The Assassin’s Creed allow us to explore places and periods of history which are rarely seen in other video games. We’ve gotten to explore the Holy Lands during the Third Crusade, explored Italy during the Renaissance, and taken to the high seas during the Golden Age of Piracy. However, that’s not the only story taking place in the Assassin’s Creed games. For every game there’s a story set in the present day where the Assassins and Templars are still waging a secret war. If you want to catch up on the present day storyline, then you’ve come to the right place.
The first Assassin’s Creed game’s present day story introduced us to Desmond Miles, a very important character in the series. He is abducted by a Templar organization named Abstergo and is forced to use a machine called the Animus which allows users to relive their ancestor’s memories. The Templars are using this device to locate hidden artifacts called Pieces of Eden which grant those who wield them great power. These artifacts were created by an ancient but great civilization called The Precursors who inhabited Earth ago and created humans as a work force.
The Animus has Desmond relive the life of an ancestor of his named Altair who was an Assassin during the Third Crusade. After Altair recovers the first Piece of Eden, an Assassin spy in the present day called Lucy Stillman frees Desmond and reveals to him that his genetic memories seem to indicate a much larger plot that could see the end of the world in 2012.
Assassin’s Creed II picks up where the first game left off and sees Desmond and Lucy break out of Abstergo. They meet up with some fellow Assassins who have their own version of the Animus and convince Desmond to help them stop the Templars by getting into their Animus and showing the Assassins where the next Piece of Eden is. Desmond jumps in and is transported to the Italian Renaissance where he relives the life of his ancestor Ezio Auditore.
Ezio begins life as a rich, young nobleman, but tragedy strikes and he loses his family to the Templars and so joins the Assassins to get revenge. Along the way, he learns about two Pieces of Eden and manages to get his hands on them. Ezio then enters a secret underground chamber where he meets a Precursor named Minerva who speaks directly to Desmond and warns him about the upcoming apocalypse. Desmond and his crew are rumbled when the Templars discover their location and they make a quick getaway.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the second game in the Ezio trilogy and sees Desmond once again enter the Animus and follow the continuing journey of Ezio. Ezio’s victory in the last game is short lived as the Templars destroy his home and steal a Piece of Eden. Ezio travels to Rome where the Templars have an iron grip and begins work on undoing their power over the city and recovering the Piece of Eden. Desmond sees through Ezio where the Piece of Eden can be found in the present day but Desmond then meets another Precursor named Juno who reveals to him that Lucy is actually a Templar spy and forces him to kill her. Desmond is overwhelmed by Juno’s power and falls into a coma.
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is the final game in the Ezio trilogy and sees Ezio’s story merge with Altair’s. Desmond is physically still in a coma but his mind is awake inside the Animus. In order to wake up, Desmond must finish his work with Ezio. An aging Ezio travels to Constantinople to break the Templar hold over the city and then travels to the Assassin stronghold in Masyaf (featured in the first game) where he finds the library of Altair. There he learns he needs to find five keys to unlock the hidden knowledge laid there by Altair. The Templars also discover this and Ezio must work to find the keys first. Ezio discovers that, after the events of the first game, Altair became the leader of the Assassins and implanted his memories on the keys Ezio has found. Opening the secret chamber, Ezio discovers Altair’s corpse and with it a Piece of Eden.
Upon seeing all this, Desmond meets another Precursor named Jupiter who explains that his race was wiped out by a solar flare. He tells Desmond that another solar flare is due in 2012 and that Desmond must travel to New York to a secret location that has the power to prevent the solar flare from wiping out humanity. Desmond wakes from his coma, knowing what he must do.
Assassin’s Creed III sees Desmond and his gang travel to New York where they find the secret vault. A key is required to open the vault and so Desmond jumps back into the Animus and relives the life of his ancestor Connor, a half English, half Native American who becomes an Assassin during the American Revolution. Before seeing Connor’s life, we first see some of the life of his father, Haytham Kenway, who was a Templar who fell in love with Connor’s mother. Haytham’s actions accidentally led to the death of Connor’s family and so he joins an old assassin named Achilles who teaches him the ways of the order. At the end of his journey, Connor discovers an amulet which is the key Desmond needs to open the vault. Juno appears to Connor and tells him where to bury the amulet so Desmond can find it.
Desmond wakes from the Animus, fetches the amulet, and opens the chamber. A control panel appears and Juno begs Desmond to use it and prevent the solar flare from destroying the world. The Precursor from the first game, Minerva, then appears and tells Desmond that if he does this, the world will be saved but Juno will be released into the world and could pose an even greater threat and could enslave humanity once again. Desmond opts to at least give humanity a chance and stops the solar flare but is killed in the process. Juno is freed and declares it’s time to do her work. Thus, Desmond’s story comes to an end.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag sees the Templars recover Desmond’s corpse and they then use newly developed technology to use his DNA to see more of his ancestors’ lives. We then travel to the Golden Age of Piracy where we follow Edward Kenway (father of Haytham, grandfather of Connor) as he works as a pirate/assassin. In the present day story, players assume the role of a nameless Abstergo employee who works as a researcher and is going through Desmond’s genetic past to search for a Precursor artifact called the Observatory, a device which allows anyone to be monitored with a simple blood sample. During his time with the Assassins, Edward discovers the Observatory and helps the Assassins deliver another blow towards the Templars’ control of the world.
