Arno Victor Dorian is a fictional character in Ubisoft 's Assassin's Creed video game franchise. He serves as the protagonist of the 2014 game Assassin's Creed Unity , in which he is portrayed by Canadian actor Dan Jeannotte through performance capture , and voiced by Godefroy Reding as a young child. The character's other appearances include the novelization of Unity , also released in 2014; the 2017 mobile title Assassin's Creed Unity: Arno's Chronicles as its titular player character; as well as cameo appearances in the 2014 game Assassin's Creed Rogue and the 2016 live-action film adaptation of the series .
178-533: Within the series' alternate historical setting , Arno was born into a French - Austrian noble family who have long been loyal to the Assassin Brotherhood, a fictional organization inspired by the real-life Order of Assassins . Arno is orphaned as a child after his father is murdered, leading to his adoption as a ward by the de la Serre family, who are secretly members of the Templar Order ,
356-527: A Megaduke and commander of its armies and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II . He saves the city from Islamic conquest , and even chases the Turks deeper into lands they had previously conquered. One of the earliest works of alternate history published in large quantities for the reception of a large audience may be Louis Geoffroy 's Histoire de la Monarchie universelle : Napoléon et la conquête du monde (1812–1832) (History of
534-431: A multiverse of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with American pulp writers. However, since his hero experiences only a single alternate world, the story is not very different from conventional alternate history. In the 1930s, alternate history moved into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner 's "Ancestral Voices", which
712-474: A "one dimensional" character, who brings nothing new in terms of gameplay mechanics. Andy Kelly from PC Gamer remarked that Arno starts off with a strong backstory, but gradually becomes less interesting as a character with the progression of Unity's narrative as he gradually embraces his identity as an Assassin. The character appears in several "top character" ranking lists of Assassin's Creed series protagonists with generally low placements. Arno's lack of
890-419: A "very well educated young man, raised in a noble household, with access to tutors and books, and thus is very well-read", and that he has a tendency to use humor to deflect whenever he is emotionally vulnerable, and habitually quotes classical texts whenever the opportunity arises. Stout claimed that he "tried really hard" to develop an interesting character that feels like a real person, "the complete opposite of
1068-467: A French Assassin, and his Austrian wife Marie. Arno's mother left the family when he was a young child after discovering Charles' affiliations, leaving him to raise Arno on his own. Like other protagonists in the Assassin's Creed series, the memories of his life and exploits as an Assassin are explored by another protagonist from the modern era, using a device capable of recreating the genetic memories of
1246-502: A French accent have attracted a negative reception. In his review of Unity for The Globe and Mail , Peter Nowak was bewildered by the fact that Unity's cast of French characters all spoke in British accents, and considered it the worst aspect of the game. Sliva criticized the decision to use British accents for quintessentially French characters like Arno and Napoleon to be "completely inexplicable and immersion-breaking". Panelists on
1424-443: A French accent would have given the character a unique quality. French website Gameblog expressed disappointment in response to Jeannotte's unflattering comments about French-accented spoken English, and insisted that the usage of a British accent does not necessarily produce a better aural experience. Alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history , allohistory , althist , or simply AH )
1602-483: A French weapon during the siege of Senlis and again in 984 at the siege of Verdun . Crossbows were used at the battle of Hastings in 1066, and by the 12th century they had become common battlefield weapons. The earliest extant European crossbow remains were found at Lake Paladru , dated to the 11th century. The crossbow superseded hand bows in many European armies during the 12th century, except in England, where
1780-459: A POD only to explain the existence and make no use of the concept, or may present the universe without explanation of its existence. Isaac Asimov 's short story " What If— " (1952) is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This idea can also be found in Asimov's novel The End of Eternity (1955), in which the "Eternals" can change the realities of
1958-412: A Pennsylvania State Police officer, who knows how to make gunpowder, is transported from our world to an alternate universe where the recipe for gunpowder is a tightly held secret and saves a country that is about to be conquered by its neighbors. The paratime patrol members are warned against going into the timelines immediately surrounding it, where the country will be overrun, but the book never depicts
