History of the Pieces of Eden
Created by the Isu, the Pieces of Eden are one of the last relics of this ancient civilization. After the disappearance of the Isu, many humans who possessed Isu DNA unlocked the power of the artifacts, becoming heroes of legends, kings, conquerors, or scholars. The Pieces of Eden also became a stake throughout history in the secret war between the Assassins, who wanted to preserve the world of their powers, and the Templars, who wanted to used them to establish their New World Order.
History[edit | edit source]
Isu era[edit | edit source]
The Pieces of Eden have a long history that punctuates the tales of humanity. During the War of Unification, the Isu Hephaistos created Swords of Eden for the conflict. His apprentice Consus created a Shroud of Eden to heal the soldiers and, as he later neared death, he transferred his consciousness into the artifact.[1] The Apples of Eden were used to control humans, who were created by Phanes during Project Anthropos to work as slaves for the Isu.[2]
Circa 75,100 BCE, the Isu Hermes Trismegistus created a Staff of Eden which could grant a variety of powers to its wielder, including biological immortality.[3] At one point without Hermes' knowledge, Loki of the Æsir nation, attempting to save his lover Aletheia from dying from a fatal wound, replicated and preserved her consciousness into the Staff.[4]
The Isu Juno and her husband Aita used Atlantis artifacts on humans, creating hybrid monsters for the Olympos Project. When Poseidon learned of this, he banished them from Atlantis, but they continued their experiments in secret.[2]
However, interbreeding between humans and members of the Isu led to the creation of a hybrid race, which was immune to the hypnotic effects of the Pieces of Eden. In 75,010 BCE, two of these hybrids, Adam and Eve, stole one of the Apples from their masters and escaped from captivity in Eden. Soon after, war broke out, pitting humanity against their creators.[5]
While the rest of the Isu were preoccupied with battling the humans, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva were tasked with finding a way to guard against the threat of an impending solar flare. They relocated to the Grand Temple in what is now Turin, New York, a facility which could only be entered using an Apple of Eden.[6] Opening the Temple's inner gate required another Piece of Eden, namely the Grand Temple Key.[7]
By that time, the Isu were already able to generate small magnetic fields through the Rings of Eden. Using similar technology, they hoped to create a large magnetic field to protect the Earth from the sun's flare. However, they lacked the resources to do so, and though they attempted to create fields to protect small portions of the Earth, they were ultimately unsuccessful.[7]
The Isu soon discovered that when enough humans sat in thrall of the Pieces of Eden and were forced to believe, their thoughts became reality. Jupiter, Juno and Minerva considered the possibility that they could use an agglomeration of focused human imagination to save the planet. This attempt was also deemed unsuccessful.[7]
As their third option, they sent an Apple of Eden into the orbit, and when it was placed, uttered the words "make us safe". When their first attempt failed, they resolved to send a dozen more after. This act was also met with failure as there was no way to direct the beams of energy emitted by the Pieces down to the Earth.[7]
Only ten years after the human rebellion began, the solar flare destroyed most of the Earth's surface and population, leaving roughly ten thousand humans alive and far fewer of the Isu. The remaining members of the Isu came to be revered as gods by the humans.[6] Knowing that extinction awaited them, they began to aid the humans and guide their culture in turn, attempting to help them in the case another cataclysm were to struck.[8]
Myths and legends[edit | edit source]
Egyptian mythology[edit | edit source]
- "The legend says that after Osiris died, Isis was destroyed by pain and grief. The goddess used the Ankh to revive her husband, one night... From their carnal union, Horus was born. From that moment, the power of revival and communication with the dead was attributed to this cross."
- ―Caïus Fulvus Vultur, about the legend of the Ankh, 259 CE.[src]
A long time ago, the Isu Isis used a Piece of Eden known as the Ankh to resurrect her husband Osiris and shared an intimate moment with him before he died a second time.[9]
Greek mythology[edit | edit source]
Many mythological legends and events have been linked to Pieces of Eden. In Greece, the hero Perseus used a Sword of Eden against a Writhing Dread, a creation of Project Olympos who is known in myths as the gorgon Medusa.[10] One of the twelve labors of Herakles involved the retrieval of Apples of Eden, and the central focus of Jason's quest with the Argonauts was the recovery of a Shroud of Eden called the Golden Fleece.[11]
Some of these heroes fought the hybrids of Project Olympos, as the Minotaur was slain by the king Theseus, the Cyclops was blinded by Odysseus, and the Sphinx was outsmarted by Oedipous.[12] An Apple of Eden was also the cause of the Trojan War.[13]
Biblical mythology[edit | edit source]
In the Hebrew Bible, many figures realized miracles with Pieces of Eden. Joseph, son of Jacob, possessed a Shroud of Eden. The prophet Moses used a Staff of Eden to create an illusion that he parted and closed the Red Sea. King David used a Shroud of Eden during his fight with Goliath.[11]
Norse mythology[edit | edit source]
In Norse mythology, the goddess Idun was the keeper of apples that gave eternal youth. In reality, these were Apples of Eden.[14] The god Odin plunged a Sword of Eden into the tree Barnstokkr which was pulled out by the warrior Sigmund.[15]
Classical Era[edit | edit source]
Ancient Egypt[edit | edit source]
During the 14th century BCE, the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV acquired an Apple of Eden. Believing it was the god Aten itself, he took the name Akhenaten and, with his wife Nefertiti, introduced a new monotheistic religion to Egypt. After his death, his son Tutankhamun restored the traditional polytheistic religious system in Egypt and gave the Apple to the High Priests of Amun in Karnak.[16]
Around the same time, the Pharaoh Smenkhkare learned about the Pieces of Eden's existence and created the Order of the Ancients with the aim of locating them and exploiting their power to establish a New World Order.[17] At the end of the 8th century BCE, the Pharaoh Shabataka possessed a Staff of Eden.[15]
Classical Greece[edit | edit source]
- "The answers I seek are behind these mechanisms. They are sealed, and the artifacts to open them are missing. [...] I've collected information that hints at where these artifacts may be located. However, they are incredibly powerful. They corrupt the minds of lesser people and possess a will to defend themselves."
- ―Pythagoras to Kassandra, about the Atlantis artifacts, c. 429 BCE.[src]-[m]
At some point between the 12th and 10th centuries BCE, a famed treasure hunter found an Apple of Eden and hid it on the island of Korfu. He left behind clues for his son to find it but the latter died before he could retrieve the artifact, and so the tale of the treasure turned into legend.[18]
During the 6th century BCE, the Greek scholar Pythagoras was contacted by the Isu Hermes Trismegistus, who gave him his Staff, granting him biological immortality. One of Pythagoras' disciples, Kyros of Zarax, met the Isu Aphrodite and received an Apple of Eden that he used to win a race against Atalanta and earn her hand in marriage.[19]
Later, Pythagoras founded the Cult of Hermes, a group dedicated to the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. A faction of Hermeticists led by Agamemnon broke away to form the Cult of Kosmos. Under the Sanctuary of Delphi, they uncovered a pyramidal Piece of Eden which could share memories and visions of the future. With its power, the Cult forced the Pythia to serve as their puppet and sow discord across Greece for their own interests.[20]
By the 5th century BCE, an Isu dagger once wielded by Vejovis was locked away within an Isu vault on the island of Kephallonia. After the Order of the Ancients member Ianthe proved unable to access the chamber, he hired the mercenary Cadmus, who was secretly a Sage of Vejovis, to recover the dagger. However, Ianthe betrayed Cadmus afterwards and stole the dagger from him, resulting in his death at Cadmus' hands. While using the blade to fight against Ianthe's fellow Order members, the artifact was broken into two pieces and Cadmus kept one while the Ancients fled with the other.[21]
During King Xerxes I of Persia's invasion of Greece, the Spartan king Leonidas I led part of the Spartan army into battle against the Achaemenid Empire's forces with an Isu spear in-hand. When he made his last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, the spear shaft broke but the spearhead was recovered and given to his daughter Myrrine, who in turn passed it onto to her daughter, Kassandra.[22]
Kassandra grew up to become a legendary misthios at the height of the Peloponnesian War, using the Spear of Leonidas in all her military escapades.[23] Conversely, the Sword of Damokles, a Sword of Eden, found its way into the hands of her half-brother Alexios, who was abducted by the Cult of Kosmos as an infant, renamed Deimos, and indoctrinated into becoming the Cult's champion.[24]
With the Spear, Kassandra fought and eliminated the Cult of Kosmos, defeated Alexios, and destroyed the Pyramid. She also recovered the Atlantis artifacts by killing the hybrids of the Olympos Project and sealed Atlantis with them. Afterwards, the Isu Aletheia sent a message to her father Pythagoras asking him to give her the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus.[25] Kassandra became immortal and learned how to use the Staff through Aletheia's simulations.[2]
Around 420 BCE, pirates searched for the treasure hunter's stash on Korfu. They crossed paths with Kassandra, who had taken a vacation on the island. As the pirate captain became mad after taking the Apple of Eden, Kassandra killed him. When she approached the Apple with her Spear, the orb depowered the weapon before being thrown across the other side of the island.[18]
Wanting to restore the Spear, Kassandra spoke to Aletheia who informed her that the artifact couldn't be repaired and that her role as the Keeper was to recover other Pieces of Eden.[26] At first reluctant, Kassandra accepted her duty after saving her friend Barnabas who had also been driven mad by the Apple of Eden.[27] Recovering the orb, Kassandra decided to leave Greece to search for other artifacts across the globe. Before leaving, Kassandra gave the depowered Spear of Leonidas to her friend Herodotos who would ultimately be buried with it.[28]
Hellenistic Age[edit | edit source]
During the 4th century BCE, the Order of the Ancients entrusted to Alexander the Great two artifacts: a Staff of Eden and the Trident of Eden. With them, Alexander conquered Egypt and Persia.[29] After his assassination by Iltani, Alexander was buried in his tomb in Alexandria with the Staff while the Trident's prongs were shared between his generals.[30] Ptolemy I Soter received the Faith prong while Seleucus I Nicator received the Fear prong, and the Macedonian people received the Devotion prong.[29]
By 49 BCE, the Order of the Ancients in Egypt had acquired an Apple of Eden. A group led by the proconsul of Cyrenaica, Flavius Metellus, went to the remote Egyptian village of Siwa and kidnapped the Medjay Bayek and his son Khemu to force him to open an Isu vault under the Temple of Amun. As the Medjay resisted, Flavius forced Bayek to inadvertently kill his son before leaving him for dead.[31]
Following this, the Oracle of Amun and Order member Medunamun kept the Apple and used it to torture various villagers in Siwa in the hopes of acquiring information to access the vault. In 48 BCE, Bayek assassinated Medunamun and claimed the Apple,[31] before traveling to Alexandria where he gave it to his wife Aya. In turn, Aya entrusted the artifact to her friend Apollodorus, a loyal follower of Queen Cleopatra.[30]
During the Alexandrine war, the Ancients recovered the Staff of Alexander the Great and convinced Julius Caesar and Cleopatra to ally with them, lending the Staff to Cleopatra for a time after she became Pharaoh at the end of the civil war.[32] The Order also re-claimed their Apple after Flavius killed Apollodorus.[33] Returning to Siwa, Flavius and his fellow Ancient Lucius Septimius used the combined power of the Staff and the Apple to open the Isu vault, where they discovered a holographic map with the locations of more Pieces of Eden. This map was downloaded by the Apple.[34]
Afterwards, Flavius and Septimius split up, with the former heading to Cyrenaica with the Apple to enslave the local population while the latter secreted the Staff to the Order in Rome. Flavius was later hunted down by Bayek, who managed to overcome the Apple's powers and kill the Ancient.[34] The Medjay subsequently hid the Apple under the Library of Alexandria, where he hoped it would never be found again.[35]
Another Order member in Egypt, Habibah, was in possession of one of the blades of Vejovis' dagger, which she kept in a chest of trinkets. After assassinating Habibah at the Temple of Philae, the Hidden One and Vejovis' Sage Khepri took the blade and brought it with her to Mesopotamia, where she had been tasked to establish a foothold for the Hidden Ones.[36]
By 44 BCE, Septimius had acquired another weapon of the Isu, the flails. That year, he used them in combat against Aya at the Theatre of Pompey, but despite the powers the artifact granted, he was ultimately defeated and killed by the Hidden One.[37] By 42 BCE, the Hidden Ones had acquired the original Shroud of Eden. Following the death of one of their leaders, Marcus Junius Brutus, in the war against Octavian, they tried to use the artifact to resurrect him, but only managed to reanimate Brutus for a brief moment.[38]
Around 38 BCE, Bayek, having heard rumors of golden light on the road to Thebes, reached the Seth-Anat Tomb and fought undead soldiers. In the tomb, he met a man who tasked him to recover a stone which was in the tomb. After returning the stone, the man disappeared and Bayek was defeated by undead soldiers. When he woke up, a woman explained that he was found in the desert. As he tried to tell his story, the woman thought he had only been hallucinating. Bayek decided to investigate the city.[39]
In 34 BCE, the God's Wife of Amun Isidora used Akhenaten's Apple of Eden against the tomb robbers of the Valley of the Kings to avenge her mother's death. The power of the Apple created illusions of undead pharaohs who attacked the citizens of Thebes, causing them to believe the city was plagued by a curse.[40]
Bayek later received a letter from Aya who explained to him that a Piece of Eden was hidden in Thebes. Just when he arrived, he was attacked by a vision of Nefertiti. While investigating the city to find the Piece of Eden, Bayek met Isidora, who hid the truth and told him that he must fight the curse by appeasing the pharaohs in the afterlife. When Bayek uncovered the truth, he killed Isidora and tasked the robber Sutekh with hiding the Apple. Later, Bayek found Sutekh's corpse but noted that the relic was missing and expressed hope that he hid it well before his demise.[40]
Beginning of Christianity[edit | edit source]
- "Dionisus bent the minds with a sphere but it was not enough to save him. I will continue his work so that I can create a story out of his severed head. I created something false, and within the orb I placed some deceptions aimed at others."
