Rodrigo Borgia

"He is Rodrigo Borgia, one of the most powerful men in all of Europe, and leader of the Templar Order."

- Mario Auditore

Rodrigo Borgia (1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), born Roderic Llançol, later Roderic de Borja i Borja, was the leader of the Templar Order during the Italian Renaissance. He was elected Pope from 1492 to 1503 as Alexander VI. He was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes and his surname became a byword for the debased standards of the papacy of that era.

Early life
Roderic Llançol was born at Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia, one of the component states of the Crown of Aragon, now Spain. His parents were Jofré Llançol y Escriváand his wife and relative Isabel de Borja. His family name is written Llançol in Valencian and Lanzol in Spanish. Roderic was adopted into his mother's family name of Borja on the elevation of his maternal uncle Alonso de Borja, to the papacy as Calixtus III in 1455.

Roderic de Borja studied law at Bologna and after his uncle Calixtus III's election as pope, was created successively bishop, cardinal and vice-chancellor of the church, nepotistic appointments characteristic of the age. He served in the Roman Curia under five popes (his uncle plus Pius II, Paul II, Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII) and acquired much administrative experience, influence and wealth, though not great power.

Conspiracies
By the time Rodrigo was under Pope Sixtus IV, he had become the Grand Master of the Templar Order. In this position, he apsired to unite all of Italy under the Templar banner. In doing so, he made plans to take down the leaders of Italy's main cities and place his own men in power.

Milan
Rodrigo devised a plan to kill Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan, in which Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani, Carlo Visconti and Gerolamo Olgiati would kill Sforza on the day of Santo Stefano.

One night in December of 1476, Borgia was on his way to leave Florence accompanied by several of his men in the dark streets of the city. Suddenly, Giovanni Auditore, a member of the Assassin Order, intercepted him. Rodrigo fled immediately as the Assassin battled his men. Hidden behind a corner, he witnessed Giovanni capture one of his men, who later revealed the foreplanned assassination of Galeazzo Sforza, who was a powerful ally of Lorenzo de' Medici. Giovanni attempted to prevent this, though unfortunately, he failed as he had arrived too late. Rodrigo's plan had succeeded, thus he began to devise his next scheme.

Giovanni Auditore
Giovanni Auditore learned that Borgia's plans would lead him to the city of Venice, after looting a Venetian ducat from Giovanni Lampugnani, one of Sforza's murderers. Once there, he intercepted a message from Marco and Silvio Barbarigo to their master, Rodrigo. After Uberto Alberti and Father Maffei "failed" to decode the letter, the Medici and Alberti had Giovanni carry a copied version of the message to Rome, in order to discover who was behind the plot. Upon arriving in the city, he gave the message to a man. In this manner, the letter was passed through various hands before meeting its final destination: Rodrigo. Rodrigo then left to see Pope Sixtus IV to obtain military support in order to conquer Florence. After gaining Sixtus' favor, Rodrigo headed out of the Vatican, and into the streets of Rome once more.

Giovanni was still on Rodrigo's trail, and followed him all the way into St. Peter's Basilica; however, there, he fell into an ambush set by Rodrigo. Rodrigo tried to offer Giovanni a position among the Templars, but the Assassin refused, stating that Rodrigo would be dead before he could see the Templars' fantasy become a reality. Disappointed, Rodrigo had his men attack Giovanni, but the Assassin routed all of them. Rodrigo, who had been watching from the sidelines, threw a knife Giovanni's way, which hit him in the chest. Rodrigo then took the chance to flee the Basilica. Afterwards, he discussed the next step in his plan with his Templar brothers, and all agreed on one thing: to dispose of Giovanni Auditore.

