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The Piece of Eden is one of several ancient objects left by Those Who Came Before, possessing different effects and is capable of bending the thoughts of one or more individuals to the will of the user. One of the greatest tools known to man, it is capable of warping reality, creating illusions, starting and ending wars, and ushering in forced peace.

Characteristics
It is believed by the staff of Abstergo Industries and the Templars that the Piece of Eden, along with other artifacts like it, was the source of "miracles" such as the Parting of the Red Sea, the successful use of the Trojan Horse, the miracles surrounding "the Christ-figure" who founded the Christian faith and the Biblical plagues that ravaged Egypt, among other supernatural happenings.

The Pieces of Eden are believed by the Templars to be the "apples" of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, as described in the Bible, though not all Pieces of Eden are necessarily apples. The Templar Order had already committed itself to exposing the claims of all religions as false and the Piece of Eden is perfectly suited for this purpose.

Incidentally, each Piece of Eden also contains a holographic map of the planet, Earth, showing the locations of all the other Artifacts. The Masyaf Piece of Eden was destroyed during its experimental use by Abstergo Industries at the Denver International Airport. Using Altaïr's memory of events, however, the map showed the locations of the other Pieces of Eden.

After Altaïr took control of the Assassins, their new goal was to hunt down and destroy the last of the Templars and the Pieces of Eden. During the events of Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, Altaïr starts to study the artifact, writing about its powers and his own theories. When the Cypriots blamed Altaïr for the disasters that struck the island and tried to attack him, he used the Piece of Eden to control their minds, forcing them to hear the truth &mdash; that the real culprit was Armand Bouchart, the Templar Grand Master. After reaching the Archives in Limassol, and killing Bouchart, Altaïr kept the Masyaf Piece of Eden, not leaving it in the Archives as he had first intended. It is unknown what happened to the Masyaf Piece of Eden after Altaïr and Maria traveled "East". On an interesting note, the object is referred to as the "Apple of Eden" in the game.

In Assassin's Creed II, it is revealed that the Apple and other Pieces of Eden have a rather extensive history of changing hands while decrypting "The Truth" files left by Subject 16. Notable figures in history (some Knights Templar, some associated with the Templars, others coming across the artifacts by pure coincidence) have used the Pieces of Eden, although for varying purposes. Such include, but not limited to, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Gandhi, Houdini, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Tsar Nicholas II, Winston Churchill and even Adolf Hitler. It is also revealed that there are at least three Apples remaining in the world, which represent the three divine Golden Apples of Greek mythology.

Resistance
In an e-mail at Abstergo Industries it is revealed that the company's leaders are worried that the Pieces of Eden are not all that is needed to achieve their goal. It is mentioned that some people may be resistant to the mind control effect of the Piece of Eden and that other "Artifacts" must be found to ensure no one is left to cause trouble in the Templar's planned "New World". The only three people so far to show a resistance against the Pieces of Eden are an unnamed person present at the DIA incident, Altaïr, and Ezio. The first sends an e-mail to Dr. Vidic declaring "I know what you did" and gives a firsthand account of the artifact's failed experiment there. Of note is that this person seems to be acting alone and is therefore unlikely to know of the Templars or the Assassins and may not be a member of either organization himself.

Altaïr's resistance is shown when Al Mualim shows him the treasure but Altaïr simply says that to him it is just a piece of silver and does not understand how Al Mualim can believe it to be pure temptation as he describes. This response surprises Al Mualim who later reveals that he had shown the Piece of Eden to Altaïr in an attempt to hypnotize him, but for some reason he could not. However, even though Altaïr is resistant against its hypnotic effect, the Piece of Eden can still do some things to him such as immobilizing him, causing him to hallucinate and clouding his mind, all of which can be observed during the final battle. Ezio's resistance is shown when he finally confronts Rodrigo Borgia in Rome. However, during this confrontation Ezio also has obtained a Piece of Eden and it is unknown if he is naturally resistant to the artifacts or if his own Piece is protecting him from Borgia's.