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#17327909506992136-464: A Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future, rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used where guardians move through time to preserve the "correct" history. A more recent example is Making History by Stephen Fry in which
2314-469: A bitter war with the "Spanish" in Mexico (the chief scientist at the laboratory where the experiment occurred is described as a Gnostic, and references to Christian Gnosticism appear repeatedly in the book). Although not dealing in physical time travel, in his alt-history novel Marx Returns , Jason Barker introduces anachronisms into the life and times of Karl Marx , such as when his wife Jenny sings
2492-462: A cameo appearance in 2016 live-action Assassin's Creed film as an apparition encountered by Michael Fassbender 's character Callum Lynch. The film's novelization confirms that Arno is an ancestor of Lynch. Arno is the player character of Assassin's Creed Unity: Arno's Chronicles , a 2017 side-scrolling mobile game released for the Huawei Honor smartphone series. The game roughly follows
2670-412: A certain drug, and the agent is constantly trying to maximize the consistency of behavior among his alternate selves, attempting to compensate for events and thoughts he experiences, he guesses are of low measure relative to those experienced by most of his other selves. Many writers—perhaps the majority—avoid the discussion entirely. In one novel of this type, H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen ,
2848-559: A character in Ada makes a long-distance call, all the toilets in the house flush at once to provide hydraulic power. Guido Morselli described the defeat of Italy (and subsequently France) in World War I in his novel, Past Conditional (1975; Contro-passato prossimo ), wherein the static Alpine front line which divided Italy from Austria during that war collapses when the Germans and
3026-517: A complex and emotional story, which originally drew him to the project. Jeannotte described Arno as relatable and admirable, who uses humor as a defense or coping mechanism in the form of snappy remarks or sarcastic one-liners. Jeannotte noted that Arno is a skeptic who always questions everything about the Brotherhood of Assassins, including their cause and how they operate, and that Arno's snarky personality and tendency to raise legitimate questions
3204-439: A dialogue line or movement in a certain way. For the motion capture aspect of the character, Jeannotte wore a suit fitted with reflective markers as well as a helmet attached with a camera and microphone. He would perform in a studio set up with a large quantity of cameras that would capture movement from numerous angles; as he enacts a scene, his movements would also be followed by a few handheld cameras and booms. He recalled that
3382-629: A different history. "Sidewise in Time" has been described as "the point at which the alternate history narrative first enters science fiction as a plot device" and is the story for which the Sidewise Award for Alternate History is named. A somewhat similar approach was taken by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1941 novelette Elsewhen in which a professor trains his mind to move his body across timelines. He then hypnotizes his students so that they can explore more of them. Eventually, each settles into
3560-797: A divided United States , in which the Empire of Japan takes the Pacific states, governing them as a puppet, Nazi Germany takes the East Coast of the United States and parts of the Midwest , with the remnants of the old United States' government as the Neutral Zone, a buffer state between the two superpowers. The book has inspired an Amazon series of the same name . Vladimir Nabokov 's novel, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969),
3738-483: A historic individual via DNA samples. While visiting the Palace of Versailles with his father when he is eight years old, Arno wanders off with a girl he just met, Élise de la Serre. Minutes later, Arno finds that his father has been killed, and treasures the last thing he has left from him — a gold pocket watch. Now orphaned, he is accepted by the de la Serre family as a ward. The head of the family, François de la Serre,
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#17327909506993916-590: A hole in the bottom of the notch, forcing the string out. This rod is usually attached perpendicular to a rear-facing lever called a tickler . A later design implemented a rolling cylindrical pawl called a nut to retain the string. This nut has a perpendicular centre slot for the bolt, and an intersecting axial slot for the string, along with a lower face or slot against which the internal trigger sits. They often also have some form of strengthening internal sear or trigger face, usually of metal. These roller nuts were either free-floating in their close-fitting hole across
