Modern times

The Modern Times is the time period the Assassin's Creed games actually take place in.

Description
The war between Assassins and Templars still continue, although the Assassins have greatly decreased in numbers and gone mostly into hiding, the Templars have grown and are publicly disguised. One of these disguises is the company Abstergo. It is still uncertain just how much the Templars have grown in influence and how many organizations like Abstergo exist.

Earth in 2012 is a drastically different world than we would recognize today. If you read Vidic's E-mails you will learn that a 'Second Plague' has struck Africa, leaving 96% of Africans dead in a three month period and the continent nearly uninhabited. Another e-mail states that Mexico is increasing its border security to prevent more illegal American immigrants from entering the country and inciting violence between them and Mexican troops. These border brawls have lead to the deaths of 300 and leaving 1000 injured. The motion-picture industry has collapsed, as the last film studio has closed due to piracy and the rising prominence of video games. Abstergo Industries is being investigated for manipulating a small town's water supply in order to test a synthetic drug referred to as New Fluoride. This has pressured Abstergo to launch their satellite on December 21st to avoid having their assets frozen. The U.S. and E.U. are constructing jointly owned oil platforms in the Weddell Sea. 'Hurricane Season' has become a yearly occurrence as hurricane duration, frequency, strength, and location have increased to the point where most coastal cities must now live in constant fear of these devastating storms.

At the end of Assassin's Creed II, it is revealed that the earth is possibly going to experience a geomagnetic reversal in the near future. This is revealed by Minerva at the end of Assassin's Creed II. The pictures by Minerva look Mayan, and December 2012 is when the Meso-American longcount calender falls upon the 13th longcount. The last time a 13th longcount passed was August 11, 3114 BCE. Each longcount ushers in a new era, so the Mayans thought, and was welcomed with celebration. However, there are some who believe that this means that the Mayan thought that the world would end on that date, with the all too common 'their calender stops at December 21, 2012' phrase, but the calender actually extends to a repeating of the longcount 1.0.0.0.0.0, last seen November 13th, 2720 BCE. No dates follow this particular longcount (occurring on October 13th, 4772) but there is no reason to suggest the world comes to an end, rather, that the dates were simply getting irrelevant to their culture's own time period and they felt no need to go further. The game's storyline clearly makes use of the hype involving the reversal of the magnetic fields on Earth, leading to a period where solar radiation could easily penetrate to the surface and cause quite a few troubles for life. It is likely that the Pieces of Eden will be used to thwart this disaster in the third instalment, perhaps coupled with considerably more playtime in Modern Times.

It is interesting that although in 2012, neither Abstergo's guards or the Assassins use guns in Assassins Creed 2, instead using advanced weapon sticks resembling swords and hidden blades, respectively. When, however, the Assassins attack Abstergo in Assassins Creed, shooting can be heard. The reason that the Abstergo guards were using the weapon sticks was to not kill Desmond, Lucy, Rebecca, or Shaun, but rather knock unconscious. Abstergo still needs Desmond and his genetic memories, so killing him wouldn't help them achieve their goal, and by killing the others they could be losing valuable information on the Assassin's that could be extracted by torture or other methods.

It is suspected that the part of Assassin's Creed in the present takes place in Italy, considering that the outside of the hideout looks almost exactly like Florence in Ezio's time, and that the underground parking lot in Abstergo and the Assassin's hideout have signs that have words in Italian, including "sezione", which means "section" in English. In Abstergo's garage there are signs in Italian saying "Parcheggio reservato" meaning "Reserved parking" and "Altezza totale" meaning "Altitude". In the end of Assassins Creed II Lucy says that they can hide out in a cabin north and Rebecca later says that it's a long drive meaning that the cabin is possibly in Austria or Germany or Switzerland.

Assassins

 * Desmond Miles
 * Lucy Stillman
 * Rebecca Crane
 * Shaun Hastings
 * Subject 16

Templars

 * Alan Rikkin
 * Warren Vidic
 * Nancy Nilop
 * Jane Birkam
 * Audrey Jacobs
 * Richard

Unknown

 * Leila Marino