- ―A translated excerpt from a note written by Saint Denis' successor.[src]-[m]
During the 1st century CE, the Nazarene man Jesus came to possess a Shroud of Eden in the Roman Empire's province of Judea and became a religious reformer and a prophet to his followers. He was baptized by John the Baptist, a man who in turn wielded a Staff of Eden. As the Order of the Ancients wanted the Shroud, they crucified Jesus to recover the artifact but his disciples recovered his body and used the Shroud on him in the hopes of reviving him. Three days later, his corpse disappeared.[15][11]
One of Jesus' disciples, Saint Peter, possessed a Staff of Eden and became the leader of the Christian community in Rome. Later, the Staff was passed to every leader of the community, who in time came to be known as the Pope, the highest authority in Christendom.[15] The Roman Emperors eventually recovered the Trident of Eden's Faith and Devotion prongs, which were later given to the Popes.[29]
In the 3rd century, the Parisian bishop Denis found an Apple of Eden in an underground Isu temple and used it to convert the local population to Christianity. Following the bishop's arrest and execution by the Romans, the Apple passed to one of his successors, who created a special lantern to house it, which would come to be known as the Head of Saint Denis. Eventually realizing that the Apple was negatively influencing his mind, the successor decided to return it, along with the Head, to the temple where Saint Denis had first found it.[41]
Germanic and Hunnic invasions[edit | edit source]
- "Unlikely as it may seem, it is quite possible that this is not only a symbol [...] The Ankh provides a real power... the one to bring back a human from the dead."
- ―Lucius to Aquilus, regarding the Ankh's powers, 259 CE.[src]
In the 1st century CE, the Ankh of Eden was found by Roman looters in a pyramid before being sold to an Egyptian slave trader. The Roman Hidden One Lugos acquired the artifact, as well as the Scepter of Aset. During his journey across the Mediterranean Sea to deliver the artifacts to Rome, Lugos' ship sank. Before he died, the Hidden Ones recorded a message with the Ankh detailing the location of the Scepter.[42]
By 259 CE, the Ankh had ended up in Germania, where it was found by the Alemanni Hidden One Accipiter. He gave the artifact to his cousin Aquilus who was also a Hidden One from Lugdunum. Aquilus entrusted the Ankh to his father Lucius, but the latter was killed by the senator Caïus Fulvus Vultur, a member of the Order of the Ancients, who took the Ankh with him to Rome.[9]
Later, Aquilus killed Vultur and took back the Ankh. When he tried to use it, he witnessed a holographic message recorded by his father shortly before his death, but it was stopped when Aquilus and his wife Valeria were arrested by Roman soldiers. Aquilus was executed but Valeria was saved by Accipiter, who tasked her to hide the Ankh.[42]
During the 5th century CE, Attila the Hun came to possess a Sword of Eden which permitted him to conquer a significant portion of Europe.[15]
Medieval Era[edit | edit source]
British Isles[edit | edit source]
By the 5th century CE, the Sword of Eden known as Excalibur was possessed by the Women of the Mist, a Celtic clan of witch-warriors living on the island of Avalon. They used the artifact to decide on their next leader, known the Lady of Avalon. Lodged in a stone, the sword was pulled out by the Briton king Arthur Pendragon, who was also a leader of the Order of the Ancients. Arthur used the artifact to fight the Anglo-Saxons invaders in Britain.[43]
The Lady's son, Mordred, became Arthur's advisor and founded the Descendants of the Round Table, plotting against the king to recover the sword for himself and rule England. Before his death, Arthur locked Excalibur in an Isu Barracks underneath Stonehenge. For three centuries, the Women of the Mist guarded the site and killed any who attempted to retrieve Excalibur.[43]
By 878, Excalibur was claimed by the jarlskona Eivor Varinsdottir, the reborn form of Odin and a member of the Raven Clan settled in Ravensthorpe.[44] After learning about this, the Descendants of the Round Table and the Women of the Mist both tried to recover the artifact. While the Descendant allied with the Order of the Ancients, The Lady of Avalon sent Niamh of Argyll to infiltrate Eivor's allies, the Hidden Ones, and take the sword.[43]
After Eivor used it to repeal Picts invaders, Niamh stole the Piece of Eden. Tracked by the Ancients and the Descendants, Niamh received the help of the Hidden One Hytham and the seeress Valka, who burned a replica of Excalibur at the White Horse Hill to lure their enemies and deceive them into believing the artifact had been destroyed. The true Excalibur was then brought back to the Women of the Mist in Avalon.[43]
Around 887, an Apple of Eden hidden on the Isle of Skye was activated when Kassandra arrived on the island to search for it. The Apple plagued the dreams of the islanders, driving many of them insane.[45] To recover the artifact, Kassandra teamed up with Eivor, who had come to investigate the nightmares plaguing the island at the request of Valka's friend Edyt.[46] Working together, the two warriors ultimately found the Apple inside the Cave of Gold and deactivated it, putting an end to the nightmares. Kassandra then took the artifact and left the island with it, presumably destroying it.[47]
At some point in the late 9th century, the Order of the Ancients member Stowe, who collected the blades of fallen Hidden Ones, came into possession of one of the pieces of Vejovis' dagger. He later sent it to Syria, shortly before his death at the hands of the Viking warrior and Vejovis' Sage Alva.[48]
Abbasid Caliphate[edit | edit source]
By the mid-9th century, the Order of the Ancients in the Abbasid Caliphate had become aware of the existence of Isu ruins around the city of Baghdad and established several excavation sites, seeking the Pieces of Eden they believed to be hidden among the ruins.[49] In 861, the Ancients found a Memory Seal, which they entrusted to their puppet, the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil. However, the caliph was later killed by the thief Basim Ibn Ishaq, who stole the Seal from the Winter Palace in Anbar. Basim was then recruited into the Hidden Ones by Roshan, who took him and the Seal to Alamut.[50]
During his mission to hunt down the Order in Baghdad, Basim was led to an Isu vault underneath the Northern Oasis by his "friend" Nehal. After acquiring ten Isu Shards from the Tha'abeen members of the Order, Basim inserted them into the corresponding pedestals inside the vault, allowing him to claim three pieces of Isu equipment: the sword Shamshir-e Zomorrodnegar, the dagger Samsaama, and the armor set Milad's Outfit.[51]
Around this time, the Ancient Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa came into possession of several Memory Seals and built the Alruh machine beneath the House of Wisdom to uncover the knowledge held within them. He experimented on numerous test subjects, driving them insane in the process, until his experiments were brought to an end by Basim, who assassinated Fazil atop the Alruh.[52]
Sometime later, when Basim explored the Isu temple underneath Alamut, he discovered its purpose as a storage facility for dozens of Memory Seals, which were locked away behind energy barriers. However, he did manage to find one Seal containing a recorded memory of Loki, who had been imprisoned and tortured inside the temple. This memory helped Basim realize that he was Loki's reborn form and ultimately allowed him to regain the memories of his past life.[53]
Vinland[edit | edit source]
By 875, the Order of the Ancients Maegester Gorm Kjotvesson had come into possession of a Crystal Ball which allowed him to communicate with Juno. Per the Isu's instructions, Gorm led the Wolf Clan on an expedition to Vinland in North America to find the Grand Temple and free Juno from her imprisonment.[54]
Gorm's rival Eivor Varinsdottir tracked him to Vinland and rescued the guide Olav the Unlucky, who had been imprisoned by the Wolf Clan for trading with the native Kanien'kehá:ka. When Eivor inquired about Gorm's mission in Vinland, Olav described the Crystal Ball as an "elf-stone" and claimed that it was guiding Gorm to the "the door to Jotunheim."[55]
Eventually, Eivor assassinated Gorm, who had been unsuccesful in his goal to access the Grand Temple, and claimed his Crystal Ball for herself.[54] However, she felt that the artifact was not intended for her, so she entrusted it to the local Kanien'kehá:ka tribe of Karonhiakèn:iate, who would continue to protect it for many generations to come.[56] The tribe's elders would occasionally use the Crystal Ball to speak with Juno for guidance, mistaking her for a goddess, and the Isu instructed them to become guardians of the area around the Grand Temple.[57]
[edit | edit source]
In 877, while exploring the Yggdrasil vault in Hordafylke, Norway, Eivor Varinsdottir found Gungnir, Odin's personal spear, and claimed it for herself. In the same region, she found Thor's hammer Mjölnir. After recovering Thor's armor, she could lift the legendary weapon.[44]
By the 10th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I was in possession of the Devotion prong of the Trident of Eden. In 965, he passed the artifact to Bishop Poppa, who evangelized Denmark and baptized its king, the Templar Harald Bluetooth. For two decades, Harald kept the prong, using its power to subtly turn foes into allies. In 985, he was forced into an alliance by his brother-in-law, Styrbjörn the Strong, who was immune to the prong's power.[58]
During their war campaign against Styrbjörn's uncle, King Eric the Victorious, the prince took Harald's prized prong as a guarantee to prevent the Danish King from betraying him. Harald nevertheless decided to flee with his army, and Styrbjörn kept the artifact, unaware of its true power. He later offered the prong, which he believed to be a Christian relic, to the gods during his wedding to Thyra Haraldsdottir.[58]
Sent by Eric to assassinate Styrbjörn, the Hidden One Thorvald Hjaltason witnessed the wedding and took the "Aesir blade" from the shrine after it was left unguarded. Following the Battle of Fýrisvellir, which saw Styrbjörn's defeat and death, Thorvald gave the prong to the farmer and soldier Östen Jorundsson, trusting him to hide it where no one would find it. Östen buried the artifact on his lands, where it remained undiscovered for centuries.[58]