There is a a good chance that Altaïr also passed on this gift to Desmond Miles and his other descendants. Although a small number of theories can be made upon decrypting Truth File #18, during which Subject 16 makes comments about scientists finding a specific neurological receptor in the human brain that responds solely to the effects of the Eden artifacts. It is highly possible that Altaïr, or more appropriately, one of his ancestors, was born lacking these "dormant receptors" and was able to pass this on through it's descendants as Desmond's genetic family are seemingly the only of which that possess this resistance. Why such a severe neurological mutation such as this (severe, due to the fact that humans were created specifically to be controlled by the artifacts through these receptors) were to occur is left for speculation. A possible idea is that natural evolution disposed of this in an effort to make humans more suitable independently, rather than being solely reliant on their masters for food and shelter. This is could also be explained by another Truth File implies that Altair and Ezio gained their abilities from a mixed bloodline, having genetic material from both humans and Those Who Came Before.

Confirmed Artifacts
(T) = A Templar/Worked with Templars

(A) = Assassin/Worked With Assassins

(!) = Confirmed assassinated

01: The First Apple
Designed to create illusions and control men's minds; can be used in conjunction with the Staff.

Status: Most likely destroyed, but no confirmation.

Owners: Those Who Came Before, Adam and Eve, Abel, Cain, (Jesus? Muhammad?) Solomon's Temple, Al Mualim(A)(T)(!), Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad(A), Ezio Auditore da Firenze(A), Girolamo Savonarola, Unknown, Napoleon(T), Houdini, Templars.

02: The Second Apple
Designed to create illusions and control men's minds; can be used in conjunction with the Staff.

Status: Caught in an explosive satellite malfunction. Possible survived, but if so it is impossible to retrieve in the darkness of space; see the AC1 emails.

Owners: Those Who Came Before, Unknown, Mary I of England(T)(!), Elizabeth I of England, Unknown, Gandhi, Templars.

03: The Third Apple
Designed to create illusions and control men's minds; can be used in conjunction with the Staff.

Status: Unknown

Owners: Those Who Came Before, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson(T)

04: The Fourth Apple
Designed to create illusions and control men's minds; can be used in conjunction with the Staff. Possibly helped in the development of weapons and technology throughout the centuries.

Status: Unknown

Owners: Those Who Came Before, (The Invention of Gunpowder), Nikola Tesla(A), Thomas Edison(T), Henry Ford(T), Adolf Hitler(T)(!), Assassins.

05: The Fifth Apple
Designed to create illusions and control men's minds; can be used in conjunction with the Staff.

Status: Unknown

Owners: Those Who Came Before, NASA(T).

25: The Sword
"The power they wielded cut down their enemies."

- Subject 16

Designed to possibly cut through anything and block any attack. It also probably "passed" along an immense knowledge of combat tactics to the wielder, allowing them to take on entire armies. It's said that Attila the Hun's sword had an attack called the "Scourge of Mars". It was so terrifying that none dared to speak of the details...if there were any that survived it, that is. It created illusions that unnerved their opponents. It is quite possible that the Sword could actually be the legendary Excalibur seeing as it was used by King Arthur. This would explain why King Arthur was such an experienced warrior.

Owners: Those Who Came Before, Perseus, Alexander the Great(T)(!), Attila the Hun(T), King Arthur, Sigurd, Genghis Khan(T)(!), Jeanne d'Arc, Templars.

34: The Staff
"In their hands, the wise lean on a great force."

- Subject 16

Designed to control men's minds and bodies; it has a spot in the headpiece where an Apple of Eden can placed to enhance the mind control powers. Its bottom end is sharpened and can be use as a spear in combat.

Status: Destroyed in the Tunguska Incident.

Owners: Those Who Came Before, Egyptian Pharaohs, Moses, Alexander the Great(T)(!), Saint Peter, Rodrigo Borgia(T), Ezio Auditore da Firenze(A), Unknown, Czar Nicholas II, Rasputin(T)(!).

