Theories On Ezio's Lineage.


By now, it isn't a secret that I'm a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed franchise. I have pretty much loved the series, and its ideas of genetic memory and heritage, ever since it first came out in 2007. Now, as the date of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood draws ever nearer, I am strongly contemplating what the next step will be in a line that we saw commence with Altaïr Ibn La'ahad and currently ends with Desmond Miles.

Reportedly, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will be the final official game where we play as Ezio Auditore, the Renaissance Assassin of the bloodline. As Ezio is already in his forties during the course of this story, this may mean that he will conceive a child very soon after the events of the game. In other words, Brotherhood may hold the last of his genetic memories visible to Desmond and the modern Assassins.

At this point, after Brotherhood, it isn't a certain yet who the mother of Ezio's children may be. Still, whoever it will turn out to be, there are some other assumptions that we can make based on the rules of the Assassin's Creed universe and information so far.


1. Ezio had more than one child.
The loading sequence in the Abstergo Animus in Assassin's Creed II showed us that Ezio Auditore is the closest common ancestor of Desmond Miles and Subject Sixteen. The meaning of this is simple: right up to the point of Ezio, these two men had exactly the same ancestors.
As such, it is easy to state that, for them to have different predecessors after Ezio, the Renaissance Assassin must have fathered at least two children. This in effect would make Desmond and Sixteen distant cousins. There are two possibilities how this situation could exist:

1. Ezio had two or more children with one woman, possibly a wife or life partner.

2. Ezio had two or more children with different mothers (as even with different DNA from the maternal side, Ezio remains a joint ancestor).

Either way, for both Desmond and Sixteen to exist, Ezio must've had more than one direct descendent.


2. These children were acknowledged and raised by Ezio.

"Most Assassins are like you, yeah? They're born into the Brotherhood. Not me though..."

This statement by Shaun Hastings in Assassin's Creed II verifies that most Assassins are born into the Order. Cases like him, an outsider without Assassin heritage being accepted into it, are very rare. In other words: being an Assassin is something that goes from parent to child in almost all situations.
Even though we don't know that much about Desmond Miles's bloodline, he does tell us one important thing in the first game: his parents are Assassins. Taking the statement of Shaun into account, it is therefore very likely that the members of Desmond's family tree have been Assassins since Altaïr. As such, assuming that (one of) Ezio's partner(s) wasn't an Assassin, it is almost certain that Ezio was aware of the existence of his children, acknowledged them as his own and raised them to become Assassins after him.
Another interesting fact is that in one of the glyphs, Sixteen refers to the Assassins as "we". This implies that he was one of them and is only enforced by the fact he explored memories of missions done by his Assassin ancestors in the Animus, such as the assassination of Hitler. Once again referring to the fact that the ways of the Assassins are mostly taught to children by their parents, it is likely that both the ancestors of Desmond and Sixteen were fully acknowledged children of Ezio Auditore and he was largely involved in their upbringing. Seeing how children usually stayed with their mother during this time, this theory could perhaps disprove the "different mothers" possibility above, but this can't be said for certain.


3. Ezio's children may have grown up in Monteriggioni or be the ones who restored it.   
When opening the database entry of Monteriggioni in Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, one comes across this information:

Monteriggioni successfully withstood attacks from Florence, until in 1554, the city was betrayed. (…) Extraordinarily, the Auditore were allowed to continue their rule of Monteriggioni under Florentine leadership, showing that the Medici do not forget their friends.

The events of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood take place in 1503, more than fifty years before the town became Florentine territory. Until this time, the Auditore still ruled the city and they were left in charge even after the Medici claimed it. Also, the fact that Monteriggioni is real and still an active, bustling touristic town in the present day strongly suggests it has been rebuilt, probably by the Auditore themselves, reading this entry (the same can be true for the Villa, as the damage done to it in modern times isn't the same as the damage done during the attack by Cesare in Ezio's time).
After the death of Mario Auditore, Ezio is the only male of the family left. Again, this leads to two possibilities:

1. He returned to Monteriggioni at one point after the events of Brotherhood and raised his children there, continuing the Auditore rule. (supported by the fact that Desmond sees a vision of an older Ezio in the Sanctuary).

2. One of Ezio's children returned to Monteriggioni and continued the Auditore rule.

Regardless of which theory is correct, the fact remains that (at least part of) the Auditore family didn't remain in Rome after what transpired in Brotherhood. As Ezio is the only person whose descendents can still carry the surname of Auditore, either him or a (most likely male) heir must have returned and produced his or her own children there for the family line to continue up to the events mentioned in the database.


I hereby end my theories for Ezio's Lineage. As a disclaimer, I'd like to say that future information may prove some, if not all, of these assumptions wrong. My only point in writing them down and posting them here is to put them out there for discussion. You are welcome to leave your thoughts in the comment section. Flaming, however, will result in the comment being marked as spam.