10 Historical Figures Who Owned Pieces of Eden in Assassin's Creed
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VOICE OVER: Johnny Reynolds
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
There are a surprising amount of historical figures who owned a Piece of Eden in "Assassin's Creed." For this list, we'll be looking at famous people throughout history that owned these priceless relics from the "Assassin's Creed" series. Our list includes The Borgias, George Washington, Alexander the Great, Leonidas I, and more!
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at 10 historical figures who owned Pieces of Eden in “Assassin’s Creed”. We’re surprised WE don’t have a Piece of Eden at this rate.
Husband to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert had a huge influence on British society during the roughly two decades between their wedding and his untimely death. But multiple Pieces of Eden passed through his hands, including not only one of the Shrouds, but also the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which Ubisoft says is an Isu relic as well – though this is only confirmed in comics. The Shroud, however, was initially recovered by Edward Kenway, but later became the possession of Victoria and Albert. The chamber underneath Buckingham Palace Evie and Jacob go to at the end of “Syndicate” was built by Albert to contain the Shroud. And they actually left it there, leaving the modern Assassins with no choice but to also break into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
These controversial historical figures had two Pieces of Eden at some point or another, and we spent two entire games going after them. Already possessing a Staff during “Assassin’s Creed II”, the Templars in that game were preoccupied with recovering the Apple, as both Pieces were needed to open the vault underneath the Sistine Chapel. In fact, Rodrigo Borgia only decided to become the Pope so that he’d have better access. In “Brotherhood”, Cesare is the new, main villain, but he’s not able to wield the Apple himself. He enlists Leonardo da Vinci in helping him to understand it, but Leonardo continually stalls. The Pieces of Eden, in this case, didn’t really help the Templars maintain control of Italia.
They wanted Pythagoras in the game so badly they had to give him a Piece of Eden that keeps the wielder immortal and perpetually the same age. That Piece was the Staff of Hermes, with Hermes, of course, being just another Isu with a fancy toy. Pythagoras, Kassandra and Alexios’ real father, guards the entrance to Atlantis and wields the staff, though he eventually gives it up to the protagonist. The Staff remains with them for over two thousand years, until they eventually also relinquishes it, this time to Layla Hassan – though, Basim is its current owner. And while Pythagoras was real, many mythological Greek figures had artifacts too, including a sword used by Perseus to kill Medusa and another Shroud recovered by Jason.
Also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, it was he who led the armies that captured Constantinople from the Byzantines in the 1450s, at just twenty-one years old. How did he accomplish this feat, given that Constantinople had stood as the crown jewel of Byzantium for more than 1000 years? Well, if you believe Ubisoft, it’s because he had the help of an Apple of Eden, which made the job far easier. Mehmed doesn’t appear in any of the “Assassin’s Creed” games, though he was the one who built Topkapi Palace, which Ezio visits many times throughout “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations”.
More Greeks, Leonidas I of Sparta had a more unique Piece of Eden than most: a spear, something we don’t see too often. Leonidas wielded his spear at the Battle of Thermopylae, one of history’s most famous battles – though the Greeks lost to the Persians. During the battle, Leonidas’s Spear was broken, but it was still powerful and was passed down to his grandchild, the protagonist. They then go on to the Spear as a rough equivalent of the Hidden Blade in the rest of the series, as at this time, the Hidden Blade was a weapon only used by the Persian Assassin Darius – though the two would later meet.
That’s right, Al Mualim was a real person, though he wasn’t really called Al Mualim by anyone during his lifetime as “Al Mualim” is actually not a name, but a fictional title, meaning “the Mentor”. His name was Rashid al-Din Sinan, and he led the Syrian Assassins from the village of Masyaf until his death in 1193. In the games he famously serves as the secret main antagonist and true final boss. Altaïr eventually defeats him and takes control of the Order of Assassins, called the Nizari state in real life. The Assassins did have a lasting impact on the Crusades and on wider culture, as the pejorative crusader word for them, “Hashashin”, is where the term “assassin” comes from.
