Modern times

Modern times referred to the period between, and including, 1900 to 2013 . This era saw the overall decline of the Assassins and the ascendance of the Templars, including Desmond Miles' capture for use in the Animus project.

Thefts and murders
The Templars were able to recover several Pieces of Eden during this period, typically by murdering the previous owner. Amongst their victims were Harry Houdini, Mahatma Gandhi and John F Kennedy. Nikola Tesla also lost his Apple of Eden to the Templars; an incident which motivated him to help the Assassins in destroying the Imperial Sceptre, one of the Staves of Eden.

Also, the mission to the  was in fact a Templar expedition, in order to recover an Apple of Eden that was on the lunar surface.

The Imperial Sceptre
At some point before June 1908, Grigori Rasputin stole the Imperial Sceptre from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Without the Staff of Eden, Nicholas could not control his people, ultimately leading to the Russian Revolution. It was unclear if Rasputin himself was a Templar, but by June 1908, the Staff had been taken to a Templar research station in Tunguska. Before the Templars could take advantage of the artifact, however, the Assassins - led by Nikolai Orelov - and their ally Nikola Tesla destroyed the facility. Only Orelov survived the explosion, during which he had a vision from the First Civilization.

Orelov eventually recovered a shard of the Staff from a necklace on Rasputin's corpse. Abandoning the Assassins, he immigrated to the United States with his family. During the, his wife and daughter were deported back to Russia, but Nikolai evaded arrest with his infant son Innokenti. He subsequently raised him in a secluded cabin. When the Assassin Sergei found them, he threatened Innokenti to make Nikolai hand over the shard. Nikolai killed him and trained his son to fight the next Assassins. Eventually a group of those who worked for the FBI tried to explain to Nikolai they had looked after his family in Russian and only wanted information about his vision. Nikolai did not believe them, and ultimately only Innokenti survived the struggle.

World War II
The Templars orchestrated Adolf Hitler's rise to power by granting him an Apple of Eden. Although the aim of Templar hegemony was accomplished, Hitler himself was killed by the Assassins in 1945, as he left his bunker in Berlin.

Philadelphia Project
It was unclear if the Templars had direct involvement in the Philadelphia Project, but the data they gained from Animus Subject Twelve confirmed that an American Naval ship was briefly thrust into a future timeline. Fearful of temporal paradoxes, the Templars contained the artifact responsible.

The Great Purge
In November 2000, the Templars were able to plant a sleeper agent amongst the Assassins, who plunged them into disarray by killing the "Mentor" of the Order. By September 2012, the Templars had managed to locate and destroy virtually every Assassin encampment around the world.

The Second Plague
In September or October 2006, a virus named L-11 broke out in. After a mere three months, 96% of the continent's population had died, and even after six years, Africa remained essentially empty.

North America
In March 2012, violence erupted between border guards and illegal immigrants from the United States. Despite hundreds of American refugees being killed and thousands more wounded, record numbers of Americans continued to cross the border.

On 3 September 2012, the Global Weather Association simply abandoned the phrase "North Atlantic Hurricane Season", since occurrences of the natural phenomenon in the North Atlantic had become so powerful and frequent that coastal cities lived in constant fear of the storms.

Three days later, the last American film studio permanently closed down, as rampant film piracy and competition from the video game industry had rendered the American cinema industry unviable.

As well as this, the USA and continued to build jointly-owned oil platforms in the, despite protests that the platforms violated the.

Desmond Miles
On 6 September 2012, the media announced that Abstergo Industries was being investigated for manipulating a small town's water supply, in order to test a synthetic drug referred to as "New Fluoride". This pressured Abstergo to launch their Eye-Abstergo satellite, which was secretly a mind control device powered by a Piece of Eden, on December 21, sooner than planned. The Piece of Eden intended to power the satellite was destroyed in the DIA satellite accident, and Abstergo did not have a spare.

To that end, Abstergo kidnapped Desmond Miles and took him to their facility in Italy, after their previous Animus Subject, Clay Kaczmarek, had committed suicide. Here, Desmond relived the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, so that Abstergo could obtain a map showing the locations of the Pieces of Eden on Earth.

