Desmond Miles

Desmond Miles is considered to be the true protagonist of Assassin's Creed.

Early life
Desmond was born on a "farm" much like Masyaf, a modern day Assassin enclave, isolated and 'off the grid' as it was. Desmond was apparently supposed to be born and raised as an assassin. He was unable to leave this small community of thirty or so people. He later escapes by himself, claiming that he wanted to see the rest of the world. Desmond states that he has no regrets leaving his father or mother and at one point when Vidic accuses him of being an assassin he responds "I'm not an assassin...not anymore". At some time in his life, Desmond became a bartender. Desmond never used his real name before being taken. He used cash only, he was found from his fingerprint needed for a motorcycle license. He is currently being modeled by Francisco Randez.

Assassin's Creed
The story starts off with flashes of Altaïr in an odd cloudy room. After about five minutes, Desmond wakes up to find himself on top of a machine and two figures with lab coats near him. He has no recollection of getting to where he is now and is told that he is being held captive. When he questions why, the answer he receives is somewhat unbelievable.

The people in the lab coats are Dr. Lucy Stillman and Dr. Warren Vidic. They run the Animus project for Abstergo Industries. The Animus is a device used to extract genetic memory from an individual about their ancestors. According to Dr. Vidic, the memories of our past relatives are stored in our DNA.

Desmond is told that he has information that someone needs. While Desmond claims to be nothing more than a bartender, it is alluded to that he is an assassin, or at least was one at some point in the past. He seems to have the same age, weight, and height as Altaïr at the time that the Animus decodes. He also wears a white hooded-sweatshirt, similar to Altaïr's clothing. Desmond also has a scar on the right side of his face, going downwards across the lips, Altaïr also has a identical scar. You can see it if you get Altaïr to face a wall or cliff and move the camera around to see his face close up. Moreover, his ancestors were assassins. There is a specific memory in the life of his ancestor Altaïr that the Doctors are trying to access, but Desmond's subconscious mind is blocking access to the memory and they need his help to access it. If he refuses to assist them, they threaten to induce a coma, continue their work, and, when done with Desmond, leave him to die.

Without much choice, Desmond agrees to help them.

Over the next few days, Desmond is removed from the Animus several times; either to give him time to rest or as occurred at one point, because the Animus was overheating. During these periods he finds that someone has left the code for his sleeping quarter’s door in his closet, allowing him to go out into the Animus chamber alone, where he accesses Abstergo's computer system, trying to learn why he was brought there. He does this both with Stillman's access pen, that she apparently forgot, and Vidic's which he stole. He however remains unable to escape and learns nothing that makes his captives goals clear. At one point his memory viewing is interrupted by a group of Assassins who have apparently launched a rescue attempt, caught in a gun battle with Abstergo's guards. Desmond however cannot see this only hear the gunfire. Vidic later states that these Assassins were not only killed, but were the last of the Assassins (but Lucy Stillman's actions suggest otherwise), possibly as a means of demoralising Desmond. After accessing the target memory Abstergo’s executives order Desmond killed, but some quick thinking on Lucy’s part spares him this fate and he is ordered to be kept at Abstergo until he has no possible use to them. By this point Desmond begins to develop “the bleeding effect” (mentioned in Lucy's E-Mails as affecting previous test subjects)as he manifests Altaïr’s eagle vision allowing him to see cryptic messages written on the walls of the chamber (presumably test subject sixteen, the subject before Desmond, who is alluded to in the E-Mails) and see that Lucy Stillman is indeed his ally.

Assassin's Creed II
Desmond uses the free-running skills acquired by synchronizing with Altaïr (which started with the Eagle Vision) to flee the Abstergo basement with Lucy to a modern Assassins' hideout where the Animus 2.0 is waiting for them.

Appearances

 * Canon (1 game)
 * Assassin's Creed (First appearance)
 * Assassin's Creed II
 * Non-Canon (1 film)
 * Assassin's Creed: The Beginning (2009) (First film appearance)

Trivia

 * His facial model is the Quebecer model Francisco Randez.