Mario Auditore

Mario Auditore (1434 – 1500) was the leader of the Italian Assassins from at least 1476 to his death, a, and the ruler of Monteriggioni from 1454 until his death.

During his life, Mario worked with his brother, Giovanni, also an Assassin, to gather the lost pages of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex, as well as fortifying and defending Monterrigioni to prevent invasions. Under his rule, Monteriggioni became a flourishing community again.

He was also responsible for the training of his nephew, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, into a fully-trained Assassin. After the training, he continued to provide guidance and advice, up to his death during the siege of Monteriggioni in 1500, at the hands of Cesare Borgia.

Early life
Mario was born in Monteriggioni, Tuscany. On the night of his birth, a Florentine mercenary who had been hired to kill the Auditore family infiltrated the Villa Auditore. As midwives tended to Mario's mother, the mercenary was found dead in the nursery. The mercenary's death remained a mystery, as Mario was the only person present in the room.

When Mario was two, his younger brother Giovanni was born. Mario came from a bloodline of notable Assassins, and therefore also became one, beginning his training at a young age.

When he was six years old, Mario played an important role in the Battle of Anghiari. While on an expedition to with his father, Mario alerted the condottiero  to dust clouds over the road, which signaled a surprise advance on the Florentines by Milanese troops. Because of this, the attack was stopped, and the Florentines won the battle.

However, in contrast to helping the Florentines during that instance, Mario spent most of his life defending Monteriggioni from their persistent attacks on the town.

Ruler of Monteriggioni
In 1454, after Mario's younger brother Giovanni decided to move to Florence to pursue a career in banking, and after their father died, Mario became the lone ruler of Monteriggioni. Mario remained at the Villa, and exchanged letters with Giovanni to keep in touch. In one of these letters, Mario defended his decision to stay in Monteriggioni by writing that he "preferred fighting like a man, to filling out balance sheets." It is insinuated that he rarely saw the family after that.

Under Mario's rule, Monteriggioni experienced a time of prosperity. Mario opened several shops and guilds in the city and greatly increased the city's defenses in order to withstand Florentine attacks. In 1454, he discovered a Florentine informant, Luciano Pezzati, living in Monteriggioni. Alongside his own mercenaries, Mario faced Pezzati and his men.

Mario dueled Luciano, barely defeating him, and had him dragged back to the Villa Auditore. From the Florentine spy, he discovered that the city was sending the condottiero Federico da Montefeltro to lead an attack on Monteriggioni. However, under Mario's leadership, the city was successfully defended and the invasion attempt ended in failure.

Eventually, Luciano Pezatti confessed the truth behind the siege, that the Florentines had attacked Monteriggioni in search of a mysterious artifact. Curious as to what this mysterious artifact might be, Mario gathered his architects and historians, eventually discovering that, years before, the city well had once been drained and excavated.

Together with a miner and some of his men, Mario entered the well. While at first they did not find anything, Mario saw that the miner's flame was flickering while near the back wall, indicating the presence of an opening. Together, they pushed against the wall and found a hidden corridor, filled with various deadly traps. Members of their group lost their lives to the traps and Mario himself was caught by a swinging pendulum, which blinded him in the left eye and left him with a scar across his face.

Finally, despite their injuries, the group finally found a wooden box within the well, from which a presence told Mario's men that their "pain was temporary" and to "ignore it." Mario's men were certain that the presence would heal their wounds, but seeing as the box had been hidden for so long, Mario believed that there had to be a reason why it was there and that opening it would be unwise.

At this, Mario's men rebelled, and he was forced to strike them down. Mario was curious as to what the box might contain, but he promised himself not to open it. Instead, he carried it to the Villa Auditore, ignoring the artifact's offers for him to be healed. After storing it temporarily within the villa, he summoned his brother to pick it up, dismissing it as "the Brotherhood's problem."

Family reunion
In 1476, Giovanni and two of his sons, Federico and Petruccio, were executed under the pretext of treason, by order of Rodrigo Borgia, the Grand Master of the Templar Order, the arch-enemies of the Assassins. After evacuating Florence to get to safety, Giovanni's remaining son Ezio escorted his mother Maria and sister Claudia out of the city and towards Monteriggioni.

Just as the three neared Monteriggioni, they were ambushed by Vieri de' Pazzi and his soldiers. In the middle of the fight between his nephew and the gang, Mario and his mercenaries arrived and saved them, before he insisted that they accompany him back to Monteriggioni. There, Mario told Ezio of his Assassin heritage, and that he needed to be trained so that he could properly fight and defeat the Templars, as well as protect his mother and sister.

