ASSASSIN's CREED Hidden Secrets

The Storyline of Assassin's Creed is extremely cryptic and isn't as straight
forward as many people would have liked, especially the final scenes of the
game with the red drawings on the wall. This warrants a massive explanation
to explain what actually does happen. I'll just post a massive string of
question and their answers.

* Who is Desmond?
  Desmond Miles is Subject Seventeen, whose ancestor is Altair, the assassin
  that you play. It is reasonable to assume that Altair has fathered a child
  after the events, or otherwise it would be impossible for Desmond to have
  the genetic memories of Altair.

* Who is Lucy?
  Lucy Stillman is an employee at Abstergo, and she is the main operator of
  the Animus. However, during the events after Memory Block 6, she reveals
  her true identity as an undercover Assassin. She is the one who probably
  left the door code to Desmond and left her pen for Desmond to "borrow".
  Also, in her deleted emails, she is the one who has continually attempted
  to delay the Animus memories as well as relaying inside information to
  external sources, which can be presumed as other members of the Assassins.

  As such, it is reasonable to assume that Lucy was responsible for the
  fluoride leak to the media that has Abstergo on the backfoot. The
  possibility is mentioned from an email from Alan Rikkin to Warren Vidic
  detailing to possibility that it was an internal leak, or a whistle blower.

* Who is Warren Vidic and Alan Rikkin?
  Warren Vidic is the project lead on the Animus operation which uses the
  genetic memory of subjects to find information about the treasures in which
  the Templar seek. Vidic is the supervisor of Lucy and Rikkin is one of the
  big bosses.

* Who is Altair?
  Altair is an ancestor of Desmond who existed during the Third Crusades of
  the year 1191. Altair was a member of the Assassins and strove to fight the
  Templars, as witnessed in the story. Altair is not Desmond.

* If Desmond is not Altair, then how can he use Eagle Vision?
  Desmond is able to use Eagle Vision at the end of the game, and this is due
  to what Lucy names as the Bleeding Effect. This means that the genetic
  memory has bled into Desmond's memory, and this could mean that he cannot
  tell the difference between his ancestor's memories and his own. This
  transferral of power demonstrates how Desmond can only use Eagle Vision at
  the end of the game.

* What is the Animus?
  The Animus is a machine that allows the Subjects to live out their genetic
  memories, memories which are somehow stored on one's DNA and passed on 
  through the family tree. So far, the Animus has seen 17 Subjects, and
  Subject Seventeen is Desmond.

* What is Abstergo?
  Abstergo, which means cleanse in Latin apparently, is a massive corporation
  that is actually a front for the Templars, which have existed since the
  Crusades. In a sense, that are the modern version of the Templars. As you
  can see through the storyline, they seek to end wars, for world peace, but
  their methods are not so. They seek to control mankind through the artifacts
  that they seek and kill those who are immune to the power. By doing this,
  Abstergo seeks peace, and world domination.

  Abstergo is a powerful organisation, and their influence is strong enough
  to effect Governments in modern society. During the email about the fluoride
  leak, it is mentioned that they will make their friends in Washington pay
  about not supporting them about the incident, which means that they must
  have some powerful friends.

* What is all the red writing on the floor at the end of the game?
  The Red Writing is written by Subject Sixteen, who wrote all of it in
  blood to show Desmond the secrets Abstergo now have. More on this later.

* What does the following mean:

                A
              D R H
            O O D T M
          W H B I T D O
        E U S Y S I N S E
      A R O O M R E A Y N R
    I S E Y T N I D L M I D E
  T W I H W Y I E A U D A Y H T

  This translates to

  THEY DRAINED MY SOUL AND MADE IT THEIRS. I DRAIN MY BODY TO SHOW YOU
  WHERE I SAW IT.

  This is a message from Subject Sixteen, who obviously went through the
  Animus, where Abstergo drained the memories, or the soul, of the
  Subject. In his or her fight against Abstergo, they drained their body
  to show you where they saw something, which is probably an artifact.

