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"These devices—powerful in function but limited in scope—were used by the precursor First Civilization to record brief memory impressions, which could then be played back or re-experienced by another user at a later date."
―Abstergo Industries' description of the Memory Seals.[src]-[m]

Memory Seals are Precursor relics with the ability to contain the recorded memories of their users, whether Isu or human.

History[]

Isu Era[]

While the Isu Capitoline Triad of Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno worked within the Grand Temple to avert the Great Catastrophe,[8] Minerva and Jupiter recorded messages on several seals that were intended for Desmond Miles to view thousands of years later. However, after Juno was imprisoned within the Temple, she found the seals and threw them into the chasm below the compound, believing them to be "filled with lies".[1]

Middle Ages[]

Abbasid Caliphate[]

In the 9th century CE, the Order of the Ancients found a number of Memory Seals while excavating Isu ruins in the desert surrounding Baghdad and sought to unravel their secrets. To this end, they built a device known as the Alruh, located underneath the House of Wisdom, which the Ancient Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa used to experiment on various test subjects by exposing them to the seals' contents, driving them insane in the process.[9]

ACMirage The Master Thief of Anbar 37

A Memory Seal in Al-Mutawakkil's chest

In 861, the caliph Al-Mutawakkil, a puppet of the Order, came into possession of a Memory Seal, which he kept within a locked chest. The Ancients forbid him from laying his eyes on the chest's contents and, on 11 December, had a meeting with the caliph at his Winter Palace in Anbar to see the artifact for themselves. After confirming that the artifact was a seal, the Ancients ordered Al-Mutawakkil to keep it safe and left.[10]

However, during the caliph's meeting with the Order members, the thief Basim Ibn Ishaq broke into the palace, intending to steal the chest's contents for the Hidden Ones. Upon picking up the seal, it projected a hologram of an unknown male striking a prisoner, which alerted Al-Mutawakkil to Basim's presence. After killing the caliph in self-defense, Basim fled the palace with the seal in his pocket and returned to his dwelling. The next morning, he was visited by the Hidden One Roshan, who took the seal and brought it, along with Basim, to Alamut.[10]

ACMir The Great Symposium 27

Fazil inserting a Memory Seal into the Alruh

After Basim became a Hidden One, he was tasked with eliminating the Order's presence in Baghdad. During his investigation, Basim learned about Fazil's experiments with the Alruh and the Memory Seals and infiltrated the House of Wisdom to assassinate the Ancient. Posing as a test subject, Basim was able to get close enough to his target to stab him with his Hidden Blade while Fazil attempted to experiment on him with the Alruh.[9]

Sometime later, when Basim entered the Isu temple underneath Alamut, he found dozens of Memory Seals locked away. One of them contained a recorded memory of Loki, who had been imprisoned inside the temple, and it helped Basim, who was the Isu's reborn form, to unlock the dormant memories of his past life.[3]

Usage by Altaïr[]

In the early 13th century, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Mentor of the Levantine Assassins, was exiled from Masyaf and took refuge in Alamut, where his Apple of Eden guided him to the Isu temple underneath the fortress. Altaïr subsequently claimed six of the Memory Seals he found there, using them to record important events in his life for potential Assassins to view centuries later. Following his return to Masyaf, Altaïr began construction on a secret library and used five of his seals as the keys.[2]

The torch 7

Altaïr passing the Memory Seals to Niccolò Polo

In order, the events that Altaïr chose to record involved a Crusader skirmish in 1189,[11] the revolt shortly after Al Mualim's death in 1191,[12] Maria Thorpe's death and Altaïr's exile in 1228,[13] Altaïr's return to Masyaf in 1247,[14] Niccolò and Maffeo Polo's departure in 1257 during the Fall of Masyaf,[15] and Altaïr's death shortly thereafter.[16]

Prior to his death, Altaïr passed the five seals to his library to Niccolò, trusting him to hide them.[17] Upon arriving in Constantinople, Niccolò hid the seals in several secret locations around the city and left behind clues to their whereabouts in his book The Secret Crusade. Respectively, the five seals were placed within Topkapı Palace,[17] the Yerebatan Cistern,[18] Galata Tower,[19] the Forum of the Ox,[20] and the Maiden's Tower.[21] Meanwhile, the sixth and final seal remained with Altaïr inside his library, where he recorded his final moments.[16]

Renaissance[]

