“We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins.”
This is the end of the oath of initiation of Assassins Creed.
According to the Oxford Dictionary a creed is: a set of beliefs or aims that guide someone’s actions
But what is the rest of the oath that guides those who prescribe to this belief system in this game?
Here it is in full
Assassin: “Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember…”
Initiate: “Nothing is true.”
Assassin: “Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember…”
Initiate: “Everything is permitted.”
Assassin: “We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins.”
This bring us to an interesting discussion. Assassins Creed is a game. More specifically it’s an RPG, a role playing game. To be successful you have to put yourself in that role and fulfill the characters purpose but whatever rules are defined in game play. There is some study involved. Characters have background stories, skills and strengths that must be known if you are going to be successfully manipulating the character to it’s full potential. The point is, it’s not passive mind numbing experience, there is problem solving.
Yet along the road to understanding comes some unwanted side effects. In the study of game play, specifically in Assassins Creed, you are taught information that is not reconcilable to Christianity. While it may be unwanted information, it is absorbed as part of the experience.
What is that experience? The book Game Addiction puts it this way
“Today’s games tend to revolve around experiences that get us excited, or make us feel good because we’re learning something new, connecting with people, or getting the opportunity to do things that’d be impossible in reality. While these different behaviors might now always push the same buttons in the brain, getting what we want is going to release dopamine. If a game experience is flooding the brain with dopamine, that means every other experience in life, on our to-do list, can begin to look less satisfying by comparison.” [1]
The concepts are not just simply dismissed. This is more true in RPG’s by the simple fact that choosing a specific character comes with the intent of vicarious manipulation.
The first concept propagated by the creed is atheism.
Assassin: “Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember…”
Initiate: “Nothing is true.”
Nothing? What about the Bible? Either Nothing is true, or the Bible is true, these are mutually exclusive. These concepts cannot be reconciled.
The Bible says in John 17:17 “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
God aligns His very being with His words. Those words define who He is.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6
Let’s make it formulaic for clarity.
No truth = No Bible.
No Bible = No God
No God = Atheism
Generally no one, especially Christians go to play that game (or the movie to come) thinking “I want to subject myself to atheism”. But the fact remains, when you put yourself in the position of subjection you are automatically an audience to a school of thought, for better or worse.
While one can deny it will not or cannot shake their claims to Christianity or their personal relationship with their Creator, there is something else to consider. Why play the game then? From similar games I can say, you play because you want the experience of the character. There is a rush you get from stepping into the shoes of a character on screen. You control their actions. You assume the thought processes and decisions for that character you now control.
As human beings control is one of the hardest things for us to give up. We desire to be on the throne of our hearts.
Assassin: “Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember…”
Initiate: “Everything is permitted.” [1]
Everything? Yes, when you remove morality or law, there is nothing to stop you from doing whatever you please. Morality and laws pose limitations. These limitations can easily be removed if you remove truth, essentially removing God. Morals defined by humanity are as lasting as the mortals who created them. But morals defined by a transcendent being like God, well those are not so easy to remove. This is why Assassins creed has to first propagate atheism. If there is no God, there is no truth. If there is no truth, everything is permitted.
This concept is what is taught by post modernism today. While it may seem like a new school of thought, it’s much closer to the Assassins Creed idea that it has been passed down through the centuries. It teaches us that there is no authority beyond self and that what is important is cultural moral relativism. Where have we heard that before?
…and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise …(Gen 3:5-6)
Eve’s disobedience put herself in the position of choosing an alternative morality a morality no higher than her own ideals. And the rest of humanity has followed suit since….we struggle with the issues of the heart making choices everyday who’s morality we will put first and who will rule self.
The creed ends.
Assassin: “We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins.”
Given the Divine depravity that it conjured up from the beginning, the end makes more sense now. Without God, there is no light.
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1John 1:5
Without truth and morality, there is nothing but darkness. What what lurks in the darkness? Everything that the human heart permits. Assassination….
This is not unlike how God describes his enemy in His Word while speaking to the Pharisees.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44
It was because he did not abide in the truth that he became a murderer, an assassin.
And what is an assassin?
Assassin: a murderer of an important person in a surprise attack for political or religious reasons. (Oxford Dictionary)
Satan the first assassin launched his attack on the most important person in the universe. And what for? Religious reasons. He made a choice to put his own thoughts above the thoughts of God and instill in the heavenly host a new cultural moral relativism. And ever since that time, he has been out to make assassins and atheists of the rest of humanity.
So it’s a game, and it’s played for entertainment. And most people probably don’t put much thought into it. And while you go about the game in a seemingly mindless fashion, you are making choices. You put more thought into it than you may realize and it put’s more thought into you than you may care to admit.
And while it’s now a game, it’s soon to be a movie. And many will go and see the movie, because they want to be entertained.
But what will enter? Will it be the thoughts of God? Or will it be the thoughts of the director, actor, producer, or game creator?
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Romans 1:21
Without God: Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted
[1] http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/The_Creed
[2] Clark, Neils, and P. Shavaun. Scott. Game Addiction: The Experience and the Effects. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009. Print.
I hate to do this but, this whole article is garbage, not to waste too much of my own time or anyone elses:
Nothing is true- there is no absolute reality, in the purest form of those words, even Christianity, or any other religion, they’re belief systems, not fact systems.
Everything is permitted: The Only limits anyone has are the ones they put on them selves or allow others to put on them, in other words your potential is, potentially unlimited- like Idk maybe jumping off a giant tower into a bucket of hay and living.
