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 Templars during the Renaissance in Italy. He was elected Pope from 1492 to 1503 as Alexander VI. His enemies called him "The Spaniard" (due to his Spanish origins) while his Templar followers called him "Maestro" ("Master" in Italian and "Teacher" in Spanish). He was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes and his surname (Italicized as Borgia) became a byword for the debased standards of the papacy of that era.

Biography
The Medici were the ruling family in Florence. However, a conspiracy was being plotted in a attempt to overthrow the powerful Lorenzo de' Medici, and Rodrigo Borgia was at the center of it. One night in 1476, Borgia was on his way to leave Florence with few of his men in the dark streets of the city. Suddenly, Giovanni Auditore, an Assassin, intercepted him. Rodrigo fled immediately as the Assassin battled his men. Hidden behind a corner, he saw Giovanni capture one of his men, who later revealed the plotted assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and a powerful ally of Lorenzo de' Medici, to Giovanni. Giovanni quickly went to stop the attempt, but arrived too late. Rodrigo's and his accomplices' plan had succeeded, and Rodrigo began planning the next move.

Deducing the origin of the Duke of Milan's murderers by looting a Ducat from one of them, Giovanni headed to Venice. There, he intercepted a message from Marco and Silvio Barbarigo to their master, Rodrigo. After having decoded the letter through Uberto Alberti and Father Maffei, Giovanni carried the copied message to Rome, in order to discover who was behind the plots. Upon arriving in the city, he gave the message to a man. In this manner, letter was passed through various hands before arriving at its final destination: Rodrigo's. Rodrigo then headed to see Pope Sixtus IV to obtain military support in order to conquer Florence.

The night before the trial of the Auditore family, Rodrigo was at Uberto's house. Ezio Auditore, one of the sons of Giovanni Auditore, came by to give Uberto his father's letters that would prove him not guilty. Ezio noticed a hooded man (Rodrigo) behind Uberto, but paid no further notice to him. The following morning, Rodrigo attended the judgment of Giovanni and two of his sons. Years later, he would state that Ezio's brothers did not need to die, but he had them killed anyway to make a point to the Assassins and to Ezio. Two years after the Auditore execution, Rodrigo attended a meeting with the Pazzi family in San Gimignano, and with the Templars in a catacomb under the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. There, he reminded them to beware 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, wherein 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 Barbarigo. Ignoring Jacopo's pleas for mercy, Rodrigo stabbed him in the neck, then called out 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. He might have guessed that Ezio would escape, and chose not to wait around for it.

Rodrigo was later found in Venice, planning with Carlo Grimaldi and the Barbarigos to murder the current Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, so that one of them could replace him and take control of Venice. He chastised the Barbarigos 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. He sent ships to Cyprus in order to claim it from the Archives where Altaïr had sealed it away before his death. He appeared in Venice to lay claim to the Piece of Eden; but then Ezio, disguised as the carrier of the artifact, attempted to kill him. 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 Caterina Sforza's late husband had created a map of where all the Codex pages could be found, thus he hired the Orsi Brothers to retrieve it. The Orsi discovered that Caterina also had the Apple, so 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, an arch-enemy of Rodrigo.

With the Apple, Savonarola took control over Florence after Lorenzo's death. Rodrigo repeatedly sent his men to Florence in the hopes of acquiring the Apple, though he was unsuccessful.

In the following years, Rodrigo fooled the Spanish Inquisitor General Tomas Torquemada into capturing and killing Assassins in Spain. Tomas, 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 Santangel, in secret an Assassin, suspected a trap and called for the aid of Ezio. Ezio successfully rescued Christoffa, and eventually Christoffa did set sail west.

Rodrigo offered his daughter Lucrezia Borgia to Caterina Sforza's son Ottaviano Riario. Rodrigo figured that, with a son-in-law like Ottaviano, he could control the regions of Forlì and Imola. Caterina declined the offer, as she knew of his plans and that Lucrezia "never stayed married for long." This enraged Rodrigo, and his son Cesare Borgia began an assault on Forlì.

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.

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 Ezio 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 Borgia, 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, with Rodrigo 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 battle. During the battle, Rodrigo stated that he had never believed in the Bible or in God, and only became Pope to get the Staff and access to the Vault, wanting to unify Italy under the Templars' rule. Ezio defeated Rodrigo, holding the Pope at blade-point and telling him he was not the Prophet: he 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. Besides, 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.

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Ezio went to Castel Sant'Angelo to assassinate Rodrigo and Cesare, however the former was not there and the latter left before Ezio can kill him. Later on, at Juan Borgia the Elder's pagan party, Rodrigo spoke to Cesare and reprimanded him. The following year, Rodrigo had grown displeased with Cesare's ambition and entitlement, going so far as to seize the castle's supply of cantarella - the same poison he had used for the Doge Mocenigo - and poisoning an apple for Cesare to unwittingly eat. However, Lucrezia Borgia, Cesare's sister and Rodrigo's daughter, discovered the presence of the poison and warned Cesare about it before he could swallow the bite he had in his mouth. Cesare promptly spat it out, before shoving the remaining apple down Rodrigo's throat. Rodrigo died before Ezio arrived, but Ezio arrived to give Rodrigo's final blessing after being killed. Cesare escaped the encounter, however becoming instantly ill in the process.

"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

 * As Ezio enters the Sistine Chapel to assassinate Borgia, he is 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 states in the final battle that he does not believe.
 * Although Ezio did not kill Borgia, he is listed as dead in the Animus' Conspirator Web after the player completes the game and re-enters the Animus. This may be due to Ezio simply listing off Rodrigo as a target.
 * Throughout the entire game, Rodrigo is always wearing something that covers his head, where not once is he without a hat or a hood. He does appear without head coverings in Assassin's Creed: Lineage, however.
 * 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, as well as one of only two that he spared (the other being Tomas Torquemada). He is also the most formidable fighter in Assassin's Creed II.
 * 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.
 * Rodrigo's fate differs in the novel, Assassin's Creed: Renaissance to that shown in the game. In the game, after Ezio defeats and spares him, Borgia is left alone to come to terms with his misery as Ezio enters the Vault. He is not seen again, and it is presumed that he still lives. In the novel, however, when Ezio emerges from the Vault, Borgia commits suicide with poison. His last act is to ask Ezio what he saw in the Vault, to which Ezio replies "Nothing. No one," leading Borgia to die believing everything he had done in life was for nothing. However, in the novel for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood he survives this, and Mario suggests that he didn't take enough poison, or that he was faking.
 * 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.
 * Rodrigo had numerous children: Cesare, Lucrezia, Giovanni, and Gioffre from his mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei, a daughter, Laura, from his mistress Giulia Farnese, and an unknown number of children from other mistresses.
 * He was the first pope to be elected from a conclave in the Sistine Chapel.
 * Sometimes, during the fight with Rodrigo, he can be seen wielding a spear instead of the Staff.
 * He is an ancestor of virtually all royal families in Europe through his children Lucrezia and Juan.
 * It is mentioned in Assassin's Creeed: Brotherhood that Rodrigo had crafted all his children, even Lucrezia, into deadly weapons, showing his manipulative personality.
 * In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Rodrigo had little appearance in the game. He spoke in Sequence 5 and Sequence 8 and it was with Cesare.
 * By paying attention to his actions and words, it seems Rodrigo had given up on killing Ezio, for he didn't agree on the attack on Monteriggioni and blames Cesare for all the deaths Ezio caused. It is as if he wishes for a truce among himself and the assassin, yet still wants to remain as the main power of Rome.
 * Rodrigo Borgia is far more cautious in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood than Assassins Creed II. In Assassin's Creed II, he is unprincipled and unscrupulous to reach his goals and in Brotherhood he is more cautious and often dissaproves of Cesare's invasions saying that Cesare is destroying the balance of power he had worked so hard to tighten, he realizes that Cesare's ambitions can destroy the Borgia family, and devises a plan to kill him, showing he wants to end Cesare's wars, however the plan backfired and he was then killed by Cesare.
 * Rodrigo died in 1503 at the age of 72, which is also the password for the vault under the Colosseum.

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