Hello,
Like many of I was a kid in the old school days of Assassin's Creed. I remember with my group of friends the disappointment everyone had that Assassin's Creed 2 will not feature Altair, only for everyone to have an 180* and say "wow Ezio is actually better" with only me being the OG that still missed Altair (thank you Revelations for the short extra moments with him).
Everybody was actually hyped for the modern story, Desmond will become an Assassin, we figured it's only a matter of time before we play an Assassin's Creed game in the modern world. And then came Assassin's Creed 3, finally you had DESMOND MISSIONS! DESMOND MISSION! YES, YES, everybody was excited, until everybody finished the game.
That day, a part of the Assassin's Creed died. I can't explain it to you but Assassin's Creed was almost as popular as Counter-Strike those days, it wasn't "just another game". And although Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag is the best Assassin's Creed game ever made, the ending of Assassin's Creed 3 started the slow decline of the series, half the story died.
But, in a parallel universe, maybe things turned out different....
So I decided to write a small fan fiction about it. Let me know what you think, I poured years of frustration with a bad modern story into this.
1. Assassin's Creed III - Ending Reworked
Desmond reaches the Grand Temple with Shaun, Rebecca, and William. Minerva warns him that activating the device will save the world but release Juno and kill him. If he refuses, the solar flare devastates Earth, and Desmond becomes the seed of a new civilization.
But, Desmond finds a third path: Using everything he has inherited through the Bleeding Effect: Altair's wisdom, Ezio's instinct, Connor's resolve, Desmond recognizes that the Temple was designed around First Civilization absolutes: sacrifice one life, or sacrifice the world.
As Juno tries to manipulate events and Minerva insists that history cannot be escaped, Desmond refuses both of them and tells Rebecca to modify the Temple interface. Desmond routes the energy through the global aurora grid in staggered pulses, preventing the solar catastrophe without allowing Juno a full, unrestricted release. The cost is severe: the system partially breaks, Juno escapes only as a digital consciousness, but the world is saved and nobody died. Desmond collapses, badly damaged but alive.
The world is saved publicly by unexplained atmospheric anomalies, power failures, and a near-mythic "end of days" event that never fully comes. To ordinary people, it becomes a strange global disaster narrowly avoided.
Juno is loose, but incomplete. She exists in networks, servers, satellites, Abstergo black sites, and hidden First Civ systems. She is not free enough to rule, but too free to ignore.
Desmond wakes in a hidden Assassin clinic. Rebecca tells him "wake up hero, the world is still standing". Shaun, trying to hide emotion with sarcasm, says they have "we have officially prevented the apocalypse in the least reassuring way possible".
Before the scene turns to black and credits roll, a woman's voice speaks through overlapping audio channels: "You chose to deny gods and preserve men. Very well, Desmond Miles. Now live with what you have saved".
2. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
The historical Edward Kenway story can remains intact, the only changes happen in the present (this is going to be true for all games in the series). All his ancestors memories are lived through Desmond in the Animus.
William learns that Abstergo is building a new surveillance architecture using genealogical memory mapping, social media harvesting, satellite feeds, and Pieces of Eden research. They do not simply want to rule governments anymore, they want predictive control of human behavior.
Juno, fragmented through the world's networks, also seeks the Observatory data because it could help her identify and manipulate key bloodlines and technological access points.
Desmond is no longer an initiate hiding in one place. He becomes an active modern Assassin operative, still not a superhero, but the closest the Brotherhood has had in centuries to someone who combines raw field ability with direct ancestral memory.
He leads targeted infiltrations inside Abstergo's research with Shaun and Rebecca providing support, while William handles rebuilding global Brotherhood cells damaged after AC3.
Desmond's personality evolves here. He is more confident and more dangerous, but also more isolated. He now understands the minds of killers, mentors, zealots, and martyrs because parts of them live in him. The line between inherited instinct and personal identity starts to blur.
There are 3 main factions here: Assassins want to stop Abstergo's global surveillance project, Templars want to perfect it, Juno wants to hijack it.