Tang dynasty[edit | edit source]
During the 10th century, an Apple of Eden was used to develop firearms in China.[59]
Crusades[edit | edit source]
Between the 11th and 13th centuries, the Knights Templar participated in the Crusades, aiming for the conquest of the Holy Land. By the time of the Third Crusade, they were led by Grand Master Robert de Sablé and focused their efforts on acquiring a particular Piece of Eden: the Apple of Eden which was hidden in the ruins of Solomon's Temple beneath the city of Jerusalem.[60]
In 1189, a Templar known as The Hideout was tasked to smuggle one of the blades of Vejovis' dagger to Beirut and enlisted the aid of the Assassin Faisal, who was secretly a Sage of Vejovis, to do so. From Beirut, Faisal took the blade to Constantinople,[61] where it was housed in the Hagia Sophia until the basilica was plundered in the early 13th century. The artifact was subsequently relocated to Venice, where it was eventually locked away in an Isu vault beneath the Basilica di San Marco.[62]
In 1191, the Templars, seeking to retrieve the Apple of Eden from Solomon's Temple, used the cover of the Third Crusade to infiltrate the site. However, one of their own betrayed them; Al Mualim, the Mentor of the Assassin Order who had secretly helped the Templars find the Apple, sent his best agents to procure the artifact. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and the brothers Malik and Kadar Al-Sayf intercepted the Templars, and the two parties engaged one another. While the Templars were able to eject Altaïr from the battle and kill Kadar, Malik successfully claimed the Apple and spirited it back to the Assassin fortress in Masyaf.[63]
With the Apple in his possession, Al Mualim's goal was to use its power to create what he considered to be lasting peace in the Holy Land. He began by bewitching the Assassins and villagers of Masyaf but was confronted by Altaïr when the Master Assassin discovered his treachery. Despite conjuring illusions with the Apple, he was slain by Altaïr. In his dying moments, he challenged his former prize pupil to destroy the Apple as he had said he would, but when it projected a hologram of the globe, Altaïr beheld its potential and both knew that he would lack the will to carry out his word.[64]
In the aftermath, Altaïr took Al Mualim's corpse outside to be cremated to the protests of some Assassins, as this went against their customs. Seizing upon the dispute, the Assassin Abbas Sofian took the Apple of Eden from Altaïr but immediately lost control of its power as it unleashed waves of energy. Altaïr recovered the artifact from Abbas and deactivated it before it could kill them all.[65]
Unwilling to destroy it, Altaïr decided to seal the Apple within the Archives on Limassol, Cyprus. Circumstances worked against this plan however, and he decided to keep the Apple for himself, not just to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands but also as a vital object of research.[66]
Over the course of his life, Altaïr gazed into the Apple frequently, basing new weaponry and assassination techniques on information gleaned from it, some of which he recorded in his Codex. When Abbas Sofian usurped leadership of the Assassins and tried to take the Apple again, Altaïr went into exile in Alamut, where he studied the Apple for another twenty years. At one point, the Apple led Altaïr to the Isu temple underneath Alamut, where he discovered the Memory Seals and claimed six for himself, using them to record important moments in his life.[67]
Altaïr eventually returned to Masyaf in 1247, after using the knowledge gained from the Apple to create the Hidden Gun, with which he killed Abbas, reclaiming leadership of the Assassin Order.[68] For the remainder of his life, Altaïr continued to guard and study the Apple. In addition to knowledge useful for the Order's purposes, Altaïr witnessed visions of the past and future within the Apple, some of which greatly disturbed him.[69]
In 1257, during the Mongol attack on Masyaf, Altaïr used the Apple to repel the Mongol troops for a time. After Masyaf had been evacuated, he sealed himself in his library with the Apple, securing the Piece of Eden within a secret compartment. He designed his library to be only accessible with five of his Memory Seals that doubled as keys; these he entrusted to Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, who hid them beneath Constantinople.[70] The sixth and final Seal remained with Altaïr, who used it to record the final moments of his life before passing away inside his library on 12 August 1257.[71]
Mongol Empire[edit | edit source]
- "A dark tide rises to the east—an army of such size and power that all the land is made quick with worry. Their leader is a man named Temujin, who has adopted the title Genghis Khan. He sweeps across the lands, conquering and subsuming all who stand in his way. Whatever his motives, he must be stopped. Were I younger, I might attempt to undertake this work in secret—as I suspect the presence of a Piece of Eden."
- ―Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex, page 29.[src]-[m]
At the beginning of the 13th century, Genghis Khan acquired a Sword of Eden which he used to conquer most of Asia and the Middle East, establishing the Mongol Empire. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and his family tried to retrieve the Sword during their mission in Mongolia but they only managed to assassinate Genghis.[72] Later, his grandson Hülegü Khan used the Sword during his conquest of the Levant in 1250. During the Fall of Masyaf, the Sword protected him from the power of Altaïr's Apple.[73]
By 1259, Möngke Khan was in possession of the Fear prong of the Trident of Eden. After he was killed by the Chinese Assassin Zhang Zhi during his attempted conquest of the Song dynasty, the Khan was buried with the artifact.[74]
Mamluk Egypt[edit | edit source]
Around 1250, the Scepter of Aset was recovered by an Italian fisherman. It then was entrusted to an Egyptian Assassin who gave the artifact to the Mamluks in Cairo. In 1257, Darim Ibn-La'Ahad, Altaïr's son, gave an Apple of Eden to further help the Mamluk revolt.[75]
In 1341, the Templars tried to recover the scepter while the Assassin Numa Al'Khamsin impeded their efforts. Despite Numa's death, his disciple Ali Al-Ghraib was able to take the scepter and hide it within a well near the city of Edfu.[75]
High Middle Ages[edit | edit source]
Around 1140, the abbot Suger of Saint-Denis found the Isu temple underneath the Basilica of Saint-Denis and recovered the Head of Saint Denis. Using knowledge gained from the Apple of Eden inside the lantern, the abbot redisgned the basilica in the Gothic style and created the Eagle of Suger, a powerful sword adorned with a golden hilt. The sword was later hidden within a secret chamber of the basilica while the Head of Saint Denis was returned to the temple.[76]
At the beginning of the 14th century, the Templar Grand Master and Sage Jacques de Molay was in possession of a Sword of Eden and the Heart, which increased the Sword's power and allowed it to function properly. During the Persecution of the Templars in 1307, the two artifacts were separated. The Sword was hidden in a vault under the Temple of Paris by de Molay's advisor while the Grand Master carved the Heart in the wall of his cell in the Château de Chinon.[77]
In 1350, a Templar faction known as the Brothers of the Cross searched for the Ankh in the city of Essen, Germany. The group mysteriously disappeared at the same time that the German Assassin Lukas Zurburg did.[78]
During the 14th century, the Templar Geoffroy de Charny possessed the original Shroud of Eden until it was stolen in 1356 by the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins, who hid it under the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni.[79]
In 1429, the peasant girl Jeanne d'Arc recovered the Heart during her visit to Chinon and found the Sword of Eden underneath the Church of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois. She subsequently used the artifacts during the Hundred Years' War to lead the French Army against the English. Following Jeanne's arrest, the Templars recovered the Sword while Jeanne gave the Heart to the former prostitute Fleur as she took her place on the stake. As the Heart was found intact in the remains of the stake, the executioner Geoffroy Thérage threw it into the Seine, believing to have killed a saint.[77]
Ming dynasty[edit | edit source]
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins possessed an Apple of Eden that an apprentice was tasked to protect. After the Assassin purge of 1402 launched by the Yongle Emperor and the Templars, the apprentice fled with the Assassin Li Tong, who became the Apple's keeper.[78]
In 1526, the Assassin Shao Jun returned to China with a Precursor box given to her by the retired Italian Mentor Ezio Auditore. To approach her Templar targets, the Eight Tigers, she decided to be captured with the box to assure her a chance at survival. Before Shao Jun killed him, the Tiger Gao Feng took the box and sent it to his Tiger brother Gu Dayong.[80]
Later, Shao Jun assassinated Dayong in Macau and recovered the box.[81] She entrusted the artifact to her Mentor Wang Yangming, who in 1529 went to Nan'an to find someone to examine it. However, the Mentor was lured into a trap and killed by the Tigers' leader Zhang Yong, who took the box.[82] Zhang Yong later sent the artifact to his fellow Templars outside of China, shortly before his death at Shao Jun's hands in 1532.[83]
By 1542, the Jiajing Emperor had come into possession of a Crystal Skull. Using the artifact, he initiated contact with the Italian Assassin Giovanni Borgia, who had recovered another Crystal Skull from the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.[84]
In June 1582, the Chinese Assassin Liu Yan brought a Sword of Eden to China from Japan to ensure the artifact's protection.[73]
Age of Discovery[edit | edit source]
Ottoman Empire[edit | edit source]
- "Masyaf is overrun by a battery of Templars, and their motive is clear. They desire the secrets locked away in Altaïr's library – secrets they believe will lead them to something called the Grand Temple. Whether or not this is true, I do know the library is real. I have seen its door for myself. But none can enter. Not without five keys which were sent to Costantinopoli with Niccolò Polo almost 300 years ago."
