Modern times

Modern times refers to the period between (and including) 1900 and 2012 C.E.. This era saw the overall decline of the Assassins and 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, MK Gandhi and John F Kennedy. Nikola Tesla also lost his Apple of Eden (though not his life) to the Templars; an incident which motivated Tesla to help the Assassins in destroying the Staff (below).

The Apollo 11 mission to the Moon surface was in fact a Templar expedition to recover an Apple of Eden that was on the lunar surface.

The Staff
At some point before June 1908, Grigori Rasputin stole The Staff of Eden from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Without the Staff, Nicholas could not control his people and this ultimately led to the Russian Revolution. It is 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 and Nikola Tesla destroyed the facility.

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 is 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 of 2006, a virus named L-11 broke out in Africa. After a mere three months 96% of the continent's population were dead. Even after six years, Africa remained essentially empty.

North America
In March 2012, violence erupted between Mexican border guards and illegal immigrants from the United States. Despite hundreds of American refugees 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'. Hurricanes in the North Atlantic had become so powerful and frequent that coastal cities lived in constant fear of the storms.

On 6 September 2012, the last American film studio permanently closed down. Rampant film piracy and competition from the video game industry had rendered the American cinema industry unviable.

The USA and EU continued to build jointly-owned oil platforms in the Weddell Sea, despite protests that the platforms violate the Antarctic Treaty System.

Desmond Miles
On 6 September 2012, the media announced 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 Piece of Eden-powered mind-control device ) on December 21st, sooner than planned. Unfortunately, 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. Here Desmond relived the memories of his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad so that Abstergo could obtain a map showing the location of the Pieces of Eden on Earth.

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: use the Animus (which the Assassins had copied) by taking advantage of the Bleeding Effect by reliving the memories of an ancestor (in Desmond's case, 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.

Desmond and his companions were located by the Templars but were able to escape once more. 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 Ezio's 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 Ezio's Apple within a hidden vault and attempted to retrieve it. When Desmond touched the Apple, his body was somehow possessed by Juno, one of the First Civilization, and was used to stab Lucy Stillman in the stomach. Desmond then went into shock and slipped into a state of unconsciousness.

William Miles's team arrived and had Desmond placed into the Animus. Desmond relived the memories of Ezio during the search for Da Vinci, and the coordinates given in the Pythagorean Vault directed them to the Grand Temple. After burying the deceased Lucy outside Rome, the Assassins flew to the United States while posing as a medical team. When Desmond completed Ezio's memories, he entered the Sync Nexus and awoke outside the Grand Temple, claiming that he knew what they had to do.