ASSASSIN’S CREED

The main story of Assassin's Creed takes place in September 2012; Desmond Miles, a bartender, is kidnapped by the company Abstergo Industries for use as a test subject in the "Animus", a device that can stimulate the recall of ancestral memories buried in the user's DNA. Abstergo intends to put Desmond in the device to recall the role of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad (الطائر ابن لا أحد, Arabic: "The Flying One, Son of None", "The Bird, Son of None", or "Bird of Prey, Son of None"), in the "Assassin Brotherhood" during 1191 as part of the Third Crusade in the Holy Land. Desmond at first has trouble adjusting to the device, but eventually is able to relive Altaïr's exploits over the next several days. Much of the core game is then presented from Altaïr's point-of-view as seen by Desmond, though at times interrupted by glitches resulting from the Animus.

At the start of the memories, Altaïr is shown attempting to retrieve a "Piece of Eden", a strange artifact, fromSolomon's Temple with the help of other assassins, but is stopped by Robert IV de Sablé, a member of the Knights Templar and sworn enemies of the assassins. While retrieving the treasure, Altaïr breaks all three tenets of the Assassin's Creed to attempt to kill de Sablé, but fails. Upon returning to Masyaf, Al Mualim (المعلم, "The Teacher"), leader of the Assassins, demotes Altaïr to an initiate, making him a novice again and giving him another chance to rise through the ranks of the Brotherhood. To this end, Al Mualim assigns Altaïr the task of assassinating nine key figures across the Holy Land in Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, to attempt to bring peace between the Crusaders and Saracen forces.

Altaïr methodically completes each task, learning that each target is connected to Robert and the Templars and share their mysterious goals. As he completes each of the assassinations, he finds out that the Templars are trying to trick the Muslim and Christian forces to work together and face a common enemy, the assassins, as to bring peace and unity to the world. Altaïr's final target, de Sablé, reveals in his dying words that Al Mualim is himself a member of the Knights Templar, and used Altaïr to kill the other members so he could keep the treasure for himself. Altaïr quickly returns to Masyaf to accost his master. Al Mualim reveals the truth; the Piece of Eden which he had received from one of the men in the Temple after Altaïr's transgression, creates illusions, and he denounces religion and other seemingly supernatural events as illusions caused by it. He then states his intention to use the artifact to compel mankind into a brainwashed state and so bring an end to conflict. Altaïr is eventually able to see through deceptions created by the artifact to kill Al Mualim. When Altaïr recovers the artifact, the Piece of Eden activates, showing aholographic view of the world with numerous locations of other Pieces of Eden marked across the globe.

When the process is complete, Desmond learns that Abstergo is a modern-day version of the Knights Templar, and are already seeking other artifacts at locations identified in Altaïr's memory. He further learns that the equivalent modern-day assassins had tried to rescue him before the memory was complete but had failed. Though Desmond is to be silenced with his role complete, a researcher named Lucy Stillman manages to save him, revealing herself to be part of the assassins. Though Desmond remains trapped in the Abstergo laboratory, his experience in the Animus has created a "bleeding effect" of Altaïr's life in his own, allowing him to see strange messages painted on the walls of his room. The messages all deal with various forms of the end of the world from different cultures, including several references to the date December 21, 2012, a date that Abstergo plans to launch a satellite that will "permanently end the war".

The Assassins

The character of Al Mualim and his clan are based on an Islamic sect known as order of the Hashshashin from which the term Assassin originates, the idea for it coming from "Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare" by Robert M. Citino along with Bartol's novel Alamut.^[10][11] The order follows a creed of certain rules, also following the famous rule of Hashshashin founder Hassan-i Sabbah "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."