66: The Shroud
"First plucked from a tree guarded by a snake, its powers perform miracles. Then, worn across the ages, torn asunder, hidden under a sea of red, reconstruct the timeline."

- Subject 16

Unknown, possible function is to heal any ailment, wound, or even resurrect the dead. The Templars were behind the crucifixion of Christ, in order to gain the Shroud. Somehow, the disciples stole the Shroud back and possibly used it to resurrect their Messiah. After this, traces of the Shroud has disappeared.

Status: Unknown

Owners: Those Who Came Before, Jason, Joseph, David, Jesus

Locations of the Artifacts


Note: if looked closely at on the codex map, there are dots marking the locations of the remaining pieces of eden similar to the locations on the global map shown from the Piece of Eden in Assassin's Creed 1.

According to the Codex Map there are exactly 48 Pieces of Eden remaining in the world. Here are the proposed locations of each in no particular order. One was located on the moon, but a different one may have been destroyed in a satellite incident and the staff was destroyed. Not every location seems to hold some kind of historical value to the world, that is because the Templars already have some and they are being held at their facilities, which is why some seem so out of place. The same can possibly also be said about the Assassins, although it's not likely since Lucy said there was so few of them and they are losing the war so far.


 * 1) Giza, Egypt (home of the pyramids, Sphinx, and the many tombs near them)
 * 2) Lake Victoria, Africa, more on the Kenyan side
 * 3) The Gambia River, Gambia (This is one of the three stops that was part of the slave trade route, 3 million slaves were sent to Europe and the Americas from this spot for 3 centuries, it would make sense if the Templars had used a Piece of Eden on them to make a profit)
 * 4) Timbuktu, Mali (center of the Mali Empire and of Saharan trade)
 * 5) Taza, Morocco
 * 6) Canary Islands, Spain
 * 7) The Southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, curiously near the volcano of Opala
 * 8) Odessa, Ukraine
 * 9) Kharkiv, Ukraine (First capital of Soviet Ukraine, site of WWII battles)
 * 10) Rennes-le-Château, France (this is a major site for modern day Templar legends, featured in the Da Vinci Code, it was the supposed origin point of a group called the Priory of Sion)
 * 11) Salisbury Plain, England (The Sword?) (This was supposedly the plain where King Arthur died. Before doing so he asked a squire to take him to the lake that belonged to the Lady of the Lake, where he threw the sword in and she caught it before it even touched the water, then took it back down where it supposedly rests to this day.)
 * 12) Loch Ness, Scotland (Not just for the monster, but also a place that is notably haunted and where Occult rituals have taken place - Alistair Crowley, the so called 'most evil man in the world' was obsessed with the place.)
 * 13) Maroantsetra, Madagascar or somewhere in Toamasina Province
 * 14) Nara, Japan (Isonokami Shrine outside of Nara City is home to one of the three national treasures of Japan, the Kusanagi, a mythical sword that was supposedly used by the sea and storm god Susanoo to kill the demon serpent, Yamata no Orochi. Supposedly the sword can cut through anything, and can even create wind blasts if swung through the air. The Shinto priests who keep the shrine absolutely refuse to let anyone see or examine their treasure, allowing only the Emperor of Japan to know of it's existence.)
 * 15) Somewhere close to Goodhouse, South Africa, near the border between South Africa and Namibia, possibly Augrabies National Park.
 * 16) Kuwait or more likely Al Basrah, Iraq, which has been claimed to be the location of the Garden of Eden
 * 17) Delhi, India or the Taj Mahal in India, just a short distance south of Delhi, could also be Varanasi, a holy place
 * 18) Persepolis, now modern day Shiraz, Iran (This is where leaders like Darius and Xerxes ruled the Persian Empire, Xerxes was killed by the first ever hidden blade used by an Assassin.)
 * 19) Jerusalem, Palestine - (The Apple #1)
 * 20) Somewhere in the jungle near the southern border of Colombia, South America; around the area of the Igara Paranda River
 * 21) Nazca, Perú - site of the Nazca Lines (The Crystal Skulls?)
 * 22) Colombo, Sri Lanka
 * 23) Hellissandur, Iceland, could be Snaefellsjokull Volcano
 * 24) The area of Sabiene Island, Nunavut, Canada (it's really hard to tell with this one because the map blurs out which peninsula or island it could be on, but basically it is somewhere in the bay where Sabiene Island is, or along the coast of it in that area)or around King William Island
 * 25) Phoenix, Arizona, or somewhere outside the city, possibly the Grand Canyon (supposedly near Phoenix is the Superstition Mountains, which is supposedly home to the Lost Dutchman's Mine, a gold mine that is supposedly tremendously rich)
 * 26) Washington D.C. (possible locations include the White House, the Washington Monument, the Capitol building, although there are probably many others)
 * 27) Juneau, Alaska
 * 28) An area close to Pulau Ratewo, Papua Province, Indonesia
 * 29) The middle of the South Pacific Ocean, near the Pitcairn Islands or possibly even Easter Island
 * 30) The Pacific Ocean, close to the coast of Mexico
 * 31) The South Pacific Ocean, close to the Assassin's temple located at 91 degrees W (possibly related to Cthulthu or the underwater bloop sound recorded in the area in 1997)
 * 32) The middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean, in an area where it was believed that Atlantis was believed to have existed
 * 33) The Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred miles off the coast of Brazil
 * 34) The Antartic Ocean, on the side of Antarctica facing up towards the Atlantic, somewhere east of South Georgia Island
 * 35) The Indian Ocean, almost cross sectioned with the tips of Inda, Africa and the Southwestern tip of Australia, near Ile Amsterdam
 * 36) The Antartic Ocean, the side of the Antarctic ocean that faces up towards the Indian Ocean, around French Southern and Antarctic Lands
 * 37) Archangel, Russia
 * 38) Imperatriz, Brazil, south of Belem
 * 39) Barrow, Alaska
 * 40) La Rioja, Argentina or possibly Cordoba
 * 41) An area close to Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia or near Brisbane
 * 42) An area around South Cross, in Western Australia
 * 43) Somewhere in the middle of the Island of Sumatra, Indonesia (possibly Lake Toba)
 * 44) Beijing, China (possibly hidden in the Forbidden City?)
 * 45) Somewhere in the Altai Mountains in southwestern Mongolia
 * 46) Somewhere along the northern Coast of Chukotka province, Russia, near Lake Elgygytgyn
 * 47) An area close to Tiksi, Russia near the Lena river delta

