“ He then remarks , to himself quietly , ‘ I have seen enough for one life .’”
separated by centuries together . There was no better setting for this game than Istanbul , a city whose architectural bones are built upon the literal crossroads of Asia and Europe , closing the gap between old and new , past and present , Altair and Ezio , character and player .
The opening sequence of Assassin ’ s Creed : Revelations takes the form of a letter Ezio sends to his sister . “ Should my skills fail me or my ambition lead me astray ,” it reads , “ do not seek revenge or retribution in my memory , but fight to continue the search for truth so that all may benefit . My story is one of many thousands , and the world will not suffer , if it ends too soon .”
At the end , Ezio discovers Altair ’ s skeleton in a lightless vault , a library buried beneath the stones of Masyaf , the setting of the first game . After realizing the place is desolate and he was searching for nothing , Ezio accepts the limitations of his own time and of his own ability to find meaning , as if in a moment of existential reckoning . Succumbing to a calm inner voice , he refuses to seize the omnipotent artifact hidden in the sept . He realizes that the journey that led him here gave him more than the destination ever
could . He then remarks , to himself quietly , “ I have seen enough for one life .” “ I have lived my life as best I could , not knowing its purpose , but drawn forward like a moth to a distant moon , and here at last I discover a strange truth : that I am but a conduit for a message that eludes my understanding . Who are we to have been so blessed to share stories like this ? To speak across centuries ? Maybe one day you will have the answers to the questions I have asked . Maybe you will be the one to make all this suffering worth something in the end .”
The best stories , like those of Assassin ’ s Creed , are the ones that stay with us , that bridge our beliefs and reveal aspects of ordinary life we never knew , that deceive us with their maturity and passion , that make us pay attention to what we do . They not only propel us into new challenges but also equip us with the emotions to overcome them . Hence my decision to become a Honors History Major and Film & Media Studies Minor . Hopefully I ’ ll see it through without a major hiccup or reversal of fortune . Because as the motto of the Creed commands , “ Nothing is true , everything is permitted ,” and as such we are the architects of our destruction or the pallbearers of our success .