Mario then began Ezio's training to become an Assassin, teaching him combat skills such as disarming and countering, military tactics, as well as how to taunt his enemy. In 1478, Ezio announced his decision to take Maria and Claudia to Spain, against Mario's wishes. Due to his pride in his Assassin heritage, Mario stormed off, and left for San Gimignano before Ezio could rethink his decision.

Feeling guilty, Ezio followed Mario to San Gimignano to aid him in killing Vieri de' Pazzi. When Ezio successfully assassinated Vieri and began to abuse the body with insults, Mario stepped in and urged him to have respect towards the dead. Then, addressing Vieri's body, he delivered a short monologue and closed the corpse's eyes.

When they returned to Monteriggioni, Mario's men celebrated the victory, and Mario himself showed Ezio the Sanctuary, an alcove for the memory of legendary Assassins, which was hidden under the villa. He also explained to Ezio the importance of the Codex, and talked about a few of the pages that he and Giovanni had collected and translated over the years, before placing the page he had obtained from Vieri onto the Codex Wall.

Later on, after having observed Ezio as he placed feathers in the chest in Maria's bedroom in an attempt to hearten his mother into speaking again, Mario intervened upon seeing Ezio deposit the fiftieth feather. He attempted to discourage Ezio from continuing something that he considered to be a "vain effort," and then departed after informing his nephew that he had left a new weapon at the city blacksmith for him to use.

Acquisition of the Apple
In 1488, Mario and some of the other leading Assassins met in Venice, planning to acquire the "Apple" from Rodrigo Borgia, knowing that it was to be delivered to him that day. When they found Rodrigo, they saw that they had been beaten to him by Ezio, who was locked in combat with Rodrigo and his men.

The other Assassins rushed in to aid him, and after they had defeated Rodrigo's guards and almost killed Rodrigo himself, the Templar leader fled for his life, leaving the Apple behind in the process. Speaking with his nephew, Mario revealed to Ezio that all those who assisted him were members of the Assassins, much to his surprise. That same night, the group met atop a tower in the city, where Ezio was inaugurated into the Assassin Order.

After securing the Piece of Eden, Mario studied it alongside Niccolò Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Ezio. When the Apple was activated, Mario and Niccolò were both affected by the artifact and collapsed, clutching their heads in discomfort. Ezio and Leonardo however remained unfazed, though the two were slightly blinded by the bright flare of light that the Apple emitted.

At this, Mario recognized the Apple's potential for great power, and urged Ezio to protect it by taking it to the Rocca di Ravaldino in Forlì, as the citadel was protected by their ally Caterina Sforza. When they departed, Mario also invited Leonardo to visit the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni.

In 1498, as Ezio worked to free Florence from the rule of Girolamo Savonarola, Mario arrived in the city and witnessed his nephew assassinate the monk, as well as Ezio's accompanying speech to the Florentine people.

Journey to Rome
"Better in the hands of the earth than in the hands of man."

- Mario regarding the Staff.

In December 1499, Mario, Ezio and several other Assassins gathered in the Villa Auditore to find out the prophecy hidden in the Codex. After Ezio had rearranged the pages, the group discovered that they concealed a world map with locations of the Temples. Ezio concluded that the nearest vault was in the Vatican, and that Rodrigo Borgia had became Pope so that he could have easy access to the Vault and the Papal Staff.

Ezio then left for Rome to assassinate Rodrigo and enter the Vault, while Mario and his fellow Assassins caused trouble around the city to distract the Papal army's attention. From their confrontation, Ezio spared Rodrigo, but was able to use the combined effects of the Staff and Apple of Eden to enter the Vault. After communicating with Minerva, one of the First Civilization, he left the room, returning to the antechamber.

Afterwards, Ezio met up with Mario in the Sistine Chapel, where he commented to his nephew that the Staff was "Better in the hands of the earth, than in the hands of man." From there, after Ezio had climbed his way up from the handholds in the room, the two of them fought their way back through the Vatican until they reached the Tiber river.

Once they reached the river, Mario encouraged Ezio to drop the Apple into the waters, but Ezio could not muster the courage to do it. Reassuring his nephew, Mario took the Apple from Ezio and told him that he would keep it in his possession, until the time that he made his decision.

Siege of Monteriggioni and death
Returning to Monteriggioni on horseback, Ezio and Mario made it back to the town by the afternoon of New Year's Day, 1500. As they neared the gates, Mario listened to Ezio as he told him about what had occurred in the Vault, though Mario advised him that – as the foretold events were stated to happen in the future – they need not worry about them for the time being.