4094-428: A hollow bronze enclosure . The entire mechanism is then dropped into a carved slot within the tiller and secured together by two bronze rods . The string catch (nut) is shaped like a "J" because it usually has a tall erect rear spine that protrudes above the housing, which serves the function of both a cocking lever (by pushing the drawn string onto it) and a primitive rear sight. It is held stationary against tension by
4272-431: A later time and thus affording them unlimited time to aim. When shooting bows, the archer must fully perform the draw , holding the string and arrow using various techniques while pulling it back with arm and back muscles, and then either immediately shooting instinctively without a period of aiming, or holding that form while aiming. Both demand some physical strength to do so using bows suitable for warfare, though this
4450-491: A man named Cao Lỗ (or Cao Thông) to construct a crossbow and christened it "Saintly Crossbow of the Supernaturally Luminous Golden Claw" (nỏ thần) , which could kill 300 men in one shot. According to historian Keith Taylor, the crossbow, along with the word for it, seems to have been introduced into China from Austroasiatic peoples in the south around the fourth century BC. However, this
4628-427: A massive base frame and powerful windlass devices. The arrow-like projectiles of a crossbow are called bolts or quarrels . These are usually much shorter than arrows but can be several times heavier. There is an optimum weight for bolts to achieve maximum kinetic energy, which varies depending on the strength and characteristics of the crossbow, but most could pass through common mail. Crossbow bolts can be fitted with
4806-424: A metal (i.e. bronze or steel) grid serving as iron sights . Modern crossbow sights often use similar technology to modern firearm sights, such as red dot sights and telescopic sights . Many crossbow scopes feature multiple crosshairs to compensate for the significant effects of gravity over different ranges. In most cases, a newly bought crossbow will need to be sighted for accurate shooting. A major cause of
4984-456: A mixed critical reception, with some reviewers criticizing Arno as dull and not being particularly memorable as a series protagonist, while others praised him as a likeable character with an interesting backstory. Scriptwriter Travis Stout, who wrote the story for the single player campaign of Unity , explains that Arno Dorian is a lead character who constantly questions the Brotherhood of Assassins' legitimacy and belief system. He created Arno as
5162-479: A nation. It assumes that by giving a nation an alternative history, alternative values can be made to grow." In the English language, the first known complete alternate history may be Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story " P.'s Correspondence ", published in 1845. It recounts the tale of a man who is considered "a madman" due to his perceptions of a different 1845, a reality in which long-dead famous people, such as
5340-684: A result, but is convinced to save Paris after Élise returns for him. The two work together to kill Germain in the catacombs underneath the Paris Temple , but Élise is mortally wounded during the fight. The ending of Unity , which chronologically takes place years later, sees Arno back in the Brotherhood, narrating about how his understanding of the Assassins' Creed has changed and promising to continue protecting Paris. The Dead Kings expansion pack for Unity expands upon Arno's experiences after Élise's death. He initially falls into depression and
5518-435: A sharp wit, but he doesn't hesitate to be brutal", and observed that as an Assassin, "he will go for the kill when the situation demands it, and since he only uses a single blade, he gets creative, especially when facing multiple enemies". She argued that regardless of Arno's tactics, he is a "likeable guy through and through", and claimed that it is "the one comment that has surfaced most as more people at Ubisoft are playtesting
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5696-664: A sixteen-part epic comic book series called Captain Confederacy began examining a world where the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War . In the series, the Captain and others heroes are staged government propaganda events featuring the feats of these superheroes. Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given
5874-655: A skilled archer, often necessitating the use of a pavise (shield) to protect the operator from enemy fire. Along with polearm weapons made from farming equipment, the crossbow was also a weapon of choice for insurgent peasants such as the Taborites . Genoese crossbowmen were famous mercenaries hired throughout medieval Europe, whilst the crossbow also played an important role in anti-personnel defense of ships. Crossbows were eventually replaced in warfare by gunpowder weapons. Early hand cannons had slower rates of fire and much worse accuracy than contemporary crossbows, but
6052-592: A staple of the alternate history genre. A number of alternate history stories and novels appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (see, for example, Joseph Edgar Chamberlin 's The Ifs of History [1907] and Charles Petrie 's If: A Jacobite Fantasy [1926]). In 1931, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays from some of the leading historians of the period for his anthology If It Had Happened Otherwise . In that work, scholars from major universities, as well as important non-academic authors, turned their attention to such questions as "If
