History Headscratchers / AssassinsCreedRevelations

** [[TheWikiRule According to the wiki]], the mission in question took place in 1503, but Piri Reis didn't join the Brotherhood until 1506.

** This is especially true for the modern day Assassins if you look at the ExpandedUniverse materials and all of Subject 16's messages. Seriously, their members and allies includes [[SarcasmMode charming]] individuals such as UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Ho Chi Minh]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] UsefulNotes/AlGore. When the Assassins say that 'Everything is permitted', [[CombatPragmatist they really mean it]]. They are interested in preserving the free will of mankind in the long run by fighting against the Templars, but they are perfectly willing to [[NecessaryEvil work with non-aligned organizations that violate the 'Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent' tenet on a daily basis]].

** It’s never been revealed why Altair and Desmond got their scars, but Ezio got his from a rock thrown at him. RuleOfCool, maybe?

* What language are they speaking? Does everyone in Istanbul speak Italian? Ezio says his Turkish isn't that good, but he conveys a lot of ideas.
** Kostantiniyye was and still is a major city and centre of trade between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The various peoples of the Ottoman Empire spoke [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Ottoman_Empire lots of different languages]]. Presumably the Assassins are at least passably familiar with the major trade tongues and the Animus translates for its subjects.

** It can snow in the Middle East if that is what you're asking.
** Well, I know it does snow in the Middle East but I was asking about Masyaf specifically. I have a hard time picturing it honestly.
** Masyaf is in the country of Syria, it snows very lightly there. Up in the mountains however the climate is high enough that snow can last longer, there does appear to be a rather large mountain range surrounding Masyaf so its high altitude may explain why it is snowing.

* In II, the Codex states that one must hollow the hidden blade to fill it with poison, thus creating a poison blade. Okay. Ezio can, however, fight with both his blades, despite the fact that one should be hollow and filled with poison. But all right. In Brotherhood he adds darts to the Hidden/Poison Blade, but we never really see where does the dart comes out. It's not from the same hole as the hidden gun, that's for sure. But in Revelations he has a whole new blade, the hook blade, that he had never used or seen before, but that can still be used as a poison blade. And as a hook. The ''hollow blade can be used as a hook and a small weapon''. Can someone please explain how this works? Or I don't know... at least how Ezio can ''change'' from a normal hidden blade to a poison blade and then shoot darts seamlessly.

** This is especially true for the modern day Assassins if you look at the ExpandedUniverse materials and all of Subject 16's messages. Seriously, their members and allies includes [[SarcasmMode charming]] individuals such as UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, MaoZedong, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Ho Chi Minh]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] UsefulNotes/AlGore. When the Assassins say that 'Everything is permitted', [[CombatPragmatist they really mean it]]. They are interested in preserving the free will of mankind in the long run by fighting against the Templars, but they are perfectly willing to [[NecessaryEvil work with non-aligned organizations that violate the 'Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent' tenet on a daily basis]].

*** Desmond already has a son, as revealed in Syndicate, who is a Sage, from her matrilinear line. Guess it already happened, before the Templars captured Desmond. He is 10 years old.

[[folder: The Scar]]

* Is there a reason Altair, Ezio and Desmond (and maybe others, I haven't played the newer games yet) all share the same scar on the right part of their lips?

[[/folder]]

** And yet it still kills. You just need to be precise and strike at the perfect time. [[CaptainObvious Kind of like an Assassin.]]

*** This is especially true for the modern day Assassins if you look at the ExpandedUniverse materials and all of Subject 16's messages. Seriously, their members and allies includes [[SarcasmMode charming]] individuals such as UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, MaoZedong, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Ho Chi Minh]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] UsefulNotes/AlGore. When the Assassins say that 'Everything is permitted', [[CombatPragmatist they really mean it]]. They are interested in preserving the free will of mankind in the long run by fighting against the Templars, but they are perfectly willing to [[NecessaryEvil work with non-aligned organizations that violate the 'Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent' tenet on a daily basis]].

