Beyond Assassin’s Creed

This post is an experiment and I am eager to see the responses.  There are three distinct facets to the Assassin’s Creed game series.  There is the gameplay.  People enjoy the game -- or not -- and then move on to the next game.  The goal of Ubisoft is to sell as many games as possible today to get their share of that market.  The second is the story or lore aspect.  This is fun and goes beyond just gameplay, but one day the story grows old and we move on to a new lore.  The third is the philosophical element.  What many do not know or understand is the the Assassin’s Creed pre-dates the game series and the philosophy transcends it.  In five, ten, or twenty years time when the gameplay and stories have been forgotten, or are just pleasant memories, the Assassin’s Creed as a concept and its philosophies will remain in some form.

In light of this, I wanted to share from time to time videos that I have discovered that illustrate the principles of the Assassin’s Creed from people who probably know nothing of the games.  They demonstrate that there is a belief system here in which its adherent can rightly say that they are in real life followers of the Creed.  No, they are not committing murder from the rooftops, but they are embracing the ideology of the Assassins through the Creed.

The first video is on the concept of sonder.  To say that Nothing is True is to recognise that each person has their own unique subjective reality.  Sonder drives home that fact by reminding us that from our singular perspective we are the star of out movie, then reminds us that we are an extra in someone else’s.  Everything is permitted not only speaks to our own freedom to act, but also the freedom of others to play the lead role that they choose to play.

The following text is from philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti in which he discusses the notion of social conditioning, the process by which from infancy we are molded to fit into society, first by parents, than peers, then the social institutions like education.  He posits that we must question this conditioning and discover for yourself.  In this context, Nothing is true, Everything is permitted is a challenge to question accepted truths and the imposed behaviours derived from these false truths.

Finally there is Nietzsche.  He referred to the motto of the Assassins in his book The Genealogy of Morals, this was over a century before it came to be known as “the Assassin’s Creed”.  In the text he implies that he contemplated the Creed and the more that I understand of his philosophy, the more I see either the influence of the Creed on his philosophy, or maybe it simply confirmed the ideas he already had.  Watch this video with the Creed in mind -- Nothing is true, Everything is permitted.

Serving the Enlightenment

“We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins”

When I first encountered the above phrase in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, during the Assassin initiation ceremony, I took it at face value.  “We work in secret to do good.”  Then I noticed throughout the game the number of people who perceived the Assassins as the bad guys.  After all, you the player know that you are killing bad guys, but to the NPC townsfolk, these are the pillars of society.  At one point Ezio says to the jeering crowd something like, “you speak of things you know nothing about”.   This got me thinking that the Assassins may serve the light, but they are perceived as being dark.  Recently, I began to see this phrase in a new way.  I remembered that light can mean both goodness and enlightenment.  What if serving the light is the serve enlightenment?  What if it’s about serving The Enlightment?

WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?

Five hundred years ago, Western Civilization was pretty rubbish.  Compared with the Chinese and Islam, Europeans were definitely in last place.  Then something changed.  Economic historian Professor Niall Ferguson set-out to discover how and why the West came to dominate the world in such a short span of time.  He concluded that a combination of six key factors tipped the scales for the West: competition, science, property rights, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic.  All but one of these were born of the Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment, the exception being competition which was endemic to a continent born of warring tribes.

The Scientific Revolution, from roughly 1543 to 1687, established in the common mind that the universe operated according to fixed principles rather than the whims of the gods.  Upon this foundation was built The Enlightenment which sought to apply reason and the scientific method to society and politics.  The result were concepts like human rights, the freedom to think, act, and believe as we choose, and the right to own property.  The ultimate expression of Enlightenment values is the United States Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.

Today, we take these concepts for granted, however when we look at the big picture of the human experience across the globe for the past 50,000 years we find only an insignificant percentage of the human who have ever existed could even conceive of these notions.  Nonetheless, we want to see these values expressed in the historical fiction we produce.   The Assassin’s Creed series is no exception.  Here we have a secret society fighting to promote Enlightenment values millennia before the everyday person could accept them as being normal.  However, there is an ancient source for these particular values and it is possible to draw a straight line from it to the fictional Assassins.

MAN VS SOCIETY

Humans are small group animals.  This is an inescapable fact of nature and far too often ignored.  According to the Monkeysphere theory, our brains are only capable of recognising from 100-150 people as being unique people.  Everyone else is just “them”, NPCs, moving scenery who we de-humanise with labels and stereotypes.  If someone says that they are concerned about the poor, they are really saying that they are concerned about the poor as a general concept and may not really know any actual impoverished people as unique individuals.  This is not to criticise.  It’s just important to understand how things are.

This basic tribal mentality hardwired into our brains is further reinforced by 50,000 year of tribalism.  Even today, our caveman brains seek to fit in, be part of the crowd, identify with our idea of us as a people, race, or nation.  This is manifested in the current trend of identity politics, not to mention the multi-billion dollar industries built around the basic impulse to be fashionable among our peers in our tastes in entertainment and appearance.

The tribe can be a good place to be.  It provides security, safety, identity, purpose, and emotional support.  The ideal tribe is like the ideal family where the wise and caring father takes care of everyone.  For millennia, this ideal image has been translated from father, to chief, to king, to president.  We want a government of wise and caring leaders who will take care of us, the people.

Being part of a tribe requires each individual to put their selfish desires aside and to put the needs of the tribe first.  You need to join the group if you want the benefits.  As a result, tribal societies have no concept of individual identity to the same high degree that we in the modern West possess.  Considering this in the context of the 50,000-year history of human consciousness, our modern notions are a blip on the radar – a freakish abnormality.

The Templars in Assassin’s Creed recognise this fact.  They understand that humankind is hardwired to submit to the will of the tribe, to society, and that the ideal situation is for wise leaders to take control of society and shepherd it into a better world. The Templars see themselves as the wise leaders who will lead a populace yearning to be led. But it’s not that simple.  Humans are small group animals, but every person is possessed of a unique consciousness.  We are all individuals.  This is where the Assassins come into the story.

The Assassins ascribe the ideas of the Enlightenment.  That each person is an individual with his own mind with which to think and to make the life choices that he thinks will benefit himself.  With this choice comes the responsibility of consequence, be the results beneficial or negative.  “Nothing is true” reminds us to be critical thinkers and to challenge the accepted “truths” enforced by the tribal authorities of state, religion, and society.  “Everything is permitted” is both a liberation and a warning.  We are free to act, but our actions, and the actions of others, may or may not lead to a positive outcome – life has no safety rails.