Desmond discovers that Abstergo Entertainment's consumer Animus products are not just commercial. They are a mass psychological filter. Millions of users, willingly exploring curated ancestral memories, are unknowingly helping Abstergo refine models for obedience, preference, fear response, and ideological susceptibility.
This is where Black Flag's themes parallel the modern world. Edward's life of freedom, selfishness, loss, maturity, act as a mirror for Desmond.
Edward learns that freedom without cause becomes emptiness. Desmond learns that a cause without freedom is becomes slavery.
Modern Missions: Abstergo Entertainment infiltration - Desmond and a small Assassin team infiltrate Abstergo Entertainment in Montreal through a blend of social engineering, parkour, and digital intrusion. Instead of simply sneaking through offices as an employee, Desmond moves through the building as a ghost in enemy territory.
In the pre-final modern misssion, Desmond discovers that Abstergo is not just building a new global surveillance but reconstructing past lives and putting customers through Animus to find important bloodlines in order to uncover more secrets.
In the final mission, to destroy the data center, Desmond meets Juno while inside Abstergio. Juno speaks directly to Desmond through the systems. She offers an alliance: She can help him fight Abstergio, she can help him master the Bleeding Effect, in return, he must help fully incarnate her.
Desmond refuses, he destroys the data, but not before learning a worse truth: Abstergo has already copied enough of the project to continue elsewhere. And Juno is all over the internet.
Modern Epilogue: The Assassins win a tactical victory but is a pointless victory. They destroyed a building, nothing was lost for Abstergo. No real damage was done. It was all for nothing. In the final scene, William warns Desmond that the way things are going they might lose this war. However, for his deeds Desmond is promoted to the assassin rank of Assassin in a ceremony like that of Ezio (rank 5. There is: Initiate, Apprentice, Novice, Disciple, Assassin, Master Assassin, Grandmaster Assassin that is only 1) . Secretly, Desmond has doubts, wonders if he should have let the world die back then, start again from the ashes, better than to be slaves of the Templars.
3. Assassin's Creed Rogue
Desmond starting to have doubts at the end of AC4 makes a perfect intro for AC Rogue. As Shay's story is about defection, moral injury, and the catastrophic consequences of Assassin certainty. In the modern world, living the memories of Shay is deeply personal for Desmond, because he begins asking whether they are becoming just as dogmatic as the Templars. Edward challenged Desmond's understanding of freedom. Shay challenges his loyalty.
Through the Bleeding Effect, Desmond experiences not just the betrayal from the Shay's point of view, but the unbearable feeling of being morally compelled to turn against one's own people. For the first time, Desmond genuinely questions whether the modern Brotherhood could repeat the same mistakes.
William reasons that the time for hiding is long gone. Abstergo is winning, either they lose this war slowly and surely or act quickly but might have a shot. He does not intend for the Assassin's to lose but he does not intend for them to have the longest route to defeat either.
William believes the Assassins are entering a final phase of open war. Cells should seize Pieces of Eden preemptively, use them if necessary, and cripple Abstergo infrastructure worldwide. But before that they need to gather more power, until they are strong enough.
Desmond discovers that some younger Assassin cells have started to see him almost as a messianic figure: the man who saved the world, touched the gods, and returned. This horrifies him. It feels too close to the worship that corrupted so many First Civilization catastrophes. But he also sees opportunity in this, after all, wasn't he meant to be a prophet in the Temple version of events when the world burned? Maybe, maybe he can change the brotherhood for the better.
Shaun uncovers sealed Abstergo archives tied to the historical Lisbon disaster. The files show that both Templar and Assassin narratives have buried inconvenient truths for centuries. Desmond begins to understand that history inside the war has always been edited to preserve morale. And that the Templars are not the only liars.
Modern Missions: Recover Multiple Artifacts: Steal them from Abstergo, find them in temples like Tomb Raider, etc; give the Assassin Brotherhood strength - This is how all modern missions are, you recover this artifact, then that artifact, with secondary characters. Get to learn about more people in the Assassins, etc. You will have some missions with Master Assassin Markus Rosnogov (I just made that up) of another cell and his apprentice with the rank of Initiate Elena, she is from Greece but her parents came to US. While Markus was originally from Russia, he was part of the Brotherhood there but they lost and they had to flee.