*** TruthInTelevision. A good example of this would be Creator/ChristopherLee; he is noted as being an incredibly skilled swordsman, with lightning-fast arms and an agile upper body, but he's old and his legwork isn't anywhere near as good as his upper-bodywork. That's why in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels, a lot of shots involving Dooku fighting were from the waist up. Altaïr is the exact same way.

*** Possibly the other man heard at the end of ''Brotherhood''.

*** Note that one of the dossiers in the multiplayer [[spoiler:mentions that Abstergo has "sleeper agents," who used to work for Abstergo, underwent a memory-changing procedure, and now help Abstergo without knowing it. I'm thinking Lucy (or someone else) was one of those due to LawOfConservationOfDetail.]]

*** What's the alternative? Refusing to listen to them and let the world be destroyed? As for being their pawn, they are all dead.

*** She can't control the Apple since that's what is allowing her to control Desmond and keeping the others from moving. The worst we saw the Apple do was mind control people, so no head nuking. And III and IV josses the idea that Juno is a Templar, while the DLC josses the idea that Lucy is going to betray the Templars.

*** No, Ezio hasn't found any of the keys at this point.

*** Still not a good enough explanation to say that Desmond is seeing it. Ezio himself was distracted by Altaïr's image in the opening cutscene.
**** Desmond, reliving Ezio's memory of the event, is distracted by an image of Altaïr. This doesn't mean, historically, that Ezio was, or that Ezio ever even saw the image (he makes no mention of it to anybody). Remember, the Animus does allow the subject to relive the memories a little bit differently than they actually happened, this just results in loss of sync. Since Desmond's plot revolves around his trouble syncing one ancestor apart from another, it makes perfect sense that Desmond's memory of Ezio would be distracted by Altaïr.

*** Except by this point Altaïr's Apple is still locked in his library. Ezio's Apple is a different Piece of Eden.
*** And? The Apples let you literally see through time and space. It doesn't matter where one Apple is located when all Apples, particularly Ezio's, let you look past silly things like temporal and spatial barriers. Ezio even literally used his Apple to see the future and hunt down Cesare.

*** This is the reason. It's specifically stated that by Revelations' timeline, Ezio's Eagle Sense has drastically improved from what it used to be to now allowing him to see the movements of people, even if they're a fair ways away. It's also stated, I believe, that the world has memory imprints that TWCB and people with strong genetic make-up can detect (but I might be wrong on *that* particular front). So essentially, Ezio is able to see the memory of Altaïr, to an extent.

*** [[FridgeBrilliance Which may have been how he became associated with the Brotherhood in the first place.]]

*** I should've been more specific: I killed three separate people, each using a thunder bomb loaded with the strongest gunpowder. Everyone else in the blast radius just coughed and got ticked off. As mentioned, these three had to be caught off-guard. Compared to shrapnel and datura powder -- both of which will kill everyone within the blast radius regardless of whether they're caught unawares -- coal dust is hardly lethal.
*** And yet it still kills. You just need to be precise and strike at the perfect time. [[CaptainObvious Kind of like an Assassin.]]

*** Actually, that sounds pretty good.

*** Double. She was an assassin who went to work for Abstergo as a spy (single) who later "returned" with Desmond (still single). However, during her time at Abstergo, she became a Templar spy and was reporting on Desmond after her return (there be the double).
*** Another possibility is that she was originally a Templar and honestly switched to the Assassins, then later on Warren Vidic convinced her to join ''his'' side, without the knowledge or approval of the other Templars...in effect making her a triple agent. The official guidebook actually supports this view, and given Abstergo's rather callous attitude toward Vidic in later games, it's certainly plausible.

*** Well, forget what I said, I just replayed II and Elizabeth I came into possession of Altaïr's Apple, barely a half-century after Revelations ends. Granted, she wasn't a Templar (though apparently Mary was, according to Project Legacy).

