Over time, any sentence uttered long and loud enough becomes fixed. Becomes a truth. Provided, of course, you can outlast the dissent and silence your opponents. But should you succeed – and remove all challengers – then what remains is, by default, now true.
Is it truth in some objective sense? No. But how does one ever achieve an objective point of view? The answer is you don't. It is literally, physically impossible. There are too many variables. Too many fields and formulae to consider. We can try, of course. We can inch closer and closer to a revelation. But we'll never reach it. Not ever...
And so I have realized, that so long as The Templars exist, they will attempt to bend reality to their will. They recognize there is no such thing as an absolute truth – or if there is – we are hopelessly underequipped to recognize it. And so in its place, they seek to create their own explanation. It is the guiding principle of their so-named "New World Order"; To reshape existence in their own image. It is not about artifacts. Not about men. These are merely tools. It's about concepts. Clever of them. For how does one wage war against a concept?
It is the perfect weapon. It lacks a physical form yet can alter the world around us in numerous, often violent ways. You cannot kill a creed. Even if you kill all of its adherents, destroy all of its writings – these are a reprieve at best. Some one, some day, will rediscover it. Reinvent it. I believe that even we, the Assassins, have simply re-discovered an Order that predates the Old Man himself...
Commentary: Throughout history, mankind has waged war against one another. But behind the physical violence this war can take, is a war of ideas. Ancient Rome subjugated peoples and forced their own customs and religion upon them. In the Middle Ages, the Church suppressed heresy by forcing monastic communities to adhere to the rule of Orders such as the Augustinians. In the 19th century, the European ruling classes ruthlessly suppressed liberalism and socialism with censorship of the press. In the early 20th century, the American ruling class suppressed the labor movement through use of coercion and propaganda.
All throughout history, there has been an attempt by a small group to force the rest of the populace to think a certain way. Why else would this be done other than to create an illusion of truth convenient to the needs of the few?
This is the reality behind the metaphor that is the Templars. The Templars represents mankind's tendency to attempt to control one and other by forcing certain ideas and suppressing others. Real war isn't fought with steel or gunpowder, its fought with ideas.
Here, Altair recognises this fact and goes on to realise the Templar's true strength. They don't enslave with chains. They don't enslave with force. They don't enslave with the pieces of Eden. These are just tools used to temper the sword of ideas with which they intend to delude the world. Liberalism, conservatism, theism, atheism, communism, capitalism etc. Once these words were merely means to linguistically represent a state of mind. But in the hands of the propagandist, they are tools to be redefined into prepackaged ideas, barbed with connotations either to encourage or discourage. But all of these ideas are just illusions, you cannot touch them, they are just states of mind. Worse still, they are often chains by which men fasten their thinking to only go so far from their comfort zone. An Assassin is one who opens their mind and realises the folly of dedicating oneself to an idea.
But the Templars recognise this and more. They realise that mankind can be blinded by these illusions and the world shaped into a lie, suitable to them. This is their "New World Order." One of peace and comfort, where all men may accept one and other.
Under the guidance of the enlightened ones.
Its funny how right Altair is about a creed. At one point, Ubisoft desired to "rebrand" Assassin's Creed to make it more palatable and less controversial. They took the Creed and destroyed it. Redefined it, into something that suited their needs.
But "You cannot kill a creed." And so here you are; rediscovering it.
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