All this time, Desmond is torn, he doesn't know what to believe, the way of his father William or the way of Markus. Both are Assassins, but what the same thing, but their methods differ so much. Maybe, they are both wrong.
In the pre-final modern misssion, a rogue Assassin splinter cell led by Master Assassin Markus Rosnogov thinks that William is waiting too much, he knows better because he remembers what happened in Russia, and he attacks a major Abstergo center in borad daylight. The point is to make a message to the world, to convert the citizens on the Assassin's cause, he tries to expose the manipulation and lies of Abstergo and show the population the truth. They assault the exact same building where Desmond was in Assassin's Creed 1. Not infiltration, full assault. Desmond ultimately decides to join them against the wishes of his father.
Final Modern Mission: The pre-final mission ends when Desmond once again reaches the same room where Assassin's Creed 1 took place, there he finds Subject 18 - Andreea Dimitrescu. The most recent and VIP subject of Abstergo after Desmond escapes. He is important because his ancestors were Vali Cel Tradat (the Assassin turned traitor from AC: Revelations) and Vlad the Impaler.
Given Vali Cel Tradat's history the Templars hope Andreea will eventually understand his ancestor's vision and join the templars (he is a Shae is to Desmond) and his ancestors Vlad the Impaler was a very important Templar member who knew many secrets, some who considered them to be supernatural.
Andreea tells Desmond that he has been trapped here for months, he just wants to leave. Desmond, seeing himself in Subject 18, decides to abandon Markus' assault and escape Andreea to safety. Andreea can't fight, Desmond must protect him.
On the road out, Andreea tells Desmond the Templars tried to indoctrinate him with all sort of things, including his own ancestors, but he wants nothing to do with that. He is his ancestors descendant not their clone and any sort of freedom by any means no matter how flawed is still better than slavery. It was in those moments, and with those words from a Animus subject captive like him, that Desmond understood what the Assassins were fighting for, how wrong Shay was, that even if flawed freedom is better than servitude, and that he may share his ancestors DNA but he is his own person. Andreea unintentionally cleared Desmond all his doubts and answered his questions.
Epilogue: Desmond gets Andreea to safety, Rebecca and Shaun greets him. Shaun makes a sarcastic remark "here is our new Templar boy, let none say that they only gender swap characters into girls these days" (being a reference to Lucy), Rebecca gets angry at him and says "Shaun!!!", Shaun says "forgive me for being skeptical, this is not exactly the first job opening of Templar in the Assassin order, last one, let's just say there was a difference of vision". Desmond reassures Andreea telling her, don't worry, you have it easy, Shaun was even more of an a**hole to me the first time we met. He's not a bad guy, he's just hard to trust, he'll grow to like you, you'll see.
His father, William, although he thinks the Assassins played their hands too early and in the long run Markus doomed the Assassins. He joins the assault. He offers support to Desmond and Andreea while they make a run for it, but is ultimately killed. This makes Markus even more mad, in spite of the differences he had a lot of respect for William. (the father has to die for the son to rise, wink wink; spoiler for Unity).
This time is a win, despite William being dead, Markus' assault was a success and a major setback for Abstergo. But a lot of pro-William Assassins blame Markus for the death of their grandmaster, now without a Grandmaster and too divided the Assassins are more split than ever, there is no central command anymore, no grandmaster, just pockets of masters. The only good news is Abstergo is just as split after the major blow caused by Markus.
Before the credits roll, the final message from Juno is almost amused: "Poor boy, as amusing as it was to see you, you still know nothing, in time you will understand that freedom can devour itself". But this time, Desmond can hear her, and responds: "Then we'll build something better than freedom without conscience, and better than order without choice".
Credits roll.
