Animus Handbook

You cannot know anything. Only suspect. This article contains content from pre-release sources that may or may not be reflective of canon upon release. This article therefore likely contains spoilers.

Animus Handbook is the first of three books comprising the Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game published by CMON Limited. It serves as the tabletop role-playing game's core rulebook and contains instructions for carrying out a session, including one example of playing and four sample sequences. Also in the rulebook is information on the series, with an overview on topics such as the Assassins, the Templars, and the Isu. Alongside this, there is also a modern day narrative told through files scattered throughout the book.

Introduction

The year is 2016.

Assassin Brotherhood has been waging a secret war against their sworn enemy, the Templar Order, for thousands of years. The Templars aim to create a perfect society ruled by order and discipline, a goal that is in direct opposition to the ideals of the Brotherhood, which strive to defend the free will of humankind.

Central in the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars are the Pieces of Eden—extremely rare and powerful technological artifacts created by an advanced precursor civilization. It is believed that such artifacts could contain extensive knowledge or be used as weapons. Although the fight for their possession continues to this day, the Templars have been successful in collecting many of them.

A chance for the Brotherhood to regain lost ground in the war is the Animus device, a technology stolen from the Templars allowing for the exploration of memories encoded in human DNA. Using the Animus, the Assassin Brotherhood has a chance to locate other Pieces of Eden and deny the Templars from acquiring them first.

This is why the last to join this conflict are the modern day descendants of Brotherhood members who fought this covert war over the centuries. By entering the Animus, they can explore the memories of their ancestors, acquire information concerning the Pieces of Eden, and gain unique skills that would normally take years to master. It is only by doing so that the Assassin Brotherhood may gain an edge and turn the tide against their enemies.

Live thousands of lives, find the Pieces of Eden, choose your destiny.

Files

01020304050607080910

FILE_01: <PAWNS IN A SECRET WAR>

The alarm neutralized and the lock picked, Inez opened the door to the warehouse. She'd taken off her leather jacket, covered in pins and chains and other things that might jangle the lone security guard awake. Maybe this score would get her off her friend's couch. The crates were piled high to the ceiling, lost in bright fluorescence, stacked like a very neat child's building blocks. She took the small flashlight out of her pocket and recited the aisle and tier where the box she was supposed to take sat. This was a rental facility, or so she was told, and light on security. Turned out to be anything but. She'd scaled the shelf to the fifth tier, about twenty feet up, her shoes gripping the shelf below. She found the box. It looked like a pen case but small, which was good because Inez wasn't big. In her head, she hummed a punk tune from the night before and for a moment, reconsidered how much she'd drank as her stomach turned while looking back down. Also, there were two men walking down the aisle between the shelves. They hadn't seen her yet, but she could tell they weren't rent-a-cops. It was the submachine guns that gave it away.

This is what she got for taking a job proffered at a party in Wicker Park. Way too artsy a crowd for her. She held her breath, tried very hard not to swear, and waited for the men to pass. When they did, she cat-climbed down to the concrete floor, crept around the end of the aisle, and saw them in front of the door she'd opened. The door she hadn't closed all the way because... hangover. About 400 pounds of muscles nullified that exit. She'd have to find another way out.

The skylight it was. The panels were open and she'd considered going in through the roof anyway. So, hell, why not? Worst that could happen is she falls, gets caught, and spends more time in jail, right?

She made it to the skylight and was levering open one of the panels when the first bullet starred the glass in front of her. No more being careful, she hauled her ass through the window, sneakers finding traction on the roof and bolted for the fire escape... which, of course, had another slab of guard meat coming up it just then. This was some serious security. The man fired at her, spent brass moving in seeming slow-mo as the muzzle flashed. But Inez had run to the edge by then, said screw it, and jumped to the next roof, which she was not at all sure she'd make it to until she landed. From there, she ran off the edge of that roof and caught a light pole down to the street. Before she had time to pat herself on the back, there was another of the guards with a gun right in her face.

