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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
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Patience, brothers. Soon we will reveal the secrets of Layla Hassan's personal files: Abstergo Historical Research Division Manual, Desmond_02.WAV. This article has been identified as being out of date. Please update the article to reflect recent releases and then remove this template once done. |
Desmond's Eagle Vision, a symptom of the Bleeding Effect
The Bleeding Effect refers to a disorder wherein the genetic memories of one's ancestors begin to blend with the sufferer's own, real-time memories, often leading to difficulties in distinguishing between the two. In severe cases, this eventually resulted in mental breakdown. The most common source of the condition tended to be overexposure to the Animus virtual machine, which deliberately sought to view an ancestor's genetic memories in a controlled fashion.
Manifestations
Some phenomena such as past life regression and mental illnesses like dissociative identity disorder are thought to stem from a rare, naturally occurring Bleeding Effect, though these theories have not been confirmed nor fully discredited.[1]
Giovanni Borgia
Perotto appearing in Giovanni's dreams
The Italian Assassin Giovanni Borgia suffered from a form of Bleeding Effect due to having come into contact with a Shroud of Eden as an infant. Throughout his childhood, he experienced vivid dreams of people who had also come into contact with the artifact in the past, including Marcus Junius Brutus and his father, Perotto Calderon. Additionally, the Shroud "bonded" Giovanni with the Isu Consus, whose consciousness was stored within the artifact and who would occasionally speak with him.[2]
All of these factors led Giovanni to become known among the Assassins as one who was particularly receptive to Pieces of Eden, and he would consequently be assigned many missions that involved the retrieval of Precursor artifacts.[3]
Anastasia Nikolaevna
Anastasia being imprinted with Shao Jun's genetic memories
In 1918, following the execution of her family by the Templars, Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia fled with her family's Precursor box and was soon found by the Assassin Nikolai Orelov, who carried a shard of the destroyed Imperial Sceptre, a Staff of Eden. The close proximity of the two Pieces of Eden created a sort of Bleeding Effect for Anastasia, imprinting her with the genetic memories and skills of Shao Jun, one of the box's previous wielders.[4]
Anastasia made great use of her newly-gained abilities while she and Nikolai fled from the Templars and Bolsheviks pursuing them. However, Shao Jun's personality would occasionally take over Anastasia's mind for a few moments, such as when she threatened to kill Nikolai for pushing her down.[5] By the time she left Russia under a false identity, Anastasia learned to control these episodes and was confident that she would be able to keep Shao Jun's personality in check.[6]
Daniel Cross
Daniel suffering from the Bleeding Effect
Subject 4 of the Animus Project, Daniel Cross, manifested the Bleeding Effect in the form of images of people and objects from the past, as well as unknown symbols. Additionally, he sporadically experienced the memories of his ancestors Nikolai and Innokenti Orelov.[7][8] Around 1998, it was believed that the Bleeding Effect occurred naturally in Daniel, without prior exposure to an Animus. However, it was later discovered that he had in fact been placed in an older version of the Animus around 1985.[7]
By taking new medication and having weekly appointments with Dr. Sung, Daniel began to cope with the Bleeding Effect,[9] although close proximity to a Piece of Eden could still cause a sudden relapse.[8][10]
Clay Kaczmarek
Clay's blood messages
In her analysis of Subject 16, Clay Kaczmarek, Lucy Stillman e-mailed her overseer Warren Vidic to describe Clay's reaction to the Animus in detail. After having remained in the Animus for days at a time, Clay gradually became unable to control the Bleeding Effect, and was apparently driven to insanity by the genetic memories he experienced outside the Animus.[11]
Clay showed difficulty in remembering who he was and what year it was, going so far as seeming unable to recall his own name. However, he thought clearly enough to keep the goal of revealing the Truth in mind, and to leave the messages and clues necessary to do so. He became increasingly obsessed to this end, leading him to write warnings to future subjects in his own blood, around the laboratory he was held in, which resulted in his apparent suicide.[12]
Desmond Miles
Desmond experiencing the Bleeding Effect for the first time
Subject 17, Desmond Miles, gained the combat and freerunning abilities of his ancestors, as well as the ability to use Eagle Vision, through prolonged exposure to the Animus. This was followed by several hallucinations of his ancestors' memories outside the Animus; however, Desmond was told that as long as the visions lasted less than thirty seconds, he was not in any danger. To begin with, the visions started out phantom-like and indistinct, but became longer and more vivid, at one point causing Desmond to black out.[12]
