Introduction

With four core episodes to date, in addition to ancillary tales shared via handheld games and assorted publications, an integral part of the Assassin’s Creed experience is its compelling and densely layered story. Over the following pages, we offer concise recaps, explanations and insights to help all readers – both seasoned and new players – to understand the most important developments and concepts presented in previous installments.

Each Assassin’s Creed episode features two parallel yet intertwined tales. In one, Desmond Miles is a barman inexplicably kidnapped in September 2012 by agents of Abstergo, a multinational corporation. Desmond is forced to interact with a remarkable machine: the “Animus”. This phenomenally advanced technology immerses its subject in a virtual reality where they can experience hereditary memories stored within their DNA. When Desmond is later rescued, he chooses to continue his adventures in past lives to combat Abstergo, and the clandestine organization that the corporation embodies.

The second story arc, traditionally self-contained within each Assassin’s Creed installment, covers the experiences that Desmond has of direct-line ancestors through his interaction with the Animus tech. Seeking powerful artifacts from an advanced race (the “First Civilization”) that inhabited the Earth before mankind, Desmond relives momentous events in the lives of distant antecedents – and, in so doing, acquires their extraordinary faculties.

Both narratives dovetail to tell of an ancient struggle between two opposing forces: the Templars, who seek to bring order to the world through absolute control, and the Assassins, who strive to preserve mankind’s freedoms. Both factions operate in secret to advance their cause through centuries of conflict, continually vying for possession of First Civilization relics known as “Pieces of Eden”. By reliving moments in history via the recent Animus tech, the current-day Assassins and Templars gain insights into events that affect the present.