William Miles

William "Bill" Miles (born 1948) is a member of the Assassin Brotherhood who acted as a contact for Assassin teams spread throughout the world. Initially working from a remote compound known as "The Farm," William's dedication to the Brotherhood allowed him to assume the role of Mentor, and he oversaw the activities of Assassin cells worldwide. He is a descendant of the Assassins Ezio Auditore, Edward Kenway and Ratonhnhaké:ton, the father of Desmond Miles, and unknowingly the grandfather of Elijah, Desmond's illegitimate son.
William raised his son alongside his wife and trained him to become an Assassin from an early age. However, Desmond was not as dedicated to the Brotherhood as his parents and eventually ran away at the age of 16 to pursue a normal life. William was devastated by the loss of his son and spent the next several years trying to track him down, though he was unable to get to him before Abstergo Industries, who abducted Desmond in 2012 to use him as a test subject for their Animus Project.
Following Desmond's escape from Abstergo with the help of Lucy Stillman and his joining of Lucy's team alongside Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane, William kept in close contact with the team, monitoring Desmond's progress reliving Ezio's memories. After Desmond was forced to kill Lucy and fell into a coma upon obtaining Ezio's Apple of Eden, William joined the team himself in order to monitor Desmond's condition and use Ezio's memories to locate the Grand Temple.
Once Desmond recovered, William worked with him, Shaun and Rebecca to locate the key needed to access the Grand Temple's inner chambers in order to prevent the Second Disaster. While attempting to retrieve a power source for the Grand Temple, William was captured by Abstergo, but was rescued by Desmond shortly after and was able to reconcile with his son in the process. 
After Desmond sacrificed himself to activate the global aurora borealis device and prevent the Second Disaster, a grieving William stepped down as Mentor and appointed Gavin Banks as his successor whilst he went into hiding. However, by 2015, he would return to his role and coordinate Assassin activity across the globe once more. He would later be responsible for the recruitment of Layla Hassan into the Brotherhood in 2017, and meeting with Basim Ibn Ishaq in 2020 to determine whether the Assassins would work with him in the future.
==Biography==
===Early life===
A descendant of a number of familial lines that had sworn their allegiances to the Assassins, including the House of Auditore and the Kenway family,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Modern day William was born into the Brotherhood and, like his ancestors, eventually chose to devote his life to the Assassin cause.
In 1977, William met a young girl named Nathalie Chapman, the daughter of Boris Pash and Zenia who had been raised by Warren Vidic since her birth. After discovering she was in fact a hostage kept by the Templars to ensure the cooperation of her father through an Animus session, she stole a copy of Vidic's Animus plans and gave it to William.Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone – Book 2 
William fled with the plans to Moscow, being pursued by Templar agents. After being rescued by Medeya Voronina, a fellow member of the Brotherhood, William gave her the blueprints and requested she build the machine before the Templars could. He then departed to meet another Assassin cell in the city.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: A Brash American
===The Farm===
By 1987, William lived with his wife in an Assassin compound known as "The Farm," which was located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States. There, he resided in the compound with approximately thirty other members.Assassin's Creed EncyclopediaAssassin's Creed: Revelations
William was responsible for the training of the young Assassin recruits, most notably his own son as well as Clay Kaczmarek and Lucy Stillman. When Lucy reached the age of seventeen, he made the decision to raise her outside the Brotherhood. This was to ensure that she would be able to covertly infiltrate Abstergo Industries, and her ties to the Brotherhood were severed as a result.
William also raised Desmond rigorously, and would often emphasize the importance of being careful, as well as being prepared for an attack at any time, though his son dismissed most of his warnings as paranoia.
===Researching Daniel Cross===
In 1998, William was contacted by Paul Bellamy, the Assassin in charge of a Brotherhood compound located outside Philadelphia. Paul asked William to search for information regarding an individual named Daniel Cross, who was brought into the compound by Hannah Mueller under the assumption that Daniel was an Assassin.Assassin's Creed: The Fall
William collected information regarding Daniel's ancestry, and was led to the Russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov, who was closely tied to the Tunguska explosion. William relayed this information to Paul, and Daniel was subsequently brought into the Brotherhood. At some point, William met Cross personally and believed his sincerity.
In November 2000, Daniel was personally introduced to the Brotherhood's Mentor, but assassinated him due to an impulse covertly implanted into his brain by Abstergo during his youth. Cross also revealed to Abstergo the locations of all the Assassin camps he had visited during his search for the Mentor. This resulted in the Templars initiating an endeavor to destroy these camps. Nearly all of the Assassin compounds were eradicated, though because William was warned preemptively, he and other Assassins on the Farm survived.
=== Overseeing the Order===
With the Mentor dead, and nearly all of the Assassin compounds seized by the Templars, the Assassins went into hiding, operating remotely from concealed hideouts and cells. Eventually, control of the Brotherhood fell onto William, and he began to oversee the Assassins' activities.Assassin's Creed – Modern dayAssassin's Creed: Brotherhood
In 2003, Desmond abruptly departed the Farm, fed up with William's training and his parents' warnings about the Templars, believing them to be nothing more than conspiracy freaks. Despite efforts to locate Desmond, William and the Assassins were unsuccessful in retrieving him, though William continued to loyally serve the Brotherhood and kept in contact with the Assassin cells via their private email network.
In 2012, Lucy continued to work covertly in Abstergo Industries as the assistant to Warren Vidic, who was a member of the Templars' Inner Sanctum. After the death of Clay Kaczmarek, who had been used in the company's Animus Project as "Subject 16," Abstergo's Lineage Discovery and Acquisition division managed to track down Desmond and capture him, eventually using him in the Animus Project as "Subject 17."
Around this time, William and the other Assassins deserted the Farm shortly before a team sent by Abstergo arrived there.
=== Retrieving Desmond===
Lucy eventually broke Desmond out of Abstergo's facility in Italy, and the two joined Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane to continue Desmond's Animus sessions, while pursuing the Assassins' interests. During this time, William kept in contact with Lucy's team and learned of Desmond's progress.Assassin's Creed II
Eventually, through reliving the memories of Ezio Auditore, Desmond was able to ascertain the location of his ancestor's Apple of Eden, which had been hidden within the Colosseum Vault. The team then entered the Vault and Desmond retrieved the Apple. However, Desmond's body was influenced by the Isu Juno, who made him stab Lucy with his Hidden Blade, killing her.
William dispatched several Assassins to retrieve the team from the Vault, and placed Desmond inside the Animus due to his fear of sedating Desmond too soon. Back in the Animus, Desmond continued to relive Ezio's memories, and eventually found a restored memory sequence from 1506. From there, he received an email from William stating that the memory sequence he had found would lead the Assassins to crucial information regarding another Vault.
At the end of these memories, Ezio and Leonardo da Vinci found another Vault in Rome, which was located beneath the Temple of Pythagoras. When Ezio's DNA activated a pedestal, the room projected the coordinates 43° 39′ 19″ N, 75° 27′ 42″ W, which led to the town of Turin in New York state, the location of the Grand Temple left behind by the Isu.
Once the sequence was completed, William instructed Harlan Cunningham to sedate Desmond, though it was too late; Desmond had entered a coma and had fallen into the Animus' Black Room. Despite this setback, William was confident his son would recover, and so he and Harlan left Desmond to investigate the coordinates.Assassin's Creed: Initiates
===Relocating to New York===
While Desmond remained in the Animus, William transported him and Rebecca to New York, with Shaun opting to stay in Italy to attend Lucy's funeral. During this time, William examined the Apple of Eden, though he concluded he did not have the genes to properly wield it.
Upon arrival, William helped Rebecca stabilize Desmond, as well as monitor his condition. While overseeing Desmond, William questioned Rebecca and Shaun about him. William also mentioned that Desmond's DNA had a high concentration of Isu DNA, which would allow him to wield the Apple of Eden.
When his son finally woke from his coma, William was the first to greet him, with Desmond seeming surprised to see him, but recognizing him immediately. Desmond, after seeing the Apple nearby, stated to his team that he knew what they needed to do, and William proceeded to lead the team out of their van.
===Into the Grand Temple===
Upon entering the Grand Temple, William ordered his son back into the Animus when Desmond began suffering from the Bleeding Effect. After completing Haytham Kenway's memories, Desmond exited the machine, to which William demanded that Desmond enter it again, in order to find the key to the Temple's gate faster. Fed up with his father, Desmond yelled at William for provoking his own son, and accused him of being no better than the Templars, to which William responded by punching his son in the face.Assassin's Creed III – Modern day
William revealed that the driving force of his whole career as an Assassin was to make the world a better place for his son, and that the impending countdown did not afford Desmond time to relax. However, he did acknowledge that he had been a poor father to Desmond, though the two still avoided each other for some time.
