Post by Z451 on Feb 11, 2014 13:11:20 GMT
The Assassin Order
The Assassins are the recurring protagonists of the series, based on the real life Assassins.
The Assassin Order, whose various sects have been known, at various times, as the Brotherhood; Liberalis Circulum (Circle of Liberals), during classical Roman times; the Hashshashin (users of Hashish), during the High Middle Ages, and more, are a multiethnic, and multinational organized order of assassins.
The Assassins have existed, if not as an organized order, since the dawn of ancient history, throughout the Roman Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and into the 21st century.
The contemporary Assassins, through Desmond Miles' use of the Animus, seek historical revisionism.
They are rediscovering their Order's obscured origins, and in that process, learned that much of recorded history is a lie; that it has been honed like a weapon by their enemies, the Templars, who historically sought to suppressed 'The Truth'.
In pre-modern times, the Assassins provided swift justice to those who believed they are above the laws of nature and society.
Furthermore, the Assassins believed that they fought on the behalf of physically, politically, economically and intellectually repressed.
In other words, they believed of themselves to be defenders of the oppressed and weak, those unable to speak out against abuse and injustice.
However, in order to ascertain which death might best assist the Assassins' goals, extensive political knowledge was required for target selection.
Thus, the Assassins endeavored to remain in tune with the ever-changing politics surrounding them.
Branded as 'outcasts', the Assassins were mostly feared by the general populace, due to their terrifying reputation for taking life in public before many witnesses, as their primary method of ensuring peace — so as to bring fear into the hearts of those who might abuse their power or corrupt the innocent — before vanishing into the crowd without a trace.
They are the sworn enemies of the Templars', against whom they fought a continuous, recondite war, throughout the entirety of recorded human history.
Where Assassins seek to disseminate and preserve knowledge, the Templars seek to alter and suppress it.
Whereas the Templars' sought the power to save humanity from itself by controlling free will, the Assassin Order fought to ensure the survival of libertarianism and individualism, as it allowed for the progression of new ideas and the growth of individuality.
The Templar's are convinced that people must be conditioned, controlled, led, coerced, regulated, or nudged to do the right thing; the "right thing" being determined by The Templar’s idea of truth and imposed by force on others for the good of society.
The Assassins' fundamentally disagree with The Templar's philosophy of "social conditioning"; they believe this only causes people to live a life where they are sheltered or protected from the consequences of their actions, and therefore never learned how to be better—to live up to their own potential.
From the Assassin's perspective, the solution is not to impose rules based on subjective reality, but to allow natural law to take its course; that responsibility and self-control earned through experience are the best teachers.
To understand the Assassins, it is important to understand The Creed: it is the underlying motivation of every Assassin throughout the Order's history.
The order believed in a strong set of values that strictly governed their way of life.
Ezio Auditore once spoke of the maxim at length with Sofia Sartor, who found it rather cynical.
However, he told her that the maxim was not a doctrine to be followed, but merely an observation of objective reality in the world.
This Creed consisted of three tenets: "Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent..."; "Hide in plain sight, be one with the crowd..." and "Never compromise the Brotherhood."
With few exceptions, breaking any of these tenets of the Creed led to the swift execution of the Assassin involved.
These tenets permeated every aspect of the Assassins' daily life, as well as their fight for "pursuit of harmony through free will" and "peace in all things".
Throughout history, that usually meant killing anyone who became too powerful or greedy; in modern times, it means subversion of established regimes and changing the system from within.
The Assassins carried out their duties through politically strategic assassination, in the hope that killing one individual would lead to the salvation of thousands.
Through his observations, Altaïr describes the inherent contradictions and hypocrisy between the Creed, and the actions of the Assassins who followed it.
There are three known historically citable sources for “Nothing is true, everything is permitted”.
The first is the 1938 novel Alamut by the Slovene writer Vladimir Bartol which was the basis/inspiration for the first Assassin's Creed game.
The next source is a quote mistakenly attributed to the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "If God doesn't exist, everything is permitted".
The exact phrase, “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” appeared that same year as "Nichts ist wahr, Alles ist erlaubt", in Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.
This term may have been a reference to the third philosophical branch known as ethics, which concerns itself with human activities: Those actions with a positive outcome are good and those with a negative outcome are bad; it is impossible to determine right action from wrong action without considering the context.
That is where the first two branches come in, metaphysics (what is reality?) and epistemology (what is knowledge?).
Together, these two branches pose the ultimate question in all of philosophy (“What is Truth?”).
If there is no truth, then there are no moral limitations to action and thus is every action permitted.
Thus, "The Assassin's Creed" may be philosophical comment on the denial of subjective reality and its power over people's ability to engage in free will to act; this is not only important to humanity in general, but particularly to the romantic, since individualism is built upon volition and fettered volition is not true freedom at all but a form of slavery.
