Project Siren

"If our experiments with Desmond in the Animus aren't going well, you will remove him from Abstergo. Take him somewhere he will feel comfortable divulging his secrets. Your Assassins should do the trick."

―Warren Vidic to Lucy Stillman.^[src]^-[m]

Project Siren was a top-level Templar plan created by its governing Inner Sanctum^[1] with the aim of extracting more information out of Desmond Miles about an Apple of Eden his ancestors had interacted with. After their front company Abstergo Industries found and abducted Desmond for use in the Animus Project, its overseer Warren Vidic realized that Desmond would not willingly co-operate with their plans and concocted a scheme to relocate Desmond to a seemingly safer environment.^[2]

History[edit | edit source]

In 2012, with Vidic facing increasing pressure from the Templar Grand Master and Abstergo CEO Alan Rikkin to obtain results in his research,^[3] the doctor and his assistant Lucy Stillman decided that Desmond had to leave the laboratory in Abstergo's Rome facility in the eventuality that progress through his genetic memories proved too slow.^[2] From there, Lucy would contact the Assassins Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane to take Desmond to their hideout.^[4]

Both Templars hoped that Desmond would feel more at ease amongst the Assassins, thus allowing him to access crucial memories more easily, particularly the ones that Abstergo desired. Lucy was then to covertly contact Vidic once the Assassins had located the Apple of Eden, which the Templars would steal^[2] and use to impose peace by having the Piece of Eden power their Eye-Abstergo satellite once it connected with their global Akashic Satellite Plexus.^[5]

However, this plan would ultimately fail due to interference from the Isu Juno, who knew the true danger Lucy posed. When Desmond's Assassin cell arrived at the Colosseum Vault^[6] on 10 October,^[7] Juno tried to influence Desmond to kill Lucy as soon as he touched the Apple of Eden,^[6] showing him a vision of what would happen if he spared her: Lucy would deliver the Apple to the Templars, but the Eye-Abstergo launch would ultimately fail due to the Second Disaster and humanity would be wiped out.^[8] The vision drove Desmond to cease his resistance and reluctantly stab Lucy with his Hidden Blade.^[6]

Desmond would later learn the truth about Project Siren and Lucy's intentions when he inadvertently relived Clay Kaczmarek's memories while stuck in the Animus' Black Room.^[2] However, despite Lucy's betrayal, Desmond continued to feel remorse for having killed her.^[8]

Legacy[edit | edit source]

Project Siren's failure meant that Abstergo was unable to acquire the Apple of Eden in time for the Eye-Abstergo's scheduled launch on 21 December 2012, forcing the Templars to abandon their plans.^[8] Despite the Templars classifying the project as a top-secret operation, the Master Templar Daniel Cross learned of it on 13 October and called his Templar psychiatrist, Dr. Sung, in a panic, though she admitted to not knowing what he was rambling about while she attempted to calm him down.^[9]

Four days later, Cross called Vidic in a rage after the Assassins had escaped the Templars' grasp once again without any leads on their location. Vidic, shocked that someone else knew about the project, demanded to know how Cross had learned its specifics, to which the latter revealed that he had used his new clearance as an Inner Sanctum member to read reports on the project's creation, progress, and recent collapse.^[10]

Even a decade after the project's failure, its documents were still not declassified for other Templars to read. In 2023, the Templar Shimazu Sei indirectly mentioned Project Siren when she recounted Desmond and Lucy's "escape" from Abstergo to the Animus test subject Noa Kim, though she appeared unaware of the escape's true nature.^[11]

Trivia[edit | edit source]

The project's name was derived from the nature of the siren, winged creatures in Greek mythology that looked like attractive women on rocky outcrops. They sang so seductively that sailors were lured to their deaths by unwittingly crashing their boats on the rocks only to drown in the wreckage or be eaten if they swam and reached the sirens.