PRESENT: Desmond (Abstergo Laboratory, 2012)
September, 2012: Kidnapped by Abstergo and spirited away to a secret laboratory in Italy, Desmond is forced to interact with the Animus.
Desmond explores events in the life of an ancestor during the Third Crusade: Altaïr, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood.
PAST: Altaïr (Holy Land, 1191)
Altaïr inflicts a grievous blow to contemporary Templar power by assassinating a sequence of high-ranking Order officials.
He then retrieves a Piece of Eden. This triggers a holographic projection of Earth.
This “vision” features annotations that identify specific locations around the globe, indicating that this artifact may have recorded the locations of further Pieces of Eden or First Civilization temples.
PRESENT: Desmond (Abstergo Laboratory, 2012)
Not long after Desmond completes the Memory where Altaïr finds the Piece of Eden, he experiences the power of the “Bleeding Effect” for the first time – the process whereby a subject interacting with the Animus assimilates the memories and capabilities of his or her ancestors.
His vision is blurred yet amplified in a manner evoking Altaïr’s Eagle Vision (an almost arcane ability that enables him to discern the unseen), enabling Desmond to discover cryptic messages and pictures smeared in blood on the walls and floors of the laboratory where he is detained. These are, in fact, a desperate farewell (and, for the most part, a dire warning) left by one of Abstergo’s previous test subjects.
PRESENT: Desmond (Assassins Secret Hideout, 2012)
September, 2012: Desmond escapes the Abstergo laboratory with the assistance of Lucy Stillman, an Assassin sleeper agent.
He then joins a small Brotherhood cell based in a secret hideout.
Using an upgraded version of the Animus, Desmond relives the memories of an ancestor from the Renaissance era: Ezio Auditore. Desmond wants to learn more about the Pieces of Eden, and to exploit the Bleeding Effect to gain a lifetime of advanced Assassin training in a matter of days.
PAST: Ezio (Italy, 1459-1499)
Once a feckless youth, and later an expert Assassin embroiled in the conflict with the Templars, Ezio obtains the “Apple”, a Piece of Eden, and identifies a secret vault hidden beneath the Vatican.
Entering the chamber, Ezio meets with a holographic projection of a First Civilization woman named Minerva. Dismissing the Assassin’s questions, she instead speaks directly to Desmond and warns of an imminent Catastrophe that could destroy all life on Earth. She explains that this cataclysm occurred once before, annihilating her kind many thousands of years ago. She claims that her people had been developing a solution and the fruits of their labors are concealed in secret locations around the world.
PRESENT: Desmond (Assassins Secret Hideout, 2012)
End of September, 2012: Having witnessed Minerva’s address via Ezio, Desmond emerges from the Animus to discover that Templar agents have arrived to recapture their erstwhile effects. Demonstrating his now outstanding combat skills, Desmond fights to repel the attack and escapes the hideout with his fellow Assassins.
PRESENT: Desmond (Monteriggioni, 2012)
Early October, 2012: Desmond’s Assassin cell seeks refuge in a new location in Italy, where they suspect Ezio’s Piece of Eden to be hidden.
Desmond immediately returns to his ancestor’s life via the Animus with one critical objective: to discover the location of the artifact.
PAST: Ezio (Rome, 1500-1507)
Following his return from the Vatican, the Templars launch a large-scale assault on Ezio’s hometown and, in the ensuing chaos, seize the Apple of Eden.
Once he concludes his vendetta against the man responsible for the attack, Ezio retrieves the Apple.
Ezio eventually secures the Apple in a vault beneath the Colosseum.
PRESENT: Desmond (Monteriggioni, 2012)
October 10, 2012: As soon as Desmond learns the location of the Apple, the Assassins travel there to discover a temple of Juno, another member of the First Civilization. Juno speaks to Desmond alone as he and his companions seek to gain entrance to the vault.
The Apple is “activated” once Desmond lays his hands on it. The artifact seemingly takes control of Desmond and compels him, ostensibly at Juno’s behest, to fatally stab Lucy.
Desmond then collapses. In a state of deep shock, he is vaguely aware of being carried into the back of a van. Voices argue over returning him to the Animus, and although he attempts to protest he slips into unconsciousness.
PRESENT: Desmond (Italy & State of New York, 2012)
October, 2012: Believing Desmond’s condition to be a consequence of the Bleeding Effect, his Assassin companions place him in a special Animus program in an effort to forestall fatal mental deterioration.
As his body is transported from Italy to a new destination by his unit supervisor, William, Desmond “wakes up” on a strange island. He meets Abstergo’s previous test persona, Subject 16, now fully realized in a virtual body, who discloses that Desmond is inside the original Animus test program. Sixteen explains that Desmond’s mind has been fragmented, pushed to the brink of irreversible dementia, by the experience of reliving the lives of Ezio and Altaïr. Sixteen informs Desmond that he can maintain his sanity by “finishing” his ancestors’ lives. This will enable the Animus software and his beleaguered synapses to somehow separate the two supplementary existences from his core identity – allowing him to awake from his coma. Unbeknownst to his Assassin colleagues, Desmond resumes his exploration of Ezio’s and Altaïr’s memories.
PAST: Altaïr (Masyaf, 1191-1257) & Ezio (Masyaf & Constantinople, 1510-1512)
Puzzled by the revelations he had witnessed yet failed to comprehend after meeting Minerva, Ezio travels to the Holy Land to investigate a secret library created by his predecessor, Altaïr.
To access the library, Ezio must find five unique keys to fit the openings on its imposing doorway. Despite Templar interference, Ezio obtains each key in turn – and, on examining these First Civilization devices, experiences lucid “waking dreams” that narrate events from Altaïr’s life.
Inside the secret library he finds no books, but rather Altaïr’s skeletal remains and his Apple of Eden. The device bursts into life, using Ezio as the conduit for a message that is in fact intended for Desmond.
PRESENT: Desmond (Italy & State of New York, 2012)
As Altaïr’s Apple activates in the secret library, Desmond is transported to a different place. In this otherworldly domain, Tinia – the third member of the First Civilization triumvirate along with Minerva and Juno – relates to Desmond how his people had tried but failed to survive the great Catastrophe revealed at the close of Assassin’s Creed II. The last act of the First Civilization was to transmit their collective knowledge to a single underground vault located in what is now the state of New York. Tinia informs Desmond that the answers to his questions lie inside this long-concealed “Grand Temple”.
Meanwhile, outside the Animus, the Assassins land in the state of New York. Oblivious to Desmond’s travails within the Animus, they are astonished when he begins to regain consciousness.
After taking a moment to consider William, revealed to be his father, Desmond experiences a strange connection with the nearby Apple of Eden, which pulses in response. As they arrive at the location of the Grand Temple revealed by Tinia, the events of Assassin’s Creed III begin…