïr can break the third tenet without suffering desynchronization, by killing the Masyaf guards. Similarly, after completing the main storyline of Assassin's Creed, civilians can be killed without losing synchronization.
• The exact phrase "Nothing is true; everything is permitted" was taken from the 1938 novel Alamut by Vladimir Bartol, a book that served as a primary inspiration for Assassin's Creed. In it, the maxim was the highest truth of the Ismaili, the sect of Islam that gave rise to the historical Hashashin. The phrase in the novel is "Nothing is an absolute reality; all is permitted".
• The maxim of the Creed was translated and used in both Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II in the words exchanged with the final target. "Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine" was spoken by Altaïr to Al Mualim, and "Nulla è reale, tutto è lecito" was spoken by Ezio to Rodrigo Borgia.
• The Arabic translation of the maxim was still used in induction ceremonies during the Renaissance; by Mario Auditore during the induction of Ezio Auditore, as well as by Ezio for the apprentices in Rome.
• In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, the doors to the library of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad were engraved with the following lines in Arabic: "إتق دم البريء • لآ شيء مطلق بل الكل ممكن • إختبئ وسط الزحام • إختبئ وسط الزحام • نحن من ائتمنك • لأ تخن من ائتمنك ". When translated, they read: "Revere the blood of the innocent / Nothing is absolute, everything is possible / Hide in the midst of the crowds / Hide in the midst of the crowds / We are the ones who have entrusted you / Do not betray our trust", paraphrasing the tenets of the Creed and its maxim.
• In Assassin's Creed: Origins, the Messenger in the Eesfet Oon-m'Aa Poo tomb says a slight variation of the maxim at the ending of his message: "Nothing is real. Everything is permitted".

References

fr:Credo