Religious Philosophy in Assassin's Creed 

This video is only intended to examine the religious and philosophical themes of assassins creed, a fictional video game. It is in no way intended to be a reflection of reality, my personal beliefs, nor is it meant to malign, slander, or misrepresent any religious belief one may hold.

One concept is also present: if a technology is so advanced to a civilisation, it appears as magic.

The mix of religious, politics, humanistic, historical and sci-fi topics were just the perfect salad that made me love the series. No forgetting fantastic music that wraps all these games with different cultures and the gameplay mechanics... those make the central core of the series, something that I could really feel for the first games.

The code makes sense now. I'd never considered that. "In a world of untruth, everything is permitted"

I love the Sages as a concept, the idea of a certain Isu's collective memories manifesting in certain humans and PARTIALLY influencing them as the human struggles to comprehend the memories. It forces us to ask if we truly are our own person but also what it means to be alive. It also questions what makes a person, is a person genuinely based on choice or simply influenced by all of the memories in them. Clay Kaczmarek (Subject 16) said in AC Revelations; "What is a man but the sum of his memories?!?!?!". The most recent game, Mirage, has you play as a Sage named Basim. Basim has the memories of an Isu named Loki, with Basim trying to stick to his own ideals but also dealing with the memories of Loki and figuring out who he actually is and if he is an actually free person. It ends with Basim embracing Loki's memories, which ironically makes him a free person, as he now knows who he fully is. However, this is also partially false, as Loki's memories manifesting in Basim was pre-programmed by a supercomputer known as Yggdrasil, altering the bloodlines of Basim's ancestry until he was genetically molded into the closest thing to Loki, which once again begs the question of if Basim is truly a free person and whether he is truly himself as his motivations, personality, and ideologies become a mix of his own and Loki's.

The Assassins are based on the real world religious order of the Hashashin, founded by the historical religious leader and warlord Hasan-i-Sabbah. Hasan was a student of epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge and the rationality of belief. He used a unique combination of faith and pragmatism to achieve incredible results, such as near bloodlessly sacking Alamut by converting the majority of its villagers to Shia Assassin's Creed is more specifically inspired by Hasan's portrayal in Vladimir Bartol's 1938 novel Alamut. It opens with the supreme Ismaili motto: Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Bartol portrays Hasan as a man who has climbed the religious ladder only to discover that at the highest level of practician, there is no meaningful reason to believe God is real - not because of evidence to the contrary, but because of a lack of evidence thereof. He spends the rest of the novel answering the question of how a skeptic could lead a religious cult. I won't tell you what he does with that mindset, because the conspiracy is incredibly engaging and I highly recommend it to someone like yourself who has a lot of thoughts on this Assassin's Creed adapts this line of thinking by creating a world in which Hasan was right. All world religions are simply a misinterpretation of a history too complicated and buried for humans to understand. This interpretation was not created by Templars *as* a manipulation tool, it was simply co-opted once they realized its potential for control. The answer was in Altair's journal the whole time. He observed similarities between religions either predating Christianity or developed in isolation thereof. Templars *exclusively* use Christianity as a manipulation tool, so that doesn't account for all the other world cultures trying to make sense of the same events As an extension of the motto, or as we understand it, an extension of the Creed, this deconstruction fuels the franchise's message. The Creed warns against religion being weaponized, but it also celebrates its capability for peace if used responsibly. Assassins may not have any use for religion (anymore), but they're also not inherently opposed to it. Similarly, they teach its lack of veracity is not a hindrance to peace. Robert's fear of death is an oxymoron, because he knows death brings nothingness, so to fear death is to fear nothing, implying a lack of fear. Understanding that is the road to finding peace in death, and by extension, peace in a world where religion is at best imprecise and at worse hazardous. Just like how Assassins are not negative nihilists, Assassin's Creed is not about negative nihilism. It's about pragmatic skepticism, detailed observation, freedom of expression, and the dangers of humanity

Jesus, how is this guy so underrated? This is some of the highest quality content I’ve seen on the AC series ever. Keep making amazing content.