"You Descendants think you're untouchable. The Templars think otherwise." He was about to pull the trigger. Then, she was covered in blood. Someone had stepped around the edge of an alley with a silenced pistol. He wore black, nondescript clothes and was maybe a few years older than Inez. Automatic fire raked the alley behind him as he fired at the guard coming down the fire escape. Inez turned, some instinct telling her that the other guards were outside by now and, sure enough, two positioned themselves behind the loading dock and took a bead on her would-be rescuer. He saw one in time to pop him, but the other, well, Inez hadn't fired a gun since one of her mom's interchangeable boyfriends taught her, but she had a knack and put two rounds into the other guard's chest. Then, she dropped the gun, screamed, and started shaking. She didn't make it far out of the alley, or the street beyond before her rescuer pulled her down. Everything moved as if through a world of transparent syrup.

She watched her hand open a car door, getting in on the passenger side. The guy gunned the already humming engine. He turned to her, face awash in the street's wet neon refracted through beaded rain on the windshield and said, "You ever consider more steady work?" That's when she finally breathed again then said, "What the hell is a Templar?"

FILE_02: <A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE>

Her rescuer, if she could call him that, took sharp turns with the car, doubled back the way they'd come, then pulled into a public garage. He told her to get out and follow him. Now was the time to run if she was going to do it. "You want to bolt? Go for it. We won't stop you. We just have an offer for you." It was that "we" more than anything else that stopped Inez, though she didn't love the idea of having those. What did he call them, Templars? Yeah, of having them on her again. Finally. She said, "Who are you? The thief fairy? You come out of the sky and bless the wicked?" He smiled, like maybe he was exactly that. "I'm Royce." He gestured for her to follow him, and she did, carefully. The fluorescents slung from the ceiling of the garage made all white people look dead, Inez thought, and they made this Royce look doubly so. "You said 'we'. Is that the royal we or do you have an invisible friend?" They passed several cars. Royce took a fob from his pocket and deactivated the alarm on a plain sedan. He opened the driver's door. "My friends can be pretty invisible when they want." He smiled in a way she knew other women would find appealing. Maybe she did too. "But the 'we' I'm talking about is the organization I work for." "And they are? Let me guess... first name Rolls?" Her eyes scanned the parking garage. She started calculating how fast he could run versus how fast she could. "Get in and I'll tell you," Royce said. She did. She'd look back on that decision, her hand pulling open the passenger's side door, sitting as if on automatic pilot, later and wish sometimes she hadn't. Wished she had run. But, right there in the moment, she got in. He locked the doors immediately, pulled out of the parking space like a stunt driver, all squeals and burning rubber, then said, "I'm an Assassin." Well, Inez thought, that was just great. The gate raised without him stopping. The man working in the little booth nodded solemnly, and they were back on the street. LaSalle, she thought, but it had all happened so fast. Chicago's skyline wasn't visible here, which meant they were in it. Flakes caught in the headlights. Slush pulled neon from the windows and stretched it across the streets. Inez said nothing. Best to let this Royce give something away. They were under the full industrial gothic of Lower Wacker now. "You don't talk much," Royce said. "It's my first kidnapping." Royce laughed. "I'm not kidnapping you. You can leave after you hear me out." "And those other guys back there? The dead ones? They just wanted to hug me, right?" "The Templars? No. They wanted to recruit you, initially. You're a descendant in a line of people who've fought a war for millennia. All their memories are in you and the Templars want them. So do we. Neither side meant for it to happen the way it did." She sighed. He was a nut. "So, you're a Shirley MacLaine past-life kinda of assassin, got it." He turned. She tracked the name of the street in case she had to bail. "You're called a Descendant. Your DNA holds the memories of past Assassins. We need that knowledge. The Templars would like it too." "And me without my crystals." "I'm going to take you to a safehouse and introduce you to my cell. After that, you decide. Sound alright?" She sighed again and looked out at Chicago's wintry blur. "Sure. Pretty fast for me to meet your mom, but why not?" He nodded. "My cell surveilled you. Said you were a smart ass." "Well," Inez said, "at least they got something right."

