The Grand Temple's main chamber
The Grand Temple, also known as the Central Vault, is a complex built by the Isu, located in modern-day Turin, New York. Like other Temples, it served as a storehouse of Isu knowledge, though its purpose was unique in that it held information regarding six possible experiments that could save the world from an impending coronal mass ejection. Here, the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno collected and tested the results of other Temples' discoveries in the hopes of finding a viable option to protect them from the the cosmic threat.
To maintain its operation, the Grand Temple was buried underground to protect its contents from the war with humanity and the solar flare, and to act as a containment chamber in case something went wrong with the projects developed inside. It was hidden beneath a statue dedicated to the Capitoline Triad. However, the statue was destroyed during the Great Catastrophe and the broken head from Minerva's figure eroded over time until it formed a cave leading to the Temple's entrance. Although several humans re-discovered the Temple's location over the centuries, none would learn the site's true purpose or how to access it until Desmond Miles' 2012 revelation in the Synch Nexus.
The Grand Temple was also the place where Juno was imprisoned for millennia in order to protect humanity from her plots of destruction, and held the device that she had been tampered with to simultaneously protect the Earth from a second solar flare and set her free.
History[]
Isu Era[]
- "It was our duty... mine, Minerva's and Juno's—to sort and sample all that was collected. We chose those solutions which held the most promise, and devoted ourselves to testing their merits. Six we tried in succession, each more encouraging than the last. But none worked. And then the world ended..."
- ―Jupiter to Desmond Miles.[src]-[m]
As an underground complex, the Grand Temple was divided in three well-defined areas, each designed to fulfill a specific function. One of these areas was designated for restrooms, providing a space for rest and recovery for those who resided within. Another section housed a research facility, equipped with laboratories and experimentation rooms. The third and final section was dedicated to house the Isu servers for the management and storage of vast amounts of data, facilitating their analysis.[1] The Eye was also housed within the Grand Temple until Jupiter and Minerva destroyed it once they found out about Juno's betrayal.[1]
Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno inside the Grand Temple
The main objective of the Capitoline Triad and their teams was to analyze all information from the other Temples across the planet and to test these solutions. They did it in succession, "each more encouraging than the last", but all six ultimately ended in failure.[2]
Following this, the solar flare killed most of the Isu and left less than 10,000 humans alive. However, the two groups worked together, beginning around the remains of the Grand Temple. The few remaining Isu attempted to pass on their gifts to humans through crossbreeding,[2] resulting in hybrids,[3] individuals who were more easily able to access Eagle Vision and use the Pieces of Eden.[2]
The Isu later determined a similar disaster would occur again in 2012. Minerva found a new solution from her research. If the Towers were to be completed, the Isu could use its structure to emit energy rather than absorb it.[1] This, combined with the global aurora borealis device,[4] would effectively protect the Earth from the solar flares. Only an individual with the right genetic material to activate it would be needed. However, before Minerva could test it, she discovered that Juno had tampered with it. While the patterns to save the world still existed, they would also allow Juno to have total control and power. As such, Minerva forced the solution to be abandoned, and Juno's consciousness was imprisoned in the Grand Temple.[5]
Norse expedition[]
In the late 9th century CE, the Viking Gorm Kjotvesson of the Wolf Clan, who served as Maegester for the Order of the Ancients' Wardens of War sect, led an expedition to Vinland after acquiring a Crystal Ball which allowed him to communicate with Juno. Per the Isu's instructions, Gorm sought to locate the Grand Temple and free Juno from her imprisonment, but despite finding the Temple's entrance, all attempts to open the door proved unsuccessful.[6]
Eivor outside the Grand Temple's entrance
Around 875, Gorm's rival Eivor Varinsdottir of the Raven Clan tracked him to Vinland and assassinated him, retrieving his Crystal Ball in the process. The artifact then guided Eivor to the Grand Temple's entrance, but after inspecting the strange door and hearing Juno's voice speaking through the Crystal Ball, the Viking decided not to proceed any further, believing the message was intended for someone else.[7]