  This will explain the red writing to be the blood of Subject Sixteen and
  they literally died to show you all the information that Abstergo gained
  from them, using the only ink they had, their blood.

* What does this mean?

  M O R Y M N O E S
  E N C E O L C H T
  H O N B T L O T C
  T D E O S A T O A
  P E D S N L S T F
  L D D U O O E T E
  E A I E I R I N T
  H S H K T T K E R
  T U A A A N S S A

  This translates to

  ARTEFACTS SENT TO THE SKIES TO CONTROL ALL NATIONS TO MAKE US OBEY A  HIDDEN CRUSADE. DO NOT HELP THEM.

  Another message by Subject Sixteen, who drained more of their blood to
  write another message for you. This is a message that refers to Abstergo's
  plan to recover a Piece of Eden, and sent it on a low orbit satellite to
  control all of mankind, and kill those not controlled. This is continued
  on below.

* What is the Third Piece of Eden
  The Third Piece of Eden is capable of making anyone believe anything, as
  demonstrated by Al Mualim in the final memory block. It was responsible for
  many of the Biblical illusions such as parting the Red Sea, which did not
  really happen, but the Piece of Eden brainwashed all the people in
  believing that it actually did. Subject Sixteen knew all about the plans of
  Abstergo, the control of mankind, by sending you that cryptic message.

  The Piece of Eden has escaped Templar hands time and time again. You see in
  the introduction that the Templar Treasure, the Piece of Eden, is in the
  hands of Al Mualim, for his own gain. This is lead to the Templars
  experimenting with different drugs, as witnessed in Garnier's assassination
  that the Templars can make substitutes for the Piece of Eden, but they do
  not last, or is it very effective since it requires continually dosages and
  increased amounts due to tolerance.

* What does 12212012 mean?

  Seperate this out like a date and you will get 12/21/2012, which is the
  same as 21/12/2012 and the 21st of December, 2012. This date is extremely
  important because it makes the end of the world as we know it. This is the
  last date on the ancient Mayan calendar and something major is going to take
  place considering this is the last date on that calendar.

  When you read the emails on Vidic's computer, you will find that something
  actually happens on this date, this is the date that the launch of the
  satellite must be launched by, and if it is successful, it will be the end
  of the world as we know it, the Templars will rule the world.

* What does 13.0.0.0.0 mean?

  Again, this is another reference to the Mayan calendar, and this is the
  supposed date after the end of the world.

* What is 22:13 mean on the giant mural?

  The answer is incidently in the Bible. This is Relevations 22:13 "I an
  the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the
  End." That basically has something to do with God, and that really means
  will be explained in a sequel. Also, there are also a few Omegas on the
  Giant Mural, which is in your bedroom, but there is however, no sign of
  Alpha, and Omega is always, the end.

* Whats with the Chinese and Arabic?

  Well, I cannot really explain any of the Chinese and Arabic that is
  written on the Giant Mural, so I cannot help you there, but there are
  some websites on the web that try to intrepret this.

  The Arabic has been translated to "Al Zalzala", which means the shake or
  earthquake. This is a reference to the Armageddon, the end of the world
  as we know it, and that will be the date 20th of December 2012, the
  day the satellite is launched.

  There is also Hebrew on the wall. The Hebrew is translated to "Olam Habah"
  which means "The World to Come". This should be a reference to the
  afterlife, which is it in Judaism, but the themes in the game are far
  too powerful. It probably means the world to come, the world after the
  satellite is launched and we are all under the control of the Templars.

* What is the big butterfly in the middle of the mural?

  The Big Butterfly is symbolism for the Lorenz Attractor, which is
  basically a big butterfly. The reason for the butterfly is because it is
  a concept from chaos theory called "THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT". I'm sure that
  some people would have heard of this, and if the alert readers of this
  guide had not emailed me, I would not have applied this.

  The Butterfly Effect is that the effect of one tiny thing could have
  implications on a major event somewhere else. It is based that the flapping
  of the wings of a butterfly in Brazil could cause a massive tornado
  somewhere else such as Texas.