Over time, Desmond's symptoms grew worse, and he despaired to Lucy Stillman that if he could not stop the slowly lengthening visions, it would not be much longer before he started "painting symbols on the walls," as Clay had. Additionally, Desmond began confusing his ancestors' memories with his own, notably when he told Lucy about "the last time [he had been] here" while they were exploring the tunnels beneath Monteriggioni, prompting Lucy to correct him that it had been Ezio Auditore who had experienced those events.[13]
Despite his concerns, the hallucinations proved quite useful, with Desmond being able to navigate through the tunnels under the Villa Auditore, the Colosseum, and the Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli by following his visions of Ezio. Desmond even performed his first Leap of Faith at Monteriggioni by following another Ezio vision.[13]
Desmond seeing Ezio in the Sanctuary, as a result of the Bleeding Effect
However, Rebecca Crane also once e-mailed Lucy that Desmond had started screaming in his sleep since they had arrived at the Sanctuary. This concern was expressed in turn by Lucy to Warren Vidic, who was using the name of William Miles. Vidic responded saying he sympathized with Desmond's well-being, but reminded her that they needed him in order to locate an Apple of Eden.[13]
Later, Desmond's condition worsened to the point where he fell into a coma, fragmenting his mind within the Animus. To revert the damage done to his psyche, Desmond finished the remaining memories from Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore to create a Synch Nexus, and ultimately regained his own consciousness.[14]
Templar Order
An Animus Project subject suffering of the Bleeding Effect
Aside from Daniel, Clay, and Desmond, many other subjects of the Animus Project suffered from the Bleeding Effect. In most cases, this proved fatal, as the subjects were driven insane by the merging of their ancestors' memories with their own, and either took their own lives or were disposed of by Abstergo.[15][16]
Similarly to the Assassins' attempts to train Desmond through use of the Bleeding Effect, Abstergo began to instruct potential Templars in a similar manner in 2012, in a large-scale project known as the Animi Training Program. Using multiple Animi, the trainees were exposed to the memories of previous Templars and non-Assassins, in order to incorporate their skills.[13] However, this was not the case in all their projects. For Project Legacy, which was open to a wider variety of candidates, messages of the DDS would constantly monitor whether their participants were beginning to show signs of the Bleeding Effect. In one such poll, the participants were requested to report if they were having difficulty recalling their name, or the present year.[17]
Likewise, participants of Abstergo Entertainment's Sample 17 Project in 2013 were limited to a few hours inside the Animus each day, so as to limit the risk of any side effects, although this rule could be easily ignored if the researcher so wished. As much as six hours in the Animus at any one time could trigger the Bleeding Effect.[18]
Robert Fraser
In 2014, Robert Fraser, an Abstergo Entertainment employee and former test subject of the Animus Project,[19] was tasked with researching the memories of the French Assassin Arno Dorian to locate the body of the Sage François-Thomas Germain. After multiple Animus sessions, Fraser began to experience a strong Bleeding Effect, believing himself to be Arno and destroying all his work to sabotage the Templars. Upon burning his superior's hard drive, Fraser was eventually terminated by Abstergo due to the risk he posed.[20]
Callum Lynch
- "I'm crazy. I'm crazy for feeling so lonely..."
- ―Callum Lynch to several Abstergo agents, 2016.[src]
During his imprisonment in the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center, overexposure to the Animus caused Callum Lynch to suffer from the Bleeding Effect. Not only did he relive past memories in his mind, but he even hallucinated that his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha was a phantom that was attacking him in his cell.[21]
Callum experiencing a hallucination of Aguilar
This caused Callum to attack the Abstergo security personnel. When they subdued him, he kept declaring himself insane to McGowen and began singing "Crazy" by Patsy Cline—the song which was playing on the radio when he'd discovered his mother's dead body as a child—to all the Abstergo agents as they dragged him to the Animus 4.3 in order to stabilize his condition.[21]
Owen Meyers and Grace Collins
When Owen Meyers and Grace Collins were captured by the Templar Isaiah in late 2016, they felt a strong Bleeding Effect in each other's presence, allowing them to use the skills of their Assassin ancestors, Varius and Eliza, to incapacitate several Templar agents.[22]
