History Franchise / AssassinsCreed

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* ScrewTheRulesTheyreNotReal: Played with. The Creed reads in part "Nothing is true; everything is permitted". Altaïr in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' initially thinks this means there ''aren't'' any rules, which he uses to justify murdering a bystander in the ActionPrologue. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Altaïr is severely punished for this]], because in actual fact the Assassins simply take the AntiNihilist position that there is no such thing as "natural law": the only rules that exist are the ones that humans impose on themselves, many of which are requirements for civilization to be possible. Ezio Auditore explains this in more detail to Sofia Sartor in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'':

* ArtisticLicense: This is quite common in the franchise whether it's RuleOfCool, RuleOfDrama, AcceptableBreaksFromReality or CriticalResearchFailure in regards to how it deals with real world history, though any discrepancies are mostly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] because the Templars are constantly rewriting the past via the Animus.

* ''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' (2023)

* ''Assassin's Creed: Mirage'' (2023)

* ''Assassin's Creed Rift'' (2023)

Each entry has two separate plots. The first is set in the 21st century, where the battle between the Assassins and Templars has become one largely about information control, media manipulation and occasional cloak-and-dagger black-ops skirmishes. However, this is only the FramingDevice; the vast majority of the action is set in the historical plotlines of the mainline installments, which so far include the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Third Crusade]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Italian Renaissance]], the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution American Revolution]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy Golden Age of Piracy]], the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar, the UsefulNotes/FrenchRevolution, UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain, [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Ptolemaic Egypt]], the [[UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar Peloponnesian War]], UsefulNotes/{{the Viking Age}} and [[UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}} 9th century Baghdad]]. The expanded backstory found in the puzzle sections, spinoff games, novels, comics and other supplementary material shows the Assassins and the Templars participating in every conceivable world-historical event, with famous figures in history such as Creator/{{Socrates}}, UsefulNotes/{{Cleopatra}}, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart, [[UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc Jeanne d'Arc]], UsefulNotes/LeonardoDaVinci, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, the Borgias, UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo, UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga, UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, Creator/BenjaminFranklin, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, [[UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre Robespierre]], UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, [[UsefulNotes/JosephStalin Josef Stalin]] and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler among many others either being Assassins or Templars or non-aligned people supported and opposed by either faction. Indeed, what began as a fairly unusual WideOpenSandbox variation of stealth and pioneering LeParkour traversal system became equally celebrated for its ShownTheirWork "historical tourism" of famous cities and its monuments allowing players the experience of having BeenThereShapedHistory.

Each entry has two separate plots. The first is set in the 21st century, where the battle between the Assassins and Templars has become one largely about information control, media manipulation and occasional cloak-and-dagger black-ops skirmishes. However, this is only the FramingDevice; the vast majority of the action is set in the historical plotlines of the mainline installments, which so far include the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Third Crusade]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Italian Renaissance]], the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution American Revolution]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy Golden Age of Piracy]], the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar, the UsefulNotes/FrenchRevolution, UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain, [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Ptolemaic Egypt]], the [[UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar Peloponnesian War]], UsefulNotes/{{the Viking Age}} and 9th century Baghdad. The expanded backstory found in the puzzle sections, spinoff games, novels, comics and other supplementary material shows the Assassins and the Templars participating in every conceivable world-historical event, with famous figures in history such as Creator/{{Socrates}}, UsefulNotes/{{Cleopatra}}, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart, [[UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc Jeanne d'Arc]], UsefulNotes/LeonardoDaVinci, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, the Borgias, UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo, UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga, UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, Creator/BenjaminFranklin, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, [[UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre Robespierre]], UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, [[UsefulNotes/JosephStalin Josef Stalin]] and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler among many others either being Assassins or Templars or non-aligned people supported and opposed by either faction. Indeed, what began as a fairly unusual WideOpenSandbox variation of stealth and pioneering LeParkour traversal system became equally celebrated for its ShownTheirWork "historical tourism" of famous cities and its monuments allowing players the experience of having BeenThereShapedHistory.