Possible Artifacts and their Functions; Temple locations
These artifacts are based on the locations given in Assassin's Creed, and the clues and hints found in all the games.


 * The Ark of the Covenant: Robert De Sable obtained this at the beginning of the first Assassins Creed. Possible Owners: Moses, The Templars.
 * The Holy Grail: Although the Templars doubt its existence as a Biblical artifact, it could prove to be real. Possible Functions: Grants eternal life, among other things. Possible owners: Jesus.
 * The Crystal Skulls: Quartz skulls found in Ancient Temples. Telepathic Communication. Currently possessed by the Templars, possibly found near the Nazca Lines. There are more than two, although the number is unknown at this time, but it's possible there could be at least 13. Owners: The Templars
 * The "Philadelphia Experiment" artifact: Time travel, said to have been lost in the failed experiment. According to reports, a Navy destroyer ship disappeared for a few minutes, supposedly having traveled to the future. When it reappeared and was searched, most of the men were gone or they were there but dead, with pieces of their bodies melted into the metal of the ship. According to the email in the first AC, it was locked away in a safe location, and curiously, on the Codex map it shows a dot in the middle of the Nevada desert...in Area 51? Owners: The Templars
 * The Golden Fleece: A seemingly weightless and indestructible piece of armor or cloak. In his Codex, Altair speculates that it could have truly existed and was actually made of a unique metal compound he had discovered how to create using knowledge contained within the Apple. Shortly after creating his set of armor with the metal, Altair destroyed anything that could lead to its discovery or creation, fearing the knowledge could one day fall into the hands of the Templars. Possible Owners: Jason of the Argonauts.
 * The Spear of Destiny or Holy Lance: Said to protect its user from death, but causes instant death when lost. Also it's possible that when thrown it can never miss it's target and can't be stopped in mid-flight. Supposedly pierced the side of Christ at his crucifixion, although apocryphally the man who pierced Christ was said to live forever, until he found out and killed himself with the spear. Possible Owners: Longinus, Constantine, Charlemagne and other Holy Roman Emperors
 * The Philosopher's Stone: Turn any substance into pure gold. Possibly what started the gold rush in Coloma, California.

