Animus Project

The Animus Project was an initiative conducted by Abstergo Industries to explore the genetic memories of subjects kidnapped by the Department of Lineage Discovery and Acquisition to discover information about the Assassin Brotherhood and the location of Pieces of Eden.
Operating since at least 1980 and initially led by Dr. Warren Vidic, the Animus Project was one of the most important Abstergo programs in their history.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Modern dayAssassin's Creed – Modern dayAbstergo Industries' website – After Vidic's death in 2012, the project fell under the leadership of Sofia Rikkin, daughter of Abstergo's CEO Alan Rikkin.Assassin's Creed: Origins
==History==
===Subject 1===
Subject 1 was a male individual with an ancestral connection to the Louisiana Assassin Aveline de Grandpré, performing Animus sessions around late 1980 until January 1981. After reliving the lives of other ancestors, Subject 1 was assigned to relive Aveline's memories in 18th-century New Orleans. However, his connection with the Animus readily destabilized and he suffered a seizure, resulting in his death.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Noob's personal files: "Subject Zero: Audio File 3"
===Subject 2===
Following the failure of Subject 1 in early 1981, Warren Vidic personally volunteered himself as the next Animus subject to keep the project running. He took a four-hour Animus session, first reliving the life of an 18th-century Hungarian ancestor, then Jeanne d'Arc's executioner,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Noob's personal files: "Subject Zero: Audio File 4" Geoffroy Thérage,Assassin's Creed: Heresy in 1431.
===Subject 4===
In 1983, Lineage Discovery and Acquisition delivered Subject 4, a 9-year old orphaned boy, to Warren Vidic.Assassin's Creed: The Fall After being codenamed "Daniel Cross", he was placed in the Animus both for his genetic memory to be explored and for his brain to be experimented upon using a replicated Piece of Eden. With this, an impulse was implanted in the boy's brain, that would make him instinctively seek out the Assassins' Mentor and kill him, should the opportunity arise.
After the experiments were finished, Daniel was released onto the streets, though he would suffer from a severe case of the Bleeding Effect for most of his life, involuntarily experiencing the memories of his great-grandfather, the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov. In 1998, Daniel was discovered by the Assassin Hannah Mueller, and after a series of events that led to him rising through the Brotherhood's ranks, his subconsciousness forced him to kill the modern day Mentor on 6 November 2000.
Daniel later returned to an Abstergo facility in Philadelphia, where he was again placed in the Animus under the supervision of Vidic and relived the memories of Nikolai and his son Innokenti Orelov. Meanwhile, Daniel's own memories were viewed by Abstergo to obtain the locations of all of the Assassin camps he had visited, allowing the Templars to enact the Great Purge. Eventually, Daniel ended his Animus sessions and officially joined the ranks of the Templar Order.Assassin's Creed: The Chain
===Subject 12===
Subject 12 was forced to relive the memories of an ancestor related to the 1943 Philadelphia Project, in which the USS Eldridge briefly manifested in a future state for approximately 18 minutes, due to the usage of a Piece of Eden. Using recovered data, Abstergo was able to reconstruct the original artifact used in the experiment.
===Subject 14===
In 2014, the Abstergo Entertainment employee Robert Fraser, dubbed Subject 14, was tasked with reliving the memories of the French Assassin Arno Dorian. Unfortunately, due to being severely affected by the Bleeding Effect, Fraser's health began to deteriorate, eventually culminating in him believing himself to be Arno. Wishing to help the Assassins, he destroyed Abstergo hard drives with the assistance of his psychiatrist Victoria Bibeau,Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment – Employee Handbook which led to his termination.Assassin's Creed: Heresy
===Subject 15===
In 2010, the Animus Project focused on Subject 15, a pregnant woman who eventually started suffering from the Bleeding Effect. She experienced "memory-within-memory" patterns due to the memories of the fetus' father conflicting with her ancestors' memories. Eventually, in mid-December 2010, Lucy Stillman noticed that Subject 15's were activating at an accelerated rate, and that the Animus was somehow inducing an incomplete state of dream-sleep. When Lucy informed Vidic of Subject 15's dangerous state, Vidic concluded that they had already gathered enough material from her, and subsequently contacted Steve Gibbs to send a disposal unit to "remove" Subject 15.
