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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic and historically known as Hellas,[2] or the Greek World,[3] is a civilization and country located in Southeastern Europe and is popularly regarded as the cradle of Western civilization.
Jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea, Greece is a largely mountainous region consisting of several peninsula and numerous small island archipelagos in the adjacent Aegean Sea.
Throughout the second and first millennia BCE, Greece was divided into a myriad of city-states, or poleis, which vied for regional hegemony beginning with the Mycenaean civilization. Shortly after the sacking of Troy during the Trojan War–immortalized in the Iliad–the Mycenaean civilization collapsed.
These poleis would not rise to prominence again until the 5th century BCE when two, in particular, Athens and Sparta, became leading powers of Greece in the aftermath of the Greco-Persian Wars. Left without a common enemy, their rivalry culminated in the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE, lasting until Athens' defeat in 404 BCE.
During this time, Athens often cited as the birthplace of democracy, witnessed an explosion of intellectual and cultural arts that developed the foundations for modern Western medicine, philosophy, historiography, political science, sports, and literature. The poleis were finally united for the first time in 336 BCE following their conquest by Alexander III of Makedonia, who carved out a short-lived empire across the Western Asia, spreading Hellenic culture from the Roman Republic, to Egypt, all the way to the borders of India.
Owing to its historical significance, Athens is the capital and largest city of the Hellenic Republic, the current regime of Greece as a sovereign state.
History[]
Isu era[]
During the Isu Era, the First Civilization built many complex in the region that would become Greece. One of their major sites was the city of Atlantis, under the island of Thera, which was purported to house the sum total of their knowledge. With the Atlantis artifacts, the Isu transformed Humans into hybrid beasts–the Cyclopes, Sphinx, Writhing Dread, and Minotaur–and locked them in vaults across the region. An Ancient Forge was also built on Andros, producing weapons such as the Spear of Leonidas and the Sword of Damokles.[3]
Mythological era[]
During this period, the Isu were seen by humans as gods, like Zeus, Athena or Hera, forming the Twelve Gods. Many myths were related to them, as the creation of the World or the fate of humanity. Different cities worshipped the gods, building temples and shrine for them. Under the Sanctuary of Delphi, the Oracle of Apollo known as Pythia used an artifact from the Isu to see possible futures and told individuals from all the Greeks world their destiny.[3]
Many civilizations appeared in Greece, as the Minoan in Crete and the Mycenaean in continental Greece.[3]
Many descendants from the Isu and humans used Pieces of Eden to accomplish great feats and were worshipped as demigods and heroes. Perseus found a Sword of Eden and killed a Writhing Dread. The king of Athens Theseus killed a Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Oedipus outsmarted a Sphinx in a riddles challenge. Jason and his Argonauts found a Shroud of Eden. The hero Herakles performed Twelve Labours defeating mythical creatures and recovering Apples of Eden.[3][4]
During the 12th century BCE, the Isu Eris sent an Apple of Eden which provoked the kidnapping of Helen of Troy by Paris and the beginning of the Trojan War, lasting ten years. Many kings and heroes such as Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Achilles, and Odysseus participated in the war, resulting in the destruction of Troy.[3][5] After the war, Odysseus returned to his kingdom of Ithaka after a long journey of ten years during which he defeated Cyclops, Sirens, and the Wrath of Poseidon.[3]
Archaic period[]
In the late 8th century BCE, the Greeks began an expansion, settling colonies in the surrounding areas such as Anatolia and southern Italy. The coastal areas of southern Italy came to be known as Magna Graecia, and spawned numerous notable poleis such as Croton, Sybaris, Syracuse.[3]
During the sixth century BCE, the famous scholar Pythagoras and his disciple Kyros of Zarax lived in Samos, a small island in Greece, where Pythagoras became a well respected man by discovering the Tetractys.[6]
A few years later, they moved to Croton, Italy, where Pythagoras founded his own academy to teach young scholars everything he knew. However, tension in Croton began to rise and Pythagoras and Kyros were forced to flee back to Greece after a few years.[6]