Each entry has two separate plots. The first is set in the 21st century, where the battle between the Assassins and Templars has become one largely about information control, media manipulation and occasional cloak-and-dagger black-ops skirmishes. However, this is only the FramingDevice; the vast majority of the action is set in the historical plotlines of the mainline installments, which so far include the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Third Crusade]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Italian Renaissance]], the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution American Revolution]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy Golden Age of Piracy]], the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar, the UsefulNotes/FrenchRevolution, UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain, [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Ptolemaic Egypt]], the [[UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar Peloponnesian War]], and the [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge Viking Age]]. The expanded backstory found in the puzzle sections, spinoff games, novels, comics and other supplementary material shows the Assassins and the Templars participating in every conceivable world-historical event, with famous figures in history such as Creator/{{Socrates}}, UsefulNotes/{{Cleopatra}}, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart, [[UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc Jeanne d'Arc]], UsefulNotes/LeonardoDaVinci, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, the Borgias, UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo, UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga, UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, Creator/BenjaminFranklin, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, [[UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre Robespierre]], UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, [[UsefulNotes/JosephStalin Josef Stalin]] and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler among many others either being Assassins or Templars or non-aligned people supported and opposed by either faction. Indeed, what began as a fairly unusual WideOpenSandbox variation of stealth and pioneering LeParkour traversal system became equally celebrated for its ShownTheirWork "historical tourism" of famous cities and its monuments allowing players the experience of having BeenThereShapedHistory.

* ''Assassin's creed: The Engine of History'' novel trilogy:

** ''The Magus Conspiracy'' (2022)

* ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Assassin's Creed]]'' (2007) [[note]]UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/Xbox360 (UsefulNotes/XboxOne via backward compatibility) and PC.[[/note]]

-->'''Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad''': ''...laws arise not from divinity, but reason. I understand now that our creed does not commend us to be free -- it commends us to be wise.''
-->'''Ezio Auditore da Firenze''': ''...merely an observation of the nature of reality: To say that nothing is true is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile, and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization. To say that everything is permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic.''
-->'''Edward James Kenway:''' ''It might be that this idea is only the beginning of wisdom, and not its final form.''
-->'''Arno Victor Dorian:''' ''Not a grant of permission, the creed is a warning. Ideals too easily give way to dogma. Dogma becomes fanaticism.''

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: All over the place. "Good" historical figures were Assassins (or at least aided them). The one solid exception is [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper who was an Assassin who went nuts until he was stopped by Evie Frye]]. "Bad" ones are Templars (though the writers will shake this formula up if they want to do really elaborate conspiracies). Then there are Sages, Wandering Jew-type characters (really [[spoiler: reincarnations of One Who Came Before who was trapped in a proto-Animus]]) amongst whom you can include [[spoiler: pirate Black Bart, mysterious occultist the Count of Saint Germaine, and possibly David Bowie.]]

* BigBad: The Templars and their predecessors in general, with [[EvilGenius Warren Vidic]] being their most prominently villainous member in the modern-day storyline for the first few main games. Following [[spoiler: Vidic's death]], Juhani Otso Berg becomes the most prominently seen Templar. [[spoiler:Juno]] was also revealed as a [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] villain at the end of ''III'', and from then on acts as the GreaterScopeVillain to both factions [[spoiler:until she is killed off in the ''Uprising'' comic]]. Each game also has its own BigBad:
** ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedI'' has a BigBadEnsemble between Rashid ad-Din Sinan AKA Al Mualim and Robert de Sablé.
** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' has "The Spaniard", Rodrigo Borgia / Pope Alexander VI.

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'' has a BigBadDuumvirate example in the form of [[spoiler:Flavius Metellus / The Lion]] and [[spoiler:Lucius Septimius / The Jackal]], the leaders of the Order of the Ancients in the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt. ''The Hidden Ones'' DLC on the other hand has Gaius Julius Rufio as the sole Big Bad.

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' has yet another Big Bad Ensemble in the form of King Alfred The Great, [[spoiler: who is the Grand Maegester of the English Order of the Ancients and is responsible for reforming the Order into the Templars after his exile had ended, thus making him a GreaterScopeVillain]], and [[spoiler:Basim Ibn Ishaq/Loki, who turns out to be EvilAllAlong and serves as the FinalBoss]]. [[spoiler:Basim]] also takes on the role of the BigBad for the modern day segments of the story alongside [[spoiler:Aletheia]], another GreaterScopeVillain, since the two manipulated Layla Hassan (and by extension, [[spoiler:the Eagle Bearer across over ''two millennia'']]) into giving them the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus so that [[spoiler: the former could be resurrected]]. Arguably, [[spoiler:Odin himself]] is also a GreaterScopeVillain since he is the reincarnation of [[spoiler: Eivor]] and is responsible for the death of Loki's son Fenrir, thus setting [[spoiler: Basim's vendetta against Sigurd, and eventually Eivor, into motion]]. The ''Wrath of the Druids'' [=DLC=] has The Oak, [[spoiler:otherwise known as Eogan mac Cartaigh, the abbot of Meath who wants to overthrow Christianity in Ireland and replace it with the Druidic faith of Classical Antiquity]]. ''The Siege of Paris'' has Charles the Fat, the last monarch of Francia and the grandson of Charlemagne, who intends to launch a Frankish invasion of England.