Something I loved in the first game and on parts of 3 and rogue is that they didn't show the templars as cartoonish vilains who want to Dominate The World, they were people who wanted peace just like the assassin's, their objective were the same. The difference is that assassin's believed everyone should have the knowledge to get to this conclusion while templars wanted to shepherd civilization to that goal Then came the other games with this whole "assassins are the good guys and templars are the villains", with no gray areas anymore. A bit sad in my opinion

I’m ngl These games gave me so much existential anxiety Sibrand’s death in ac1 terrified me, and the one person you kill in ac 2 who says “no, it’s too soon… I’m not ready” It’s kinda upsetting

this lore is the reason i love assassins creed games!

In the Godless universe of Assassin's Creed, Templars look like smart people that know they'll die and then just disappear so they want control. Assassins look like Nihilist coping by saying "We make our own destiny".

Unironically havent enjoyed a video this much in a while. Genuinely made me think and appreciate AC even more, Thank you!

I once played earlier games of this franchise for the story, and the thought provoking issues it brings up sure had me think on who I am and what I want, something certain people are attempting to censor these days.

Assassin’s Creed was originally developed to be a fast sequencing story, meaning each title the game would move dramatically and quickly to the final ending/conclusion, most likely in as little as three games (as I doubt the whole six game plan thing) Problems started arising possibly as early as AC1, but certainly at AC2 once they were making Brotherhood and Kristin Bell got fired so the original plot started changing a lot. We have to keep this in mind with the true Isu lore that we will probably never know. As far as the religious aspects, understand that this is coming from a Christian perspective, but the game never clarified if there is a God or an afterlife. It never does and this is fact. What we see as “afterlives” are computerized consciousness digital realities and that doesn’t count because it was reserved for Juno and Desmond only. So what does that make of the fate of trillions of other humans? Sounds like if there is an afterlife it wouldn’t be what the Creator would have planned. Other than that, the game does not clarify what happens definitively once a person dies. When we see these characters coming to the “truth” and coming to an existential crisis like Sibrand, Altair and others “knowing” there is no God and afterlife the truth is they never truly knew. They only went as far as the Isu’s existence, nothing more. Which raises the question, why did they settle on this? Why not go further and see if there is still a God? The game clearly explains that the Isu are not divine, just beings similar but superior to that of humans, but still infinitely inferior to a hypothetical God. This is not arguable whatsoever because they themselves tried to come up with ways to save themselves and they did not just create themselves-they just “came before”. They have no dominion over death, they did not create life and the universe, all they did was create man. They want to be worshipped like gods and they love it, but they aren’t. This still makes room for a God to exist and they may never touch on this subject due to the atheistic agenda nature of AC.

This is an extremely high effort and production value, and most importantly, thought-provoking. Please carry on.

Through my journey of playing Assassin's Creed, starting with 2 at the age of 11 I believe, I never once even thought of God being real in this games universe. Maybe its because of my own beliefs at the time but my first time playing "The Truth" segments of AC2 is what kept that thought as far away from this game as possible. I was immediately aware that what was happening was far more technically advanced than being a miracle of God, even more so going into history and what was created using the Pieces of Eden. Thanks to your video I am now able to look back (at 4:10am) on the game, more specifically my thinking at that age, and give praise to the writing of the early AC games Edit: I believe this is also why I had such an understanding of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" before it was fully explained by Ezio later in Revelations. While it may not have been a word for word interpretation I definitely understood what was being conveyed to me through the assassins

“Nothing is true ,everything is permitted” has had a grasp on my soul for more than a decade now …

It's kind of summed up in one of the first lines of the first game "Nothing is true everything is permissible" ... An extremely stupid line because 1. They think it to be true 2. They fight the Templars because they think what they are doing is not permissible...

The Assassin's concept of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" that was explained in Revelations was a nice touch, but I further understood it somewhere in either Origins or Odyssey. It was there that the "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" is a reference to the Isu technology of manipulating past and future events to change outcomes, and their sixth sense of their super heightened perception of the flow of time.

Great video. This is really one of the best aspects about the series. It is also worth mentioning that these concepts are also present in the main inspiration of the series; Vladimir Bartol's Alamut, not to mention some aspects which were also incorporated in AC1.

Human religion in game may be false But it still begs the question about the Isu, where did they come from? What's their full history? And are there other Isu out there? Things we'll never know

Very good video brother! I always love delving into the philosophy of AC. It’s interesting, because as a man of God I always understood that in AC, religion is propped up by the Ones Who Came Before and the pieces of Eden. How that determines the ideals of the Assassins and Templars was explained superbly.

