Europe

Europe is a continent or subcontinent comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, bordering the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east along with the rest of Eurasia.
Since at least the Roman era, both the Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order have had a strong presence in Europe. Europe served as the primary housing for both organizations until the Age of Discovery,Assassin's Creed II when they started expanding their influence around the entire globe.Assassin's Creed III
==History==
===Isu Era===
Millennia ago, Europe, like the rest of the World, was populated by the Isu, an advanced civilization divided in many factions. In modern Greece, the Sister Realms of Atlantis, Elysium and Underworld were ruled respectively by Poseidon, Persephone and Hades.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis In Norway, the Aesir of Asgard were led by Odin.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - View Above All To stop the war between the Aesir and the Vanir led by Freyr, Odin married Freyja, Freyr's twin sister, uniting the two people. Numerous Isu Temples were built across Europe, especially in British Isles, Greece and Italy.Assassin's Creed II - X Marks the Spot
The Isu scientist Phanes engineered humans as slaves for the First Civilization, using Apples of Eden to control them. Phanes fell in love with a female human and they fled to Atlantis. She gave birth to Eve, the first hybrid who was unaffected by the Apple of Eden.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis: Judgment of Atlantis - Isu codex: "Encrypted message from "Phanes", I of IV" As the number of hybrids increased, Eve, with Adam, led the Human-Isu War by stealing an Apple of Eden around 75 010 BCE.Assassin's Creed II - The Truth
During the War, Isu learned that an upcoming coronal mass ejection will destroy Earth.Assassin's Creed II - In Bocca al Lupo The Isu scientists searched for different ways to save the World. The Capitoline Triad, composed Father of Understanding Jupiter, the Mother of Wisdom Juno and theSacred Voice Minerva work on seven solutions. One of the them was the Rings of Eden Initiative led by Rah Cel'eze, adapting the technology of Rings of Eden to deflect the solar flare. Inside a station in modern England, the Isu tried to create a giant Ring of Eden to circle the Earth but without the time and resources, they limited their goal to protect one city. Eventually, the initiative was shut down and the station was cut from the global grid.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Floating conversations: Tombs of the Fallen
Knowing that the Isu would become extinct after the catastrophe while humanity would prevail, the Aesir, with the help of Juno, stole the Mead, the seventh solution, permitting to store their essence into the human gene pool across eons.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - A Feast to Remember After this treason, the Aesir entered in war with the Isu of Jötunheimr and Múspellsheimr and Juno was outcast.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Dawn of Ragnarök In 75 000 BCE, just before the Toba Disaster, Odin, Tyr, Freyja, Freyr, Thor, Sif, Idun and Heimdall used the computer Yggdrasil with the Mead to store their essence before dying. The Isu Loki also secretly used Yggdrasil to take his revenge on Odin millennia after the Catastrophe.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Animus Anomalies: AA_Complete
After the Earth burnt for weeks, less than ten thousand humans and a few Isu survived. Jupiter, Minerva, and other Isu taught what they could to the humans to help reignite the spark of civilization.Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Modern Times After a few centuries, all Isu were dead but they were remembered by humans as gods, composing the pantheon of different civilizations. While the Isu Temples were buried through time, the Pieces of Eden were used by descendants of the hybrids, becoming rulers, heroes, and conquerors. Their feats were remembered as legends and the artifacts were perceived as magical objects.Assassin's Creed II - Glyphs
===Antiquity===
====Mediterranean Civilizations====
During the Bronze Age, many civilizations appeared across Europe, like the Celts in Western Europe, the Etruscans and the Romans in Italy, the Minoans in Krete and the Mycenaean in Greece, which was later seen as the cradle of Western civilization, influencing philosophy, art, politics, and science.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - Layla Hassan's personal files: "Packing for Greece: Greece" The Myth of the Trojan War was perpetuated through Homer's poems of the Iliad and the Odysseus.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Iliad Aesop's Fables also had a great impact on the European culture.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Aesop's Fables
During the Archaic era, the Greek culture expanded by settlers across Mediterranean Sea, in Sicily but also in Ionia and Cyrenaica. During the 6th century BCE, the scholar Pythagoras met the Isu Hermes Trismegistus who gave him his Staff of Eden, granting him immortality.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy - Divine Science: Chapter 2 – Kyros of Zarax Pythagoras founded the Cult of Hermes, a group that sought to keep balance between Order and Chaos. However, many Hermeticists favored Chaos, and they eventually split off to form the Cult of Kosmos, which was led by a person under the moniker the Ghost of Kosmos to secretly control Greece. They found an Isu Pyramid under the Sanctuary of Delphi, permitting them to see possible futures and influencing Greek politics.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - A Fresh Start Pythagoras went to the ruins of Atlantis to protect its secrets from the Cult.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The Gates of Atlantis
During the Classical Era, Greece was divided into many poleis, such as Sparta, Korinth, and Athens, which was one of the first Democracy.Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece - Tours: Democracy in Athens Between 490 and 449 BCE, Greece was invaded by the Achaemenid Empire which was supported by the Order of the Ancients, a secret society emulating the Isu civilization by controlling humanity through Pieces of Eden.Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Abstergo Files: File.0.02\Hst_Beginning The Persians and the Order allied with the Cult of Kosmos, facing the Greek city-states alliance, Athens and Sparta among them.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - Bully the Bullies Even if the king Leonidas of Sparta died with his army at the Battle of Thermopylae, the Greeks defeated the Persians at the battles of Salamis and Plataia.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Historical Locations – Boeotia: Battleground of Plataia
Without a common enemy, Athens and Sparta fought for Greece's hegemony, creating the Delian League for the former and the Peloponnesian League for the latter. This led to the Peloponnesian War between 431 and 404 BCE, with the Cult of Kosmos infiltrating the two sides to gain control of Greece.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – The Serpent's Lair Their plans were thwarted by the misthios Kassandra, granddaughter of King Leonidas, who assassinated each member and destroyed the Pyramid with the Leonidas' Spear of Eden. The Order of Ancients infiltrated the Greek institutions during the War but they were stopped by Kassandra who was helped by the Persian Proto-Assassin Darius.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Legacy of the First Blade Later Kassandra helped her father Pythagoras to seal the ruins of Atlantis and inherited the Staff of Hermes, becoming the Keeper, tracking Pieces of Eden through the World for twenty-six centuries, like the Korfu's Apple of Eden.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Ancient Revelations
During the 5th century BCE, even through war, Greece stayed a beacon of culture with Athens as its first city. Sokrates and Plato developed Western philosophy with the Academy while Herodotos and Thucydides were dubbed as the Fathers of History.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - Layla Hassan's personal files: "Herodotos and His Work" The poet Empedocles wrote in his On Nature his thoughts on human evolution while Hippokrates greatly contributed to medicine. In theatrical art, tragedies were represented through the plays of Aischylos, Sophokles, and Euripides while Aristophanes became the Father of Comedy, followed by Menander a century later.Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece – Tours: School of Greece - Theater: "The Greek Theater" In the 4th century BCE, the philosopher Aristotle was at the Makedonian court of the king Philip II to tutor his son Alexander. He later established in Athens his school the Lykeion with an important library.Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece – Tours: School of Greece - Philosophy: "Classical Philosophers"
In the late 4th century BCE, Greece was part of the Kingdom of Makedonia ruled by Alexander the Great. The Order of the Ancients granted him a Staff combined with the Trident of Eden, permitting him to conquer Egypt and the Middle East. His vast empire didn't last as Alexander was poisoned by the Babylonian Proto-Assassin Iltani, leading to the division between Makedonian Greece, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and the Seleucid Empire, each ruler having one of the Trident's prongs.
