The Assassin's Creed franchise can explore nearly any point in history. Players that explore Black Flag's modern day setting will uncover some interesting emails from Abstergo Entertainment that give clues as to where the series will go.

Spoilers ahead.

First up, an email from Olivier, CCO of the game's fictional developer, notes that the annualization of Assassin's Creed won't stop any time soon. In fact, Ubisoft plans on expanding the series' transmedia reach.

So this leads us to a broader question: what other experiences would we like to offer? What other historical periods and locations can we explore? Judging by our current rate of data retrieval, our capacity to produce, and our understanding of consumption trends... executives at Abstergo Industries have given me the goal of producing one complete virtual experience per annum, in addition to smaller offerings... as our research allows (this includes books, recordings, films, and any other trans-media offerings.)

A second, related question is this: does Sample 17 contain enough comeplling data to sustain our current commitment to it, or should we make a request to Abstergo Industries for additional archived data... remember that data from Sample 1 proved fruitful enough to create our "Liberation" product. It is very likely that research into Samples 2 through 16 would bear surprising fruits as well.

Thoughts?

Olivier Garneau

Chief Creative Officer

Abstergo Entertainment

Desmond has been the genetic star of the franchise so far, and it's likely Ubisoft will focus on his DNA for the time being. In this email, you'll see exactly what's possible for upcoming games:

I've been the Sample 17 project director for just over a year now, and my team and I have been able to cobble together a rough list of the most interesting time periods available to us through this single genetic sample. Remember this is data that has already been FULLY or PARTIALLY sequenced by Abstergo Industries. I'll try to be brief...

Patrilineal Line:

Fifteenth Century - Italian Renaissance

Sixteenth Century - Ottoman Empire

Eighteenth Century - American Colonies / War for Independence

Nineteenth Century - New England and American Midwest

Matrilineal Line:

Twelfth Century - Holy Land / Crusades

Thirteenth Century - Egypt and Northern Africa

Fourtheenth Century - Ashikaga Shogunate in Japan

Eighteenth Century - French Revolution

Nineteenth Century - Napoleonic wars; Taiwan

Twentieth Century - "Summer of Love" American Pacific Coast

Obviously this is just a sample sample of the potential options. The number of ancestors any one person has is well above thirty-thousand after just fifteen generations... so there could be many more surprises waiting for us within Sample 17.

However, despite Sample 17s rich heritage, we should not limit ourselves to this alone if we have concrete leads elsewhere. For instance, quite a few men from all sides of my family fought in both World Wars, and I even have a great-great-grandfather who fought in the American Civil War. Managed to meet President Lincoln a few times too. Going this route is a little more costly and time consuming, since the data has not already been sequenced. But it could be rewarding in the long-run.

In short, if anyone has any confirmed connections to interesting historical events, periods, or cities - or knows of people who do- please share! I will also be reviewing the past 3 decades of samples collected and sequenced by Abstergo industries. I recently learned that one of their Samples - number 2, I believe - participated in the trial of Jeanne D'Arc. So there's a nice lead right here.

Ah, but don't expect a Joan of Arc game from Ubisoft. At least, not any time soon. Also, here's a clever in-fiction way of explaining why the series will avoid modern periods:

From: Olivier Garneau

Date: 6 nov 2013 10:41

Subject: RE: Possible Locaitons...?

All good points, Mel.

A word of caution, though. Sample 2 comes from the late Dr. Warren Vidic himself, collected at some point in the early 80s when he was a young engineer working at Abstergo Industries. So, as tempting as a "Jeanne D'Arc experience" soudns, I'm not sure Abstergo Industries would be too keen on letting us rummage around in Dr. Vidic's DNA. It's just a sensitive topic.

For my own part: I'm related to Francois-Xavier Garneau, noted Quebecois historian and Poet. Exciting right? A possible lead? ;)

One additional caveat: Let's avoid digging into any modern periods (i.e. 20th century) unless we find something incredibly compelling. Because, as fun as a World War Two setting might sound, we'd do well to avoid any settings with vehicles: cars, motorcycles, helicopters, tanks, etc.

Why? you may ask. Because our research has shown that "memory imprinting" in individuals is actually hampered by the semi-catatonic state most people enter when driving for medium and long periods of time... and this makes data retrieval somewhat more difficult. In short, we don't want to go through the effort of coding extra Animus features just for the sake of digging up memories of people driving around in cars. There are other and more efficient ways to experience that...

Clever. Although, apparently sailing a boat doesn't count as driving a vehicle.