- ―Ezio Auditore in a letter to his sister Claudia, 1511.[src]-[m]
By 1453, an Apple of Eden had fallen into the hands of Sultan Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire. Using its powers, Mehmet was able to conquer Constantinople and subdue the Byzantine Empire, taking Constantinople as his new capital.[85] Mehmet II died in 1481 and was succeeded by his oldest son, Bayezid II. Bayezid's brother Cem, a secret Templar, discreetly took his father's Apple of Eden for himself, hoping to use it to further the Templars' goals. However, to his dissatisfaction, the Apple refused to communicate with him.[85]
Cem eventually decided to leave the Apple for European Templars to retrieve later. While on his way to meet the Knights Hospitalier in Rhodes, Cem made a stop in Cyprus and hid the Apple in the Templar Archive in Limassol, where the western Templars could find it.[85]
From 1511 to 1512, the Mentor Ezio Auditore recovered the five Memory Seals hidden by the Polo brothers in Constantinople and relived the memories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad imprinted onto them. After acquiring all the Seals and preventing the Byzantine Templars from taking them, Ezio traveled to Masyaf and entered Altaïr's library, finding the Levantine Mentor's skeleton holding the sixth Seal.[86]
Reliving Altaïr's final moments through the Seal, Ezio discovered the location of his Apple of Eden, but decided against retrieving it and left the artifact inside the library. However, Ezio's presence briefly activated the Apple and created a Synch Nexus which allowed Ezio's descendant Desmond Miles to receive a message from the Isu Jupiter.[6]
In 1516, the Greek Brotherhood of Assassins was protecting an Apple of Eden. The rogue English Assassin Hiram Stoddard attacked the Brotherhood's hideout to recover the artifact and contact his deceased lover Elena. After killing the Assassin guards, Stoddard was ambushed by his old rival, the Italian Assassin Giovanni Borgia, who bested him and took the Apple.[87]
Italian Renaissance[edit | edit source]
In 1454, a Florentine army led by Federico da Montefeltro besieged Monteriggioni to take the Shroud of Eden. The town's ruler and leader of the Italian Assassins, Mario Auditore, defeated the invaders and entered the vault underneath Monteriggioni to retrieve the artifact. To protect the town, Mario entrusted the Shroud to his brother Giovanni, who gave it to an Assassin cell led by Rinaldo Vitturi located in Agnadello.[88]
In 1488, the Roman Rite of the Templar Order led by the cardinal and Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia recovered the Apple of Eden left by Cem in the Templar Archive on Cyprus and brought the artifact to Venice to open the Vatican Vault. Ezio Auditore, who wanted to kill Rodrigo to avenge the deaths of his father Giovanni and brothers Federico and Petruccio, impersonated the escort of the artifact to approach the Grand Master. With the help of the Italian Assassins, Ezio scared away Rodrigo and recovered the Apple.[89]
After being formally inducted into the Brotherhood, Ezio and the Assassins brought the Apple to Leonardo da Vinci to study. After agreeing that the Apple would be dangerous if it fell in the wrong hands, Ezio was tasked by Niccolò Machiavelli to escort the Apple to Forlì where it would be entrusted to their ally Caterina Sforza.[90]
When the Assassins arrived in Forlì, the the city was under attack by the mercenary brothers Ludovico and Checco Orsi, who had been hired by Rodrigo to recover the Apple.[90] During the battle, Checco stole the artifact from Caterina but was later assassinated by Ezio, who was severely wounded in the process. While he was unconscious, the Apple was stolen by the monk Girolamo Savonarola.[91]
In the late 1480s, the Assassin and Vejovis' Sage Giulia accessed the Isu vault beneath the Basilica di San Marco in Venice and found the blade of Vejovis' dagger locked away there. She was then contacted by a hologram of Vejovis, who instructed her to hide the blade deeper within the vault.[62]
In 1492, Rodrigo became pope under the name of Alexander VI and received the Papal Staff which, combined with an Apple of Eden, could open the Vatican Vault. In 1494, Savonarola took control of Florence by using the Apple to bewitch his lieutenants. Rodrigo sent his men to recover the artifact, but they were unsuccessful. In 1497, Ezio arrived in Florence and with the help of his fellow Assassins created an uprising against Savonarola by killing the monk's lieutenants. In 1498, Ezio recovered the Apple after Savonarola was attacked by a mob.[92]
That same year, Lucrezia Borgia, Rodrigo's daughter, gave birth to a malformed Giovanni Borgia. The father of the child, Perotto Calderon, was an undercover Assassin sent to spy on the Borgia. He took his deformed son to Agnadello in the hopes of healing him with the Shroud. Knowing this would constitute a betrayal of the Brotherhood, Perotto killed the Assassins to access to the artifact and successfully cured his son before dying at the blades of the Assassins.[93]
In 1499, Ezio confronted Rodrigo in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. During their fight, the Templar used the power of the Staff while the Assassin wielded the Apple. Rodrigo won the duel, took the Apple, and combined it with the Staff to try and open the Vatican Vault, without success. After a fist-fight which the Assassin won, Ezio used the two Pieces of Eden to open the vault, where he came into contact with the Isu Minerva, who showed him the First Catastrophe and the Second that would occur centuries later.[94] Leaving the vault, Ezio tried to recover the Staff, but it was sealed underground by a trap.[95]
Returning to Monteriggioni, Ezio entrusted the Apple to his uncle Mario, but Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo's son and General of the Papal Army, led a siege on the city, killing Mario and taking the Apple for his father.[96] In Rome, Rodrigo forced Leonardo da Vinci to study the Apple while also letting his grandson Giovanni play with the artifact due to his contact with the Shroud of Eden.[97]
In August 1503, Ezio, by then the Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood, recovered the Apple after Rodrigo was killed by his own son. Ezio used it to defeat the forces of Cesare in Rome and, after the arrest of Cesare, to foretell his escape.[98] Ezio then hid the Apple in the Colosseum Vault, where it would remain for the next five centuries.[99]
In 1509, during the Battle of Agnadello, the condottiero Niccolò di Pitigliano stole the Shroud of Eden under the protection of the Brotherhood. A year later, the Assassin Francesco Vecellio was sent in the city of Lonigo to kill Niccolò and recover the Shroud, both of which the Assassin succeeded in doing.[100]
In 1515, a then-retired Ezio Auditore assigned the Assassin apprentices Hiram Stoddard and Giovanni Borgia to recover an Apple of Eden which was in the possession of the Templar Dei Petrucci in Florence. The two Assassins failed in their mission but the Apple was eventually retrieved by the Assassins and sent to Greece.[87]
By 1524, Ezio was in possession of a Precursor box that he later gave to the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun when she left Italy after he had trained her.[101]
Spanish Inquisition[edit | edit source]
- "If the Apple falls into their hands, the Templars will destroy everything that stands in their way. Protest, dissent... our right to think for ourselves"
- ―Mentor Benedicto, 1492.[src]
Around 1458, the King Alfonso V of Aragon received the Faith prong of the Triden of Eden from Pope Callixtus III. The prong was then handed to the Kings of Spain until 1519.[29]
At the end of the Reconquista, the Spanish Rite of the Templar Order led by the Inquisitor General Tomás de Torquemada tried to take control of Spain using Pieces of Eden. The Templar and inquisitor Gustavo Ramírez tried to locate three parts of a Staff of Eden in Spain. Ramírez found the first part at the St. Rafael Abbey and entrusted the second to the monks of the Monastery of St. Lucia. The third part was in the possession of monks from the Asturias mountains, who believed it was a part of Saint James' staff. Pedro Madruga, a friend of the Monastery, hid the fragment in his castle of Sobroso to protect it from the Inquisition.[102]
The Spanish Brotherhood of Assassins tried to prevent the Templars from completing the Staff. A team of Assassins infiltrated the Sádaba Castle to steal the first part, but Ramírez fled with it. Then, the Assassins went to St. Lucia and succeeded in taking the second part before the Templar Ojeda. They subsequently entrusted it to their allies at the Salamanca University.[102]
By 1491, Torquemada discovered that the Assassins had entrusted an Apple of Eden to the Sultan Muhammad XII of Granada. The Templars manipulated Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile into besieging Granada. To force the Sultan to give up the artifact, Ojeda kidnapped his son Ahmed before accompanying Torquemada to an exchange with the Sultan during the surrender of Granada.[103]
When Torquemada received the Apple from the Sultan, the Assassins Aguilar de Nerha and María intervened and attacked the Templars. During the confrontation, María and Ojeda were killed, but Aguilar fled the city with the Apple. Months later, Aguilar gave the Apple to an ally of the Brotherhood, Christopher Columbus, who kept the artifact until his death in 1506 and was buried with it.[103]
After the end of the Reconquista, the Templars tortured the monks of the Asturias mountains to uncover the location of the Staff of Eden's last section. The Assassins saved the monks, who told them where the Staff piece was located. The Assassin turncoat Diego de Alvarado, who was a spy of Ramírez, led the Templars to the last section of the Staff before the Brotherhood. Later, Diego killed Ramírez and took possession of his piece of the artifact. He also broke into the Salamanca University and stole the last section.[102]
Diego handed all three parts of the Staff to Torquemada. In 1498, Torquemada went to the Saint Thomas Aquinas' Monastery in Ávila, which was constructed on top of an Isu forge. Using the Forge to reconstruct the Staff, Torquemada was able to create ghost-like guards and prepared to take control of Spain. The Assassins infiltrated the Forge, killed Torquemada and his ghost army, and destroyed the Staff, which was buried under the ruins of the site as the Forge collapsed on itself.[102]
Spanish conquest of the Americas[edit | edit source]
- "I have studied these relics from our past, these Pieces of Eden, and I have even wielded them on rare occasion. I have spent my life theorizing and mapping, but never before have I had the opportunity to hunt one."
- ―Giovanni Borgia during his journey to the New World, 1519.[src]
In 1519, the conquistador Hernán Cortés received the Faith prong of the Trident of Eden from the King of Spain, Carlos I, to help him during his expedition to Mexico. During his campaign against the Aztec Empire, Cortés used the prong to give hope to his troops who were outnumbered and also turned some of the natives to his cause.[29]
Posing as a chronicler and astrologer, the Assassin Giovanni Borgia infiltrated Cortés' expedition to recover Pieces of Eden in the New World. During the Night of Sorrows, Giovanni assassinated a priest of Tenochtitlan to take a Crystal Skull in his possession. Later, Giovanni returned to Europe with the artifact, where he studied it alongside the scientist and Assassin ally Bombastus.[84]
In 1521, the conquistador Juan Ponce de León was influenced by the Templars to explore Florida in the search of the Fountain of Youth, a Piece of Eden alleged to granted eternal youth. Ponce de León was killed by the Assassin Miguel Ramón Carlo de Lugo as the Brotherhood wanted to protect the artifact.[78]
Magellan expedition[edit | edit source]
- "Official annals of history contend that Magellan voyaged to the other side of the world... ostensibly to discover gold and spices. But in fact... that was not his true purpose. [...] He coveted an artifact instilled with a power that could only be described as godlike... A forbidden fruit, the stuff of sorcery capable of granting any wish. In short... the relics of Those Who Came Before."
- ―Hendrik on Ferdinand Magellan's quest for the Pieces of Eden.[src]-[m]
In the early 16th century, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led a Spanish expedition to the East Indies, allegedly with the goal of finding gold and spices. In reality, Magellan had learned about the Pieces of Eden and sought one such artifact hidden on the island of Cebu in the Philippines.[104]
After converting the island's native population to Catholicism, Magellan found the artifact he desired: a crescent amulet. However, he was then informed by Cebu's chieftan Rajah Humabon that the artifact was but a piece of a larger one, with another fragment in the possession of Lapu-Lapu, Humabon's rival and the chief of the neighboring Mactan Island.[104]
On 27 April 1521, Magellan led a contingent of Spanish soldiers to Mactan to seize the Piece of Eden in Lapu-Lapu's possession. However, the chieftan used the artifact's power to repel the attack, and Magellan was killed during the battle, causing the crescent amulet to become lost once again for the next two centuries.[104]
Elizabethan era[edit | edit source]
By 1559, Altaïr's Apple of Eden was in the possession of Queen Elizabeth I of England. One of the Queen's advisors, John Dee, was aware of the true nature of the artifact. By 1587, during his time in Bohemia, Dee worked with the English scientist and occultist Edward Kelley, conducting alchemical experiments with the Book of Abraham and a Crystal Ball before returning to England.[105]
After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, Dee sent a cryptic message to Kelley's stepdaughter Elizabeth Jane Weston to inform her about the Apple of Eden.[105]
Feudal Japan[edit | edit source]
At the end of the Sengoku period, the daimyō Takeda Shingen was in possession of a Sword of Eden which he used during his conquests. In 1573, Takeda was killed by the Japanese Assassin Hattori Hanzō, and the Sword was taken by the daimyō and Assassin ally Oda Nobunaga.[73]
In 1582, as Nobunaga was using the Sword for his own gain, the Assassins sent Yamauchi Taka to recover the artifact. Taking advantage of Nobunaga's betrayal by his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide, who led a surprise attack against the daimyō, Taka took the Sword and gave it to Liu Yan, a member of the Chinese Brotherhood. Liu Yan later brought the artifact back to her country.[73]
Age of Enlightenment[edit | edit source]
Golden Age of Piracy[edit | edit source]
By 1699, the English privateer Captain William Kidd was in possession of a Ring of Eden which could deflect metal projectiles, giving him the reputation of being invincible. The Templars tried to recover the artifact but Kidd hid it on Oak Island, leaving clues as to its location to four members of his former crew.[106]
By 1717, the Dutch slaver and Templar ally Laurens Prins was in possession of the Fragment of Eden, an artifact that could control individuals but also increased the speed and firepower of a ship. In February 1717, the British Assassin and pirate Samuel Bellamy attacked Prins' ship, the Whydah, and took the artifact. He entrusted it to the French pirate Alonzo Batilla, who passed it to another French pirate, Olivier Levasseur. By 1718, Levasseur buried the Fragment on the Caicos Islands in the Caribbean Sea to protect it from the Templars.[107]
In August 1718, Levasseur and Batilla recovered the artifact but were ambushed by the ship of the pirate and Templar Christopher Condent. Batilla used the power of the Fragment to sink Condent's ship. As a British fleet led by the Templar pirate-hunter Woodes Rogers arrived, Levasseur fled with the Fragment while Batilla attacked the fleet to give enough time to his friend to escape.[107]
In 1719, the Sage and pirate Bartholomew Roberts entered the Observatory in Jamaica and took the complex's Crystal Skull, which when paired with blood vials allowed the wielder to spy on anyone in the world.[108] In 1722, the pirate-turned-Assassin Edward Kenway killed Roberts and took the Crystal Skull.[109] He used it to track the Grand Master of the West Indies Templars, Laureano de Torres y Ayala, in Havana, but was lured into a trap.[110] After escaping and later killing Torres, Edward returned the Crystal Skull to the Observatory, where it would be watched over by the West Indies Assassins.[111]
Southeast Asia[edit | edit source]
- "Something of that nature was never meant to fall into human hands. I can tell you that myself, from what I've seen of the artifacts. The ability to control people's minds is only the beginning of what the artifacts are capable of. I reckon they could be used to change history as we know it... and perhaps even the very fate of mankind."