Mario also told Ezio about the new cannons that he had installed across the city battlements, after a cannonball startled his nephew when it crashed into the earth nearby.

As the two rode into town, they were cheered for by the townspeople for their victory in the Vatican, and while Mario returned to the villa, Ezio began to enjoy the new abundance of time he had.

Mario later met with his family, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Caterina Sforza inside the villa to discuss what Ezio had discovered in the vault. Ezio explained to having encountered a "moving painting" of the goddess Minerva, who warned him of the impending catastrophe and hidden temples that may save humanity. But then she spoke to a phantom, Desmond, as if he was standing right next to Ezio. To this, Mario pondered what it all meant.

Machiavelli changed the subject, asking of Rodrigo's fate, though Ezio confessed to having spared the Spaniard. In response, Machiavelli stormed out, promising that Ezio's indecisiveness was sure to have consequences, though Mario told his nephew that he did not know why he spared Rodrigo, but that he trusted in Ezio's judgement. Mario also promised that Machiavelli would see reason.

At dawn on January 2 – Claudia's birthday – Monteriggioni was besieged by the Borgia, under the command of Cesare Borgia. Mario quickly met Ezio and mentioned that he would keep the Apple safe with him while Ezio stopped the enemy's cannons, with himself leading a frontal assault on the Borgia.

However, Mario became wounded during the battle, and as he attempted to flee back into the city, he collapsed within the town's gates. He was soon followed by Cesare and his three lieutenants: Octavian de Valois, Juan Borgia and Micheletto Corella, and as he attempted to regain his feet, Cesare approached him and called out for Ezio's attention.

Holding the Apple in his hand, Cesare then shot Mario in the head as he lay beneath him, killing the Assassin as an "invitation" from Cesare's family to Ezio's, and as an incentive for Ezio to go to Rome. Cesare then had Mario decapitated, and his head placed on a pike, which he later showed to Mario's nephew during the latter's escape.

After Mario's death, the town was destroyed, the Villa Auditore was desecrated, and the Assassin Order was forced to relocate to Rome, under the acting leadership of Niccolò Machiavelli.

Personality and characteristics
Mario dressed in the flamboyant style of the Italian nobility of the Renaissance, and sported long, dark hair that he slicked back neatly. He also owned a scar over his left eye, which he was blind in. He was known as a boisterous man and made no apologies for his passion for fighting and alcohol, though he could be quite cold towards someone when they showed an ignorant attitude.

Mario cared deeply for his family, and was extremely proud of his Assassin heritage. From his letter to Giovanni and their differences in fighting styles, it can be assumed that he was often playfully critical of his brother, much like his nephew Federico was with Ezio. He also enjoyed a very good relationship with his nephew, and the two became very close, with Mario often treating Ezio like a son.

The Assassin insignia was embroidered onto the leather of Mario's left shoulder pad, while the Auditore coat of arms was stitched onto the cape he wore.

Upon closer inspection, one could also note that Mario often placed his hand on the shoulder of the person he was speaking to, presumably as a sign of closeness or affection.

Trivia

 * Mario's memories were extracted from the genetic memory of one of his descendants by Abstergo Industries, and relived by another person in 2012.
 * Mario believed in.
 * The novel Assassin's Creed: Renaissance described Mario as having a thick black beard, though in Assassin's Creed II he has only a thin mustache. No mention is made of his scar.
 * When he first introduced himself, Mario exclaimed to Ezio that "It's a-me, Mario!" which was a reference to from the  game series, who often said the same line.
 * Mario was often referred to as "ubriacone" ("drunkard" in Italian) by the Pazzi family.
 * Although Mario lived in the Villa Auditore, he was only seen during the memories, or when the fiftieth feather was deposited in Maria's feather box.
 * A rare glitch occurred in the memory "Homecoming." With Eagle Vision activated, Mario was occasionally not marked with a blue glow, allowing him to be grabbed or attacked.
 * In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, during the "Mass Exodus" sequence, Mario could be attacked and killed without any penalty, although it had no impact on the story.
 * One of the artifacts Desmond Miles found in Monteriggioni was Mario's longsword embedded in the ground, near a tree.
 * At the age of 65, Mario remained a skilled freerunner, as shown during his escape with Ezio from the Vatican. He could also easily perform a Leap of Faith into the Tiber.
 * He also knew the climb leap technique, which could be seen if he fell behind and needed to catch up with Ezio. He was one of five characters to know this technique, along with Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Rosa, Franco, and Ezio himself.
 * The name Mario is derived either from Latin Marius, "of the god Mars" or mas, maris, meaning "male."