Human are small groups animals with individual consciousness.  At one extreme, the individual receives all the benefits of being in the tribe, but at the cost of freedom.  At the other extreme, the individual is free, but alone and responsible.  The struggle is to maintain the balance of the two, but this is not possible when the degree of social participation ceases to be voluntary but is forced upon us.  The ideal society for the Assassins is one where the power of tribal authorities is held in check to allow people to have that balance.

FINDING THE SOURCE

In the real world, the Assassins were a Muslim sect operating in Iran and Syria during the Crusades.  The leap of faith from the games comes from stories where Hassan i Sabbah, the founder and leader of the order, would command followers to leap to their deaths to demonstrate their unquestioned obedience.  That sounds nothing like the anti-authoritarian Assassins from the game the series.  The fictional Assassins have a more fanciful origin story dating back to the dawn of time and the actual historical Assassins were re-interpreted to fit this fictional narrative.  It is true that the Assassin’s Creed is historically attributed to Hassan i Sabbah, but it does not seem consistent with the beliefs of a devout Muslim.  So what is the origin of the Creed, or at least the philosophy behind it?

In Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, the Assassin Mary Read asserts

Cultures and religions and languages keep folks divided, but there's something in the Assassins Creed that crosses all boundaries.  A fondness for life and liberty.                          

This reflects the Enlightenment idea that the values of the Enlightenment are based on rational principles and are therefore universal.  As Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”.  Any rational being can discover these ideas if they choose.  Yet, in the course of human history they are rare finds with most folk falling back on the default tribal model.  However, there is a historic precedent dating back 3500 years which provides an interesting alternative theory for the origins of the Assassin’s enlightenment ideology.

This story begins with a man named Zarathustra.  No one really knows when Zarathustra lived, but the best guess in around 1000 BC, give or take a few centuries.  This is roughly the same period given for the Biblical kings, Saul, David, and Solomon.  No one really knows where he was from either.  Modern scholars tentatively place him in eastern Iran.  What is important is the influence he had on human history.

Zarathustra is more commonly known by the Greek version of his name Zoroaster and the religion he founded, Zoroastrianism.   To put the religion into context, it is basically the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the first monotheistic religion.  Concepts like the war between good and evil, the existence of angels, demons, and Satan himself, a day of judgement, and heaven and hell all come from Zoroastrianism.

Zarathustra taught that human consciousness was a unique gift from the one god, Ahura Mazda, the “wise lord”.  With this gift comes the individual responsibility to choose between good or evil.  This consciousness was bestowed upon all humans, regardless of race or gender.  In a time when women were property and marriage was a financial arrangement, Zoroastrians saw women as equals to men with equal responsibility to choose good. The Zoroastrian Creed is “Good thoughts, Good words, and Good deeds” implying that we must constantly be exercising our free will to choose good. 

Professor Kaikhosrov D. Irani, a retired Professor Emeritus of Philosophy from City College of New York, explains it like this:

"In the Zoroastrian doctrine, there are no specific prescriptions which state, "do this" or "don't do that." The individual is left to think it through.  The responsibility for what should be done rests with each individual.  The acceptance of this responsibility becomes a way of life.  The world is a moral reality and your way of life is good thoughts, good words, and good deeds."

This passage reminded me of Mary Read’s interpretation of the Creed in Black Flag, “it does not command us to act or submit - only to be wise.”

It is incredibly difficult for the modern mind to comprehend how revolutionary Zarathustra’s teachings were in 1000 BC.  It is like finding an iPhone buried under the pyramids.  Up until this point you were the tribe.  There was no I.  Now here comes a religion that places free will in the centre of its belief system.

Zoroastrianism would go on to become the dominate religion in Persia for the next 1700 years until the conquering armies of Islam gave their usual convert or die option.  Well, there was a third option.  Those refusing to convert could pay a special tax and be allowed to live without converting to Islam.  Over time the number of Zoroastrians dwindled and today only an estimated 200,000 remain.  Possibly the most famous modern Zoroastrian was Freddy Mercury, the lead singer of the band Queen.  For the Christians, the Persian word for a follower of Zarathustra was Magi.  The three wise men from the East who brought gifts to the baby Jesus were Zoroastrians, so thank Zarathustra for your Christmas presents.  And if you drive a Mazda, your car was named after Ahura Mazda.

Possibly the most important historical Zoroastrian was the Persian king Cyrus the Great (576 – 530 BC).  Cyrus has always been held in high regard throughout history.  In the Bible, he was the Persian king who allowed the captive Jews to return to Palestine and paid to have their temple rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity.  His cupbearer had been the Jewish scribe Ezra, who many scholars believe to have been the chief editor of what we have today as the Old Testament of the Bible.  The prophet Isaiah referred to Cyrus as “the anointed one”, or as the phrase is more commonly known, the messiah. 

The Greek historian Xenophon is most famous for his book, Cyropaedia, a mixture of fact and political theory centred around the life of Cyrus and a key resource for the American Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson who owned many copies in several languages.

Today, Cyrus is most regarded for the Cyrus Cylinder.   After Cyrus conquered the Babylonian Empire he issued a decree to his newly conquered subjects in which he guarantees their right to worship as they please.  Among human right advocates, this is widely viewed as being the first great human rights documents.

Professor Irani refers to this period of Persian history as, “The First Enlightenment” with Zoroastrian philosophy as the centrepiece.  Both this First Enlightenment and The Enlightenment as we know it were based on the same principles.  As beings of individual consciousness we must be free to exercise and cultivate that consciousness regardless of social authorities.  This is the battle line between the Assassins and Templars, the individual and the tribe, Man and Society, and Classical Liberalism and Authoritarianism.

The role of Zoroastrianism in the ancient world is comparable to that of Christianity in 19th century Britain or 20th century United States as the primary religion of the greatest power of the day. With the coming of Islam, we see the enlightenment-oriented culture that the Zoroastrians had cultivated in Persia continue under the new religion to create the so-called Golden Age of Islam in science and learning. This would eventually spread through the Moors in Spain and Venetian traders returning from Istanbul to spark the Renaissance in Europe, followed by the Scientific Revolution, and then The Enlightenment.  These are the dots connecting the first and second Enlightenment.