FILE_03: <THREE-TRAINING>

Inez stood in bare room inside a building she hadn't ever noticed before in the city. It was as if the building didn't want to be seen, so boring and average that it faded into the background. She and four other "recruits" stood at the edge of a large, dojo-like mat. A black, muscular woman stood in the center. Her name was Doria, and she had serious eyes. Inez had seen eyes like that before in some of her less-savory contacts. Eyes that burned like cigarette coals through a napkin. She kept her hair scalp-short for fighting. Inez hoped that wasn't part of the deal she'd made on acceptance here. "Templars are our enemy. By joining us, they become your enemy. Anyone who has second thoughts should leave now. Not all of you will live to see the end of the year," said Doria. "And if we do?" said Inez. "You'll feel buoyed by a cause higher than yourself. You become both history and the future." A big boy from Iowa raised his hand. "Sounds religious." The woman paced the mat like something in a cage, only there were no bars. She might leap and attack at any moment. "Meaning is inherently religious, but we are not. We work towards a tangible end. Teleology, you understand?" "Tele-what?" Inez asked. "The idea that something or something works towards a predetermined purpose." "Sounds like philosophy," Inez said. "This is not about philosophy," she said. "This isn't spiritual, and it's not enlightening. This is about how to kill or incapacitate your opponent as quickly as possible. Because, if you don't, they'll do the same to you. That's our war with the Templars summed up." Doria's eyes wandered around the room. She settled on the Iowa boy with the fullback build. He smiled. She gestured for him to come onto the mat. He did. "You think you can take me?" she said. He looked around at the other recruits, met Inez's eyes. Inez shook her head. The man turned back. "I think you'll kick my ass." She smiled. "You're smarter than you look, Iowa." She pointed at Inez. "You, scrawny girl. Come here." Inez stepped forward with caution. "You think you can take her?" Doria asked Iowa as she pointed at Inez. The guy laughed. "Yeah, probably." "So, do it." Doria said. And like that, he flung his fist at her. But it was a roundhouse, slow enough that she instinctively ducked under him, hit the mat, and kicked one leg out into his groin. Two-hundred pounds of corn-fed fullback hit the mat beside her. It was not Inez's first rodeo with handsy men. "Good," Doria said. "You took out a slightly above average man," she laughed. Then, she kicked Inez. No warning. She moved from five feet away right next to her in a hummingbird's heartbeat. Inez almost dodged the blow. Almost. Doria's foot planted itself in her stomach. She was back on the mat, stunned. Her stomach tried to crawl up her esophagus. Her head did a Tilt-a-Whirl around the other faces. She retched. "Getting up is lesson two. You aren't ready for that yet," said the woman. Inez would have agreed, but she just passed out.

FILE_04: <THE FIRST ANIMUS JOB>

Inez smelled the stink of London, heard its cacophony, carriage wheels on stone roads, gulls crying at a gray sky, accents she could barely untangle. Her nose filled with the rot of fish from the docks. To the north, a palace made of glass stood where she knew was a parking lot today. The reality of it all shook her. They'd explained how it worked before they put her in the machine, but the "being here" of it was the difference between watching baseball and being in the majors. Royce explained how inhabiting the memories of an ancestor might feel like body-dislocation. That didn't even begin to cover it. This was not her body. Not her world. She saw with other eyes. Smelled with wider nostrils. She could feel the lack of her breasts and the bulge in her pants. A chill rode her spine like a chemical burn. People seemed smaller. Then, she realized it was she who was taller. Of all her high school Dickensian imaginings, the actual city, the smoke, came not at all close to this reality. The air hung heavy with grit, and breathing it irritated her senses. Last night, this man she inhabited met a contact in a public house. She recalled it from his point of view. The other man's bulbous, veined nose. The kind of veins you get from drinking. Her father had them. The man whose body was now hers, Jacob Frye, had thoughts which bled into her own until they became a mélange she could not easily separate. Even his accent rolled from her lips as she mouthed his thoughts before a dollymop... and how did she know that word?... stared from gaudy, painted eyelids, causing Inez to stop. Talking to oneself wasn't acceptable in any era, apparently. She piloted the body through a dense throng of people gathered round a plinth atop which stood some bronze hero. Her boots... his boots... clicked on cobblestone, and she had ears keen enough to hear them above the din. She felt as if she'd possessed someone or perhaps, he possessed her. She found herself wending down roads and alleys. Boot leather on cobblestone, flagstone, dirt. Names came to her as she passed, of public houses and shopfronts, of the streets themselves, but they came at the same once-removed as the body. The man she inhabited rolled his shoulders and neck as he entered a specific pub called The Spotted Fawn. The stale smell of ale spilled, of cheap perfume, of the place's dank, sweaty walls. Her eyes found a man in a corner table. His eyes hooded by a heavy, prominent brow. She knew this was her target. Took a seat at the bar and blended in. Waited. She watched the man in a mirror behind the bar, a mirror world where left was right. She read his body, his face. How soon would he go to the loo, and why did she think of it as the loo now, herself? That was something she only ever heard on TV. Soon. Soon, his bladder would take control and move him to the bathroom like a puppet. She rose and went there first, quietly, the back hall leading to the alley and the loo lit poorly by a lantern. She stepped in. Waited. The moment the man came in, she grabbed his throat so he couldn't scream, then dragged him inside. A kick to his stomach doubled him over. She had a fist of his hair in her hand and she pulled his head forward so her blade could slide beneath the skull and into his brain. He spasmed once and was still. It was done. To be sure, she checked his eyes, then slipped out. In the alley, she wanted to retch again. Though this time not for the bodily displacement but for what she'd done. What she knew she'd do in the future and, in that future, to people who weren't already a century dead and gone. She came up panting from the machine they called the Animus. Sweat in her eyes like salt. She wiped it away. Royce was there with a med-tech. "Your heart rate's too fast," Royce said, "You'll have to even that out as you get used to this." Get used to this. The words hung there in her mind beyond the afterimage of a spectral London. And knowing she would get used to this both thrilled and shamed her.

