This October,
following a year-long sabbatical away from the world of videogames, Assassin’s
Creed returns home. Origins is set to offer the series something of a soft-reboot,
bringing together some of the franchise’s best mechanics with a fresh new
outlook for 2017. So to get you in the mood for another round of hooded
stabbery, we’ve delved into the history of the Assassin/Templar war and
discovered how real-world innovations inspired the technology of the series so
far...
The Hidden Blade
The hidden blade
has become as synonymous with Assassin’s Creed as white hoods and questionable
eavesdropping missions. The design has had multiple variations throughout the
series (with early versions using a basic design of leather straps and a steel
blade – as well as the need to cut off your middle finger to enable the blade
to extend and retract).
The series has
also seen the introduction of a few wacky updates, including the Hidden
Footblade of Shao Jun (Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China), the Pivot Blade of
Ratonhnhakë:ton (Assassin’s Creed III), the Trident Blade of Arbaaz Mir
(Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India). It’s also become a popular design with
real-life weapon makers – check out the video from YouTuber colinfurze to see
how he made the Hidden Blade work (don’t worry, he keeps his middle finger).
Interestingly,
there’s little record of similar devices being used in real-life history. As
dramatic and distinctly badass as they might look, the practicality of having a
long, retractable blade wouldn’t have suited many assassins – either because
a)
They
weren’t disposable
b)
Knives
and blades often break
c)
Few
people want to be caught with an expensive murder weapon strapped to their
person
Leonardo da Vinci’s Flying Machine
For most fans,
AC’s second outing remains the best entry to date. Not just because it featured
swoon-inducing hero Ezio Auditore da Firenze, but because it featured one
Leonardo da Vinci and his incredible flying machine. Okay, demoting one of the
greatest forward-thinking minds in human history to the Renaissance equivalent
of Q from the James Bond films was a tad insulting, but it gave developer
Ubisoft <pmtreal the chance to include the man’s real life designs for
in-game tools.
One such tool was
one of da Vinci’s most famous designs -
a wooden structure the Italian auteur believed could grant a man the
power of flight. By around 1485, da Vinci had become obsessed with aviation and
produced countless schematics and blueprints for flying machines (including a
mechanical wing that inspired the vehicle used by Ezio in ACII).
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That wing formed
part of his most famous flying machine design, the ‘ornithopter’, a machine
with a 33-feet-long wingspan that used frame made of pine covered in raw silk
to create a light but sturdy membrane. According to da Vinci’s actual plans,
the pilot would lie facedown (much like a hand glider) and use a crank system
to work the wings. There’s no historical evidence to suggest such a design was
every logitically attempted in the 15th century, but it proves the Italian was
almost certainly the first European to suggest a feasible concept.
The Rope Dart
Rope darts have
been a staple in the series for years, but they had their best outing in
Assassins’s Creed III as Connor Kenway aka Ratonhnakë:ton used them to pull
enemies off their horses and tie guards to branches like bloody pinatas. And,
as you might expect, these deadly projectiles aren’t a fictional creation –
they’re a real-life tool that’s been in use for centuries.
The shéng biāo
(also known as the Jōhyō in Japanese culture) was first recorded in China as
far back as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and had usually consisted of a short
blade or hook tied to a line of rope or chain. The length this rope/chain
entirely depended on the weight of the projectile (and the strength of the
user) with recorded versions ranging between 3 and 5 metres.
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It’s one of the
most unique weapons from ancient history, requiring the user to twine (wind the
rope up), throw and retrieve the rope dart. It was used to slash opponents from
a medium range, impale itself in enemies from afar and launch them forwards and
bind them during battle.
Wrist Gun/Phantom Blade
In the world of
Assassin’s Creed, the mystical Apples of Eden (artefacts from a lost yet hyper
advanced civilisation) provide the Assassin and the Templars with technology
that’s centuries ahead of real-world discoveries. So for the AC folk, the concept
of a wrist-mounted gun or projectile launcher appeared as early as Renaissance
Italy.
In reality,
concealing any sort of weapon on your wrist presents a raft of technical
problems to navigate, so it wasn’t until the end of the 18th century that we start
to see guns small enough to be concealed in one’s hand. The Derringer, often
known as the ‘palm pistol’ was one of the first, and fired small 40 cartridges.
Models were
usually around 5 inches long, and due to their small barrel size you’d need to
be ponting said weapon directly in someone’s face to hope to cause anything
other than a nasty bruise. Each projectile would travel at about 425 feet per
second (a regular sized pistol of the same era would have shot a ball at twice
the speed).
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Sleeve guns did
start to appear during the 20th century, with a modified version of the
suppressed Welrod pistol used by British agents of Station IX of the Special
Operations Executive during WW2. Another version was also in use by British
agents during the conflict, which used shot .32 ACP and 9x19mm ammunition.
Again, this was a close quarters weapon rather than something that could be
used with any sort of range.
Grappling Hook Launcher
The humble
grappling hook has been a part of popular culture since time immemorial, but it
didn’t enter the Assassin’s Creed Lexicon until around the 19th century with
the wrist-mounted Rope Launcher designed for Evie and Jacob Frye in Assassin’s
Creed Syndicate.
In our own
timeline, the grappling hook has been recorded as early as the Romans, with the
powerful empire using a simple hook on a length of rope alongside a spiked
plank called a ‘corvus’ in order to secure and board enemy ships. This tie to
naval warfare would continue for centuries afterwards, with claws (or ‘flukes’
as they were sometimes knows) used to catch ship rigging and pull two vessels
closer so one crew could board the other.
The grappling
hook also popped up in ancient history in the East during the heyday of the
samurai, with a design known as the ‘kaginawa’ (‘kagi’ translates as hook, ‘nawa’
as rope) used by ninja and regular soldiers as a siege weapon to scale the side
of a castle or settlement.
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Pre-20th century
designs relied on manual strength to launch the hook to make it work, but later
versions used a carefully coiled rope contained in a tube. Compressed air would
then be fired through the tube, launching the flukes and the loosening rope to
its destination. In modern day warfare, grappling hooks are still in operation,
although they’re mostly used by combat engineers to trigger trip wire mines
from afar.
The Animus
The Animus is the
technology that sits at the heart of the Assassin’s Creed universe, a fictional
machine that enables a person to explore genetic memories and interact with
them like a full body VT experience. It’s the McGuffin that drives the conceit
of the whole series, but could such technology really be replicated in
real-life?
Our genome does
indeed contain an archive of information that documents our journey to modern
man, but it’s not as deep or as comprehensive as Assassin’s Creed explanation. In
fact, we share most of our genetic makeup with primates, but recent advances in
the field of ‘epigenetics’ (where genetic change occurs through environmental
experience). This field is very much in its infancy, but studies suggest our
DNA holds imprints of everything from diet to how rich or poor your family is.
There’s also
research being conducted in Berkeley University that’s centered around using
blood flow and neural activity to create visual representations of actual
memories. According Sebastian Alvarado, a molecular biologist at McGill
University who wrote a piece on the subject for Kotaku back in 2012, the tests
have shown some pretty impressive results – but we’re certainly a long way from
the Full HD immersion of the Animus.
Advances in
virtual and augmented reality have certainly brought us closer to realising the
Animus dream. Full-body rigs, such as the Pioneer suit from Tesla (which uses a
wetsuit like getup to create sensory feedback across the entire body) or the
Teslasuit haptic system are enabling scientists to take the concept of simulation
and expand it into an experience that goes beyond sight and sound.
If all this talk
of Assassin tech has got you in the mood for a little historical parkour, you
can order Assassin’s Creed Origins for Xbox One, PS4 and PC on 27 October 2017.
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