Sean Molloy
Sean Molloy suffered strong episodes of the Bleeding Effect as a result of Isaiah placing him in the Animus for prolonged periods of time in a fruitless search for the faith prong of the Trident of Eden. When Isaiah left him alone, Sean experienced hallucinations of his ancestor Styrbjörn the Strong, who encouraged him to free himself. Following Isaiah's death and the destruction of the Trident of Eden, Sean made regular visits to Dr. Victoria Bibeau for counseling to manage the Bleeding Effect.[23]
Maxime Gorm
In the late 20th century, the Assassin Maxime Gorm was kidnapped and experimented on by Abstergo Industries, who erased his memories and turned him into a Templar sleeper agent, similarly to Daniel Cross. After partaking in the Great Purge, Maxime was stationed at the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center, from where he was kidnapped in 2017 by Animus engineers Thomas and Alice Adler.[24]
Holding Maxime prisoner in their home's basement, Thomas and Alice had him relive the memories of his grandfather Eddie Gorm in search of an Apple of Eden that could hopefully cure their daughter's amnesia. However, Eddie's memories proved to be a dead end and, after experiencing his grandfather being put through Die Glocke, Maxime forgot his own identity and believed himself to be Eddie.[25] He would later escape and begin to recover his memories with help from Nathalie Chapman, though it was all for naught as he was eventually killed by the Japanese Assassin Tomo Sakagawa.[24]
Project BLUEBIRD
Boris Pash experimenting on Julia Gorm
In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Assassin Boris Pash experimented on a number of test subjects using Pieces of Eden and technology salvaged from Die Glocke, a failed Animus prototype built by the Templars during World War II. Known as Project BLUEBIRD, its goal was to resurrect the memories of long-dead Assassins by having them overwrite those of the subject.[24]
One of Pash's subjects was Julia Gorm, a member of his Bloodstone Unit and daughter of the late Assassin Eddie Gorm. Julia was made to relive her father's memories, imprinting her with his skills and turning her into a "super-soldier." However, after multiple sessions, Julia became unstable and, believing herself to be Eddie, attacked the other members of Bloodstone Unit. She was eventually subdued by Alekseï Gavrani at the cost of his life, and later recovered from the Bleeding Effect.[24]
In 2017, Pash's daughter Nathalie Chapman sought to restart Project BLUEBIRD, her father's lifework. Using an Animus Omega and her father's Apple of Eden, she experimented on various patients she had access to as director of the Clinique des Rameaux. Among her victims were Elisa Adler, the amnesiac daughter of Thomas and Alice Adler, and the Assassin Tomo Sakagawa, who infiltrated the clinic to investigate Chapman but was manipulated by her into reliving the memories of Alekseï Gavrani.[24]
Eventually, Tomo uncovered Chapman's true intentions and set out to stop her with help from Hajime Shimada. However, his Bleeding Effect made him briefly hallucinate that he was Gavrani and that Hajime and his men were members of the Bloodstone Unit, causing Tomo to kill them all. In the end, Tomo was able to kill Chapman and destroy her Apple of Eden, ending Project BLUEBIRD for good.[24]
Layla Hassan
In 2017, Layla Hassan was sent to the Qattara Depression, Egypt, in order to track down an artifact on Abstergo's behalf. After finding a mummy, Layla used her own portable Animus to relive the memories of the Medjay Bayek of Siwa. After some time, she exited the Animus and experienced the Bleeding Effect, leading her to another mummy, that of Bayek's wife, Aya of Alexandria.[26]
However, Layla's refusal to check in with Abstergo led to the company deploying a Sigma Team to find her and her helper, Deanna Geary. While Deanna was assaulted in her hotel, Layla made use of the skills she had obtained through the Bleeding Effect to dispatch her attackers.[26]
Layla attacking Victoria while under the Bleeding Effect's influence
In 2018, after reliving the memories of Kassandra's half-brother Alexios, Layla's emotional state became dissociative and sporadic. On another occasion after being suddenly pulled out of the Animus by her doctor Victoria Bibeau, Layla, still under the effects of Alexios' hysteria, killed Victoria in a moment of madness.[27] By 2020, Layla was given a mood stabilizer by Shaun Hastings on William Miles' orders, to help her keep the influence of both the Bleeding Effect and the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus under control.[28]
Kō Risa
- "It starts with hallucinations. Seeing and hearing things that aren't there. Then, you get confused about who you are. You lose your sense of time. Basically, the division between you and your ancestor gets blurry. You forget which one you are and what century you're living in."
- ―Kiyoshi Takakura explaining the Bleeding Effect to Risa and Mari, 2019.[src]-[m]
In 2019, while reliving the memories of her ancestor Shao Jun at the Abstergo clinic in Yokohama, Kō Risa began to experience the Bleeding Effect. Due to her strong connection with Shao Jun, Risa empathized with many of her ancestor's feelings, such as the strong guilt Shao Jun felt for indirectly causing the 1526 Macau fires, which made Risa cry.[29]
Kiyoshi recounting the Bleeding Effect's dangers to Risa and Mari
In time, Risa started experiencing hallucinations, such as mistaking a civilian on the street for a Ming dyansty soldier. This made the young woman worry for her mental health, especially after the Assassin Kiyoshi Takakura warned her of the dangerous side-effects of the Animus.[30] However, Risa's doctor, Kaori Kagami, was not concerned about her patient's well-being and only sought to use Shao Jun's memories to find the Precursor box. As such, she dismissed Risa's worries and insisted on long sessions in the Animus, which only aggravated Risa's condition.[31]
Eventually, when Risa decided to stand up to Kagami, the doctor took her hostage and forced her back into the Animus at gunpoint.[32] However, Risa, having gained Shao Jun's fighting abilities, was able to overpower Kagami and her guards and escaped the facility alongside her cousin Mari and Kiyoshi.[33]
Basim Ibn Ishaq
In 2020, after reliving the memories of Eivor Varinsdottir using Layla Hassan's Animus, Basim Ibn Ishaq experienced the Bleeding Effect, seeing an apparition of Eivor smiling and nodding at him; a gesture he returned.[28] Later, he experienced another vision, of Eivor and her past form of Odin discussing the Great Catastrophe and that which had caused it.[34]
Noa Kim
- "When a subject's mind is synced with their ancestors' memories due to the Bleeding Effect, the main symptom is almost always violent behavior. But Noa hasn't demonstrated such abnormal conduct so far, which means he's fighting to retain control of his mind."
- ―Shimazu Sei describing Noa's condition, 2023.[src]-[m]
Noa "conversing" with a hallucination of Edward
Following his abduction by Abstergo, Noa Kim was forced to relive the memories of his ancestor Edward Kenway, spending extended periods of time in the Animus. As a result, he began to assimilate Edward's skills and abilities, but also some of his personality traits, such as his confidence.[35]
Noa later began to experience a number of hallucinations, including one where he mistook several Abstergo guards for ninja,[36] one where he was attacked by an apparition of Edward, and one where he saw Edward speaking to Zhang prior to his departure from Macau.[37] He also gained the ability to use Eagle Vision, which proved useful on multiple occasions.[37][38]
In one of the more severe instances of hallucination, Noa saw Edward as if he was alive and talking to him, though the Assassin clarified that he was nothing more than a fragment of a long-forgotten memory. During his "conversation" with Edward, Noa revealed that he admired the Assassin's freedom and hoped that, by exploring his memories, he would find his own place in the world, which Edward encouraged him to do.[39]
After more Animus sessions, during which he relived Edward's memories involving a crescent amulet – a Piece of Eden – that negatively affected him, Noa began to succumb to the Bleeding Effect. In the Memory Corridor, he was approached by multiple apparitions of Edward wearing the robes of different Assassins, who offered Noa a choice: allow his mind to be taken over by Edward's memories and the Piece of Eden's powers, or fight "against fate itself."[40]
Noa surrounded by apparitions of Edward in the Animus
Choosing the latter, Noa was presented with the Assassin robes and tomahawk of Edward's grandson Ratonhnhaké:ton, and subsequently gained his skills.[40] As he regained consciousness, Noa went on a rampage aboard the Exitus vessel, easily dispatching multiple guards, including a number of Sigma Team operatives. He only stopped when Shimazu Sei put herself in his path, allowing Noa to return to his senses as he could not bring himself to attack her.[15]
When Noa later came into direct contact with the crescent amulet, the Piece of Eden's powers worsened his Bleeding Effect, physically weakening him and eventually leaving him in a berserk-like state. Following his escape from Abstergo alongside Sei and Yuki, Noa was taken to receive medical care at a Zhawang Corporation safehouse in Singapore while Sei theorized that another Piece of Eden could cure Noa.[41]
After another stint in the Animus to locate said Piece of Eden, Noa's Bleeding Effect worsened to the point where he completely withdrew himself into Edward's memories, essentially allowing his ancestor's mind to take over his body.[42] After "Edward" and Sei found the Piece of Eden in the Shwedagon Pagoda, its powers temporarily cured Noa of the Bleeding Effect so that he could face several trials to determine if he was worthy of claiming the artifact. In the end, Noa prevailed and, after achieving a Synch Nexus with Edward, was fully cured of the Bleeding Effect, reverting the damage done to his psyche.[43]
Shimazu Sei
- "She's already in the final stage of the Bleeding Effect. Her whole sense of self has been destroyed. She might as well be brain-dead for all the use she'll be."