- ―Edward Kenway to his fellow Zhang Wei Union members, 1725.[src]-[m]
By 1725, the crescent amulet found by Ferdinand Magellan had been recovered by a monk, who mistook it for a religious artifact and used it to start a riot against the Governor-General of the Philippines in Manila.[112] During the riot, the monk and his followers were confronted by Edward Kenway and Shimazu Saito, who sought to keep the amulet and its sister Pieces of Eden out of the wrong hands.[113] The monk used the amulet's powers to defeat Edward and Saito, momentarily trapping the former's consciousness in a void,[114] where the Assassin experienced visions of the past and the future.[115]
After the monk was killed by Rajah, the leader of a Visayan resistance against the Spanish colonists, the latter took the amulet and used it to further his cause.[115] He and his men occupied Monkey Island and mind-controlled many of the native villagers, forcefully recruiting them into the resistance,[116] until Edward and the members of his Zhang Wei Union intervened. They destroyed the resistance's fort and rescued the brainwashed villagers, who returned to their families.[117]
Traveling to Cebu, Rajah recovered a sea log from the Basilica del Santo Niño, which contained encrypted information on the locations of two other Pieces of Eden.[118] However, the sea log was later retrieved by Saito while Edward faced Rajah at Fort San Pedro and defeated him by separating him from the amulet.[119]
Edward and Saito were then forced to fend off an attack by the Chinese Assassins Xiao Han, Liu Qing, and Xue Yan,[120] who defeated Saito and stole the sea log from her. Edward used the amulet to subdue the Chinese Assassins, allowing him and Saito to escape from Cebu.[121]
Edward continued to hold onto the amulet for some time, and it occasionally showed him visions of the future. These visions proved useful during a confrontation with Fuma Sukuna's ninja and the Rattan Shield Company, as it allowed the Zhang Wei Union members to predict their enemies' tactics and defeat them.[122][123] However, the artifact eventually began corrupting Edward, forcing Saito to take it away from him and place it in a chest.[124]
Later, the Union lost the amulet's chest after being imprisoned in the Sultanate of Sulu.[125] While attempting to recover it, they were forced to fight against Xiao Han, Liu Qing, and Xue Yan, who also arrived in Sulu.[126] During the chaos, the Union's doctor Xialun Qing managed to retrieve the chest, but she was killed by Xiao Han, who then seized the amulet and escaped with his fellow Chinese Assassins.[127]
Despite their defeat in Sulu, Edward and his companions learned the whereabouts of the remaining two Pieces of Eden in Southeast Asia thanks to the Assassin's visions induced by the amulet.[128] Traveling to Burma first, the Zhang Wei Union members infiltrated the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, where the second artifact was safeguarded by a group of Buddhist monks.[129]
With the monks' help, Edward and Saito retrieved the Piece of Eden, which briefly transported the former's mind to the future, enabling him to speak with his descendant, Noa Kim.[130] Afterwards, the Zhang Wei Union members escaped Yangon, promising to return the artifact once they were done using it.[131]
Before long, however, the Piece of Eden was stolen by John Young, who worked as a spy for the Templars and hoped that its powers could be used to resurrect Xialun Qing. Reluctantly betraying his friends, John escaped with the artifact amidst an attack by an East India Company fleet commanded by Alan Jacob, Grand Master of the British Templars.[132] The Union members pursued the fleet in an attempt to recover the Piece of Eden,[133] but were ultimately unsuccessful.[134]
Sometime afterwards, the Zhang Wei Union retrieved the third and final artifact from the Khmer city of Angkor, where it was stored in a temple. Following Saito's death sometime in the 18th century, the Piece of Eden was buried with her in Japan to keep it hidden.[135]
Georgian Britain[edit | edit source]
After his extensive travels around the world, Edward Kenway settled down in London, becoming the co-leader of the British Brotherhood of Assassins. On one of his journeys, Edward had discovered an Isu cache containing a Shroud of Eden. The Assassin subsequently secreted it away in the Tower of London and hid the cache's key in St. Paul's Cathedral.[136]
After Edward's death in 1735,[137] the last leader of the British Brotherhood, Miko, possessed the Grand Temple Key, bearing it as an amulet. In 1754, Miko was killed by Edward's son, Haytham Kenway, who was a member of the British Rite of the Templar Order, and the Key was stolen. Later, Grand Master Reginald Birch tasked Haytham with finding the Grand Temple in the British Colonies and entrusted him with the Key.[138]
Maroon rebellion in Saint-Domingue[edit | edit source]
- "The devastation provided an excellent cover for my approach on Mackandal's camp. I stole two Pieces of Eden in his possession: a strange Precursor box and a mysterious manuscript. By the time you receive this, I will already be on my way back to Virginia. Prepare yourself. Our true work begins now."
- ―Lawrence Washington in a letter to Christopher Gist, 1751.[src]-[m]
In 1735, a French Templar Admiral possessed Ezio's Precursor box. On his way to deliver it to Bastienne Josèphe in Port-au-Prince, the admiral was killed by the Assassin Adéwalé, who recovered the artifact.[139] After a tempest, Adéwalé's ship, the Victoire, shipwrecked on the shores of Sant-Domingue. Upon meeting Bastinee, she and the Assassin developed an agreement: Adéwalé would support the Maroon rebellion on the island while Bastienne secured a way for the Assassin to leave Port-au-Prince in exchange for the Precursor box.[140] After two years, Adéwalé gave the box to Bastienne before leaving the island.[141]
By November 1751, the Mentor of the Saint-Domingue Brotherhood of Assassins and Maroon leader François Mackandal had received the Precursor box from Bastienne and used it to decipher the Voynich manuscript. After the Assassins discovered the location of an Isu temple near Port-au-Prince, Mackandal sent his apprentice Vendredi to investigate the temple which triggered an earthquake. In the panic, the leader of the Templars in the British Colonies, Lawrence Washington, infiltrated the Assassins' camp and stole the Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript.[142]
Afsharid dynasty[edit | edit source]
- "Nadir Shah is dead by my own hand, though the fiend managed to kill two of my Brothers. However, through devious trickery, the Koh-i-Noor Diamond has fallen into the possession of Ahmed Shah, an Afghan chief. I must pursue him immediately if we hope to claim the Piece of Eden for ourselves."
- ―Salah Bey in a letter to Achilles Davenport, 1747.[src]-[m]
During the sacking of the Taj Mahal in 1739 by the Afsharid dynasty of Persia, Nāder Shāh found a Piece of Eden shaped like a diamond which he named the Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of light).[143] In 1747, Nāder was killed by the Persian Assassin Salah Bey, who sought to recover the artifact, but the Koh-i-Noor had already fallen into the hands of the Afghan chief Ahmad Shāh Durrānī, who founded the Durrānī Empire.[144]
Seven Years' War[edit | edit source]
- "I know both the Assassins and Templars are looking for Pieces of Eden. Powerful weapons, mind-controlling Apples, but this time it's different. We haven't found an apple, but... a tree. These Temples hold the earth together like roots. Disturb them, and Haiti falls or... Lisbon. Or any other place the Manuscript shows."
- ―Shay Cormac to Haytham Kenway, 1758.[src]-[m]
After stealing the Precursor box and the Voynich manuscript in Saint-Domingue, Lawrence Washington returned with the artifacts to the British Colonies in 1752 and entrusted the box to the Templar Samuel Smith, who went to Europe to meet scientists who could activate the artifact.[145] Unsuccessful in his mission, Smith returned to America in 1754 and was killed by the Colonial Assassin Shay Cormac, who took the box.[146]
Later, Shay and fellow Assassin Hope Jensen met with the inventor Benjamin Franklin to activate the artifact using electricity. With the Voynich manuscript recovered from James Wardrop, the Assassins located an Isu temple in Lisbon.[147]
That same year, Haytham Kenway arrived in the Colonies to find the Grand Temple. As the Templar William Johnson identified marks on the temple's Key similar to those of the Kanien'kehá:ka, Haytham contacted a member of the tribe, Kaniehtí:io, to help him in his search.[148] In 1755, Kaniehtí:io and Haytham arrived before the door of the Grand Temple in New York, but the Templar was unable to access the site with the Key and decided to abandon his search.[149]
In 1759, Hope Jensen reproduced Franklin's experiments on the Precursor box and, using the Voynich manuscript, the Assassins located another Isu temple in the Arctic.[150] Hope then gave the box and manuscript to the Assassin Liam O'Brien; while he kept the manuscript on his person, Liam further entrusted the box to Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye, to be secreted away from the Colonies.[151]
American Revolution[edit | edit source]
By the 18th century, the villagers of Kanatahséton were still in possession of the Crystal Ball entrusted to their ancestors by Eivor Varinsdottir many centuries prior.[56] In 1769, the young Kanien'kehá:ka Ratonhnhaké:ton, Haytham and Kaniehtí:io's son, used the artifact and contacted Juno through a Nexus. She tasked him to protect the Grand Temple against the Templars and to join the Colonial Brotherhood of the Assassin to protect his people.[57]
In 1777, Ratonhnhaké:ton, by then a fully-fledged Assassin, arrived on Oak Island to find Captain Kidd's treasure and recovered the Ring of Eden left by the pirate. The Assassin would go on to wear the artifact which protected him from bullets.[106]
During the American Revolution, the Freemasons brought an Apple of Eden from Europe. By 1781, a British Officer in Yorktown was in possession of the Apple. After the Siege of Yorktown, the Commander of the Continental Army, George Washington, recovered the artifact.[152]
In 1781, Haytham Kenway gave the Grand Temple Key to his second-in-command Charles Lee before confronting and ultimately being killed by his son during the bombardment of Fort George.[153] A year later, Lee was killed by Ratonhnhaké:ton who took the Key from him. In 1783, the Assassin returned to his deserted village and found the Crystal Ball left behind. He used it once again to speak to Juno who congratulated him for accomplishing his task and instructed him to hide the Key. The Crystal Ball then disintegrated in Ratonhnhaké:ton's hands,[154] and the Assassin went on to bury the Key in the grave of his mentor's son on the Davenport Homestead.[155]