Links
Wikipedia> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Assassin%27s_Creed_characters#The_Assassin_Order
Assassin's Creed Wiki> assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassins
Giant Bomb> www.giantbomb.com/assassin-order/3015-7372/
Copyright Owner
Ubisoft> www.ubi.com/US/
Record:
W:
L:
The Assassin Order, whose various sects have been known, at various times, as the Brotherhood; Liberalis Circulum (Circle of Liberals), during classical Roman times; the Hashshashin (users of Hashish), during the High Middle Ages, and more, are a multiethnic, and multinational organized order of assassins.
The Assassins have existed, if not as an organized order, since the dawn of ancient history, throughout the Roman Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and into the 21st century.
The contemporary Assassins, through Desmond Miles' use of the Animus, seek historical revisionism.
They are rediscovering their Order's obscured origins, and in that process, learned that much of recorded history is a lie; that it has been honed like a weapon by their enemies, the Templars, who historically sought to suppressed 'The Truth'.
In pre-modern times, the Assassins provided swift justice to those who believed they are above the laws of nature and society.
Furthermore, the Assassins believed that they fought on the behalf of physically, politically, economically and intellectually repressed.
In other words, they believed of themselves to be defenders of the oppressed and weak, those unable to speak out against abuse and injustice.
However, in order to ascertain which death might best assist the Assassins' goals, extensive political knowledge was required for target selection.
Thus, the Assassins endeavored to remain in tune with the ever-changing politics surrounding them.
Branded as 'outcasts', the Assassins were mostly feared by the general populace, due to their terrifying reputation for taking life in public before many witnesses, as their primary method of ensuring peace — so as to bring fear into the hearts of those who might abuse their power or corrupt the innocent — before vanishing into the crowd without a trace.
They are the sworn enemies of the Templars', against whom they fought a continuous, recondite war, throughout the entirety of recorded human history.
Where Assassins seek to disseminate and preserve knowledge, the Templars seek to alter and suppress it.
Whereas the Templars' sought the power to save humanity from itself by controlling free will, the Assassin Order fought to ensure the survival of libertarianism and individualism, as it allowed for the progression of new ideas and the growth of individuality.
The Templar's are convinced that people must be conditioned, controlled, led, coerced, regulated, or nudged to do the right thing; the "right thing" being determined by The Templar’s idea of truth and imposed by force on others for the good of society.
The Assassins' fundamentally disagree with The Templar's philosophy of "social conditioning"; they believe this only causes people to live a life where they are sheltered or protected from the consequences of their actions, and therefore never learned how to be better—to live up to their own potential.
From the Assassin's perspective, the solution is not to impose rules based on subjective reality, but to allow natural law to take its course; that responsibility and self-control earned through experience are the best teachers.
To understand the Assassins, it is important to understand The Creed: it is the underlying motivation of every Assassin throughout the Order's history.
The order believed in a strong set of values that strictly governed their way of life.
Ezio Auditore once spoke of the maxim at length with Sofia Sartor, who found it rather cynical.
However, he told her that the maxim was not a doctrine to be followed, but merely an observation of objective reality in the world.
This Creed consisted of three tenets: "Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent..."; "Hide in plain sight, be one with the crowd..." and "Never compromise the Brotherhood."
With few exceptions, breaking any of these tenets of the Creed led to the swift execution of the Assassin involved.
These tenets permeated every aspect of the Assassins' daily life, as well as their fight for "pursuit of harmony through free will" and "peace in all things".
Throughout history, that usually meant killing anyone who became too powerful or greedy; in modern times, it means subversion of established regimes and changing the system from within.
The Assassins carried out their duties through politically strategic assassination, in the hope that killing one individual would lead to the salvation of thousands.
Through his observations, Altaïr describes the inherent contradictions and hypocrisy between the Creed, and the actions of the Assassins who followed it.
There are three known historically citable sources for “Nothing is true, everything is permitted”.
The first is the 1938 novel Alamut by the Slovene writer Vladimir Bartol which was the basis/inspiration for the first Assassin's Creed game.
The next source is a quote mistakenly attributed to the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "If God doesn't exist, everything is permitted".
The exact phrase, “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” appeared that same year as "Nichts ist wahr, Alles ist erlaubt", in Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.
This term may have been a reference to the third philosophical branch known as ethics, which concerns itself with human activities: Those actions with a positive outcome are good and those with a negative outcome are bad; it is impossible to determine right action from wrong action without considering the context.
That is where the first two branches come in, metaphysics (what is reality?) and epistemology (what is knowledge?).
Together, these two branches pose the ultimate question in all of philosophy (“What is Truth?”).
If there is no truth, then there are no moral limitations to action and thus is every action permitted.
Thus, "The Assassin's Creed" may be philosophical comment on the denial of subjective reality and its power over people's ability to engage in free will to act; this is not only important to humanity in general, but particularly to the romantic, since individualism is built upon volition and fettered volition is not true freedom at all but a form of slavery.
Links
Wikipedia> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Assassin%27s_Creed_characters#The_Assassin_Order
Assassin's Creed Wiki> assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassins
Giant Bomb> www.giantbomb.com/assassin-order/3015-7372/
Copyright Owner
Ubisoft> www.ubi.com/US/
Record:
W:
L: