Consus

"I am Consus, the Erudite God."

- Consus in the Pythagorean temple.

Consus was a famed Isu scientist and a creator of Pieces of Eden.

Towards the end of his natural life Consus, afraid of death, transferred his conciousness into his prototype Shroud of Eden. In the early 1500s, he became a guardian of sorts to Giovanni Borgia, an Assassin born into the notorious Borgia family.

First civilization
In the days before the Toba catastrophe, Consus was known as a great scientist among the Isu. In 1923 Isu Era, answering the need for combat medicinal equipment, Consus created the first Shroud of Eden, a prototype device designed to return the wearer's body to predetermined, healthy, specifications. Later, when Consus became aware of his impending natural death, the one thing the Shrouds could not heal, he instead chose transferred his conciousness into the prototype Shroud, in order to live on.

Giovanni's guardian
"Consus is standing next to me. He is watching. He does not speak much. Papà tells me he is not real, but I see him."

- Giovanni, regarding Consus.

In 1498, shortly after his birth, Giovanni Borgia was discovered to be malformed and likely to die within a few days. The Assassin Perotto Calderon was able to heal his presumed son after stealing the Shroud, one of the Pieces of Eden created by the First Civilization.

Throughout his childhood thereafter, Giovanni would have delusions of seeing a nonexistent being, whom he befriended and called Consus. Consus often spoke in Giovanni's head and gave him advice, even once allowing Giovanni to read a letter given to him, though the boy himself did not know how at the time.

Though of questionable origin, Consus seemed to be in favor of the Assassins or simply against the Templars. Giovanni's grandfather would ask Giovanni about Consus and if he could speak with him, but Giovanni would simply answer that Consus was not there, as he "does not play when Nonno is around."

Additionally, in 1503, Consus attempted to convince Giovanni to give the Apple of Eden to Fiora Cavazza, when she had come to retrieve it for the Assassins, and later advised Giovanni to go with Francesco Vecellio to join the Assassin Brotherhood.

Though these hallucinations did not appear to occur later in his life, Giovanni did not forget them. Upon bringing the Crystal Skull to Bombastus in 1520, he met a madman by the name of Johan who, upon seeing him, called out to Consus, causing Giovanni to demand him for an explanation of using the name. However, the Assassin received none, as Johan fearfully mumbled that he had mentioned "consent".

Erudite God
"Giovanni drops to the floor, unconscious. I kneel beside him. His eyes suddenly open, but a stranger gazes at me. Giovanni's face alters before my very eyes!"

- Maria with Giovanni in the temple.

When Giovanni and Maria Amiel traveled to the Temple of Pythagoras in the late 16th century, the Vault within it reacted to Giovanni as it would to a descendant of the First Civilization, shining with symbols and glyphs.

When Giovanni fell unconscious and awoke soon after, his face had changed into that of a seemingly ancient entity. He spoke in a distant and unfamiliar voice, where he claimed himself to be Consus, the Erudite God.

Final death
By 2014, the prototype Shroud had found its way into the hands of Álvaro Gramática, the director of Abstergo Industries Phoenix Project, a project to fully sequence a First Civilization genome.

Álvaro eventually discovered that whenever the Shroud healed what would normally be a fatal wound, Consus could temporarily possess the wearer and be able to speak through them. Álvaro used the Shroud on Violet da Costa and repeatedly shot her in the head so he could communicate with Consus.

The prototype Shroud, and Consus' consciousness, was unwittingly destroyed in late 2014, when the Assassins Shaun Hastings and Galina Voronina destroyed Álvaro's Parisian lab, where the Shroud was being held. As his final act, Consus used what remained of the Shroud's power to resurrect Álvaro.

Legacy
Years after his death, during the Human-First Civilization War, it was Consus' transference of his own conciousness into a Piece of Eden that inspired Juno to place her faith in a similar solution to help her species survive the impending Catastrophe. She attempted to transfer the conciousness of her husband, Aita, into a synthetic body, but the result left him comatose; he was euthanized shortly thereafter.

Trivia

 * Consus was a Roman deity assigned to protect the grain. Later, he also became known as a deity of secret counsel.