The Truth
- "There's something I have to show you. We have been lied to this whole time; everything we know, everything we've been brought up to believe - it's wrong."
- ―Subject 16.[src]
The Truth was a video hidden in the Animus by Subject 16, with the intent to enlighten and possibly warn his successor in the Animus project. Its twenty pieces could be unlocked by solving the puzzles hidden behind the twenty Glyphs scattered throughout the Animus' projection of Renaissance Italy.
The Truth
In the video, Adam and Eve are dressed in skin-colored or translucent bodysuits, making them appear as if they are naked, and are seen running through an open area, followed by something.[1]
The scenery was a mixture of flora, a reflective blue material that resembled glass, and a white surface that sounded like stone. The garden was decorated in a futuristic style, contrary to the biblical setting. Moving through a circular automatic door, Adam and Eve used free-running to scale a large, futuristic building.[1]
While they are climbing up the building, they stop momentarily at a large window, through which a silhouette of a humanoid could be seen holding a Piece of Eden, along with several human slaves. These workers appeared to be in an environment similar to that of a metal refinery, with one slave in the foreground clearly using a hammer to shape a metal object.[1]
Adam and Eve continued climbing until they reach the roof of the building, with other futuristic buildings visible surrounding them. Further in the background, a mountain was clearly visible, while there is little other elevation in land elsewhere. The terrain was lush, and large forest's boundaries are visible.[1]
Eve can then be seen holding a Piece of Eden before saying "Adam, I have it!" Adam then calls out to Eve by name, as both turn to look at what was presumably chasing them. She then shouts to Adam "Look out!", before the video cuts to black, and a binary code flashes up.[1]
The binary code, "01000101 01000100 01000101 01001110," translates to "EDEN." Another point of interest is that there are 20 zeros and 12 ones, a reference to the supposed doomsday year of 2012.[1]
The Miracle
- "I am with you until the end. Find me in the darkness."
- ―Subject 16 to Desmond.[src]
Along with the video clips hidden behind the Glyphs, small strings of numbers were included in each. Upon Desmond reliving Ezio's later memories, Shaun discovered the numbers to correspond to further coordinates in Rome; where ten Rifts were hidden.[1][2]
These rifts could only be seen with Eagle vision, and needed to be climbed into, rather than simply being found and scanned. Behind each was one of ten Cluster puzzles, which when completed, unlocked a small video clip that displayed a series of seemingly corrupted data with "broken" words on the top left corner.[2]
Immediately after solving the final cluster, a short video was unlocked that stated "The miracle is in the execution" while the ultrasound of an unborn child was shown. Rebecca Crane noted that (unlike the Truth video) the Cluster puzzles actually concealed an executable file.[2]
Upon accessing the file, Desmond was then uploaded to an unknown area within the Animus, where he was free to run through a somewhat long virtual maze similar to those within the Animus Virtual Training Program. At the end of the maze, Desmond found a hologram (partially broken and made of computing code) of Subject 16, who told Desmond that all hope was lost, and that he must go to Eden to find a woman named Eve.[2]
Before leaving, Sixteen instructed Desmond to find him in the darkness. The program ended with the ground collapsing from under Desmond's feet, and a loading screen showing Desmond in free fall.[2]
Conversation
- Animus Voice: Compiling sub systems. Infrastructure. Tendons. Heart.
- Subject 16: Voice.
- Desmond: Subject Sixteen?
- Subject 16: Yes, yes, subject seventeen.
- Desmond: You’re dead. I saw your blood.
- Subject 16: No time. It is far later than you know. Too late to save them.
- Desmond: Who?
- Subject 16: She is not who you think she is. Everything you hope to become. Everything you hold dear. It's already gone.
- Desmond: Explain. Please.
- Subject 16: Eden, she... in Eden, find Eve. The key, her DNA.
- Desmond: Tell me.
- Subject 16: I cannot... the sun, your son... too weak. Must replenish energy.
- Desmond: Don't go!
- Subject 16: I am with you, till the end. Find me, in the darkness.
Trivia
- The mountain in the Truth bears a striking resemblance to Mount Kilimanjaro, thus placing the scene in Africa. This would make sense, as humanity is said to originate from Africa (specifically mid-Africa, the rough location of Kilimanjaro). The Codex map also shows that a Piece of Eden was located in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro. Supporting this theory even further is Lucy's mention of Vidic tagging memories in ancient Africa.
- The video seems to take place immediately before the human rebellion and subsequent war. As Adam and Eve seem to have taken the Apple without permission, and are probably trying to escape with it, one can assume that they had started the rebellion.
- It is clear that Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad has seen this video too in some shape or form. Perhaps not in a modernized format, but something (probably the Apple) has shown him it, as he mentions the buildings and the mountain that are in the video within the Codex. In the pages, he is clearly horrified by what he has seen.
- The viewing angle of the camera suggests that the video is a recording of one of Subject 16's Animus sessions. This in turn would indicate a direct lineage between 16 (and perhaps even Desmond), with Adam and/or Eve.
- The music being played during Adam and Eve's escape is the same music that plays while Desmond and Lucy are escaping Abstergo at the beginning of Assassin's Creed II, and when Ezio is running away from the guards after the Auditore execution.
- It is also the "Open Conflict" song of Forlì, and it is entitled "Wetlands Escape" on the Assassin's Creed II Original Game Soundtrack.
- In the PS3 version, Eve does not say "Look out!" At that point, it is silent and the binary for "Eden" appears.
- On the back of the case for Assassin's Creed II, it says "The Truth Is Written In Blood." Subject 16 is the cause for the glyphs, which give you the Truth video, and he had written symbols of the glyphs in his blood at Abstergo.
- On a wall in the Miracle's obstacle course, the climbing cubes form the Assassin insignia.
Gallery
thumb|left|300px|The Truth - AC II thumb|right|300px|The Truth - AC: Brotherhood