Shortly after, Desmond escaped Abstergo with the help of fellow Assassin Lucy Stillman, who was working undercover in Abstergo. With the Assassins losing the war against the Templars, the decision was made to train Desmond as a true Assassin in the fastest possible way, through the use of the Animus 2.0, which was made from copied Abstergo blueprints. As such, the Assassins intended to take advantage of the Bleeding Effect, by having Desmond relive the memories of an ancestor to take on his skills, this ancestor being a nobleman in the Italian Renaissance by the name of Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

While reliving these memories, Desmond encountered an entity known only as Minerva, who warned of a natural disaster that would soon recur. In order to avert planet-wide decimation, the Pieces of Eden needed to be brought to a series of temples built by the First Civilization.

Soon after, Desmond and his companions were located by the Templars, though they were able to escape once more. After this, they fled to the Assassin safehouse of Monteriggioni, where Desmond continued to relive Ezio's life in order to locate the Apple of Eden that had come into his possession.

The search led Desmond to the Colosseum Vault in Rome, which contained a secret passage leading to Santa Maria Aracoeli. Here, the Assassins located the Apple of Eden within a hidden vault, and Desmond attempted to retrieve it through performing a short freerunning course. When Desmond touched the Apple, his body was somehow possessed by Juno, one of the First Civilization, and was controlled into stabbing Lucy Stillman in the stomach. Following this, Desmond went into shock, before slipping into a state of unconsciousness.

While Desmond had blacked out, William Miles's team arrived and had him placed him into the Animus. During this time, Desmond relived the memories of Ezio during the search for Leonardo da Vinci, where he subsequently discovered the Pythagorean Vault, receiving the coordinates that would direct the Assassin Order to the Grand Temple. However, as a result of this strain on his weakened psychological state, Desmond slipped into a coma.

As Desmond's coma bound him to the Animus, he was left to try and piece his subconscious mind together. Outside the virtual machine, after burying the deceased Lucy outside Rome, the Assassins flew to the United States while posing as a medical team. When Desmond had fully synchronized with Ezio's remaining genetic memories, he entered into a Synch Nexus and awoke outside the Grand Temple, claiming that he knew what they had to do.

After entering the temple and restoring a power source, Juno's voice commanded him to find "the key", and he began reliving the memories of Haytham Kenway, a British Assassin during the French and Indian War who possessed an amulet that he tried to use to gain access to the Temple. Only, when Desmond finished viewing his memories, it turned out Haytham was a Templar. While taking a break, Shaun informed Desmond they needed more batteries to power the Temple and resolved to find them. Meanwhile, Desmond continued viewing his genetic memory, this time reliving the memories of Ratonhnhaké:ton, Haytham's son with Kaniehtí:io, a Kanien'kehá:ka woman who aided him in his search for the Temple. Ratonhnhaké:ton became Connor, a Colonial Assassin during the American Revolutionary War.

By November 16, Shaun had located another power source in an Abstergo office in Manhattan. The team travelled there, and Desmond climbed the to parachute into the office. He was confronted by Daniel Cross, but Desmond simply knocked him unconscious with the First Civilization battery and escaped.

On December 2, Desmond came to a stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil to recover another power source, which was being worn as a necklace by a wealthy woman. Abstergo guards were present searching for him, so Desmond blended with the crowd and steathily made it to her viewing balcony. However, Cross had already killed the woman and taken the artifact, but Desmond chased him, beat him and escaped with the power source.

Upon their return to the Grand Temple, Shaun immediately located another power source in Egypt, but William ordered Desmond to stay behind as he still hadn't learned the location of the key from Connor's memories. Desmond was concerned for his father's safety, and his fears became true when Abstergo captured William after he recovered the artifact. Vidic sent a message offering to trade William for the Apple: Desmond returned to the Abstergo laboratory in Rome, but refused to bargain, killing Cross and any Abstergo guards who stood in his way. He then used the Apple to kill Vidic, and left with William and the power source. Without the Apple of Eden in their possession, Abstergo put off the satellite launch.

Desmond then completed Connor's memories when he saw he had buried the key in the Davenport Homestead. After digging it up, they returned to open the door inside the Grand Temple. Behind it lay an orb which Juno commanded him to touch: however, Minerva appeared and revealed they had been misled. Juno had sought to conquer the world and her consciousness was imprisoned: if Desmond activated the Eye, it would shield Earth from the solar flare, but at the cost of freeing Juno, as well as his own life.

With only hours before the Second Disaster struck, Desmond chose to touch the orb, acknowledging the Assassins would find a way to stop her. Desmond saved the world and died. During the afternoon, Abstergo found the Temple and recovered his body.

Abstergo Entertainment
By the end of 2012, Abstergo began to sell the Animus as a game console to the public, under their entertainment branch, alongside various other items such as the Angelus implant, Bodyband and Herne+.