The Father of Understanding has been an entity referred to by the Templars throughout the history of the series, and indeed has some real world relevance to the actual Knights Templar. By the name itself, it surely implies a state of knowledge. In the Assassin's Creed lore, knowledge is widely acknowledged as being the sixth sense - that which gives Assassins their extra sensory abilities such as Eagle Vision.
Many have interpreted the Father as a metaphysical entity, or a supreme being. A belief system even. As with all great myths and legends though, there is likely some element of truth to it all. The Father's link with the origins of the Templar order - which we know has existed since the time of Adam and Eve - point us directly to the time period of the First Civilization, the Isu. We know a few further facts about the Father that can allow us to do some analysis.
The Father is not Baphomet.
They are an individual, with an identity.
There is a link to the Phoenix Project, which attempts to sequence First Civilization DNA.
"Who is the Father of Understanding?"
In terms of the narrative, it would make sense for the Father to be an existing character, thus tying the franchise together. But we cannot discount the possibility that it remains a new character that we have not yet encountered first hand.
So, with our criteria that the Father surely must be someone from the First Civilization time period, let's have a look at the most likely candidates.
Click on the tab to read about the various candidates!
Aita (Sages)
The husband of Juno, Aita was part of the Isu's efforts to try and transfer their minds to other vessels. In this instance, they attempted to transfer Aita to a human body where he sadly deteriorated rapidly. Before freeing him by a mercy killing, Juno took samples of Aita's genetic code and applied it within human DNA. As a result, from time to time Aita would partially reincarnate within the human lineage, resulting in what we now know within the lore as Sages - such as Bartholomew Roberts and François-Thomas Germain.
The theory holds, that as this individual could continually reappear through time, the fate and direction of the Templars could have been guided by his hand throughout history. In Unity, we saw Jacques de Molay was in possession of the Codex Pater Intellectus, so we see a direct reference again to the Father of Understanding. The only point that stands against this, is that Germain mentions the Father of Understanding in a third person perspective in his closing dialogue. If he was indeed Aita speaking at that moment, it could potentially debunk this theory completely.
Juno
Where there is Aita, there has to be Juno. One cannot discount the lengths that she will go to make her plans come to fruition. We know her machinations from The Grey very well, and the Instruments of The First Will are a group seemingly created to serve her grand scheme. The links to the Phoenix Project are plain to see, not least by the fact that Juno appeared as a burning Phoenix within Assassin's Creed 3.
Juno's plans also closely ally with the Templars, that the world should be ruled by order. In keeping humanity in check, it also helps create the prison planet that she craves upon her return to physical form. The Manifesto of the Instruments certainly has some choice words regarding Abstergo;
Today's AbstergoTemplarFrauds have given themselves to base practices and claim WRONGLY that man and woman are delicate and sensible and feeling creatures in and of themselves and therefore deserve satiety and comfort and MINDLESSNESS in the presence of pleasure. Nothing could be sicker falser disgusting lying bastards...
Our purpose is not ours to achieve but ours to be RECEIVED given by Her Graces and Instruction. Death to the false fabricators of pleasure and indolence! The OLD ORDER must be restored the NEW ORDER destroyed. TRUE TEMPLARS dedicated to ORDER AND STABILITY AND PEACE through the application of Her Iron Will and not through the dulling satisfactions of pleasure and indolence...
The NEW ORDER is a disease and JUNO - MAY SHE GUIDE US INTO THE GRAY - will be our cure. Remember this remember that it was in the 18th century slipping into the next that the sickness took hold and men began to believe they were apart and individual of the ORIGINAL PLAN.
It would suggest that the Templars were originally created by her, and that the modern version of the Templars have corrupted her original vision. The obvious argument against this theory though is the naming convention - why not call herself the Mother of Understanding? Within Syndicate she did directly refer to herself as the Mother of Wisdom after all.
Perhaps the biggest argument against Juno came from Darby McDevitt though;
Cain was the first born son of the hybrids Adam and Eve. As the biblical story goes, he killed his own brother Abel - for a Piece of Eden within our AC universe. For this he was 'marked' for his transgression, (which Clay told us about in AC2) with the Mark of Cain - which became the Templar cross. United under the cross, the proto-Templars were born and the search for further Pieces of Eden began. According to all we know, Cain very much was the first proto-Templar.
As per the Glyphs of AC2, Cain took the title Master Mahan - master of a 'great secret'. Throughout the ages, the Templars then adjusted this title to Grandmaster. He cannot be discounted as a prime candidate for the Father.
Consus
Consus from Project Legacy
Consus was an Isu scientist, who most famously transferred his consciousness into a Shroud of Eden. He has also evidently displayed the ability to communicate with individuals with a high proportion of precursor DNA, including Giovanni Borgia, Charlotte de la Cruz and supposedly Joan of Arc.
He has traditionally been openly opposed to Juno and generally has sided with the Assassins through history. However, if individuals had interacted with the Shroud, or been in contact with him separately, it would be easy to interpret these words of wisdom to have come from a greater metaphysical being. In doing so, Consus may well have guided prominent members of the Templar Order perhaps even without his knowledge.
Consus was recently confirmed to be once known as Prometheus too. In Greek mythology, he was the creator of mankind, and stole the fire of Mount of Olympus to give to humanity. The penalty of his transgression was for his liver to be eaten by an Eagle - which is an interesting image given the Assassins association. Erudito also used a torch image within their e-mails and servers at one point. Though he was supposedly dead far before the event, his consciousness may well have been the one that guided Adam and Eve to the Apple of Eden and the uprising that followed.
