Search for the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus

I wanted to ask you something. Which is… what's your name? The title of this article is conjecture. Although the subject of this article is canon, no official name for it has been given.

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Search for the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus
Objective	Locate and secure the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus
Date	October 2018
Place	United Kingdom London Greece Argolis Attika Boeotia Thera
Outcome	Assassin victory Staff of Hermes Trismegistus obtained Juhani Otso Berg incapacitated Victoria Bibeau killed
Factions
Assassins Layla Hassan's Assassin cell
Assassins Layla Hassan's Assassin cell
Templars Abstergo Industries Sigma Team
Templars Abstergo Industries Sigma Team
Commanders
William Miles
William Miles
Juhani Otso Berg
Juhani Otso Berg
Participants
Layla Hassan Victoria Bibeau† Kiyoshi Takakura Alannah Ryan
Layla Hassan Victoria Bibeau† Kiyoshi Takakura Alannah Ryan
Juhani Otso Berg 3 Abstergo agents
Juhani Otso Berg 3 Abstergo agents
Casualties
Victoria Bibeau
Victoria Bibeau
2 Abstergo agents
2 Abstergo agents
Civilian casualties	Kassandra

In 2018, a search for the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus was undertaken by an Assassin cell assembled by the Assassins' Mentor William Miles and led by Layla Hassan, a former Abstergo Industries employee who had joined the Assassins.

Background

With the Assassins having covertly watched Layla's and Deanna Geary's revolutionary work involving the Portable Animus HR-8, in 2017, their Mentor William Miles travelled to Hotep Cavern outside Siwa, Egypt to recruit Layla after hearing that Abstergo had sent the Templar task force Sigma Team to kill her for failing to report in with the company. Though initially wary, Layla accepted his offer to work for the Assassins when he pointed out that Abstergo would not stop hunting her.

All too aware of the danger that Isu artifacts posed to humanity, and in an effort to track down more items before Abstergo found them, in 2018, William assembled a team to find and acquire the fabled Staff of Hermes Trismegistus. The team roster consisted of the newly-inducted Layla, the Japanese Assassin Kiyoshi Takakura, and the historian Alannah Ryan. Doctor Victoria Bibeau also joined as Layla's medical supervisor and was herself another former Abstergo employee who had defected due to her growing discontent with Abstergo in light of her role assisting their 2016 kidnapping of teenagers to access simulations collectively called an Ascendance Event.

Kiyoshi, who had previously been injured while attacking an Australian Abstergo facility that attempted to resurrect the late Isu Juno, was cleared for active duty but was instructed not to overexert himself. Harlan Cunningham, another Assassin who was injured in the same mission, was also considered for the cell but declined on the grounds of personal reasons.

The search

Herodotos' Lost Histories

Layla retrieving the broken Spear of Leonidas

In October 2018, after using Abstergo research she had kept following her defection from the company, Layla located the Greek historian Herodotos' missing volume Lost Histories from his 5th century BCE work Histories. By cross-referencing locations mentioned in the tome, Layla and her team located the broken Spear of Leonidas that Leonidas I's granddaughter Kassandra had wielded while operating as a misthios

Although the remnants of any genetic data present on the Spear of Eden were severely damaged, Layla extrapolated what she could and formatted her updated Animus HR-8.5 to fill in the blanks with secondary information gleaned from Herodotos. Through the Animus, she relived Kassandra's genetic memories of the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens.

After learning the location and capabilities of the Forge, Layla excitedly expressed this to Victoria. However, Victoria was greatly concerned for Layla's mental well-being after spending prolonged time in the Animus and instructed that she rest before going back to Kassandra's memories. After stretching her legs and talking to Alannah and Kiyoshi, Layla re-entered the Animus simulation.

Discovering Atlantis

After experiencing Kassandra's memory of meeting her father Pythagoras beneath Santorini in 422 BCE, Layla left the Animus, excited that she had found Atlantis. Victoria, however, thought she was delirious and was in disbelief herself that Pythagoras had survived almost a century beyond his recorded historical death. After some reassuring from Layla, Victoria relented and the cell left their hideout in London, England for the Altaïr II bound for Thera.

Layla standing before the Gateway to Atlantis

When the ship reached the verified coordinates, Layla disembarked and continued by diving underwater. Navigating the subnautical cave system, she eventually found the Gateway to the Lost City and, after changing out of her scuba gear, set up her Animus again to continue exploring Kassandra's memories, hoping to find an explanation on how to power up the Atlantean pillars.