The phrase "Nothing is true, everything is permited" in AC is a lousy interpretation from the words of Hassan ibn Sabbah, the actual real life founder of the order of the ismaili assassins. Brotherhood and revelations especially take big liberties to portray the meaning of the sentence, wich has more to do with inner realization and self knowledge than social or political guidance. If youre really interested in learning more about the philosophical claim that is the sentence I suggest you read "Alamut" by Vladimir Bartol, its a very enjoyable novel with lots of philosophy and history themes and characters. I enjoy AC for what it is but they got the meaning of the phrase wrong.

What i always find strange is how some characters when dying act like the can see God or an afterlife. Like the insane doctor in Assassin's Creed Mirage. So they at least make it mysterous enough to not offend everyone.

If the Isu created Humanity, than “who” created the Isu. 😉

This game is so much more than just a game. It is a message for us about the real world and things happening not visible to us. This video is perfect thank you for making it.

one of the best videos on assassin's creed i've seen. there's a lot to learn from ac and i'm glad i grew up playing the classics. videos like these help me introduce my friends and family to the essence behind what seems to be a basic ninja game on the surface. thanks for this vid.

Fantastic video. This is the kind of stuff that made me love this series. I thought through a lot of these concepts for myself years ago but I never saw a proper analysis that really explained it. It was always hard to verbalise all this in a cohesive way and this video did it really well so thank you. Yea the general gameplay and settings were fun but what got me excited to buy the next game was to see where they would take these ideas but it just seemed to trickle down to nothing in the later games and thats why I dont buy them anymore. This lore was the secret ingredient that made these games special and I feel like they lost that at some point.

First 4 games story came together was beautiful, and that’s an understatement. It told it so well mixing real life with imagination it might have you questioning your own reality. The puzzles involving real life figures had me feeling like I wasn’t supposed to see something. Never cared how the other games played out after Ezio though.

amazing video. i always thought so much when playing ac games about the ac universe's concept of God and this video explains a lot! it suprised me to hear the azan for islamic prayer in ac mirage, and the illusion of prophet moses in ac origins, alongside the Isu and so much other things. i thought that they didnt connect and that ubisoft wasnt being considerate of their religious side to the ac universe and i blamed the RPG era 😭 and when you combine it with the maxim: "nothing is true, everything is permitted." it really tells you that life is blind faith, and even if what you know is true, not everyone will believe you. I totally understand the limitations of ur script since its hard to talk about this, considering it is a human made game, and you also wanted to convey a non biased view, which you did great in beautiful video again, and thanks for getting me back into assassins creed

8:27 "If Jesus was a false prophet and apple wielder, doesn't that make his faith false?" I don't even have words to define how wierd it is to see someone use a fictional fact from a video game to contradict a real life belief. This feels like the reddit echo chambers have reached an entirely new dimension. It's almost as if you've established Assassin's Creed as the real canonical history of real world events. I have absolutely no words for this. Just how much unacceptance of reality can one person foster? I thought gender dysphoria was the limit, but I was dead wrong. At this point one could take a piece of paper and write "god isn't real" and consider it legitimate proof for god's non existence.

I know it would be to controversial but I would love a game about the 2nd/3rd generation assassin after Bayek in Jerusalem investigating the mystery of Jesus in the AC universe.

Wonderful video! Absolutely love it. I like that you actually touched on the less popular side assassin's creed, which is what the games ultimately stand for. It's ideas and views. I wish more people cared for it.

The video reminds me of when I was in elementary school, when our teacher brushed over the idea of political left and right. One kid asked, referring to the far ends of the spectrum: “if they’re on opposite ends, why do they sound so similar?” In the end, Assassins strive for free will but often can’t escape deciding what’s good for others for them. Templars came to the idea that control leads to peace, by their own free will. I wish Assassin’s Creed continued to at least subtlely go into the ambiguity between the two, and the kinds of philosophies described in this video.

A video I continue to keep coming back too I stopped playing the games after Origins just didn't enjoy how much the gameplay changed since Syndicate but the story I always found intriguing and fascinating I hope more people find this now that Shadows is coming out keep up the great work brother look forward to more of your stuff

Wonderful video that gives me a new view on the religious side of assassins creed Where I once found Valhalla’s, Odyssey’s, and Origin’s use of mythology and religion in their dlcs confusing I now see it in a different light. I feel I can have a much larger enjoyment when playing with this better understanding. Thank you.

