#I mean in a way Shay reminds me of Altaïr

[teecupangel]

I love that Arno calls him ‘Cormac’ because that would be such a punch on the guts considering they’re being chased by an antivirus called CORMAC so I think it would be fun to make it accidental on Arno’s part because he doesn’t think he should call Shay by his first name as they’re not close but he doesn’t want to add like a ‘Mister’ or ‘Monsieur’ there because that would imply respect which Arno, at the moment, is too emotional to give to Shay but Shay would think that Arno is deliberately calling him Cormac to point that Arno hates him even if he won’t act upon it and sees him as what CORMAC personifies, the walking reaper to everyone that stands against the Templars.

So when Arno tells him “Is that what you want to become? Is that the path you want to tread? Do you want to prove me and Abstergo right?”, it only digs in the pain Arno unintentionally gave Shay by calling him Cormac. The “want to prove me and Abstergo right…” only cemented Shay’s thoughts that, yes, Arno does believe he and CORMAC are the same reflections of the dead Shay Cormac.

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Okay, you reminded me of the RE2R Chess Puzzle and I had war flashbacks back to when I was dumb and thought “Yeah, let’s try plat’ing RE2R and finishing Hardcore mode with an S rank!”. God, the stress of that playthrough and the inevitable “Yeeeaaahh, Falcom and Gust games are really the only games you have a chance of beating at the hardest difficulty.” that I went through.

So… you know what?

Let’s make this one all the more miserable.

The Kenways just had to watch The Child having a fucked up life in a place that was meant to protect him.

Altaïr, Aveline and the Frye twins just had to help out The Bartender during rush hour and Altaïr just had to deal with being reminded that he could have had a similar peaceful life had he ran away as well.

But Ezio, Shao Jun and Shay? They’re getting the worst deal because The Assassin had to deal with a lot of shit.

So they all went on separate ways with Clay taking over as their mission control.

Is he part of Desmond’s memories? Is he an actual digital avatar? They’re not sure but Ezio feels protective of him as well, treating Clay like a younger brother or a son and Clay’s just “yeah, that’s bound to happen”. Regardless of what Clay truly is, it’s clear that he knows more about what’s happening around them than anybody else. Maybe eve more than the main three (or four… Shay thinks to himself, remembering how Haytham seems to be falling deeper into the same obsession the three carries for Desmond’s safety and protection)

Anyway!

So, in this scenario…

The three parts they need to unlock means they get to go to three different portals so they all split because there’s no time. Clay says they’re connected but he also says he can’t say anything more than that.

So they go their separate ways…

And they go into Desmond’s memories of the three field missions he had in AC3.

Shao Jun gets Manhattan and Desmond’s there, calling out to her with a tone that reminded Shao Jun of Ezio when he’s trying to teach her something. It’s eerie but she has no other choice but to follow Desmond and she enjoys herself as both she and Desmond take a leap of faith and parachute their way into the target building. The memory continues until they reach the office where the power source is meant to be. Instead of the power source, they find a ‘chess piece’ that looked a lot like a carving of Tinia.

That’s when Cross appears in the memory and chase them down but their exit is blocked and there are 2 holes where the door knob should have been.

Desmond tells Shao Jun that the part they have (the chess piece of Tinia) is also used to unlock parts of the memory they all went to. The ‘exit’ where the real fragment is. So Desmond gives Shao Jun the chess piece and speaks to her with an Italian accent and the same cadence as Ezio had, “I’m glad I got to meet you again, Jun.”

Desmond throws her out of the building and Shao Jun plunges to the depths below, screaming when she sees Desmond get shot by Cross from the back. Once. Twice. Three times.

Desmond shatters like glass and Shao Jun returns to main island and Clay tells her, “That Desmond’s not part of this, don’t worry. He’s… meant to be your guide… Meant to show you how to finish each puzzle and return you here… with his death.”

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I’m thinking Shay gets Brazil so Desmond could tell him who Cross is (a man who became a Templar thanks to being pushed into the Animus as a kid) and Desmond also dies saving Shay from Cross because the lock in the memory is also their exit (Juno). Ezio gets to kick ass with Desmond in Rome and sees how Desmond could easily use the Apple. Ezio returns to the main island with his chess piece (Minerva) after they get stuck on the main doors of the facility after killing Vidic. So the idea is, all ‘portals’ need 2 specific chess pieces to open the exit so they decide to return to each one in the chronological order and that’s how they reach the exits where a part of The Assassin waits for them.