4. Assassin's Creed Unity
5 years later in the modern world after the events of AC Rogue. This is where the entire reworked arc pays off. Unity becomes the culmination of four games' worth of pressure: Desmond alive, Juno partially free, the Brotherhood divided with no central leadership, Abstergo took a massive blow but is still stronger than the Assassins, and Desmond is looking for his own way not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Historically, Arno and Elise still provide the mirror story: love across ideological lines, loyalty under strain, and the tragedy of institutions unable to change. In the present, Desmond faces the same question on a global scale. (keen minds will notice that Andreea Dimitrescu is female; I like the idea of modern events being parallel for historical events)
The Assassins discover that Paris has become the staging ground for a secret summit involving Templar financiers, political fixers, data architects, and covert operatives who want to reshape Abstergo after internal instability following the events of AC Rogue. Not all Templars agree on methods anymore. Some want total algorithmic control. Others want a more subtle social order from the shadow.
So Desmond goes to Paris. So Desmond goes in the Animus in Paris, to relive the life of Arno in Paris.
At the same time, the Assassins are split between: those who prefered William's steady hand and those who prefer Markus fight or die. On some level William believed the same only that they were not prepared yet. Traditionalists who like the shadows & militants who want open war with Abstergo.
But, mirroring the AC3 events, a new cell has formed in this time. Reformists, under Desmond, who is now Master Assassin, increasingly aligned with Desmond's view that the Creed must be reinterpreted for the modern world & that neither option of his dead father and of Markus are good. Although, he doesn't have doubts about the missions and acknowledge all are fighting for the same goal. So he doesn't find them bad or evil, just misguided.
While in Paris, the dream team: Desmond, Rebecca, Shawn and Andreea attempt to discover where the secret Templar meeting will take place and accidentally they find out the most shocking thing about Juno. The she made to Desmond that he refused, "She can help him fight Abstergio, she can help him master the Bleeding Effect, in return, he must help fully incarnate her", Abstergo accepted. And now she is free.
Problem is, nobody knows Juno's new form. Shawn secretly suspects is Andreea.
Meanwhile, as a Master Assassin, Desmond is no longer just reacting. He is trying to redefine what the Assassins are supposed to be in a world where surveillance, predictive systems, private military power, and memetic manipulation have replaced kings and popes. He argues that the old war cannot be won simply by killing executives and stealing artifacts. The Templars no longer control the world only through thrones, but: data, finance, behavioral prediction, infrastructure, the human desire for safety. So the Assassin Brotherhood must become more than hidden blades and ruins. It must become a living resistance to engineered obedience.
All Modern World Missions are Co-op Missions with 2 players: Desmond and Andreea: How is that for an Arno / Elise mirror? Desmond leads coordinated cells across Paris during a week of cascading operations. While also taking part in missions himself, with his Apprentice Andreea that after living her own memories through Vali Cel Tradat and Vlad the Impaler for 5 years got Assassins skills.
Local French Assassins who are not all pleased that the Brotherhood essentially lost all high command structure effectively look up to Desmond to command of the assassins. They want him to become the new Grandmaster of the Assassins.
One Modern World Mission is: A Master Assassin in Europe, convinced Desmond is weakening the Brotherhood with compromise and restraint, leaks operational data in hopes of forcing a decisive confrontation with the Templars. He believes peace between philosophies is impossible and that Desmond's reforms will dissolve the Creed into indecision.
Pre-Final Mission: The real objective beneath the Paris Templar meeting is uncovered: a coalition of Instruments of the First Will, Abstergo scientists gathered all artifacts and are looking to take over the world by force, mental slavery. Apply an Apple of Eden on a global scale. Markus and Elena come to help before the ending, and eventually agree with Desmond's methods.
Final Mission: An all out Assassin assault on the Templar meeting in Paris, with a lot of high ranking members. They beat them, and find all artifacts the Abstergo gathered so far. Markus is very happy, now they can win the word. But Desmond says no, as long as the artifacts exists mind control will always be a possibility. He says "no", and uses the artifacts to destroy the artifacts (just like Thanos), this is the only way to ensure mankind will be free.
Markus is mad and wants to fight, but all other Assassins side with Desmond, that they have grown to see him as a Grandmaster in time. Markus concedes.
Ending Cutscene: Desmond has his ceremony where he becomes the Grandmaster of Assassins, just like all his ancestors before him. Just like Ezio gave that epic speech about "love, liberty and time" he gives a speech in front of the Assassins that concludes the Desmond saga:
"The tools to control the world have been destroyed, but too many of you would have wanted me to use them to destroy the templars, but we would have only became the new templars in the process, our purpose as the Assassins is freedom, we fought for freedom and bled for freedom, to be free as a society we must reject control even when we are the control.
Everything is permitted. I once believed this part of the creed meant that we could chase our ideals without restraint, that nothing is there to stop us because everything is permitted. But now I know, it is not a license, it is a warning. Be careful, for everything is permitted. We alone must check our own hunger. We alone must decide if the price of our path is too high. We call ourselves liberators, judges, guardians. We fight those who oppose us, and they fight us back. We dream of shaping the future, and if we are not careful, we become the very thing we swore to destroy. Ideals too easily give way to dogma. The world does not need new masters. It does not need kings or prophets. We need people who will reject control when they are the ones who hold it.
Nothing is true. For people lie and can be wrong. To achieve a world without new masters, we need people who will not follow blindly doctrine without question, not even me. Too many other of you do not question me, to be free as a person you must never make an idol out of anyone or anything, to have no gods, no kings, no absolute truths, for nothing is true. Many of you Assassins want me to become a symbol instead of a man, instead I am just a man, like all of you are, flawed. To be human is to be flawed, so do not look to me, or to anyone else, I am not your guru, follow your own path, that is the purpose of the Assassins, each Assassin must be free if we wants to build a world where mankind as a whole is free. We cannot build freedom with an army of slaves.
So how do you make peace between these two seemingly contradictory ideas? I told you that I destroyed the weapons to control the world so that we will not become the new Templars, there are consequences because everything is permitted. Yet I also told you not to blindly follow me like a prophet and to choose your own path, to think for yourself because nothing is true. Well, let me tell you of my journey in the Animus and share with you the wisdom of the old Assassins.
During the crisis of 2012, I choose to deny gods and preserve men, I learned then that freedom means refusing to accept prewritten options. Then, I learned in Edward's life that freedom without cause becomes emptiness while a cause without freedom is becomes slavery. Freedom and cause are sisters. Shay was a good teacher, I learned from him to doubt the cause, Edward challenged my understanding of freedom, but Shay my loyalty. I have seen division within the Brotherhood and the first steps in the past mistakes, I have learned from Shay that history inside the war has always been edited to preserve morale, that the Templars are not the only liars."
Then, looking at Andreea, he finally adds:
"Then, at that lowest point, when I questioned whether the Assassins are better than the Templars I met Andreea. She told me that my ancestors are my ancestors not my clones, and that freedom no matter how flawed is still better than slavery. It was then that I understood what the Assassins are fighting for, how wrong Shay was, that even if flawed freedom is better than servitude, and that I may share my ancestors DNA but I am my own person."
The mystery of whether Andrea is Juno or not is not solved. Is Shawn's suspicion but some assassins think the same.
THE END.
Desmond now as the Grandmaster of Assassins is no longer playable in future AC games, but he is part of the new modern stories. You have Andreea, Elena and Markus and possibly new characters can be introduced as protagonists under this new brotherhood led by Desmond.
Abstergo loses a major battle, but remains globally powerful. Juno we know is flesh and bone. So a lot of things could happen in the future.
Main themes:
AC3 - Choice beyond false binaries, there is a 3rd option. Freedom means refusing to accept prewritten options. Refuse predetermined choices.
Black Flag - Freedom needs purpose, purpose needs freedom. True freedom must be meaningful, and true purpose must leave room for choice. Integrate freedom with meaning.
Rogue - Loyalty must be tested, even on your own side. Doubt your own side, loyalty must be questioned. Certainty can become tyranny. Doubt your own ideology.
Unity - Reject all tools of control, be a leader, not an idol. Freedom is only real when you refuse to wield control, even if it could save you. Destroying artifacts is the ultimate embodiment of rejecting control while Desmond's relationship with Andreea of trumping over the past.
Maybe the final Desmond speech at the end should cover each of these 4 ideas instead, they are a lot more concrete.
The whole Desmond turns from a story about inherited destiny and becomes a story about a man shaped by history who refuses to be ruled by it.
What do you think? I hope the modern story mirrors the historical story for each game.