In order to get rid of Giovanni, Rodrigo conspired with Uberto Alberti and the Pazzi family. After careful planning, the Templars were able to frame Giovanni for the crimes of treason, and had him and two of his sons arrested. The night before the trial of the Auditore family, Rodrigo was at Uberto's house. Ezio Auditore, Giovanni's remaining son, came by to give Uberto his father's letters that would prove him innocent. Ezio noticed Rodrigo behind Uberto, but paid no further attention to him. The following morning, Rodrigo attended the judgment and execution of Giovanni, Federico and Petruccio Auditore, thus Ezio was proclaimed a wanted man. Years later, Rodrigo would state that Ezio's brothers did not need to die, but he had them killed anyway to make a point to the Assassins.

Florence
In 1478, Rodrigo conspired to take down Lorenzo de' Medici, the leader of Florence, and his brother Giuliano. He left for Florence again, where he had a meeting with the Pazzi and a couple of other conspirators (who were formerly Lorenzo's allies) in a catacomb under the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. There, he reminded them to beware of the Assassins, and stated that the next day would be "a new dawn for Florence."

After Ezio thwarted the Templars in Florence, Rodrigo was to meet with the remaining conspirators in Tuscany, where the Pazzi would ask for asylum with Rodrigo in either Venice or Rome. However, before the meeting could even commence, most of the conspirators were killed by Ezio, one by one. Only Jacopo de' Pazzi actually made it to the meeting alive. There, Jacopo claimed that the blame rested with his nephew, Francesco, for his impatience, and with Emilio Barbarigo for supplying the Pazzi troops with sub-standard weaponry. Enraged by Jacopo's sniveling excuses, Rodrigo lectured his subordinate on his failure, then stabbed him, aided by an all-too-eager Emilio. Ignoring Jacopo's pleas for mercy, Rodrigo stabbed him in the neck, then called out to Ezio who had tailed Jacopo to the meeting. Sarcastically apologizing for killing Ezio's target for him, Rodrigo mocked Ezio, saying that he had been doing this for far longer than the novice Assassin. He ordered his men to kill Ezio and left without bothering to make sure the deed was done.

Venice
Soon after the Florentine attempt failed, Rodrigo was making plans to take over the city of Venice. In 1485, he met with Carlo Grimaldi and the Barbarigos to murder the current Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, so that one of them could replace him and sieze control of Venice. He chastised the Venetian Templars for making their own plans, and arguing over who would be the new Doge after they took Venice. He appointed Marco Barbarigo as the next Doge, and then left them to carry out his plans. While Ezio was hunting the Barbarigos in Venice, Rodrigo was tracking the location of the Piece of Eden that Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad had once taken from the Templars.

Apple of Eden
By 1486, he had found out that the Piece of Eden was hidden on Cyprus, and thus sent a battalion of his men to retrieve it. Two years later, the men returned with the artifact, and Rodrigo met with the guards who were to bring it to him. However, Ezio, disguised as the carrier of the artifact, attempted to kill Rodrigo. Rodrigo had expected the attack, and readied himself to deal with Ezio personally. The two began an intense battle, with Ezio ultimately emerging as the victor. Realizing he could not defeat Ezio alone, Rodrigo called in a supply of guards to overwhelm Ezio. Suddenly, many of Ezio's allies appeared, all of whom revealed themselves to be Assassins. They held off the guards to allow Ezio to re-challenge Rodrigo, who then escaped from them before Ezio could kill him.

That same year, Rodrigo found out that the late Girolamo Riario had created a map marking where all the Codex pages could be found, thus he hired the Orsi Brothers to retrieve it from Riario's city of Forlì. The Orsi discovered that Riario's wife, Caterina Sforza, also had the Apple, and thus they laid siege to the city and took the artifact by force, planning to present it to Rodrigo for an extra pay off. Unfortunately for him, Ezio managed to kill both of the Orsi brothers, though the Apple eventually came into the hands of Girolamo Savonarola, a later arch-enemy of Rodrigo.