Bear with me here. Yes, Adam and Eve originally broke free together with the stolen Apple and helped lead the human rebellion against their First Civilization oppressors.
From varied sources, we know that humanity initially argued over the Pieces of Eden with many wanting to hide them away to avoid potential harm to the populace, whilst others wanted to embrace them to further our progress and bring about technological advances. Both of these factions became what we know now to be the Assassins and Templars.
Is it not interesting though, that throughout we hear "Eve will lead us"? What happened to Adam? One assumes they were separated? If the division of opinion on the Pieces of Eden began between the original hybrids, could Adam have in fact been the one to encourage his son Cain to seek out the Pieces? To Cain, he very much would have been the Father of Understanding. There would also be a beautiful symmetry in that the two original hybrids ended up being the leaders of the two main factions of the franchise.
Another Isu
So let's stop and have a look at some of the potential new characters we could see. Whilst Adam and Eve may have escaped with an Apple of Eden, one has to ask the question who gave it to them. It may well have been Consus, but who else is possible?
The Isu Durga appeared in the Brahman comic, whose consciousness seemed to be contained in some way within the Koh-i-Noor. She warned against 'splintering' before Juno, and suggested that she had left messages throughout time with the same warning. Beyond the comic though, we have seen no other evidence as yet of this.
There is some speculation about Clay's blood writing from the first game. In example, we see a pentagram, which has been associated with Venus - aka Aphrodite, another confirmed member of the Isu. She was more known for being a goddess of love and beauty however.
In the blood we also see the Eye of Horus. Horus was the son of Osiris, a once confirmed member of the Isu (since retconned). Osiris was known for the afterlife and the underworld, so a link to the Father seems pretty small. However, with Origins coming soon there is every chance that we may see more evidence, as we know that an entity known as “Himself” appears within the game. This could easily be linked to Ra, or one of the many other Egyptian gods. We've also seen a reference to Ptah-Nun as a 'father' figure. Bayek carries the Horus symbol too, so there may yet be a connection with our new protagonist even.
Clay also wrote in the blood "Quetzcoaltz's hunger lies the Answers". Though misspelled, this is more interesting as Quetzalcoatl is the Aztec god of wisdom. He was traditionally portrayed as a flying serpent though. Speaking of serpents...
As the story goes in the biblical Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were convinced by a speaking serpent to take an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.
"Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5)
The common modern analysis is that the serpent was Satan himself. By giving the knowledge to the original hybrids we could see a link there to him being the Father.
There is also the glyph from AC2;
And Satan said unto Cain: Swear unto me by thy throat, and if thou tell it thou shalt die. And all these things were done in secret.
We know the Templars love that last word anyway.
Extraterrestrial (Alien)
I know, I know. It is a stretch. But there is some evidence.
Source sonsothunder.wordpress.com
Both AC3 and Rogue make repeated references to Sky people. In the real world, these are popularized by the ancient astronauts theory to be visitors from the stars. To our knowledge, the First Civilization were contained to Earth, and not aliens themselves. If they were space farers, why did they not leave the planet before the solar flare? Obvious answer, they could not.
Holding to the ancient astronauts theory, if the Father of Understanding came down to visit Earth on occasion, they could have guided humanity through the ages.
There is a hidden audio file within AC4 where John Standish praises you for uncovering his secret message. He also tells you that you really should have been an Astronaut, as the real possibility is "out there". I just find it interesting that a Sage acknowledges space in this way.
Minerva
Minerva has traditionally been aiding the Assassins throughout the series. Do not let that supposed loyalty fool you though. Of all of the members of the Isu, she was the one that spent the most time within the Nexus. From there she would look at all the permutations of time, and how their manipulations would play out. She placed a lot of faith into Desmond, but it would be foolhardy of us to believe it was her only scheme to try and safeguard the future.
Within Roman mythology, she is regarded as the Goddess of Wisdom. Again though, the Father naming convention works against her case.
Jupiter
Jupiter was the third member of the Capitoline Triad, alongside Juno and Minerva, tasked in trying to find solutions to circumvent the First Disaster - the coronal mass ejection.
Beyond this, the character's motivations have been pretty sparse. We know he sided with Minerva on imprisoning Juno, and other imagery showed him firing a gun - presumably at humans. He aided Desmond, presumably at the behest of Minerva, but what other plans this individual was working on we simply do not know.
Within Roman mythology he was the king of the gods, the equivalent of Zeus from Greek mythology. By all accounts, a very powerful individual.
"Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." - Walter Burkert
Saturn
Saturn was Juno's father, and by all accounts likely the nominated ruler of the Isu. Having a position of such power was an envy to the enslaved humanity, and Saturn was ultimately the first Isu victim killed by the human uprising. It should be noted though that he openly opposed Juno's view on humanity, and was quite open to allowing humanity to thrive and dream. In that perhaps, his memory lived on as a figure of understanding.
Eve
Let me start by saying I do not believe Eve to be the Father. But for the sake of completeness, I have added her to the list. We know that she lead early humanity, directly in the case of the rebellion against the Isu. So there is some evidence of her attempts to shape humanity. Beyond that, there is little evidence of her machinations. As with Minerva and Juno though, her gender does not lend credence to her case.
Did you read about all of the candidates? What do you think? Is the Father an existing character? Someone new?
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