  The Lorenz Attractor, the Butterfly, was coined by Edward Lorenz, who
  found in the 1960's that tiny, butterfly-scale changes to the starting
  point of his computer models on weather could lead to sunny weather or
  violent storms, in which no one could predict the outcome in the end
  due to such small, insignificant factors.

  The Butterfly Effect, this is the part where the game comes in, is where
  you can go back in time, and make rather small changes in the past and it
  could significantly alter the future. The best example, and the most common
  example I could find is Back to the Future, the movie. When that betting
  book is stolen of Marty whilst in the future, heading back to the past,
  and then back to the future, the "present" has been radically altered.

  This creates the notion of an alternate timeline, what would have the world
  been if you didn't take that 10 dollars off the floor and someone else did.
  However, by travelling to the past and altering the past, there were very
  significant implications in the future. This brings us to the game.

  The biggest effect would be the Animus. By heading back to the past, the
  information noted in the Animus, used in the future, would have radical
  changes, which would be the satellite the Templars would want to use.
  This could lead to the possibility of time travel. One of the artifacts
  that have not been secured could lead to time travel. With the butterfly
  effect, an altering of that past, such as shaking a young Dr. Vidic's
  hand could have radical implications in the future.

  Another example of this, a gaming example, is the Red Alert timeline of
  C&C. When Einstein used his time travel machine to head back to the
  past and shake Hitler's hand as he exited prison, he hoped to stop the
  event of World War 2. Indeed, he shook the hand of Hitler and when he
  returned to the future, due to his time travelling machine, which create
  a time lag of a few minutes, he noted that he was successful.

  Indeed, such a small, butterfly change such as shaking hands, resulted
  in World War 2 not happening, but it has a terrifying result, which is the
  basis of the Butterfly effect. The terrifying effect, and a plausable
  outcome was that Stalin ran unchecked and started his war of aggression,
  and that resulted in a world FAR greater than World War 2.

  My third example of this is a Futurama episode, Roswell That Ends Well. It
  features the Planet Express crew heading back in time and ends up with
  Fry being his own grandfather, and as a result, the lack of a Delta
  Brainwave. Now, such a small "butterfly" act such as sleeping with his
  grandmother, resulting in a significant change in the future, the defeat
  of the brainspawn. Though not terrifying, it shows that a small change
  can result in a very large one in the future.

  This leads to the ingame change of the Philadelphia Project. A small change
  in the past could lead to a big change in the present. However, the question
  is, does the butterfly effect act in reverse? Does a large change in the
  past have a small effect in the future, or a even larger effect in the
  future? Maybe the crew subject to the Project will come back to haunt the
  Templars. For more information, look up the Lorenz Attractor or Butterfly
  Effect.

* Whats with Zm = Zn^z+C

  An math forumla, which is incorrectly been stated. It is the Mandelbrot
  set, and the real equation is Zn+1=(Zn^2)+C. The m should be representive
  of the function n+1. What this equation does is not provide anything new,
  but look it up on wikipedia and you will see the picture of the equation
  and it is VERY FAMILAR.

* Who is Emperor Jiajing'?

  Emperor Jiajing, is as you'd expect, an emperor of China. He was the 11th
  Emperor during the Ming Dynasty ruling from 1521 to 1567. He was far from
  being a nice Emperor and what he did, that was notable was that he built
  the Temple of the Sun, which is in Beijing, now a park.

  He had a sin, according to Subject Sixteen and that could be that he
  was greedy, he collected rare materials from all over the world and stored
  it for himself. If an answer does lie in his sins, one of the rare
  materials that he collected must be an artifact that the Templars are
  after. 

* Who is Quetzcoaltz?

  No one has that name, but it is probably just incorrect spelling of the
  Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. He was the god associated with soil fertility and
  that changed into the morning and the evening star, Venus. The Mayan
  version of this God however, was different and their Sun God, which this
  was a basis of, "demanded" ritual sacrifices to appease him and make him
  let the sun rise each day.

