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Present day Chronicles: The Abstergo Employee Handbook - Part 2
Written by Markuz, May 22, 2015
Translated by: Stefania
If you missed the first part of this article, you can find it here. Here we are back with the second and final part of our analysis of the Abstergo Employee Handbook. As you may remember, we concluded the previous article with the sudden and unexpected interruption of the story of Research Analyst Robert Fraser, the first person employed to sequence Arno Dorian’s memories. Fraser, in the last period, seemed to have recovered from his serious conditions caused by the Bleeding Effect and everything seemed to be back to normal. However, his story in the Handbook abruptly ended. At least until now. The Abstergo Agent and the most recent present day
As pointed out in the previous article, the Handbook tells a two-level story. The first level, as we saw, is dedicated to the story of Robert Fraser, while the second one is dedicated to the so-called “Agent”. The Handbook itself is, actually, a book including Robert Fraser’s manual and some documents given to an Abstergo agent, member of the Templar Order (not all Abstergo employees are Templars), following what happened to Fraser after the end of his part of the story. This agent doesn’t have, at least at the beginning, a background, specific features or connections, because the intent is to create an experience similar to the recent games for consoles and PC in which the protagonist is the reader / player that the various characters of the plot interact with. In this way we have a multilevel gaming, or should we say reading, experience, similarly to the recent games of the franchise, although maybe a bit more complex: the reader / Agent, protagonist of the present day part (October / November 2014) has to study the work Fraser did a few months before (June / July 2014) on Arno Dorian’s genetic memories. This interpretation is important and necessary to understand the time frames and developments related to the Agent, which will become clearer once we’ll analyse the plot. The Handbook – meaning the tangible object – starts with a document intended for the Agent, which is extremely important because it was sent and signed by Alan Rikkin himself, the Abstergo Industries CEO. In the document Rikkin characterizes the Agent saying that Melanie Lemay personally recommended him/her and that his/her previous service to the Templar Order has not escaped their notice, especially after the participation in the Animi Training Program (the same program used to train the players of the franchise in Brotherhood and Revelations, and that Otso Berg mastered). Rikkin then starts describing Abstergo’s most recent creation, the Helix Project. The purpose of this project (which isn’t very clearly explained in Unity) is to create a variety of shorter experiential scenarios that everyone can access and so, consequently, have thousands of unwitting researchers providing Abstergo information. In order to achieve this goal, the product must obviously be safe and effective, without causing situations that can jeopardize the effort done up to that moment. Situations like the one with Robert Fraser, according to Rikkin. Rikkin keeps talking about Fraser’s story, "the previous Research Analyst on the Arno Dorian case", and the relationship that Robert had with Aidan St. Claire, his supervisor. Then Rikkin negatively describes St.Claire, calling him “inexperienced” and saying they were overconfident in thinking that a common analyst and an inexperienced supervisor would be able to handle such a difficult project. The result – which was unknown to us because Fraser’s story was prematurely interrupted – is that, due to the unacceptable levels of the Bleeding Effect, the analyst destroyed a great deal of already-harvested information before being terminated. Thus, in just a few lines we find out that in the end Fraser surrendered to the Bleeding Effect and, in his madness, he almost completely destroyed all his work and so all that’s left is the Handbook (that’s why only a few pages are left from Fraser’s reports). The Agent has the task of examining all that remains and some new documents reserved only for authorized Templar agents. In addition, he/she will continue Fraser’s work, using the Animus to experience Arno’s memories and write reports about the various stages of his life (following Fraser's steps). This time these reports will be checked and commented by Melanie Lemay.
Anyway the Agent finally starts analysing Fraser’s documents, beginning from the ones dedicated to the areas in which Abstergo operates (medical science, telecommunications, technology). When the Agent reaches the various virtual experiences for Helix, he/she finds a post-it from Melanie Lemay explaining that this chapter will also serve as an early indication of Fraser’s attitude toward the Templars (probably she’s referring to the comments about the Borgias and about Edward).
