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Every Assassin's Creed we unravel pieces of the series's multifarious mythos. Assassin's Creed 3 won't change that. When Ubisoft's blockbuster makes its anticipated arrival this Halloween Eve, we'll finally discover the destiny of one Desmond Miles; we'll discover where the world stands on 12.21.12; we'll discover how the Templars and Assassin's shaped the birth of a new nation;  and we'll discover how a displaced Mohawk orphan grows to become General Washington's ruthless right hand.

We might also discover where Assassin's Creed is headed next.

Not every game has ended with a clear vision of  AC's future intact - the American Revolution never appeared certain until AC 3's announcement drew near. Thanks to a multitude of factors within the series's past and present, however, the French Revolution seems preordained as its next destination. Read on to hear why - and to learn about the tumultuous time period Ubisoft could already be crafting.

America Set the Stage

Assassins Creed 4 French Revolution America

For Assassin’s Creed to ignore the French Revolution after chronicling the American Revolution would be like a building not following a foundation, thunder not following lightning. The two are inextricably linked.

As the rebellious American colonies and an affronted Great Britain waged war along the U.S. Eastern seaboard, no other country was more engaged with the proceedings than France. Whether it was shipping supplies sub rosa to abed the Continental Army; partying with ambassador/international celebrity Ben Franklin as he sought to negotiate an open alliance; or eventually deploying their navy to seal in the British at Yorktown in 1781, one of the final blows to the Redcoats, Louis XVI and his cabinet in Versailles happily exploited the Revolution to avenge their loss to the British during the French-Indian War.

If only they knew what would come next.

France was a powder keg playing with fire; it was a country where centuries of absolute monarchy had produced an opulent ruling class while simultaneously leaving common citizens to bear the economic burden (nationwide starvation had skyrocketed in the 1780s). Sure enough, the American Revolution galvanized the French public with the ideals of Enlightenment — ideals of liberté and intellectualism and inalienable rights; of John Locke and Isaac Newton and Voltaire — and after the debt of French involvement broke an already-fledgling economy, a wave of militaristic uprise and social upheaval swept across the state. By 1789 — six years after the last British regiment boarded a ship out of America — France was is in full-blown revolution. By 1792 Louis XVI’s head was in a basket, yea verily woven in part by his colonial meddling.

And so assuming Assassin’s Creed retains its chronological structure — and assuming that doesn’t mean skipping ahead, say, to the Civil War — the history books lead straight to France. Connor's visions of liberty and justice transcend any one nation or struggle against tyranny. The transition writes itself.

The Story is Tailor-Made For Assassin's Creed

French Revolution Battle Assassins Creed

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The opening paragraph of Charles Dickens’ iconic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, spares no expense - capturing the zeitgeist of the French Revolution as it sprung up from an egalitarian awakening and ushered in the Jacobin Reign of Terror, a run of dictatorial brutality between September of 1793 and July of 1794 that witnessed over 16,000 Frenchmen beheaded at the guillotine.

The same events Dickens used to craft a timeless epic of society and strife are tailored perfectly for the writers of Assassin’s Creed.

To start, look at the cast: There’s Louis XVI, the aforementioned, aforedecapitated monarch who was a tireless but indecisive politician before and after rebel captivity; Marie Antoinette, the Austrian-born wife of Louis who lived like an 18th Century Kardashian while her people starved; Maximilien de Robespierre, the brilliant populist orator who argued for Louis’s execution, encouraged the Reign of Terror, reformed French religion, but then met the guillotine himself in 1794; the Marquis de La Fayette, the French general/oh-by-the-way hero of the American Revolution who supported French uprising, first presented the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, but ultimately ended up a Jacobin prisoner as the Americans funded daring rescue efforts. Furthermore, depending on how far into the era any one game would go, Assassin’s Creed 4 could acquaint us with the Last Tyrant Standing of the French Revolution: a small-statured general named Napoleon Bonaparte.

And of course the story itself hits on every Assassin’s Creed staple, from conspiracy to chaos to triumph to tragedy.

It’s the story of the individual liberty and the struggle of free will.

It’s the story of Louis XVI plotting from the bowels of a medieval prison to reclaim the throne.