  So his hunger, therefore, would be the animal sacrifices, which would be
  on top of the pyramids, and probably the hiding place of one of the
  artifacts that the Templars want.

* What does this mean?
 
  Y O N A
  G U N I

  Unlike the other walls of text that Subject Sixteen left with you, this is
  a straight-forward message. Yonaguni is an island off the coast of Japan,
  and it is believed that they were a sort of Atlantis. Their civilisation
  was ancient. yet highly advanced, and they suffered a fate similar to that
  been suffered by those on Atlantis, their advanced technology destroyed
  them completely.

  With all the Chinese on the wall, which can be Japanese, it is possible
  that an ancestor of a Subject, possibly Sixteen's, was there and somehow,
  the Templar were there. The problem is, the buildings in Yonaguni are
  extremely old, thousands and thousands of yets, so the question is, if
  there was indeed an artifact there, how would the Templar know about it
  since it was long before their time. So expect a sequel, or at least a
  mention of this in the future.

* Whats with the Egyptian Symbol?

  The picture of the eye is said to be the Eye of Horus, the Falcon God,
  which had been associated with the power of healing that the Egyptians
  draw it on the walls to allows their wounds to heal. Maybe Subject
  Sixteen drew it to outline the futility of it, or maybe he wanted to be
  healed.

  The eye is also said that the eye could be representive of the Sun God,
  Ra, who is the God of Gods. Maybe is has something to do with the anti-
  semantic message that the Templars always seem to produce.
 
* Whats with the Eye in the Triangle?
  This is a reference to the eye of Providence, the eye of God and it
  represents the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Spirit. There is a
  problem with this however. The game constantly says, or at least the
  Templars call the Christian belief a lie and that all of it was a fake.
  The email from the Conference room confirms this that the Templars believe
  that all artifacts related to Christ are fictional, which is certainly the
  case with the Shroud of Turin.

  This fact is further encompassed with the apple on top of the Eye of
  Providence, which is representive of the Piece of Eden. The Piece of Eden
  is commonly seen as the Golden Apple, which is certainly the case with the
  Piece of Eden that Al Mualim wields. That suggests that all the stories
  about Christ are illusions made from the Piece of Eden and that it is all
  a sham. Yet the reference to the Bible is still here.

* Whats with the Triangles?
  The Triangles are representive of the Mayan Pyramids, and given that we
  know that Quetzcoaltz's hunger has an answer, led by animal sacrifices
  within the temples, it must mean that something of relevence was there
  to start off with. But the question is, what?

* Whats with the Pentagram?
  The Pentagram is a symbol of "pagan" traditions. This leads back to the
  argument that the Christian belief stole most of the ideas of the pagans
  before they were all branded heretics. Read the Da Vinci code for a
  better explaination, I can't be bothered to explain so much when there is
  a more popular source.

* Whats is with the picture of the animals?
  There are three pictures there, the Hummingbird, the Spider and the Monkey,
  although they don't look like it. These pictures are all related to the
  Nazca lines, a series of lines in Peru what when it is viewed in the sky,
  show giant animal forms. It may be that these lines show the way to another
  artifact or contain one, judging by what Subject Sixteen left us.




* What are the Pieces of Eden?
  These are apparently mythical Golden Apples from the Garden of Eden, the
  Apple as a basis of original sin, the Apple Tree, the Forbidden Fruit. It
  is also likely it is an apple since the Pieces of Eden are meant to be
  forbidden, just like the Apple in the Garden of Eden.

  Also, in Greek mythology, there were three golden apples. Given that the
  second piece was destroyed, this might be the last hope for the Templars.

* What is the DIA incident?
  This is the fictional Denver International Airport incident. According to
  what Lucy says, the Templars were designing and preparing to launch a
  satellite from the Denver International Airport before there was an
  incident, killing many and destroy the Piece of Eden.