** Honoré Gabriel Riqueti[=/=]Comte de Mirabeau from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' is the Mentor of the French Assassins during the French Revolution and he's one of the signers of the Declaration of Rights, the founding document of the first French Republic.

* BroadStrokes: Some of the comic ''Accipiter'', which occasionally gets a nod through some of the games. At one point in ''Rogue'', Templars Otso Berg and Violet Da Costa discuss the {{Macguffin}} from it, the Ankh, and whether it actually existed or not. Jury seems to be still out on that one.

-->"Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent. Hide in plain sight, be one with the crowd. Never compromise the brotherhood."

-->"Uphold the principles of our order and all that for which we stand. Never share our secrets nor divulge in the true nature of our work. Do so until death, whatever the cost."

** Altaïr is a career assassin and as such opposes the Templars on matters of principle rather than some personal vendetta. That said, Robert De Sable humiliating him for [[ArrogantKungFuGuy his brashness]] and leaving him alive started a grudge that drove Altaïr to find him in Arsuf. Even more, Al Mualim's sagely conversations with Altaïr and his giving him a second chance by wiping out nine Templars end up making Altaïr TheHero strong enough to [[spoiler: stand up and defeat his newly revealed EvilAllAlong Mentor and make him into a successor who makes the Assassins into a stronger force]]. Smooth move.

** Haytham Kenway {{lampshades}} this in ''Literature/AssassinsCreedForsaken'' where Charles Lee's racist mockery of little Connor and his people and [[WouldHurtAChild punching him out]] [[NiceJobFixingItVillain led the latter to a lifelong thirst for hunting Lee and his associates... leading to Connor upending decades of planning and destroying all their achievements]]. Haytham himself is an aversion. Reginald Birch [[spoiler: had his father, Edward killed, his sister [[SexSlave sold to Turkish slavers]] ]] but [[VillainTakesAnInterest he takes an interest]] in him, and manipulates and indoctrinates Haytham into a Templar who achieves for them what Ezio achieved for the Assassins; he's so successful that Haytham never abandons the cause even after learning the awful truth.

** The third game in particular, both the present and modern story, deconstructs the Assassins vs. Templars conflict. The historical portion shows the Assassins and Templars briefly united by a common purpose as well as familial bonds while at the end of the contemporary storyline, [[spoiler: Minerva tells the contemporary Assassins that they wasted the whole of history fighting the Templars instead of working to the common good]].

** The Assassins strive for Freedom[=/=]Chaos, yet live by a strict moral code that defines all their actions. The Templars, in contrast, seek Order[=/=]Law, yet have absolutely no moral restrictions on their behavior and are free to use any and all means (up to and including mass murder) in pursuit of their goal. This leads to quite a few ironies, see MurderIsTheBestSolution below. Ultimately, both the Assassins and Templars believe that "Nothing is true, everything is permitted". But to the Assassins the phrase is descriptive whereas to the Templars it's proscriptive (to understand this sentence better, note how Altaïr differentiates between the two as he progresses through Al-Mualim's missions in the first game).

-->'''Olivier Garneau''': ''...we don't want to go through the effort of coding extra Animus features just for the sake of digging up memories of people driving around in cars. There are [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto other and more efficient ways to experience that]]... ''

** Every story in the Animus is this, showing both the real forces which drove history with no one ever knowing their name and the lives of their allies and public figures distorted to elide it. The Assassins choose this by design of course. Desmond Miles [[spoiler: in 2012, performed a HeroicSacrifice to save the lives of every life on Earth. Not only is the public unaware of Desmond but they will never know how close they were to extinction]].

* HackerCollective: Erudito is opposed to Abstergo, and hack into the Animus files in ''Liberation'' to expose the falsehoods about Aveline and several of the multiplayer characters in ''III'' (including suggesting that one, Alsoomse[=/=]The Independent, never actually existed). They also send information to both players of ''Project Legacy'' and Desmond in ''Brotherhood'' by giving him passwords to the other Assassins' email accounts so that he can monitor their exchanges on his own terms. In the ''Black Flag'' multiplayer, it's revealed that several of their members participated in a cybercrime that deleted $10 million in life savings, devolving into petty larceny, and several of them ended up being arrested.

--> ''"What is a man but the sum of his memories? We are the stories we live! The tales we tell ourselves!"''

** Desmond Miles has a family tree that spans multiple countries over ten thousand years. His ancestors include ''Adam and Eve of all people'', a Syrian Hashashasin fighting in the Third Crusade (Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad), a Florentine nobleman from Renaissance-era Italy (Ezio Auditore da Firenze), a Mohawk tribesman in colonial America (Ratonhnhaké:ton / Connor Kenway) and a Swansea-born Welsh pirate captain (Edward Kenway). And that's just only a small sampling of his ancestry, he has distant relatives from Egypt, central Africa, Japan, France, Taiwan and other parts of the modern United States. The only exception is Haytham Kenway, who is a devout Templar instead of an Assassin.

** In the backstory, we have UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison, a proven {{Jerkass}} who regularly stole ideas and performed grotesque "demonstrations" to smear his assistant-turned-rival UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla. Turns out he was also [[http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_Edison a Templar]] who stole his rival's {{MacGuffin}} and gave it to Henry Ford, who in turn, gave it to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler for the express purpose of jumpstarting the Holocaust and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Also, Hitler's conspirators? UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] and UsefulNotes/JosefStalin. Making matters worse, at some point the Templar Order decided to use a Piece of Eden to cause insanity in Nikola Tesla thus removing him as a threat to both Thomas Edison as well as the general Templar order; though not before Tesla successfully destroyed a Piece of Eden in TheTunguskaEvent.

--->'''Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad''' ''...how does one wage war against a concept? It is the perfect weapon. It lacks a physical form yet can alter the world around us in numerous, often violent ways. You cannot kill a creed. Even if you kill all of its adherents, destroy all of its writings – these are a reprieve at best. Some one, some day, will rediscover it. Reinvent it. I believe that even we, the Assassins, have simply re-discovered an Order that predates the Old Man himself...''\\
'''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F52Igpl1nh0 Connor Kenway]]''': '' Were we not meant to live in peace, then? Is that it? Are we born to argue? To fight? So many voices - each demanding something else.''

--->'''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHXatP8kCSQ Haytham Kenway]]''': ''Even when your kind appears to triumph, still, we rise again. And, do you know why? It is because the Order is born of a '''realization.''' We require no '''creed!''' No indoctrination by desperate old men. All we need is that the world be '''as it is.''' And this is why the Templars will never be destroyed!''

* ItsAllAboutMe: Many characters who defect to the Templars (including the Crusader, the Sentinel, [[spoiler: Lucy Stillman]] and Shay Patrick Cormac) do so not so much because they believe in the Templars' cause or methods, but to avenge some perceived betrayal against themselves, their family, or their tribe[=/=]clan. Additionally, almost all of them[[note]]with the notable exception of [[spoiler:Lucy Stillman]][[/note]] harbor an abundance of arrogance. Most think themselves special, above all others, and unique in history. This is probably why they have SuicidalOverconfidence when facing the humanoid murder machines known as Assassins. "''Sure, you killed hundreds of guards, knights, nobles, high-placed holy men and emperors... but I'm better than all those other guys''!" Every one of them also thinks the world (or the nations they immediately occupy) would be better off with himself in charge. As such, [[spoiler:Lucy Stillman]] stands out for ''averting'' this trope; particularly since [[spoiler:her true allegiance was only revealed after she was killed by an Apple-controlled Desmond]]. The Apple of Eden in particular seems to amplify this personality trait in the Templars who have wielded it across millennia.

* JuliusBeethovenDaVinci: As of ''Black Flag'', the Sages. Through BornAgainImmortality, one individual has been recurring throughout history, in such guises as the Wandering Jew; Jacques de Molay, last historical grandmaster of the Templars; [[spoiler: Black Bart the pirate]]; the Count of St. Germain; and possibly David Bowie. No, really.

** This series became the TropeCodifier for video games. Many games previously had some sort of building-scaling, but AC was the first game to have the character actually reach out to various handholds and footholds on what would otherwise be something completely impassable, even for Batman. FollowTheLeader kicked in; ''VideoGame/{{InFAMOUS}}'' and ''VideoGame/TheSaboteur'' are two of the bigger ones.

** Brotherhood's Subject 16 missions mentioned [[spoiler: that Desmond has to find Eve, with vague messages concerning "your son". The importance of Eve keeps being referred to, with Aveline's prophecy disk and the Dead Kings DLC mentioning "the lady Eve" but has generally been a loose end and Black Flag retcons Subject 16's rambling coming from PostHistoricalTrauma. ''Syndicate'' reveals that the comment about Desmond's son was accurate]].

* {{MacGuffin}}: The Isu civilization created powerful artifacts known as the Pieces of Eden which have been fought over by the Assasins and the Templars for centuries. Later, [[spoiler:humans who are revealed to be reincarnations of Isu beings become central to the conflict]].

* MineralMacguffin: From ''Brahman'' onwards, the Templars are shown looking for the Koh-I-Noor Diamond, which is a Piece of Eden capable of boosting the powers of other [=POE=]s. By the modern day, they've no idea where it's gotten to. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out it was buried in Spain, during the rise of Franco, and remained there ever since.]]

** On start-up, the player is assured that the game was created by one of these, so that they won't presume that the game is biased in favor of or against one particular faith or race. In response to dramatic shifts in the political[=/=]cultural climate of the West during the mid-2010's, the pre-game disclaimer was modified starting in ''Syndicate'' to identify the games' creators as encompassing "various beliefs, sexual orientations, and gender identities."

** As demonstrated by shown by Connor in ACIII and in some of Project Legacy memories though, Assassins of later centuries weren't above a "''kill first, question later''" tendency either, on the basis of the belief that their targets were AlwaysChaoticEvil, and unwilling to concede that the JerkassHasAPoint. Also, as shown with Connor again and even Ezio, they sometimes seemed to ignore or dismiss any collateral damage of their actions, such as [[spoiler: Ezio setting Cappadocia in a panic by blowing up the arsenal, killing hundreds by fire and smoke inhalation, and later letting a tyrant on the throne of Constantinople because the alternative, his brother, is a Templar]]. As both Haytham Kenway and Rebecca Crane bemoan, their war with the Templars ended up taking priority over their previous progressive and peace-making mindset from Altaïr's time.

--> ''"We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Imagine trying to explain all this to a two-year-old. To a grasshopper. When they said the will of the gods was unknowable, they meant it - literally."''

-->'''Haytham Kenway''': Even when your kind appears to triumph... Still we rise again. And do you know why? It is because the Order is born of a '''realization.''' We require no '''creed.''' No indoctrination by desperate old men. All we need is that the world be as it is. And '''this''' is why the Templars will never be destroyed!

** There's also the first ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed|I}}'' game, and the second one, for the most part. Later ones have tended to avert this by punishing being caught with instant game overs.

** [[spoiler: Rodrigo Borgia the BigBad of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' decides that his VisionaryVillain son is [[EvenEvilHasStandards getting a bit much]] so [[EvilOldFolks he]] resolves to [[OffingTheOffspring murder]] him with poisoned apples; Cesare is warned in time by his sister before eating too much, and then Cesare then stuffs the rest of the apples down his father's throat]].

--> '''Ezio Auditore''': Love binds our order together. Love of people, of cultures, of the world. Fight to preserve that which inspires hope, and you will win back your people.

** The Chalice in the first game is based on the Holy Grail [[spoiler: but it doesn't actually exist]].
** ''Black Flag'': The Observatory is powered by [[spoiler: {{Crystal Skull}}s]].

* ReplayMode: The Animus provides a justified example as the story you play in the games is being relived by the descendant of the historical character. Thanks to this, the Animus will allow the player to replay any of the sequences in the game by accessing the synchronization info tab in the pause menu; this is helpful both to replay the missions and to complete any synchronization that was left pending due to the failure of some objective. This is Averted in [[Videogame/AssassinsCreedII Assassin´s Creed II]] in which you can only replay one specific mission with the DLC. The feature is abandoned from ''Origins'' onward, replaced with a NewGamePlus feature.

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'': The third act of the DLC ''Legacy of the First Blade'' is the Eagle Bearer going MamaBear / PapaWolf on the Order of the Ancients for killing their love and abducting their baby Elpidios.

* SelfDeprecation: As of ''Liberation'' and ''Black Flag'', [[spoiler: Abstergo has started selling genetic memories as highly advanced videogames, playable on home Animus entertainment systems. ''Black Flag'' uses this development to make fun of the videogame industry and the series itself, as well as imagining what a lazy tie-in Hollywood movie might look like.]]

