Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is to be the protagonist of Assassin's Creed II. He is an ancestor of Desmond and a descendant of Altaïr.

Assassin's Creed II
Ezio is a young Florentine nobleman who lives in Florence during the 15th century. Unlike Altaïr, he is a seducer, and he easily blends with any social classes. He has an affluent lifestyle and many friends until a certain day. He and his family are betrayed, victims of a conspiracy that takes his father's life. From that day, Ezio is considered as a criminal and a traitor, he has to protect his mother and his sister. He becomes an assassin to accomplish his vengeance against the ones responsible for the tragedy that befell on him and his family (it is possible that those men are Templars). Ezio is helped not only by his uncle Mario, but also Leonardo da Vinci who becomes his best friend and his personal engineer, as well as Niccolò Machiavelli and other Italian Renaissance's famous figures.

Ezio will travel across Italy to various locations like Venice, Tuscany and Rome. We will live a large period of Ezio's life through the game, from his youth to when he becomes an old Master Assassin. In Assassin's Creed II, we will be playing about 30 years of his life from 1476 to 1503.

Equipment
It has been announced that Ezio will be able to use a variety of weapons including two hidden blades and because of this he can eliminate two enemies simultaneously. He can also steal (and use) several enemy weapons such as an axe, a hammer, a mace, a spear, two different sword types(1 handed and 2 handed), and a halberd. Ezio will be able to use Da Vinci's flying machine in some parts of the game, gaining altitude from fires set throughout the city by his allies. In addition to the hidden blades, Ezio will have many upgrades by Da Vinci on his wrist device like a firearm of some sort (most likely an early wheel lock firearm) concealed near his left hidden blade, or a poison needle. Ezio is said to possess the ability to use Eagle Vision. Armors can be bought to upgrade his protection and his clothes' colors are customizable.



Trivia

 * The Italian name 'Ezio' derives from the Greek word 'Aetos', which means "Eagle", similar to Altaïr whose name means "The Flying Eagle".
 * Unlike Altaïr (who had his ring finger removed to make way for the Hidden Blade), Ezio has all ten fingers (as evidenced by the fact he wears a ring-either a signet or wedding ring- marked with the Assassin's symbol). This may be made possible by a newer Hidden Blade (created by da Vinci), placed further from the palm.
 * Ezio uses a wheel lock firearm, a type of weapon that Europe didn't start developing until the very late 1400's and early 1500's, making this weapon most likely one of the very first firearms to appear in Europe, thus many people may not know what the weapon is in game. The earliest firearms were single shot and took time to reload, so will most likely be only used as a last resort weapon. Also note that Da Vinci created some of the first modern wheel lock pistols, so this could be a shortened version of one.