* What with all the Eagles?
  The Eagle is a reference to Altair. There are too many links between Altair
  and Eagles that is cannot be a coincidence. The hood of Altair is bent in
  the shape of the beak of the Eagle. Every leap of faith is sent down with
  an eagle's cry. The trailer shows the picture of a Eagle watching its prey,
  just like Altair is watching his target. Altair's name in Arabic has
  relations with flight, so a coincidence is simply out of the equation.

  The Eagle references in the Achievements for XBox simply back this theory
  up. All of them relate to the task, with the word Eagle in front of it.
  As such, it is pretty solid evidence of Altair as an Eagle.

  The Eagle Vision you use to discover the giant mural will unlock Visions
  of the Future, and it certainly does, what is on the mural will certainly
  give an insight of what will happen in the future. The final is the Eagle
  and the Apple - 1191.

  If you note, 1191 is the year that the game is actually set in. The
  achievement marks the encounter with Altair and the Piece of Eden, and since
  it is referred to as an apple, it makes sense doesn't it?

* Whats with the Conference Room Email?

" Warren:

  The others and I have finished reviewing the Animus recordings from Subjects
  12-16. While the Piece of Eden remains our priority, we must continue
  working to locate and understand the remaining artifacts. I am sure you can
  understand our reasoning behind this. Although the satellite is accomplished
  to a fair portion of the work for us, we will certainly need to deal with
  those who are either immune to - or protected from - its effects.

  Please take a moment to look over our findings and get back to me with any
  feedback you may have. I will summarize below:

  1. Piece of Eden (no. 3) - We applaud your continued efforts to locate an
  alternate artifact with the loss of no. 2 in the DIA Satellite Accident.
  We understand Subject Seventeen is having trouble interfacing with the
  Animus, leading to delays. As a result, we estimate another 24 hours before
  your next critical update. In the meantime, we'll prepare an extraction team
  and set them to standby. We're relying on you to obtain the additional
  information we require. He knows where the other objects are - even if he
  doesn't realize it. You MUST unlock that final memory or all of this will
  have been for nothing.

  2. Philadelphia Project - Data provided from Animus Subject Twelve indicates
  that the ship briefly manifested in a future state for approximately 18
  minutes. It is unclear whether the timeline is consistent with or parallel
  to our own. Although we have recovered enough data to reconstruct and repair
  the original artifact used in the experiment, Administration has refused to
  move forward on the project, citing paradox concerns. Corporate policy 
  remains in place: any objects found to interfere with or manipulate time
  must be contained. Artifact will be moved to secure storage.

  3. Tunguska Incident - Now believed to be the direct result of assault by
  Assassins. Research station destroyed as was artifact. Alternate wave
  generation devices have been located in storage, but we have insufficient
  data at the moment to initiate research. The risk of accident is too high.
  Lineage Discovery and Acquisition Division should attempt to locate
  descendents of any attack survivors (either Assassin or Brotherhood) in
  order to continue research. Resurrecting this particular type of technology
  will aid us greatly with any holdouts following the Satellite's activation.
  We're putting together a team to push research in this area.

  4. Grail - We are removing the Grail from our list of objectives. There is
  insufficient evidence to confirm its existence. Current examination of
  Subject Seventeen indicates that aside from the Piece of Eden, all other
  artifacts related to Christ-figure are literary devices (or derived from
  Piece of Eden) and not actual objects. Even if the object is real, its use
  to us at this stage is negligible. Our resources are better used elsewhere.

  5. Mitchell-Hedges Communicators - Analysis of the objects is complete.
  The good news is that they work. As a result we now have a safe and secure
  communication channel for use after the launch. However, they are severely
  limited in number, and so we will be providing them only to our most
  essential facilities. You will obviously retain possession of the one you
  have.

  Warren, I cannot stress how important it is that you wrap things up with
  Subject Seventeen as soon as possible. We're obviously relieved that you
  seem to be closing in on the target memory, but you need to step it up.
  Everything we're working towards depends on your retrieving those locations.
  Without them, we've got nothing.

  May the Father of Understanding guide you to success.

  A.R."

  This does explain a lot of the events of the game. They need Desmond's
  memory to complete their mission, and lets got this step by step.