Gaining the knowledge she needed, Layla activated the pillars and powered up an Isu map. After some brief troubleshooting, Layla got the mechanism working to its full capacity. To her surprise, Kassandra appeared to greet her, having been kept alive for over 2 millennia through the Staff of Hermes' power. Warning Layla about the dangers of the Pieces of Eden, Kassandra instructed her to destroy all the artifacts once she accomplished her goal of maintaining balance between order and chaos. After Layla promised to do so, Kassandra relinquished the Staff to her, thus completing her purpose as "the Keeper." Without the Staff's powers preventing her from aging, Kassandra passed away moments later.

Learning the Staff's capabilities

Layla with the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus

Returning to the Animus to gather any loose data she might have missed, Layla witnessed Kassandra's interactions with Aletheia, an Isu whose consciousness was preserved within the Staff. To learn more about her role as the "Heir of Memories", Layla traveled to the tombs of Agamemnon, Eteokles, and Orion which Aletheia had instructed Kassandra to find.

Inside the tombs, Layla discovered hidden symbols which served as part of the key needed to unlock the Great Seal to Atlantis. The other part was a password discovered by the sculptor Phidias, whom Kassandra's half-brother Deimos had murdered. To learn the password, Layla reluctantly relived Deimos' memories, an act that would prove to have lasting negative effects.

After accessing the Great Seal, Layla finally met Aletheia, who offered to teach her about her role as the Heir of Memories. By reliving Kassandra's memories of exploring Aletheia's simulations, Layla learned how to master the Staff's powers and what her role as the Heir meant. Concerned for her well-being, Victoria soon followed Layla to Atlantis to monitor her.

The Assassins' location eventually was compromised as members of Sigma Team descended upon them. While Kiyoshi eliminated the Sigma operatives who attacked the Altaïr II, Layla dealt with the Templars who entered the Great Seal to Atlantis. Later, during a Bleeding Effect-induced manic episode, Layla accidentally struck Victoria with the Staff when the doctor tried to forcefully end her Animus sessions. Immediately regretting her actions, Layla mourned her friend's death and begged Aletheia for a second chance to prove she would not let her emotions consume her.

Layla impaling Berg

After Layla relived the last of Kassandra's memories in the simulations, Aletheia warned her about an interloper and Layla awoke from the Animus session. The Master Templar Juhani Otso Berg, Sigma Team's leader, revealed himself to Layla and demanded the Staff. During their conversation, Layla offered to compromise with Berg, telling him the artifact could be used to heal his sick daughter Elina, but the Templar angrily cut her off for daring to speak his daughter's name.

Seeing she could not reason with Berg, Layla fought and defeated him using the Staff and the skills she acquired through the Bleeding Effect. After mocking the injured Berg, Layla decided not to kill him, though she still impaled his lower spine with the Staff, paralyzing him and causing him to pass out from blood loss. She then radioed the Altaïr II, asking for extraction alongside Victoria's body and the unconscious Berg.

Aftermath

Although successful in retrieving the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, Layla's relationship with Kiyoshi and Alannah was damaged beyond repair after they learned about her unintentional killing of Victoria. As a result, Layla was re-assigned to a smaller Assassin cell with Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane because of their similar experience in losing a teammate when Desmond Miles was influenced by an Apple of Eden to kill Lucy Stillman in 2012. To ensure a similar incident did not occur again, William asked Shaun to place a mood stabilizer on Layla's neck, allowing her to limit the Staff's influence and the Bleeding Effect.

However, Layla struggled with the intense guilt she felt for Victoria's death and began smoking and taking pills to cope with her feelings. At one point, she tried writing a letter to Victoria's parents to inform them of the circumstances of their daughter's death and her role in it, but abandoned the idea halfway through. Kiyoshi was similarly affected by Victoria's death and, in 2019, recounted the incident to Kō Risa and her cousin Mari while explaining the dangers of the Bleeding Effect to them.

Following Berg's defeat, the Assassins took him prisoner and unsuccessfully tried interrogating him several times. He remained a captive until November 2019, though he later escaped and returned to Abstergo, who restored his ability to walk through experiments with another Staff of Eden kept at their facility in Tokyo, Japan.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (first appearance)
  • The Lost Tales of Greece
  • The Fate of Atlantis
• Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun (flashback only)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (indirect mention only)