Many years later, they travelled through a Greek desert to find Hermes Trismegistus. They eventually located him and he awarded Pythagoras with his staff, beginning the Hermeticist traditions.[6]
Kyros then decided to travel to Arkadia, hoping to challenge its princess, Atalanta, to a race and be allowed to marry her. Before travelling to Arcadia, however, Kyros first ventured to the abandoned temple of Aphrodite, where he found an Apple of Eden. With the help of the ancient artifact, he was able to defeat Atalanta, earning her hand in marriage.[6]
After the formation of the Hermeticists, some of them preferred to worship chaos over the traditional view of the cult of balance between order and chaos. This members formed their own group, the Cult of Kosmos. They tried to take control of Greece by ensuring chaos through wars in the country. They used the Pyramid under the Sanctuary of Delphi to plan their schemes and used the Pythia as their puppet.[3]
Classical period[]
In the early 5th century BCE, the Achaemenid Empire supported by the Order of the Ancients, having conquered Anatolia, made various attempts to invade and conquer the Greek world. In 492 BCE Darius I of Persia led a first invasion in Greece after the Ionian revolt. In response, numerous poleis including Athens and Sparta rallied the Greek states in a coalition against the Persian invasion, ending it with the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE where the Athenian troops defeated the Persians.[3]
In 480 BCE, Darius' son Xerxes led a second invasion on Greece. The Cult of Kosmos tried to convinced the Greek world through the Pythia to surrender to Xerxes. The King Leonidas I of Sparta, an Isu's descendant, refused to obey to the Cult and led an army against the Persians during the Battle of Thermopylae. However every Spartans were killed with their King and Athens was burnt by the Persians, the Athenians won a naval victory during the Battle of Salamis with Themistokles.[3]
In 478 BCE, the Delian League was formed by Athens to defend the island nations of the Aegean against the Achaemenid Empire. After the end of Greco-Persian Wars, a rivalry rose between Delian League and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.[3]
Around 453 BCE, Pythagoras, who desired to extend the Isu lineage and also destroy the Cult of Kosmos, conceived a child with Myrrine, the daughter of Leonidas of Sparta. The child was known as Kassandra and trained to become a warrior. In 446 BCE, Myrrine had another child, Alexios. The Cult of Kosmos decided to exterminate Leonidas' lineage and ordered that the two child were thrown from the Mount Taygetos. Kassandra survived and fled to Kephallonia. Myrrine went with Alexios in the Sanctuary of Asklepios in Argolis to be nursed. The Cult faked the death of the child to raise him as their weapon only known as Deimos.[3]
In early 431 BCE, war broke out between the Peloponnesian League and the Delian League. This conflict was known as the Peloponnesian War. The Cult of Kosmos led by Aspasia, the wife of the Athenian ruler Perikles, decided to control the two sides of the war. The branch of the Delian League was led by the General Kleon and the branch of the Peloponnesian League by the King Pausanias of Sparta. The Cult also had controlled on the seas with the Gods of the Aegean Sea, on the battlefields with the Heroes of the Cult. With the Eyes of Kosmos, the Cult had all the information they needed and The Silver Vein collected the funds for the organization. The Worshippers of the Bloodline manipulated the religion and the Followers of Ares to spread fear in Greece. Over time, the members of the Cult became corrupted and searched power for themselves and losing the control of the war. Deimos took the leadership of the Cult even if it was the cultists who manipulated him.[3]
Kassandra, who became misthios took part in the Peloponnesian War as a mercenary. The Cult of Kosmos manipulated her to killed her foster father Nikolaos, but she discovered the truth about the Cult and her family. Allying with Herodotos and Perikles, Kassandra decided to track down every members of the Cult and to reunite her family.[3]
In 429 BCE, Athens was stricken by the plague. As the city was in chaos, Deimos killed Perikles which permitted to Kleon to become the new ruler of Athenian Democracy. After the death of her husband, Aspasia decided to help Kassandra to kill the corrupt members of the Cult. After Kassandra met her mother, Aspasia gave an hint that one of the cultist was a king of Sparta. With the help of Myrrine and the Spartan general Brasidas, Kassandra tracked down the branch of the Peloponnesian League which permitted the arrest of the king Pausanias in 426 BCE, freeing Sparta from the Cult influence.[3]