*** At least 34, going by the numbering in ''[=ACII=]'''s glyph puzzles.

*** The Codex ends with Altaïr contemplating looking into the Apple again. Which indicates that it's with him at Masyaf, just as in Revelations. The Cyprus Apple must've been in Cyprus to begin with. Remember that map at the end of ''1''? Altaïr probably used that map or something similar with the Apple to track down another Apple on Cyprus, and make sure it was hidden. The Codex doesn't say he hid the Apple on Cyprus, only that there was a 'movement' and that he must go. So what likely happened was that a Templar or someone got a hold of the Apple on Cyprus, Altaïr took care of it and hid the Apple somewhere on the island, then Rodrigo dug it up. It's likely Altaïr's Apple never left Masyaf.

*** Masyaf is in the country of Syria, it snows very lightly there. Up in the mountains however the climate is high enough that snow can last longer, there does appear to be a rather large mountain range surrounding Masyaf so its high altitude may explain why it is snowing.

* Does anyone else found Sofia's interaction with Ezio and reaction to everything that happens to her a bit unrealistic? [[http://ladyve.deviantart.com/art/A-Minor-Change-for-Ezio-and-Sofia-291562046 This]] deviantart post shows what I mean better then I can describe. I mean, she doesn't even seem all that shocked or traumatized about her bookstore being destroyed and herself almost getting killed by her sort-of boyfriend's enemies!

This is something that's been bothering me for a while now: how the hell did Subject 16/Clay Kaczmarek make so very, very many pictures/words/etc. using only his own blood? ''And'' apparently remain conscious/coherent enough to do it with accuracy and general neatness? I mean, Christ, [[http://images.wikia.com/assassinscreed/images/f/fa/Abs_Room.png look at the Asian text]]. Considering it was finger-painted in blood by a lunatic, it's ''gorgeous''!\\

* They couldn't put him in a medically-induced coma because they needed him to go into the Animus, which required him to be conscious. So the only way they could possibly prevent him from breaking his skin on something and painting the walls with blood is if they had someone chaperone him 24 hours a day. And if that were the case he would never have been alone long enough to kill himself.

*** They could have restrained him, but obviously they didn't, or he wouldn't have been able to slit his own wrists and paint the walls in blood. Obviously the real answer is the developers didn't consider/didn't know how debilitating it would've been to let out that much blood at once. But if you really need an in-universe explanation, just assume that during his free time hours he covered, say, a few square feet of wall/floor every day for several days in a row and cleaned it up before Abstergo found it. The stains would then be invisible to the naked eye but not to Eagle Vision (which no one at Abstergo has, apparently). ''Then'' he slit his wrists and killed himself, and possibly used the blood to put in whatever "finishing touches" he saw fit.

*** Except there's just not enough blood in the human body to do all that writing.

*** Except what was he going to do with the mop and whatever he used to soak up the blood?

*** TruthInTelevision. A good example of this would be ChristopherLee; he is noted as being an incredibly skilled swordsman, with lightning-fast arms and an agile upper body, but he's old and his legwork isn't anywhere near as good as his upper-bodywork. That's why in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels, a lot of shots involving Dooku fighting were from the waist up. Altaïr is the exact same way.

** This was actually discussed in the story: [[spoiler:one of the Multiplayer characters, the Sentinel (Vali cel Tradat) was actually a former Assassin from Wallachia that defected to the Templars in revenge for what he saw as betray by the Assassin Brotherhood since they were working with, instead of fighting against, the Ottoman oppressors.]]

*** This is the reason. It's specifically stated that by Revelations' timeline, Ezio's Eagle Sense has drastically improved from what it used to be to now allowing him to see the movements of people, even if they're a fair ways away. It's also stated, I believe, that the world has memory imprints that TWCB and people with strong genetic make-up can detect (but I might be wrong on *that* particular front). So essentially, Ezio is able to see the memory of Altair, to an extent.

* Altair's name is Altair Ibn Al'Ahad, or Altair, son of Al'Ahad. Yet in the first Maysaf memory, he introduces himself as Altair, son of Umar. Why the inconsistency?

* I just beat Revelations last night and am confused by something; so the Apple from the first game WASN'T the same Apple the Templars retrieved from Cyprus in the second (which I guess is a Headscratcher in and of itself), because Altair hid the first Apple in the library beneath Masyaf just before he died. Ezio finds Altair's corpse and the first Apple in said library at the end of Revelations, but refuses to take it. Okay, fair enough. Some additional research I've done seems to point to the first Apple staying beneath Masyaf until Abstergo retrieved it, and subsequently ended up destroying it in the Denver experiment. My question is...why didn't the OTHER Assassins ever think to remove the Apple from Masyaf instead of letting it sit there for the Templars to just walk in and pick up centuries later? Did Ezio never even bother to try to get word to the Constantinople Guild there was an Apple down there they might want to at the very least keep an eye on? They had access to the library thanks to Ezio retrieving all of Altair's discs, so...it just seems weird to me that, given the sheer power of the Apples, the Assassins would just let one sit beneath Masyaf for so long and not at least try to guard it, especially since it did eventually end up in Templar hands.
** I have to imagine that Ezio (rightly) deems that it is far too dangerous for ANYONE to have, or even know about. Better in his mind to leave it forgotten behind a nigh-indestructable barrier (it is implied that the door is made of the same material as the Armor of Altair) and conveinently misplace the keys. Obviously technology progressed to the point that Templars were able to breach it, but at the time...
*** Well, forget what I said, I just replayed II and Elizabeth I came into possession of Altair's Apple, barely a half-century after Revelations ends. Granted, she wasn't a Templar (though apparently Mary was, according to Project Legacy).

*** At least 34, going by the numbering in ACII's glyph puzzles.
** OP here. Just getting back to a point I made earlier...so, if the Apple from the first game did stay in Masyaf, then where DID the Apple from II and Brotherhood come from? The Codex says it was the same Apple from I (though that does turn out to have been a deliberate attempt at misinformation by Altair to keep the Apple safely locked away in Revelations), which should mean there wouldn't have been anything at the old Templar archive in Cyprus for them to find during the Renaissance...except they then come back with an Apple anyway! So where did that one come from and how did it end up in Cyprus? I get the problem most likely stems from the fact that in Assassin's Creed II, the Apple the Templars retrieved from Cyprus was actually intended to be the same Apple from I, and the series has gone in a slightly different direction since Patrice Desilets left the series (like Altair and Ezio no longer being related), but Revelations doesn't really provide a good answer as to how the second Apple actually got to Cyprus for Rodrigo to get his hands on.
*** The Codex ends with Altair contemplating looking into the Apple again. Which indicates that it's with him at Masyaf, just as in Revelations. The Cyprus Apple must've been in Cyprus to begin with. Remember that map at the end of 1? Altair probably used that map or something similar with the Apple to track down another Apple on Cyprus, and make sure it was hidden. The Codex doesn't say he hid the Apple on Cyprus, only that there was a 'movement' and that he must go. So what likely happened was that a Templar or someone got a hold of the Apple on Cyprus, Altair took care of it and hid the Apple somewhere on the island, then Rodrigo dug it up. It's likely Altair's Apple never left Masyaf.

*** This is especially true for the modern day Assassins if you look at the ExpandedUniverse materials and all of Subject 16's messages. Seriously, their members and allies includes [[SarcasmMode charming]] individuals such as UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, MaoZedong, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Ho Chi Minh]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] AlGore. When the Assassins say that 'Everything is permitted', [[CombatPragmatist they really mean it]]. They are interested in preserving the free will of mankind in the long run by fighting against the Templars, but they are perfectly willing to [[NecessaryEvil work with non-aligned organizations that violate the 'Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent' tenet on a daily basis]].

*** This is especially true for the modern day Assassins if you look at the ExpandedUniverse materials and all of Subject 16's messages. Seriously, their members and allies includes [[SarcasmMode charming]] individuals such as VladimirLenin, MaoZedong, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Ho Chi Minh]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] AlGore. When the Assassins say that 'Everything is permitted', [[CombatPragmatist they really mean it]]. They are interested in preserving the free will of mankind in the long run by fighting against the Templars, but they are perfectly willing to [[NecessaryEvil work with non-aligned organizations that violate the 'Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent' tenet on a daily basis]].