- "I've always known that in your heart, you were a scientist first, a Templar second."
- ―Alan Rikkin to Sofia, 2016.[src]
Sofia Rikkin (born 1980) is a scientist and the head of the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Madrid. She is also the daughter of Alan Rikkin, the former CEO of Abstergo Industries and part of the Templar Order's Inner Sanctum, with whom she had a difficult relationship.
In October 2016, Sofia came into contact with Callum Lynch, a criminal whose Assassin ancestry was of interest to the Council of Elders within the Order. During their time together the pair formed a connection but when Lynch's escape from the Foundation led to the death of Alan Rikkin at his hand, Sofia dedicated herself to chasing down her father's killer.
Biography
Early life
The daughter of high-ranking Templar Alan Rikkin and his wife, Sofia was born in 1980. Four years later, Sofia's mother was killed by an Assassin when she was still a toddler. According to her own words, Sofia grew up with computers as babysittors, and had a lonely childhood as Rikkin didn't permitted his daughter to bond with « ordinary » children.
After achieving brilliant studies in her adolescence, Sofia consequently decided to follow in her father's footsteps and joined the Templar Order and Abstergo Industries.
Abstergo career
In 2006, while in Berkeley, Sofia met Layla Hassan, and impressed by the younger woman recruited her into Abstergo's Young Innovators program. Promising her a place on the Animus Project, the two became close acquaintances, but cut ties from each other some years later.[2]
By 2014,[2] she was put in charge of the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Madrid, where she studied violence and tried to find a cure for it through the Animus.
In February 2014, Sofia sent the Animus 4.3 schematics to Layla, asking for her advice on how to improve the new model. Layla suggested to add an inverted six-axis motion rig, suspending the subjects connected to the device in mid-air and allowing them to move freely while experiencing the memories of their ancestors.
During the following two years, Layla kept sending mails to Sofia asking her to join her team in Madrid and work on the new Animus, but the latter didn't answered back. On August 31 2016, Sofia Rikkin finally sent a mail to Layla, asking her former protegee to stop trying to contact her. Sofia telling Layla that even if she was brilliant, her Abstergo record showed that she was too unpredictable and transgressive to join the Animus Project because she couldn't be trusted to follow rules.
Meeting Lynch
On October 2016, after discovering the whereabouts of Callum Lynch, an Assassin descendant who unknowingly had clues leading to an Apple of Eden within his genetic memory, Sofia traveled to Texas where Lynch was about to be executed for murder. Present in the room where her target was injected with what he believed to be lethal drugs, the Templar had in fact staged the execution and had Lynch secretly brought to Madrid.
The next day, as he woke up from his induced coma, Sofia introduced herself to Lynch and informed him that for the rest of the world he was now officially dead. Despite her efforts to appease the disoriented man, who was still under the effect of the tetrodotoxin, Lynch fled, scrambling and hobbling through the facilty with Sofia ordering her men to let him go. Eventually, after passing by a lot of guards, orderlies and other « patients », Lynch reached the garden of the facility and discovered that the building was located high above the ground. Standing upon the ledge, Lynch was still there unsure of what to do next when Sofia caught up with him. Assuring him that he wasn't a prisonner despite the evidence, Sofia asked Lynch to trust her and revealed that he was in the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center, where she worked on perfecting humankind by eradicating violence. After she asked for his help in this endeavour, Lynch finally stepped away from the edge and approached Rikkin only to be shot with a sedative dart by McGowen, the Center's chief of security.
To an angry Sofia, who coldly told him that she had everything under control, McGowen responded that he was following her father's orders, the powerful Templar wanting Lynch in the Animus as soon as possible. While stating that Lynch was her patient and that she was the one in charge of the facility, Sofia had no choice but to comply and two guards dragged Lynch away. In the Animus room, Sofia supervised her team work as a groggy Lynch was equipped with Hidden Blades and strapped to the mechanical arm of an Animus 4.3. As Lynch was lifted in the air by the arm, Sofia told him that he was about to relive the memories of one of his ancestors from 1491 Andalusia, the Assassin Aguilar de Nerha, and warned the panicked man not to resist the memories. During Lynch's first regression, Sofia and the technicians witnessed as Aguilar and the Spanish Assassins tried to rescue prince Ahmed of Granada from the Templars of the time. However, after experiencing the failure of his ancestor, Lynch desynchronized and traumatized by the ordeal, became catatonic. Sofia went to Lynch and told him that he did well before ordering orderlies to bring him to his room and let him rest.
Looking for the Apple
While Lynch was recovering, Sofia went to her father's office, who had come from London to oversee his daughter's work with the new subject. After he asked if everything went well, Sofia assured Rikkin that Lynch was the one who will lead them to the Apple hidden by Aguilar. As he ordered her to push Lynch further, Sofia rebuffed her father, telling him that it was not how the Animus worked and that they needed to keep the subject in good health. The Grand Master then informed his daughter that he was going back to London, having been summoned by the Council of Elders.
The next day, as Lynch woke up, he began to have vivid hallucinations of Aguilar until Sofia entered the room. She explained that he was experiencing side-effects of the Animus, the Bleeding Effect, and once again offered to help him. Enraged by what was happening to him, the man suddenly grabbed the Templar by the throat and demanded to know what they wanted from him. Sofia ordered the guards to stand down and after he released her, invited Lynch to follow her back to her lab. Once there, Lynch discovered numerous newspapers headlines about his troubled past as well as his complete Assassin genealogy.
Finding the Apple
London gathering
Personality and characteristics
An idealist, Sofia believes she can better the world through her work at Abstergo[3] and seeks to eradicate humanity's violent impulses using science and the Pieces of Eden. In doing so, she hopes to create a more peaceful society.[4]
A hard working scientist above all, she could be quite distant at times and often disregarded giving credit to others, such as taking credit for the Animus 4.3 concept art conceived by Layla Hassan.
Her relationship with her father Alan Rikkin was difficult and estranged most of the time; where he sought to contain the Assassin threat, she only sought to contain violence itself.[5]
Trivia
Callum's ancestor
- The name Sofia is derived from the Greek Σοφια, which means "wisdom". In the movie novelization, Alan Rikkin mentions that she was named for this reason.
- Sofia speaks three languages fluently.
- Sofia seems to share some of Callum Lynch's ancestry, as one of his ancestors appearing through the Animus was a female Assassin whose appearance was identical to Sofia's.
Gallery
Appearances
- Assassin's Creed: Heresy (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: The Movie
- Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization
- Assassin's Creed Origins (mentioned only)
References
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