This is one of the best video-essays I've ever seen. Damn, you are really underrated, I hope you'll keep it up with more in-depth lore videos.

This is such an amazing video, and as someone who isn't very religious myself, the Assassin's viewpoint really does resonate with me in that even if there is no divine being, we can still live our lives how we want it and that's what truly matters

You should increase the shound of other media in your video because when you were playing cutscenes or audio from the game i couldn't hear what they were saying even with max volume. Other than that great video

I never cared about the ridiculous AC lore. I only cared about history and politics. Why couldn't they have made it a series of games about a secret society trying to shape the world instead of a wierd alien story.

It's interesting how the franchise does not delve into the beliefs of Islam AT ALL. Even in the Middle Eastern settings.

As an athiest that has followed AC games since day 1 I absolutely agree with their philosophy. It has helped me with a lot of reasonings around religious stuff. We all have our own religions(or lack there of) and beliefs. But personally i do beleive there's nothing really there when our time on earth is up. So it does get a bit nihilistic when you think about it that we humans are alone and nobody will remember us, it doesn't really matter what you do or who you are. It gets incredibly depressing and all. Until you get to the conclusion that even if those things doesn't matter, what matters is that you are here right now. What really matters are the people around you and what you do each day. You won't live forever, so do what YOU want to do and don't hesitate to experience the world, our amazing planet and our history and everything you can experience in the world. The AC philosophy has helped me grow into the person i am today because of these beliefs. And of course, ALWAYS be respectable to others, especially if they don't have your beleifs/religion/background/culture/color of your skin etc...

"No god? What a pessimistic and nihilistic take" No. It's called atheism. Nihilism is the belief that nothing matters. Which is NOT a good example of the assassin's ideology. It's also not pessimistic. It's realistic. We're looking out for us. We forge our destinies. We decide our worth.

ISU reminds me of the Annunaki

1:10 I wasn't ready for that 😂😂😂Seeing a Shiny Borgia sending a massive punch just caught me off guard lol

It's 9 am Saturday morning i ain't ready for another existential crisis.. Great effort man

Athiest's creed

Do not forget it's not only the ISU (aka Elohim aka Anunaki) but also the antediluvian Giants (aka Titans aka Nephilim). For example, In AC Valhalla all the big stone monuments are supposedly made by the second.

22:47 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 4:5

I love this concept! Makes me rethink and see through a different perspective! Nice video and my favorite video game series.

they promote this philosophy of nihilism and atheism for a reason those who made the game want to promote this way of thinking

It is definitely a Godless series, since it was never able to have good gameplay, or stable fps on consoles

Freedom for those who deserve it, Control for those who cannot handle it. The Truth in this philosophical Conflict is in the middle.

i love how the person making this video is clearly religious and treats atheisms and agnosticism as if it doesnt exist in the real world and ac's take on it is completely new and profound. but to say that this person is "clearly religious" may sound like an insult, and sometimes it is, but in this context it is not, for most religious people will say "BLASPHEMY!" and let ignorance take place, this man is open to have his worldview changed, it is a trait not many people have.

Assasins creed doesn't say God doesn't exist. It just says that there were other kind of people before us. Who created us as their tools. But they didn't say that they created the heavens and the earth.

Assassin's Creeds Philosophy is called Promethusism named after the Greek God Promethus. A Gnostic belief that through Advanced Technology (Knowledge) and Human Evolution Mankind can make themselves Gods or better then the Gods. The Isu arent just Mankinds flawed Creators but Mankinds future Potential goal. In the Comics one of the Isu talks about Mankind potentially surpassing them. Mineva did say that the only difference between humans and the Isu was that the Isu was more Advanced in time (Evolution) The Supernatural and Spirituality doesnt exist in Assassins Creed, Miracles are only caused by Advanced Technology which is indistinguishable from Magic. There is also no Emortal Soul or Afterlife the only hope of eternal life is if youre lucky enough to have access to the Technology that will allow your Physical body or mind to live forever i.e in the Animas or Staff of Hermes. 99.99% of mankind will never achieve this as they live in the wrong time and place or dont have access to the technology. Thats reason why the Assassin's focus on Free Will there is no God nor Gods to guide Mankind despite our in-built desire to look up to them. Religion is just a Noble Lie for the Masses. Mankind has to become their own Gods in order to live forever and create and choose their own path surpassing even the Isu who created them. What a load of Athesist Free Mason Bullshit but I still like the Games 😅

I believe in nature, and its tendency to create networks, and these networks could be thought of more as realms. I liked this video. I value intellectual honesty and have always been a die hard fan of the AC Series. Recently downloaded the Ezio trilogy because when I played it younger, I neglected to really soak in all the vast database of real world knowledge in the game. This time around is like really savoring a fine dessert. Taking my time, meditating upon the locations and history as well as like word origins, reaply getting into the story in greater detail, incorpirating my understanding of the historical accuracy, making connections I didn't make before, etc.

