Assassin's Creed Shadows – Modern Day Analysis
Part 2: The Legacy

Sorrosyss, July 5th, 2025

WBT over 32. Heat curfew in place till sunset. Stuck in this shabby hotel room till then. Aircon sounds like a rattlesnake, but at least while it's making noise it's still working. If that thing conks out, this place will be an oven in half an hour. Street vendor told me the power went out in one neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, middle of the day. Even in the shade, it was too hot to survive. Lot of people died that day. Old folk. Babies.

This place is hanging on by a thread. Everyone with money got out of Marrakech long ago. The only people that haven't are the people that can't.

The location is a stall in a souk just off Jemaa el-Fna in the medina. I'm supposed to leave an owl with the stallkeeper, as a sign I want to make contact. Instructions were less than clear, understandable given the circumstances. Did Dad mean a little figurine or something? Either way, no one here's even seen an owl, much less made statues of them. Instead I sketched out a barn owl, like I used to see in the woods out back of the house in Gloucester when I was a boy. It'll get the point across.

Drop the owl, wait for instructions. That's all I have. As to the rest, I just have to trust the old man knew what he was doing.

Man followed me from the station, I'm pretty sure. Probably some kind of local secret police, wondering what I was doing here. Not many white Europeans turning up in Marrakech these days, so I can't help standing out. Nothing left to squeeze out of this place. Only a matter of time before the warlords move in.

I lost him in the alleys. Lost myself for a while, too. Off the main thoroughfares, this place is a labyrinth. In the end I got some kid to guide me out, with the promise of foreign currency. What I gave him wouldn't have bought me a snack bar back home, but it'll keep him and his family fed for weeks.

It's not right. But then, none of it is. I've known that forever. Maybe that's why I got thick-skinned about it.

Been thinking about the argument I had with Dad, all those years ago. He wanted so badly for me to join him, said we needed to do something about the state of the world. I told him it was hopeless, the world was already broken. What could one person do, or ten, or a hundred? We were gnats crawling on the face of the great machine. Best we could do is to stay clear of the gears.

I wish it had gone differently, but I've wished that for a long time. The disappointment on his face, though. That's stayed with me. Anyway, he got me doing something in the end, I suppose. I hope he appreciates it, wherever he is. He always was proud of me, maybe more than I deserved. Even when I didn't live up to his expectations.

Getting maudlin now. Maybe I'll stop. More tonight.

-------------------

With the first entry, we immediately see a continuation of our theory from our Part 1 analysis. Global warming has continued, perhaps due to the weakening magnetic field of the Earth, to the point that the Wet Bulb Temperature (WBT) is dangerously close to the survivable limit of 35 degrees celsius. According to the Nature Climate Change study of 2015, the current modelling predicts that most of the Middle East and Northern Africa will be at a 35 degree WBT level consistently by the year 2100, which again gives us a good siting for where this storyline might be taking place. As can be noted from the entry, there is a heat curfew in effect in Morocco, with multiple reported deaths from the heat. The mention of warlords might suggest that the local law enforcement has utterly broken down as well. In all, it paints a pretty grim image of a near future that doesn't currently resemble that of our own present day Morocco.

Given that he has made references to Gloucester, we can infer that Joel is likely British, as well as his father.

--REPORT SUBMITTED BY HAMZA BELKACEM EMP. No. 11/422

--TRANSLATED FROM MODERN STANDARD ARABIC

Re: Surveillance on suspected contact location (Op code RZ/MK3443)

Operative Idrissi and I were conducting stakeout on location as ordered. Approximately 10pm a Caucasian male (description is appended) approached the stall and began speaking with the owner (Chafiq Elharar, see file PE/MK120). Operative Idrissi and I observed as he passed over a piece of paper which Elharar tried to refuse. It is my suspicion that Elharar was aware, or at least suspected, he was being surveilled.

We approached the Caucasian to apprehend him but he became aware of our approach and fled. It is my belief that he was warned by Elharar. I ordered Operative Idrissi to apprehend Elharar but he chose to ignore my order and join in the pursuit of the Caucasian through the souk. We lost sight of the Caucasian and split up to search for him. Shortly afterwards I heard a cry of alarm from Operative Idrissi, alerting me to the fact that he had located the target again. I headed towards the source of the sound with all speed, and there I encountered Operative Idrissi struggling with the Caucasian. Before I could reach them, I heard the report of a weapon, and Operative Idrissi fell to the ground. I drew my own weapon and shouted at the Caucasian to halt, but he did not and the souk was too crowded to risk firing. I attempted pursuit but lost the target again. I was unable to locate him thereafter.