FILE_05: <THE HIDEOUT>

Light through the mullioned window caused a grid-like shadow on the table onto which Inez tossed her olive drab duffel bag. Dust motes scattered on impact, finding a thin strip of light through the boarded windows of the old house. Inez and the others in her cell pulled drop cloths off old chairs, tables, and wardrobes. A shrouded candelabra hanged in the main dining room. One room after another was a dead museum to some American life trapped forever in the 1950s. "You get this from the Addams Family?" Inez asked Royce. "Place smells like my grandmother", Iowa said, setting down his bag. Royce looked around wistfully. "My cell started in a place like this. You'll get used to it. Besides, the vintage décor helps immerse you in history." "And immersing ourselves in history is what we do," Inez said, imitating Royce's oft-used maxim. "This place should be condemned," Junko, the tech wizard, said. She's a girl with rimless glasses, flat, black hair, and eyes meant for drilling. "It is, Junko," Royce said. "But we own it. And we own anyone who might have interest in it. Let me show you downstairs." "Great," said Inez. "Always wanted a dungeon." Royce let that slide, his hand on the fireplace mantle. He did something to it which caused a metallic click. "Follow me," he said as the entire fireplace swung out. Neat trick, if it's functional. Below sat the kind of room a superhero vigilante might keep in secret. Everything was stainless steel and serious looking. There was no personal touch to any of it. A weapons cabinet holding firearms. A rack holding melee weapons. It was like shopping in a computer RPG. Level up. Upgrade your gear. But this was no game, Inez knew. Inez remembered the man she shot during a botched mission. That one hurt. Didn't even puke afterwards. But still, thinking of it put knots in her gut. He was just a dad. Collateral damage. "Inez?" Royce said, "You listening?" "Protocols," she said. "Leave in pairs. Never take the same route home twice." Royce eyed her as one might a recently bought thoroughbred that was showing signs of early weakness. "I got it, Royce, ok?" Royce sat at a bank of computer screens, each showing a CCTV view of the outside. He turned the swivel chair towards her and the others. "Not ok. Getting it isn't enough. It must be second nature. It must be a part of you." The crew exchanged looks. Inez couldn't read their faces, after all, they've been training to present only the emotions they want the world to see. But Inez did get it. After she killed that man... she got it and, in so doing, knew she could never come back to whoever it was that she had been before. "Rubicon crossed, Royce." She looked at the others again. "We're all in or we would have bolted by now." Royce took a moment to absorb the proposition, doing so, and nodded. "Right. Then let's have a look at the cabinet of toys." He walked over to the gun locker, his eyes bright as he opened it to reveal racks of heavily-modded rifles and submachine guns. His smile was like a kid on Christmas morning. And Inez, despite herself, found it all exciting.