Imagine what actually happened, then pretend the good guys are the bad guys. Assassins creed.

Great video! Very well put together.

The will of the lord, in fact, encourages the progression of us humans, I suggest you read some of the scriptures In the Quran, Gospels, and Torah, not only Human History, which even tho is accurately represented in AC, doesn't address factual points of the philosophy you are trying to get more in profound information. But I understand you are addressing as well in the parameters of a human-constructed game, so I don't judge you for that, rather I cordially encourage you to nurture yourself more besides what's represented to indagate in such a sensitive subject as the one you talk about is. Nevertheless, great video man, peace and blessings from a muslim brother and may the lord guide you, I see you are a man of knowledge.

I wish there was some moral dilemma between Templars and Assassins instead of the Franchise always revealing Templars to be the bloodthirst monsters. was there any point in the story that wasn't black and white?

I played this series with the understanding that they don’t believe in God and how could they? Once they discovered the Isu they are told by them they’re not gods even though y’all worship us and we made you, however the Isu themselves are dead. Who created the Isu and the world they live on? Surely not them, Creation points to a Creator. it seemed the protagonists questioned their existence, but hardly questioned the existence of the Isu as well. Of course the Isu would tell them there is no God because they wanted it to be them. They failed and went extinct, but God is eternal.

Man you got rannnnge!! I loved your RDR physics video to the moon cause it was the only one I could find aside from your fantastic production. The vaporwave intro was great.

This might be the best video I’ve ever watched on Assassin’s Creed

So assassins creed is blasphemous😨

I respectfully disagree. My takeaway from the franchise is not that G-d doesn’t exist. Rather, it is that the way most, if not everyone, gets it wrong as a result of their culture’s influence on how they perceive the world around them. I find it very interesting that we never truly encounter anyone outwardly Jewish in the franchise, at least to my understanding. It is entirely possible a historical figure has appeared in that game that we believe to be Jewish in the real world, but it’s far more obvious to spot Christians, Muslims, and the numerous forms of polytheists. We see a synagogue in Origins, but the NPCs outside of it were randomly generated the same as literally everywhere else in Alexandria. It is a bit of a stretch, and it’s unlikely that they planned it this way, but the way the Torah explains G-d makes it plausible for Him to still exist in the Assassin’s Creed universe. Spirituality and religion just developed in a very different way in this universe, resulting from historical events (within the lore) that were filtered through limited understanding. Adam and Chava (Eve) weren’t the first humanoids, simply the first homosapiens. Odin and Loki weren’t gods and demigods, they were a more technologically advanced species. Mythological creatures weren’t actually creatures, they were manifestations of Apples of Eden (either creating nightmarish visions that the current peoples understood in their imaginations, or that those people rumored into myths and legends after surviving encounters with whatever the Apples decided to manifest.) The forbidden fruit wasn’t an edible fruit, but a tool or weapon. The staff of Hermes wasn’t a god’s tool, but a highly advanced technological tool. Magic isn’t real, it’s technology hundreds of thousands of years ahead of its time, using elements yet to be rediscovered or harvested. A singular G-d orchestrating everything can still exist in the AC universe, however our understanding of that G-d in the AC universe cannot be easily defined nor comprehended… well, even less than the G-d of Yisrael.

Best video about AC's lore I encountered.

This was straight fire. Need more AC philosophy!

Damn, this gave me an existential crisis, I’m not necessarily a religious person and this is certainly something that I’ve thought about many times. What if there is truly nothing after this life? All the suffering through thousands of years would have been for nothing. Great video

Expertly made video! It’s great

Ok hear me out. The game doesn't necessarily excludes God but only a specific *interpretation* of God and His revelations (them being literal). Yes, the miracles of religions are but technology and Isu are the basis for mythology, but who is to say that God isn't revealing Himself through such events? Religion is about spiritual truth and inner conflict and only fundamentalist believe that all contained within the Holy Writing must me literal. Now yes the devs have taken it to its nihilist conclusion through the ruminations of our protagonists, but that still, technically doesn't exclude God and He could still be the Source of Existence and the creator of Isu and other forms of life in this universe. Would we stop believing in God today if we manage to create self aware AI or learn how to clone humans or create other sentient life forms? No. So, again God could be revealing Himself through the Isu and technology, from afar, to inspire belief and elevate mankind.