In Egypt, Alexandria and its Library became a center of Greek culture in Africa. Among its scholars was the poet Kallimachos who rejected the epic format of Homeric poems, and instead fervently supported a shorter, more judiciously formulated style of poetry.Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt – Tours: The Great Library of Alexandria: "Kallimachos (c.310-240 BCE)" The mathematician Euclid was seen as the Father of geometry and wrote The Elements, laying out the foundational work of what would become modern algebra and number theory.Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt – Tours: The Great Library of Alexandria: "Euclid (c. 4th-3rd century BCE)" During the 3rd century BCE, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth.Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt – Tours: The Great Library of Alexandria: "Eratosthenes (c.276-195 BCE)"
In the Near East, the city of Seleucia-on-the-Tigris was also a center of Greek culture, known for its Stoic philosophers and its Olympic athletes.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: Seleucia-on-the-Tigris In the late 2nd century BCE, the collapse of the Seleucid Empire created a power vacuum that turned the region of western Cilicia into a pirate stronghold. The inhabitants were already known for their outlaw activities and military prowess, and the Cilicians established themselves as the most successful group of pirates in the ancient Mediterranean region.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Pirates of the Mediterranean
====Roman Era====
According to legend, Rome was founded by King Romulus in 753 BCE and became the center of a Republic in 510 BCE. By the 3rd century BCE, Romans expanded across the Mediterranean Sea, fighting Celts, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Persians. This led to the Romanization of most parts of Europe, with the construction of aqueducts, forts, and cities but also the enslavement of the defeated populations. The Romans used enemy technologies to add to their own formidable arsenal like the Catarginean ships or the Greek siege engines.Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt – Tours: Roman Military Equipment: "Adopting the Enemy's Technology" De Architectura's autor Vitruvius exemplified this two sides of the Roman conquest, as an military engineer and architect who developped Cyrenaica.Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Good Roman 
In 49 BCE, as a civil war erupted between the consuls Pompey and Gaius Julius Caesar, the Order of the Ancients executed the last and inducted the latter into their ranks, the dictator becoming their leader.Assassin's Creed: Origins – Aya: Blade of the Goddess Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and other senators allied with Amunet, a descendant of Darius and Kassandra of Sparta. They founded the Roman branch of the Hidden Ones, a group dedicated to fighting the Order and protecting humanity's freedom.Assassin's Creed: Origins – Last of the Medjay In 44 BCE, the Hidden Ones assassinated Caesar.Assassin's Creed: Origins – Fall of an Empire, Rise of Another 
After the dictator's death, general Marcus Antonius allied with Caesar's nephew and adopted son Octavian. In 42 BCE, they defeated Brutus and Longinus at the battle of Philippi, the two Hidden Ones committing suicide afterward. Octavian took the leadership of the Ancients, and after defeating Antonius in 30 BCE, established the Roman Empire.Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic) His successor expanded the empire using the Prongs of Faith and Devotion.Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants The expansion wasn't without resistance, like the Iceni revolt led by the queen Boudicca in 60 CE.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Database: Boudicca
As the empire spread across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, the Hidden Ones established bureaus to operate in Europe.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Database: The Hidden Ones The emperors were often targets of the Brotherhood. In 41 CE, Caligula was killed by the Hidden One Leonius.Assassin's Creed II – Floating conversations: Unlocking Monteriggioni's Secrets By 122 CE, the Emperor Hadrian built a Great Wall in England and planned to lead a war against the northern native people. The Hidden One Caius tried to assassinate the emperor, but he was discovered and killed. In 164 CE, the Brotherhood made a deal with Emperor Marcus Aurelius to retreat the Roman troops from the Antonine Wall to the Hadrian's Wall. In 211 CE, when the Emperor Septimius Severus broke the deal, the Hidden One Khloe killed him in his villa of Eboracum.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brief History of the Hidden Ones 
During the transition from the Republic to the Empire, the poet Virgil wrote the Aeneid, the epic journey of the Trojan prince Aeneas, strengthened the Roman identity.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Aeneid Roman civilization was greatly influenced by the Greek culture. Ovid's Metamorphoses compiled Greek fables while the historian Plutarch make comparative biographies of Greek and Roman men in Parallel Lives.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Parallel Lives The Greco-Egyptians also continued to influence Rome, like the historian Arrian writing about Alexander the Great's campaigns.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Anabasis Alexandri The scholar Ptolemy, through his Geography and Almagest, solidified geocentrism as the major astronomical model for centuries.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Geography The Berberian Roman Apuleius wrote The Golden Ass, a precursor of "picaresque style".Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The Golden Ass 
During the 1st century CE, Simon Peter, an Apostle of Jesus of Nazareth, arrived in Rome leading the Christian Church with a Staff of Eden. His successor inherited the Staff and later the emperors' Prongs, spreading Christianity in Europe. In some cases, Christians were persecuted by the Roman authority. In 306 CE, when the Belgae warriors killed Christians, the Hidden One Beatha delivered a letter to Emperor Constantine I pleading for the protection of the Christians. Later, the emperor authorized the new religion, and in 330 CE, rebuilt the Greek city of Byzantium as a New Rome and a Christian city, which later became Constantinople.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Database: Byzantines 
At the end of the 4th century, Theodosius I declared Christianity the official religion of the empire, and ordered the closing of polytheist temples.Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt – The Siege of Alexandria: "Lost Knowledge" This particularly decreased the influence of the Order throughout the empire.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Database: The Order of the Ancients In England, pagan Britons were executed by Christians. The Hidden Ones Teague and his magister eliminated three priests to send a message to the emperor. In Alexandria, the Neoplatonist school was led by Hypatia until she died in 415 CE, ending the age of great ancient scientific discoveries.Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt – Tours: The Great Library of Alexandria: "Hypatia (c. 350/370-415 CE)" 
By the 5th century, as the empire was too vast to control, the legions retired from the peripheral provinces like England. The Hidden Ones also fled these provinces and established their strongest foothold across Mediterranea. The empire was invaded by Germanic tribes, the Saxons and the Franks among them. In 410 CE, Rome was sacked by the Visigoths and their king Alaric I.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Database: Porta Salaria In Eastern Europe, Attila the Hun obtained a Sword of Eden and used it to expand his empire in central and western Europe.Assassin's Creed II – Glyph #5: "Instrument of Power"
In 476 CE, Rome and the Western Roman Empire fell.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Database: Roma Only the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople remained, controlling Greece, Egypt, and the Near East. Even after the Empire's fall, many ruins lasted for centuries and the Roman Civilization held a lasting influence on the European countries.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Swan-Road Home
===Middle Ages===
====Dark Ages====