In the present day, the player is contacted by Abstergo’s IT manager, a guy named John, who suspects there’s more to Abstergo than the company presents to the public and convinces the player to hack the security system. The hacked information is passed on to two of the people who helped Desmond: Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. Abstergo discovers the hack and John allows the player to tap into the Animus where Juno appears.
Juno reveals the existence of the ‘Sage,’ who is a human reincarnation of a member of the Precursor race and is in fact Juno’s husband. It is revealed that John is the Sage and he was trying to resurrect Juno’s physical form by having her take the body of the player. His plan failed due to Juno not being strong enough to take over the Abstergo employee and the Sage attempts to kill the player but is killed first by Abstergo security who think he is the one who hacked the company.
Edward encountered this Sage during his adventure and the Sage told him he cares not for the Assassins or the Templars, he simply aligns with whichever he feels is best suited to allow him to achieve his ends. The Abstergo employee is then contacted by the Assassins.
Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and Assassin’s Creed: Unity were both released alongside one another in 2014. Unity was released only on the shiny new PS4 and Xbox One and Rogue was only available to those still playing PS3s and Xbox 360s. Rogue is set just after Black Flag but a few years before Unity so we’ll cover that first.
Rogue has players step into the boots of Shay Cormac who was an Assassin who turns to the side of the Templars after a mission to recover a Piece of Eden ends in disaster and causes countless civilian deaths. Working with the Templars, Shay discovers that several new Pieces of Eden the Assassins are after will cause even more chaos in the form of natural disasters and rushes to get them before the Assassins unknowingly wreak havoc on the world. Shay works with Haytham and encounters a younger Achilles from Assassin’s Creed III. The Assassins finally realize they were in the wrong this time and Shay spends the rest of his life trying to locate Pieces of Eden. The modern day story to Rogue is fairly light, but still important.
Players once again play as an Abstergo employee who is living through Shay’s memories. Upon discovering that the Assassins almost caused the end of the world, a senior Templar leader uploads this information to the Assassins which causes chaos with the group. The player is then given an option: join the Templars, or die. The screen fades to black before the player’s character decides.
These events lead into Assassin’s Creed: Unity which follows a young Assassin named Arno during the French Revolution in Paris. After his father is killed by a Templar, revealed to be Shay from Rogue, Arno is looked after by Templar Grand Master of Versaille De La Serre. Arno is unaware that he is living with the people who killed his father and befriends La Serre’s daughter Elise. The revolution heats up and an Assassin recruits Arno and reveals to him the truth behind his father’s murder. Unity then sees Arno fight as an Assassin whilst struggling with his relationship with his Templar girlfriend Elise as he finds the Sage has plotted the revolution to destroy the monarchy of France. Arno fails to prevent the revolution but kills the Sage, though Elise dies in the fight. Arno decides to dedicate his life to the Assassin’s order.
The present day story of Unity is pretty meta and sees the player playing as a gamer playing the story of Arno through a gaming device created by Abstergo. Your device is hacked by the Assassins who want you to play through the game to locate the Sage Arno goes on to kill.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is the latest Assassin’s Creed game and sees us travel to Victorian London where we play as the Frye twins Evie and Jacob as they join the Assassins to stop another Templar scheme to destroy the British monarchy. In London, the Frye twins learn of another Piece of Eden called the Shroud which can heal all wounds and make the user immortal. The Templars want it but Evie and Jacob work to prevent it from falling into their hands.
The present day story of Syndicate sees the player from Unity, now working with the Assassins, going through the Frye twins’ lives to locate the Shroud. Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings have infiltrated Abstergo and are set to spy on a secret meeting. Their cover is blown but they manage to get away. After the game is beat, the Assassins know the location of the Shroud and Shaun, Rebecca, and a Russian Assassin called Galina Voronina race to get it. They are confronted by Templars and Rebecca is shot and injured. It is then revealed that the Templars intend to use the Shroud to create a living Precursor. One of the Templars escapes with the Shroud but the rest are killed. Hacking into a Templar computer left behind, Shaun discovers a recording of Juno which reveals Juno is manipulating Abstergo to serve her own ends. Juno then contacts the player and has them relive the memories of the Fyre’s descendant, Lydia Frye, who kills a Sage in war-torn London during WWI. This suggests Juno may be planning to take advantage of the Assassins to reach her goals.
And now you’re up to date with the present day story of the Assassin’s Creed series. Of course, there have been numerous spin-off games, comics, books, and even a movie, which expand the universe if you’re interested, but now you know the main plot. The next game, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, is set to be released later this year on October 27 and will follow the origins of the Assassins order ion ancient Egypt. We know nothing about the present day storyline, or if it will even be featured, but it seems likely. Ubisoft has conformed there will be other playable characters and Assassin’s Creed Origins game director, Ashraf Ismail, recently stated that the developers haven’t forgotten about the modern day story. We look forward to seeing what Origins has in store for us.
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