Later the Agent continues the analysis of the various Helix programs and finally reaches the initial stages of Fraser’s research on Arno and the first part of his work, "Childhood through Imprisonment". As Melanie requested and confirmed, inside the Animus the Agent analyses Arno’s memories, following the same order of Fraser’s research and his drawings, in order to get new information for Abstergo. The Agent studies Arno’s profile, his first letter to his deceased father and the environment he’s grown up in. Unlike Fraser, who was only able to study a sketch of the famous pocket watch that Arno possessed, though, the Agent, affiliated to the Templar Order, is allowed by Melanie to access the Abstergo archives and physically examine the watch, especially considering that the Agent… possesses Eagle Vision. Just a few lines and we’ve already got two pieces of key information. The first one is that not only the Templars raided the Assassins’ hideout in Paris, but they also put their hands on Arno’s watch: this means there’s a chance that the Templars were able to retrieve other elements of his belongings and maybe, why not, also some information about the second part of his life. The second piece of information is something very important: our Agent possesses Eagle Vision. Plus, it seems that this sense is very advanced, so much so that Melanie promises she’ll allow him/her to interact with more artifacts, should he/she do a good work with the watch. The Agent keeps following Arno’s memories and Fraser’s documents, moving past the profiles of Élise, Franklin, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and finally reaches the first signs of Fraser’s Bleeding Effect and his first report (or better what’s left of the only existing copy, the one that Aidan St. Clair printed to comment the report).
The Agent’s analysis really impressed Rikkin, who wants the Agent to keep working on his assignment and on the second part of Fraser’s research containing the dossier on the Assassins that, unfortunately, according to the Abstergo CEO, didn’t seem to produce the desired results.
After that the Agent analyses the dossier on the Assassins, although he/she probably already knew its contents. In the dossier we find another post-it, with what seems to be a normal comment of Melanie about the Assassins and in which she mentions Otso Berg: "In the distant past, the Assassins had a noble goal, that of peace. But over the centuries, that goal eroded into a far more dangerous one: freedom". Actually this is the same sentence pronounced by Otso Berg at the end of AC: Rogue, when the present day protagonist descends into the Abstergo Entertainment basement to upload Shay’s story to the Assassin Network). Maybe it’s simply a coincidence or a quote, but it also might be an element useful to date the plot of the Agent of the Handbook. If Melanie referred to this dialogue in Rogue (maybe she listened to it afterwards, since it’s an audio communication), then the plot dedicated to the Agent in the Handbook occurs after the events of Rogue and so it takes place after or during October / November 2014. Nothing relevant happens, then, till the Agent gets another, way more important, message from Melanie. His/her research on the “pieces of art” of Arno’s initiation ritual has proven fruitful (although these aren’t detailed). In particular, she mentions what the Agent discovered about the Chalice and who handled it (though this could even be found looking at Arno’s memories). Plus, the several successes and the superlative work of the Agent with the various artifacts provided by Abstergo, earned him/her a trip to the Assassin Order’s hideout in Paris, underneath the Sainte Chapelle, in order to gain additional information through field study. Together with the message, the Agent immediately also gets a first-class flight ticket from Montreal to Paris including another QR for the website http://abstergo.insighteditions.com/. This link contains three documents that are very important to know more about Fraser but that don’t directly concern the period of time that the Agent is analyzing now. We’ll have a look at them later.
The Agent keeps leafing through Fraser’s documents (unfortunately there is no further information about his journey to Paris) and reaches the second report, "Imprisonment through Apprenticeship". Like St.Claire, even the Agent notices that Fraser was more and more subjected to the Bleeding Effect and more and more involved in Arno’s story. He/she then reads doctor Bibeau’s first report and sees that Fraser continued his dangerous research. On July 14th, 2014, Bastille Day, Fraser has a stronger than usual crisis. As previously mentioned, at this point in the story Fraser keeps seeing memories of Élise to the point that he broke up with his real girlfriend Anna and asked to be taken off the Dorian case. However doctor Bibeau kept encouraging him, promising to give him medicines, as if she were more interested in the sessions than in her own patient. It’s at this point that the documents on the website http://abstergo.insighteditions.com/, become relevant: they are not just illustrations anymore but an essential part of the plot.
