History Franchise / AssassinsCreed

** Abstergo means "to wipe off/clean away" in latin.

''Assassin's Creed'' is a science fiction series of video games developed by Creator/{{Ubisoft}}, chronicling the experiences of Desmond Miles, a bartender, who has been caught up in ancient war between two mighty organizations, {{the Knights Templar}}, who wish for mankind to be united in peace [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill under their enlightened control]], and [[TheHashshashin the Assassins]], who believe that HumansAreFlawed and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVillified the desire to control other humans is the greatest flaw humans possess]].

** Savonarola in the ''Bonfire of the Vanities'' DLC, although in fairness ''AC'' was hardly the first to come up with this portrayal. Granted he was definitely extreme by modern standards, but people forget that the reason Savonarola was able to carry out his famous Bonfire was because the people of Florence were sick and tired of watching wealthy Italian families flaunt their vast fortunes by commissioning ludicrously expensive sculptures and paintings while the rest of society was beset by plague and poverty. By the standards of the time he was practically a popular revolutionary. Hell, in the 1990s he was even [[http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/1999a/012299/012299g.htm nominated as a candidate for sainthood]] (he didn't win though, obviously). Notably however, he is ''not'' a Templar and even crossed the Borgia, so in ''Brotherhood'' one of the Borgia-aligned heralds can occasionally be heard taking a potshot at his reputation.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Desmond is a mongrel, with three distinct bloodlines of various ancestral origins, so his character model is ambiguous enough to have come from any of them.

** In AssassinsCreedII, Uncle Mario introduces himself to Ezio with [[SuperMario64 It's-a-me, Mario!]].
** The Xbox achievement for completing Sequence 4 of [[AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Brotherhood]] is called [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle Principessa in Another Castello]].
** [[FridgeBrilliance It's a game about an Italian guy who kills people by jumping on them]].

* BadassLongRobe: The first two of Desmond's ancestors that he primarily uses in his quest; [[TheHashashin Altair]] and [[BlueBlood Ezio]]. This attire is also shown prominently in most other Assassins throughout the franchise, with few exceptions outside of the modern day.
** BadassLongcoat: [[BadassNative Connor]] takes this route instead.

* MissingTrailerScene: Out of all the badass E3 trailers for each game, the only one that showed a scene that happened in the actual game was the one for Revelations, which was basically just the game's intro cinematic. According to several interviews with Ubisoft, this was done deliberately to avoid [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil spoiling anything]].
** The E3 trailer for the first one shows Altaïr assassinating a Templar who is about to hang someone, shooting his bodyguard with a crossbow on the way. Nothing of the sort happens in the game, and crossbows are not available until Brotherhood.
** The one for [[AssassinsCreedII II]] shows Ezio chasing and shooting a masked Templar with his Hidden Gun during Venecia's Carnevale. Said Templar only appears in multiplayer, nowhere to be seen in the actual game, although a similar assassination does happen, but with a different victim and very different circumstances.
** In [[AssassinsCreed III]], Connor charges a British firing line head-on and assassinates their commander. This appears to be based on an early draft of Battle of Bunker Hill, but trying to complete that mission in the fashion Connor did in the trailer is impossible.

** Clearly demonstrated in III, where they have lost the titular Creed. Where all recruits into the order previously learned the core philosophy of the Brotherhood that gave them purpose as Assassins, Connor is just given some rabble about serving the greater good and handed his hidden blades.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad can be poetically translated to "The Eagle, Son of None", or more directly translated as "''That Eagle Bastard''". Arguably, both are accurate.

* {{Animal Motif|s}}: Eagles for the Assassins. Their symbol looks like a bird, Altaïr's cloak has a beak-like hood and slits at the back that resemble tailfeathers, eagles are seen circling View Points, and all of the main story Assassins have a special ability called Eagle Vision. Altaïr and Ezio's names are both derived from the word for Eagle in Arabic and Greek respectively. Connor's iconic animal is the American bald eagle, with heavy symbolism in all the trailers.

* CainAndAbel: They are implied to be the ''original'' Templar and Assassin, respectively.

** Desmond's hooded sweatshirt. Just picture it with the hood up.

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* ViciousCycle: Some version of the Assassins and the Templars have been fighting since the First Disaster in repeated conflicts over Pieces of Eden, and Desmond and William both think in ''Assassins Creed III'' that the conflict will continue long after they die.

* SuperDrowningSkills: In the first game, Altaïr desynchronizes if he falls into any body of water higher than his knees. This is lampshaded in the second game as a glitch in the Animus 1.0, and Ezio is a very capable swimmer no matter how much armor he wears. In none of the games, however, do civilians or guards learn to swim; nor do your Assassin Recruits, who variously die (''Brotherhood''), despawn (''Revelations''), or get injured (''III'') upon touching water.

* SuperDrowningSkills: In the first game, Altaïr desynchronizes if he falls into any body of water higher than his knees. This is lampshaded in the second game as a glitch in the Animus 1.0, and Ezio is a very capable swimmer no matter how much armor he wears. In none of the games, however, do civilians or guards learn to swim.