And I might also point out, many of the assassins, including ezio ( one of the greatest) are definitely Christians who believe in God, their fight isn’t with him it’s those who are corrupt with power, mostly the Templar using religion/fear of it to gain more power and become more corrupt. To take away free will of all humanity, control mind and other sadistic things?
Also, working in the dark to serve the light, very simply: living under the radar, using stealth and sometimes literally dark, to serve the people of their area and the world, the greater good, without ever taking credit or public glory because they’re in the dark?
It’s all really not a bad message for anyone all in all.
-A
NITEIP
To whomever wrote this article, put your name on what you write and take responsibility for it. I am a Christian, who has not played the game but I have done my homework beyond watching the game cutscenes/movies for most the game. Ezio Auditore makes it clear that ‘nothing is true’ is meant as a reflection on reality, Reality and actuality are different. While reality can be relative, actuality is not. In the game, this statement is meant to refer to the illusions that a corrupt Templar Order has deceived the public into believing. Also, I got the impression that it should also apply to the ‘precursor race’ who are dissembling if not outright being less than honest about things to manipulate mankind from the past. ‘Everything is permitted’ is something that Paul addresses in his first letter to the Church in Corinth, making the statement that while ‘everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial…that we should not be enslaved by anything.’ Ezio seems to take this approach. More than one mentore claims that the statements ‘nothing is true, everything is permitted’ is not a belief but the beginning of knowledge. Assassin comes from the word hashasim in both the game and history. There is little known in history about the hashashim because most the surviving documentation was all written by those who hated them. The writers of the game take a good deal of creative license with this to make the Assassins into who they want them to be. The game does not outright claim that there is no God. It fails to answer a good number of questions about who the precursor race are, how they came into being and how the multiverse came into being. The precursor race is intentionally telling as little as possible about the past. The phrase ‘nothing is true, everything is permissible’ was rumored to be the last words of the historical founder of the hashashim, who supposedly ran a cult where he was worshipped in lieu of Mohammad. The leap of faith that Marco Polo records refers to the founder commanding one of his devotees to leap from the wall to their deaths with the promise of paradise for their obedience. This kind of blind obedience is found nowhere in the game, Assassin’s Creed. The leap of faith in the game has nothing to do with a blind act of religious devotion. The hashashim of history were warriors that shared more in common with the special forces of today by making it a point to only kill their designated target. Most players of the game Assassin’s Creed attack and kill people who are between them and their target but will stay their blade from slaying the innocent. In the game, Templars covet control over others and seek certain technological artifacts that they believe will allow them to rob mankind of their free will. They believe this is necessary to bring peace to the world. The Assassin’s try to keep these artifacts concealed because they believe that robbing mankind of their free will will not bring about peace, that mankind must remain free to choose. Just as an aside, rulers of many countries have had Royal Assassin’s, who were charged with protecting the life of the monarch and preserving the security of the country from the shadows for centuries. There is some suggestion in the game’s storyline that Ezio’s father worked in such a role. When the game creed mentions ‘working in the dark to serve the light’, this is part of what is meant. Templars and Assassins are locked in a centuries long Cold War for the free will of mankind that is fought in the shadows (behind the scenes). So, the other part of what is meant by the words ‘to serve the light’ is protecting the free will of mankind. History wise, it appears that the statement applied to the hashashim carrying out missions for their founder and ‘the light’ referred to the founder himself. Again, most of the surviving historical documentation about this enigmatic order was written by outsiders who hated what may have been originally a sect of Shi’ite Islamists, where members of the highest ranks may have quietly practiced atheism. Nothing can really be confirmed on that count though.
As the guy above me states, the phrase “everything is permitted” is Biblical, with Paul saying it’s true, with the stipulation that “Not everything is beneficial.” Even Paul, Saint Paul, sees that sometimes things that seem bad have to be done. The Old Testament is pretty much killing a bunch of people, some of whom did nothing other than live in a certain place, so eventually mankind can be redeemed. Seeing that even the objective morality has exceptions is essential to both seeing why the Old Testament is filled with such slaughter and to much of Jesus’s teachings.
JAYSUS, NO ONE WILL MENTION HASAN I SABBAH? Just to trigger me, too… damn it.
Such a great article, i myself a Muslim and i believe in ONE God like Christians do, i always wanted to understand the meaning behind of this saying since i’m a big fan of the series, this another perspective from the quote that i want to spend some time looking at it
Why believe in something when you didn’t see it ? Because somebody asked you to ? Why are we here ? Why does the universe exists ? What created it ? What was before the beginning of everything ? I believe the only thing we sould believe is that we make our way the way we want. No matter where we born, we are free to make our own way. Some might have it more difficult than others, but there are values to learn in anyways. Stop believing the others’ voices or books. Believe in yourselves.
I cannot help, but agree with most of my peers above: ‘Nothing is true’ does not mean that there is no truth, only that there is no absolute truth, not even in Christianity. Although God is an absolute truth, we as mortal and mentally limited, cannot fully fathom Him as Paul says: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” This part of the Creed rathet refers to the fact that each and every one of us has his own truth, even about God, that we can fathom.
The second part saying that ‘everything is permitted’ does not mean that onr must do whatever one desires, rather potentially what is cited above from Paul that one can do anything, but that doesn’t obligatorily means that one should do them. We are free, and can ans supposed to act freely, but with care for one another. “We work in the dark to serve the light.” It’s the most plain: Assassins work unseen, do sometimes dark deeds so others don’t have to do them in order to be free as God created them. So the message is not atheistic, but rather philosophic and only a mind-numb person with narrow range of mental vision would misunderstand them. So I suggest the writer to reconsider them and err the mistakes.
“To say that nothing is true, is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile, and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization. To say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic.”
I have taken this Maxim from Assassin Creed.