I attended to Operative Idrissi until the paramedics arrived, after which time I returned to the stall with the intention of apprehending Elharar. However, he had fled the scene. Subsequently, a team was dispatched to his home, but he appears not to have returned there. Operative Idrissi remains in critical condition.

-- REPORT ENDS

-------------------

This entry confirms Joel's suspicions that he was being surveilled. Idrissi and Belkacem are more than likely Abstergo or Templar operatives, suggesting that Joel or his father likely has ties to the Assassin Brotherhood in some capacity.

-- TRANSCRIPT OF WIRETAP +212 7746 977421 (*)

--COMMENCES 21:13

-- DURATION 1 min 48 secs

MALE VOICE (**): Hello?

FEMALE VOICE (***): What the hell are you doing?

MALE VOICE: Er... and who is this?

FEMALE VOICE: I'm who you've been looking for. And when I say 'looking', I mean 'stomping around the city like a fricking elephant.' I'm sure you think you're extremely inconspicuous, mingling with the locals like you do, but asking for 'The Owl' all over Marrakech is not the most subtle act of spycraft I've ever seen.

MALE VOICE: Seems to have done the trick, though. You're talking to me, after all.

FEMALE VOICE: It's a literal miracle they haven't arrested you.

MALE VOICE: Miracles happen everyday. Now, I need to meet you. So what are we going to do about that?

FEMALE VOICE: Who even are you?

MALE VOICE: I'm Geoff Eastman's son. He asked me to find you and pass on some important information. It was his dying wish, actually.

FEMALE VOICE: Oh. Geoff? Oh, shit. Well, I'm... sorry about that.

FEMALE VOICE: What's the information?

MALE VOICE: Sorry. In person only. He was quite specific.

FEMALE VOICE: Are you kidding? I only called because I don't like not knowing who's after me. After all the heat you pulled down, I'm getting the hell out of Marrakech right now!

MALE VOICE: Then I'd better come with you. It's not exactly safe for me here either.

FEMALE VOICE: No. Absolutely not.

MALE VOICE: Do you really think Geoff would send his only son into this kind of danger if what I had to tell you wasn't vitally important?

*long pause*

FEMALE VOICE: Meet me outside the kiosk on the corner in five minutes. Be ready to leave the country. If you're not there, I'm not stopping. Information or not.

MALE VOICE: Five minutes?

FEMALE VOICE: You don't have a tail as far as I can tell, and this place is too far in the hole to have AI scanning the wiretaps. But damned if I'll give them the chance to catch me. Five minutes is all you've got. Don't be late.

-- CONNECTION TERMINATED

* - The call was made to extension 21, corresponding to room 21. It was made from a booth several streets away (see appended for location data/surveillance footage)

** The male voice belongs to Joel Eastman. I've opened a file on him at PE/MK545

*** Subsequent investigation cross-referenced with camera footage from the site where the call originated has identified the female speaker as Tatyana Dane, PE/TO3441, registered a high priority target.


-------------------

From this entry we can ascertain that Joel's father, Geoff Eastman, was indeed likely an Assassin. This is namely as the female caller, Tatyana Dane, not only knew Geoff but is also marked as a high priority target herself.

TD - What's up?

PA - Yana! Thank God, we were worried. Are you OK?

TD - All good. OMW to you now with some company. Geoff Eastman's son.

PA - Are you sure he's safe? Just because Geoff is one of us doesn't mean his son is.

TD - It crossed my mind. Get Baba to run a check on him for me?

PA - Can we contact Geoff?

TD - Not without a ouija board. Story is, he was with Abe White's cell. They went for an infil at an Abstergo compound but they didn't make it out clean. We lost Abe. Geoff got wounded, lived long enough to pass on what he'd found to Joel. Told Joel to come find me.

PA - What's the intel?

TD - Tell you when I get there. Trust me, you're going to like it.