In 1491, Rodrigo fooled the Spanish Inquisitor General Tomás de Torquemada into capturing and killing Assassins in Spain. Tomás, who thought Rodrigo was as much as a believer of God as he was, blindly followed his orders. Rodrigo also found out about Christoffa Corombo's plans to sail west; however he, knowing of the presence of the Americas and the treasures that lay there, did not want anybody to find it before he could. Therefore, Rodrigo arranged a meeting with Christoffa in Venice. Christoffa's friend, Luis de Santángel, suspected a trap and called for the aid of his fellow Assassin, Ezio. Ezio rushed to Christoffa's aid, succesfully rescuing him and thwarting Rodrigo's plans. Meanwhile, Rodrigo had ordered Torquemada to burn all the Assassins in Spain, as they were non-believers and thus had to be wiped out. Ezio managed to save a couple of the Assassins, but was unable to free Spain from Rodrigo's rule.

As the Pope
Rodrigo was elected Pope in 1492, and established his power in Rome. Rodrigo's true intent, however, was simply to get into the Vault that lay under the Vatican, where, he believed, God rested.

With the Apple, Savonarola took control over Florence in 1494 after Lorenzo's death. Rodrigo repeatedly sent his men to Florence in the hopes of acquiring the Apple, though he was unsuccessful. In 1498, Savonarola was assassinated by Ezio, causing the Borgia family to fall into a chaotic state upon losing track of the Apple.

In 1499, Rodrigo was followed into the Vatican by Ezio, who tried to assassinate him. Ezio snuck into and seemingly assassinated Borgia inside the Sistine Chapel. After Ezio finished speaking with Rodrigo, he left, only to see him rise from the ground and use his Piece of Eden, the Papal Staff, to strike down him and everyone else in the room. However, Rodrigo was surprised to see that Ezio was able to resist the power of his staff, as Ezio had brought his own Piece of Eden: the Apple that Altaïr had taken from Al Mualim. Ezio then summoned four clones of himself to assist in his battle against Rodrigo, eventually defeating him. However, Rodrigo tripped Ezio with the Staff, and snatched the Apple from his hands. He then combined it with the Staff to open up the door to The Vault, which had been underneath Rome the whole time. Ezio tried to stop him, but he was lifted into the air by Rodrigo, unable to resist two combined Pieces of Eden.

Rodrigo stabbed Ezio with a dagger and left him to die on the floor of the Sistine Chapel, before escaping into the Vault. Though injured, Ezio eventually made his way to the Vault, where Rodrigo was furiously pounding the door to the inner chambers. Ezio dropped down into the pit where Rodrigo was, and challenged him to one last fist fight, with no more weapons, no more plots, and no more decoys. Rodrigo accepted and the two had one last duel. During the battle, Rodrigo stated that he had never believed in the Bible or in God, and had only become Pope to gain access to the Staff and the Vault, in order to unify Italy under the Templars' rule. Ezio defeated Rodrigo, holding the Pope at blade-point and telling him he was not the Prophet, and had never been.

Broken by this revelation and accepting defeat, Rodrigo told Ezio to kill him and put an end to it. However, Ezio refused, saying that killing him would not bring back his family. Additionally, the knowledge that he was not the Prophet, as he had believed, was an even sorer blow than anything else that Ezio could have thought of. When his son Cesare learned of this, he led a siege on Monteriggioni, though without Rodrigo's approval, in order to reacquire the Apple of Eden and kill the last of the Assassins. By this time, Rodrigo was reduced to nothing but a figurehead, with Cesare ultimately taking over Rome.

Later life and death
Rodrigo had given up on fighting the Assassin Order and instead chose to preserve the balance of power in Rome he had managed to obtain. However, Cesare was eager to take over all of Italy, a plan that Rodrigo did not approve of. Cesare controlled Rodrigo's armies, however, and carried out his plans without his father's consent.

In 1501, Ezio infiltrated the Castel Sant'Angelo to assassinate both Rodrigo and Cesare, however, the former was not there and the latter left before Ezio had a chance to kill him. Later on, at Juan Borgia's pagan party, Rodrigo spoke to Cesare and reprimanded him.