[Entry is missing from early access copy]

FILE_07: <UNTITLED N.2>

The sound you hear from a bullet is it breaking the sound barrier. Once you've heard it, it's already gotten to you. This last one missed, and for that, Inez thanked any god or primal entity who would listen. This was not supposed to turn into a firefight. But here she was, again. Stealth took them only so far, and now she huddled behind the front of a sedan. Specifically, she crouched behind the front because she knew only the engine block could stop a high-powered round. What you see in the movies, with action heroes hiding behind car doors and that? None of that is real. You hide behind that and anything that hits goes through the car and then you. Those thoughts weren't supposed to come up. This was not supposed to be a firefight. It was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab on an unguarded subject. Royce joked it was now, "recon in force." He was military, she knew, but what branch of secret elite team she didn't know. She didn't know much about any of her crew or they about her. How it had to be. Protocol. She heard the bolt go back on a Kalashnikov, indicating a reload. She used this chance to dash across the snowy street and reposition herself on the shooter's flank, which afforded a clean shot. Her MP7 took him out. Two in the chest, one cleaving part of his head off. Inez then got behind the engine block of another car. They were in a parking garage, and Inez figured they'd been led into a trap. Bad things happened in parking garages, as far as Inez could tell. Maybe that was a life lesson. Probably not. As it happened, the car she took cover behind also carried a Templar. Bad luck. No way to know. He came out of the driver's side door with an old Uzi. Inez popped back over the hood, showing the smallest profile she could. He fired. So did she. Her bullet landed in his throat. His bullets pinged off a support column behind her, ricocheted, and lodged a fragment in her right leg. She heard covering fire from Royce's and Iowa's weapons. Reiko appeared at her side and nodded at the wound. "Need help?" Inez nodded in return as if she'd just been asked if she'd like breakfast in a fine hotel restaurant. She let Reiko help her up and they three-legged it to the stairs where Iowa was holding the door open. He flipped Inez over one of his big shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Royce was last, reloading his submachine gun as he hit the door. "We're out of here," he said. As Royce turned his head, Inez, now on Iowa's shoulder and looking back at the Templars firing at them, saw a red bead on Royce's temple. She fired from that position, a ridiculous Hail Mary burst from the MP7 she knew couldn't possibly hit the guy. But it did. Her shots got off first, clipping the man in the shoulder, and Royce's head remained intact. "Sometimes," she thought, "dumb luck saves your ass."

[Entry is missing from early access copy]

FILE_09: <RELIC HUNTERS>

A nowhere desert at night. Sand and grit scoured the windows of a box car diner. A group was outside, digging in an old, Civil War era cemetery. The group was made up of Inez, Iowa, Reiko, and Royce. Each took a turn with the shovel. Currently, Iowa was taking a leak in the abandoned diner. Inez worked the shovel, her arm muscles hurting. Six feet down is more than you think. "Grave robbing," Inez thought to herself, "isn't what I'd prefer to be doing on a Saturday night, but here I am." She's here because in that coffin was a Piece of Eden. Not a metaphor, as Inez understood it. Her shovel hit the old, wooden casket, thumping a hello from here to wherever the desert winds might carry such a noise. Royce got into the tow truck they "borrowed" and let the rope down on the winch. Inez fixed it to the coffin by the handles. There was no smell but dust and time. She hoped the body didn't fall out on the way up. With everything ready, Reiko gave her a hand up and out of the grave. Inez watched Iowa keep the coffin level as it rose. Royce pulled ground. Once there, Reiko picked up a prybar, but Royce told her to wait until he could see. Getting out of the driver's side, he joined the rest of them. He nodded and Reiko knelt down, putting the prybar in and leveraging it. There was squeaking and a cough of dust. After a moment, the dust cleared, showing that there was a dead fellow in there, sure enough. Inez noted that it was all bones and cloth fragments, aside from the thing he was buried holding. It was a leather satchel about the size of a bowling bag. Keiko tossed it up to Royce, who opened it. And that is when Inez first saw a Piece of Eden. Even out of the bag, it didn't look like much. It didn't look, like, you know, the Grail or anything. Or, if it did, it was the Grail Indy found. What was like this thing? It was a small box made of wood, once finely inlaid but weathered to the point of being paintless. A wooden box. It looked old but worthless. She said as much. Royce smiled. He held it in between his palms as if communing with it. "Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory." "Please, Royce," Reiko said. "Sorry," he said. "This is it. This is what we want." "Really impressive, Royce," Inez said and then everyone, including Royce, laughed.

