Apple of Eden 2

"If you are asked, say I sent the Apple away. Tell them I sent it to Cyprus, or Cipango, or that I dropped it into the sea. Tell them anything to keep men away from this place. This Apple must not be found, not until the time is right."

- Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, on the Apple.

Apple of Eden #2, also called the Templar Treasure by Al Mualim, was a Piece of Eden, a near-arcane technological relic created by the First Civilization to control humankind and perform miraculous feats.

One of its most notable owners was the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, who possessed it for the majority of his life and used it powers and information to reform and enhance the Assassin Order.

Usage
Like many Apples of Eden, it was designed to create illusions and control people's minds. The Apple could presumably be used to look into possible future outcomes, using the, as well as impart knowledge of formulas and practices surpassing those of its time, as evidenced in Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex.

Middle Ages
"The Piece of Eden is temptation given form."

- Al Mualim, about the Apple of Eden.

By the Third Crusade, ten Templars had found the Apple, which remained hidden in the catacombs of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Some time in 1191, the Templar Grand Master Robert de Sable sought to retrieve the Apple, and use it to seize control of the land for the Templars.

Discovering this, Al Mualim sent three of his Assassins – Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and the brothers Malik and Kadar Al-Sayf – to intercept him, and take the artifact to the Assassins' fortress in Masyaf.

Despite suffering a grievous injury to his left arm and losing his brother Kadar, Malik Al-Sayf was able to retrieve the Apple and bring it to Al Mualim, while Altaïr was routed by the Templars. Throughout the year, Al Mualim kept the Apple close at all times, while sending Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad to kill Robert and the other eight Templars who knew of the Apple.

During Altaïr's absence on a mission to kill Robert de Sable, Al Mualim hypnotized the Assassins and villagers of Masyaf, revealing himself to be a covert Templar and the tenth man who found the Apple, corrupted by the Apple's power.

When Al Mualim was confronted by Altaïr after his return, he utilized several of the Apple's abilities to defend himself, such as creating several illusions of the Templars Altaïr had slain, along with phantom copies of his own form.

However, Altaïr was able to kill Al Mualim and take the Apple after it rolled away from his body. Joined by Malik Al-Sayf and three other Assassins, they witnessed a map showing the locations of more Pieces of Eden being emitted from the Apple.

Altaïr, fearing that Al Mualim would still use the Apple's powers even after his death, intended to burn Al Mualim's body on a pyre to be certain that he would not return – against the Assassins' beliefs to not cremate a person on their demise.

However, Altaïr's intentions were received both positively and negatively, with Altaïr's former friend and rival Abbas Sofian being the main person to stand against the Assassin.

"Have you anything to teach us, or will you lead us all to ruin?"

- Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, regarding the Apple.

The Order was temporarily split into two factions, with a fight erupting between the two, after Abbas was angered by Altaïr on the burning of their former Mentor's body, shoving him off of the cliff they were standing on.

Abbas quickly fled the scene and returned to Al Mualim's study, where he retrieved the Apple, and climbed a watchtower outside the Masyaf fortress.

However, Abbas was unable to use the Apple's powers properly, and the Apple began to drain the life from various Assassins in Masyaf, including Abbas himself. Altaïr, who was more resistant to the effects of a Piece of Eden than other Assassins, was able to obtain the artifact from Abbas before it killed him. To this, Abbas apologized for his mistake, and the Order united under Altaïr.

Despite this accident, Altaïr carefully studied the Apple throughout most of his life, using it to advance the Assassin Order, creating several new techniques and weapons for the Assassins to use. Altaïr also carried it with him during the journey to Cyprus to eliminate the Templars there. Continuing to study it in secret, he wrote his discoveries in his Codex, and used it once in public to calm a mob that was falsely rallied against him.

In 1217, Altaïr, his wife Maria and son Darim traveled to Mongolia to assassinate Genghis Khan and eliminate the Mongol threat. They returned to Masyaf ten years later, successful in their objective with the help of the Mongolian Assassin, Qulan Gal.

However, in their absence, Abbas had killed Altaïr's second son Sef and imprisoned Malik, later having him killed as well. With the acting leader, Malik, in prison, Abbas had created a council to lead the Assassin Order, with himself at its head.

Altaïr and Maria faced Abbas to take the Order back, with Abbas demanding that Altaïr hand over the Apple. Taunting Abbas, Altaïr let him take it, and Abbas' henchman Swami came to retrieve it.

Swami, revealing himself to be Sef's killer, and that he had told Sef that his father was the one to order his death before killing him, felt Altaïr's anger reaching his body via the Apple upon touching it.

A golden glow shining from his mouth, Swami started mutilating himself, killing Maria in the frenzy. Altaïr then escaped Masyaf, urged by Maria's final words, and eventually met with Darim along the way, before he began a 20 year self-imposed exile in Alamut.