I think that one of the ‘part’ should be Desmond’s memory of killing Lucy, the other two… uuuhhh… you pick XD The facet is, of course, beyond the gates behind Clay (the Nexus) and it’s the memory of Desmond giving up his life for the world, ending his journey as The Assassin.

I wonder if you’ve ever thought about like, a glitch or a virus in the Animus accidentally causing all the playable ancestors to become self-aware and sentient. I kind of like the idea of them realizing they’re all essentially kinda stuck in the Animus servers and then banding together to essentially blow up Abstergo. hell, maybe Desmond is the reason why they’re all sentient, something about the Apple and the Eye started doing weird things to the samples they took from him so now the ancestors have to find his consciousness!

also I am ngl I think it would be very funny for them to occasionally be able to break into each other’s simulations for various purposes. Edward popping into the American Revolutionary War to say hi to his kid and grandkid. Jacob and Evie and Henry in Constantinople. Altaïr rolling around in the Caribbean, god help this poor non-swimmer.

(and maybe once they’ve gotten him out of wherever he’s been stashed Desmond can teach these guys how to like actually get into Abstergo’s servers and start ruining their lives?)

Ooooohhh, this would be fun and, considering which company Abstergo partnered with to develop the Animus games, this could have just as easily happened because bugs had always been part of the course when it concerned the games they have published.

It might have been a flaw in the Animus game console itself, simply because they had developed a ‘console’ that either didn’t require that the user be related to the genetic memory at all (which had been necessary to stabilize and synchronize with the memories) or they had included a ‘data set’ that includes the DNA origin to stabilize and synchronize with the memories (which meant that they were dealing with a setup they had not fully checked yet (considering Black Flag’s modern day setting was set in 2013 and was released before Rogue’s modern day setting in 2014, that would mean that their Animus iteration had to have been developed and send to Abstergo Entertainment with Sample 17’s data in a year or less).

Also, also, we have seen how ‘viruses’ can interact with the Abstergo games. Liberation’s secret ending which shows the ‘scenes’ that Abstergo tried to remove so that it seemed like Aveline joined the Templar Order in the end could only be accessed by finding a specific NPC in the game in various memory blocks.

So, in this scenario, the whole ‘non-canon character’ popping into other games could have happened during development BUT the Animus game they ship was meant to copy the memory blocks that research analysts got in development so those small inconsistencies could have happened during their breaks or flat-out during a time when no one was using the Animus at all.

The easter eggs (or some fans like to call them “too unrealistic and plain fanservice”) would be included in all the copies of their specific games those games only had minor tweaks to ensure they won’t crash (and have DRMs, I guess) and lesser time for Q&A because, let’s face it, they needed to cut costs somewhere before they were shipped off to ensure they had a yearly release.

It became just a normal part of the charm of these games and Abstergo is just going “Yes, it’s meant to show that we are all connected no matter how many centuries we are from one another!” but internally there are memos going “WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING???”.

Also, also…

We should set up some kind of timeline, I guess?

Because, as far as we can be sure, the only confirmed games that Abstergo Entertainment released are the following:

Liberations (based on Liberation with Aveline) - Prior to 2013

Pirates of Nightmares (based on Black Flag with Edward) - Around 2013 (also has a movie version called Devils of the Caribbean)

Note: We do not have any confirmation that they released any games based on Shay Cormac and, honestly, with how much Shay’s defection hinged on the power of the artifact (which they had probably had to cut out since they were going for ‘realism’), any games based on Rogue would probably need a lot of cuts and edits. They might have just, you know, given up on that in the end.

Buuuuutttt we have confirmation of these games as having been published prior to Arno Dorian’s memories being checked:

Not counting the three on the bottom which we don’t really have any information about, this means that we have confirmation that the following have been released (and, in Edward’s and Aveline’s case, this could have been a re-release ala HD remastered style which Liberation did get in the PS4 era):

Altaïr

Shao Jun

Ezio (also, it’s just sooo Abstergo to go for ‘Fear and Loathing in Florence’, a reference to AC2, but use Ezio’s Brotherhood robes… soooo like Abstergo to use the Brotherhood!Ezio model)

Ratonhnhaké:ton

Aveline

Edward

BUT then you also get

Jacques De Molay

Rodrigo Borgia

Haytham Kenway

This means that if you want the Animus servers' data to be sentient then you can make at least these three Templars sentient as well if you wish to add more conflict to the entire thing.