  The first part is that Abstergo has interviewed several subjects already
  and have discovered many artifacts, all of them having different powers.
  Sounds like a job for Indiana Jones. Anyway, there are many artifacts and
  the good news is that Abstergo doesn't have them all. There are remaining
  artifacts that are still out there that Abstergo doesn't have and they are
  trying to gather them quickly before the launch. If not, these can be used
  to attack Abstergo and their plan goes all crazy. If not, they will be
  attacked, probably led by members of the Assassins.

  The second part shows how desperate the company is for another Piece of
  Eden to play around with. Like I mentioned already, the Denver International
  Airport incident wiped out a Piece of Eden, the satellite as well as about
  20 people. They really need another piece to place on a satellite and
  control the world.

  The third part is about the Philadelphia incident, where it was claimed
  that a ship was subject to a top-secret experiment. This occured on the 28th
  of October, 1943, the number of the Conference Room door code, 10281943.
  The USS Eldridge, a destroyer escort, was subject to this experiment and
  became invisible. According to what the Templars claim, it also underwent
  time travel. However, the result was far from pretty. Many sailors went mad
  and some parts were even fused to the ships bulkhead. This is sort of
  similar to the Red Alert storyline where Einstein and Tesla used a Tesla
  coil to render the ship invisible.

  This email confirms the conspiracy theories that it was real, in this game
  anyway, and that the Templars were behind it. The Templars however, do not
  wish to continue along this path because the artifact that was used can
  trigger paradoxical events and that can change the future. Messing with time
  is a nasty business.

  The fourth part refers to the Tunguska Incident that took place in Russia on
  the 30th of June, 1908. It is believed that a meteorite made impact with the
  earth and literally flattened trees and such. It had an expected yield of
  2 Megatons of TNT, which is a fair bit.

  This explosion, as suggested by the Templars, was actually the destroying
  of a Templar research facility by Assassins and the artifact was at that
  location. They are currently pushing research into this because after the
  satellite is launched, they want to use similar artifacts to destroy all
  resistance against the Piece of Eden on the satellite.

  The fifth part about the Grail is going to be a mistake on Abstergo's part.
  Given the information that Subject Sixteen has given Desmond, it is
  extremely possible that the Grail actually does exist. Given that Abstergo
  is so focused on finding the Piece of Eden, Sixteen believes that they
  will overlook the Grail, which they certainly do. With this, it is expected
  that someone will find the Grail and bring it in the fight against Abstergo,
  which will be their downfall, since they do not believe in the existance of
  a Christ like figure, all believing that it was a manipulation of the Piece
  of Eden.

  The sixth part is about the Mitchell-Hedges communicators. They were
  discovered in 1926 within an ancient Mayan temple in present day Belize and
  believed to be only 13 of such skulls worldwide. They are rumoured to
  bestow scrying powers, powers that allow one to communicate psychically,
  to those who wield it. It is now shown that the skulls are not in the
  possession of the Templars, who use it as a secure communication line
  between their facilities.

  The problem is where does it come from? Some claim it is from Atlantis, and
  that is a possible reference to Yonaguni. It is also claimed that the skulls
  were carried by the Knights Templar during the crusades. If so, it would be
  possible that the possession of the Skulls where passed down between the
  generation of Templars and Vidic is in possession of one now.

  Again, there is a problem with this. How can these skulls, if owned by
  Templars, be located in Mayan ruins? It is not practical that if the
  Templars actually carried these around during the crusades, it would be
  found in South America, a long distance. Unless the Spanish had some
  Templars and brought them to South America, and they lost it.

  The final part is the sign off, and they seek the target memory, the
  memory where you have to fight Al Mualim. If you remember, the orb is
  dropped when you kill him and it reveals a position of the globe, along
  with dots indicating the position of artifacts. This is what they want,
  the position of all the artifacts so the retrieval teams can go and collect
  them. 

  It hope this explains everything that you need to know. If not, there are
  plenty of websites out there that can do the same job that I've just done
  for you.