Modern times

Modern times refers to the period between, and including, the start of the 20th century through the beginning of the 21st century . This era saw the overall decline of the Assassin Order and the ascendance of the Templar Order, including Desmond Miles' capture for use in the Animus project.

Conspiracies and thefts
The Templars were able to recover several Pieces of Eden during the Modern Times, typically by murdering their previous owners. Among 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.

Additionally, the  mission to the Moon was in fact a Templar expedition to recover an Apple of Eden that was on the Moon's surface.

The Destruction of 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 Nikolai survived the explosion, during which he had a vision from the First Civilization.

Nikolai eventually discovered a shard of the staff in the necklace of Rasputin, and recovered it from the latter's grave. 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 and 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 Sergei and trained his son to fight any other Assassins who came for them. Eventually a group of those who worked for the FBI tried to explain to Nikolai they had looked after his family in Russia and only wanted information about his vision. Nikolai did not believe them and initiated a struggle that only Innokenti survived.

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, after he killed his double and left his bunker in Berlin.

Philadelphia Project
Templars had an unclear involvement in the Philadelphia Project, as they gained the data from Animus Subject Twelve confirming that an American Naval ship was briefly thrust into a future timeline. Fearful of temporal paradoxes, the Templar company, Abstergo Industries, contained the artifact responsible.

The Great Purge
In November 2000, the Templars successfully planted a sleeper agent among the Assassins, who plunged them into disarray by assassinating the Mentor of the Order. By September 2012, the Templars had managed to locate and destroy virtually every Assassin encampment around the world during an operation known as the Great Purge.

Retrieval of the Prophet's Codex
Sometime in 2002, Daniel Cross was officially inducted into the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order and given an assignment by Dr. Warren Vidic through e-mail. Daniel traveled to Moscow, Russia to find the "Prophet's Codex" in the library of Ivan the Terrible hidden beneath the.

Attending a play there, Daniel quietly made his way through the theatre to find a hidden door which led to the library. Upon entering it, he was spooked by an Assassin sentry who intended to greet him, causing Daniel to loose his Hidden Blade. However, Daniel pretended to be the Assassin's replacement as sentry, and the man eagerly told Daniel about the location of the Codex when Daniel inquired.

When the sentry left, Daniel opened the Prophet's Codex, written by Ezio Auditore da Firenze. He read out Minerva's speech to Vidic via his earpiece, noting the name "Desmond". Afterward, Daniel took the box containing the Codex and killed the sentry, before calling a clean-up team and leaving the library.

The Second Plague
In September or October 2006, a virus dubbed L-11 broke out in Africa. After 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 still continued to cross the border.

On 3 September 2012, the Global Weather Association 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 in the East Coast 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 nonviable.

Meanwhile, the USA and  continued to build jointly-owned oil platforms in the, despite protests that the platforms violated the .

On 9 December 2010, junior professor Shaun Hastings released confidential information on Abstergo Industries to ; Abstergo quickly had the letter pulled, and Shaun abducted for interrogation. The next day, while he was being transferred, Rebecca Crane hacked the onboard computer of Abstergo's van to show that it was low on fuel. When the van pulled over to refuel, Rebecca helped Shaun escape, and introduced him to the Assassin Order.

Clay Kaczmarek
In 2010, William Miles gave Clay the task of infiltrating Abstergo Industries. His job was to access the personal computer of Alan Rikkin, the company's CEO, and uncover the details surrounding the secretive "Animus project".

Clay's efforts yielded information on the project's research funding, the name of its lead, and the location of the new facility in Italy. Thereafter, the Assassins decided to plant Clay deeper into Abstergo as a test subject of the program. He was informed that there was a mole already inside Abstergo by the name of Lucy Stillman, who would aid him in his escape when the time came.

On 1 February 2011, Clay was captured by the Lineage Discovery and Acquisition team and inducted into the Animus subject as Subject 16. He was forced to relive the memories of his ancestors, particularly Ezio Auditore da Firenze, for long periods of time. Even though Vidic kept the true purpose of their genetic explorations a secret, Clay realized that their efforts were focused on locating a mythical "Apple of Eden". When Clay inquired about the Apple, Vidic threatened that Clay could not reasonably expect to be released if he knew what they truly sought. Later, William contacted Clay and told him to focus on his task; when the time came, Lucy would rescue him, as they were a team.

Eventually, Clay discovered the true purpose of the Animus project and decided that it was time for him to escape. However, his over-exposure to the Animus caused him to suffer from extreme bouts of the Bleeding Effect. In addition, after conversing with Juno, Clay discovered Lucy's true allegiance to the Templars.

