Abstergo Industries

"We change the world. Every day, in a hundred different ways. Did you know that every single breakthrough of the last millennia, be it medical, mechanical or philosophical, has come from Abstergo, or its predecessors?"

- Warren Vidic to Desmond Miles.

Abstergo Industries was one of the largest and most prominent multinational corporations of the modern era, serving as the primary front for the Templar Order. Outwardly labeled as primarily a pharmaceutical development company, Abstergo Industries, or its predecessors, had been responsible for the majority of human technological development for the past millenia.

Despite genuinely contributing to the technological development of society, Abstergo Industries' primary mission, as dictated by its Templar members, "is the destruction of the Assassin Order and the procurement of advanced technologies originally created by the First Civilization."

As of the year 2012, Abstergo Industries had come under investigation by the United States Government for the "New Fluoride" and was due to have its accounts frozen, prompting the company to speed-up their planned Abstergo-Eye Satellite launch.

1940's - Assembly Lines
On July 22, 1944, an unknown member of the company sent out a memo to fellow members. They mentioned using the assembly line to control both capitalists and workers, and credited Ransom "Ranny" Olds and Henry Ford for its creation. This person further added that they hoped that in the future, the company would not have to use such "ugly chains".

They mention that Abstergo's founders designed the "Plan" in 1910. This individual also brought up the Communists and said it was Abstergo's duty to save them (neutralize) and their followers. The reasons given were that they were to be allowed to eat and to reproduce.

The sender of the memo further elaborates on Abstergo's goals, stating to his fellow Templars that their duty was to "shepherd those beneath us through life, even if force is required".

The unknown member mentioned other Templars known only by the initials "H." and "S." (Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin) who brought on the "turmoil and fear". Towards the end of this memo, they brought up the "successful ruse of Rockefeller's dimes".

1950's - The Creation of the Computer
Abstergo was responsible for British mathematician Alan Turing's criminal prosecution and possibly his death. In a phone recording dating to June 1954, also hidden by Subject 16, two Templars only known by the initials "V." and "N" mention the need for Turing to be arrested.

They feared "mass unemployment" if the mathematician did end up creating a computer. The two men also mentioned American economist and senior U.S. Treasury Department official Harry Dexter White.

1960's - Apollo 11
In one of the glyphs it was shown that there was an Apple on the Moon, with under the picture a text; "With Jack deep underground, it was easy." - Jack being former American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; his nickname being Jack. The part it stated that he's "deep underground" goes back to his murder in 1963, as where "it" was easy, points to the moonlanding in 1969, in order to retrieve the Apple.

As the glyphs state, Kennedy was assassinated by the Templars because he had plans in doing a joint moonlanding with the Soviet. However, the Templars also knew that there was one of the artifacts hidden on the Moon, and they weren't considering sharing it; thus they killed Kennedy, went on with the moon project and assigned a Templar for presidency, Nixon, to recover the Piece of Eden in 1969.

1970's - Global International Order
Abstergo involved itself in the economic and political affairs of Iran, Argentina, and Chile. This information was also revealed to Desmond by Subject 16 via a company memo hidden in a glyph.

This memo on the subject of South America stated that "to ensure company's success, company agents must be able to move freely from country to country and maintain power within all of them. A global international order must be implemented".

In Argentina, the memo tells members to inform capitalists that if they helped ensure that the junta stays in power, Abstergo will pass all their corporate debt onto the Argentine people, thus quelling any attempts of popular revolt.

The person who wrote the memo also added that they wanted Argentinian trade unions there to be destroyed. The actions of Abstergo likely contributed to the disappearance of at least 30,000 Argentinian people in the 1970s.

In neighboring Chile, Abstergo wanted the free markets to proceed. The memo mentioned a Templar known as "F.", who visited the country last year, thus helping things along. The memo went on to state that all public companies need to be sold to the private sector, preferably at a cheap price.

The price of bread and other staples must rise, therefore ensuring that the Chilean people remain in poverty and being unable to resist. Abstergo's efforts ended up thwarting President Salvador Allende's efforts to allow the people to own Chile's corporations, which ended with his apparent suicide in 1973. This helped future dictator Augusto Pinochet to assume power. Abstergo escaped detection because it deliberately hid its involvement and implicated the U.S. government.

In Iran, Abstergo backed monarch Shah Pahlavi, Sha'baan Ja'fari, and the National Intelligence and Security Organization, otherwise known as SAVAK, against democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. This resulted in Mosaddegh being overthrown in 1953 and dying under house arrest in 1967.



1980's - Prototype of a Piece
In September 1985, the research division of Abstergo worked on a prototype capable of mimicking Piece of Eden capabilities across a network. They also began testing on Subject 4.

1990's - Gorbachev Overthrown
In 1991 in Russia, they helped Boris Yeltsin to overthrow Gorbachev, the legitimate head of the state and reformer of the Soviet Union to democracy. Privatization started, the people were deceived, state property became belonging to oligarchs.

2000's - Secrets Revealed
In November 2004, a member of the CIA named Gary discovered Abstergo through researching for a book he was writing. He told a female associate that Abstergo has holdings in numerous global companies (Kraft, Coke etc.) and that Abstergo has interests in all companies over a certain size. He was going to publish this book, but was presumably thwarted by the Templars.

Justice of the Supreme Court and Templar Antonin Scalia convinced Sandra O'Connor to retire. He sent a letter to "S.". Scalia mentioned that "W". (George W. Bush) will restart animosities with Iraq, giving "C."'s (Dick Cheney) contractors more work. After the destruction of the Campaign finance laws, the company would be free to elect anyone they choose to the Senate, House, and eventually the Presidency.

Abstergo used closed circuit televisions to spy on civilians and used online gaming to distract them. The secret menu is located between channels 172 and 173 and it has the owner's names, credit card number, their likes, EEG, and ARAS. In April 2011, a man named Mr. Jameson found out about this and called his cable company, Comstatic. In response, Abstergo sent someone to 'deal with' him and his twelve year old son Paul.

In January 2012, the head of the company left the company to an unknown person. He warned his successor of a crisis, that once the free market falls, the people will turn against them.

Products
In one of the conversations with Lucy, she revealed that Abstergo was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with their primary focus of pharmaceutics being anti-depressants. Vidic mentioned that Abstergo was responsible of nearly every single breakthrough over the past millennia to enhance everyday life, helped by their discovery of Pieces of Eden, but without taking any credit for it.

It was also stated in an e-mail to Warren Vidic, that Abstergo was secretly experimenting their products on people, and that one of their experimentations had failed, poisoning an entire town. The information about this incident had partly been leaked, causing the whole pharmaceutical division of the company to be closed down for investigation. The product Abstergo was experimenting with, was named New Fluoride.

Abstergo Industries was also planning to launch a telecommunication satellite, however, this was just their cover-up story. Secretly, they were planning to launch a Piece of Eden into orbit by satellite. The date of the launch was planned to be the 21st of December, 2012.

Goals
As the greatest industrial force the Templars owned, Abstergo shared the same beliefs as the Templars; order and discipline, through force and control. Since the late Middle Ages, the Templars started realising the power the Pieces of Eden had over mankind, and thus started searching these Pieces. In Modern Times they used Desmond Miles' to access the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, to get ahold of a map of these artifacts, which they then started searching for; being more interested in total control, and possession of all Pieces.

Their goals changed as they sought control to unify the entire world using these artifacts, going from "lasting peace, no matter what the cost" to the "New World Order". To accomplish this, they had to reach their ultimate goal; launching a Piece of Eden into orbit around the Earth.

The Animus Project
The Animus' purpose during Subject 17's time was merely to access his ancestor's memories, in order to retrieve a map of the Pieces of Eden, which his ancestor had been in contact with. After this, Subject 17 was to be executed, but was saved by a former Abstergo employee with whom he escaped. However, since Subject 17's escape the project has expanded to an internal training and data gather initiative for Abstergo employees.

Other Subjects
The first known Subject to be exposed to the Animus was Subject 4, Daniel Cross. He was programmed by the Animus to assassinate the Mentor once he saw him, in an attempt to damage the modern Assassin Order to extinction.

Subject 16, like Subject 17, was put into the Animus to access his ancestors' memories, in order to retrieve Pieces of Eden. His prolonged exposure to the Animus, because of his failure to retrieve information about the location of the artifacts, caused an extreme bleeding effect to occur, making him go insane and write warnings on the wall to his successor, with his own blood.

Current employees

 * S.
 * Erica Nichols
 * Robert Klein
 * Caroline Grey
 * Carson Kairns
 * Alan Rikkin – CEO of Abstergo.
 * Warren Vidic – Head of Research for genetic memory and the Animus project.
 * Nancy Nilop – Human Resources agent.
 * Jane Birkam – Position is unknown, friend of Warren Vidic.
 * Audrey Jacobs – Alan Rikkin's assistant.
 * Richard – One of the three men that threatened to kill Lucy Stillman, before being stopped by Vidic.
 * James Morse - Abstergo employee whose Abstergo e-mail can be accessed from their website by inputting the login password "PFRDVJ5aLLg".

Former employees

 * Lucy Stillman
 * Leila Marino (deceased)

Trivia

 * Abstergo is a Latin verb, meaning "I cleanse."
 * In the Truth file regarding Apollo, scanning the American flag on the Eagle shows the Abstergo logo, suggesting that Abstergo Industries was behind the moon landings. Similarly, scanning the white flag planted on the moon reveals the Templar cross.
 * During Ezio's visit to the vault, the Abstergo logo can be seen on several images projected by Minerva.
 * During the Retrieval of the Apple, when Desmond activated the Sixth Apple, several symbols started to appear around him. Of the symbols that appeared, the Abstergo Logo is one that appears quite frequently.
 * In the concept art for the Vault, what looks like the Abstergo logo can be seen on the floor of the circular room in which Ezio fights Rodrigo.
 * Abstergo's Animi room has a wall with a large window in the shape of the Templar cross.
 * The doors within the laboratory are marked with blue lights in the shape of the Templar cross.
 * In Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy, the player is an Abstergo employee. However, the player does not seem to be aware of the company's association with the Templar Order or their war against the Assassins.
 * Abstergo has a Twitter page for Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy.
 * The multiplayer mode of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is played from the point of view of Abstergo employees undergoing training in the Animi.
 * In the game Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles the Abstergo logo is present in many forms throughout the games (visibility meter and loading screen).