With AC3 out next week, it’s time for a recap of the plot that the expansive franchise has covered.Altair. Ezio. Desmond. And now Connor. For any true Assassin’s Creed fan, these names are instantly recognizable: the protagonists of the epic franchise. And epic it is – spanning 5 console games, along with numerous handheld games, comics, books – and even some short films. It can be pretty difficult to keep up with the lore, so here’s a refresher before AC3 hits next week.

SPOILERS AHEAD (obviously!)

Let’s start off with Altair. A member of the Assassin’s Brotherhood in Masyaf, we find him in AC1, and return to him in Revelations. He is demoted from his high status for breaking their code, and has to kill 9 Templar targets to eventually regain his status. This involves killing his leader, Al Mualim, somewhere along the way, as he too was a Templar. In between stabbing people, Altair discovers the existence of the Pieces of Eden – mysterious artifacts that grant the owner magical powers. At the end of the game, Altair gains control of the Apple of Eden (ooh look, a religion reference!). It shows him a map with all the locations of the other Pieces of Eden marked out – useful for conspiracy theorists everywhere. In Revelations, Altair’s story continues. He becomes leader of the Assassins and gets married to Maria, who he met in the PSP game Bloodlines. Then someone else, Abbas, takes control of the Assassins and kills Altair’s son and wife. Awkward. After 20 years of exile, Altair returns with his other son, kills Abbas and is reinstated as leader. He then hides the Apple of Eden in his library under Masyaf’s fortress, and seals himself inside to die, giving us a nice and cheery ending to his story.

Next up was Ezio, who has 3 games dedicated to his story. AC2 started off with his father and brothers being killed for treason (which they didn’t commit, of course). Ezio flees to his uncle’s villa, and becomes an assassin. Traveling around Italy, he works his way through a deep political conspiracy, finally discovering that Rodrigo Borgia is the mastermind of the whole plot, along with the Pazzi and the Doge of Venice. Surprisingly enough, Borgia has another Apple of Eden, claiming to be the ‘Prophet’ who will open the ‘Vault’ for the Templars. At this point, Ezio truly comes into his own, becoming the Prophet of the Assassins. This is where Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery, a PSP game, kicks in. Ezio goes off to Spain for a bit, helping to reform the Brotherhood there after the Templars captured them all under the Spanish Inquisition. Back in AC2, we travel forwards a few years. Ezio attacks Borgia, who is now Pope, steals the Apple and the Staff, another Piece of Eden, and goes inside the Vault. This is where we first start to hear about the First Civilization. More on that later…

In Brotherhood, Ezio returns home from the Vault…only for Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo’s son, to stroll in, kill half the people (including Ezio’s uncle) and destroy the town, as well as stealing the Apple. Ezio and his family are forced to travel to Rome, with Ezio hellbent on revenge. He starts to rebuild the Brotherhood there, slowly crippling the Templars and recruiting new assassins. Eventually he becomes leader of the Order (surprise surprise). Cesare finds out about Ezio’s ascent to power, and demands that Rodrigo give him the Apple. Rodrigo’s had enough by this stage, so he tries to poison the power-hungry Cesare. Unfortunately, the plan backfires, and in a wonderful example of patricide Cesare murders his own father. What he doesn’t know is that Ezio is watching the whole time, and he pops out to St. Peter’s Basilica to get the Apple. Using it to destroy Cesare’s forces, he finally gets him arrested by the Pope’s army. However, the wily Cesare escapes prison, and destroys a town in Spain (it’s starting to seem like destroying towns is his hobby). Fortunately Ezio swiftly deals justice, before hiding the Apple in another temple.