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes filled the political vacuum, with the establishment of new kingdoms. In the late 5th century, when the Anglo-Saxons invaded England, Arthur Pendragon received the Sword of Eden Excalibur from the Women of the Mist, a group of witch-warriors. Using its power, Arthur became the king of Britons and a leader of the Order of the Ancients. The Women of the Mist's agent Mordred tried to recover the Sword for himself, founding the Descendants of the Round Table, but Arthur hid the Sword in an Isu vault. The Women of the Mist protected the vault, becoming an enemy of the Descendants.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Sword of the White Horse
In 536 CE, as Italy was under the control of the Ostrogoths, the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I sent the generals Belisarius and Narses to conquer Rome. During the Gothic War, the Romans took Rome but the city was besieged numerous times by the Ostrogoth of Totila.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Database: Porta Asinaria Eventually, Italy became a part of the Byzantine Empire, but in the 7th century, after Lombard's invasion, Byzantine settlers took refuge in Venice, establishing their own Republic.Assassin's Creed II – Database: Venezia
In parallel with the king and lords, the bishops served as representatives of the Roman Church across Europe dioceses. Even if they were chosen among the local elites, bishops sometimes entered into conflicts with civil powers.Discovery Tour: Viking Age – Learnings: Bishops: A Divided Duty Monastic orders also flourished like the Benedictines. The monasteries served many roles in European society, greeting pilgrims, and dispensing education and care. Monasteries became also place for political meetings.Discovery Tour: Viking Age – Learnings: Monasteries: Many Roles
Between the 6th and the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons established the Heptarchy with the kingdoms of Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Kent, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Database: Saxons With the influence of Irish monks, the Anglo-Saxons adopted Christianism, as well as the Picts of Scotland.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Database: Picts The Britons in Wales regularly fought with the Anglo-Saxons. During the late 8th century, Mercia was ruled by the Ancients Offa, who expanded his kingdom and built a linear military fortification known as the Offa's Dyke.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Database: Britons After his rule, the Ancient established one of their last stronghold in England, even reaching Scandinavia.
In the early 8th century, after the Umayyad Caliphate nearly conquered all of Spain, the last Christian states struck back. This led to the Reconquista, opposing the Christian and the Muslim states in Spain for over seven centuries.Assassin's Creed (film) After the Abbasid Revolution in 750, the Umayyad dynasty established the Emirate of Córdoba.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: The Abbasids ... and their Rivals Even if the Greeks and the Arabs were often at war, economic and cultural exchanges existed between the two populations.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: Baghdadi Exports Many Greek merchants and architects went to the Abbasid Caliphate and the manuscripts of Aristotle, Hippokrates, and Ptolemy influenced Middle Eastern philosophy, medicine and astronomy, contributing to the Islamic Golden Age.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: Translation Movement
In 756 CE, the bishop of Rome established the Papal States, becoming the pope. As Rome and Constantinople were rivals for Christendom leadership, the pope Leo III allied with Charlemagne, king of the Franks and secretly the leader of the Ancients. In 800, Leo crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Roman. The Carolingian Empire spread across France, Germany, and Northern Italy and was seen as a spiritual successor of the Western Roman Empire.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Siege of Paris – Francia Later, the empire was divided into three but the Ancients kept influence as the emperor Louis II of Italy was the leader of the Order in the mid-9th century.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Viking Expansion notes: Fulke's Journal
====Viking Age====
In the late 8th century, the lack of arable land in Scandinavia led many Norses to leave their countries. As a seafaring people, Norse became settlers, and traders, but also Vikings, raiding the coast to loot goods and made slaves.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Database: Vikings The monastery of Lindisfarne was one of the first raided in 793 CE, beginning the Viking expansion. One of the most famous Vikings was Ragnar Lothbrok, who besieged Paris in 845. In the 850s, the Norwegian Ímar established the kingdom of Dublin in Ireland, which became an important trading hub under the rule of his son Bárid mac Ímair.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids – Database: Bárid mac Ímair 
In 852, the Varangian Rurik built the city of Novgorod in in modern-day Russia. Sailing through the Danube, Varangians besieged Constantinople in 860. To stop them, the imperial family recruited them as personal guards, the Eagle Clan among them. In 867, the Order of the Ancients helped the Chambellan Basil to assassinate the emperor Michael III. As Basil was the new emperor, the Order influenced him to kill his son Leo, suspected to be Michael's son. The Varangian Thyra from the Eagle clan allied with the Hidden Ones Basim Ibn Ishaq and Hytham to protect Leo. They succeeded, killing the Ancients leader Isaac, and Basil cutting his ties with the Order.Assassin's Creed: The Golden City During this period, the Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople compiled in his Bibliotheca the review of 300 books.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Bibliotheca
In 865, Lothbrok raided the kingdom of Northumbria ruled by the Ancient Ælla. After Ælla executed Lothbrok, the Sons of Ragnar invaded England with the Great Heathen Army to conquer it. When they killed Ælla, Northumbria became a vassal of the Ragnarssons. East Anglia knew the same fate after the murder of the king Edmund the Martyr. As the Great Summer Army led by Guthrum expanded in Mercia, Wessex, ruled by the Grand Maegester of the Ancients Æthelwulf and later his sons Æthelred and Alfred the Great, fought the Viking expansion. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Blood Brothers The Picts and Britons also entered into war against the Norse.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – War Weary
During this period, the Æsir's Isu incarnations appeared, such as Thor's incarnation Halfdan Ragnarsson and Freyr's as Harald Fairhair, uniting all Norway.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Last Chapter – Fare Thee Well, King Fair-Hair Tyr's and Odin's incarnations were Sigurd Styrbjornsson and Eivor Varinsdottir from the Raven Clan. As they fought the Ancient Kjotve the Cruel, they allied with Basim and Hytham.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Cruel Destiny After Kjotve's death, the Hidden Ones followed the Raven Clan in their settling of Ravensthorpe in Mercia, establishing the bureau for the British Hidden Ones.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – To Serve the Light... Unknown to them, Basim was Loki's incarnation and tried to take his revenge on Odin but it ultimately failed after he was trapped in Yggdrasil's simulations for centuries.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brother's Keeper
While Eivor tried to conquer all of England, the Hidden Ones recruited her to kill the Ancients in the country. At the same time, Alfred the Great wanted to reform the Order, deeming its Isu worship as heretical. As Poor-Fellow-Soldier of the Christ, he sent clues to Eivor to eliminate all of the Ancients. In 878, during the Battle of Chippenham, Eivor fought with her allies Alfred army. After his defeat, Alfred hid at Athelnay where he met Eivor to reveal the truth and the reformation of the Ancients as the Templar Order.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Poor Fellow-Soldier Later Alfred's army defeated the Great Heathen Army at the Battle of Edington. Alfred established peace with Guthrum, who converted to Christianity and became king of East Anglia.Discovery Tour: Viking Age – Learnings: Baptism and Victory During the following decades, the Norse adopted Christianity and the two societies were unified as the Kingdom of England.Discovery Tour: Viking Age – Learnings: Christianization 