After the end of the American Revolutionary War, Washington was haunted by visions created by his Apple of Eden and decided to contact Ratonhnhaké:ton. By touching the Apple, the Assassin saw a reality where Washington became a tyrannical king of the United States using the power of the Apple. After Ratonhnhaké:ton defeated Washington in this alternate reality, the vision ended and the two agreed to dispose of the artifact, with Ratonhnhaké:ton dropping it into the sea.[152]
By 1784, the former slave Patience Gibbs had received from her mother a charm, a Piece of Eden which permitted her to "see into all things" for a few seconds. The Templar Edmund Judge tried to recover the artifact but Gibbs gave him only a piece of it. As the Louisiana Assassin Aveline de Grandpré tried to recruit Gibbs into the Brotherhood on Ratonhnhaké:ton's behalf, the two women decided to help each other. Aveline killed Judge before Patience recovered the artifact and accepted to go to the Davenport Homestead with Aveline.[156]
French Revolution[edit | edit source]
In December 1776, Ezio's Precursor box was entrusted to the French Assassin Charles Dorian during a meeting at the Palace of Versailles. Shortly after receiving the artifact, Charles was killed by Shay Cormac, who had joined the Templars two decades prior, after his mission in Lisbon had gone wrong. Shay took the box and brought it to the Templars in America.[157]
Before the French Revolution, the Sage and Templar François-Thomas Germain entered the vault under the Temple of Paris, guided by de Molay's memories. There, he found his Sword of Eden and de Molay's codex. In 1789, Germain organized a coup against Grand Master François de la Serre and took the control of the French Rite while manipulating the French Revolution to end the Monarchy.[158]
During the Thermidorian Reaction in 1794, Germain was confronted at the Parisian Temple by de la Serre's ward, the former Assassin Arno Dorian, and by Élise de la Serre, François' daughter. Germain used the Sword to fight the duo and a powerful blast killed Élise and wounded Germain. Arno finished off the Sage and recovered the Sword, which had been damaged by the explosion, making Arno unable to access its powers.[158]
A week later, the French General Napoleon Bonaparte tasked the Captain Philippe Rose to recover the Apple of Eden under the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Bonaparte gave Rose the key of the Temple that he had taken from the Tuileries Palace on 10 August 1792.[159] Rose was later contacted by a man working for Lady Eve, who promised Rose a reward far greater than what Bonaparte paid him in exchange for the artifact.[160]
Arno foiled Bonaparte's plan, killing Rose and taking the Head of Saint Denis. When he discovered the Apple of Eden inside the lantern, Arno entrusted the artifact to an Assassin who sent it to the Mentor Al Mualim in Cairo.[160] In 1798, Bonaparte led an expedition in Egypt and recovered the Apple. A year later, he organized a coup in France with the Apple and eventually became Emperor of France.[161]
Ottoman Libya[edit | edit source]
By 1805, the Ottoman Sultan Selim III possessed the Koh-i-Noor and secured it in his palace in Tripoli, Libya. The Black Cross Tavis Olier was sent by the Templar Order to recover the artifact but was captured by the Sultan. Later, the new Black Cross Solomon Bolden went to Libya to save Olier and take the Koh-i-Noor. During his journey, Bolden met the Flemish agent Jan van der Graff who was sent by Emperor Napoleon to steal the diamond. The Templar and the spy worked together to infiltrate the palace but the Assassin and Selim's servant Ahkbar killed Bolden and imprisoned Graff with Olier.[162]
In 1808, the Libyan Brotherhood of Assassins wanted to purchase the Koh-i-Noor from Selim. Learning of this, Olier and Graff planned their escape to recover the Koh-i-Noor before the Assassins. As the Black Cross gave his life for their plan to succeeded, Graff became the new Black Cross after having been trained by Olier during their captivity. Ahkbar, who wanted the diamond for himself, killed Selim and took the artifact.[162]
As Graff confronted the Assassin, Ahkbar used the Koh-i-Noor to create several projections of himself. However, Graff saw through the illusion and killed Ahkbar. As more Assassins arrived, Graff gave them an empty box and convinced them that the diamond was inside before being allowed to leave. Graff later protected the Koh-i-Noor from the Templars.[162]
Sikh Empire[edit | edit source]
By 1830, the founder of Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh, had come into possession of the Koh-i-Noor and hid it in the Isu temple of Tosha Khana under his summer palace in Amritsar. In 1839, Francis Cotton, the leader of the British Templars in India, was in possession of Ezio's Precursor box and planned to kill the sultan to recover the diamond. At the same time, the Indian Assassin Arbaaz Mir infiltrated the palace with his assistant Raza Soora to steal the artifact. The Assassin gave the Koh-i-Noor to Soora who then gave it to Pyara Kaur, Ranjit's granddaughter.[143]
After he killed the sultan, Cotton confronted Pyara who activated the artifact and was possessed by the Isu Durga. The Templar shot the Precursor and shattered the Koh-i-Noor. As an energy blast was released, a tiger form appeared and killed Cotton. The diamond then reconstructed itself and was taken by Arbaaz, who gave it to his Mentor Hamid for safekeeping.[143]
In 1841, Cotton's successor William Sleeman took the Precursor box and with the help of the Templar Alexander Burnes kidnapped Hamid to obtain the Koh-i-Noor.[163] Combining the two artifacts inside Tosha Khana, Sleeman saw a map indicating the location of another Isu temple underneath the Herat Citadel in Afghanistan.[164] Arbaaz tried to recover the two Pieces of Eden while he tracked Sleeman in the Herat Temple but he was captured.[165]
Taken prisoner to the Katasraj Temple in Pakistan, Arbaaz freed himself and defeated Burnes in combat, but spared his opponent's life. As a sign of respect, the Templar allowed Arbaaz to take the Koh-i-Noor and Precursor box.[166] Returning to Amritsar, Arbaaz presented the artifacts to Hamid but was informed that Sleeman had taken Pyara hostage. The Assassin rushed to the summer palace to save his lover and was forced to negotiate with Sleeman, who demanded the two Pieces of Eden while holding Pyara at knifepoint.[167]
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As Arbaaz tossed the artifacts into the air, Pyara stabbed Sleeman with a concealed knife, giving her lover enough time to grab the Koh-i-Noor and flee with with Pyara. However, the Assassin failed to retrieve the box, which was subsequently taken by Sleeman. Later, Arbaaz decided to entrust the Koh-i-Noor to the British Assassin Ethan Frye, who promised that the diamond's journey had only just begun.[167]
Industrial Revolution[edit | edit source]
Victorian Era[edit | edit source]
By 1847, Queen Victoria's husband, the Prince Consort Albert, had recovered the cache containing the Shroud of Eden from the Tower of London. He then had it hidden in a vault he ordered built under Buckingham Palace.[168]
In 1862, during the construction of London's Metropolitan Railway, the British Templars excavated an Apple of Eden. Charles Pearson, who financed the construction, took the artifact and, unaware of its true nature, used it as a cane's pommel. Pearson was later killed by the Templar Cavanagh, who wanted to use the Piece of Eden to usurp the position of Grand Master from Crawford Starrick. Cavanagh tried to use the Apple against the Assassins Ethan Frye and Jayadeep Mir but was killed by the Templar Marchant, who recovered the artifact on Starrick's orders.[169]
By 1868, the Apple was entrusted to the Templar scientist David Brewster for experimentation at his laboratory near Croydon. During one of his experiments, Brewster was killed by the Assassin Evie Frye and the Apple detonated after being overloaded with electricity, destroying the laboratory, though Evie managed to escape to safety.[170]
During the same year, the Templar Lucy Thorne tried to find the Shroud of Eden hidden in London. After arriving in the city with her twin brother Jacob, Evie met and worked with Jayadeep to recover the artifact before the Templars. The two factions discovered the location of the cache's key and Lucy took it before being killed by Evie while searching for the Shroud in the Tower of London.[136]
Later, the two groups uncovered the true location of the cache and infiltrated a party held at Buckingham Palace to take it. Starrick stole the key from Evie and unlocked the cache. Wearing the Shroud, the Grand Master fought the Frye twins and was able to survive all the wounds they inflicted on him. After being distracted by Jayadeep, who threw a knife at him, Starrick was separated from the Shroud and killed by the Frye twins. The Assassins then decided to lock the artifact in the vault again and hide the key.[171]
At some point during the 19th century, the co-founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, William Robert Woodman, was in contact with the original Shroud of Eden and could speak with Consus.[172]
American Civil War and Reconstruction Era[edit | edit source]
After the Mexican-American War, the Aztec Club of 1847 was in possession of the Faith prong of the Trident of Eden, which was brought to New York City. In 1863, during the draft riots, the American Assassin Varius infiltrated the club and stole the artifact, but was ambushed by the American Templar Cudgel Cormac, who took the prong for the Grand Master William M. Tweed.[29]
While Cudgel was on his way to deliver the artifact, the Templar was confronted by Varius and his new apprentice Eliza. Cudgel used the power of the prong to make Varius lose his faith in the Creed before stabbing him. Eliza paralyzed the Templar, saving her mentor and taking back the prong. Later, the two Assassins entrusted the artifact to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant to help him to end the American Civil War.[29]
Years later, Grant became President of the United States and his administration was infiltrated by the Templars. They gave him access to Ezio's Precursor box, which he used to decipher some pages of the Voynich manuscript. In 1872, Grant's political rival Horace Greeley uncovered the Templars' corruption of his administration and had one of his associates in Grant's office steal the box. The Templars later poisoned Greeley and sent their agent Alice to recover the artifact, which she did.[173]
Sometime before his death in 1885, Grant hid the Trident of Eden's Faith prong under the floor of his house in Mount McGregor.[29]
War of Currents[edit | edit source]
- "A serious matter has come to my attention. Nikola Tesla plans to use PE4 to create an information network across the entire world. And if that weren't bad enough, he intends to allow access to it for free! [...] I've already begun slandering Tesla in the press. Just reallocate his funding, and I'll take care of PE4 myself."
