Staves of Eden

"Better in the hands of the Earth, than in the hands of Man."

- Mario Auditore, after the Papal Staff was lost during the Renaissance.

The Staves of Eden were Pieces of Eden that embodied sovereignty and dominion.

Known throughout history by names such as the Papal Staff or the Russian Imperial Sceptre, the Staves were used by various Egyptian Pharaohs, Roman Catholic Popes, and Russian Tsars.

Powers
Designed to control men's minds and bodies, the Papal Staff held a cradle in its headpiece where an Apple of Eden could be placed, in order to enhance its mind control effects. This combination of two Pieces of Eden could also be used to open the door to the Vatican Vault.

Its bottom end was sharpened, and could be wielded as a spear in combat. The artifact also granted the possessor the ability to conceal their presence entirely, and the ability of levitation; though whether these were physical effects or simply manipulations of the viewers' perceptions remains unknown. Over the course of time, the Staves' appearances would change; either on their own or by successive bearers retaining its core and adding decorations.

When Nikolai Orelov approached one Staff in 1908, he heard several voices of the past emanating from it, playing almost like recordings, and speaking things such as "Always the fighter," "Adam, I have it," "Just like your father," and "Eve."

Moses
The earliest known use of a Staff was by the prophet Moses, who used its innate powers of illusion and mind control to "part" the Red Sea, freeing the Israelites from Egypt.

Pharaohs
One Staff of Eden is also known to have been used by the Pharaoh Shabataka, who used it to rule over Ancient Egypt in the early 7th century BCE. It was likely used by various pharaohs before and after him.

Alexander the Great
During the 4th century BCE, the Templars somehow managed to acquire a Staff of Eden. They entrusted their ally Alexander the Great with it, who used it to create one of the largest empires in history. He presumably lost it when he was poisoned by the Assassin Iltani in 323 BC.

John the Baptist
A Staff was later kept by John the Baptist, the prophet and religious leader who baptized Jesus Christ.

Papal Staff
A Staff passed into the hands of the first disciple of Jesus, Saint Peter, who established Christianity and became the first Pope. It is assumed that the Staff circulated through the hands of the Roman Catholic Popes until it was used by Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI in 1492 so that he could use the Staff to gain access to the Vatican Vault.

On the 28th of December in 1499, the Assassin Ezio Auditore infiltrated the Cappella Sistina to confront Rodrigo, and a fight ensued, during which Rodrigo wielded the Staff as a long weapon against Ezio. Eventually, Ezio defeated Rodrigo and used the Staff (combined with his Apple of Eden) to enter the Vault.

When leaving the Vault, Ezio tried to remove the Staff from the center of the room, where it was secured in the Vault floor. Upon doing so, Ezio activated machinery that made the Staff descend underground, despite Ezio's efforts to retrieve it.

Imperial Sceptre
By 1888, a Staff had been recovered by Tsar Alexander III, and was used as the Imperial Sceptre to maintain the Tsar's power over the Russian Empire. On October 29 of that year, while returning home to Petrograd, the Tsar was attacked by the Assassin Nikolai Orelov. After the Royal Train derailed, he threw the Staff to Nikolai, challenging his assailant to attack him with it.

The Tsar subsequently repelled the assassination attempt, leaving with the Piece of Eden still in his possession. After his death, it was passed on to his son Tsarevich Nicholas II.

However, the Staff was secretly stolen and replaced with a replica by Grigori Rasputin, who had infiltrated the Royal House, and brought the Staff to a Templar research station in Tunguska.

In the summer of 1908, members of the Assassin Order contacted Nikola Tesla, and offered him a chance for retribution on the Templars for being discredited by the Templar Thomas Edison. Using his mastery of electricity and the, Tesla broadcast destruction into the facility, creating one of the largest explosions in history, which was estimated to have a force of more than 30 megatons of TNT, and flattened more than 2,000 kilometers of forest. The explosion also obliterated the research facility and the Staff within.

The event was a complete Assassin victory, though Nikolai Orelov was the only Assassin to survive the event. Nikolai later returned to his partner Anna, bloodied and barely alive, muttering that the Staff had finally been destroyed.

However, the Staff had not been completely obliterated, as there was at least one shard that remained. This shard somehow came into the possession of Rasputin, who used it to manipulate Nicholas' wife and psychologically scar one of his disciples, a woman named Khioniya Guseva, after her failed attempt to kill him.

In 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by the Assassins, and he took the shard with him to his grave. In 1917, Nikolai, having learned of the shard's existence from the Tsarevich and concluding that even a fragment of the Staff would be a threat, exhumed Rasputin's body and retrieved the shard from his corpse. As of October of 2002, the shard was in possession of Nadya Orelov.

Trivia

 * In Assassin's Creed II, while facing Rodrigo Borgia in the Sistine Chapel, the Staff could be knocked from his hand by using the disarm smash technique with a heavy weapon picked up from the dead Brutes nearby. After this, the Staff could be picked up and wielded, though none of its powers could be used.