Following this revelation, Clay was convinced by Juno to deliver a message to his eventual successor, Desmond Miles. As he plotted his suicide, Clay also created an artificially intelligent construct of himself inside the Animus by hacking the machine throughout the night.

After sending one final e-mail to his father, Clay slit his wrists with a ballpoint pen and used his blood to paint cryptic messages for his eventual successor to find.

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, 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 another available.

To that end, Abstergo kidnapped Desmond Miles and took him to their facility in Rome. Desmond relived the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, so that Abstergo could obtain a map showing all the locations of the Pieces of Eden on Earth.

Shortly after, Desmond escaped Abstergo with the help of Lucy Stillman. While Lucy claimed to be an undercover Assassin to gain Desmond's trust, the escape was actually a part of Project Siren, a plan devised by Vidic to facilitate a quicker recovery of Desmond's genetic memories.

Lucy brought Desmond to an Assassin hideout and rendezvoused with Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. 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 Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

While reliving Ezio's memories, Desmond encountered 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 a team of Templars led by Vidic himself, though they were able to escape once more. The group then fled to 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 possessed by Juno, and he was forced to stab Lucy in the stomach. Desmond then went into shock, slipping into unconsciousness.

After Desmond 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 VinciConstantinople]], 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. 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 memories with the help of a virtual construct of Subject 16, he entered into a Synch Nexus and awoke outside the Grand Temple, claiming that he knew what they had to do.

After the Assassins entered the temple and restoring a power source, Juno's voice commanded Desmond to find "the key". To that end, Desmond began reliving the memories of Haytham Kenway, a British Templar during the French and Indian War who possessed an amulet that he tried to use to gain access to the Temple. 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 eventually became an Assassin during the American Revolutionary War, going by the name of Connor.

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

On 2 December, 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 and searching for him, so Desmond blended with the crowd and stealthily made it to her viewing balcony. However, Cross had already killed the woman and taken the artifact. 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 were realized when Abstergo captured William after he recovered the power source. Vidic sent a message offering to trade William for the Apple; Desmond returned to the Abstergo facility in Rome, but refused to bargain, killing Cross and any Abstergo guards who stood in his way. He then used the Apple to make the guards 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 eventually found the memory he was looking for, discovering that Connor had buried the key in the Davenport Homestead near Connor Davenport's grave. After digging it up, the Assassins returned to open the door inside the Grand Temple. Behind it lay an orb which Juno commanded Desmond to touch in order to prevent the oncoming cataclysm. However, Minerva appeared and revealed they had been misled: Juno had sought to conquer the world and her consciousness was imprisoned. While activating the Eye would save the world, it would also free Juno and end Desmond's life.

With only hours before the Second Disaster struck, Desmond chose to touch the orb, acknowledging the Assassins would find a way to stop Juno. Telling the others to leave, he activated the Eye, choosing to die to save Earth from the solar flare. That afternoon, Abstergo found the Temple and recovered Desmond's body, leaving his bag and Hidden Blade behind.

Post - Second Disaster events
By the end of 2012, Abstergo began selling the Animus as a game console to the public through their entertainment branch, alongside various other items such as the Angelus implant, Bodyband and Herne+.

By 14 May 2013, Shaun, Rebecca, and William broke a six-month "silence" following Desmond's death. By 20 May, the three arrived in a coastal region of Peru awaiting interception by Gavin. Gavin welcomed the trio aboard Altair II, only to be informed that William was stepping down from his position and naming Gavin as his replacement. William also gave Gavin a book that contained everything William knew about the Order, tasking Gavin with rebuilding the Brotherhood.

By 25 May, Altair II docked in Acapulco, Mexico, with Rebecca helping to devise the new Hephaestus Email Network 2.0. Two days later, Gavin discovered a clue in William's book containing a poem and a set of numbers written in different directions.

On 29 May, Gavin gave orders to Shaun and Rebecca to return to the United States, as he needed some "eyes and ears on America". On 10 June, Rebecca sent a message to Gavin remarking that Texas "is awesome" and bidding him good luck. On the same day, an unknown person reacted to a magazine article that the Tunguska explosion was caused by the Assassins, not a meteorite as per the official story. They also remarked that Nikolai Orelov knew about the event.

By 27 August, Rebecca sent a text message to Gavin about her and Shaun's plan to retrieve Desmond's body and Abstergo's plans for Desmond's genetic info.

