Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia
The Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia is a compendium of in-universe information created by Ubiworkshop. Initially intended as an artbook, the project gathered so much material that UbiWorkshop decided to expand it into an encyclopedia.[1]
Artists like Craig Mullins, Tavis Coburn, 123Klan, Gabz, James NG, David Alvarez and many others were given free rein to draw an Assassin from the period and style of their choice. These artworks were included in the encyclopedia. There is a "cartes blanches" section that will feature artwork by other professional artists, and fans of the series. It also includes the storyline and the characters of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. The Black Edition will be released with the Animus Edition of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. The White Edition will be released through UbiWorkshop and with the Ultimate Edition of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.[2]As of the official announcement of Assassin's Creed III, Ubisoft decided to announce a new, second edition of the Encyclopedia with over 80 new pages of content and new information on the the upcoming game and the new graphic novel Assassin's Creed: the Chain. The second edition encyclopedia is available for pre-order but will not be delivered until October along with the game's release.
The Encyclopedia is divided into four main parts:
- Factions
- Story
- Characters
- Places
Factions
This section describes the three main factions in the Assassin's Creed Series: The Assassins, the Templars and the First Civilization.
Assassins
The part on Assassins describes their ideology, their history and their Creed. It also gives information about the Assassin's sixth sense, Eagle Vision, and of Altaïr's Codex. Lastly, it explains their weapons and gear, including the Hidden Blade and Leonardo's machines.
Templars
The part on the Templars also describes their ideology and history. Most of all it gives a lot of information about Abstergo Industries and the Animus. It provides vast knowledge on the results of the Bleeding Effect and the viewing of the Animus environments.
First Civilization
The part on the First Civilization contains a lot of valuable wisdom on them. It describes their history, who they were and their creation of humanity. It also gives a lot of information on the Pieces of Eden and of the famous historial figures who wieled them throughout history.
Story
The story section is organised in chronological order, starting with the Middle Ages and Altaïr's journey in the first Assassin's Creed. It then progresses through the Renaissance time age with Ezio's story, right through the events of Assassin's Creed Revelations. It then has a small section on the Renaissance Legacy and Imperial Russia. The last part is on recent history in the series with Desmond Miles. It finishes on the events that occurred in the Colloseum Vault.
Characters
The characters section begins with a detailed profile on Desmond Miles, along with more character profiles on his allies, and then his enemies. Next there is a short profile on Aquilus, and then on Altaïr. Altaïr's profile is also organised by having a detailed profile of him and then of his allies, enemies and other historical figures associated with him. After Altaïr comes Ezio, with the largest selection of friends and enemies. Daniel Cross comes after Ezio, and after him it is Nikolai Orelov. There is nothing on Connor because the Encyclopedia was released along with Revelations in November 2011.
Places
The Encyclopedia also gives good informationa about the ten places that are visited in the game series:
- Masyaf
- Jerusalem
- Damascus
- Acre
- Florence
- Rome
- Monteriggioni
- Venice
- Constantinople
- Cappadocia.
The Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia has the largest selection of knowledge about the video game series with a total of 256 pages.
Editions
Black Edition
The Black Edition is included in the Assassin’s Creed Revelations Animus Edition only and does not include the "Cartes Blanches".[3]
White Edition
The White Edition is available worldwide on Ubiworkshop and includes the "Cartes Blanches".[3]
Second Edition
An updated edition incorporating Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed: The Chain, and new "Cartes Blanches", will ship in October 2012. It will include 80 new pages of content, and a revised version of the first edition.[4]
Trivia
- On the spine of the Encyclopedia, there is a hidden message written in Unicode. Once translated and after removing the title in red, the message reads "Three lives toiled. Three lives lost. Three messages delivered: the greeting, the warning, the revelation."
- On multiple pages, a molecule is drawn with a benzene ring with a hydrogen atom with two bonds. This implies that the molecule is manmade, as for hydrogen to support two bonds it must remain in an exited state.
- The encyclopedia mainly uses concept art as pictures.