While the Ancients were collapsing, other secret organizations were active in the British Isles. As Eivor recovered Excalibur, both the Descendants of the Round Table and the Women of the Mist tried to steal the Sword of Eden. The Hidden Ones allied with the witch warriors after Niamh of Argyll infiltrated their ranks. Hytham orchestrated a sacrifice of an Excalibur's copy to fool the Descendants while granting the Piece of Eden to the Women of the Mist. In Scotland, a Christian sect led by Saint Columba the Reborn used the Codex of Eden to convert the population. Both Hidden Ones and Templars took interest in the group. Their headquarters in the Loch Ness Temple was flooded by the Hidden Ones while the Templars recovered fragments of the Codex.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Hidden Codex
In Ireland, as Christianisation progressed, the druid culture faded out. In this context, the Children of Danu emerged, a secret society dedicated to defending the Gaelic culture through violent ways, practicing sacrifices, and using hallucinogens to spread fear among Christians and Norse.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids – Database: The Children of Danu By 879, the Children were led by Eogan mac Cartaigh who pretended to be a dedicated Christian priest. The Children planned to assassinate the High King Flann Sinna to destabilize Ireland but they failed and were eliminated by Eivor.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids – A Scourging of Snakes Their actions led to further persecution against the druid by the Christians.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids – The Cost of Betrayal
In the 880s, the Carolingian empire was once again unified under Charles the Fat who had a troubled mind. The zealous Christian sect known as the Bellatores Dei believed that Francia fell in apostasy and influenced Charles to restore order.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – Database: Bellatores Dei By 886, they tried to eliminate his wife Richardis and killed the jarl Sinric of the Elgring Clan. Sinric's brother Sigfred led the Siege of Paris with the help of Eivor and the Raven Clan. Despite Count Odo and some Bellatores members leading the city's defenses, the Vikings stormed Paris.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – The Siege of Paris Eivor and Odo made a truce to spare the citizens while Charles paid the Elgring Clan to leave, weakening his leadership.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – The Count of Paris Later, Eivor eliminated the Bellatores, saving Richardis and defeating Charles in a duel.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – Madness of King Charles In 887, Charles was deposed and Odo became the king of Western Francia, leading to the collapse of the Carolingian empire.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – Eivor's letters
On the Isle of Skye, an Apple of Eden activated itself on the arrival of the Keeper Kassandra, plaguing the island's population with by horrible nightmares and leading them to madness.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Assassin's Creed Crossover Stories – Night and Day With Eivor's help, Kassandra recovered the artifact, ending the illusions.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Assassin's Creed Crossover Stories – What Dreams May Come Near Ravensthorpe, the Eden Ring Station's generators began to produce energy but had no outlet for it, risking a discharge that would wipe out all life on Britain. The Rah Cel'eze's AI contacted Eivor, who solved the situation by removing The Blazing Sword, shutting down the station.
During the 10th century, the Fatimid Caliphate took control of Sicily. In 929, the emir of Cordoba Abd al-Rahman III founded a caliphate over Spain and Maghrib, challenging the Abbasids of Baghdad. In the 11th century, Europeans had access to papermaking by the Arabs.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: Papermaking
In 917 CE, the Byzantine admiral John Rhadenos negotiated peace with the Abbasids and paid the ransom for captured soldiers, bringing gifts of silk, ivory, or precious manuscripts to the caliph.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Database: Greeks Bearing Gifts
The bishop Liutprand of Cremona went to Constantinople as an emissary and wrote a book relating his experience.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mission to Constantinople
In 962, the king of East Francia and Italy Otto established the Holy Roman Empire, controlling most of central Europe. Owning the Prong of Devotion, he granted the artifact to the bishop Poppa to convert Denmark to Christianity. Poppa baptized its king Harald Bluetooth who kept the prong and joined the Templars In 975 in Sweden, the Hidden Ones assassinated the King Olof Björnsson and promoted his brother Eric as his successor. Olof's son, Styrbjörn the Strong allied with Harald to invade Sweden, using the prong. In 985, at the Battle of Fýrisvellir, Styrbjörn army was defeated and the prong was taken by the Hidden One Thorvald Hjaltason. He entrusted the artifact to the warrior Östen Jorundsson who hid it.Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants - Fate of the Gods
Vikings also explored the Atlantic Ocean, settling in Iceland by the 9th century. Around 1000, according to sagas, Leif Ericson participated in a Viking expedition to North America, establishing a colony in Vinland.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Daring Viking Explorer 
In the middle of the 11th century, the duke of Normandy William the Conqueror led his army against the County of Britain. Later, he became king of England. The Bayeux Tapestry served as an illustrated document of his life.Discovery Tour: Viking Age – Learnings: Peacemaking, Peacebreaking Later, the Normans conquered Naples, ruling it during three centuries.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Database: Napoli
====High Middle Age====
By the 11th century, European Christendom was divided into two, the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Orthodox Churches in the East. In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, the pope Urban II initiated the First Crusade to recover the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Assassin's Creed: A Walk Through History (1189-1868) – Chapter 1: The Third Crusade – Historical Overview: The Rise of Saladin Peasants, and later lords and knights, participated to the siege Jerusalem in 1099, establishing the Crusader states for two centuries.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Timeline: 1099 – "Siege of Jerusalem"
In this context, many military orders were created to protect the pilgrims, the Knights Hospitalier among them. During the council of Troyes in 1129, with the support of Bernard de Clairvaux, the Templars were officially recognized as the Knights Templars with Hugues de Payens as their Grand Master. They established strongholds in the Middle East but also in Europe, becoming an important economic infrastructure in Christendom. During this time they fought the Assassins, a reformed Hidden Ones Brotherhood that established a state in the Middle East.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Abstergo Files – File.0.03\Hst_GoldenAge
In the 12th century, reality and fiction were sometimes blurred in writing. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote the pseudo-historical History of the Kings of Britain, claiming to use earlier sources.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The History of the Kings of Britain The pre-Christian Germanic poem Nibelungenlied was written in Germany.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Nibelungenlied The Digenes Akritas told the epic story of Basil during the Arab-Byzantine wars.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Digenes Akritas During the 13th century, the Aberdeen Bestiary was written, representing mythical creatures while the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson wrote the Heimskringla, a collection of Old Norse sagas.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Heimskringla
In 1202, during the Fourth Crusade, Venice's fleet transported the Crusaders, leading to the sack of Constantinople in 1204. This shattered the Byzantine Empire, the Crusaders established the Latin Empire in Greece and Venice took many islands of the Aegean Sea, and Venetian and Genoan merchants settled in Constantinople.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Database: Constantinople During this time, the Levantine Mentor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad failed to establish a guild due to the sack, but in 1257, he sent the Venetian explorer brothers Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, who succeeded.Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade In 1261, the Latin emperor was expelled from Constantinople and Michael VIII Palaiologos established back the Byzantine Empire but only a fraction of its former land. In 1269, the Polo brothers established an Assassins guild in Venice.Assassin's Creed: Encyclopedia