Abstergo Entertainment
By 3 September, Abstergo Entertainment's Montreal branch was hiring five persons in the areas of Product Development, Technical Support, Customer Contact, Office Support, and Management. After Abstergo released the postings, Rebecca sent a text message to Gavin, claiming she wanted to investigate. Three days later, Shaun and Rebecca traveled to the Farm and found it destroyed. By 11 September, the Assassin team composed of Gavin, Susan Drayton, and Eric Cooper discussed the happenings in Osaka, Japan, as Gavin's informant there had gone "silent". Gavin then announced he would be heading to the Philippines to do some "shopping".

On 1 October, Emmanuel Barraza inspected the guns Gavin bought from the Philippine gun makers in preparation for a possible fight in Osaka. By 11 October, the day Abstergo Entertainment celebrated one year in Montreal, Rebecca sent Gavin a text message asking about Abstergo Entertainment CCO Olivier Garneau and what he knew about Templars and Assassins.

On 24 October, Rebecca and Shaun arrived in Montreal, and four days later, the two heard rumors of a vial in the Abstergo Entertainment building. Rebecca informed Gavin that she and Shaun had infiltrated Abstergo; on the same day, two of the company's employees, Jennifer Tam and Philippe Chartrand, exchanged emails about a new employee and the employee's involvement in the Sample 17 Project.

On 2 November, an unknown Initiate recovered a blood vial from Abstergo. Jennifer and Philippe continued to exchange emails about the memories of Bernard and Edward Kenway, and Jennifer mentioned that she had a crush on the new barista working in the lobby. Over several days, they continued to discuss Shaun and the Noob; however, their conversations eventually turned to a string of hack jobs targeted at Abstergo Entertainment's servers.

The hackings, perpetuated by the new research analyst at the behest of IT specialist John, began as a means to retrieve information pertinent to Desmond; the data was then delivered to Shaun and Rebecca, posing as a barista and courier respectively. The hacking soon turned to data on Abstergo's internal workings, culminating with information about an Abstergo board meeting in Chicago. Olivier subsequently disappeared en route to the meeting, putting Abstergo on high alert.

As the hacking escalated, several employees were moved to containment cells in the basement of the Abstergo building, including the new research analyst. John gave the new research analyst the proper clearance to leave their cell, and instructed them to access the company's main server to remove all record of their activities. However, John's ultimate plan was for Juno--currently existing on the digital network--to possess the employee's body and take physical form. However, Juno was too weak to manifest and vanished, inciting John's rage.

In an attempt to make the employee a more suitable host, John snuck into their cell and poisoned them. However, Abstergo guards broke in and killed John before he could carry out his plans. John was subsequently blamed for the employee's hacking activities, clearing their name.

By 2 December, Rebecca informed Gavin that their informant had been killed, and that she and Shaun would be leaving Montreal. However, the two then contacted the new research analyst, saying that they would be happy for the help if the analyst chose to keep hacking Abstergo Entertainment's servers.

Osaka, Japan
On 3 December, an Initiate spy aboard the Altair II updated their database after successfully rigging the Hephaestus 2.0, and reported that they could now upload full reports to the Initiates database. The next day, the same spy reported that Gavin and Emmanuel had uncovered the ruined compound of the Order's Osaka chapter. Using his Eagle Vision, Gavin determined that the, rather than Abstergo, were behind the attack. They then found the remains of Gavin's contact and former mentor, and he ordered his men to scout the area for survivors and begin searching out the yakuza perpetrators.

On 6 December, the Initiate spy reported that Emmett discovered that a ruthless branch of the yakuza, the Onmoraki-Gumi, had recently been wiped out by gang warfare. Six days later, the spy reported that even though the Onmoraki-Gumi was gone, it was still somehow running its front companies. Susan tried her luck at finding the location of their new headquarters in a yakuza-controlled gambling den but failed on her attempt. Emmanuel was more successful, both winning and tracking down the new headquarters.

The next day, the spy reported that the identity of the Onmoraki-Gumi's new leader was unknown, and crew members began placing bets on what the leader looked like. Gavin claimed that the only way to move forward was to confront the yakuza directly. Meanwhile, on 16 December, an Initiate spy in Philadelphia uploaded an Abstergo file concerning the ancestry of Milton Jones.

On 17 December, the Initiate spy aboard Altair II reported that Gavin and Emmanuel visited the Onmoraki-Gumi's headquarters and requested an audience with their leader. The Onmoraki sentry, Kiyoshi Takakura, initially refused and entered into a scuffle with Gavin. However, when Emmanuel overheard other gang members mention the Brotherhood and saw that Kiyoshi bore a hidden blade, he stepped forward to intervene, injuring himself on Kiyoshi's weapon. He then asked Kiyoshi to recite the first tenet of The Creed, which he did successfully, and Emmanuel revealed the Assassin insignia on his dog tags. Kiyoshi offered a sincere apology before allowing them inside.

