Callum Lynch

Callum Lynch
Biographical information
Born	21 October 1979 Alcalde, New Mexico, United States
Political information
Affiliations	Assassins (since 2016)

Callum "Cal" Lynch (born 1979) is a modern day member of the Assassin Brotherhood and a descendant of the 15th century Spanish Assassin Aguilar de Nerha as well as the 18th-century French-Austrian Assassin Arno Dorian.

As the last surviving member of de Nerha's bloodline, Lynch was sought out by Abstergo as part of a Templar plot to locate a specific Apple of Eden wielded by de Nerha.

Biography

Early years

Callum was born to Joseph and Mary Lynch on 21 October 1979, both members of the Assassin Order. At the age of seven, he returned home one day to find his mother died at his father's hands. Joseph told him to run and Callum witnessed his father's subsequent capture by Templar agents led by Alan Rikkin. Growing up, Callum spent a lot of time in various foster homes and juvenile detention centers but managed to avoid both the Assassins and Templars, until his eventual arrest for the murder of a pimp. He also used to shoplift Animus software with the intention of selling them to kids who had too much wealth.

"Execution" and imprisonment

On 21 October 2016, Callum was publicly executed by the State of Texas, though he later learned that, with the help of the Abstergo Foundation, a Templar run initiative led by Dr. Sofia Rikkin, his execution had been staged.

Callum waking up after his apparent execution

Sofia Rikkin informed Callum that he had been brought to her facility in Madrid, Spain, in order to help Abstergo find the "cure to violence" inherently present in mankind - and more specifically, the numerous descendants of historical Assassins. In order to do so, he would need to locate an artifact known as the "Apple of Eden," which was last known to be in the possession of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, a 15th century Spanish Assassin.

Callum has hooked up the Animus and equipped with Aguilar's Hidden Blades, which had previously been retrieved from the dead Assassin's burial site. Inside the machine, he was forced to relive the genetic memories of his ancestor, before being suddenly pulled out. Whilst collapsed on the floor, Callum began to see images of Aguilar in the modern day.

Callum 'encouters' Aguilar

The next day Callum was introduced to the wider population at the facility, including Moussa, a descendant of the 18th century Haitian Assassin Baptiste. During a confusing encounter for Callum, he learned that the Assassins had protected, and continued to protect, the Apple from the Templars. Upon returning to his cell, Callum was once again greeted by a vision of Aguilar, and this time engaged in combat with the vivid image. It was at this moment that he was forcibly returned to the Animus at the insistence of Dr. Alan Rikkin, who was under pressure to locate the Apple in a timely fashion.

This time, Callum's Animus session ended violently when he rapidly desynchronized from Aguilar, following the latter's Leap of Faith within the Animus. Any cerebral damage from the rapid desynchronization was quickly prevented by Sophia’s medical team, though Callum was briefly forced into a wheelchair due to the onset of a temporary paralysis.

Reunion

The next day, Callum was greeted by Sofia's father, Alan Rikkin, who in an attempt to coerce Callum into willingly entering the Animus, informed him that his father was also present at the facility. Alan correctly assumed that Callum, rather than wanting to come to terms with his past, wished to destroy it.

Presented with his father's Hidden Blade, Callum confronted his father. Joseph informed Callum that his mother’s death had been necessary in order to keep the Templars from placing her in the Animus and locating the Apple. Though Callum was unwilling to kill his father in cold blood, he promised to aid the Templars in locating the Apple, so that they might use it to destroy the Assassins in the modern day.

Callum once more returned to the Animus, this time willingly, in order to locate the Apple through Aguilar's memories. This time he was confronted by the facility's head of security, McGowen, who gave Callum a brief history of the Assassins. McGowen admitted that while he is not an Assassin himself, he respected the Assassins' integrity and commitment to a cause, comparing Callum unfavorably against them.

Callum in the Animus

Inside the Animus, Callum witnessed the betrayal of the Templars, when Aguilar's companion, Maria, was murdered by Ojeda in order to regain the Apple. As Aguilar, in the past, escaped his Templar pursuers, Callum remained fully synchronized enough the successfully perform a Leap of Faith. Landing forcefully on the ground, the Animus arm attached to Callum jerked violently and broke, though he remained connected long enough for those present to witness Aguilar handing the Apple to Christopher Columbus. Having successfully located the Apple in Columbus' tomb in the Seville Cathedral, Sofia and Alan Rikkin were forced to evacuate the facility due to a revolt led by Moussa and his fellow Assassin inmates.

Meanwhile, Callum remained connected to the Animus and was greeted by ghostly visions of several of his Assassin ancestors, from a number of historical periods, including not only Aguilar but Callum's mother and father too. Accepting his place among the Assassins, Callum resolved to escape the facility and retrieve the Apple. Together with Moussa, Nathan, Emir, and Lin, Callum fought his way out of the facility.

Retrieving the Apple

Callum assassinates Alan

Despite the deaths of Nathan and Emir, the Assassins were successful in escaping the facility and tracking Rikkin to the Grand Templar Hall in London, where the Templar Order was meeting en masse to celebrate the retrieval of the Apple. Callum, Moussa, and Lin managed to infiltrate the meeting by breaking down their Hidden Blades into separate parts, before reconstructing them inside.

Callum briefly confronted Sofia who, having become disillusioned with her father's priorities - eliminating the Assassins over eliminating violence in general - did nothing to prevent Callum from retrieving the Apple and killing her father.

Equipment and skills

Prior to his discovery by Abstergo, Callum was a skilled criminal, stealing Animus technology and selling it to wealthy kids. After spending time in the Animus 4.3 as his ancestor Aguilar, he gained a myriad of Aguilar's combat, acrobatic and Assassin abilities through the Bleeding Effect. Despite the positive effects of the Bleeding Effect, there was also some drawbacks, as he also started to hallucinate Aguilar's phantom attacking him in his cell. After escaping the facility, it became evident that Callum's Animus sessions had also made him extremely proficient in blending, swiftly and easily infiltrating the Templars' secure convocation, assassinating Alan Rikkin, and recovering the Apple of Eden in the ensuing chaos.

Trivia

• "Callum" is a masculine Gaelic name meaning "dove" in Scottish and Irish Gaelic, deriving from late Latin Columba (dove). This continues the trend of Assassin's Creed protagonists having avian-themed names.
• In the scene with the bulletin board showing Callum's family tree, the photograph of a young Callum has his name written as "Cal," with the "A" written as the Assassin insignia.
• Although Callum and his father share their surname with Victor Lynch, a British Templar who operated in London during the 19th century, it is unknown if they are actually related to him.
• Callum seems to share some of his ancestries with Sofia Rikkin, as one of his ancestors appearing through the Animus was an Assassin female who was the mirror image of Sofia.
• Besides Arno and Aguilar, Callum had Assassin ancestors who fought in the English Civil War, American Civil War and World War II.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Movie (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization