Jordan Thomas December 6th, 2012

In the Assassin's belief system, to realize and accept that time spent on Earth is a person's only chance at life is of the utmost importance. Altair holds a non believer's view of the afterlife when he states, "The cosmos cares nothing for us. None of it [matters]. There is no counting. No reckoning. No final judgment. There is simply silence. Darkness. Utter and absolute." As one can see, Altair does not believe in any version of heaven or hell. Whether the person was good or evil while on Earth, their afterlife prospects remain the same. Altair pleads, "I long for the day when men turn away from invisible monsters and once more embrace a more rational view of the world." The killing in the name of gods and the distraction that it provided from the threat of the Templars was worrisome. The leader of the Assassins had watched so many people die in vain because the religious zealots weren't fighting for the right cause. "The innate desire to survive seems to demand the death of the other. So many believe the world was created by the hand of a divine power, I see the designs of a madman, bent on celebrating destruction and desperation," Altair resigns. The faithfulness of religious followers escapes the Assassins because so many corrupt agents of the cloth have been encountered, within all religions, that the Assassins have come to understand that religious personnel have no better chance of escaping from evil than those who do not subscribe to a faith at all. Not only that, but the game argues corruption born out of religious institutions exceeds the corruption of fellow mankind and all of it leads to death, destruction, and further corruption. Altair's religious outlook damages his faith in society and represents part of a larger struggle with good and evil. As Altair ages and develops his knowledge, more questions arise as to the balance between good and evil. "Here we seek to promote peace, but murder is our means...open the minds of men, but require obedience to a master...reveal the danger of blind faith, yet we are practitioners ourselves," Altair muses. The charge levied by the developers is that conflict is a self-defeating mechanism. Machiavelli once wrote, "The ends justify the means," but this game deals solely with the means that never sees an end materialize. Game play shows that to defeat evil and corruption, good men must stoop to the same level. The problem with that argument is labeling the "good" side. Visual and verbal rhetoric state the Assassins as the morally superior beings. Intimate knowledge shared with the player through the eyes of Altair invoke sympathetic emotions and a David vs. Goliath grudge match. However, hoods that cover their eyes give them a sinister tone and their mountain castle base reeks of violence. A blatant jab made at the integrity of the Assassin Order comes as Altair consoles a dying man with the words, "Men must be free to do what they believe. It is not our right to punish one for thinking what they do, no matter how much we disagree...It must be knowledge that frees them, not force." Jubair, the dying Templar, chuckles and replies, "Am I not like that? A source of knowledge with which you disagree? Yet you're rather quick to steal my life." The Assassins believe in freedom and equality, the transcending of the human condition to a higher moral and ethical level, and yet they act as savages to remove those that stand in their way. In twenty hours of game play, the Assassin Order ponders this only once with, "What if these men are not meant to die? What if they mean well? Misguided perhaps, but pure in motive." The developers of the game portray the Assassins as "good" guys, but consistently question their conviction and tear holes in their belief systems. The Templars, while often shown abusing their subjects or committing morally corrupt acts, have brief respites in which they confess to a nobler cause. William defends his actions by explaining, "I took

Comment [J1]: If not for the page constraints, I would have loved to talk about the Assassin's descent from the Hashashim which are an offshoot of Islam. Comment [J2]: There were more descriptive words in this quote originally, but they had to be taken out due to space constraints. I felt these words were best at bringing out feelings of desperation and entrapment though.

Comment [J3]: Spacing the quotes throughout the argument I felt not only kept the paragraph more organized but made it feel like my argument was more in tune with the game's dialogue. This may be biased, but I feel my words and the quotes together gave each other more legitimacy. Comment [J4]: Anybody having played the Assassin's Creed series will realize the depth of this sentence. In the following games, the Pope is cast into unfavorable light. Comment [J5]: I had a lot of fun with the transitions in this piece. This class really made me a good transition writer. I use to subscribe to the, "This is what we talked about, this is where we're going," school of thought. Comment [J6]: I really wanted to spend a paragraph talking about Machiavelli. This paper was truly a test in cutting the superfluous arguments. I used this quote only because in my mind I couldn't finish the paper without mentioning him. Comment [J7]: Quite proud of this transition due to its elusive quality. Kind of previews what is to come without slapping the reader in the face with it. Comment [J8]: Proud of this reference because it is a paper chock full of religious discussion and then to make a point it uses a biblical reference.

Comment [J9]: In my mind this paragraph's argument was encapsulated by this conversation. Assassin's were shown as good guys, but leave themselves open to charges of hypocrisy. Templars are bad guys, but have a few morally defensible actions.

Jordan Thomas December 6th, 2012 possession [of my subject's belongings], so that when the lean times came, it might be rationed properly. My district is without crime [for this reason] As for the conscription...They were being taught the merits of discipline. These things are hardly evil." At the end of the game, the player learns the Master of the Assassin Order is a Templar and the Grandmaster of the Templar Order has thus far protected Altair from harm. This leaves the open ended insinuation that the "good" side is based on personal viewpoints and subjective qualifiers and never absolutes. As Altair writes, "Let those answers be difficult and complex. Such is life." "Soon I shall pass from this world. It is my time. But what of my consciousness? My identity? I suspect it will end. That there is no next world. It will simply be done. Forever." Throughout Altair's life, he amassed a base of knowledge that would be unrivaled. Views on religion were skeptical at best and good vs. evil was a messy battle. Altair had been the cause of uncountable deaths in his life to protect freedom and his Assassin Brotherhood. The hidden messages built into the story of Altair show the corruption of the established churches and create questions in the player's mind as to what truly constitutes good and evil. The assassins believe that nothing is true and everything is permitted. What do you believe?

Comment [J10]: This essay was a challenge in organization and cohesiveness. Both groups have bad and redeeming qualities. The trick was to balance the arguments and make a point other than, "This game is confusing." Comment [J11]: By far the hardest paragraph to write. I had enough arguments and quotes to write a whole paper on what's right here. This paragraph easily went through half a dozen rewrites.

Comment [J12]: The final question was meant to show that everything is based on perception. It was also meant to invoke the feeling that nothing is true and everything is permitted. This essay was written to show the confusing nature of the world and the essay finishes by asking a question, showing the essay wasn't built to give answers. Comment [J13]: The number one thing I will take from this class is the shitty first draft. Without it this essay would have never been written. This game is certainly the most involved I have ever played and the shitty first draft is a way to throw thoughts down on paper with eloquence postponed to later.