FILE_10: <UNTITLED N.3>

Her heart thundered in the cathedral of her ribs as it hadn't since she was a thief. In those days, a chase like this was rare. Usually, she didn't get caught and didn't have to bolt. These days, chases were common. But she really did wish the freerunners she used to hang with could see this. She took the stairs down into the subway like a gazelle, hit the turnstile like an Olympic gymnast, then used that like a mount and came up off it with her legs kicking out, right into a Templar's chest. He went down and Inez landed on his chest to punctuate things. The train was just coming into the station with a long squeal of its brakes. There was little to no crowd here at Jefferson Park at 2:53 AM, but she bolted for the open doors of the train and then begged them to close. But it was too late. She saw pursuers boarding the other cars. She could run out at the last second, but she was pretty sure they had someone covering the train. Someone who'd drop her before the doors closed behind her. So, she stayed. Opt for the devil you know and, in this case, the devils that probably have the order to take her alive, if at all possible. That was something, anyway. She looked to the cars ahead of her through a series of subway windows. People were pushing down the aisle, their eyes on her. It was the same behind her. She figured that this car was as good as any to start a tussle in. She stretched on her toes, letting her back stiffen, then uncoiled vertebrae while exhaling. She then did a small runner's jog-in-place move and started gauging the angles in the train, the height of people seated and standing, various vectors she might try when they get inside. The first to arrive were a pair from the back car. It was a guy maybe six foot tall and a shorter woman. From ahead, two men, wide looking, started closing in. She waited until they were close. In fact, she waited until one of the broad men grabbed at her, getting purchase on her jean jacket. She slid out of it the way she'd practiced, stomped onto the guy's instep, and launched herself up under his chin for a KO the only way she knew how. Then the other grabbed at her shoulders, but she wasn't there. She jumped up on a seat, ran on the wall and windows of the car, right past broad man number two and into the next car, where she hit something solid and human. Someone was bear-hugging her. It was a very big woman she didn't notice before. The squeezing forced air out of her lungs. Air that she needed to stay conscious. She felt a rib give. She could feel herself slipping into a warm, black unconsciousness. She couldn't... Suddenly, electricity was running through the woman and, because she was hugging Inez, it ran through her, too. Fifty thousand volts, but all of them at low enough amperage not to kill you. Inez fell to the ground, flapping about helplessly like a fish out of water. Rieko quickly put away the taser and slipped something under Inez's nose, a noxious potion that seemed to numb the electricity. Inez tried to gather herself. She watched as Reiko's hands wrapped her belt around the handle and bar inside the door so it wouldn't open. Reiko gathered half of Inez under her arm, and the two hobbled through a car filled with people more-than-willing to avoid them. They both hoped that they would not die at the next stop.

Key Events Overview

UNKNOWN [BCE]

• By genetically modifying existing species, the Isu create the first humans.

CIRCA 75,010 BCE

• After stealing an Apple of Eden, Eve awakens Adam, sparking the human uprising against the Isu race.
• The Isu Saturn, Juno's father, was one of the first victims of the conflict. The death of Saturn marks the beginning of the eternal vengeance Juno swore against the human race.

CIRCA 75,010-75,000 BCE

• The Human-Isu war.

CIRCA 75,000 BCE

• The Toba Catastrophe. A massive solar flare hits the Earth, devastating both Isu and human populations. Few Isu survive, leading to their gradual extinction. The surviving members of the human race build new civilizations.

754 BCE

• Romulus and Remus, two twin demigod descendants of the Isu Mars, retrieve a Piece of Eden, the Sword of Mars, from the god's temple. The artifact could convey extraordinary powers, turning its wielder into a mythical leader.

753 BCE

• Romulus and Remus fight to the death due to the brothers' irreconcilable views about Rome and the Sword of Mars. Romulus kills Remus and becomes the first king of Rome.

717 BCE

• After decades of reign, Romulus understands his brother's vision in favor of free will and realizes that Rome has become a city corrupted by the desire for order and supremacy. As his opponents plot to kill him in the shadows, Romulus disappears, taking the Sword of Mars to the Precursor civilization's temple to prevent the artifact from being used again. He then instructs his followers to act in secret to defend free will.