Eivor subsequently entrusted Gorm's Crystal Ball to Konwahawíhshon, a co-leader of the nearby Kanien'kehá:ka village of Karonhiakèn:iate'.[8] The artifact remained in the Kanien'kehá:ka's possession for generations, and through it, the villagers communicated with Juno, whom they believed was a god. The Isu instructed them to protect the "sanctuary" from outside threats, and so the Kanien'kehá:ka became guardians of the Grand Temple, though their duties forced them to isolate themselves from the other Iroquois tribes.[9] Over time, stories of the tribe's communications with Juno were painted on the Temple door, referring to her as a motherly figure known as the "Sky Woman" who watched over and protected the Kanien'kehá:ka.[10]
Renaissance[]
In 1499, after accessing the Vatican Vault in Rome, Ezio Auditore was contacted by a hologram of Minerva via the Eye. Minerva told Ezio about her race's history, their war with humanity and their demise during the Great Catastrophe, and urged an unseen person named Desmond to find the Grand Temple so that humanity could be saved from the Second Disaster. Unbeknownst to Ezio at the time, this message was intended for his descendant Desmond Miles, who would relive Ezio's genetic memories through the Animus centuries later.[11]
Ezio and Leonardo discovering the Grand Temple's coordinates
In 1506, Ezio and his friend Leonardo da Vinci discovered a smaller vault underneath the Temple of Pythagoras, which contained a set of coordinates: 43° 39' 19" N, 75° 27' 42" W. While Leonardo was baffled by the information, Ezio inherently understood that these numbers were intended for Desmond and convinced Leonardo to leave the vault.[12]
In 1509, the Byzantine Templars' Grand Master and Ottoman prince Ahmet desired the Grand Temple's location in order to end the differences between men and create a unified world. He believed that the famed Levantine Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad knew the Temple's location and had hidden it in his library beneath Masyaf.[13] With this belief, he organized an excavation to find the library, which Ezio Auditore ultimately discovered.[14]
In 1512, Ezio prevented the Templars under Ahmet from acquiring the keys to Altaïr's library and subsequently traveled to Masyaf to access the library himself. However, the chamber was empty, except for Altaïr's remains, a sixth key, and Altaïr's Apple of Eden.[15] Weary of his life as an Assassin, Ezio chose not to take the Apple from the library. The Apple then began to glow and Ezio spoke directly to Desmond, asking him to make sense of the questions that had plagued him and to make the suffering he had endured worth something.[16]
The Templars' search[]
- "It could contain certain knowledge. Perhaps a weapon. Or something as yet unknown, unfathomable in its construction and purpose. It could be any of these things. Or none of them. They are still an enigma, these precursors. But of one thing I am certain—whatever waits behind those doors shall prove a great boon to us all."
- ―Reginald Birch talking about the Grand Temple, 1754.[src]-[m]
In 1722, the pirate Bartholomew Roberts, a Sage of Juno's late husband Aita, discovered through visions of his past life the existence of the Grand Temple and Juno's imprisonment in it. During Roberts' last moments, he expressed his desire to visit Juno at the Grand Temple, confusing his killer, the Assassin Edward Kenway, before requesting that Edward destroy his body to prevent the Templars from gaining anything from it.[17]
In his later life, Edward wrote a journal detailing his research on different Temples around the world, including the Grand Temple. In 1735, the British Templars' Grand Master Reginald Birch obtained Edward's journal after hiring mercenaries to kill the Assassin in his own home.[18] Learning about the Grand Temple's location in the New World, Birch assigned his subordinate Lawrence Washington to find the site and be his eyes and ears in the Colonies.[19] However, after over a decade spent in the Colonies, Washington was unsuccessful in his search.[20]
Haytham attempting to open the Temple door
In 1754, the Templar Haytham Kenway, Edward's son and Birch's protégé, was sent by his master to find the Grand Temple after acquiring an Isu key from the British Assassin Miko.[21] Upon his arrival in the Colonies, Haytham assembled an expedition with his fellow Templars in the New World and befriended the Kanien'kehá:ka warrior Kaniehtí:io, who brought him to the Temple's entrance in the northern Frontier within the Black Creek region. To his dismay, however, Haytham found that his key did not open the Temple door and decided to abandon the search for the site.[10]
Despite this, in 1760, a group of Templars led by Charles Lee organized another expedition to find the Grand Temple and traveled to the Kanien'kehá:ka village of Kanatahséton to speak with its elders. En route to the village, the Templars encountered and assaulted a young native boy, Ratonhnhaké:ton, who was secretly Haytham and Kaniehtí:io's son. When Kanatahséton was later set ablaze by the British Army, Ratonhnhaké:ton blamed the Templars for the tragedy and vowed revenge on Lee.[22]
As a teenager, Ratonhnhaké:ton was contacted by Juno through his tribe's Crystal Ball and was tasked with joining the broken Colonial Assassins in order to prevent the Templars from ever accessing the Grand Temple.[9] By 1782, Ratonhnhaké:ton had succeeded in wiping out the Colonial Templars and, after assassinating Lee, took the Grand Temple Key from him. He subsequently hid it per Juno's instructions,[23] choosing to bury it in the Davenport Homestead's hillside grave for his late Mentor Achilles Davenport's son Connor.[24]