- ―An Abstergo scientist describing Sei's condition, 2023.[src]-[m]
After using a prototype Animus HR-8 to relive her ancestor Shimazu Saito's memories, Shimazu Sei experienced the Bleeding Effect almost immediately, briefly hallucinating Yuki to be a Shimazu ninja and Noa Kim to be Edward Kenway. The Bleeding Effect also left Sei physically and mentally weakened, though she eventually regained her strength.[44]
Sei using Saito's skills to defeat a Sigma Team operative
Sei also gained Saito's fighting and acrobatic skills, allowing her to perceive enemy attacks in slow motion and easily overpower a Sigma Team operative.[45] After a second stint in the Animus, Sei's psyche was further damaged and she began to mistake her own memories for Saito's, though she managed to retain control of her mind and body.[16]
Following her capture by Abstergo in Yangon, Myanmar, Sei was strapped to an Animus and forced to relive Saito's memories to help the Templars track down a Piece of Eden.[46] Due to her overexposure to the machine, Sei developed a severe Bleeding Effect and, by the time she was rescued by Noa, she had been completely overtaken by Saito's memories.[47]
One of the Abstergo scientists who had experimented on Sei described her condition as being "essentially brain-dead", although Noa refused to lose hope and freed the doctor anyway. He then used the same Piece of Eden which had cured his Bleeding Effect on Sei, although the damage done to her mind proved much more severe and the doctor slipped into a coma-like state from which she would not awaken for a long time.[48]
Identity substitution
Identity substitution is a rare symptom of the Bleeding Effect in which the subject not only absorbs the physical abilities of the person he is reliving memories of through the Animus, but also his personality and his way of thinking.
In 2012, the Assassin Desmond Miles asked his team member Rebecca Crane if he would become the people whose memories he had been reliving in the Animus. Rebecca said it was possible, but unlikely.[12]
In 2014, Robert Fraser experienced this symptom of the Bleeding Effect, believing himself to be Arno Dorian and causing him to turn against the Templars, which eventually led to his termination by Abstergo Industries.[20] Maxime Gorm also experienced this symptom after reliving Eddie Gorm's memories of being put through Die Glocke while Maxime himself was in the Animus. As a result, Maxime forgot his identity and believed himself to be Eddie; although he eventually realized that he was not his ancestor, he remained amnesiac, with no recollection of his true identity.[25]
In 2017, the rogue Assassin Nathalie Chapman sought to restart Project BLUEBIRD, an initiative started by her father Boris Pash that aimed to weaponize the Bleeding Effect; by overwriting a test subject's memories and personality with those of long-dead Assassins, the Brotherhood could gain an army of "super-soldiers". However, due to the project's goals going against the Creed, the Assassin Tomo Sakagawa put a stop to it, killing Chapman and destroying the Apple of Eden she had used to brainwash her patients.[24]
Noa Kim overtaken by Edward Kenway's memories
In 2023, after multiple stints in the Animus, Noa Kim's psyche became so damaged that he believed himself to be his ancestor Edward Kenway.[42] Edward's memories took over Noa's mind and body, and it would not be until Noa came into contact with a Piece of Eden and achieved a Synch Nexus with Edward that he was cured of the Bleeding Effect.[43]
Shimazu Sei similarly experienced a severe Bleeding Effect after overexposure to the Animus during her captivity by Abstergo Industries. This not only caused her to forget her own identity and believe herself to be her ancestor Saito, but also led to her slipping into a coma-like state. Although Noa eventually cured her Bleeding Effect with a Piece of Eden, he was not certain how long it would take for Sei to regain consciousness.[48]
Behind the scenes
When Desmond relived the memories of Ezio's pilgrimage to Masyaf, and Altaïr's return from exile to Masyaf, ghostly images from Altaïr's past could be perceived. Whether this was a side effect of Eagle Sense's ability to track where targets have been, or merely the Bleeding Effect causing the memories to overlap, is unconfirmed.
The Lost Archive downloadable content for Assassin's Creed: Revelations contained a mission titled "Bleeding Effect".
Appearances
- Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed II
- Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
- Assassin's Creed: The Fall
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- The Lost Archive (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: The Chain
- Assassin's Creed III
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment – Employee Handbook
- Assassin's Creed comic series
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia
- Assassin's Creed: Templars
- Assassin's Creed: Heresy
- Assassin's Creed: Conspiracies
- Assassin's Creed film
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Tomb of the Khan
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Fate of the Gods
- Assassin's Creed: Uprising
- Assassin's Creed: Origins
- Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodstone
- Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
- Assassin's Creed: Shadows (mentioned only)
References
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