However, there is a fundamental difference.  Although both Enlightenments reached the same destination, they did so from different routes.  For the Zoroastrians, the path was a religious one using reason, yes, but within the context of the supernatural.  This first form of enlightenment worked, but not as efficiently as version 2.0 which arrived through reason with any irrational justification. 

So there is an actual ancient precedent for the Enlightenment values expressed by the Assassins of the game.  Making the connection requires a bit of conjecture, as the game series never mentions Zarathustra, but there are some interesting parallels.  Whether by accident or design much of the symbolism of Assassin’s Creed reflects this First Enlightenment.  The following is not intended to be anything more than observations of interesting parallels between Zoroastrianism and the fictional Assassins found in the Ubisoft game series.

The Persian Connection

Zoroastrianism was founded in Persia where it was practiced as the primary religion for over a millennium until the Islamic conquest of Iran, but even then it took centuries for the full Islamification of Iran.  In 1056, four hundred years after the Muslim invasion, Hassan-i Sabbah was born in the scholarly Persian city of Qom.  He would go on to inhabit the mountain fortress of Alamut in Iran as the founder of the historic Assassins.

Meanwhile back in the 21^st Century, the games company Ubisoft was running their successful game series, The Prince of Persia.  They had intended to feature the Assassins in a sequel to Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time, however during development the Assassins took on a life of their own and it was decided to launch a new game completely separate from the Prince of Persia series.

The original Assassin’s Creed game was inspired by the book, Alamut by Vladimir Bartol.  He was a self-proclaimed Existentialist and may have been inspired by Friederich Nietzsche who made mention of the Assassin’s Creed in his book, On the Genealogy of Morals, and was himself a student of Persian history and culture.  Among Nietzsche’s most important works is Thus Spoke Zarathustra in which he creates a second Zarathustra who brings atheism where the real Zarathustra brought monotheism.

Within the Assassin’s Creed Universe, there once existed a highly advanced species called the Isu who genetically designed humans to serve as ignorant slaves.  Due to interbreeding with the Isu, some humans were born with individual consciousness.  These special humans led a revolt against their creators and were the first Assassins.  The centre of the conflict was the city of Eden, the source of our Garden of Eden myth.  In the garden, humanity achieves individual consciousness by rebelling against God by eating the forbidden fruit.  There are of course those who believe the Eden story was real, and one of the prime contenders for the location of Eden is an area outside the city of Tabriz in Iran. 

I find it interesting that ideologically through Zoroastrianism, historically through Hassan i Sabbah, and fictionally through the game development, it’s literary inspiration, and in the story itself, we can trace the Assassin’s origin to Persia.

Why White?

The original model designs for the Assassins depicted them wearing all white and concealing themselves with a hood.  Why white?  It’s not the best colour choice for sneaking about in dark or concealing blood spatter.  This white design remained with various characters in the series until Arno Dorian in AC Unity in 1789 and the Frye twins also abandoned the white garb in 1868.  This change may have more to do with decisions at Ubisoft since characters created earlier but inhabiting a later period in history, such as Nikolai Orelov in 1918, are still wearing white.

Many religions feature white clothes for special occasions or rituals, but not necessarily as standard dress.  Two religions stand-out.  The religious leaders of the Zoroastrians wear all white and in Islam men are encouraged to wear white regularly as their principle colour choice.  In both instances, white is symbolic of purity.

In the game series, the use of white may be intended to harken back to the historical Islamic inspiration for the game Assassins.  However, the first Assassins Creed game depicts the Assassins as being apart from the Islamic sects of the time which is contrary to the true history.  One might argue that the decision was to dress the Assassins so that they might disappear in a crowd of Muslims clothed in white, but why continue the convention into the 20^th century?  Perhaps the designers felt that they had established a theme in the first game and wanted to continue.  Who knows?  Personally, I like the Zoroastrian theory.  Here’s why.

The Fire of Enlightenment

Back in September 2013, I received a comment on one of my posts stating that the Assassin’s Creed symbol is derived from an earthen lamp called a diya.  I found it interesting and asked for evidence but received no reply.  I looked into it a bit deeper.  The diya is used in the festival of Diwali, the most important festival in the Hindu calendar.  I discovered that these earthen lamps are also used in the practice of Zoroastrianism, particularly among the Parsis of India.

Fire and light play a very important role in the practice of Zoroastrianism to such a degree that those ignorant of the religion assume them to be fire worshipers.  Without going into too much detail, suffice to say that the fire represents the force of creation, science, and wisdom.  In short, it means enlightenment.  Their places of worship are referred to as fire temples with prayers, hymns, and meditations being directed towards the flame.  The same is done in home worship through the use of oil lamps such as the diya.

The commenter directed me to a link illustrating the diya drawn from the front where a protruding lip is evident.  The oil fills the basin and a large wick rests on the lip.  Whether this theory is true or not, the resemblance is uncanny as illustrated below and seems to explain the separated lower portion of the symbol as the rim and lip of the lamp.

As I have written before, the word creed means both a belief and the symbolic representation of the belief.  So when asked, “what does that symbol you wear mean?” I can answer that it means “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”  However, more and more I am content to say that it means enlightenment, particularly the Enlightenment values of wisdom and freedom demonstrated by the Assassins.

The Autodidact

It has been said that the only people who know the meaning of the word autodidact are autodidacts.  The word simply means self-taught and is used to describe people who became experts in a subject or field through their own pursuit of knowledge rather than through a formal education system.  As Mark Twain famously said “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

This relates to the first half of the Creed as an invitation to critical thinking.  Nothing is true, so don’t believe everything you are told.  Think and discover for yourself.  This principle is behind calling the leaders of the Assassins “mentor”.  The role of the mentor is to aid in discovery and not to impose answers.  Ultimately, it is the responsibility of each individual to choose wisdom.  The Zoroastrians also employ the concept of “the mentor”.  Among the many titles given to Zarathustra, one is interpreted as “thought provoker” or mentor.  This has carried on into the modern day where the various degrees of religious leaders among the Zoroastrians act more as mentors rather than authoritarian priests or ministers.

Every person is a potential autodidact by virtue of having a mind.  Whether they choose to be one or merely accept the “truths” that they are given is also their choice.  The role of the mentor is to provoke thinking, to guide but not control the process, to inspire but not to impose.

The Paradox of Tolerance

The Assassins differ from the Zoroastrians in their chosen battlefield against the forces of evil.  Zarathustra taught that the two opposing forces of Asha (truth, order, justice) and Druj (falsehood, deceit) exist within each person and each person has a responsibility to choose truth over lies. In a larger sense, it is the choice between wisdom and enlightenment over ignorance and darkness.  For the Zoroastrians, there is no external evil to be fought but an internal conflict that all people must wage on a personal level.  This is very different from those religions that seek to fight and punish others whom they perceive as being evil. 

An Assassin would not deny this internal field of battle, but they go further by taking a proactive approach against those conditions that promote or encourage ignorance, such as slavery and bigotry. Their justification is expressed in a concept laid out by the philosopher Karl Popper called the Paradox of Tolerance.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." 

Many of the Templars are portrayed negatively in the game series, but there are a few good ones through whom we are shown the ideal Templar society.  Their ultimate goal is a collectivist system were wise paternal rulers control the thoughts and actions of the people so that each person can live peaceful and prosperous lives in blissful ignorance.  The Assassins see this as reducing people to the role of slaves or cattle.  Goodness must be chosen freely and not imposed on people with laws backed by force.

Like all do-gooders throughout history, the Templars have a plan for society and any opposition to that plan will not be tolerated.  For the Assassin’s, the only sin is a lack of tolerance for the rights of others to think and act as they choose.  So they will oppose any attempt to infringe on these rights regardless of the alleged morality of “the plan”.  They will not tolerate intolerance. 

In this context, intolerance is a denial of the rights of others to think and act as they please provided they cause no real and direct intentional harm.  The word tolerance means to endure something.  I am disgusted by the guy picking his nose in public, but I endure it because it’s a free country.  I am deeply offended by a comment on the internet, I may challenge him using reason, but I will fight for his right to be a dick.  That’s tolerance.

While both the Assassins and the Zoroastrians recognise the sanctity of individual consciousness and respect it, the Assassins take a proactive stance to actively protect and defend the conditions that allow for the expression of that consciousness against those who seek to manipulate and control it.

FAN FICTION

According to the game series, the Assassins have existed for millennia, since the time of the precursor city of Eden and the historical Assassins of Hassan i Sabbah were just one faction of the larger Assassin Order.  I would propose an addition which is basically just a bit of fan fiction.

I would suggest that the precursor city of Eden is in fact in Iran as some people claim, that Zarathustra was of a remnant from that city, and that the Assassins emerged as a break-away sect of Zoroastrians who sought to take a more proactive approach by protecting the Enlightenment values and using violent means if necessary.  Over time they dropped the religious aspects and became a wholly secular philosophical organisation, but retained some of the religious trappings.  It’s just a theory and a bit of fun.  I would love for Ubisoft to use this, but judging from the forthcoming Empire story, it looks as if they will take an Egyptian rather than a Persian route for an origin story.

In a sense, this entire article can be called a piece of fan non-fiction.  I was inspired to write it because it seems as though the Enlightenment values that we take for granted are gradually disappearing in a world where people give and take offense so easily with no respect for the minds of others; where people trust their feelings over reason and call anyone who disagrees with them stupid; where we seem to be allowing ourselves to be manipulated by elites burying us in propaganda that gets repeated by our friends as truth.  In the face of all this, I could think of only one response:

Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember,
Nothing is True.
Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember,
Everything is Permitted.
We work in the dark to serve the light.
We are Assassins. 

The Stoic Assassin

This is the third and final instalment of a series looking at the three key philosophies in Assassin’s Creed.  You can read part one on Existentialism and part two on the Romantic at the links.

When you look over the philosophical landscape you will notice certain key features occupying a particular space.  I call these Philosophical Cohorts.  These are distinct philosophical ideas that have more commonality than differences and can actual work together without too much contradiction.  If there is contradiction, it can prove beneficial as some of the philosophical extremes temper each other.

In the space occupied by Assassin’s Creed we find philosophies like Existentialism, the Romantic, Stoicism, political libertarianism, and Objectivism to name a few.  The spotlight here shines on Stoicism.

Stoicism is unique among philosophies in that it is one of the few used in everyday language to describe a particular attitude or personality type.   Altair and Connor Kenway are both described as stoic by critics and fans.  This is due to the emphasis Stoicism places on cultivating a particular attitude.

It is this focus on proactive character shaping and building that has brought about resurgent interest in Stoicism in recent years as people use it as a sort of self-help path, which it is.  If you check for meet-up groups on-line, it is far easier to find Stoic groups than Existentialists ones.  It was when I when looking for an Existentialist group, and finding none, that I made-up a joke. “I was going to form an Existentialist club, but then I thought, ‘What’s the point?’”

So why is Stoicism making a comeback?  It’s been said that the study of philosophy began when someone asked a wise man, “What must I do to be happy?”  The five branches of philosophy are arguably built around this premise, making philosophy self-help, however this objective was lost along the way.  For example, happiness depends on context, so to establish this we have Metaphysics answering the question, “What is reality (context)?”, but so many philosophers get side tracked on this point and never get back to the happiness part.   Existentialism tends to do this.  Stoicism on the other hand retains the focus on happiness and this gives the philosophy something the people want.  Stoicism not only describes reality it also proscribes beneficial thoughts, attitudes, and actions. 

I believe that the Creed perfectly summarizes Existentialism.  Nothing is True; Everything is Permitted.  Likewise, the Romantic can be summarized by its values of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love.  For Stoicism, the Serenity Prayer serves as a basic summary:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Stoicism does not go as far as Existentialism in saying that “Nothing is True”, but it does tell us not to concern ourselves with things over which we have no control, such as things that are not true.  Take the past for example.  The past is an imagined construct.  The only reality of it lies in what it leaves behind.  These are the affects and effects of the past.  Your past experiences have affected your psyche making you who you are now and the effects of the past are the consequences present in your immediate now. 

Suppose you were in a fire as a child and now you fear fire.  That event is in the past.  It’s not real, however the psychological affect remains and that is what you have to deal with regarding fire today.  I am writing this on my computer.  The computer exists in the now as a consequence of me purchasing it.  Should something happen to my computer and it’s gone, then for all intents and purposes it no longer exists in my reality. Beyond affect and effect, the past is not real.  It’s just an idea.  So don’t worry yourself over it.  Stoicism encourages not wasting emotional energy on things that do not exist for us or that you cannot control.  The same hold true of the future.