We never see Alexander the Great in the games, though his presence is felt very strongly throughout “Origins”. A decent chunk of the game follows Bayek and Aya as they search for his tomb, the location of which is, today, still unknown. They find it, of course, and this gives the Romans the opportunity to pillage it and steal one all-important artifact: a Staff of Eden. It was this Staff that helped Alexander conquer such a huge area of the world, with his empire extending from Greece to India, even conquering formidable Persia. And he famously loved naming cities after himself, which is why Alexandria in northern Egypt is still called that even today.
A central figure in “Assassin’s Creed III”, Connor spends a lot of time helping the Patriots and brushing shoulders with the very first President of the United States. Eventually, Washington was able to seize an Apple of Eden that was in the possession of the British, but he didn’t hold onto it for very long. He had a vision of what would happen if he kept it, which eventually became the “Tyranny of King Washington” DLC, showing his descent into a power-hungry maniac. Connor takes the Apple from Washington to keep it out of human hands. Unlike other military campaigns, America’s independence was possible without the help of Isu technology.
It was revealed in one of the many glyph puzzles of “Assassin’s Creed II” that Napoleon had an Apple of Eden. Five years on, in “Unity”, and Arno encounters Napoleon in the Tuileries. Arno wants to burn Louis XVI’s incriminating letters, while Napoleon wants the key to an Isu vault containing an Apple. He finds it, but only the players get to see – oblivious Arno completely misses it. But he later goes after Napoleon in the “Dead Kings” DLC, retrieving the Apple and sending it to Egypt. But Napoleon famously invaded Egypt as well and stole, among many other real-life artifacts, the Apple of Eden, not that it seemed to help him at Waterloo.
Whatever your religious beliefs, the scholarly consensus is that there absolutely was someone called Jesus who lived in Galilee and Judea in the first century. He existed in the world of “Assassin’s Creed”, too, and of course, he’s got at least one Piece of Eden to his name – how else would he have performed all of those miracles? This was another Shroud, and it’s based on an object that also certainly exists, the Shroud of Turin, said to be the cloth Christ was wrapped in for his burial. The Shroud of Turin is generally thought to be a fake today, as it’s been carbon dated to the 13th century, but it's an interesting piece of history used by Ubisoft. A similarly contentious “historical” figure is King Arthur, who also DID exist in the world of the game and possessed a Sword of Eden – Excalibur.
Prince Albert
Husband to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert had a huge influence on British society during the roughly two decades between their wedding and his untimely death. But multiple Pieces of Eden passed through his hands, including not only one of the Shrouds, but also the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which Ubisoft says is an Isu relic as well – though this is only confirmed in comics. The Shroud, however, was initially recovered by Edward Kenway, but later became the possession of Victoria and Albert. The chamber underneath Buckingham Palace Evie and Jacob go to at the end of “Syndicate” was built by Albert to contain the Shroud. And they actually left it there, leaving the modern Assassins with no choice but to also break into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
The Borgias
These controversial historical figures had two Pieces of Eden at some point or another, and we spent two entire games going after them. Already possessing a Staff during “Assassin’s Creed II”, the Templars in that game were preoccupied with recovering the Apple, as both Pieces were needed to open the vault underneath the Sistine Chapel. In fact, Rodrigo Borgia only decided to become the Pope so that he’d have better access. In “Brotherhood”, Cesare is the new, main villain, but he’s not able to wield the Apple himself. He enlists Leonardo da Vinci in helping him to understand it, but Leonardo continually stalls. The Pieces of Eden, in this case, didn’t really help the Templars maintain control of Italia.
Pythagoras
They wanted Pythagoras in the game so badly they had to give him a Piece of Eden that keeps the wielder immortal and perpetually the same age. That Piece was the Staff of Hermes, with Hermes, of course, being just another Isu with a fancy toy. Pythagoras, Kassandra and Alexios’ real father, guards the entrance to Atlantis and wields the staff, though he eventually gives it up to the protagonist. The Staff remains with them for over two thousand years, until they eventually also relinquishes it, this time to Layla Hassan – though, Basim is its current owner. And while Pythagoras was real, many mythological Greek figures had artifacts too, including a sword used by Perseus to kill Medusa and another Shroud recovered by Jason.