- ―Thomas Edison in a letter to J.P. Morgan.[src]-[m]
In 1874, the Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla found an Apple of Eden in Croatia. Going to America, Tesla used the power of the artifact to create a worldwide network that was able to transmit information and electricity to anywhere on the planet.[174] In 1894, the American author Mark Twain visited Tesla's laboratory in New York and, for a brief moment, held the Apple.[175]
The American Templar Thomas Edison launched a slandering campaign against Tesla's project which would be a serious impediment to the Templar goals. The Templars stole the Apple and used its power to drive Tesla insane. Later, Edison gave the Apple to his Templar brother Henry Ford who used the artifact to exploit his workers by making them believe he rose their pay while he in fact cut it.[175]
Imperial Russia[edit | edit source]
By 1888, the Tsar Alexander III of Russia was in possession of a Staff of Eden that he used to maintain his power over Russia. During the Borki train disaster, the Tsar taunted the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov to kill him with the Staff. The Assassin tried to use the artifact but he was easily defeated by Alexander who took back the artifact.[176]
By 1908, the Russian Templar Grigori Rasputin had stolen the Staff and replaced it with a replica. The artifact was brought to a Templar laboratory in Tunguska where the Order conducted experiments on it using electrical machines. A team of Assassins led by Nikolai infiltrated the laboratory to steal the artifact, and when he came into contact with the Staff, Nikolai briefly heard several voices from the past.[176]
At that exact moment, Tesla, who had been contacted by the Brotherhood, released a massive burst of electricity from Wardenclyffe Tower in an attempt to destroy the Templar laboratory. When the Staff was hit by the electricity, it detonated, resulting in the Tunguska explosion, which left Nikolai as its sole survivor.[176]
Despite the Staff's destruction, a shard survived and was later recovered by Rasputin, who used it to influence the Romanov family. In 1914, one of his disciples, Khioniya Guseva, tried to assassinate Rasputin and stabbed him in the stomach. Rasputin used the shard to survive his mortal wound and force Guseva to mutilate her face.[177] In 1916, the Russian Brotherhood managed to assassinate Rasputin, who was then unknowingly buried with the shard.[176]
World at War[edit | edit source]
Russian Revolution[edit | edit source]
During the Russian Revolution, Nikolai Orelov infiltrated the Winter Palace to recover what the Brotherhood thought was the Imperial Staff of Eden. Noticing that it was a replica, Nikolai was informed by the former Tsar Nicholas II that Grigori Rasputin had possessed a shard of the Staff. The Assassin dug up Rasputin's body and recovered the artifact, but chose to keep it for himself rather than give it to the Brotherhood.[176]
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By July 1918, the Romanov family was in possession of Ezio's Precursor box and secreted it in their home in Yekaterinburg, where they had been put under house arrest by the Bolsheviks. Nikolai was tasked to recover the box for the Brotherhood, but the Templars beat him to it and executed most of the Romanov family in an attempt to obtain the box.[178]
Princess Anastasia Romanova, the sole survivor of her family's massacre, managed to escape with the artifact and was soon found by Nikolai while hiding from her family's killers. While the Assassin protected her from the Templars, his shard and the box interacted and created a Bleeding Effect for Anastasia, imprinting her with Shao Jun's memories.[178]
Nikolai and Anastasia fled Yekaterinburg for Kazan where the Assassin entrusted the box to the young girl before meeting with Leon Trotsky to try and find a way to Moscow. Trotsky decided to capture the Assassin in order to deliver Anastasia and the box to the Templars in the name of the Revolution. With the abilities of Shao Jun, Anastasia saved Nikolai and the two went to Moscow.[179] There, Nikolai entrusted the box to the Assassin Sergei and Anastasia was taken to an Assassin laboratory in the Kremlin in order to experiment on her, in an attempt to extract Shao Jun's memories.[180] Nikolai saved her and the two parted ways, fleeing Russia.[181]
Arriving in New York City with his family in 1919, Nikolai gave the shard to his daughter Nadya. During the Palmer Raids, Nadya was deported back to Russia with her mother Anna, but was able to keep possession of the shard for the rest of her life.[182]
Interwar period[edit | edit source]
By 1926, the Hungarian-American magician and escapologist Harry Houdini possessed the Apple of Eden formerly owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, and used it during his magic tricks to deceive the public.[183] The Templars killed him in order to acquire the artifact.[184]
In 1928, Rufus Grosvenor, a British Templar and secret member of the Instruments of the First Will, tried to blackmail the former Black Cross Albert Bolden into giving him the Koh-i-Noor. Bolden refused and recovered the diamond which he had secreted in a safe in Switzerland, bringing it to his home in the United States. Later, Grosvenor stole the Koh-i-Noor, killing Bolden's family in the process.[185]
By 1930, the Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was in the possession of Altaïr's Apple of Eden and used it to further the Indian Independence during the Salt March.[183] In 1933, Henry Ford entrusted Tesla's Apple to the leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, to ensure his takeover of Germany and the start of World War II, which was in accordance to the Templars' plan to establish a New World Order.[175]
In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Grosvenor, impersonating the British Assassin Norbert Clarke, entered in contact with the Spanish Assassin Ignacio Cardona to use his high concentration of Isu DNA to unlock the power of the Koh-i-Noor. Tricked by Grosvenor to use the diamond to stop a fight between communists and anarchists in Barcelona, Cardona passed out after the artifact unleashed serpent-like energy creatures to stop the fight.[185]
Later, Cardonna joined Bolden who revealed to him the true nature of Grosvenor. Confronting the Instrument in a church, Cardonna used the Koh-i-Noor against Grosvenor. The power of the artifact made the old church collapse on itself and the Koh-i-Noor was buried among its ruins after Cardonna created an illusion that it had been destroyed to trick Grosvenor.[185]
World War II[edit | edit source]
At the beginning of World War II, the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in possession of Washington's Apple of Eden and was manipulated by the Templars in their scheme for a New World Order.[183]
At some point in the 1940s, Abstergo Industries, the front company of the Templar Order, located the crescent amulet, which had been hidden near the Strait of Malacca, and dispatched the SS Ourang Medan to retrieve the Piece of Eden. However, the mission ended in failure, and the ship and its entire crew mysteriously vanished.[186]
By 1943, the Obergruppenführer and Templar Gero Kramer received Tesla's Apple for use in various experiments. He kidnapped Tesla and with the knowledge of the Apple, they constructed Die Glocke, a device powered by the artifact that could read the genetic memory of any individual. The Apple's knowledge was also used by the Templar ally and physician, Josef Mengele, to make a breakthrough in genetics and genes modification, upgrading Kramer with accelerated cellular regeneration and superhuman strength.[187]
In 1943, Kramer was killed by the Assassins Eddie Gorm and Julia Dusk who recovered the Apple for their superior, the American Colonel Boris Pash. When they discovered that Pash worked with the Templar John von Neumann, Julia blew herself up with a hand-grenade in a failed attempt to destroy the Apple, which was then taken by Pash.[187]
On 28 October 1943, aboard the USS Eldridge, Pash and Neumann used the Apple in the Philadelphia Project, an attempt to travel back in time and kill Hitler before his rise to power to prevent World War II. Gorm infiltrated the ship and killed Tesla to sabotage the project,[187] resulting in the USS Eldridge temporarily manifesting in a future state for approximately 18 minutes.[188] After the project's failure, Neumann kept the Apple.[189]
By 1944, the Third Reich was in possession of an unidentified Piece of Eden. The Edelweiss Pirates, a group of German resistants, stole this artifact and hid it in the spire of the Cologne Cathedral. Twelve of the Pirates were captured. One of them, Barthel Schink, revealed the location of the artifact to his fellow member Miriam Kurtz and tasked her to bring the artifact to the Assassins in Paris.[190]
That same year, the original Shroud of Eden was in possession of the Baguttiani family in Milan. Abstergo Industries sent their employe Keith Scipione to buy the artifact. On 25 December 1944, Scipione met a member of the Baguttiani family to confirm the nature of the artifact. Using a metallic keychain, Scipione was able to identify the Shroud as a true Piece of Eden and acquired it for Abstergo.[79]
By 1945, Hilter was in possession of a Piece of Eden which he attempted to deliver to one of his contacts after faking his death. However, the Assassins intercepted and killed him before he could succeed.[191]
Cold War[edit | edit source]
In 1948, the Templars assassinated Mahatma Gandhi to recover Altaïr's Apple of Eden.[184]
By 1957, Neumann was dying from cancer in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.. Boris Pash infiltrated the Center with the Assassin Alekseï Gavrani and killed Neumann to recover Tesla's Apple.[189]
By 1961, John F. Kennedy, as a President of the United States of America, had inherited Washington's Apple. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Assassin William King Harvey, who had secretly defected to the Templars, ordered Kennedy's assassination to recover his Apple and made use of his contacts in the Brotherhood to implicate the Bloodstone Unit, an extremist Assassin cell led by Pash.[189] William Greer, a United States Secret Service agent and member of Bloodstone Unit, was trained using Altaïr's Apple for the mission, where he was to drive the President's car into the Assassins' trap.[184]
On 22 November 1963 in Dallas, Kennedy was shot by the Bloodstone Unit, allowing Greer to grab the President's Apple during the resulting chaos.[189] The Templars used Napoleon's Apple to create a "Phantom on the Hill" effect and disguise the intentions of the assassination, while the Templar sleeper agent Lee Harvey Oswald was publicly accused of the murder.[184] As he fled the scene, Greer was confronted by Gavrani, who had left Bloodstone Unit due to Pash's extremist methods. Gavrani took the Apple and delivered it to Harvey, unaware that the latter was the mastermind behind the plot.[189]
In 1964, during the Vietnam War, Pash used Tesla's Apple on the Bloodstone Unit member Julia Gorm to unlock the memories of her father Eddie. As Julia tried to kill Pash, Gavrani intervened to protect him from the Assassin in exchange for the Apple. While Gavrani and Julia fought, Pash fled with his pregnant lover Zenia on the USS Maddox where he gave the Apple to Harvey. After Harvey revealed his change of allegiance to Pash, he entrusted both the Apple and Pash's newborn daughter Nathalie to the Templar Warren Vidic, who used them to develop his own research on genetic memory.[189]
In 1969, the Templars financed the Apollo 11 Moon landing to recover an Apple of Eden which was on the Moon. The Templar Buzz Aldrin took the artifact and brought it back to the Order.[192]
In 1977, Nathalie became one of Vidic's first test subjects for his prototype of the Animus, a device that allowed users to view their ancestors' genetic memories. Discovering that Vidic had kidnapped her from her parents, Nathalie fled with both the Animus' blueprints and Tesla's Apple.[189]
Modern times[edit | edit source]
Animus Project[edit | edit source]
- "Desmond is the key to the location of the Pieces of Eden. Our scientists have been running tests. If we were to place just one within a satellite and angle it toward the Earth... well, utopia would be within our grasp."
- ―Warren Vidic, about Abstergo's plans with Ezio's Apple of Eden, 2012.[src]-[m]
By 2012, the Templar front organization Abstergo Industries was in the midst of a project to recover the remaining Pieces of Eden. The Animus Project was set up with the main goal of locating the Pieces of Eden through the use of the Animus and kidnapped test subjects.[193]
The Templars sought to manipulate the neurotransmitters that made humanity susceptible to the Pieces' hypnotic effects. To accomplish this goal, they devised the Eye-Abstergo project, which would end in the launch of an "all-in-one telecommunication" satellite into orbit around Earth. However, unbeknownst to the rest of humanity, the satellite would contain an Apple of Eden, and spread its power across the globe.[193]
On 10 October 2012, an Assassin team consisting of Lucy Stillman, Desmond Miles, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane located the Apple of Eden hidden by Ezio Auditore beneath the Santa Maria Aracoeli in 1506, by having Desmond relive Ezio's memories in the Animus. When Desmond touched the Apple, Juno gained access to his nervous system for a brief time. Under Juno's control, Desmond killed Lucy,[194] who was secretly a Templar agent.[195]
Upon release from Juno's control, Desmond fell into a coma, but was able to regain consciousness through achieving a Synch Nexus.[196] Desmond, his father William, Shaun and Rebecca later arrived at the entrance of the Grand Temple in New York, where Desmond used the Apple to open the central chamber gate. It was only then that the Assassins discovered the Grand Temple Key was needed to open the inner gate.[7]
After William was captured by Templar agents in Cairo while looking for a power source for the Grand Temple, he was brought to Abstergo's Rome facility. Warren Vidic, a member of the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order and head of the Animus Project, proposed a deal to Desmond to exchange William for the Apple. Desmond traveled to Rome and entered the facility, killing the Abstergo agents and Daniel Cross. Arriving at Vidic's office, Desmond used the Apple to force the facility's guards to shoot Vidic and themselves, then released his father from confinement. Due to Vidic's death and failure to retrieve the Apple of Eden, the Eye-Abstergo project was put on hold indefinitely.[7]
By 2016, the Animus Project was relocated to the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Madrid, Spain, where the Templars continued their Animus experiments on abducted test subjects, hoping to uncover the locations of more Pieces of Eden. In October 2016, they kidnapped Callum Lynch, a descendant of Aguilar de Nerha, and through his memories, they learned about the Apple of Eden that the Assassin had entrusted to Christopher Columbus in 1492.[103]
Alan Rikkin subsequently retrieved the Apple from Columbus' grave, but while meeting with his fellow Templars at the Grand Templar Hall in London to celebrate the acquisition, he was assassinated by Callum, who had escaped from the Abstergo Foundation facility alongside his fellow Assassins Lin and Moussa. The Assassins then took the Apple from Rikkin's body and escaped into the night.[103]
Phoenix Project[edit | edit source]
- Gramática: "When the Shroud is wrapped around a body, it scans it for damage and then reconstructs it on a cellular level."
- Violet: "You're not making a clone, you're going to recreate a Precursor from scratch!"
- Gramática: "Bingo! The Phoenix Project timetable just got accelerated, big time."