Now, if we keep the supposed release date with the idea that they released it as Aveline → Edward → Altaïr → Shao Jun → Ezio → Ratonhnhaké:ton → HD releases (or maybe Helix is meant to be a collection like the real-world example of Ezio Trilogy or Rebels Collection)

Then what can happen is that Aveline is the first one to ‘wake up’ and she finds herself in the Caribbean, waking up on Edward’s ship. She tries to ask where she is and her appearance caused Edward to snap out of the ‘Animus control’ and gain sentient.

Then they decide to try and find out where they are via the Jackdaw, sailing her beyond the supposed walls of this place they find themselves in.

It’s during their travels and checking the strange ports (imagine lots of glitching + the entire vibe of Animus Island back in Revelations with each map turned into an island so this means that landlocked maps like Florence and Monteriggioni are now islands) that they see an Assassin taking down a target at the port before running away. They give chase and that’s how they meet Altaïr in Acre docks. Their appearance snapped Altaïr into gaining sentient but not just that…

He remembers up to his death, unlike Aveline who remembers up to her wedding night and Edward who remembers up to a night with Tessa.

No.

Altaïr knows more about where they are than he should.

And that’s when he sees it.

A figure walking the streets of Acre, walking further and further away from them, clad in white that did not belong in his time.

Altaïr gives chase and the two followed him because Altaïr knows more than them, that was for sure.

Altaïr still loses him but he feels like he knows that figure… knows it’s a man and he’s important.

He points at Edward as he says, “Important to both of us.”

But he also knows the man isn’t here in the island composed of Altaïr’s memories anymore.

And Aveline and Edward get a crash course of who they truly are (digital construct of the memories of long-dead Assassins) and where they are. The where is more confusing because Altaïr uses words like “the Animus must always be online to connect to the servers”, “this is the server that has all the data of all researched and analyzed memories”, etc but Edward just summarized it as “prison created by Templars, right?”

“In a way.”

So they board the Jackdaw to try and find an exit and to find this supposed man that was important to Altaïr and Edward.

Along the way, they docked in a port that ends with them waking up Shao Jun as she’s running away from those hunting her. She remembered that this was the memory where her mentor told her to find Ezio Auditore and Altaïr thinks he knows the name.

“But I know of a different name for him as well… Prophet. He was… He was the prophet of that man.”

Shao Jun joins them and she recognized Florence so they docked there and they find Ezio who was looking for feathers.

Ezio stares at Altaïr for a moment then he stares behind Altaïr, his eyes going wild. Altaïr immediately knew what he was looking at he quickly turned around.

This time, the figure was running the rooftops of Florence and the two gave chase, making the rest run after them.

During the chase, Ezio shouts, “Desmond!” and the figure stopped and turned around.

Before they could see his face, a flock of birds flew between them, and the man was gone.

They reached where they last saw the man and Ezio recognized it.

This… was where he and Federico wished that their lives would not change… the day before Ezio’s entire life turned upside down.

With Ezio becoming part of their crew, Ezio had the same information as Altaïr. He knows who he is, where they are, and what they truly are.

But his memories end after seeing Altaïr’s remains underneath Masyaf.

And… he also has his Apple.

Altaïr sees the Apple and realized…

He opened his pouch and, yes…

He has an Apple as well.

So Ezio joined them too and they continue to sail Jackdaw. (If you’d like Adéwalé to be sentient as well even if we have no confirmation that Abstergo profited from his memories as well, this would be a good time to do it)

This time, they get into a naval combat with an unknown ship and Edward is enjoying himself. The ship was beautiful and whoever was in command knew what they were doing.

So Edward decided to ram it and they’d all pile onto the other ship. The crew wouldn’t be able to win against 5 Assassins after all.

But the moment they rammed the ship, both of their ships began to glitch just as they hear a man with a British accent shout, “How is it you came to captain a ship, given the way you sail?”

When the glitching stopped, the Jackdaw looked like it had absorbed the other ship, creating a new ship that seemed to be a merged version of the two.

And there was an Assassin on board that they didn’t know. An Assassin holding an Apple and… he was looking to their right.

Where a lone island filled with buildings taller than any towers they had ever seen could be seen just before the horizon.