... May the Father of Understanding guide us.

I very much enjoyed the video. I'm not fond though of the terminology that God does not exist. The series shows us that our perspective of god is incorrect, but not that there can not be one. While some view may differ regarding the game between the viewers. I very much enjoyed the analysis.

this is one of the best videos on assassin creed and we all need to talk about this topic more.

I disagree that "all gods don't exist, all myth is simply a retelling of Isu shenanigans" is a nihilistic perspective. I find it incredibly empowering. Because this means what once we considered to be immortals beyond our understanding suddenly become no different than us mortals - that doesn't diminish the power of the gods, it increases our own. In the lore of AC, the potential of humanity is ascended to such a level that it can achieve incredible feats just as they did. If they could prevent catastrophe, so could we. If they could time travel, so can we. Perhaps nothing is true. But that means everything is permitted.

That's why Ac1 will always be my favorite. The philosophy was sooo strong that it stayed with me. Especially the idea of blind faith. Even in the order blind faith can lead to bad things. Look at Rouge. Even if God exists or not WE make are own choices. Our paths our are own to choose.

Isu are basically the Annunakis...hmm Very interesting and well put together video. liked and subbed.

Really amazing video and very well put. I’ve been playing assassin’s creed since 2012 and never fully understood the lore with the isu until this video

Brilliant video. Thank you for making this.

I love this video, saving it for many rewatches in the future

The history Channels "Ancient Aliens" lore video game.

the funny thing is that the writers are actually the gods of their universe and they are the ones that are sick and twisted to write a story like this causing so much suffering and destruction.

Well gods sort of exist in a way within the lore, depending on how you define what a god is

and they say its just a game

Altairs Codex made me question religion irl

hmmm whats on the back of our phones? an apple. whats used by the ones in power to control us? media, our phones. if we showed this phone to someone 100 years ago, what would he think? magic. seems interesting huh?

but the question is who made the isu's?

This video was so interesting and well put together. I was engaged the whole time. Well done.

Personally i don't think just because the isu exist, it doesn't invalidate the existence of God, remember, the isu are not gods, only ones who came before.

i never thought about this view point but it makes a tonne of sense i never thought how all this is possible if there is no god in the story which i guess is why they always start with the disclaimer about the developing team's beliefs, good video

I’m curious about your reading on the other assassins and what we can learn from them thematically (besides Altair, Ezio, and connor). If you could of remade this video and added a short sentence or section about Aveline, Edward, Adewale, Shay, Arno, Jacob and Evie, Bayek, Basim at the end what would you of said?

This makes you appreciate the assassin’s creed games that you don’t play as in assassin so It put more perspective

The people never have the power,only the illusion of it

this is the story of the real world. notice how doom has the same story

Good video citizen! ,keep it up 👍

Abstergo = BlackRock irl.

Technically the Templars as organization believe in God, the Father of Understanding is similar to how deists and freemasons refer as Him like the Great Architect of Universe

technically, there could have been a god who created the isu, and they could have even worshipped it, but we have no way of knowing so :p

The point I took of the game is that in this world we live, and I'm talking both inside and out the game, is that the real war that happens into this world isn't about right againist wrong, or good vs evil, but just, simply, a war of influence. A war to conquer the supremacy. The particular ideal of righteousness of a certain group or individuals. Of course it is not this simple, but surelly is a brief way to explain. Assassin's Creed brings it to us in a lot of ways. In the real world and inside the fiction, we may percieve it as well really loud and clear. But to archieve this clearence, we must to put a lot aside to really understand the world we live in by studying the pieces and solving part by part of the puzzle of life. To many people it may be unimaginable, simply because they already has been brainwashed with a lot of equivocated information. And, please, notice that with "brainwashed" I'm not talking about something related with the government or else, but just about the crystalisation of the information inside the brains of some people (the brain is plastic till some age; and it keeps, if you stimulate rightly)

So basically the anunaki