At the dawn of the 13th century, two Mendicant orders were created: the Franciscans and the Dominicans, making vow of poverty while preaching in the cities. In 1231, pope Gregory IX initiated the Medieval Inquisition, to bring order to the process of dealing with heresy and prevent mob justice. Both Franciscan and Dominican members were appointed as papal inquisitors.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1231
Between the 12th and 13th centuries, thanks to Arabic translations, Europe had access to Greek and Indian philosophical and mathematical knowledge. Scientific fields evolved, like magnetism with the Epistola de Magnete while the philosopher Roger Bacon compiled in his Opus Majus and Opus Minus treatises on natural science, mathematics, grammar, physics, optics, and philosophy for the pope Clement IV.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: "Aberdeen Bestiary" (Phoenix Detail)Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Opus Majus
By the mid 13th century, the Mongol Empire expanded in Eastern Europe. In 1241, the Mongol army defeated Poland in the Battle of Legnica. During the battle, the prince Möngke Khan captured a Templar who introduced him to the Order, creating the Mongolian Rite.Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Tomb of the Khan During this time, the Grand Prince of Vladimir Alexander Nevsky paid tribute to the Golden Horn to protect his country. In 1263, the Mongolian Assassin Nergüi killed Nevsky believing that his alliance with the Mongols hid something else.Assassin's Creed: Memories - Alexander Nevsky Accompanying his father and uncle at Kublai Khan's court, the Assassin Marco Polo recovered Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex and brought it to Venice. He wrote an exaggerated account of his 20 years in the Far East.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The Travels of Marco Polo Polo was also acquainted with the Florentine Assassin Dante Alighieri who wrote the Divine Comedy.Assassin's Creed II – Paying Respects
In 1291, Acre was captured by the Mamluks, ending the Crusader States. The Templars retreated to Europe, choosing as Grand Master Jacques de Molay, a Sage of the Isu Aita.Assassin's Creed: Unity - Database: Jacques de Molay In 1307, the Mentor of the French Assassins Guillaume de Nogaret manipulated the King Philip IV of France and pope Clement V to arrest the Templar Order. On the night of the 13th of October, the Temple of Paris was stormed by Assassins disguised as Flemish mercenaries, and the Grand Master was arrested.Assassin's Creed: Unity - The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay While the Assassins tracked the last Templars in Europe, de Molay taught to nine of his lieutenants the secrets of the Order and tasked them to reform the Templars as a secret organization. In 1314, the Grand Master was burnt at the stake, officially ending the Templar Order while in fact returning in the shadows.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Abstergo Files – File.0.06\Hst_VoxInExcelso
In the 1320s, the Templars killed Aligheri and Polo. Dante's pupil, Domenico dispatched the pages of Altaïr Codex in a cargo, preventing the Templars from recovering it. Later, he relocated to the Sienan city of Monteriggioni which became the headquarters of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins, and founded the noble House of Auditore.
====Late Middle Ages====
The Late Middle Ages were a turbulent time for Europe, struck first by the Great Famine (1315-1322), and then by Black Death between 1346 and 1353, killing hundreds of millions.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: 21. Medieval In 1350, the Templars posed as the Brothers of the Cross, traveling across the Holy Roman Empire, promising protection from the disease while searching for the Ankh, a Piece of Eden in Essen. The group mysteriously vanished as well as the Assassin Lukas Zurburg.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Discover Your Legacy
During the 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Middle English The Canterbury Tales, a collection stories detailing the lives and concerns of a group of Christian pilgrims making their way to Canterbury Cathedral.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The Canterbury Tales
Between 1337 and 1453, the French House of Valois and the English House of Plantagenet fought in the Hundred Years' War for the throne of France. In the late stage of the conflict, the Templars had among them the Duke John of Bedford, regent in France for Henry VI of England, the Duke Philip III of Burgundyand the chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille. The three Templars plotted to control the weak-willed Charles VII of France but his mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon, Mentor of the French Assassins, thwarted their plan. She recruited Jeanne d'Arc, a peasant with a high rate of Isu DNA and possessing a Sword of Eden. With the artifact, she led the French army to victory, strengthening Charles's legitimacy. In 1430, the Templars captured Jeanne, recovering the Sword and condemning her to be burned at the stake. The Assassins secretly saved her.Assassin's Creed: Heresy
In 1301, the Byzantine Empire was defeated at the Battle of Bapheus by Muslim Turks led by Osman I. Expanding on the Byzantine territories in Anatolia and Thrace, Osman I founded the Ottoman Empire. In 1397, Sultan Bayezid I tried to conquer Constantinople but failed. To counter the Ottoman threat, the Byzantine emperors tried to ally with the Catholic West but this was limited. During the conflict, The Byzantines hired Spanish mercenaries like the Almogavars to fight the Turks. Among them was Ramon Muntaner who wrote his Cronica about the defense of Constantinople.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Cronica Through the dervshirme system, the Ottoman enrolled slave Christian boys from the Balkan to serve as Janissaries, their elite soldiers.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Database: Janissaries
In 1453, the Sultan Mehmet II, wielding an Apple of Eden, conquered Constantinople ending the Byzantine Empire. Even if many churches of the city were transformed into mosques, the Ottoman authorized Orthodox to stay in the city, Constantinople becoming the cosmopolitan capital of the Empire.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Database: Ottomans During their expansion, the Ottomans entered into conflict with Wallachia and the Republic of Venice. At some point, the Mentor and Grand Vizier Ishak Pasha forged a peace with the Empire, permitting the Brotherhood to flourish in Constantinople.Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – Database: Ishak Pasha The Valencian Joanot Martorell wrote Tirant lo Blanch, a romance novel set in the Byzantine empire, full of sensuous vitality, chivalrous daring, and good humor.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Tirant lo Blanch 
By the 14th century, Italian city-states became the cradle of the Renaissance, an intellectual and artistic cultural movement emulating the revival of classical Greco-Roman studies and also the new philosophy of humanism.Assassin's Creed: Renaissance" The creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 in Strasbourg permitted the mass production of books and the spreading of Renaissance ideas across Europe.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: The Printing Press The Republic of Venice became one of the wealthiest cities in the world thanks to its fleet, even defeating the Republic of Genoa on the sea. In the Republic of Florence, its leading statesman Lorenzo de' Medici sponsored many artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and the city became the center of the Renaissance.Assassin's Creed II – Database: Firenze In 1460, the Hermeticist teaching was rediscovered through the work of Marsilio Ficino.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance – Database: Hermeticists
During this period, the Roman Templars led by Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia planned to unify Italy under their banner. As they supported the House of Pazzi's plot to control Florence and the House of Barbarigo's scheme to claim Venice, the Italian Assassins led by the House of Auditore thwarted their plans. The two factions also searched Altaïr's Codex pages to localize an Isu vault in Italy. In 1488, the Templars brought Mehmet II's Apple of Eden from Cyprus to Venice but the Assassins took it.Assassin's Creed II – Play Along While escorting it to Forli, the Templars led an attack on the city. The two groups lost the artifact as the monk Girolamo Savonarola took the Apple.Assassin's Creed II – Battle of Forlì – Checcomate