There are 8 locations of Temples mentioned by Minerva that could possibly help save the human race, and more than likely where Desmond and the other modern day Assassins will be heading in the third AC game.


 * New York City, NY, USA; possible locations include the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Library, Madison Square Garden, etc. It's hard to determine because New York city has a huge underground network system, it could be hiding in plain sight, or it could be so far down that no one could possibly have seen it, able to rise up from the earth at will and just hasn't for thousands of years.
 * e Galapagos Islands
 * Somewhere in the middle of the country of Cameroon, Africa; Cameroon is literally in the heart of Africa, covered in dense jungle, it would be completely possible to hide a temple in it and never see it from the sky above.
 * Somewhere in the Badain Jaran Desert in China.
 * Somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean, parallel to the one on the Galapagos Islands. Possible coordinates are S 44 degrees, W 91 degrees (the west part is the longitude that the Galapagos islands are located on)
 * Hidden in the fjords in Northern Norway, possibly close to the peninsula/islands Lofoten, Norway.
 * Somewhere in the middle of the island of Java, Indonesia. (Possibly Borobudur Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in the world)
 * Somewhere in the ocean south of the southeastern tip of Australia.

All the temple locations are parallel to each other, first appearing in a curved row of three, a row of two to make the parallel fold across the map, and then a curved row of three again.

Things the Pieces of Eden share in common:


 * If any one of these pieces were to be destroyed, like the Piece of Eden involved in the Tunguska Explosion, they would cause explosions similar to nuclear blasts, at least enough to level a major city. It's even been shown that at least one of these things were part of the Manhattan project in one of the glyphs left behind by Subject 16.
 * It's highly possible that The Ones that Came Before had mastered all forms of technology, including controlled nuclear fusion which is another reason these things still have power to them even after thousands of years of being used throughout human history, and another reason for the blast theory above.
 * It is possible, but very slim, that through their advanced technology, the Pieces of Eden are omni-synched: synchronized to each other throughout time and locations of where they are on the planet. It would explain why the one Apple shows the location of the remaining 46 pieces on the map shown to Altair, not showing the one lost in the satellite incident or the one lost in the Tunguska incident.

Trivia

 * Thanks to the glyphs, a number of legends were proven to be "real" assuming the plot of Assassin's Creed, for example:
 * The Greek Myth of Perseus.
 * King Arthur existed as he had in the legends about him and not just the way historians think he did.
 * It is interesting and odd that Ezio always has the Apple of Eden with him in the final memory of Assassin's Creed 2. Even though Rodrigo Borgia took the Apple from him in the first battle and put it in the Staff's holder, it is still seen on his belt and he has it while talking to Minerva, despite never taking it back. Or that's just the shape of the bag he put the apple in and the creators just decided it didn't really matter if they removed it or not.
 * During the battle against Rodrigo in the Sistine Chapel, Ezio creates "clones" much like Al Mualim did against Altaïr. If Ezio is customized even if he is wearing Altairs armor without customizing his original armor, the other Ezio will be dyed with different colors and equipped with armors whereas when he is not customized at all, Ezio's clones will be perfectly identical to the real Ezio (Confirmed)