Shattered Staff of Eden

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.

Shattered Staff of Eden
Description
Type	Piece of Eden (Staff)
Powers	Creation of tangible holograms
Current location	Destroyed
Historical information
Time period	Prehistory Reconquista
Created by	Isu
Date constructed	Unknown
Date destroyed	16 September 1498
Notable wielders	Tomás de Torquemada

The Shattered Staff of Eden was a Staff of Eden, a piece of leftover Isu technology.

Owners

Complete:

• Isu (? – ?)
• Saint James (c. 30 AD – c. 44 AD) (allegedly)
• Tomás de Torquemada (1492 – 16 September 1498)

Top section:

• Inquisitor Gustavo Ramírez (1489)
• Tomás de Torquemada (1492 – 16 September 1498)

Upper section:

• Dominican monks
• Spanish Brotherhood of Assassins
• Scholars from the University of Salamanca
• Diego de Alvarado (1492)
• Tomás de Torquemada (1492 – 16 September 1498)

Shaft:

• Ascetic monks from the Asturias mountains
• Pedro Madruga
• Diego de Alvarado (1492)
• Tomás de Torquemada (1492 – 16 September, 1498)

History

Rumored to have belonged to Jesus of Nazareth's disciple Saint James, at some point before the Reconquista, this Staff was broken into three parts—the top spike on which to place an Apple, the flared head, and the shaft—which were scattered across the globe and lost to history. On hearing rumors that all three pieces could be found within the Crown of Castile, Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada coveted both the Staff and the Apple of Eden in order to control Spain and destroy the Spanish Assassins, sending his soldiers to hunt for the parts.

The top spike was recovered by Inquisitor Gustavo Ramírez in the crypt of St. Rafael's Abbey. Although the Assassins interfered, Ramírez escaped with the staff part. The Staff's head was held by a group of Dominican monks loyal to Ramírez at the Monastery of St. Lucia. Following a battle with the Templar enforcer Ojeda, the Assassins managed to take this piece for themselves, sending it to their scholar allies at the University of Salamanca for safe-keeping.

After the Fall of Granada, both the Assassins and Templars received word that the Staff's shaft was somewhere in Northern Spain. Ramírez and his lieutenants combed the region for the Staff of Eden's third section, with del Salto being in charge of consolidating information sent to him by informants throughout the region. One of the reports received by him spoke of a rumor that a sect of ascetic monks in the Asturias mountains possessed and revered a sacred relic considered to be a fragment of Saint James' golden staff. Ramírez ordered del Salto to capture the monks and take them to the Inquisition's executioner in Oviedo to torture them for the location of the section. Upon discovering this, the Assassins mounted a rescue mission.

After being saved from his torturers, the abbot, in exchange for the promise to recover and defend the staff section, told the Assassins everything: years before they were approached by Torquemada's men, the monks had given the relic to Pedro Madruga, a pious lord of Galicia and protector of the monastery, begging him to hide it. Madurga agreed and took it to his castle of Sobroso to keep it safe there. He had died few years prior and the castle of Sobroso, though uninhabited, still held the relic.

The Assassins, however, were betrayed by their northern ally Diego de Alvarado, who passed along the information to the Templars and fled with the Staff's third section himself. Alvarado also went to the University of Salamanca and stole the upper section, killing many scholars to do so. Though assassinated for his betrayal, this was not before he gave the pieces in his possession to Torquemada.

Despite having the Staff's three pieces in hand, Torquemada did not make overt use of it, but his Inquisition increased its presence across the country. The Assassins knew that Torquemada himself had not appeared in public for years, time spent studying the Staff at the Monastery of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Ávila. Upon invading the Monastery and descending to its basement, with plans to retrieve the Staff and kill the Grand Inquisitor, the Assassins encountered soldiers seemingly made of light, who fought them but were ultimately defeated.

Beneath the monastery, there were tunnels and Isu ruins, including the Forge where Torquemada had reconstructed the Staff of Eden. After battling more tangible holograms and Torquemada himself, the Assassins managed to kill the Grand Inquisitor and reclaim the Staff. To avoid it falling into Templar hands again, it was destroyed using the collapsing Isu architecture in the Forge. The Ancient vault disappeared, buried under the Monastery, and the Staff of Eden along with it.

Behind the scenes

The Shattered Staff of Eden, appearing in Assassin's Creed: Rebellion, is nearly identical in appearance to the Papal Staff of Eden wielded by Rodrigo Borgia in Assassin's Creed II, with the sole difference being that it appears bright gold in color rather than a dull metallic.

Gallery

The Staff of Eden's flared head.

The Staff of Eden's shaft.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (first appearance)