* AncientConspiracy: UpToEleven, most politicians or people of any prominence for the last three thousand years were Templars, Assassins, or aligned with/supported by one of the two groups. The Templars have [[WrittenByTheWinners rewritten history]] to conceal this, with near total success. It is the combined outcome of all of these conspiracies and plots that results in our modern society. Then the AbusivePrecursors rear their heads as TheManBehindTheMan. The BenevolentPrecursors, too, but they're not as good at the math, so they're fighting a losing battle on that front.

** Adam and Eve take this UpToEleven as they were the first humans to lead an uprising against the Isu and change the course of history.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'', which at one point sees [[PlayerCharacter Shay]] teaming up with a former PlayerCharacter ([[spoiler:[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Haytham Kenway]]]]) for a BossFight against '''another''' former PlayerCharacter ([[spoiler:[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag Adéwalé]]]]), making it the first time in the series that three player-characters have ever shared the same fight.

* SigilSpam: Both the Assassins and Templars put their respective logos on seemingly everything, but the titular Assassins really take it UpToEleven. Their capital "A" symbol is visible somewhere on virtually everything they use; it's on flags above their [=HQs=], it's engraved into their weapons, it's stitched into their clothing, it's ''cut'' into their clothing (they are fond of split capes that are cut so as to form a clear representation of the Assassin "A", with the distinctive inward curve at the bottom edges to make it very clearly not a coincidence) and in some cases it's even ''worked into their architecture''. ''Origins'' even reveals that the symbol itself predates the Assassin name by centuries. To a lesser degree, the Templars and Abstergo do this with their respective logos, but it's mostly restricted to their flags, weapons, and metal accessories (like buckles). You'd think the two halves of a secret AncientConspiracy older than civilization itself would be more circumspect with advertising their allegiances.

** Some of the more notable Templars as well can be very underhanded. Haytham and ex-Assassin Shay, this is mostly due to both having prolonged exposure to Assassin techniques. This makes them all the more deadlier, than the typical members of their order.

* ''Assassin's Creed: Awakening'' (2013-2014) - Manga

* ''Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun''/''Assassin's Creed: China'' (JP:2019-) - [[/index]]{{Manga}}[[index]]
* ''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'' (2020) - [[/index]]{{Manhua}}[[index]]

* ''Assassin's Creed: Hall of Valor'' (2020) - [[/index]]{{Manhua}}[[index]]
* ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Blood Brothers'' (2020) - [[/index]]{{Manhua}}[[index]]
* ''Assassin's Creed: Cinders'' (2021) - [[/index]]{{Manga}}[[index]]

* Untitled ''Black Flag'' sequel series (TBA) - [[/index]]{{Manhua}}[[index]]

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The series has a running theme dealing with the fact that history and life itself is filled with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters with everyone, big and small, major and minor, having a part to play and a story to tell. Especially the post-Ezio story arc games which move away from the Desmond-centric story arc.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Since the conclusion of the Ezio Trilogy, the cast of characters in the franchise has grown exponentially especially with each new installment focusing on specific eras of human history and that's not getting into some of the minor [=NPCs=] who have fully fleshed out backstories no less.

* OverarchingVillain: The Templar Order are the primary antagonists of every installment of the franchise. Even in ''Odyssey'', they are the GreaterScopeVillain to the Cult of Kosmos. ''Valhalla'' introduces [[spoiler:Basim ibn Ishaq[=/=]"Loki", husband of Aletheia, the Isu speaking through the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus. They manipulate Layla into letting go of the Staff in order for Basim to be revived after over a millennium, and appear to be intent on using the modern-day Assassins for their own ends]].

** The later games rarely tackle the importance of class and social background. The blending mechanic allows a Native American like Connor to hide in a group of Colonial Bostonians, a Cockney thug like Jacob Frye to talk on even terms with the British Prime Minister, an Irishman who was RaisedCatholic and with a thick accent like Shay Cormac to blend easily in a time when said identity (unless he converted to Protestantism) would mark him out as a second class citizen. Even the Florentine exile and disgraced nobleman Ezio Auditore easily interacts with a range of class groups in a time where costume, rank, title, and appearance were crucial social signifiers. The only real aversions are Aveline and Adewale whose blending mechanic is complicated because of their race and gender which presents its own can of worms.

* ''Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy'' (2010) [[note]]Available on [[http://apps.facebook.com/projectlegacy Facebook.]][[/note]]