Later, Desmond conversed with his father again, who apologized for snapping at him, and the two set their differences aside, with Desmond asking about his father's activity upon leaving the Farm. Meanwhile, Abstergo had been tracking William for some time, as they meant to use him as bait. Vidic planned to capture him in the hope that Desmond would exchange the Apple for his father's safety, or attempt to rescue him.
===Capture by Abstergo===
When Shaun located the third power source needed to power the Grand Temple at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, William volunteered to go there, as they were running out of time and he wanted Desmond to focus on locating the key. On his way there, he emailed his son, telling him to relax, as he had been "fighting these bastards before [Desmond] was even born".
Recognizing the opportunity, Vidic sent the Master Templar Juhani Otso Berg to capture William. Seizing both William and the power source, Abstergo brought them to the same building where Desmond had been incarcerated a few months prior. William was placed in the Animus, but refused to cooperate, knowing that it would prevent Abstergo from using his memories to their advantage.
Vidic then sent the Assassin team a video message in which he bargained for a trade between William and the Apple of Eden in Desmond's possession. In response, Desmond raided Abstergo's headquarters, fighting his way past security before eventually reaching William and Vidic. With William surrounded by numerous armed guards, Vidic demanded the Apple, only for Desmond to use the artifact to manipulate the guards into killing themselves and Vidic.
Once freed, William reprimanded Desmond for risking everything just to rescue him before hugging his son, reconciling with him at last. After Desmond retrieved the power source from Vidic's office, he and William left the Abstergo facility while using the Apple to fight off any remaining guards that stood in their way.
===Opening the Grand Temple door===
Eventually discovering the Grand Temple Key's location and retrieving it from the grave of Achilles Davenport's late son Connor, Desmond unlocked the final barrier that separated the group from the Grand Temple's inner chambers. Once inside, the group located a pedestal, and Juno explained to them that it would shield the planet from the solar flares with Desmond's touch. However, Minerva suddenly appeared hoping to discourage Desmond, pointing out that touching the pedestal would not only kill him, but also unleash a dormant Juno, who would conquer the Earth for herself.
However, on deciding that Juno could be fought, Desmond made his choice and went to touch the pedestal. William made a final attempt to dissuade him, but Desmond was unfazed and simply told his allies to flee the Temple. Following the departure of the rest of his team, Desmond touched the pedestal, giving his life to save the planet.
===Leave of absence===
William, Shaun and Rebecca spent the next six months in hiding. Eventually, overwhelmed by the loss of his son, William resigned from his position in the Brotherhood, delegated his duties to his closest ally, Gavin Banks, and left for a self-imposed exile. William also left Gavin a codex, detailing the knowledge he had gained during his life as an Assassin, before departing.
Shaun and Rebecca spent some time trying to locate William, but were unsuccessful. After they met Gavin in Peru, they passed on William's codex and opted to carry on his mission. Gavin expressed hope William would return when he recovered from his loss. In the meantime, Shaun and Rebecca began searching for Desmond's body as they felt they owed it to him.
When Abstergo Entertainment's research analyst "Noob" gave the Assassins everything Abstergo had recovered from Desmond's body, including recorded memos to his father, William was able to move on, and sent a message of thanks to the analyst. By January 2014, William had returned to the Assassins, although he remained as elusive and difficult to contact as he had been when absent.
===William's bunker ===
On 1 May, Gavin and the crew of the Altaïr II located William in his hideout in Norway. There, a spy for the Initiates group had recorded an argument Gavin and William had had about William's departure and subsequent lack of contact with Gavin when William had returned.
Once Rebecca discovered the spy's presence among the crew of Altaïr II, William interviewed each member of the crew in his 'White Room', the name for the interrogation room of his bunker. Unable to precisely determine the spy, William and Gavin agreed to order Galina Voronina to execute Dr. Stephanie Chiu. Fellow crewmember Eric Cooper stood up for her, revealing he wrote the spy reports, while she merely uploaded them. Having flushed out the spies, William revealed his ruse, explaining he had decided the Initiates seemed like a reasonable group.
On 6 June, William and Gavin had a conversation about the recent events concerning the former's departure and how Gavin was still angry at him for this. William confessed he had not been able to continue the fight after Desmond's death. But knowing what Abstergo had done to his son's body angered him more but also "re-ignited" his desire to fight the Templars once again. Gavin entrusted him that the Assassins had lost the fight for some time now, but William reassured him that the Brotherhood's future might reside in the support of the Initiates, led by Shaun and Rebecca.
Sometime later in 2015, according to Shaun, William had formally returned to his poisition of Mentor of the Brotherhood and was coordinating Assassin activity worldwide once again.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - Modern day
Following the Templars' acquisition of a Shroud of Eden for the purpose of recreating a Precursor, William ordered all Assassins worldwide to find Álvaro Gramática's laboratory, destroy it, kill Gramática and recover the Shroud.''Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Jack the Ripper – Database: Assassin Intel 1 After the lack of success in locating the lab, William took in both Jasdip Dhami and Eric Cooper's concerns in further involving the Initiates, whom they considered untrained civilians. He then enacted the Rooftop Garden Protocol, instructing all Assassins to refrain from unnecessary communication on their network and if they were to locate Gramática's lab, they were not to engage until a strike team could be assembled.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Jack the Ripper – Database: Assassin Intel 6
===Working with Layla Hassan===
In late 2017, William and his team sought to locate the sarcophagus and mummy of Bayek, co-founder and Mentor of the Hidden Ones, the precursor organization to the Assassin Brotherhood. William tracked down Bayek's sarcophagus to the Hotep Cavern in the Qattara Depression, where he discovered Layla Hassan, a rogue Abstergo employee who had relived Bayek's memories without Abstergo's authorization.Assassin's Creed: Origins – Modern day
William sat by Layla while she relieved Bayek's memories in her Animus. When Layla woke up and threatened William with a makeshift Hidden Blade, he offered her a place with the Assassins to work on the Animus. Despite her reluctance to join up with the Brotherhood, she agreed to at least accompany him, needing protection against Abstergo. The two then waited for a helicopter to take them to Alexandria.
After leaving Egypt, Layla accepted William's offer and officially joined the Assassins. A year later, William assigned Layla to an Assassin cell in order to search for the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus and the Isu city of Atlantis. The cell consisted of Layla, the Japanese Assassin Kiyoshi Takakura, the historian Alannah Ryan, and the former Abstergo employee Dr. Victoria Bibeau,Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Modern day whom William had recruited to the Brotherhood after the Ascendance Event. While the cell managed to locate the Staff in addition to the Spear of Leonidas, Victoria was killed by Layla while under influence from the Staff in the Atlantean ruins beneath Thera.Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – The Fate of Atlantis: Torment of Hades – Modern day
Layla's actions strained her partnership amongst the Assassins. Because of this, William reassigned her to work alongside his former associates Shaun and Rebecca. Under William's orders, Shaun placed a mood stabilizer on Layla's neck to prevent her from succumbing to the control of the Staff.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Modern day
===Meeting Basim Ibn Ishaq===
In 2020, Layla sacrificed herself to save the world much like Desmond had done eight years prior, by entering "The Grey" via the Isu computer known as Yggdrasil. In doing so, she also freed the 9th-century Hidden One Basim Ibn Ishaq, the reincarnation of the Isu Loki, who had been trapped inside the Grey. Upon meeting Shaun and Rebecca, they informed Basim of the differences between the Hidden Ones and the modern Assassin Brotherhood, including the fact that they were led by a single Mentor. When Basim asked to meet this Mentor face-to-face, Shaun and Rebecca, although distrustful of Basim's motives, agreed and left to bring William.
Rather than risk an in-person meeting, William remotely accessed Basim's Animus simulation while he was reliving Eivor Varinsdottir's memories, in order to converse with him. Curious to learn about Basim's true nature as well as how he had survived for so long in suspended animation, William agreed to work with him, but first requested a sample of his blood so the Assassins could relive his genetic memories.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Last Chapter – Modern day
After experiencing Basim's early life as a Hidden One, William was reluctant to share the genetic memories with the rest of the Brotherhood, fearing the wrong lessons might be learned from them. However, he later changed his mind and, believing Basim had many things to teach them, tasked one of his Assassins with researching the former Hidden One's memories.Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Modern day
== Personality and traits==
William was highly devoted to the Assassin cause, sacrificing social relationships he had with those around him for its sake. While William's wife was able to deal with his emotional distance, his son could not, which became one of the main reasons Desmond elected to flee his parents. To this effect, William would admit to Desmond years later that he did a poor job at raising him.