The following year, Rodrigo had grown heavily displeased with Cesare's ambition and entitlement, going so far as to seize the castle's supply of cantarella - the same poison that had been used for Doge Mocenigo - and poisoning a few apples for Cesare to unwittingly eat. However, Rodrigo's daughter Lucrezia discovered the presence of the poison and warned Cesare about it before he could finish eating the rest of the apple. Cesare promptly spat out what he had eaten, before shoving the remaining apple down Rodrigo's throat. Rodrigo perished before Ezio arrived to kill him, but the latter nevertheless gave Rodrigo his final blessing.

"Final words" - Assassin's Creed II
(First assassination attempt by Ezio)

Ezio: ''I thought... I thought I was beyond this. But I'm not. I've waited too long, lost too much... Requiescat in pace (Rest in peace), you bastard!''

Rodrigo: I don't think so!

(Second "death scene" with Rodrigo)

Rodrigo: ''You can't! You can't! It's MY destiny! MINE!!! I am the prophet!!!''

Ezio: You never were.

Rodrigo: Get it over with then...

Ezio: ...''No. Killing you won't bring my family back... I'm done. ''Nulla è reale, tutto è lecito. Requiescat in pace. (Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Rest in peace.)

Trivia

 * He was called "the Spaniard" by the Assassins, as he was of Spanish origin.
 * As Ezio entered the Sistine Chapel to assassinate Borgia, he was proclaiming the Nicene Creed in Latin to the congregation. It is ironic, as the Nicene Creed confesses the wholeness of the Christian doctrine, in which Borgia later stated he did not believe.
 * Although Ezio did not kill Borgia, he is listed as dead in the Animus' Conspirator Web after the player completes Assassin's Creed II and re-enters the Animus. This may be due to Ezio simply listing off Rodrigo as a target.
 * In Assassin's Creed II, during some of Rodrigo's appearances, a dim red lighting effect can be seen on Rodrigo's hood and upper body, even though there is no source for this light. This might be to make Rodrigo appear more sinister. An example of this occurence is when Ezio brings Uberto Alberti the conspiracy documents, and a hooded Rodrigo is seen standing behind Uberto briefly, where the red light appears.
 * In a scene in Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, he can be seen eating an apple, which is perhaps a hint at the Apple he later attempts to gain, as well as the poisoned apple that leads to his death in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.
 * Rodrigo's cloak from before he becomes Pope resembles Al Mualim's robe from Assassin's Creed. Rodrigo also shares a trait with Al Mualim, as they both keep their hoods up throughout most of their respective games.
 * Rodrigo is the only assassination target Ezio has had to fight repeatedly in Assassin's Creed II, and is also the most formidable fighter there.
 * It is possible to kill Rodrigo while in the Sistine Chapel if you poison him. After this, you can wield the Staff of Eden, although you cannot use any of its powers.
 * In Rodrigo's assassination target video, there is a scene with Rodrigo in his Papal robes standing next to his fellow Templars, who are seated at a table. This is impossible, because by the time Rodrigo became Pope, Ezio had killed all the other Templars in the game. The Pazzi, the Barbarigos and Carlo Grimaldi, for example, are shown at the table.
 * He was the first pope to be elected from a conclave in the Sistine Chapel.
 * Sometimes, during the fight with Rodrigo in Assassin's Creed II, he can be seen wielding a spear instead of the Staff.
 * Rodrigo's fate differs in the novel, Assassin's Creed: Renaissance, to that shown in Assassin's Creed II. In the game, after Ezio defeated and spared him, Borgia was left alone to come to terms with his misery as Ezio entered the Vault. In the novel, however, when Ezio emerged from the Vault, Borgia committed suicide with poison. His last act was to ask Ezio what he saw in the Vault, to which Ezio replied "Nothing. No one," leading Borgia to die believing everything he had done in life was for nothing.
 * However, in the novelization of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, he survived this suicide attempt, and Mario Auditore suggested that he didn't take enough poison, or that he was faking.
 * Rodrigo died in 1503 at the age of 72, which is also the password for the Colosseum Vault.

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