===Subject 16===
In 2011, Abstergo kidnapped Clay Kaczmarek, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood who specialized in computer hacking and engineering. Dubbed Subject 16,Assassin's Creed – Warren Vidic's email – Subject header: "Subject No. 16" Clay was placed into the Animus at Abstergo's Rome facility for several months, in order to obtain the location of one of the Apples of Eden, with some of the Animus sessions lasting for days at a time. As Clay was psychologically unable to maintain these sessions for such extended periods of time, the personalities of his ancestors began overlapping with his own.Assassin's Creed II
Eventually, Vidic discovered that Clay was a direct descendant of Adam, one of the first Human-Isu hybrids and an individual amongst the first few to rise up against the pre-existing species. Through reliving Adam's memories, Clay and Vidic obtained the secrets of the Assassins and the Isu,Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia though realizing his mind would soon disappear entirely, Clay hacked the Animus and placed an AI construct of his own personality in the machine that only the next Animus Subject would be able to activate.Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Clay also left behind several hidden Glyphs and Rifts throughout the memories of another of his ancestors, the Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Following this, as he delved into insanity as a result of the Bleeding Effect, Clay wrote various cryptic messages with his blood across the Animus room and his own cell before eventually committing suicide on 8 August 2012.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The Lost Archive – The End Is Only The Beginning
===Subject 17===
In September 2012, Abstergo captured their next Subject, number 17, a bartender by the name of Desmond Miles. Prior to his capture, Desmond had run away from his Assassin parents at the age of 16, and was discovered to have a high concentration of Isu DNA in his genes.
At first, Desmond was directly put in the Animus and forced to relive the memories of the Levantine Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. Upon reaching Abstergo's target memory, a map displaying the locations of several Precursor Temples around the world erupted from an Apple of Eden, the company to had no further use for Desmond. While Vidic's superiors ordered Desmond's disposal, Lucy managed to convince them of Desmond's use to Abstergo, saving his life.
Not too long afterwards, Lucy, who was previously an Assassin and had secretly defected to the Templars,Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The Lost Archive escaped the Abstergo facility with Desmond and relocated to an Assassin hideout, where Desmond relived the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze in a recreated Animus, unknowingly helped in part by Lucy and Vidic's secret plan.
After Desmond's escape, Vidic turned his attention to the Animi Training Program, which held the objective of training Abstergo agents using numerous Animi and making them relive the memories of Templars, Assassins and unaffiliated individuals of interest through extracted memories, so that the agents would be able to combat the remnants of the Assassin Brotherhood with their newly accumulated skills. The project eventually resulted in the promotion of Juhani Otso Berg to the rank of Master Templar,Assassin's Creed: Initiates who was immediately assigned to capture the Assassin leader William Miles.
On 14 December 2012, Vidic was killed by Desmond at Abstergo's Rome facility using an Apple of Eden.Assassin's Creed III Even though Abstergo lost the world's leading expert in genetic memory and the pioneer of the Animus, the next phase of the Animus Project would proceed as planned with David Kilkerman as Director.Assassin's Creed: The Essential Guide
===Abstergo Entertainment===
Following Desmond's sacrifice to prevent the Second Disaster and the subsequent recovery of his body by Abstergo, a new project started in 2013 at Abstergo Entertainment in Montreal called the Sample 17 Project. The company utilized employees to explore the memories of Desmond's ancestors, notably those of the pirate-turned-Assassin Edward Kenway in order to find an Isu temple known as the Observatory.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Modern day
Meanwhile, Abstergo made a deal with MysoreTech to release the Brahman V.R., spreading new Animus technology to the Asian market. This was done in an attempt to mine the genetic memories of their customers in order to gain more information about the Pieces of Eden. In November 2013, Abstergo managed to locate two individuals of interest, the actress Monima Das and her fiancé Jot Soora, whose genetic memories contained a possible lead to the location of the Koh-i-Noor. However, due to the intervention of the Assassins, Monima died while Jot escaped before he could be captured.Assassin's Creed: Brahman
In 2014, Abstergo released a cloud-based software named the Helix upon which they released more games created from the edited genetic memories of their subjects. Using Helix, a research analyst analyzed the memories of the Assassin-turned-Templar Shay Cormac and fixed a virus that had been hidden in his memory banks.Assassin's Creed: Rogue Also contained within those memory banks were the genetic memories of Arno Dorian,Assassin's Creed: Unity and the twins Evie and Jacob Frye.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
In 2017, Abstergo Entertainment released a new Animus device titled the Mobile Animus 4.38. This device saw the release of Rebellion, a game created from the altered memories of the Spanish Assassin Aguilar de Nerha.Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
===Callum Lynch===
By 2014, Sofia Rikkin became heavily involved with the Animus Project, which had moved from the Abstergo Campus in Rome to the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Madrid. In February of that year, Sofia's subordinate Layla Hassan suggested the creation of a new inverted six-axis motion rig Animus, which despite initial protest, became the new Animus for the project.Assassin's Creed: Origins
Over the following two years, Abstergo kidnapped several people to use as subjects for the project, including the Assassins Moussa, Lin, Nathan, and Emir, and kept them prisoner inside the Madrid facility. In October 2016, Abstergo kidnapped death row inmate Callum Lynch and staged his execution in order to use him as their next subject. Upon moving Lynch to the Abstergo Foundation, Sofia used Lynch's genetic memories to uncover the location of the Apple of Eden once held by Aguilar de Nerha.Assassin's Creed film
However, while Abstergo was successful in locating the Apple, their experiments backfired when Lynch and the other Assassin prisoners, using skills gained through the Bleeding Effect, staged a breakout. Although most of the prisoners were terminated, Lynch, Moussa and Lin managed to escape and destroy the Madrid facility in the process, and they later retrieved Aguilar's Apple after assassinating Alan Rikkin.