PA - So why is he with you, if you have what you need?

TD - He wanted to come. He's motivated. Angry about his dad. I think we could use him.

PA - This isn't the time to be picking up strays.

TD - It's exactly the time to be picking up strays. How many of us do you think there are left? We're scattered, stripped to the bone. Without new blood, they'll whittle us down to nothing. We have to take a risk.

PA - How does he seem?

TD - Pretty capable, to be honest. He made it to Marrakech, fought off some goons, held his own in a foreign city with agents looking for him. We hit a checkpoint on the way out, some guard got suspicious, wanted to hold us for a background check. I was ready to kill him and be done with it, but he sweet-talked the guy down somehow. Quick bribe and we were through.

PA - I mean about his dad.

TD - Oh. He's pretending not to be sad. He's a Brit, it's what they do.

PA - Alright. Bring him in. But if Baba turns up anything suspicious, anything at all, we dump him in the desert.

TD - Fine by me. See you there.


-------------------

This entry confirms several of our suspicions, but gives us a little more context. Geoff Eastman was indeed an Assassin, as is Tatyana. The mention of a cell suggests that some structure to the Brotherhood still remains, though by Tatyana's remarks it sounds like they are even fewer in number in the future, than they have been in the recent present day narrative.

-- DECRYPTED AUDIO EXTRACT FOLLOWS

-- PARTICIPANTS IDENTIFIED BY VOICE MODULATION MATCH

-- PARTICIPANTS FILES APPENDED

POUL AGARD - Very well. Let's go over this one more time. Bas, can you hear us okay?

BAS DE JONG - Loud and clear.

POUL AGARD - The convoy will start making their way down from the mountain at 0700. The target will be in the second car. Around 0830 they'll have to cross this bridge, where Elu will have placed explosives the night before. Elu, are we confident?

ELU AHOKA - Sure. It looks like a timber frame on the satellite photos. The supports will snap like matchsticks.

POUL AGARD - Alright. We blow the bridge as soon as the target's car is across, taking out the back two vehicles. At that point the rest of us move in.

BABA MBUYI - I override the locks on the cars, trap them inside, kill the engines. No worries.

POUL AGARD - Elu, at that point you detonate the mine you've laid in the road, taking out the lead car.

ELU AHOKA - (chuckles nastily)

POUL AGARD - Yana and I will take the second car. She shoots out the front driver's side window while I move in close and throw a gas grenade. Once the occupants are incapacitated...

BABA MBUYI - I release the locks...

POUL AGARD - We take out the remaining guards and secure the target. All clear?

JOEL EASTMAN - So what do I do?

BAS DE JONG - You stay with me by the van.

JOEL EASTMAN - Look, with all respect, I didn't come here to be your intern. I used to headshot rabbits in the Caucasus at a hundred yards.

POUL AGARD - People aren't rabbits.

JOEL EASTMAN - I know. Rabbits are faster.

ELU AHOKA - (chuckles) I like him.

JOEL EASTMAN - The only reason you even know about this convoy, or about the passenger it's carrying is because Dad broke into an Abstergo compound and pulled the details from their database. He died getting that info to me. I almost got arrested getting it to you.

POUL AGARD - Yes. You did a good job, and we're grateful.

JOEL EASTMAN - I don't want your gratitude. I owe it to my dad to see this through. So don't put me on the sidelines. I'm part of this.

TATYANA DANE - You said you can shoot?

JOEL EASTMAN - Yes.

TATYANA DANE - So give him a rifle. He can cover us from a distance.

POUL AGARD - I'm not sure I want a stranger with his sights on my back.

TATYANA DANE - Bas will stay with him. Bas, if he misbehaves, put a knife in his neck. Everyone happy?

JOEL EASTMAN - Yep.

BAS DE JONG - Understood.

TATYANA DANE - Great.

(long pause)

POUL AGARD - (sighs) Let's get this done

--EXTRACT ENDS

We have several more Assassin members here to add to our growing list of new characters. Evidently, the information that Joel's father was trying to get to the Brotherhood was the whereabouts of a high value Abstergo target, along with their proposed travel route.

DIARY OF JOEL EASTMAN (2)

The Atlas Mountains, Morocco

In the back of a clattering van, dragging its way up the mountainside. Been on the road for two days now, two vans between the six of us.