There is a scene in AC Liberation where Aveline has just figured-out that her step-mother is her mysterious nemesis known only as "the company man".  This causes a bit of an existential crisis for her.  Aveline knows what she must do as an Assassin but has her doubts.  She turns to her fellow Assassin Connor Kenway for help. She asks, “Connor, are you always certain in the means and ways of the brotherhood?” He replies in his usual stoic brevity, "I trust my own hands".

What the hell, Connor? Aveline’s reality just came crashing down and she’s faced with a difficult decision and the best you can come-up with is some cryptic response.  Allow me the conceit of rewriting Connor’s reply.

Aveline, you say that you are having doubts about how we Assassins do things, and it’s good to question, but I don’t think that is the real issue here.  You are worrying about the future, about consequences that may or may not occur.  The future you imagine is not real and is beyond your control. What you can control is what is at hand right now and you can only trust yourself to do what you can with the information you have in the moment.

Aveline responds saying "Of course" as if Connor is simply reminded her of something already covered in her philosophy class at Assassin school.  We see this kind of behaviour quite a bit from the Assassins – this attitude of acceptance.

One of my favourite lines in AC Black Flag is something Edward Kenway says to Thatch. “I'm not of the same mind, mate. But I won't begrudge you the state of yours.”  The acceptance that other people should not be expected to think as we do.  When you read through internet comments it is as though people are in a constant state of outrage because others have a different point of view or have one that they find offensive.  Stoicism teaches that we must expect that people will be people.

One Stoic technique is to tell yourself at the start of the day that you will meet stupid, rude, annoying, and cruel people throughout your day.  By preparing yourself in advance you have no reason to be shocked when you do meet one.  It is about managing your expectations.  If you believe that you are destined to meet your soul mate and will live in perpetual bliss for the rest of your life, then chances are that life will disappoint.  Instead cultivate realistic expectations and accept life as it is and not as you wish it was.

One of the big issues that Stoicism has to contend with in regards to public perception is the idea of the stoic personality as someone cold, emotionless, and tacit. The prime Assassins for this are Altair and Connor.  The philosophy behind this is the recognition that we cannot control the actions of others, but we can control how we choose to respond.

Ten years ago my “soul mate” left me.  I was emotionally and psychologically devastated.  My life went from being a social man about town before the relationship to being a virtual hermit ever since.  It would be easy for me to scream, “She ruined my life!”, but that would be wrong.  Leaving me was her right as a human being.  What caused this damage was not her leaving but the way I chose to respond to it.  I spent months replaying events in my mind feeling constant pain and loss that took nearly a year to ease.  My brooding only aggravated the problem, prolonged the grieving process, and caused the damage.  I did this to myself.

Stoicism teaches that we are responsible for our own emotional responses and works on the premise that no one can make us feel something that we do not choose to feel.  In an age when emotions are encouraged and allowed to run wild and undisciplined, this choice may not seem apparent.  However, we know from examples among our fellow humans that emotional self-control is not only possible but also common in various cultures and zeitgeists.  The ancient Greek Stoics called the state resulting from emotional self-discipline apatheia, from which we get the modern word apathy, but the proper translation of apatheia is tranquillity.  This pursuit of tranquillity is just one of many similarities between Stoicism and Buddhism. 

It is the emphasis on cultivating emotional self-control that has led to apparently emotionless people to be called stoic.  The truth is we can also choose to be happy and that is the point that is missed by non-Stoics.  It is not about feeling nothing.  It is about taking responsibility for our feelings.

Another important Stoic concept is un-attachment and this figures into an interpretation of the Creed.  To recognise that Nothing is True is to see the impermanence of things.  Mary Read alludes to this in Black Flag when she describes the Creed as, “the world’s only certainty” possibly in reference to the expression, “the only constant is change”.  Things, people, and situations do not last.  They may be true today and right now, but they are not True in the sense of constancy.

A key Stoic philosopher was the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.   Every now and then he would sleep on the floor to remind himself that his comforts are impermanent. This type of self-denial serves to help us to not take our comforts for granted but also to remind us that we can exist without these comforts and conveniences.  One of the problems of wealth is that it protects the rich from the real world.  The trivial is given too much value and the demands of reality like food, shelter, and clothing are taken for granted as simply always existing.   In short, it’s what we call First World Problems.  Stoic practices show us that we can survive happily without our mobile phones, internet, or any number of luxuries that we have come to see as necessities.  Another common technique among Stoics when faced with challenges is to ask, "What's the worst that can happen and can I live with that?"

The second part of the Creed also has Stoic implications.  When we recognise that everything is permitted, remember that this applies to others as much as it does ourselves.  We cannot control or necessarily predict the actions of others because everything is permitted.  You must then decide how you choose to respond to how others use their freedom.

THE THREE PHILOSOSOPHIES OF ASSASSIN’S CREED

Throughout the Assassin’s Creed series there are constant references to a philosophical core belief system that is never revealed in full.  After all, this is a video game series and not some philosophical treaties.  What we do have is the Creed.

As mentioned in a previous essay, the phrase “Nothing is True, Everything is permitted” is most likely of ancient origin, at least Friedrich Nietzsche seem to think so in 1887.  It had been erroneously attributed to the Medieval Assassins of Iran and Syria, but it was not until the game series that it became known as The Assassin’s Creed.   I believe that within this simple phrase we have allusions to Existentialism, the Romantic, and to Stoicism and that all three of these philosophies can be found expressed in the game series. 

The Assassins of the game are wholly fictional works created by a committee of writers overseen by corporate interests.  However, the three philosophies behind the Creed are very real and accessible.  We may not know the philosophical core beliefs of the fictional Assassins, but chances are that a follower of a synthesis of these three philosophies would fit right in within the Assassin Order.

Since Assassin’s Creed is a modern work of fiction, it’s good to provide examples of the Assassin’s principles outside of the game context.  With this is mind, I have posted below a video of Dennis Hopper reciting the poem If by Rudyard Kipling.  Within its verses you will find this synthesized philosophy of Existentialism, the Romantic, and Stoicism that I believe represents the Assassin Philosophy.

The Romantic Assassin

This article is a follow-up to a previous piece revealing the Existentialism in Assassins Creed and there will be a third to follow this one.  You can read the first article here.