Modern times[]
Juno outside the Temple as the Assassins arrived
In 2012, Desmond Miles relived Ezio Auditore's memories and, upon reaching the moment of Ezio's discovery of Altaïr's Apple of Eden, the artifact triggered a Synch Nexus, allowing Desmond to speak with Jupiter. The Isu further elaborated on the Isu's history and fate and, similarly to Minerva, tasked Desmond to find the Grand Temple so that he could use the global aurora borealis device to prevent the Second Disaster.[2]
Meanwhile, Desmond's comrades in his Assassin cell—Shaun Hastings, Rebecca Crane, and his father William—learned of the Temple's coordinates from Ezio's memories,[12] and brought Desmond there so that he could access the vault.[2] As Desmond approached the Temple entrance, he inserted Ezio's Apple of Eden into a hole in the door, triggering a mechanism that opened the door and allowed the Assassins to enter the Temple.[5]
Desmond opening the Temple door
While investigating the Temple, the group found a large gate made of light that protected the global aurora borealis device, before Desmond passed out as a result of the Bleeding Effect and Juno's influence and was placed in the Animus. There, Desmond relived the memories of his ancestors Haytham Kenway and Ratonhnhaké:ton in order to find the Grand Temple Key, which could deactivate the gate blocking the path to the Temple's inner chambers.[5]
Meanwhile, Shaun realized that the Assassins required three Isu power sources to fully reactivate the Temple, otherwise opening the gate would be of no use. Over time, Desmond recovered these power sources from across the globe, and with each source plugged in, the Assassin witnessed visions of Juno explaining the six solutions devised by the Isu to save the planet from the solar flare.[5]
Through the memories of his ancestors, Desmond eventually learned the Grand Temple Key's location and retrieved it from the Davenport Homestead's remains before returning to the Temple to deactivate the gate. This granted the Assassins access to the global aurora borealis device, though before Desmond could activate it at Juno's urging, Minerva suddenly appeared using a second Eye she had secretly constructed and told Desmond to do the opposite.[5]
Desmond activating the global aurora borealis device
She explained that if Desmond followed Juno's instructions, the world would be saved, but at the cost of his life and Juno's release from imprisonment. Following this, Minerva showed Desmond that if he refrained from activating the device, the solar flare would once again destroy the world, but he and many other humans would survive. Additionally, Desmond would eventually become a religious figure that would rebuild the world, but upon his death, his ideals would be mistranslated and spark conflicts, effectively causing history to repeat itself.[5]
Believing that humanity had a chance at defeating Juno, Desmond decided to activate the device, telling William, Shaun, and Rebecca to leave the Grand Temple and prepare for the new struggle. The world was indeed saved, but Desmond perished and Juno was freed. Thanking Desmond's corpse for having "played [his] part well", Juno declared that she would enact her plans that she had spend eons crafting.[5]
Several hours later,[25] Abstergo Industries found the Temple and dispatched a team, led by Case Fisher. There, they found and retrieved Desmond's body, stripping him of his backpack and his Hidden Blade, which was broken into pieces and taken to Abstergo along with the rest of his belongings.[26]
Behind the scenes[]
It was possible to visit the entrance while reliving Ratonhnhaké:ton and Haytham's memories, though the door was closed. In The Tyranny of King Washington, the entrance is absent from the cave.
The shape of the temple from Jupiter's holographic flashback in Assassin's Creed: Revelations changed from an elevator shaft and a lobby to become much larger and sectioned off in Assassin's Creed III.
According to The Art of Assassin's Creed III, the three sections of the Grand Temple are respectively meant to be a computer server, sleeping quarters, and a research facility.
The barrier sealing off the Temple's inner chambers features a symbol consisting of an ouroboros surrounding a tetractys. The Grand Temple Key, which deactivates this barrier, also has a symbol of an ouroboros.
Contrary to popular theories making Jötunheimr analogous to North America, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's Lead Writer Darby McDevitt dispelled the notion that Gunnlöð's vault in Jotunheim was actually the Grand Temple.[27]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance (first mentioned) (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (first appearance) (entrance only)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed III
- Assassin's Creed: Forsaken (entrance only)
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (entrance only)
References[]