In the late 15th century, the Christian kingdoms of Spain began to unite. Around 1458, pope Callixtus III gave to King Alfonso V of Aragon the prong of Faith that was later inherited by his successors. In 1478, after King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile married, the Spanish Inquisition established to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, prosecuting anyone who was suspected to be heretics for nearly four centuries.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1478 In 1481, the first Auto-da-fé happened in Seville with six persons burnt at the stake. In 1483, the Jews were expelled from Andalusia and a new court was formed with a 30-day grace period for Jews to renounce their religion. Torture was used to extract confessions and relapsed Jews were burned.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1481
The Master Templar Tomás de Torquemada became the Grand Inquisitor and branded the Spanish Assassins as heretics to track them. In the late 1480s, Spain entered into war with the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in Iberia. By 1491, the Assassins associated with emir Muhammad XII of Granada and entrusted him an Apple of Eden. The Templars abducted the emir's son Ahmed to take the Apple while also advising him to continue to resist the Spanish siege of Granada. The Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze convinced the emir to surrender while the Assassin Aguilar de Nerha took back the Apple and entrusted it to the navigator Christoffa Corombo. With the Treaty of Granada, Spain was unified by the Catholic kingdoms, ending the Reconquista. In 1492, the Alhambra Decree formally expelled all Jews from Spain. Tens of thousands were baptized in the three months before the deadline for expulsion. Around 40,000 left the country.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1492
By 1498, Tomas de Torquemada gathered the parts of the Shattered Staff of Eden and went to the Isu Forge under the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás in Avila to repair the artifact. With the Staff, the Templar created an army of tangible holograms but was killed by the Assassins who destroyed the Staff leading to the collapse of the Forge.Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Forge In 1504, the Brotherhood assassinated Queen Isabella of Castile as she was influenced by the Templars.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – Closure In 1511, the Grand Inquisitor Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros accused the Assassins to having killed a cardinal, but the Brotherhood brought him the true culprits.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – Just Following Orders, Part I
===Early Modern Era===
====Italian Wars====
In 1492, the Grand Master of the Italian Rite Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, increasing the Templar influence across Europe with Rome at its center.Assassin's Creed II – Database: Rodrigo Borgia In 1494, France invaded the Italian peninsula, beginning the Italian Wars, opposing the French, the Spanish, and the Italians for over six decades.Assassin's Creed: Identity – Database: War of the League of Cambrai During the conflict, Girolamo Savonarola took control of Florence with the Apple of Eden and established a theocracy. During the Bonfire of the Vanities both Assassins and Templars tried to recover the Piece of Eden.Assassin's Creed II – Bonfire of the Vanities – Florentine Fiasco In 1498, the Master Assassin Ezio Auditore took the Apple, ending Savonarola's rule and Florence became once again a republic.Assassin's Creed II – Bonfire of the Vanities – Mob Justice
While the pope tried to unify through conspiracies, his son Cesare Borgia allied with the French to conquer all of Italy to become king.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Database: Cesare Borgia In January 1500, after his father was defeated by Ezio who entered the Vatican vault, Cesare led an attack on the Assassin headquarters of Monteriggioni, killing their leader Mario Auditore and taking back the Apple of Eden.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Vilified Ezio relocated the Assassins to Rome, recruiting its harassed citizens into the Brotherhood to fight the Templars both in Italy and across Europe.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Man of the People In 1503, the Assassins took back the Apple and freed Rome from the Borgia.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – All Roads Lead To...
While Louis XII of France was fighting in Italy, the Templars infiltrated his court in Paris as advisors. The Assassins protected the scholar Desiderius Erasmus from the Templars and killed the advisors.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – On the trails In London, the Brotherhood helped King Henry VII of England against Templar plots, killing Margaret of York and eliminating the Templars sitting in the Star Chamber.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – Star Chamber The Assassins also convinced the German scholar Conradus Celtis to not publish a book about the Brotherhood.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – Forget to Mention
During this period, mercenaries from Switzerland served as elite guards from different courts, like the Swiss Guards in France.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Swiss Guard During the Swabian War, the Swiss mercenaries defeated the Holy Roman Empire troops of Maximilian I. Some of the Swiss commanders were hired by the Borgia in the Papal Guard. The Assassins captured and brought them before the emperor to thwart the relationship between Maximilian and the Borgia.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – A Slap to the Face Later, these Swiss commanders, with the help of the Assassins and the knight Georg von Frundsberg, trained the first of the Landsknechte to rival the Swiss mercenaries.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – Raising an Army Pope Julius II also hired Swiss in the Papal Guard.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (novel)
After Cesare imprisonnement, Spain conquered Naples from the French in 1503 with the help of the Venetian Assassin Bartolomeo d'Alviano.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Database: Bartolomeo d'Alviano In March 1507, Cesare Borgia led the Navarrese army to take back Viana Castle from the Castillans and bring back the influence of the Templars.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Database: Viana During the siege, Cesare was killed by Ezio, thwarting the Templars' return in European politics for decades.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Pax Romana 
In 1509, Venice and their allies fought the troops of Louis XII of France during the War of the League of Cambrai. During the Battle of Agnadello, Bartolomeo d'Alviano was captured by the French and his cousin Niccolò di Pitigliano stole the original Shroud of Eden to the Assassins.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Italian Wars: Chapter 1 – Bartolomeo d'Alviano – Stand! A year later, the Assassin Francesco Vecellio recovered the artifact in Lonigo, leaving Niccolò dying in his burning house.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Italian Wars: Chapter 2 – Francesco Vecellio – Side Effects
In 1511, when the French occupied Genoa, the Ottoman Assassins helped the Captain Andrea Doria orchestrating a citizens' revolt.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – Rebels With A Cause, Part II As it was only a mild success, the Assassins protected Doria.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – Rebels With A Cause, Part III In Marseille, the Templars influenced the French King to banish the Assassins.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – By Any Other Name, Part III With their Ottoman brethren, they hindered the army effort and recruited some soldiers in their ranks.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – By Any Other Name, Part II When the Templars planned to assassinate Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Assassins protected him and eliminated the Templars of Madrid.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – Just Following Orders, Part III
At the end of the War of the League of Cambrai, France and Venice allied against Milan. Bartolomeo d'Alviano fought on the French side, participating in the battle of Marignano in 1515, attacking the hired Swiss mercenaries with a corps of only 300 knights. A year later, he died at the siege of Ghedi.
During the wars, French culture was influenced by Italian arts. King Francis I of France hired the artist Leonardo da Vinci and granted him a home in Amboise where he finished his Mona Lisa. In 1519, just before he died, Leonardo met his friend Ezio one last time.Assassin's Creed: Revelations On his deathbed, he wrote his last desires for the then retired-Mentor, asking him to find Havens across Europe to train the Assassins.Assassin's Creed: The Last Quest of Leonardo da Vinci
====Fight for Mediterranean hegemony====
Between 1499 and 1502, the Venice Republic and the Ottoman Empire were at war. During the battle of Zonchio, the Ottomans destroyed the Venetian navy and conquered Lepanto, Modone, and Corone.Assassin's Creed II – Database: Agostino Barbarigo The Assassins from both sides permitted the peace between the two states.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – My Enemy's Enemy 
In Lisbon, when King Manuel I of Portugal was influenced by Spain to establish the Inquisition and force the conversion, the Assassins protected some of the citizens and trained them to fight oppression.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – A Fighting Chance As many Iberians went to Constantinople to flee the persecution, Manuel infiltrated spies among the migrants but the Assassins replaced them.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – Weeds and Seeds In the meantimes, the Spanish took control of the coastal cities of North Africa, Algiers and Tripoli among them.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense
In 1509, Constantinople was struck by an earthquake and a Civil War began between the sultan Bayezid II and his son Selim who was supported by the Janissaries.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – A Warm Welcome In a plan to end the difference and the wars between the West and the East, the Prince Ahmet became the leader of the Byzantine Templars and searched the Masyaf Keys across Constantinople to open the Library of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and found the Grand Temple.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Discovery As the Byzantine soldiers took the streets of Constantinople, the Ottoman Assassins led by Yusuf Tazim and reorganized by Mentor Ezio Auditore fought the Templars in the city.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – The Prisoner In 1512, the Assassins recovered all Masyaf Keys and broke the Templars while Selim became the new sultan and killed his brother Ahmet.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – End of the Road
Across the Mediterranean Sea, the Ottoman Assassins fought the Templars. In Athens, the Templars bribed the Ottoman soldiers to loot the homes of wealthy citizens. The Assassins defended the citizens and killed the Templars in the city.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – For The People, Part III In Rhodes, after the Knights Hospitalier, captured many Assassins and killed the Master Assassin Castor, in retaliation the Brotherhood attacked the Knight compound Ataviros.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – The Knights, Part III The Assassins also defend the island against corsairs attacks.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – Amid The Rubble As the Templars in Tripoli were commanded from Rhodes, the Assassins cut their communications.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – The Demolition Man, Part III In Algiers, the Assassins fought the Spanish influence, allying with the pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa and protecting the Moors population of the island Penon.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense – An Eye For A Helping Hand
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Mediterranean Sea became a battlefield between the Ottoman Empire and the Catholic states. In 1565, the sultan Suleiman I, an ally of the Assassins, ordered the siege of Malta which was held by the Knights Hospitalier but the Ottomans failed to take the island.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – War Letters – The Hospitaller's Plea From 1648 to 1669, the Ottomans besieged the Venetian city of Candia in Krete and took possession of the island.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Bracers of Candia In 1687, during the Morean War, the Republic of Venice besieged Athens and inadvertently blew up the Parthenon by destroying the Ottoman's gunpowder stock with a cannonball.Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece – The Akropolis of Athens: "Parthenon Exterior"
In the 17th century, the Pirates from Barbary Coasts were still actively attacking ships from Europe.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: "An English Ship in Action with Barbary Vessels" In the mid-18th century, the Assassins were influencing the French Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire to fight the Knight of Malta, provocating revolts among the Muslim slaves on the island.
====Sciences, arts and occultism====
The Renaissance and humanism paved the way for new ideas. In May 1500, when the Templar astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus wanted to share his research on Heliocentrism, the Master of the Sacred Palace Giuliano ordered to kill him.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Copernicus Conspiracy – False Censorship He was protected by the Master Assassin Ezio Auditore who killed Giuliano during the lunar eclipse.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Copernicus Conspiracy – Close the Book The Brotherhood continued to protect Copernicus from the Templars in the following years.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Rome: Chapter 3 – Francesco Vecellio – Spacemen His research was only published after he died in 1543.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Copernicus Conspiracy – Database: Niccolò Copernico Astronomy developped further with the work of Petrus Apianus in his Introductio Geographica.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: "Introductio Geographica"
In 1506, the Cult of Hermes was active in Rome, led by Ercole Massimo. After a failed attempt to take the Apple of Eden to Auditore, the Hermeticists associated with Leonardo Da Vinci to find the Temple of Pythagoras. When the painter refused to help them further, they abducted him and forced him to reveal the location.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance – A Roll of the Dice Auditore saved his friend, killing Massimo and his followers before discovering with Leonardo what the Temple contained.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance – The Temple of Pythagoras By 1509, the Cult was led by Seraphina who searched to avenge her father and brother's death by Auditore. She allied with the Templar Francesco Rizzo to attack Monteriggioni while the Cult searched the Staff of Hermes in Venice.Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR – Monteriggioni Tunnels Auditore eliminated both of them and discovered that the Staff was only a replica.Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR – Cult of Hermes Reborn
The hermeticist teaching continued to spread among scholars. The Book of Abraham written by the alchemist Nicolas Flamel took the interest of both the Assassins and the Templars. By 1520, the Assassin and physician Bombastus possessed one-half of the book. In 1527, he sent his Hermeticist apprentice Maria Amiel and the Assassin Giovanni Borgia to recover the second half in Paris but they found only a copy.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Divine Science: Chapter 1 – Maria Amiel – Descendants Returning to Basel, they discovered that Bombastus became mad by the book's influence and they stole the first part.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Divine Science: Chapter 1 – Maria Amiel – Book Keeper 
While the Grand Duchy of Moscow expanded, the Italian Assassin infiltrated the Kremlin in the late 1490s. As Ivan III of Russia was about to uncover the Brotherhood, the Assassins spread rumors about the revival of the Strigolniki Sect.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – Scapegoats In 1581, as the Templars influenced the Tsarevitch Ivan Ivanovich of Russia, the Assassins killed him.Assassin's Creed II – Glyphs #15: "Guardians"
In the late 16th century, the court of the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II in Prague became an intellectual center with the scientist Johannes Kepler, the alchemist Michael Maier, the painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo and the writer Elizabeth Jane Weston.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Divine Science: Chapter 3 – Elizabeth Jane Weston – Introduction Video By 1587, the English occultists Edward Kelley and John Dee possessed the two volumes of the Book of Abraham and used them to create gold for the emperor.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Divine Science: Chapter 3 – Elizabeth Jane Weston – Wisdom As Kelley became more obsessed with the book, Dee stole it and left the city.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Divine Science: Chapter 3 – Elizabeth Jane Weston – Wrath During this period, the Isu book later known as the Voynich manuscript was possessed by the emperor.