In the first document we can see the transcript of a session between Fraser and Bibeau in which she finally gives him the promised medicines. He’s still very worried and willing to try anything to be cured and so the doctor suggests an experiment that worked with other patients who suffered from his same problem: since the Bleeding Effect is not dissimilar to a dissociative identity disorder, Fraser, every time Arno’s memories begin to become his own, has to write a letter to his inner Arno (and so to himself) to tell him how he feels about him and to remind Arno and himself that they’re two separate people. Fraser accepts the suggestion and in the second document (keep in mind that we’re chronologically before the crisis that led to the one-week break and to the supposed recovery of the analyst) we can read a letter written by Fraser to his inner Arno. It’s a very heart-felt letter in which Fraser writes to Arno saying he perfectly knows how he feels because he “was there” when he lost his father and de la Serre and he was with him while he was suffering in the Bastille. He also shows him he knows about his feelings for Élise and how beautiful she is, but also points out that they’re both (Arno and Élise) dead two hundred years on. Fraser tells Arno he can’t do anything about the fact that his job requires him to have his memories and feelings, and that dozens of people have done what he is doing and they’ve been just fine, so he firmly says (indirectly to himself) that it’s all Arno’s fault. Arno must go away because all of this belongs just to him and he shouldn’t share it with a stranger any more. Apparently the therapy is working, but the Bleeding Effect comes back stronger than ever. In fact, in the third document, the problem is so intense that Fraser replies to his own letter writing as if he were Arno (the same handwriting is used by Fraser in the Handbook). "Arno" (the inner one – I know, it’s complicated :) ) answers in kind saying that he got Fraser’s “epistle” and that he is not to blame. According to "Arno" it’s Fraser who is internalizing his memories and not because Arno is charming and interesting but because, not having a satisfactory life, Fraser himself wanted those memories. Plus "Arno" says he never consented to have his – private and personal – memories analysed by Fraser’s company and such practice is not any different from desecrating his remains. “Arno” also talks about Élise and firmly tells Fraser that if he wants adventure and love, he doesn’t get to have them through him but has to build his own life. Eventually, he suggests him to look to his own emptiness and find what he’s lacking because in this way “Arno” shall have less of a hold upon him. This extremely interesting letter, which must be read keeping in mind the context (or one may think Arno is really writing to Fraser), not only shows us that the Bleeding Effect is so strong now that it can’t be opposed with just Bibeau’s therapy, which is inadequate to cure Fraser. In fact, by reading “Arno”’s words, it makes us also understand some of the thoughts of Fraser’s subconscious. It’s especially important to notice that Fraser is partially aware of having some gaps that he’s trying to fill with Arno’s life. He then knows he is the one to blame for throwing himself headlong into the analysis of Arno's life. The other important element in this letter is the fact that unconsciously Fraser disapproves Absergo’s practices and, in particular, such a detailed analysis of someone else’s memories, because they are private and personal. These sentences suggest that maybe it wasn’t only his madness that led him to destroy all his research and do what he did before being “terminated”. After the analysis of these documents the Agent continues his research and he/she’s reaching the end of Fraser’s journey. He/she sees the profiles of Germain, Napoleon, the Montgolfier brothers and Robespierre, the leaf showing Fraser’s further crisis in which he speaks for the first time in French and the documents with the various sketches for the figurines of Arno and Élise. Finally the Agent reads the final documents, and so his/her analysis ends with Arno’s last letter
The Agent’s mission *seems* to have come to an end and, indeed, in a post-it Melanie Lemay confirms that his/her work has been a success and his/her analysis and the information obtained granted him/her the title of "Journeyman”. For this reason the Agent can now access a last series of extremely classified documents, containing “some of the greatest secrets” of the Templar Order. As per usual in every releases of Assassin's Creed, after the parts about the past and the present, the final part is dedicated to the First Civilization and the Pieces of Eden. Don’t expect too much, though. If you already have gone through the files of Unity and Rogue, not much can be found in this last section (if big revelations had been included here rather than in the games, just think how many fans would have complained). The first document the Journeyman reads is about the First Civilization. One of the biggest secrets of the Templar Order (and one of those “promoted” by Melanie), according to this document, is the existence of Those Who Came Before and the fact that humanity never was alone on Earth. The rest of the document describes TWCB and their story, already known to the AC fans: the creation of humanity in order to obtain slaves, the following liberation caused by crossbreeding between species, the war that drastically reduced their numbers and then the Toba Catastrophe that pushed them to the brink of extinction.