In 425 BCE, the Athenian army led by Demosthenes fought the Spartan army led by Brasidas during the Battle of Pylos. Kassandra, who sided with Sparta, duelled Deimos who fought for Athens. The Athenians won and Kassandra was captured to be executed in Athens. She escaped from her prison and with the Periklean Circle, she diminished the popularity of Kleon. In 422 BCE, the ruler of Athens was forced to go to Makedonia to fight the troops of Brasidas. During the Battle of Amphipolis, Deimos killed Brasidas while Kassandra killed Kleon. Later, as Deimos lost the will to live, he forced Kassandra to kill him after he treated to kill their mother.[3]
After killed every members of the Cult of Kosmos, Kassandra confronted Aspasia in the Cult hideout. The Ghost of the Cult decided to form a Republic to change the Greek world while Kassandra destroyed the Pyramid to prevent anyone to use it, freeing Greece from the Cult influence.[3]
Hellenistic period[]
Alexander the Great, who ruled an Empire spanning from Greece to Egypt and India, used a Staff of Eden given to him by the Order of the Ancients.[7]
Roman era[]
During the 2nd century, Greece became a part of the Roman Republic. During the Caesar Civil War, the consul Pompey took refuge in Greece where he received the support of Aya and Phoxidas sent by Cleopatra VII of Egypt.[8] In 42 BCE, the Hidden Ones Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus hid in Greece after the Assassination of Julius Caesar. They committed suicide as the Roman Army led by Marcus Antonius defeated their troops at Philippi.[9] In 31 BCE, the troops of Octavianius defeated the Army of Antonius and Cleopatra at Actium.[10]
Later, Greece became a part of the Roman Empire and in 330 CE the emperor Constantine I founded the city of Constantinople which became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Greece became the last remains of the Roman Empire.[11]
Ottoman Empire[]
During the 15th century, Greece was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. In 1510, the Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins Ezio Auditore da Firenze explored Greece during his journey to Masyaf.[12] While Greece was under Ottoman rule during the Renaissance, the Byzantine Templars controlled Athens. They were rooted out by the Ottoman Assassins, sent by Ezio, who established Assassin Dens in the city, liberating its residents by Templar influence and recovered Isu technology that was discovered beneath the Acropolis.[1]
Around this time, the Knights Hospitalier controlled the island of Rhodes. After they executed the Master Assassin Castor of the Greek Brotherhood of Assassins, Ezio sent the Assassins to burn a Hospitalier compound in revenge.[1]
During the 1510s, the Assassins stored an Apple of Eden in one of their hideout in the country, which according to Giovanni Borgia was their most remote European spot. However, in 1516, one of their own, Hiram Stoddard, assaulted the location in order to recover the artifact, but was prevented to do so by Borgia.[13]
Modern times[]
In 1821, Greece revolted against the Ottoman Empire and fought an eight-year war which resulted in the country gaining its independence in 1830.[2]
In 1981, Greece joined the European Communities, which was later incorporated into the European Union.[2]
In 2018, an Assassin cell led by Layla Hassan travelled to the Greek island of Santorini in search of the Isu city Atlantis connected to the vault under the island. There, Layla was given the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus by Kassandra, whose possession of the Staff granted her immortality.[3]
Trivia[]
- Greek buildings and clothing in Project Legacy are inaccurately depicted as white, when in reality, the Greeks favored a myriad of bright colors.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel
- Assassin's Creed (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
- Assassin's Creed: Odyssey novel
- Assassin's Creed: Rebellion
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Defense
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Assassin's Creed: Odyssey – Layla Hassan's personal files: "Packing for Greece: Greece"
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
- ↑ Assassin's Creed II – Glyphs
- ↑ Assassin's Creed
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Divine Science: Chapter 2 – Kyros of Zarax
- ↑ Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Holidays: Chapter 1 - Ghosts of Christmas Past
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations (novel)
- ↑ Assassin's Creed #12
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