===The Aerie===
In 2016, the Aerie, an Abstergo facility located in North America, utilized the Animus 4.35 on Javier Mondragón, Owen Meyers, Grace Collins, David Collins, Natalya Aliyev, and Sean Molloy in order to help the Templars learn the location of the pieces of the Trident of Eden.Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – LocusAssassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Tomb of the KhanAssassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Fate of the Gods
===Kō Risa===
In 2019, Kō Risa, also known as Lisa Huang, began her therapy at the Abstergo clinic in Yokohama, where Doctor Kaori Kagami had the teenager relive the memories of her ancestor, the Chinese Assassin Shao Jun, through the Animus, hoping to learn the location of the Assassin's Precursor box.Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun – Homecoming Eventually Risa started distrusting the doctor and was held against her will until she escaped with the help of the Assassin Kiyoshi Takakura and her cousin Mari.Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun – Creed
===Noa Kim===
In 2023, Noa Kim was lured on a vacation prize trip to Macau after using the genetic genealogy site WhyYou, developed by Abstergo Genetic Research Lab.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 1 Kidnapped by Abstergo agents and brought to the Exitus research vessel,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 42 Noa was forced to relive the memories of his ancestor Edward Kenway in the Animus, under the supervision of Doctor Shimazu Sei, in order to locate a Piece of Eden found by Edward in Southeast Asia.
During their time together, Noa and Sei slowly began to bond and the doctor even made a deal with Noa, promising him his freedom in exchange for his cooperation.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 7 Although members of the Assassin-affiliated Zhawang Corporation tried to rescue Noa several times, both in MacauAssassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 23 and in Cebu, the young man refused their help as he wished to relive Edward's memories to learn more about himself, and chose to remain with Abstergo for the time being.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 46
Eventually, Edward's memories revealed the whereabouts of a Piece of Eden – a crescent amulet – in the , though because of his long sessions in the Animus, Noa began to succumb to the Bleeding Effect. Sei contacted her superiors to update them on the situation, only to be taken aback when they ordered Noa's termination, believing the test subject had outlived his usefulness. Sei disagreed, considering Noa still had his uses, and was contacted by a hacking syndicate on the Assassin Nathan Zhang's behalf.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 74
Sei made a deal with Nathan to ensure Noa's safety before being informed that the latter had gone on a Bleeding Effect-induced rampage aboard the Exitus. After Sei helped him return to his senses,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 75 Noa was sent to recover the crescent amulet from the shipwreck of the SS Ourang Medan alongside Sei's bodyguard Yuki.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 76
Upon their successful return with the artifact, Sei informed Noa of her decision to abandon Abstergo and help him escape, just as the ship they were on came under attack by Nathan and his men.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 78 The assault allowed Noa, Sei and Yuki to escape with the amulet, marking the latter two's defection from Abstergo and the end of the company's usage of Noa as a test subject.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 79
==Known Animus Subjects==
ACBs - Nathalie Chapman.jpg|Nathalie Chapman(1977)Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone
Wiki noimage.jpg|Aileen Bock as "Subject Zero"(1980)Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Noob's personal files: "Subject Zero: Audio File 1"
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 1(1980)
Warren Vidic.png|Warren Vidic as Subject 2(1981)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Adam Sarti(early 1980s)
AC3 Daniel Cross.png|Daniel Cross as Subject 4(1983)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 5
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 6
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 7
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 8
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 9
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 10
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 11
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 12
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 13
ACTC-Bellamy coma.png|Paul Bellamy(2002)
Wiki noimage.jpg|Robert Fraser as Subject 14
Wiki noimage.jpg|Subject 15(2010)
ACR Kaczmarek v.png|Clay Kaczmarek as Subject 16(2011 – 2012)
ACB Desmond Render.png|Desmond Miles as Subject 17(2012)
ACTemplars Andre Bolden.png|André Bolden(2016)Assassin's Creed: Templars
AC Movie Emir.jpg|Emir(2016)
Lin.jpg|Lin(2016)
ACM Moussa.jpg|Moussa(2016)
Nathan.jpg|Nathan(2016)
Callum Lynch render.png|Callum Lynch(2016)
ACChina Kō Risa render.png|Kō Risa(2019)Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun
ACFT - Noa Kim render.png|Noa Kim(2023)Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
==Behind the scenes==
In the non-canonical modern day storyline of the Assassin's Creed French comic, Abstergo was experimenting on a young boy designated as Subject 19.Assassin's Creed 5: El Cakr
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed 
*Assassin's Creed II 
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
*Assassin's Creed: The Fall
*Assassin's Creed: Revelations
**The Lost Archive
*Assassin's Creed III 
*Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
*Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment – Employee Handbook
*Assassin's Creed: Unity 
*Assassin's Creed: Templars
*Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Locus
*Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Tomb of the Khan
*Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Fate of the Gods
*Assassin's Creed film
*Assassin's Creed: Origins 
*Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone 
*Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun
*Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
==References==
pt-br:Projeto Animus
Category:Abstergo Industries projects