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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning recent or upcoming releases from the Assassin's Creed series. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
Griffin
Griffin (unknown – 2016) was a member of the Assassin Brotherhood active during the 21st century.
Biography
Search for the Trident of Eden
The First Prong
In 2016, after the Brotherhood discovered that Monroe, a former employee of Abstergo on the run, had come out of hiding, Griffin was sent to investigate. Discovering that Monroe recruited a group of teenagers who discovered clues leading to a Piece of Eden while using a stolen Animus, the Assassin tried to learn what they knew and to prevent the Templars from reaching them first. Later, as an Abstergo agent accosted Owen on the street, Griffin intervened, neutralizing him, but the young teen managed to flee with the help of Monroe.[1]
Griffin's intervention didn't prevent the Templars from eventually finding the warehouse where the teenagers were reliving the memories of their ancestors and they sent a strike team which captured four of them. However, the last two, Owen and Javier, escaped thanks to the Bleeding Effect and Griffin retrieved them thanks to the tracking device in their stolen Abstergo bike. Griffin convinced Owen to trust him, and the teenager in turn convinced his reluctant friend to work with the Assassins. The teenagers revealed that during their time in the Animus, they discovered that a Dagger of Eden was gifted to Ulysses S. Grant who kept it until his death in his family cottage. Griffin prompted them to use Eagle Vision to see if he was truly trustworthy and promised to secure the Brotherhood's help in order to prove that Owen's father was innocent of the crime he was arrested for. He then brought them to his safe house.[1]
After equipping themselves and receiving a call from Gavin Banks, who revealed that the Dagger was in fact a prong of the Trident of Eden, they took a private plane to New York and from there drove to Grant's house. However, Monroe arrived there first and left with the artifact before, the stash being empty. Before they left, three helicopters filled with Templar agents arrived to the house and after Owen destroyed two of them with a grenade, they escaped. Griffin subsequently scolded Owen for disobeying his order not to engage, threatening to forgo his promise of exonerating his father to the teenager if he disobeyed again. He then reminded Owen and Javier that there were still three Pieces of Eden that Abstergo desired and the Templars believed they and the other teenagers were the key to finding them. He offered them a choice to carry on, to which Javier was considering refusing, but Owen on the other hand was willing to accept Griffin's offer.[1]
The Second Prong
Griffin spent the next few weeks training the two teenagers in basic combat and freerunning, though the latter had trouble understanding what it meant to hide in plain sight. Subsequently, Griffin was warned by Gavin that their Abstergo informant, Rothenburg, had tipped them that his storage unit safe house was compromised, and ordered him to rendezvous with Rebecca Crane. Griffin scuttled the safe house but was forced to abandon his car as the Templar strike team arrived earlier than expected. After dealing with the Templar's, Griffin taught the boys how to blend in by taking a cab to their new safe house, where they met Rebecca, who had set up an Animus for Owen. Rebecca explained to Owen that a Chinese ancestor of his encounter the second prong in 1259. Soon afterwards, she was forced to leave on a different mission.[2]
While supervising Owen's Animus session, Griffin reluctantly let Javier leave the safe house, but the young man stole his car to break into the police warehouse where Owen's father's case file was stored. Upon Javier's return, Griffin scolded him for risking their safe house's location and informed him of the three Tenets of the Creed, saying he was lucky he didn't compromise the Brotherhood. Though Javier protested that he was not an Assassin, Griffin stated that sooner or later a side would have to be chosen.[2]
Once Owen was out of the Animus, having learned nothing about the second prong's location, Griffin informed him of his friend's reckless actions. Owen soon searched through the evidence, finding a spit sample that contained his father's DNA from after the robbery. Griffin stated they would first have to get access to a Helix and the Abstergo Cloud to view his father's genetic memories.[2]
Griffin then contacted Gavin for any intel from Rothenburg, only to learn that the informant had gone dark, leaving Griffin's only recourse to rescue the other teenagers from the Templars. Owen and Javier insisted on coming with him, reasoning that the others would not trust the Assassin. After equipping themselves with pain grenades and laser arrays, Griffin drove them to the Aerie, where their friends were being kept, and taught them how to avoid the security systems. Unfortunately, Griffin later got separated from the two. Deciding to clear the two boys a path, Griffin made his presence known to the Templars as a diversion. He soon met up with Javier, who had rescued Natalya and David, who had chosen to flee the Templars, but Sean and Grace chose to stay, which Griffin found unsurprising. Griffin then took the wheel of the high-tech car the teenagers had stolen, and was able to evade Abstergo helicopters thanks to the car's stealth functions. He then learned that Monroe had also staged a rescue attempt and that he and Owen were left behind.[2]
Upon returning to the safe house, Griffin desired to vacate the place immediately, believing Owen would be interrogated with drugs or have the Helix analyze his DNA. He then contacted Gavin, who informed him that Rothenburg was displeased with the raid and had nearly broken off contact before revealing that the Templar Isaiah was planning an expedition to Mongolia. With their safe house secured for the time being and Isaiah not ready to leave for several days, Griffin asked Natalya if she would go back into the Animus to locate the second prong. Natalya agreed on the condition that he take them all to Mongolia, which she then talked over with Gavin.[2]
Griffin, Natalya, David and Javier traveled to China via cargo plane. While on the plane, Griffin asked Javier to join the Brotherhood. Javier liked the idea, and Griffin told him that after they found the Trident of Eden, his introduction could be arranged. When they arrived in China, they met the Assassin Yanmei, who provided a private jet for the journey to Mongolia. On the way to the tomb, the jet was shot down by the Templars. Surviving the crash, the Assassins confirmed the location of the Abstergo camp. As they made their way to the tomb on foot, David went towards the Abstergo camp, believing a series of lights were signalling him that Grace was there but was captured by the Templars.
Upon reaching the spot where Natalya desynchronized, she still refused to give up the location of the tomb, refusing to trust the Assassins for their absolute obedience to the Creed. However, Yanmei manged to convince Natalya to lead them to the tomb. But as the Assassins started digging, Natalya tricked Javier into showing her how to operate his crossbow pistol before using sleep darts on the Assassins. Javier assisted her in the excavation before they were joined by Owen, Grace, David and Monroe, who had just escaped the Templar camp, and began assisting them.
As Isaiah entered the tomb, the Assassin regained consciousness and attacked Isaiah, at which Javier used a smoke bomb to escape. Isaiah soon emerged from the tomb with the fear prong and used its power on everyone. He then killed Yanmei when she tried to attack him, and Isaiah ordered all the Templars to follow him, leaving the teenagers and the Assassins.
Griffin carried Yanmei's body out of the tomb. Upon reaching the Abstergo camp, Natalya felt regret for not telling the Assassins the tomb's location earlier, but Griffin reminded her that people die in war and that Yanmei would have respected her principles. Griffin tried to find a way to communicate with Gavin Banks or Yanmei's cell, but Victoria Bibeau arrived at the camp, and Grace went to her with the rest of the teenagers while Griffin remained hidden. Having learned of Isaiah's betrayal of the Order, she informed everyone that Isaiah had also acquired the first prong. The Templars drew their weapons upon hearing that the Assassins were present, and Natalya reasoned that both sides needed to work together before Isaiah destroyed both Orders, at which Griffin and Victoria agreed to a ceasefire until they defeated Isaiah and recovered the third prong, which was in Scandanavia.
Personality and traits
Having been born into the Brotherhood, Griffin strongly believed in the Assassins' cause and the Creed, willing to die to defend an individual's free will. An experienced veteran, Griffin possessed sharp cunning in deducing that Owen and Javier had Assassin and/or Templar ancestry.[1]
Trivia
- A trained warrior and freerunner, Griffin was at least a third generation member of the Brotherhood.
- Despite being described as having dark complexion in the book, Griffin is depicted with light skin on the cover of Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants.
- Griffin follows the franchise's tradition of Assassins having avian-related names. A griffin is a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
References