During those twenty years, Altaïr studied the Apple intensely, even managing to create a Hidden Gun through the knowledge he learned. Additionally, the Apple led Altaïr to six Memory Seals, and once the twenty years of exile came to an end, Altaïr returned to Masyaf and took the Order back from Abbas with virtue – gaining the support from the Assassins – and tested the newly created weapon on Abbas, killing him.

Upon regaining control of the Order once again, Altaïr ordered the construction of a library, intending to hide all of his books there. A few years later, Darim met the Venetian tradesmen Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, and, inviting them to stay at Masyaf in 1257, the two men were trained by Altaïr, then 92 years old, to become Assassins.

After a month of training, Masyaf was attacked by the Mongols under command of Hulagu Khan, seeking retaliation for Genghis Khan's death. Altaïr passed on several of his books and his Codex to the Polo brothers, and before they left Masyaf, he gave Niccolò five of the six Memory Seals, which Altaïr had turned into keys needed to open his library.

Altaïr and Darim returned to Masyaf's fortress after repelling a Mongol attack, and bid each other farewell before the entrance to Altaïr's library.

Darim was ordered to take Altaïr's remaining books with him to Alexandria, after which Darim realized that the library was not meant for its supposed purpose, instead being used as a vault.

Revealing that nobody must know what secret it contained, Altaïr entered the library and closed the gate behind him, making his way to its end. There, he placed the Apple on a pedestal and sealed it behind a shutter, before imprinting the sixth Memory Seal with the memory of himself locking the Apple away and peacefully passing away in his chair, where both the Assassin's remains and the artifact would stay hidden for nearly three centuries.

Renaissance
"Another artifact? No. You will stay here. I have seen enough for one life."

- Ezio Auditore upon finding the Apple.

In 1509, the Mentor of the Italian Assassins, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, found a letter written by his father Giovanni mentioning the library underneath Masyaf and the vast amount of knowledge it supposedly held.

Intrigued by his discovery, Ezio set out on a journey to the Holy Land to reach a better understanding of the Order through Altaïr's knowledge.

Ezio arrived in Masyaf in the winter of 1511, and retrieved Niccolò Polo's journal "The Secret Crusade" from Leandros, the leader of a small army of Byzantine Templars tasked with opening Altaïr's library.

The Assassin proceeded to make his way to Constantinople to retrieve the five keys and unlock the entrance to the library. After several months of searching, aided by the local Assassins Guild and a Venetian-Ottoman bookseller named Sofia Sartor, Ezio was able to obtain the keys, and together with her, he made his way to Masyaf once again.

Entering the library, Ezio found Altaïr's remains, as well as the sixth Memory Seal. Ezio relived Altaïr's final moments and discovered the Apple, but decided not to take the artifact from its pedestal, leaving it in the library instead.

At that moment, the Apple imparted a message from the Synch Nexus, intended for Ezio's descendant, Desmond Miles, who was viewing his genetic memories in the Animus. In the message, Jupiter recounted the First Civilization's final days, and provided Desmond the means to access the Grand Temple.

Elizabethan era
"You may think this picture a riddle, an allegory, an artist's fancy. It is not. The object in the hand of the Faerie Queen is real. So is its power. And so are the goddesses."

- John Dee, describing the painting he gave Elizabeth Jane Weston.

Somehow, the Apple wound up in the hands of Queen Elizabeth I of England, an important monarch in 16th century England, who succeeded her sister Mary I after she was assassinated by the Assassin Order.

Using the Apple during her reign, her most trusted adviser John Dee was aware of Elizabeth possessing the artifact, even using one himself during his time living in Prague.

John Dee later gave a painting of Queen Elizabeth holding the Apple during an alternative rendition of the, as a wedding present to the stepdaughter of his former colleague Edward Kelley, Elizabeth Jane Weston, after Queen Elizabeth's death.

Modern times
"I'll send you the driver. We've trained him with PE2 in our labs, he shouldn't be any trouble."

- An unknown Templar in a letter, referring to William Greer.

By modern times, the Apple had passed into the hands of Mahatma Gandhi, who used it to acquire a large religious following in India during the early 20th century. However, the Templars discovered this, and had Gandhi murdered on 30 January 1948, in order to recover it for themselves.

By 1963, the Templars possesed both Apple #1 and Apple #2, and used them for the Kennedy assassination. William Greer, the Secret Service agent assigned to drive Kennedy's limousine, was trained in the use of Apple #2, and was instructed to steal Apple #3 from Kennedy after he was killed.

Later on, during the early 21st Century, Abstergo Industries experimented with Apple #2 underneath. This continued until what would later be called the DIA satellite accident; Daniel Cross, who was visiting the facility, suddenly experienced a psychotic episode as a result of his Bleeding Effect and his close proximity to the Apple. The manic Templar killed everyone in the facility, while the Apple was destroyed in unspecified circumstances that resulted in the devastation of the airport and the deaths of many innocents. The loss of the Apple meant that the Templars had to delay their Eye Abstergo satellite launch until they could find a replacement, though they ultimately had to cancel the launch.

Trivia

 * Unlike Ezio's Apple of Eden, Altaïr's health did not drain while he used the Apple.