When I look at the philosophy of Assassins Creed I do not see one but three definite philosophical strands woven together.  These are explicit Existentialism, implicit Romanticism, and demonstrative Stoicism.  The Existentialism is explicit in that it’s right out there with the Creed.  The Romantic is implicit in that it is built into the structure of the stories themselves.  Finally, the Stoic elements are demonstrated primarily through the characters.

The Romantic is the most difficult of the three philosophies to approach.  Not because the subject matter is complex.  The issue is the diverse concept of the Romantic itself.  Assassin’s Creed is a Historical Romance, but we do not use that terminology anymore because the term Romance has come to be associated with the bodice-ripper novels found in the Romance section of the bookstore.  So instead we call it action/adventure.  There are actually just over fifty uses of the word Romantic which means that anyone discussing the Romantic has to define their terms to avoid confusion.

Jacques Barzun, possibly the foremost academic authority on the Romantic, identified four cornerstone themes in narrative Romances:  the hero’s quest/journey, unique settings, a love interest, and the supernatural.  The noble knight ventures forth across fields and mountains on a quest to save his beloved princess from a fierce dragon.  Taking inspiration from the film Moulin Rouge!, these four cornerstones can be distilled into the values of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love.

FINDING TRUTH IN THE SUPERNATURAL

Encountering the supernatural evokes any number of emotions from awe to disbelief.  The point is that the supernatural forces us to question reality.  Many of the early Gothic Romances were mysteries where characters sought to discover the truth behind apparently supernatural events through the use of logic and reason to find a natural explanation. In some stories, the victims of the supernatural go mad, in other words, they lose their rational faculties.  In modern Romantic stories, such as Science-Fiction, the extraordinary is used to challenge the character’s beliefs about the nature of reality and sometimes alter their preconceived beliefs

At first glance it may seem contradictory to acknowledge that Nothing is True and yet pursue Truth as a value.  To reconcile this we must remind ourselves that the Creed is not to be taken literally.  It is not a denial of Truth rather it is an admonition to independent critical thinking, an important tool in discovering Truth.  I see it like the Scientific Attitude that approaches life thinking oneself to be wrong until proven right.   This is the opposite of mainstream thinking where people assume themselves to be right until proven wrong.

The pursuit of Truth takes three forms in Assassin’s Creed.  The most obvious is discovering and uncovering the latest Piece of Eden which serves as the supernatural components in the stories. 

Another recurring theme is betrayal where the character believed a person to be one way but later discovered this to not be true.  Al Mualim’s plot is uncovered; Lucy Stillman, Daniel Cross, and Shay McCormack all become Templars; Juno manipulates Connor; Aveline’s step-mother proves to be the “Company Man”; Hornigold turns his back on the Pirate Republic; the Assassin Pierre Bellec murders the leader of the Paris Assassins.  The list is extensive.  The idea here is that people are not who they appear and the Truth must be uncovered.

The third is the over-arching conspiracy.  The ACU is a world where conspiracy theories are for the most part true and secret societies manipulate events behind the scenes. The thing about conspiracies is that they are hidden.   They are a truth to be uncovered and have secrets to be revealed.

In AC Syndicate there are a series of side missions harkening back to Victorian ghost stories.  Charles Dickens asks Jacob and Evie if they believe in ghosts.  Jacob answers no in a rather dismissive tone.  Who can blame him?  Afterall, nothing is true.  Evie on the other hand gives an emphatic and excited yes.  Of all the Assassins in the series, Evie is probably the most thrilled by the supernatural as seen by her intense interest in the Pieces of Eden beyond merely obtaining a McGuffin.  The Romantic encourages us to pursue possibilities with the same childlike enthusiasm we see in Evie’s response to Dickens. 

THE BEAUTIFUL ASSASSIN

Years ago there was a lecture at Glasgow University where someone argued that the Romantics were early environmentalists.  I disagree.  The often taught focus of the Romantics on Nature misses the point.  The real focus is not on Nature itself but on the beautiful and the sublime.  The object of attention just happens to be Nature.  This can be expanded to other objects such as architecture, design, and even fashion.  This carries with it the notion that life should aspire to imitate art and we should strive to make life beautiful.

The Romantic acknowledges two forms of beauty, the Beautiful and the Sublime.  Beauty is serene, calm, symmetrical, and ordered.  The sublime is big, powerful, and overwhelming like a rugged cliff set against a stormy sky.  When faced with the sublime we feel small against the grandeur and feel both terrified and yet inspired.

Beauty may not be the first word one uses to describe Assassin’s Creed, and yet it is not uncommon for a game to be described as beautiful.   Rather than being a value explicitly expressed in the game it is inherent in the game design itself as artists craft an amazing world from pixels extolling the beautiful and the sublime in both natural scenery and manufactured architecture. There was a scene in AC Unity where I stepped onto balcony of Arno’s home literally admiring the view when to my surprise an achievement popped-up for admiring the view.             

The set designers are not the only ones concerned with beauty.  In life we tend to view people with an over-interest in fashion as being shallow, vain, and foolish, however we watch our Romantic heroes run about in clothes designed specifically for them by fashion designers as if the hero just put that ensemble together themselves.

When we think about the Assassin’s appearance we are struck emotionally on some level.  This is a response to beauty.  No, we may not describe them as beautiful.  We might use words like striking, inspiring, or the ubiquitous cool, but these all fit into the Romantic concept of Beauty. Sartorially speaking, the Assassin’s do not hide in plain sight.  The hero dresses in a manner that stands-out from the crowds as something extraordinary.  We find this behaviour in many heroic/warrior cultures.  For example among the American Indians the warriors would adorn themselves to stand out and be noticed.  This practice was adopted by the likes of Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok who both dressed flamboyantly.

In philosophy, this takes us back to the philosophy of Dandyism particularly as expressed by Charles Baudelaire.  Most people think of the dandies as being simply over-interested in appearance, but that was not true.  At its core dandyism is the belief that those not born into wealth, privilege, and title can aspire through hard work to out-do the nobles of their time in character, manners, and dress. Baudelaire called dandyism “the last gasp of heroism in decadent ages”.  He believed that democracy promoted the lowest common denominator and that through dandyism one might rise above the mediocrity promoted by society. This was expressed through fashion, but it was really about manner and attitude.