Mehmed II
Also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, it was he who led the armies that captured Constantinople from the Byzantines in the 1450s, at just twenty-one years old. How did he accomplish this feat, given that Constantinople had stood as the crown jewel of Byzantium for more than 1000 years? Well, if you believe Ubisoft, it’s because he had the help of an Apple of Eden, which made the job far easier. Mehmed doesn’t appear in any of the “Assassin’s Creed” games, though he was the one who built Topkapi Palace, which Ezio visits many times throughout “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations”.
Leonidas I
More Greeks, Leonidas I of Sparta had a more unique Piece of Eden than most: a spear, something we don’t see too often. Leonidas wielded his spear at the Battle of Thermopylae, one of history’s most famous battles – though the Greeks lost to the Persians. During the battle, Leonidas’s Spear was broken, but it was still powerful and was passed down to his grandchild, the protagonist. They then go on to the Spear as a rough equivalent of the Hidden Blade in the rest of the series, as at this time, the Hidden Blade was a weapon only used by the Persian Assassin Darius – though the two would later meet.
Al Mualim
That’s right, Al Mualim was a real person, though he wasn’t really called Al Mualim by anyone during his lifetime as “Al Mualim” is actually not a name, but a fictional title, meaning “the Mentor”. His name was Rashid al-Din Sinan, and he led the Syrian Assassins from the village of Masyaf until his death in 1193. In the games he famously serves as the secret main antagonist and true final boss. Altaïr eventually defeats him and takes control of the Order of Assassins, called the Nizari state in real life. The Assassins did have a lasting impact on the Crusades and on wider culture, as the pejorative crusader word for them, “Hashashin”, is where the term “assassin” comes from.
Alexander the Great
We never see Alexander the Great in the games, though his presence is felt very strongly throughout “Origins”. A decent chunk of the game follows Bayek and Aya as they search for his tomb, the location of which is, today, still unknown. They find it, of course, and this gives the Romans the opportunity to pillage it and steal one all-important artifact: a Staff of Eden. It was this Staff that helped Alexander conquer such a huge area of the world, with his empire extending from Greece to India, even conquering formidable Persia. And he famously loved naming cities after himself, which is why Alexandria in northern Egypt is still called that even today.
George Washington
A central figure in “Assassin’s Creed III”, Connor spends a lot of time helping the Patriots and brushing shoulders with the very first President of the United States. Eventually, Washington was able to seize an Apple of Eden that was in the possession of the British, but he didn’t hold onto it for very long. He had a vision of what would happen if he kept it, which eventually became the “Tyranny of King Washington” DLC, showing his descent into a power-hungry maniac. Connor takes the Apple from Washington to keep it out of human hands. Unlike other military campaigns, America’s independence was possible without the help of Isu technology.
Napoleon Bonaparte
It was revealed in one of the many glyph puzzles of “Assassin’s Creed II” that Napoleon had an Apple of Eden. Five years on, in “Unity”, and Arno encounters Napoleon in the Tuileries. Arno wants to burn Louis XVI’s incriminating letters, while Napoleon wants the key to an Isu vault containing an Apple. He finds it, but only the players get to see – oblivious Arno completely misses it. But he later goes after Napoleon in the “Dead Kings” DLC, retrieving the Apple and sending it to Egypt. But Napoleon famously invaded Egypt as well and stole, among many other real-life artifacts, the Apple of Eden, not that it seemed to help him at Waterloo.
Jesus of Nazareth
Whatever your religious beliefs, the scholarly consensus is that there absolutely was someone called Jesus who lived in Galilee and Judea in the first century. He existed in the world of “Assassin’s Creed”, too, and of course, he’s got at least one Piece of Eden to his name – how else would he have performed all of those miracles? This was another Shroud, and it’s based on an object that also certainly exists, the Shroud of Turin, said to be the cloth Christ was wrapped in for his burial. The Shroud of Turin is generally thought to be a fake today, as it’s been carbon dated to the 13th century, but it's an interesting piece of history used by Ubisoft. A similarly contentious “historical” figure is King Arthur, who also DID exist in the world of the game and possessed a Sword of Eden – Excalibur.