- —Violet da Costa and Álvaro Gramática, 2015.[src]-[m]
By 2014, Abstergo was in possession of a Precursor box which was stolen by the Assassins Harlan Cunningham and Arend Schut during a raid on their facility in Rotterdam. Abstergo's Sigma Team led by Juhani Otso Berg pursued the Assassins, who managed to escape but were ultimately forced to leave the artifact behind.[197] The following year, Berg was tasked by Laetitia England to deliver the box to Doctor Álvaro Gramática at his secret laboratory, to boost the progress of Abstergo's Phoenix Project.[198]
In October 2014, the Assassin Gavin Banks led a raid on Abstergo's Paris facility to sabotage the Phoenix Project. The attack was successful and resulted in the destruction of the original Shroud of Eden, which was being kept in Álvaro Gramática's laboratory at the facility.[199] Consequently, Abstergo began searching for a new Shroud that would allow them to resume work on the Phoenix Project.[200]
In October 2015, both the Assassins and Templars sought to find the Shroud of Eden hidden in the Buckingham Palace vault in London. Through the genetic memories of Jacob and Evie Frye and Crawford Starrick, the Templar Isabelle Ardant and a member of the Assassin-affiliated Initiates independently learned the artifact's whereabouts. Subsequently, Sigma Team and an Assassin cell consisting of Shaun Hastings, Rebecca Crane, and Galina Voronina engaged each other in the Shroud's vault, where the Templar Violet da Costa ultimately claimed the artifact and delivered it to Gramática at his new laboratory.[200]
In 2018, the Instruments of the First Will forcefully took over the Phoenix Project, intending to use it to create a new Isu body for Juno to inhabit. With the Koh-i-Noor as the last Piece of Eden required for the project, Juhani Otso Berg formed an uneasy alliance with Galina Voronina's Assassin cell to find the artifact before the Instruments and prevent Juno's resurrection.[185]
By reliving the genetic memories of Ignacio Cardona and Albert Bolden, the Assassin Charlotte de la Cruz and Berg learned that the Koh-i-Noor was buried in the rubble of an abandoned church in Spain. They subsequently traveled there to retrieve the artifact, but were forced to fight the guardians appointed by Cardona and Bolden to protect the site, as well as the Instruments. In the end, although Charlotte managed to find and activate the Koh-i-Noor, the artifact was taken by the former Assassin Jasdip Dhami, who had defected to the Instruments.[185]
At the Phoenix Project laboratory in Australia, Gramática used the Shroud of Eden on somatic cells extracted from Elijah, Desmond Miles' illegitimate son and a Sage, creating a new Isu body which Juno transferred her consciousness into. However, not long after, the lab was attacked by the Assassins and Berg and, in the resulting chaos, Elijah betrayed Juno, using the Koh-i-Noor to create an illusion of Consus to distract her and allow Charlotte to assassinate her. After the Instruments were defeated, Berg detonated a high-caliber explosive to destroy the lab and kill any remaining Instruments; this presumably also destroyed all the Pieces of Eden inside the lab, including the Shroud and the Precursor box.[185]
The Trident of Eden[edit | edit source]
In 2016, the Templars and the Assassins sought to recover the prongs of the Trident of Eden. Sebastian Monroe, a former Templar who left Abstergo after stealing an Animus, decided to find the prongs first so he could keep them out of both groups' reach, and enlisted the help of six teenagers whose ancestors had interacted with the artifacts: Owen Meyers, Javier Mondragón, Sean Molloy, Natalya Aliyev, and Grace and David Collins. Exploring their ancestors' memories in Monroe's Animus, the teenagers discovered the Faith prong's location in Mount McGregor but were separated when their hideout was attacked by the Templars.[29]
While Sean, Natalya, and the Collins were captured and taken to the Aerie facility, Owen and Javier were rescued by the Assassin Griffin, who convinced them to take him to the prong, only to find that someone else had already retrieved it.[29] Subsequently, Griffin had Owen relive his Chinese ancestor Zhang Zhi's memories to find the Fear prong, while Natalya was made to explore her Mongolian ancestor Bayan's life. Zhi's memories proved to be a dead end, but Bayan's allowed the Templars to discover the prong's location in Möngke Khan's tomb.[74]
Both the Assassins and Templars eventually converged at the tomb, where the Templar Isaiah retrieved the artifact and used it to subdue Griffin and the teenagers and kill the Assassin Yanmei. He then abandoned the Order and decided to find the final piece of the Trident—the Devotion prong—so he could use it to bring about the apocalypse and conquer the world.[74] While Isaiah kidnapped Sean and used his ancestor Styrbjörn the Strong's memories to locate the prong, the Assassins and Templars formed a truce and had the remaining teenagers use the Animus to look for the artifact.[58]
After finding the Devotion prong's location in Sweden, Griffin, Owen, Natalya, and Grace went to steal it from the museum it was stored in. However, Isaiah and his men ambushed them, killing Griffin and seizing the artifact. With the complete Trident in his possession, Isaiah decided to eliminate the teenagers, whom he saw as a threat to his plans due to them having accessed the "Ascendance Event", which granted them a "shield" against the Trident's powers. When Isaiah attacked the Aerie, the teenagers fought him with help from Monroe and Victoria Bibeau, and were able to resist the Trident's effects and kill Isaiah. They then used their DNA to depower the artifact, which was taken by Monroe.[58]
Other Pieces of Eden[edit | edit source]
- "With information, we know what—enough to identify the specific artifact—and where. But with knowledge, we'll know what it does, how it was used, and... how to fix it."
- ―Simon Hathaway to the Inner Sanctum, 2016.[src]
By 2016, the depowered Sword of Eden was in the possession of Abstergo, being displayed inside Alan Rikkin's office in London. In October of that year, it was given to the Inner Sanctum member Simon Hathaway in order to find a way to restore its power. After reliving the memories of his ancestor Gabriel Laxart, who had fought alongside Jeanne d'Arc, Hathaway learned about the Sword's missing component, the Heart, and was able to find it. The now-restored Sword was subsequently returned to Rikkin's office.[77]
In 2017, Nathalie Chapman used Tesla's Apple of Eden in her attempts to restart Project BLUEBIRD by creating a permanent Bleeding Effect for Animus users, as a means to resurrect long-dead Assassins. However, her plans were discovered and sabotaged by the Assassin Tomo Sakagawa, who later caused an explosion that destroyed Nathalie's facility in the Swiss Alps, claiming the lives of Nathalie and all of her employees and presumably destroying the Apple.[189]
By late 2022, one of the blades of Vejovis' dagger stored in a puzzle box wound up in a museum in London, where it was found by the security guard Joey, who was secretly a Sage of Vejovis. After solving the puzzle box and retrieving the blade,[201] Joey escaped with the Assassins Colm and Alera when Templar agents attacked the museum to acquire the artifact. Joey then worked with the Assassins to explore the memories of different Vejovis Sages and locate the second blade.[21]
In the Isu vault in Venice, after finding the second dagger blade, Colm betrayed Joey and Alera, revealing himself as a Templar double-agent, but was killed by the latter. Joey then combined the two blades to restore the artifact, which was in accordance with a resurrection plot formulated by Vejovis, who started taking over Joey's body. To stop the process and prevent Vejovis' resurrection, Joey broke the dagger back into two pieces and destroyed one of them, before leaving with the intact blade and Alera.[202]
Layla Hassan's search[edit | edit source]
In 2018, the Assassin Layla Hassan led a cell comprising Victoria Bibeau, Kiyoshi Takakura, and Alannah Ryan in the search for the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, which they believed to be hidden in Atlantis. After finding and retrieving the buried Spear of Leonidas, Layla extracted Kassandra's DNA from it and used it to relive the misthios' genetic memories in the Animus.[203]
Through Kassandra's memories, Layla located the Gateway to the Lost City and traveled there, meeting Kassandra, who had been tasked by Aletheia to pass the Staff to the Assassin. Kassandra did so after warning Layla to destroy all the Pieces of Eden in order to restore the balance between order and chaos, and passed away due to losing her immortality.[203] Following this, Layla learned how to wield the Staff under Aletheia's guidance and used it to defeat Sigma Team agents led by Juhani Otso Berg, who had tracked the Assassins and wished to take the Staff for themselves. However, the Staff's corrupting influence soon caused Layla to strike Victoria during an argument, killing her.[204]
By 2020, Layla, still struggling with the Staff's influence, was re-assigned to an Assassin cell with Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane, after Kiyoshi and Alannah decided to leave her team due to her accidental murder of Victoria. That year, the Assassins sought to reverse the process caused by Desmond Miles' activation of the global aurora borealis device in 2012, in order to restore the strength of the Earth's magnetic field to normal proportions. After being guided to Eivor Varinsdottir's remains in New England by a mysterious signal, Layla relived the Viking's memories in the Animus and learned of the Yggdrasil vault in Norway.[205]
Layla subsequently traveled to the vault, using the Staff of Hermes to protect herself from the lethal radiation emitted by Yggdrasil, and used the machine to enter the Grey. There, she met the trapped consciousness of Basim Ibn Ishaq, who revealed that he had led the Assassins to Eivor and told Layla how to slow down Yggdrasil and save the planet. However, doing so caused Layla to become trapped in the Grey in Basim's place, and the former Hidden One used the Staff dropped by Layla to rejuvenate his physical body, effectively being reborn in the modern world.[205]
Search in Southeast Asia[edit | edit source]
- "Whether or not those bastards find the last artifact, it doesn't matter in the end. With all their data on the artifacts and the technology at their disposal... they might even be able to build some kind of replacement device for the artifact. Then, Abstergo will finally get what they've always wanted and bring about the apocalypse by their own hands."
- ―Noa Kim discussing Abstergo's plans with the Southeast Asian artifacts, 2023.[src]-[m]
In 2023, Abstergo once again sought to locate the crescent amulet hidden somewhere in Southeast Asia and kidnapped Noa Kim, a descendant of Edward Kenway, who was forced to explore his ancestor's memories under Dr. Shimazu Sei's supervision.[206] Edward's memories eventually revealed the amulet's location in the Strait of Malacca, whereupon Sei's superiors ordered Noa's termination, believing the test subject had outlived his usefulness.[186] However, Sei disagreed and secretly made a deal with the Assassin Nathan Zhang to ensure Noa's safety and that the amulet was kept out of Abstergo's hands.[207]
Noa and Sei's bodyguard Yuki were subsequently sent to recover the amulet from the bottom of the sea, and used a diving bell to descend to the SS Ourang Medan's shipwreck. After becoming separated from Yuki during their search,[208] Noa found the amulet, but its powers and the Bleeding Effect that Noa was suffering from caused him to experience visions of Edward's memories. Overcoming the hallucinations, including an apparition of Bartholomew Roberts, Noa took the amulet and returned to Yuki.[209]
After using the artifact to repel a shark that attacked them, Noa began succumbing to its effects, leaving him in a weakened state, and was brought by Yuki to Sei, whereupon the amulet was placed in a briefcase.[210] This briefcase was later taken by Yuki when she, Noa, and Sei escaped from the Abstergo ship after it was attacked by Nathan Zhang and his men.[211]
Per the terms of his deal with Sei, Nathan brought the trio to a Zhawang Corporation safehouse in Singapore, where Noa received medical attention while Sei decided to find another Piece of Eden that could help Noa recover from the amulet's effects. Keeping the briefcase with the amulet nearby, Sei used a makeshift Animus HR-8 to relive the memories of her ancestor Shimazu Saito,[211] though she soon began to suffer from the Bleeding Effect.[125]
Noa took Sei's place in the Animus and continued exploring Edward's memories,[125] which revealed the whereabouts of the Piece of Eden in the Shwedagon Pagoda.[212] The group subsequently traveled to Yangon, where Noa and Sei infiltrated the pagoda and were forced to overcome a series of trials created by the artifact.[213] Noa did so and, after briefly speaking to Edward, whose consciousness had been transported to the future, retrieved the Piece of Eden, which cured him of the crescent amulet's effects.[130]
Noa, Sei, Yuki, and Nathan later attempted to escape Yangon with the two Pieces of Eden in their possession, but were confronted by Abstergo's Sigma Team at the city's harbor.[214] Yuki sacrificed herself to buy the others enough time to reach a hangar containing a seaplane,[215] where Noa, Sei, and Nathan were cornered by the Abstergo agents. Sei used the amulet to temporarily subdue them, allowing Noa and Nathan to escape with the artifact recovered from the Shwedagon Pagoda while Sigma Team seized both Sei and the amulet.[216]
Abstergo subsequently experimented on the amulet to better understand its powers and attempted to create a replacement device for the second Piece of Eden. Meanwhile, Sei was placed in the Animus and forced to relive Saito's memories to help the Templars track down the third and final Piece of Eden.[216] Saito's memories ultimately revealed that she had been buried with the artifact, whereupon Abstergo recovered it from her grave.[135]
References[edit | edit source]
