HOME | DD

Divine Science — Description

Whereas the Italian Renaissance was mostly defined by an explosion of artwork with a pinch of literature, the Northern Renaissance was quite the opposite. In the rest of Europe, dozens of famous writers were making a name for themselves. One of the most famous being the Englishman, William Shakespeare, who by 1592 was wowing audiences with plays like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and who nowadays is tormenting high school students with his bloody complicated grammar. There were a few artists springing up in the north, like Albrecht Dürer in Germany, but this movement consisted mostly of literature. But, just like the Italian Renaissance, this too was an era with a dark layer beneath the cultural beauty. And much of it was influenced by the Assassin-Templar War.

A good chunk of Assassin history during this period occurred in England, where there was a constant struggle for the throne. The Templars assigned their agents, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, to overthrow King Henry VII in 1499. The Assassins exposed the plot, and thus the king had Simnel arrested and Warbeck hanged. The Templars later tried again with their agent, Margaret of York, but the Assassins poisoned her in 1503. The Assassins then hunted down any remaining Templar conspirators, sparing only one, as the man offered to reveal all the Templars’ plans in exchange for his life. From him, the Assassins found out that the Templars had infiltrated King Henry's Star Chamber, a secret high court in the Palace of Westminster. They eliminated these last Templars, freeing England from their grip, and as thanks King Henry offered the Assassins a welcomed spot in the Star Chamber.

After Henry VII’s death, the Templar-affiliated Mary I took the throne. A bitter queen who desired to force all if England to become Roman Catholic, she had hundreds of innocents burned at the stake to get her way. The Assassins wouldn't stand for this tyranny, and so they killed Queen Mary on November 17, 1558. Mary was succeeded by her much more tolerant half-sister, Elizabeth I, an ally of the Assassins. The following year, Elizabeth somehow came into possession of the Apple of Eden that was once buried in the Library of Altaïr. She held onto the Apple throughout her reign, which lasted until 1603.

Another hotspot for activity relating to Pieces of Eden was in the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire but I guess they just liked the name so much that it stuck. The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II, called many alchemists to his land, some of the most famous examples being John Dee and Edward Kelley. Dee and Kelley utilized two Pieces of Eden, a Crystal Ball and the Book of Abraham, in order to create the philosopher's stone, a substance capable of turning metal into gold, which after taking chemistry I can assure you is quite a difficult thing to do. Atoms can be quite stubborn. Anyways, Dee eventually quit the project and hid the Book, realizing that the Pieces would only corrupt their wielders into madness. Kelley remained on the project, and sure enough it consumed him.

His work was severely slowed without the Book, and Rudolph II had him arrested multiple times for failing to deliver the gold he promised. His work was further threatened by a reported monster that lurked the streets of Prague, hunting down alchemists across the city. Kelley’s stepdaughter, Elizabeth Jane Weston, encountered the monster one day, and learned that it was called Golem. The Golem was after Kelley, but abandoned its mission upon seeing the young child. Kelley continued to work his days away, until his madness drove him to suicide in 1597.

So yeah. Despite the cultural boom that the Renaissance brought to Europe, there's always something darker lurking beneath. Don't even get me started on all the religious turmoil that swept across the continent ever since Luther showed up with his Reformation. Things got so complicated with that matter that people actually started leaving the continent all together, sailing across the seas to the New World. It was mostly Templars that left, however, as the Assassins had given them such a beating that they decided to start anew on a different continent. But wherever the Templars go, the Assassins are sure to follow close behind. And sure enough, the New World would soon be just as engulfed in the Assassin-Templar War as the Old World was. And once the Europeans began permanently settling in America, nothing would ever be the same.