Revelations continues Ezio’s story four years later, where Ezio’s gone to Altair’s castle in Masyaf, trying to discover Altair’s secrets. But there’s a problem: the Templars have taken the castle. Nevertheless, Ezio manages to make his way to the entrance of Altair’s library, where he finds that it requires five keys to be opened: all in Constantinople! Cue going to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Ezio meets a lovely woman named Sofia, who he eventually winds up marrying. Before that though, we have more politics! The two princes, Ahmet and Salim, are fighting over who will become the Sultanate. The Templars are involved (shock horror!), as Ahmet is leading the Templars, plotting to open up the library and gain the Apple for himself. During all of this, Ezio slowly gains the keys, which allow him to relive Altair’s memories – hence the Altair parts in Revelations. All of this comes together in a wonderful way, with Ahmet killed by his brother, the library opened by Ezio, and Ezio’s Apple being placed alongside Altair’s inside, along with all of Ezio’s assassin gear.

Ezio’s story comes to a conclusion in the film Assassin’s Creed: Embers. He goes to Firenze, his home town, with his wife and daughter. Here he dies peacefully, sitting on a bench. Depressing, but a fitting end to a wonderful man.

Now then. I’ve left out two very important things. Desmond and the First Civilization. Let’s talk about those.

Desmond is a modern day assassin. In AC1, he’s abducted by Abstergo, the modern day Templars, and forced to use the Animus, a device which lets him replay his ancestors’ memories. In AC1, he relives Altair’s life. After the map showing the Pieces of Eden is revealed, Desmond’s purpose is served, as all Abstergo want is the location of the other Pieces so that they can take them for themselves, in order to prevent the end of the world in 2012 by controlling the human race. Convoluted, right? Desmond is saved by Lucy, a double agent for the Assassins. At the end of the game, Desmond sees all sorts of weird messages predicting the end of the world, written in blood by Subject 16: one of Abstergo’s previous test subjects.

In AC2, Desmond leaves Abstergo, and meets up with some other modern day Assassins. They use the Animus to train Desmond, so that he can help them to destroy Abstergo. He relives Ezio’s life. Towards the end, Ezio encounters the vault, and the First Civilization. These people bear the names of Roman gods, and here we meet a holographic figure, Minerva. She talks about how her people and humans coexisted, before war broke out between the two. A huge disaster occurred, almost killing everyone on Earth, and she says that it’s going to happen again soon: specifically in 2012. They created temples to stop this from happening again, and it’s up to the modern day Assassins to use them. At this point Desmond leaves the Animus, and him and his team flee Abstergo. They head towards a safe house, with Lucy explaining that a solar flare could cause the catastrophe Minerva spoke about. Desmond agrees to help find the temples to save the world. Fun times.

Brotherhood kicks off with the team visiting Ezio’s villa at Monteriggioni, where Desmond returns to the Animus as Ezio, determined to find the Apple of Eden to save the world. Once Ezio hides the Apple at the end of the game, Desmond leaves the Animus, and goes to the temple in real life. There Desmond enters the temple, meeting Juno, who’s also from the First Civilization. She doesn’t seem too fond of humanity, and when Desmond touches the Apple she tells him that he’s descended from the First Civilization. Then she takes control of him and forces him to stab Lucy. Yep, she’s definitely not fond of humans. Lucy dies, and Desmond falls into a coma. Cue the credits.

Life doesn’t really improve for Desmond in Revelations. He spends the whole game in a coma, trapped inside the Animus in order to save his mind from collapsing. Here, on Animus Island (stupid name, I know), he meets Subject 16 – or rather, his consciousness. It’s made clear that the only way for Desmond to survive is for him to replay Ezio and Altair’s memories until there’s nothing left to see. Once all the memories have been lived out, Jupiter, another member of the First Civilization, appears to Desmond. He talks about the many vaults that they built to study how to save Earth. All of this data was transmitted to a central vault in New England (which happens to be where AC3 is set). Unfortunately, none of the methods worked, and the First Civilization was destroyed in an awful solar flare disaster. The modern day Assassins must go to the central vault to save the world from its impending doom. Desmond wakes up, and off they trot to go and save the world.

And there we have it. The stage has been set for AC3: Ezio and Altair are dead, the vault is in New England, and the world is about to end. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the incredible AC plot there, but that should be more than enough to prepare you for the new game. Hopefully many questions will be answered: most notably if the world is saved or not! I for one am very excited, and I can’t wait to see what Ubisoft have in store for us. For now, why don’t you read our preview, or go and check out our Top 5 assassinations.