However some of them survived, because, as we know (and as written in the Handbook), there are certain people who carry a high concentration of TWCB DNA (triple helix DNA), the so-called "Sages", born from an experiment of Juno to allow his husband Aita to continually be reincarnated, should certain situations arise. The document about the Sages explains how Minerva and Jupiter imprisoned Juno in the Grand Temple and how she was finally freed by Desmond Miles, trying then to transfer her own essence to the body of an analyst (the protagonist of the present day in AC4) thanks to the help of the sage John Standish. Following the failure of this attempt, the Handbook explains, Juno disappeared but the Templars killed John Standish and used his DNA for the brand new Phoenix Project, the goal of which is to eventually map the entire genome of the First Civilization. As for the
Before talking about the Pieces of Eden, Melanie shows images and artwork of Minerva, Tinia and Juno, attaching a post-it in which she says his predecessor Olivier (Garneau) had a glimpse of the true history of the world (a reference to the existence of TWCB), "but not everybody is ready to see it". These few phrases offer the umpteenth prompt for discussing what really happened to Olivier Garneau after the end of AC4. As we already know, almost at the end of the events of Black Flag, Garneau had to show up to a meeting with the shareholders together with Laetitia England but he never reached his destination. Considering that the famous easter egg in Watch Dogs IS NOT canonical, as Darby McDevitt confirmed, this further piece of the puzzle makes you wonder about the fate of the former Abstergo Entertainment CCO, although his end is still shrouded in mystery. Garneau, in fact, was the only member of Abstergo Entertainment who was in touch with Abstergo Industries and Laetitia England, so probably he also was the only one to know the true intents of the Templar Order. Presumably the knowledge of the “true story of the world” came from these relationships and the fact that, according to Melanie, he wasn’t ready to see it may be a way to covertly hint at his end. Garneau, for example, may have tried to publicly spread the news or – struck by these revelations – he may have decided to entrust them to someone else, maybe the Assassins, forcing the Templars to get rid of him. Alternately, considering that also the Assassins knew about the meeting with the shareholders thanks to the analyst of AC4 and to John Standish, is possible that they kidnapped him, as often hypothesized last year (but in this scenario Garneau’s reaction to the “truth” wouldn’t have had anything to do with his disappearance). Unfortunately Garneau’s end is shrouded in darkness and, as it often happens in AC, we hope that in the future a light will be shed on this matter.
Anyhow, the Journeyman, after Melanie’s comment, reads a short dossier on the Pieces of Eden (Staffs, Swords, Apples), containing information mainly already known. As for the Swords of Eden, the dossier mentions known owners like Perseus, King Arthur, Attila the Hun and Joan of Arc (a reference to the glyphs in AC2) but also rumours stating that also a Templar Grand Master owned one of those swords (it’s not clear if this is a reference to Jacques de Molay or Germain). In particular, the Handbook mentions the following statement about the Sword: “It was a weapon of Light, powerful and crackling, and this light obeyed the one who wielded it. It could destroy, protect, and ferry its master to safety if need be. Even broken, the sword will fight all on its own.” This statement, although it doesn’t have a date, confirms what we saw in Unity and the abilities of the Sword that haven’t been clearly explained in the game (they were visible, though). In addition to the matter of attack and protection, it’s pointed out that Germain, at the end of Unity, disappears from the highest point of the Temple and reappears in the Crypt of de Molay: it’s not a misleading copy created at the top of the Temple, neither a form of invisibility, but a sort of “teleportation”. The rest of the document is dedicated to the Staffs, mentioning Moses, and the Apples, described as a tool to control humanity and database of information, that have been the key for several historical events. The document ends saying that Abstergo still is hunting down these powerful artifacts, a hunt carried out, once again, through the Animus Project.
At this point the “encyclopedic” information in the Handbook are completed, but the story of the Journeyman and Fraser goes on, because there still are three extremely important documents to see.
According to Melanie, Abstergo believes that Arno Dorian came across a Sage during his lifetime (as file 07 of the present of Unity, dated May 30, states) and what is extremely distressing for them is that now the Assassins may know that as well. In fact we find out that Fraser and – surprise! – his accomplice Bibeau not only destroyed documents, but also managed to leak a bank of some of Arno’s unsequenced memories to the Assassins, and, unfortunately, the Templars can’t trace the trail. That’s why – as Melanie says – Templars asked the Journeyman to race through and analyse Arno’s memories because probably the Assassins are about to reach the Sage – and his remains – and so they would waste the chance to obtain Precursor DNA for the Phoenix Project. Melanie, then, explains how important the Precursor DNA is now for Abstergo and the primary targets to locate, namely the humans with a high concentration of TWCB DNA (like Desmond), obviously the Sages, the Blood Vials that “should” contain blood samples of Precursor luminaries, and the “occasional” Apple, always of value. This document is really a surprise because reveals much information and casts a new light on the end of Fraser’s story, in addition to creating a true temporal connection between Unity and the Handbook. Indeed the Handbook isn’t a separate story but it’s an actual prequel of Unity (as for the events in the present). As we can understand, Fraser’s act of destroying all that was left of his analysis wasn’t the result of his madness but it was deliberate, assisted by an excellent accomplice, his doctor, Victoria Bibeau. In addition to that, Melanie explains that Fraser and Bibeau not only destroyed all they could but also that somehow they managed to leak Arno’s memories to the Assassins. This implies that, being Fraser a mere analyst hit by the Bleeding Effect, Bibeau was the one in touch with the Assassins (or an Assassin herself). This, in turn, implies two important facts: firstly, it’s clear now why Bibeau, albeit as a doctor, was so intrigued by the Sages and didn’t allow Fraser to abandon the Dorian case and encouraged him to go on with the help of therapies and medicines. Secondly, and maybe it’s even more important, now Fraser’s one-week break during which he seemed to have recovered takes on a meaning. Fraser, in fact, spends the week doing sessions with Bibeau and it’s possible that during this time the doctor told him the truth about the Assassins of the present and he decided, since he unconsciously disapproves Abstergo’s practices, as we saw, to follow her in what at first seemed the result of his madness but that actually was a well-devised plan: go back to work, proving to be as healthy as possible in order not to draw attention, steal Arno’s memories, destroy any trace of the research (videos included) and leak these memories to the Assassins, so that the latter can find Germain’s remains before the Templars. That’s why Abstergo asked the Journeyman to retrace Fraser’s steps and race through Arno’s memories and that’s where the events of the present of Unity come from, since in October / November 2014 the Assassins were able to obtain the location of Germain’s remains even though the Templars were in possession of Arno’s memories since at least June. This also gives us a further clue on the period of time during which the Journeyman works: considering that his exploration of Arno’s memories is “in competition” and simultaneously with the Assassins’ search, his/her story too should be set around October / November 2014.
Eventually, in the document Rikkin promises the Journeyman a further reward, namely a new position. Fraser’s alliance with the Assassins occurred on Aidan St. Claire’s watch, and this is unacceptable for the Templars. That’s why St. Claire has been “terminated” (getting rid, therefore, of the last witness) and so, for the time being, the Journeyman will fill the position of Project Manager, held by Melanie Lemay in AC4. Now the Templars has another excellent agent “in the making”. A sort of Otso Berg (although less operative but more capable at working behind the front line thanks to his/her Eagle Vision), who, thanks to his/her continuous successes, is ascending the Templar Order’s chain of command. Let’s hope the Journeyman doesn’t stay confined in the Handbook and is “reused” in the future. The Handbook ended, the premises for Unity have been detailed and the stories of the various characters have found their conclusion. There’s only one page left, a last sheet written by Robert Fraser, a sort of epilogue of the plot and in particular of his story.
Once again Fraser, thinking of being Arno, keeps thinking about Élise and admits her death taught him a lesson: it is no hardship to die, if one can be avenged. That’s why Fraser, stating to know what the Animus is really for thanks to what Bibeau told him, wanted to “get his revenge” and leaked Arno’s memories to the Assassins. The way he writes this part is interesting too. Fraser, in fact, writes that Bibeau told him what to do and, especially, to get his revenge on the Templars for what they did to Élise 200 years ago. These few lines provide another interpretation of the events because, considering what Fraser writes, it seems that Bibeau (and indirectly the Assassins) not only never really tried to cure the Bleeding Effect but also took advantage of Fraser’s awful conditions to persuade him to carry out his “final act”, probably being aware that this would have led him to death. And for Fraser this act of revenge is enough because somehow he was aware too that Templars would have killed him but in his mind he was avenging Élise and death was just a way to “come back” to his lover. And with that, finally the Abstergo Employee Handbook, prequel of the present day plot of Unity, ends. But the Handbook is just a small part of the events occurred in 2014. What else happened and what are the last developments about the various factions at play in the Assassin's Creed universe? We’ll try to analyse it in the future articles!
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