It’s the story of a common poet walking to his execution before a clamorous crowd, thousands having gone before him, thousands to follow.

It’s the story of political change giving way to national change giving way to global change, with money and loyalty changing hands every step of the way.

And perhaps most importantly: it’s a story of insurrection and instability on levels so unrelenting, Templars and Assassins couldn’t possibly close their eyes to it. With the narrative gumption displayed so often by Assassin’s Creed’s talented creators and storytellers, chances are the same applies for them.

Architectural Awesomeness

Architecturally, 18th-Century France was a cultural confluence of classical and cutting-edge; a synthesis of medieval Gothic, commensurate Renaissance, regal Baroque, iconoclastic Rococo, and the control-minded imperial aspirations of Louis XVI and, later, Napoleon. What does this mean for people who just want to climb stuff? Plenty! Below is a mere sampling of the masonry that dominated France’s cityscapes and rural plains during the French Revolution.

The fortress Bastille, Paris: the iconic location of the Revolution’s first bloodshed; pictured ablaze during its siege on July 14, 1789.

 

Luxembourg Palace, Paris: a busy place during the French Revolution — serving as a prison, the seat of the French Directory, and Napoleon’s initial living quarters as the ruler of France; commissioned with permission of Maria de' Medici (the last name being familiar to anyone who played Assassin’s Creed II).

 

Tuileries Palace, Paris, c. 1564-1570s: the royal Parisian palace that housed Louis XVI and family after their exile from Versailles; destroyed in 1871.

 

Palace of Versailles, Versailles: a 2,300-room symbol of power, control and unfathomable luxury; built primarily during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715).

 

The Pantheon, Paris, c. 1758-1790: originally intended as a church, but converted to a mausoleum upon completion for the interment of “National Heroes” (a growing demand in the 1790s).

 

Les Invalides, Paris, c. 1671-1678: a massive muti-purpose complex in the heart of Paris; pillaged on July 14, 1789 by rioters, who would use its weapons stockpile the following day in the storming of Bastille.

 

Musée du Louvre, Paris, c. 1793: perhaps the most famous museum in the world and current home of the Mona Lisa; converted from prison to museum in 1793 — the middle of the Revolution — to “preserve the national memory.” (The pyramid, however, wasn't constructed until 1988.)

 

We could go on, but then for how long? France — especially Paris — as the 19th Century neared was a source of architectural achievement as any a prior setting of Assassin’s Creed. If Assassin’s Creed 3 can make a pliable landscape out of Revolutionary America — judging by everything we know regarding the New York, Boston, and wilderness areas of the game, they certainly have — finding inspiration for navigation here is as easy as eating cake.

The French Connection of the Assassin's Creed 3 Cast

 

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So we know about the history and ideologies that would tether Assassin’s Creed III to the French Revoultion. But what about the cast? There’s Ben Franklin, of many things a U.S. ambassador/socialite to France during the American Revolution; Thomas Jefferson, a diplomat and US Minister to France shortly after Franklin. Two more AC 3 characters, though, deserve a closer look.

It’s been impossible not to mention the Marquis de Lafayette, Gilbert du Motier, already. As it happens, Ubisoft has also confirmed his presence in AC 3. Before his formative role in the renovation of France, Lafayette served under George Washington as a general in the Continental Army and helped deal one of the final blows to the British by landlocking General Cornwallis into surrender at Yorktown.  We don’t know if he’ll ever establish a relationship with Connor; Ubisoft, perhaps not coincidentally, has detailed nothing on that end. With his close proximity to Washington and travels back to France during the American conflict, however, foreshadowing Lafayette’s destiny doesn’t seem like the kind of narrative juice an AC game would pass up.

And then we have Aveline de Grandpré. Strong-willed activist, highly-skilled assassin, New Orleans-born daughter of a wealthy French merchant and his dutifully-wedded African bride, the heroine of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation isn’t just a barrier breaker of video game protagonists; the future of the franchise might rest on her shoulders. That Aveline will cross paths with Connor during Liberation is telling enough about her significance. (This may be a handheld title but it’s not to be carried lightly.) When we consider her family history (très français), her wealth (substantial), and current place of residence (French-held New Orleans, “the Bayou”), she could easily be the series’ next Ezio Auditore — a world-traveling virtuoso — with a surfeit of story potential in the French Revolution.

