Switzerland

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country in Europe. It is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. It was formerly a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

History

Renaissance

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Italian Renaissance also spread up north into Switzerland, influencing individuals like the scholar Bombastus. Several Swiss mercenaries were employed by Sixtus IV during his pontificate; in the following years, these troops became the foundation for the Papal Guard that was used by the Borgia during the Italian Wars, eventually becoming the modern-day Pontifical Swiss Guard.

In the early 1500s, a number of Swiss mercenaries were captured by the Italian Assassins in Vienna and brought before the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I. Still bitter over his defeat by the Swiss in the Swabian War of 1499, Maximilian cut his funding to the Borgia after learning of their recruitment of Swiss soldiers for the Papal Guard, and decided to form his own military force, the Landsknechte, to combat it. He employed the captured Swiss mercenaries as trainers, and also enlisted the Assassins' help to tutor his men.

19th century

In the mid-19th century, the Italian rebel Felice Orsini had his family live in the city of Zürich while he was on the run. Former English soldier Simeon Price traveled to Zürich in 1855 and attempted to discover Orsini's location, to no avail.

In 1867, Mikhail Bakunin stationed himself in Zürich and was assisted by the French Assassin Henri Escoffier. At the time, Henri also founded the Zurich Brotherhood and aided Simeon Price, by now a British Assassin, and his lover and former Austrian Templar Countess Konstanze von Visler, who wished to be trained as an Assassin. However, after three years, the Assassins learned of von Visler's betrayal and moved their base of operation as a precaution.

Modern times

By the time of World War II, Switzerland had joined neither the Allies nor the Axis powers. The country was nonetheless drawn into the conflict, and the Assassin Brotherhood used a cabin in the Swiss Alps as a base to train, supply, and lead local Maquis cells in their conflict with the Germans.

After escaping from Abstergo Industries' facility in Rome in September 2012, Lucy Stillman planned to bring her Assassin team to the cabin; however, roadblocks set up at the Italy-Switzerland border forced the group to travel to Monteriggioni instead.

Geneva in 2017

In 2017, both the Assassin My'shell Lemair and the Templar Black Cross Juhani Otso Berg traveled to Geneva to investigate an old bank account opened by Vetulus de Montanis Ltd, an Assassin-affiliated company, which had recently received a considerable deposit from the Abstergo-owned Chinon Shipping. This mysterious money transfer from the Templars to the Assassins drew both My'shell's and Berg's suspicion, though before they could receive any answers, they were attacked by several Instruments of the First Will, who left after injuring Berg.

Revival of Project BLUEBIRD

On 28 July 2017, the Assassin Tomo Sakagawa tracked the Templar Maxime Gorm's last known whereabouts to Switzerland. On 4 October, he began posing as "Dr. Florent Carpentier" and met with Dr. Nathalie Chapman in the Clinique des Rameaux located near Lake Léman. Tomo was granted a job at the clinic and began working with an amnesiac patient, Elisa Adler, who was there under the alias "Elisa Bouvyer".

On 30 October, Chapman revealed her knowledge of Tomo's true identity and that she also an Assassin planning to kill Maxime. She then drove Tomo to a secret bunker in the Gorges du Pont-du-Diable, which held an Animus Omega inside. Tomo agreed to help Chapman and entered the Animus to relive the memories of Alekseï Gavrani, a member of the Assassin Bloodstone Unit.

The Clinique des Rameaux by Lake Léman

On 2 November, Hajime Shimada, Tomo's mentor, arrived in the country and told him that the Assassin Boris Pash, the founder of the Bloodstone Unit, had come into contact with an Apple of Eden. On 11 November, in Geneva, Tomo and Elisa spent the day together as Elisa revealed that Chapman had been using an Animus as part of her treatment. Tomo cautioned her against it and suggested that Elisa visit her parents in Madrid, Spain.

The next day, near Lake Léman, Chapman returned home to find that an Assassin had broken in. Feigning surrender, she lured the Assassin out of hiding, allowing her head of security, Stanislas, to shoot him. After learning from Stanislas that both Maxime and Elisa had gone missing and that Tomo was presumed dead, Chapman decided to abandon the Clinique des Rameaux and relocate to her base in the Swiss Alps. Using her hypnotic trick on Elisa, she made her bring Maxime to her, whereupon they all entered a helicopter that brought them to the base.

During the flight, Chapman told Maxime about her plans and that she needed him to relive his mother's memories in exchange for restoring both his and Elisa's forgotten memories. After Maxime accepted, Chapman commenced the next step of her plan, which was to create her own version of Project BLUEBIRD using the Animus and her Apple of Eden. However, Tomo infiltrated the compound and convinced Elisa to help him. After taking out Stanislas and Maxime, Tomo held Chapman's base hostage with a virus he had planted in its systems.

Making a deal with Chapman, Tomo offered her the decryption key for the virus in exchange for a helicopter to allow him and Elisa to escape. Chapman complied, believing she still had control over Elisa's psyche, and allowed the pair to leave before installing Tomo's decryption key. However, it turned out to be another virus that caused the facility's cooling system to malfunction, resulting in an explosion that killed Chapman and destroyed the base and the Apple of Eden.

Gallery

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  The city of Basel in Switzerland
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  Central Geneva
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  The Swiss Alps

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Uprising
• Assassin's Creed: Conspiracies
• Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone
• Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy
• Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR (mentioned in Database entry only)