480 BCE

• Betrayed by the mysterious Cult of Kosmos, Leonidas, King of Sparta, is killed at Thermopylae making a last stand against the invading Persian army. Leonidas' broken spear, an Isu artifact, is passed down to his daughter Myrrine.

465 BC

• The Persian king Xerxes I is killed by the Assassin Darius, marking the first recorded use of the Hidden Blade.

431-406 B CE

• The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta is the first act of covert manipulation by the Cult of Kosmos, a powerful group who attempts to command the course of history. The Spartan mercenary Kassandra, granddaughter of Leonidas, thwarts the cult, destroying the Precursor artifact they employed as part of their plan.

CIRCA 47 BCE

• The Order of the Ancients forges an alliance between Caesar and Cleopatra, which links the two mighty empires of Rome and Egypt under their control.

47 BCE

• Bayek of Siwa and Aya establish the Hidden Ones, a group dedicated to covertly stop those who would overrule humanity's free will. The headquarters in Memphis and Rome are founded.

40 BCE

• Bayek and Aya agree that the Hidden Ones must keep their identities secret, and their activities should never endanger the lives of innocents, starting the tenets of the Assassin's Creed as we know it.

30 BCE

• Helped by her former friend Amunet (Aya), Cleopatra ends the war that threatened to destroy Egypt and its people by taking her own life.

1090 CE

• Although their rites and practices remain secretive, at the behest of their leader Hasan [sic], the Brotherhood begins to act openly, hoping to inspire others in fighting oppression.

1129 CE

• At the Council of Troyes, the Order of the Knights Templar is publicly recognized. Hugues de Payens is the first public Grand Master.

1257-69 CE

• After training under Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and his son Darim, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo set up the first Assassin Guilds in the West, in Constantinople and Venice.

1307 CE

• The King of France, Philip IV, brands the Knights Templar as heretics. Their Temple in Paris is besieged, and over sixty Templars are arrested including Grand Master Jacques de Molay.

1314 CE

• The last public Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, is burnt at the stake. At his final behest, his nine most trusted men are dispatched around the world to continue the Templars' goals in secret.

1512 CE

• Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's secret library in Masyaf is opened by Ezio Auditore. There, he witnesses the Isu Minerva's [sic] message about the Toba Catastrophe, and her warning of a Second Disaster to come.

1766 CE

• Aveline de Grandpré faces the Templar Order in Louisiana.

1788 CE

• Mysterious supernatural activities put the New Orleans Bureau of the Brotherhood on edge.

1917 CE

• In the midst of World War I, the British spy and Templar Agent Jeremiah Davies allies with the Assassin's Brotherhood to keep the Instruments of the First Will activities in Egypt.

1937 CE

• The Templar Order founds Abstergo Industries as a public front.

1942 CE

• A Brotherhood cell moves through occupied France on the trail of suspicious Templar activities.

JANUARY 1943 CE

• A Brotherhood cell reaches Saint Bertin. The Seneschal Templar Heinz Müller, leading a platoon of German soldiers, is tearing the Abbey apart, looking for something hidden beneath it.

FEBRUARY 1943 CE

• Die Glocke, an early ancestor of the Animus powered by an Apple of Eden, is tested on the British Assassin Eddie Gorm.

OCTOBER 1943 CE

• Project Rainbow, more commonly known as the Philadelphia Experiment, is an attempt by the Assassins and Templars to use Die Glocke to change history and avert the dreadful events of World War II. The experiment fails, but the scientific knowledge acquired becomes key to the subsequent development of the Animus.

1976 CE

• Thanks to the newly discovered evidence of triple-helix DNA, Dr. Warren Vidic begins drafting blueprints for the first Animus.

1977 CE

• Using blueprints stolen from Abstergo by William Miles, an Assassin Cell constructs their own version of the Animus.

1978 CE

• The first Animus device is built. Abstergo launches the discipline of DNA Memory Research.

1980 CE

• Abstergo first uses Animus 1.0 on a human subject, Subject 1, in a dangerous and excruciating procedure. Dr. Vidic volunteers to be Subject 2.
• Overseen by Dr. Vidic, Abstergo Industries launches the Animus Project. Its goal: to explore genetic memories to gather information about the Assassins and the Pieces of Eden.