It's Been Hinted At Before

Assassins Creed Apple French Revolution

Has Assassin’s Creed also hinted at the Moon and Tesla Tower? Arguably. But the French Revolution hints go beyond trivia and trivial; one of the overarching plot’s most seminal moments — the ending of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood  — might have pointed straight to it.

[Spoiler Alert] The the video the ensuing paragraphs utterly ruin the ending of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

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Take the video above to the 6:50 mark. As Desmond and companions Lucy, Shaun, and Rebecca gaze in awe at the tableau of symbols streaming from the Apple of Eden, Shaun has an flicker of insight: the pyramid symbol, a Phyrigian Cap, in union with the Masonic Eye “come together in only one place.” The scene, sans Desmond, then freezes - but it didn’t take the Internet long to pinpoint that place as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a text that came to define the French Revolution much like the Declaration of Independence defined the American Revolution.

We have to caution our exo-Animus companion; the Eye of Providence, as it’s referred too, is almost always ensconced in a pyramid and has appeared on the back of the U.S. one-dollar bill, ancient Egyptian and Buddhist paintings, and college fraternity facades around the globe. Then again no one’s saying Assassin’s Creed doesn’t take liberties with the truth, and if we assume that Sean was referring to primary sources of history, the Eye is indeed very unique to the French Declaration.

It’s not hard evidence (welcome to Assassin’s Creed); as our own Andrew Dyce pointed out last week, Juno and the Old Gods clearly have plans beyond the known world, if not universe. Combine the foreboding the scene with Napoleon posessing an Apple of Eden in Assassin’s Creed 2, though, and it’s possible an “Apple hunt,” of sorts, might ensue in the French Revolution after Desmond’s story ends in AC 3.

It Doesn't Have to Be Assassin's Creed 4

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While we’re assuming Assassins Creed 4 would be the tentative title for any game succeeding Assassin’s Creed 3, we all know how many games it took to arrive at 3 after the debut of 2. We can't ignore the possibility of yet another numerical long haul.

Let’s consider the aforementioned link between the American Revolution and the French Revolution. Both were part of a worldwide sea change. The former foreshadowed the decline of rampant European colonialism, and the latter was the launching pad for revolutionary zeal and democratic ideals that swept across Europe and continue to impact the world today. In other words, Assassin’s Creed 3 has a much larger, more transcending theme to it, and just as it worked wonders for Ubisoft to encapsulate most of the Renaissance into AC II, Brotherhood, and Revelations, what’s not plausible about, say, the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Napoleonic Wars falling ahead of a more dramatic shift in AC 4?

French Revolution Assassins Creed Liberty

Naturally, there would be protagonist predicaments; Altair and Ezio might have been ethnically germane to many countries during their lifetime, but the Native American Connor storming Bastille or assassinating in the name of a French political faction would be a bit harder to write. Upon ending the journey of Desmond Miles, though, Ubisoft has expressed a desire for loosening up their storytelling approach, expanding it beyond direct ancestors of the former New York City bartender. It may take a game or two for them to discover another long-term direction (especially if AC 3 ends on an earth-shattering note). The French Revolution and its coterie of conflicts, then, wouldn't just serve as another Renaissance — they'd be an apropos experiment: Any radical ideas or characters that need to be severed from the script, Madame Guillotine has never been so hungry.

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There's a reason many, a year ago, had the French Revolution on their wishlist for Assassin's Creed 3: While the French Revolution may not have the marketing potential of America vs. Britain, the sensationalism of uprising and the fortuity of freedom would ring just as loud. Demand wouldn't flinch.

That being said: For a franchise that wants to extend its life cycle, ostensibly, for as long as video games exist on God's green Earth, the French Revolution surely wouldn't be the only milieu on Ubisoft's drawing board. Even today. What do you expect out of the future of Assassin's Creed - for AC 4, 5, 6, or any halves and thirds that might fall in the middle?

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