The Assassin pointed at the island and turned to face Edward as he said, “He’s waiting for us there… grandfather.”

(If you want Haytham to gain sentient, he’s in the captain’s quarters and he’d open the door a few seconds later with a splitting headache, telling Ratonhnhaké:ton his sailing is shit then stop when he sees Edward. Cue awkward family reunion)

Other Unorganized Notes:

I’m sorry I couldn’t include Jacob, Evie, and Henry, nonny. :(

This was focused on the idea that the Abstergo servers mainly have data of the published ‘games’ while the memories still being researched are in another more secured private server.

Although, considering that Arno and the Frye twins were more ‘modified’ by the Assassins, maybe they could come in as a virus before Edward and the others meet Ratonhnhaké:ton. I think it would be a change of pace if Arno and the Fryes (with Jayadeep) know more than the ‘old guards’. Hell, they could say “We hitched a ride with the virus Erudito sent to find Sample 17 because the public noticed he always makes an appearance as an NPC in all the games so the Assassins think that he’s somewhere here.” “He’s not 17. His name is Desmond.” “Right, didn’t mean to offend anybody.”

[vigilante-daredevil]

youre playing rogue? What do you think of shay? do you agree with him? me and my brother are arguing about shays character. asking out of genuine curiosity....

Heya!!

Sure am, Hun bun!!

Oh gosh okay, I’ve been trying to answer this question for a couple of days so apologies for the late reply anon!! I promise you I’m not ignoring you I just had to try and think of an answer!!

****Spoilers for AC Rogue I Think?? *******

Okay so Shay, I like him a lot as a character. I think he’s a very interesting and very human character, and I think that’s awesome. You never really know exactly what his train of thought is or what he’s going to do next and that’s really really great!I do and I don’t agree with him at the same time.I mean, he left the brotherhood for VERY good reasons, very noble reasons and I personally don’t think I’d have the guts to leave even after the Lisbon incident. Like that’s such a hard thing to do, but he did it because in his mind, by doing that he was doing what was right because the brotherhood at the time were doing some nasty shit, like seriously that’s such an admirable thing. Butttttttt what isn’t admirable is him going and killing all of his old assassin buddies and joining the Templars. Like he left, great job pal I’m proud of you for standing up for what you believe in to your friends, but killing them???? Idk I just think that might be a little far. Maybe he could have just left and tried to make things harder for the Assassins by disrupting stuff secretly?? It seems like Shay has complete faith in his moral compass because he can’t have faith in anyone else?? And that’s really really sad that he’s gotten that way, because that is such a lonely way to be. He prolly blames Lisbon on himself and is trying to shift the blame to his superiors and technically he’s right. The Assassins broke one tenant of the Creed that day, and I think Shay needed to be somewhere that knows exactly what their morals are and sticks to them, hence the Templars.The transition from Assassin Shay to Templar Shay is INSANE. While in the brotherhood he looks like your average Assassin, he’s got a lean build, he blends in with other people but Templar Shay is HUGE, Jesus Christ he’s like solid muscle, everything he wears is bold and stands out and it makes him look like he’s his own person, whereas in the brotherhood he looked like he was a piece of a much larger puzzle. I really don’t think that’s an accident.He reminds me a lot of Altaïr with respect to how focused and driven he is. Like he’ll do anything to achieve his goal and his goal is to rid the world of Assassins, he’s relentlessly driven, but at the same time he’s not cold?? He’s sarcastic, he can be a dick but he’s got an almost oddly placed softness in him??? And I’m not sure how many people noticed this but the voices that Shay hears??? Could that be as a result of mental illness or could it be as a result of the Lisbon incident?? He’s a really great character, a really flawed character and he’s really interesting to look into. A great contrast to the other protagonists that we’ve had in the Assassin’s Creed games because he’s very morally grey whereas the others, except maybe Edward,are definitely 100% good and for the brotherhood.

I’m v v sorry for rambling, Hun . 😅But the bottom line is I think he’s a really great character, I think we can learn a lot from Shay, I enjoy playing as Shay but I don’t think he’s right in everything that he did. He’s very flawed and that’s great because flaws are what make us human.

Idk if you’ll agree with this but this is personally what I think, so please don’t take it as fact. 😆Again, so sorry for taking ages to reply and then rambling!!

Have a lovely day!!

❤️💛💚💙💜