The Codex 5: The Ones That Came Before...

Who were The Ones That Came Before? What brought them here? How long ago? Centuries? Millenia? Longer still? So little remains of them... What drove them out? What of these artifacts? Messages in a bottle? Tools left behind to aid and guide us? Or do we fight for control over their refuse, giving divine purpose and meaning to little more than discarded toys?

Commentary: Des and his team could have easily pointed out exactly what the ones that came before were. But instead they chose to keep it ambiguous, to allow the player to speculate (thinking for oneself being the entire message of Assassin's creed, afterall). I think this makes those who came before far more interesting. They are ambiguous and unsettling, the mere suggestion that we might not know our own past, even in a fictional setting, is an unnerving thought. I understand, that Ubisoft tramples this idea post Desilets, but that doesn't mean the universe described in AC I and II is dead. We are still allowed our own minds and our own picture of the AC universe. Ubisoft can't sue us just for thinking about it (I imagine companies would if they could). So, how old were those who came before? Cro-Magnon man dates to 40,000 years ago. But could those who came before be older then that? As old as the dinosaurs? That might be a funny idea, but seeing as the Templars disseminate a false human history, could they have lied about the course of evolution? Could those who came before be millions if not tens of millions old? 
Whatever the case, we can be sure that humanity as it is post their fall, is living in a post apocalyptic society. The advanced technologies of the modern age is little more then scraps from a dead Arcadia. Its a humbling concept to think of. People often like to see themselves as more modern or civilised based on their technologies. But Classic Assassin's creed (I and II) suggests we're no more then monkeys playing with calculators. Worse still, monkeys waging war over calculators.