House of Auditore

"We are the Auditore da Firenze. We are Assassins."

- Giovanni Auditore da Firenze

The House of Auditore was a noble family of Florence. Its prominent period was very short (for approximately 100 to 200 years).

History
The origins of the family have been very mysterious publicly, but the truth is the story of a man who raised his family to secretly fight against his sworn enemies.

13th century, one day, a young Venetian discovered his true identity: he was part of the Assassins, an Order dedicated to kill the tyrants oppressing the people. Since then, his life and perception of the world changed. But the Order was not without enemies. As he was tasked to hide an important writing safe to Spain, he was tracked by these enemies: the Templars. He eventually lost his mentor, his wife, his father and his patron Marco Polo. With only his son remaining, he used the bank account given by Marco Polo to impersonate a nobleman in Florence, taking vocal lessons and studying architecture and classics. For this, he adopted a new name: Auditore. He was accepted by the local nobility. He then constructed a villa in the city of Monteriggioni, hunted the Templars and trained his son to fight them and collect the codex pages. Before his death, he left the origins of the family engraved on stone plates in the family crypt hidden under Monteriggioni.

Over the years, the family gained in prominence even becoming a close ally of the Medici dynasty, ruler of Florence. However in 1476, approximately 170 years after its creation, the Auditore family collapsed, victim of a conspiracy led by Rodrigo Borgia, Grand Master of the Templar Order and the Pazzi family, enemies of the Auditore and secretly Templars. They were considered as traitors of the Republic and excluded from the nobility. Most of the male members of the family in Florence were executed only leaving Claudia, Maria and Ezio. After the execution, they took refuge in Monteriggioni under the protection of Mario Auditore, a condottiere with an army of mercenaries at his disposal to fight against the Templars in the region. He is as well the brother of Giovanni, patriarch of the family in Florence who was executed along with his two sons. His only remaining son, Ezio took on his work and sought vengeance against those responsible for his father's death. He contributed as well in restoring the villa and the city.

It is unknown how many persons bore the name of Auditore after the events of Assassin's Creed II, but most of the information about the Auditore family has been erased from History after the conspiracy and the name was most likely lost over the centuries. The lineage however kept extending with two known descendants of Ezio Auditore in the 21st century: Desmond Miles and "Subject Sixteen".

Members

 * Domenico Auditore (founder)
 * Giovanni Auditore
 * Mario Auditore
 * Ezio Auditore
 * Federico Auditore
 * Maria Auditore
 * Claudia Auditore
 * Petruccio Auditore
 * Illario Auditore - Father of Giovanni and Mario Auditore

Trivia

 * Most likely unknown by its members, the Auditore family is descended directly from Altaïr, one of the greatest warriors of the Assassin Order.
 * If the Palazzo Auditore is visited during the Bonfire of the Vanities, Ezio can see his family face to face as a loving memory.
 * After exploring the Auditore Family Crypt, it is discovered that the Auditore are not truly nobles, but only pose as nobles to cover the fact that they are Assassins.