This brings us to another aspect of the beauty, the character of an individual.  A beautiful person with a bad character is described as vain, a word meaning useless.  Physical and sartorial beauty is not enough.  Inner qualities like grace and charm are also necessary.  There is also the concept of being dashing.  These are all featured in the Assassins to varying degrees.  Charm is to show courtesy, respect and interest in others while being dashing is to demonstrate the virtue of courage.  I doubt that part of the Assassin education is charm school and no character in the game promotes these qualities, and yet nearly all of the Assassins possess them.

FREEDOM AND THE OUTLAW HERO

Consider this scene from the film Up in the Air:

Ryan Bingham: You know why kids love athletes?
Bob: Because they screw lingerie models.
Ryan Bingham: No, that's why we love athletes. Kids love them because they follow their dreams.

Replace that word athlete with the word hero and you have an idea of why we love heroes.  It isn’t so much that heroes follow their dreams as they have the freedom and power to do so.  Really it’s this freedom and power that is valued when we engage in hero worship and emulation.

Freedom is the right to act and power is the means to act.  The freedom to act is nothing without the power to act.  You are free to buy that expensive car, but without the means to buy the car you cannot take advantage of that freedom.

Power is a necessary requirement, but people tend to forget that there are various forms of power:

1. Internal Power: Character qualities, like ambition, charm, intelligence, or the will to act.

2. Physical power: These include things like strength, beauty, dexterity, and physical skill.

3.  Material power: This is basically money and those things money can buy. 

4.  Social Power:  The ability to harness the powers of others.

5.  Legislative Power: This is power granted by government.

6.  Titular Power: This is power inherent in a position, like being President of the United States.

7.  Time:  This may not seem like a form of power until you run out of it.

With this is mind, consider that to increase knowledge, learn a skill, make a new friend, or even for a woman to put on make-up is to cultivate one’s power.  The pursuit of power is not only, as most people believe, to increase political power for the purpose of ruling over others.  Power is merely an asset allowing you to act as you will – to follow your dreams.

We admire heroes because they have this freedom and power.  That may have been enough when the vast majority of people had no freedom or power, but since the Medieval Period most people have the freedom and power that our ancestors only dreamed about.  As a consequence our expectations changed in what we expected from our heroes.

For the ancient Greeks and Romans the concept of the hero had no moral dimension.  It was simply an extraordinary individual who could be either good or bad.  With the rise of Christianity, Biblical characters were seen as heroes to emulate and this sort of rubbed-off onto the concept of the hero making them exemplars of morality and community values. 

The heroes we are most familiar with are the Romantic heroes.  These characters were inspired by Medieval stories but given modern relevance. In Romantic narrative fiction the two primary figures are King Arthur and Robin Hood.  These translate into the archetypes of the Knight and the Outlaw.  The Knight is the defender of the benevolent social order.  In most stories the Knights are police officers, soldiers, or government or free agents working to protect the people.  The Outlaw is the opposition to a malevolent social order.  These are the plucky rebels like the Rebel Alliance of Star Wars, the crew of Serenity in Firefly, or the freedom fighters of the Hunger Games series.  Often they are depicted as the criminals with the “heart of gold” working to support the people.

Using this as a baseline, we can identify six variations of this theme.  In addition to the traditional knights and outlaws, who we’ll call white, are the black and grey versions.  The Black Knight is the defender of a malevolent social order usually opposing the White Outlaw while the White Knight primarily opposes the Black Outlaw.  In the film Die Hard, John McLain is the White Knight against Hans Gruber the Black Outlaw.  However the formula can vary.   In the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones is the White Knight hired by the American government to oppose the Black Knights of the Nazis.  As the colour implies, the greys are morally ambiguous.  They may have good intentions, but their means are negative.  So the Grey Knights might see themselves as bringing peace but do so by restricting freedom.  The Grey Outlaw might strike out against the authoritarian regime by blowing-up a government installation with no regard for innocent casualties.  A character like Daredevil is a White Outlaw fighting Black Outlaws but often finds himself against the Punisher, a Grey Outlaw.

In Assassin’s Creed, the Assassins are traditional White Outlaws, however they are perceived by the general public as being Black Outlaws while the Assassins themselves seem concerned with crossing the line into the grey.  The Templars are mostly Grey Knights.  Occasionally, there are Black Knights in the mixed, but for the most part they have nominal good intentions.  Haytham Kenway, Shay McCormack, and Elise de la Serre are all examples of Grey Knights who see the Assassins as well-meaning but ultimately misguided and a danger to society.

These moral delineations of white, grey, and black are largely fixed according to how selfless or selfish the actions. As White Outlaws, the Assassins fight for freedom as their primary value.  This is built into the Creed and explains cryptic statements found through the game series such as when Evie says to Queen Victoria, “But with the greatest respect, our philosophy forbids us from assisting with the expansion of the Empire.”  How does she get that from, “Nothing is True; Everything is Permitted”?  This is where Existentialism and the Romantic overlap.  As mentioned earlier, Nothing is True is an admonition to independent critical thinking.  This is not possible without the freedom to think as you choose.  To say that Everything is permitted is an existential truth, but a state of bondage is designed to control and prevent human action.  We might rephrase the Creed as, “Freedom to think and to act”.  Imperialism runs counter to the Creed so Evie rejects it.

LOVE AND THE ASSASSIN

When people think of love it is usually so-called romantic love that initially comes to mind.  Who can blame them?  It is the topic of countless songs, shows, movies, and books.  It can rightly be called a cultural obsession, but this mentality does love a great disservice. 

In the pie chart of love, romantic love represents the smallest sliver of the experience of love.  It is the dopamine driven rush found at the beginning of a relationship lasting about a year or two before settling into what we can call a proper form of love.  The big picture of love includes various forms of love such as family love, love for a spouse, love of friends, love of community, and even love of ideology.  The ancient Greeks had different words for each of these types of love, but unfortunately English only has the one word to work with in understanding the concept.

Another unfortunate twist of language is that the Romantic has lent its name erroneously to the concept of romantic love, so to keep these concepts clear; I’ll be referring to romantic love by its Greek name eros.

The foundational form of love found in the traditional Romances is what is today called courtly or fine love.  The knight acts to impress the object of his affection that he serves and worships mostly platonically.  There is no eros here.  So it seems strange that eros is today called romantic love when it’s absent from the Romances.