2000 CE

• The Great Purge begins when a Templar sleeper agent, Daniel Cross, kills the Mentor of the Brotherhood. Using intelligence passed to them by Cross, the Templar Order attacks the Brotherhood across the world. Only Assassin Cells unknown to Cross survive.

2011 CE

• Subject 16, Clay Kaczmarek, is abducted by Abstergo and placed in the Animus.

2012 CE

• Under the guidance of Rebecca Crane and Lucy Stillman, the Assassin Brotherhood produces their own Animus. Upgraded and refined, Animus 2.0—nicknamed "Baby"—is shaped like a chair.
• Abstergo begins the Animi Training Program, employing Animus technology to train employees to fight the Assassin Brotherhood.

1-2 SEPTEMBER 2012 CE

• Subject 17, Desmond Miles, is kidnapped by Abstergo and forced to relive the genetic memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.

8-9 SEPTEMBER 2012 CE

• After escaping from Abstergo, Desmond meets with the Assassins. He uses their Animus to relive the genetic memories of his ancestor Ezio Auditore, including the message about the upcoming Second Disaster received from the Isu Minerva.

21 DECEMBER 2012 CE

• Defying Minerva, Desmond Miles activates the Eye, dying in the process. He averts the Second Disaster but releases Juno, who had been imprisoned by the Precursors.

LATE 2012 CE

• Following Desmond's death, his father William vanishes, leaving Gavin Banks to rebuild the Brotherhood. The remaining Assassin Cells continue to fight the Templar Order from the shadows.

2013 CE

• Abstergo creates Animus Omega, allowing any user to witness genetic memories. They soon employ the technology as a game console.
• Abstergo Entertainment signs a deal with Indian company MysoreTech to develop Brahman V.R., a device with the hidden functionality of uploading the genetic memories of its users into the Abstergo Cloud.

2014 CE

• Helix, a Cloud-based version of the Animus is launched, enabling public users to access carefully edited and curated memories within Abstergo's genetic memory servers. Abstergo secretly mines the user-uploaded genetic memories to find Ancestors who have come into contact with Pieces of Eden or whose bloodlines are associated with the Precursor civilization.
• A group of Assassins hacks the Helix Project to find potential allies.

2014-15 CE

• A widespread commercial success, the Animus V.R. (a version of the Brahman V.R.) is now available in various models at different prices, ranging from basic to highly sophisticated.

Supplementary information

The sourcebook includes a number of database-like entries.

Children of CainThe Black CrossMedusa and the Writhing Dread

While the origins of the Templar Order have long been forgotten, some speculate that one of its founding members was Cain, the mythical figure who killed his own brother, Abel. Further conjecture would posit that Cain actually murdered his brother not out of jealousy, but in order to acquire a Piece of Eden—one of the highly advanced technological devices left behind by the First Civilization.

Evidence might suggest that some Templars of olden days considered themselves the Children of Cain. Several even espoused the belief that their emblem, the red cross pattée, was the mark of Cain.

The Black Cross was a secret inquisitorial position that solely answered to the Inner Sanctum. They were enforcers, tasked with keeping members of the Order in line with the philosophy of the secret society. They were empowered to excise any Templar who became corrupted. In time, they reached almost legendary status among Templars, who admired and feared them in equal measure, but the position eventually became defunct with the death [sic] of the last known enforcer, Albert Bolden, in 1927. Juhani Otso Berg independently reconstituted the position of the Black Cross in 2016 in order to restore the integrity of modern Templars, including its high-ranking members. Otso Berg secretly took the mantle for himself, the first Black Cross to be an actual member of the Inner Sanctum.

The Writhing Dread was created by Aita and Juno as part of the Olympus Project [sic] in the Isu city of Atlantis. Alongside other creatures in the project, it was considered an instrument to strike fear in humankind if they ever revolted against their creators. The gorgon was meant to guard the artifact placed in its body, the Prize of Medusa [sic]. The beast was then relocated to the Petrified Temple, an Isu vault on one of the islands of what would later become Lesbos, Greece. "It's a cycle. Kill the creature, become the creature." – Zetes the Retired describing the Writhing Dread