As Cosmology evolved, it was sometimes restrained by the Church. In 1600, the Roman Inquisition burnt at stake the scholar Giordano Bruno for his unorthodox beliefs,Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1600 and in 1633 Galileo Galilei was condemned for promoting Heliocentrism.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1633 However, the Scientific Revolution happened, sponsored by the Templars to influence the rulers and the population for their New World Order. To promote science and rationalism, the Order influenced and used the research of Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke and Isaac Newton.Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Abstergo Files – File.0.15\Hst_NewOrder Other scientists flourished during this time, like Athanasius Kircher, René Descartes and Thomas Burnet.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: "Sacred Theory of the Earth"
Between the 16th and the 18th century, the Baroque style influenced European architecture and paintings with artists like Claude Lorrain.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: "Harbour Scene at Sunset" The Dutch Golden Age painting was held by artists like Gerard van Honthorst, Willem van de Velde the Younger, Pieter Claesz and even influenced British painting with Peter Lely.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: "Nymphs By A Fountain" New musical instruments were created and instrument makers became famous, like Hendrik Richters with his oboes, and Antonio Stradivari with his violoncelli.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Violoncello
In the 18th century, new sources of energy were discovered, like electricity that could be created through an Electrostatic Generator.Assassin's Creed III – Database: Electrostatic Generator In 1745, the scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek created the Leyden jar to stock electricity.Assassin's Creed III – Database: Leyden Jar Electricity was used in the Flying Magnetic Boy Experiments conducted by Stephen Gray and Abbé Nollet.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Flying Magnetic Boy Experiments Steam developped as a energy used for Newcomen engine and later James Watt's steam engine, permitting to wast less coal.Assassin's Creed III – Database: Watt Steam Engine New scientific fields developped, like chemistry with Humphry Davy and Antoine Lavoisier who isolated elemental potassium.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Potassium/Water Reaction In Leeds , the minister and philosopher Joseph Priestley made the first drinkable soda by performing scientific experiments above the vats in a brewery.Assassin's Creed III – Database: Joseph Priestley's Soda Apparatus In 1783, the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier invented the first recorded hot air balloon and the first successful human-carrying flight technology.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Montgolfier Flight
====Reformation and persecutions====
At this time, Christendom knew a massive change through reform. In 1502, the elector Friedrich der Weise of Saxe opened the University of Wittenberg dedicated to religious reform. The Assassins founded the construction using Templars' money.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Contracts – School Tax Fifteen years later, in the same city, the German monk Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-five Theses to a church door, disputing the claim that absolution from sin can be paid for. Excommunicated by the Pope Leo X and condemned as an outlaw, Luther became the figurehead of the Protestant Reformation, splitting Europe between Catholic and Protestant states.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1517
The Church reacted with the Counter-Reformation, with Pope Paul III establishing the Roman Inquisition, while in Spain over a hundred Lutherans were put on trial and burnt in 1558, ending the Protestantism in Iberia.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1558 In 1559, Pope Paul IV established the Pauline Index, a list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical, or lascivious that were banned from the Church.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1559 In 1563, the last session of the Council of Trent was held, issuing more condemnations of what it defined to be heresies punishable by death, and published the Tridentine Index, a list of forbidden books.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1563
The Protestant Reformation had a major impact on some kingdoms. In England, King Henry VIII severed the ties with the Catholic Church while his daughter Queen Mary I established back Catholicism, allying herself with the Templars. In 1558, Mary I was killed by the Assassins who allied with her half-sister Elizabeth who possessed an Apple of Eden. In 1559, Elizabeth became Queen of England and restored Protestantism.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Database: St. Paul's Cathedral In France, the division between Catholics and Protestants led to the French Wars of Religion and events like the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Henry IV, who was protestant before he became king, converted to Catholicism in 1593, bringing stability and peace to France.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Statue of Henri IV
During this era, persecution against unorthodox beliefs increased. In Spain, the Inquisition trialed bigamists, blasphemers, and witches. In 1609, King Philip III ordered the expulsion of the Moriscos, descendants of converted Muslims. An estimated 300 000, roughly 4% of the Spanish population, were forced to leave the country.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1570-1613 In France, the Templar Pierre de Lancre instigated a witch-hunt in Labourd to recover the original Shroud of Eden from the Brotherhood. Even if some Assassins like Isaac du Queyran were burnt at the stake, the artifact was taken by the Assassin Margaux who fled to the New World.Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Witches of the Moors
During the 17th century, the Freemasons society was created, assembling men of different religions. They were persecuted in some countries like Spain. Spreading to the New World, they brought an Apple of Eden in Americas.Assassin's Creed II – Glyphs: Descendants
====Contestation of Monarchy====
By the 17th century, the religious division challenged the divine right of the monarchs. In 1605, Guy Fawkes and other Catholic conspirators planned to blow up the Palace of Westminster to kill the king and members of Parliament but they were arrested by Sir Thomas Knyvet.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Database: 10 Downing Street In 1610, the religious fanatic Francois de Ravaillac assassinated Henry IV of France. 
Between 1642 and 1651, the English Civil War opposed King Charles I against the Parliament's troops. After the king was trialed and executed, a Puritan Republic was established in the British Isles led by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and later his son Richard.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Executed After Death While the Stuart's heir Charles was exiled to France, he was recalled as the population was dissatisfied with Cromwell's rule.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Stepped Ashore as King In 1661, Charles returned to England and became king.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Monarchy Restored In France, after the Fronde revolt, King Louis XIV left Paris and established his new residence in the Palace of Versailles, showing his control over the French State. The Palace became a symbol of the Absolute Monarchy and the Ancien Régime.Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Village de Versailles
By 1688, King James II of England who was an overt Roman Catholic, followed policies of religious tolerance and his proximity to France. Fearing that he established a Catholic dynasty, English Parliamentarians persuaded William of Orange to cross the English Channel from the Netherlands. James II was overthrown during the Glorious Revolution and William became king of England. The aftermath of these events led to the Bill of Rights and to restrictions to the monarch's power.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Timeline:1688 – Glorious Revolution
By the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment spread across Europe, challenging Absolute Monarchy and the power of the Church. In Spain, the increasing numbers of licenses to possess and read prohibited texts were granted and inquisitorial activity began winding down. Leading figures of the Spanish Enlightenment pushed for the abolition of the Inquisition and foreign Enlightenment texts proved popular among members of the nobility and government.Assassin's Creed DNA – Timeline: 1720's In France, philosophers and writers like Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Pierre Beaumarchais criticized the Ancien Régime and Denis Diderot published the Encyclopédie, compiling knowledge on the sciences and arts.Project Widow – Thinking man's caféAssassin's Creed: Unity – Encyclopédie Diderot The Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith became one of the most influential figures within classical liberalism, introducing the concept of the "invisible hand" which greatly influenced the Templars.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Rifts – Cluster 2
In 1762, Tsar Ivan III of Russia was removed from power by a coup led by his wife Catherine and nobles. After his abdication, Catherine became the empress of Russia and Ivan was assassinated, possibly by the Brotherhood.Who's In Your Blood?: Catherine the Great
==Appearances==
==References==
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