So what is love?  Love is a strong emotional response to values and values are those things that we act to gain or to keep.  This is why love is often associated with desire and sacrifice.  Values are those things we desire to possess and those things that we are willing to risk or sacrifice other values to preserve.

Love is an emotional response, so understanding love requires some understanding of how emotions work.  When the Creed states that “nothing is true” it is acknowledging that what people think is reality is actually their perceived idea of reality.  Your brain responds to these ideas with the chemical cocktail that we call emotions.  The basic process is: Perception -> Assessment -> Response --> Action. This process occurs so fast that the conscious mind barely notices it and not at all if the mind isn't paying attention. This creates the illusion that emotional responses emerge instantaneous from nowhere completely independent of the mind. The ancients believed the source of emotions to be a spirit that comes upon a person.

If someone pulls a gun on you there is sudden fear. You perceive the gun, assess that it is a gun (a lethal weapon), and the emotional response is fear for the purpose of acting in self-preservation.  But what if your perception is false and you only think it's a gun?  The chain of events is the same. The emotions are valid in the sense that they are truly believed and felt, but the premise of the emotion is faulty and can lead to harmful actions. Similarly, suppose someone pulls a gun on you but you have never seen a gun before.  You would not know to be afraid.  In this case the perception is accurate but the assessment is faulty leading to a flawed but understandable emotional response.

There is very little eros in Assassin’s Creed beyond passing encounters.  So you will not find much in terms of a love story.  The closest that the series ever came to making eros a central theme is AC Unity with Arno and Elise playing the Romeo and Juliet roles of lovers who belong to warring factions. 

AC Black Flag focuses on two forms of love.  The Greeks make a distinction between the love of lovers, eros, and the love of spouses.  Once the initial passions of a relationship cool down they settle into something more stable and mundane.  This is the love Edward feels for his wife Caroline.  It is his desire to be a worthy provider for her that drives him to become a privateer which in turn led to him becoming a pirate and then Assassin.  So you might say his story is driven by love. 

Another form of love in Black Flag is the love of friends.  The story takes a great deal of time building the friendship of Edward to Mary Reed, Edward Thatch, and Adelewale making them three of the most likeable characters.  Towards the end there is a melancholy scene where Edward imagines all his friends who had died gathered on his porch drinking and laughing like old times. 

Edward’s grandson, Connor Kenway, has a different focus.  For Connor there is his village and the settlement. His love is the love of community.  Looking at love as a motivator as we act to gain or keep values, most of Connor’s actions are towards preserving his village and building the settlement.  This involves the level of care and concern he feels particularly towards the settlement, but at the same time he Is largely disconnected from it in the sense that the members come across as positive acquaintances rather than friends.  So really it is the idea of the settlement and the people in it that he loves.

There is another form of love filled with strife and anger, but beneath the violent surface there is a deep connection.  This is the love between siblings and the embodiment of this is of course Jacob and Evie Frye in Ac Syndicate.  Their love for each other is a major theme in the game and the execution in the story makes their love palpable as it leaps from the screen.  Despite their playful mockery of each other that gradually deepens into conflict, in the end their bond of love is secure and sees them through as they realise that they are better together than apart.

Within families there is this sibling love but there are other forms as well.  I am told that the love a parent feels for their child is powerful.  This is not openly apparent in Assassin’s Creed though there are hints in Haytham Kenway towards his son, Connor.  The other form is the love of a child to their parent.  We see this in Ezio’s story.  All forms of family love can be found in the Auditores but the key to the story is how Ezio feels about his family as a concept particularly about his father’s legacy.  In AC Brotherhood we see the light and shadow of this with the Auditores versus the Borgias and the paternal legacy both sons look to uphold.

When early Christians described the love between God and Mankind the ancient Greek word they used for love was agape.  Today we may call this the love of ideology.  An ideology is a collection of beliefs and beliefs are sometimes described as being ideas with emotional attachments.  So yes, you can love an ideology.  This is why people become hostile when they feel that their ideology is being attacked.  This is the basis behind the notion of blasphemy. 

No doubt all the Assassins have a love for the Creed and each have acted to advance and preserve it, but as a story showing this kind of love, I will have to go with Altair in AC1.  In order to promote and preserve an ideology organisations are created.  The Assassins exist as an organisation for the Creed.  However, of all the Assassins we see, we see very little of any kind of organisation.  We know it’s there, but our main characters act independently of it, completely disregard it, or assume sole leadership of it.   Only Altair is a servant of it.  When he fails to do so he is demoted and must prove himself once again from the bottom rank.  Enduring this shows a level of devotion to the organisation that we do not see in the other Assassins.

To accept love as a Romantic value is not to simply value eros.  It is essentially to value values.  I recent learned of a fellow named Matthieu Ricard.  He is a Buddhist monk and the son of French philosopher Jean-François Revel.  According to the story I heard, young Matthieu grew-up in an atmosphere where the leading French Existentialists, Sartre, Bouvoir, and Camus, were regular guests of his father.  They would sit around smoking cigarettes and drinking wine.  Ricard noticed that these leading lights of Western philosophy looked miserable.  Ricard went on to embrace Eastern philosophy and is now known as “the happiest man on earth”.  In its rejection of imposed values Existentialism fails to replace them with new values.  A life without values is a life without love.  This is one area where the Romantic helps to support the truths of Existentialism by encouraging a life where we invest our emotions in the things that matter to us.

TRUTH, BEAUTY, FREEDOM, LOVE, AND ASSASSIN’S CREED

Romantic stories like Assassin’s Creed serve a valuable purpose in teaching values.  They inspire us through example and emotion to have inquisitive minds in pursuit of Truth and to be true to ourselves and to others.  They encourage us to allow our lives to become works of art and beauty and not settle for the mundane.  They give us heroes to emulate and who show us that we can cultivate the freedom and power necessary to make our dreams a reality.  Finally, the Romantic encourages us to make those important value connections with our values, our partners, our friends, our community, and with our own ideologies.

For the vast majority of people who have purchased and played games within the Assassin’s Creed series all they see is another video game and they judge it solely on its gameplay.  However, for the relative few who are touched on a deeper emotional level a connection is made with the Assassin’s Creed Universe and the conduit for this connection are the Romantic elements of the series.  This opens the doors to the deeper levels of Existentialism and Stoicism.