The spy reported that Osaka's new Mentor was a 78-year old woman known as Saeko Mochizuki or "Osoroshii Baba", who took over the Brotherhood when the yakuza attacked their compound and killed her husband, Kenichi Mochizuki. In retaliation, she led the Assassins to attack and destroy the yakuza, then took over the gang. She also told Gavin that she used the Onmoraki-Gumi to blend her Assassins into the city, noting that the Assassins and the yakuza have similar ways of working in the dark to serve the light.

On 20 December, the spy reported that Osoroshii Baba was happy to be reunited with Gavin, but warned that the Osaka Brotherhood was still recovering from its battles with Abstergo and the yakuza, and they were low on resources. She also noted that Japan's restrictive gun laws and harsh penalties kept them at a disadvantage against Abstergo's unlimited resources. As a tribute to the new Osaka Brotherhood, Gavin offered the guns his team purchased in the Philippines and gave Osoroshii the contact details of their supplier. In return, Osoroshii gave him a new Animus headset that they recovered from an Abstergo facility in Japan, believing that the war between the Assassins and the Templars had escalated into a new dimension.

Three days later, the Initiate spy reported that while Dr. Chiu was changing the bandage on Emmanuel's hand, Gavin complained that Emmanuel was not doing his job as Gavin was turned into a "living hamburger" when Kiyoshi beat him up. The spy noted that Emmanuel vowed never to take a human life because of what happened on his first assignment as an Assassin. Gavin then grumbled that they needed an enforcer.

By Christmas day, 25 December, the spy reported that all the crew of the Altair II took their dinner together. As they consumed their food, their conversation did not include the topics of murder, conspiracies, and desperate survival.

By New Year's eve, the spy reported that Susan was embarrassed when Osoroshii inspected her ship for cleanliness and dragged Eric Cooper, who declared himself the winner of their bet, and the Initiate spy along to clean up the ship and after they accomplished their work, Osoroshii made them a homemade toshikoshi soba as a reward for their efforts, in which the spy noted that it was delicious. Meanwhile, Kiyoshi and Emmanuel sparred for three hours, before Kiyoshi dragged him out into a karaoke bar. Dr. Chiu filmed Emmanuel singing with her phone and he swore that he renounce his stance on killing if she ever showed it to anyone. Then, the spy also reported that when Gavin gets stressed, he runs, scrambling acroos the rooftops, thinking about his old friend and Mentor, who must have taught him much, and who was just another ghost to chase him around the world.

By 15 January, the Initiate spy reported that Gavin was satisfied of the Assassin presence in Japan and he made the call to move on. Again, the team took their direction from William's book, but this time Emmett questioned Gavin why didn't they ask William for the answer, to which Gavin replied that it was their mission to find out and he told Emmett that it doesn't mean that William was back in the Order, he knew where he was or how to get in touch with him.

Protvino, Russia
By 7 February, an Initiates spy in Abstergo Entertainment reported that he fixed a glitch in the Animus Omega so that the simulation will run at peak performance to obtain the information they needed. Meanwhile, by 15 February, an unknown woman was seen near Saint Basil's Cathedral.

Four days later, the Assassin team aboard Altair II solved the next puzzle in William's journal which led them to their new destination: Moscow. The Initiate spy remarked that a new puzzle will help them narrow down things within the city.

On 7 March, the spy reported that Gavin, Emmanuel, and Emmett were hurtling towards Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway and the crew of Altair II will have to sail towards Russia and land in St. Petersburg. Since Emmett is away, the spy grabbed this opportunity to peek in Emmett's computers and discovered that there is an Assassin lab in Protvino, just outside of Moscow, and wondered why was the Abstergo not spying on this lab, even assuming that Abstergo didn't know about this lab.

By 16 March, the spy reported the Gavin's team had made contact with an Assassin in Moscow named Galina Voronina. Galina said that she wants Gavin's team to assassinate her mother, an Assassin scientist who went insane through the Bleeding Effect when she made herself as the test subject of her Animus which she built and forced the remaining members of her cell into it. In order to get to her mother, they have to fight through the remnants of the Russian brotherhood, driven insane by the Bleeding Effect, which was crawling inside the Assassin lab in Protvino. Emmett added that Galina told them that her mother claims she was talking to Eve.