In 1509, the Byzantine Templars recovered the Memory Seal beneath Topkapı Palace after an earthquake struck Constantinople, allowing them to claim the artifact. They subsequently set out to retrieve the remaining four seals and uncover the secrets of Altaïr's library.[22]

In 1511, two Memory Seals in Alexandria were located by Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri's soldiers during the excavation of the Library of Alexandria. These seals, kept within a chest dated to 331 BCE, were recovered by both the Egyptian Assassins and their Ottoman brethren shortly afterwards. The seals were later taken to the local Assassins' headquarters, where they were studied by an woman initiate. As she worked to "unlock the mysteries" of the seals, the Templars led an attack on the headquarters, though they were thwarted again by the Ottoman Assassins.[23]

ACR Masyaf Key

Ezio retrieving a Memory Seal

That same year, the Italian Assassins' Mentor Ezio Auditore journeyed to Constantinople after learning about Altaïr's library and the five Memory Seals required to access it. Using information from The Secret Crusade, Ezio was able to find and recover the seals kept within the Yerebatan Cistern,[18] Galata Tower,[19] the Forum of the Ox,[20] and the Maiden's Tower[21] ahead of the Byzantine Templars. Later, he journeyed to Cappadocia where he reclaimed the fifth seal from a dying Manuel Palaiologos,[24] and found the final one upon entering Altaïr's library.[25] Following his return to Constantinople, Ezio entrusted all six seals to the Ottoman Assassins, who hid them within the Yerebatan Cistern.[4]

Modern times[]

By the 21st century, Abstergo Industries had found a number of Memory Seals, though very few of them contained recorded memories, none of which belonged to the Isu. Nonetheless, research of the artifacts helped the company in their early breakthroughs in genetic memory technology, which ultimately led to the development of the Animus.[26]

In 2013, an embedded file in the Abstergo Entertainment mainframe focused on several different Isu technologies, including Memory Seals. The file mentioned that fewer than 40 seals had ever been found or accounted for, leading Abstergo to speculate that the artifacts were not widely used by the Isu and were instead reserved for the wealthiest and most powerful members of their society. The file also revealed that Abstergo knew of the six Memory Seals used by Altaïr and believed they could still be functional, but had been unable to locate them.[26]

Behind the scenes[]

While first introduced in the 2011 game Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Memory Seals were not identified by name until Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), which features a document discussing Abstergo's research of various Precursor relics. As such, it is unknown if "Memory Seals" is the actual name of the artifacts or just the one given to them by Abstergo.

The Memory Seals featured in the 2023 game Assassin's Creed: Mirage differ in design from the ones seen in Revelations, as they lack the golden ring near the center. They also appear to function differently, displaying a holographic recording of the memory stored on them, though it is unknown if the seals from Revelations also have this ability.

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Assassin's Creed IIIDesmond Miles' email: Subject line "They left"
  2. 2.0 2.1 Assassin's Creed: Revelations Official Game Guide
  3. 3.0 3.1 Assassin's Creed: MirageIn Pursuit of Truth
  4. 4.0 4.1 Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel
  5. 5.0 5.1 Assassin's Creed III
  6. 6.0 6.1 Assassin's Creed: Mirage
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Assassin's Creed: Revelations
  8. Assassin's Creed IIIModern day
  9. 9.0 9.1 Assassin's Creed: MirageThe Great Symposium
  10. 10.0 10.1 Assassin's Creed: MirageThe Master Thief of Anbar
  11. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Mentor's Keeper
  12. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Mentor's Wake
  13. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsA New Regime
  14. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Mentor's Return
  15. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsPassing the Torch
  16. 16.0 16.1 Assassin's Creed: RevelationsLost Legacy
  17. 17.0 17.1 Assassin's Creed: RevelationsA Journal of Some Kind
  18. 18.0 18.1 Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Yerebatan Cistern
  19. 19.0 19.1 Assassin's Creed: RevelationsGalata Tower
  20. 20.0 20.1 Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Forum of the Ox
  21. 21.0 21.1 Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Maiden's Tower
  22. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsThe Wounded Eagle
  23. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsMediterranean Defense: "Alexandria"
  24. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsLast of the Palaiologi
  25. Assassin's Creed: RevelationsA Homecoming
  26. 26.0 26.1 Assassin's Creed IV: Black FlagNoob's personal files – Abstergo Industries: "Crypto-History: Artifacts"

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