Long journeys get me thinking of Dad. We took a lot of long journeys, he and I. Dilapidated trains that got delayed for weeks. Months out in the wilderness at some remote dig site, with only the bare essentials. They say there's nothing left to explore, but the people who say that have never been more than half a day from safety. The whole world got crisscrossed by roads and routes, but there's so much space in between. Dad showed me how to move between the lines. I always liked it there.

It's been hard, knowing he's gone. Hard to keep it together sometimes. Those souks in Marrakech reminded me of the markets in Greece and Afghanistan. As a boy, I'd watch him haggle with someone when he didn't even have the language, and come away with the bargain. Sure, he could be rough, but he was always kind to me. A giant in my eyes, even when I got to be taller.

Now I've met his people, it all makes sense. No wonder he fell in with this crowd. He always hated what Abstergo did to history. They made it too easy, he said. Why would anyone bother doing the hard work of reading a book when you could jump into someone's memories and see history for yourself? But the real reason he kept on doing it the old way—excavating old ruins, digging through the clay with his hands—is that memory is unreliable. Especially when it's someone else's memory. And Abstergo controls all the memories.

One thing he drilled into me, right from day one. History is a point of view. If you only get one point of view, you're not really learning anything.

I followed him everywhere as a boy. I thought I was done with that, after he started getting more radical than I was comfortable with. I suppose I just wanted to step out of his shadow. Yet here I am, on my way to kidnap some scientist, all for the sake of Dad's cause. Who was I fooling? I was always my father's son. I should have just joined him when he asked. Maybe then he wouldn't be dead. Or at least I'd have had a few more years with him.

I miss you, Dad. And I'm bloody scared.

Here we have learned that Joel's father was evidently involved in archaeology. In this regard, he may have become aware of the Isu and their artifacts. It's interesting to note that even here we observe mentions of Abstergo rewriting history with “unreliable” memory, suggesting they have been utilising their propaganda techniques with the Animus for quite a considerable amount of time now already. Joel also reveals that his father had previously tried to induct him into the Brotherhood, but had originally refused.

NOTICE OF DISMISSAL, OSPANOV TO KLEIN

Mnemosyne

Security Chief Klein,

In light of the recent outrage committed against our operatives, you are instructed to resign your post and submit yourself to internal investigation, effective immediately.

I make no exaggeration when I say that your rank incompetence has jeopardized our interests on a global scale. Dr. Muller was an integral part of Project Mnemosyne and his loss places that entire operation into jeopardy. Not only did you fail to adequately protect the doctor, you failed to implement kill protocols to ensure that the highly classified knowledge he possesses did not fall into enemy hands. There is no telling what damage they can do to us now.

On several occasions you have argued that our enemies are no longer a viable threat to us, incapable of organizing and striking back. It gives me no pleasure to inform you that you are demonstrably wrong. Our intelligence operatives have already linked this breach back to the recent infiltration at the Hallen's Bluff facility, which you both failed to prevent and which you assured the board had been subsequently contained.

I do not need to tell you that this comes at the worst possible time, that we are on the verge of taking a revolutionary step forward, unprecedented in our history. The project is too far along to change its course now. Thanks to your actions, your successor will be forced into the uncomfortable position of maximizing security against this new threat, while the rest of us double our efforts to push this project through the gate before the enemy can devise a way to sabotage it.

Disciplinary measures will be forthcoming.

Director Ospanov

-------------------

There are some fun revelations within this Abstergo message. Firstly, there is Project Mnemosyne.
Abstergo naming conventions are generally pretty pertinent to the subject matter, and this one appears to be no exception. Mnemosyne was a Greek Titaness, cited as the source of language and writing. Not only that, she was known to employ Mnemokinesis – the power to influenceindividual and collective memory. She was also able to do this for the dead, offering them glimpses into their past lives. It all sounds very similar to what the Animus Ego is trying to achieve, by tailoring and manipulating simulations of genetic memory.

With this in mind, it seems a simple leap in logic to believe that Dr Muller likely has high level access to the tech and servers of the Project. With his capture by the Assassins, they now evidently have the tools they need to engineer a backdoor into Abstergo's project servers.

CONCLUSIONS