William was also a highly proud man, going so far as to punch Desmond when his son compared him to the Templars. Despite this, he had no value for his own life when his death may have been necessary to safeguard the Assassins, scolding Desmond on rescuing him from Abstergo.
Throughout his life, William appeared to remain focused more on the Brotherhood than his own son. However, William constantly cared for his son, as Shaun revealed in an email that William never left Desmond's side while his son was in a coma, even sleeping right next to him.
His somewhat cold personality also occasionally disturbed other members of the Brotherhood, most notably Shaun and Rebecca. Both were taken aback at how little remorse William showed over Lucy Stillman's death. Nonetheless, the driven personality and intelligence William used to serve the Brotherhood earned him the loyalty and respect of the Assassins, allowing him to become the de facto leader in the absence of an official Mentor.
Following his rescue from Abstergo, William's feelings towards his son were made clearer, as he admitted to Desmond that though he found it hard to express himself, he did love his son. Ultimately, Desmond's death left William depressed and unable to focus on leading the Brotherhood, causing his departure, though he would return to his Assassin duties a few years later.
==Behind the scenes==
William Miles is a character first mentioned in the 2007 video game Assassin's Creed. He would subsequently have a voice-only role at the end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and make his first on-screen appearance at the end of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. From Brotherhood to Assassin's Creed III, he was voiced by American actor John de Lancie. Although William also appears in Assassin's Creed: Origins, Valhalla and Mirage, his voice actor in these games is uncredited.
In Assassin's Creed: Rogue, two contradictory messages appear stating that William Miles is dead and alive, respectively, while a third message asks for his whereabouts. This suggests that William's location was still a closely guarded secret at this point in time, so much that some Assassins were uncertain whether he was even alive.
Along with Galina Voronina, William is one of the few modern Assassins known to have wielded dual Hidden Blades.
===Etymology===
William is derived from Germanic name Willahelm, from elements wil ('will, desire') and helm ('helmet, protection'). Miles is a Latin word meaning 'soldier', but it has also been suggested to be a derivation of Slavic mil, meaning 'grace, gracious'.
==Gallery==
William miles Encyclopedia.png|Concept art of William
AC3 William Miles.png|William Miles as he appears in Assassin's Creed III
ACR William Miles Profile.png|William's profile shown to Juhani Otso Berg
AC3 Temple Van.png|William and the others on their way to the Grand Temple
AC3 Temple Arrival.png|The Assassins arriving at the Temple
AC3 Temple Cave Entry.png|William and the others entering the cave
AC3 William volunteering.png|William volunteering to head to Cairo
AC3 Vidic Captive William.png|William being held captive by Warren Vidic
AC3 Abstergo Suicide Squad.png|Desmond using the Apple of Eden on the Abstergo guards
AC3 Vision Assassins Emerging.png|Juno's vision of William and the other Assassins after the disaster
ACOrigins William Miles.jpg|William threatened with the Hidden Blade by Layla
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed 
*Assassin's Creed: The Fall 
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 
**The Da Vinci Disappearance 
*Assassin's Creed: Revelations 
*Assassin's Creed Initiates
*Assassin's Creed III
*Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 
*Assassin's Creed: Rogue 
*Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Jack the Ripper 
*Assassin's Creed: Origins
*Assassin's Creed: Odyssey 
*Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone
*Assassin's Creed: Valhalla 
**The Last Chapter
*Assassin's Creed: Mirage 
==See also==
*William Miles (non-canon)
==References==
de:William Miles
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pt-br:William Miles
ru:Уильям Майлс
zh:威廉·迈尔斯
Category:1948 births
Category:Individuals
Category:Americans
Category:Assassins
Category:American Assassins
Category:Mentors
Category:Assassin cell leaders
Category:Miles family
Category:Ancestors of Desmond Miles
Category:Individuals who held Pieces of Eden
Category:Residents of the Farm