Armor of Altaïr

This article is about Altaïr's armor set. You may be looking for Altaïr's robes.

"It is possessed of great strength, yet so light to allow complete freedom..."

―Altaïr's description of the armor in the Codex, page 19.

The Armor of Altaïr

The Armor of Altaïr was an unbreakable set of armor that was constructed by the Levantine Assassins' Mentor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad using knowledge obtained from an Apple of Eden. After his death, the armor was sealed in the Sanctuary beneath the Villa Auditore, where it was later recovered and used by another Assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

Description

The armor's metal portions had a gold tint, while the leather was black or dark brown in coloring. Unlike most breastplates, which were usually made up of a single piece, the chest plate was made up of several overlapping plates. A black cloak accompanied the armor and seemed to be of a similar cut to Altaïr's regular Assassin robes.

In addition to their dark colors, the robes were much longer than the ones Ezio would normally wear, and were made up of three layers. Each layer was longer than the one above it, and the longest, lower layer was segmented, giving the whole piece a look resembling an eagle's wings.

History

Middle Ages

Following Al Mualim's death, Altaïr took the Apple of Eden from him and adopted the rank of Mentor. He later constructed an unbreakable set of armor, using knowledge from the Piece of Eden, and chronicled its creation in his personal journal. There, he admitted to using the Apple to discover the properties of a new metal, which he had used to forge the armor. He also wrote about how he ultimately destroyed the armor's blueprints, fearing that it was too powerful to be recreated by either friend or foe.

Renaissance

"Little is known about Altaïr's life, but his armor is light and very strong. I'd give it to you, but I don't know how to retrieve it. My great-grandfather told me it would remain locked away until all its protectors were made whole."

―Mario Auditore to Ezio, 1478.

At some point following his death, Altaïr's armor came to be stored inside the Villa Auditore's sanctuary. It was locked behind a metal gate that could only be opened when all six Assassin Seals from the hidden Assassin Tombs around Italy were collected and placed on their respective statues.

Ezio obtaining the armor

Some time between 1492 and 1497, Ezio Auditore managed to recover the six Assassin seals and claim the armor as his own. Because of its virtually unbreakable nature, the armor would become Ezio's main set of Assassin robes for a time, and he wore them during the Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence, as well as during his confrontation with the Italian Templars' Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia inside the Sistine Chapel.

Following this, Ezio returned to Monteriggioni and gave the armor a place of pride in his bed chamber. However, with the sudden and unexpected siege of Monteriggioni on 2 January 1500, the armor was struck by a cannonball and was lost under the rubble, though part of its chest guard remained intact due to its indestructible nature. Years later, after Cesare Borgia's death in 1507, Ezio returned to the Villa and extracted the armor from the rubble; in 2012, his descendant Desmond Miles entered the Sanctuary and "saw" Ezio through the Bleeding Effect wearing the entire kit.

Statistics

Name	Resistance	Health	Cost	Availability
Pauldrons of Altaïr {{#section:AC:CST/Gear|"Pauldrons of Altaïr"}}
Chest Guard of Altaïr {{#section:AC:CST/Gear|"Chest Guard of Altaïr"}}
Vambraces of Altaïr {{#section:AC:CST/Gear|"Vambraces of Altaïr"}}
Greaves of Altaïr {{#section:AC:CST/Gear|"Greaves of Altaïr"}}

Trivia

Assassin's Creed II

• According to a piece of concept art, the armor was originally intended to be an invention of Leonardo da Vinci rather than Altaïr.
• The lining on the back of the hood form a shape similar to the Assassin insignia.
• Given that the robes accompanying the armor are made in the Italian Renaissance style and would be too conspicuous in medieval Syria to be of use to an Assassin, it can be assumed that Altaïr only made the armor plates, with the robes being added to the set later when it made its way to Italy.
• Altaïr's armor could only be worn as a full set, and the robes underneath it could not be dyed.
• The complete Missaglias Armor set has identical statistics to Altaïr's armor, providing the highest amount of health and resistance. The only difference between the two sets, besides their appearance, is the fact that the Missaglias Armor can be broken.
• Strangely, Altaïr's personal sword was not placed in the vault with his armor, rather being sold by the local blacksmith in Monteriggioni.
• When Mario told Ezio about Altaïr's armor and the seals needed to unlock it, he claimed that he had first learned about them from his great-grandfather, Domenico Auditore. However, considering that Domenico was born almost 140 years before Mario, this is highly unlikely.
• While it is possible to unlock Altaïr's armor as early as Sequence 9, when the last Assassin Tomb becomes available, Ezio canonically did not retrieve the armor until before the events of Sequence 13, sometime between his mission to Aragon in 1492 and prior to the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497.

Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy

• In Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy, the icon of an Elite Assassin depicted Ezio wearing Altaïr's armor.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• At the beginning of the game, the armor does not show the Metal Cestus.
• In the memory "Mass Exodus", Ezio explained to Mario that the armor had "blunted Rodrigo's attack", explaining how he survived being stabbed in "In Bocca al Lupo".
• After Ezio's arrival in Monteriggioni, accessing the inventory menu showed that he did not have any kind of armor equipped despite visually wearing the Armor of Altaïr.
• Altaïr's armor is available for 20 Uplay Units, though it is only cosmetic and provides no advantages.
  • During cutscenes, while wearing the Armor of Altaïr, the blade of Ezio's left Hidden Blade would clip through his elbow whenever he bent his arm.
• Ezio had his hood down twice while wearing the Armor of Altaïr; in Monteriggioni until the siege, and in the memory "Love's Labour's Lost".

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion

References

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An image gallery is available for Armor of Altaïr