6230-629: A third. Robinson explores world history from that point in AD 1405 (807 AH ) to about AD 2045 (1467 AH). Rather than following the great man theory of history, focusing on leaders, wars, and major events, Robinson writes more about social history , similar to the Annales School of history theory and Marxist historiography , focusing on the lives of ordinary people living in their time and place. Philip Roth 's novel, The Plot Against America (2004), looks at an America where Franklin D. Roosevelt
6408-503: A time machine is used to alter history so that Adolf Hitler was never born. That ironically results in a more competent leader of Nazi Germany and results in the country's ascendancy and longevity in the altered timeline. While many justifications for alternate histories involve a multiverse , the "many world" theory would naturally involve many worlds, in fact a continually exploding array of universes. In quantum theory, new worlds would proliferate with every quantum event, and even if
6586-540: A time that was the future for the writer, but now is the past for the reader, such as the novels 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Arthur C. Clarke , 1984 (1949) by George Orwell and the movie 2012 (2009) because the authors did not alter the real history of the past when they wrote the stories. Similar to the genre of alternative history, there is also the genre of secret history - which can be either fictional or non-fictional - which documents events that might have occurred in history, but which had no effect upon
6764-777: A tool for hunting, and later an effective weapon against the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Montagnard fighters armed with crossbows proved a highly valuable asset to the US Special Forces operating in Vietnam, and it was not uncommon for the Green Berets to integrate Montagnard crossbowmen into their strike teams. The earliest crossbow-like weapons in Europe probably emerged around the late 5th century BC when
6942-549: A tree at 140 paces. Crossbows were used in numbers as large as 50,000 starting from the Qin dynasty and upwards of several hundred thousand during the Han. According to one authority, the crossbow had become "nothing less than the standard weapon of the Han armies", by the second century BC. Han soldiers were required to arm a crossbow with a draw weight equivalent of 76 kg (168 lb) to qualify as an entry-level crossbowman, while it
7120-411: A tyrannical US Government brushes aside the warnings of scientists about the dangers of time travel and goes on with a planned experiment - with the result that minor changes to the prehistoric past cause Humanity to never have existed, its place taken by tentacled underwater intelligent creatures - who also have a tyrannical government which also insists on experimenting with time-travel. Time travel as
7298-510: A variety of heads, some with sickle-shaped heads to cut rope or rigging; but the most common today is a four-sided point called a quarrel . A highly specialized type of bolt is employed to collect blubber biopsy samples used in biology research. Even relatively small differences in arrow weight can have a considerable impact on its flight trajectory and drop. Bullet-shooting crossbows are modified crossbows that use bullets or stones as projectiles. The ancient Chinese crossbow often included
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7476-427: A vehicle to expound them. This book introduced the idea of a person being transported from a point in our familiar world to the precise geographical equivalent point in an alternate world in which history had gone differently. The protagonists undergo various adventures in the alternate world, and then are finally transported back to our world, again to the precise geographical equivalent point. Since then, that has become
7654-541: A verse from the Sex Pistols 's song " Anarchy in the U.K. ", or in the games of chess she plays with the Marxes' housekeeper Helene Demuth , which on one occasion involves a Caro–Kann Defence . In her review of the novel, Nina Power writes of "Jenny's 'utopian' desire for an end to time", an attitude which, according to Power, is inspired by her husband's co-authored book The German Ideology . However, in keeping with
7832-484: Is Herodotus 's Histories , which contains speculative material. Another example of counterfactual history was posited by cardinal and Doctor of the Church Peter Damian in the 11th century. In his famous work De Divina Omnipotentia , a long letter in which he discusses God 's omnipotence , he treats questions related to the limits of divine power, including the question of whether God can change
8010-496: Is "2017 Arno Dorian Qualitätswein Niederösterreich Zweigelt ", which alludes to the character's Austrian heritage. The character is described by the wine label as struggling with finding his way in the world, and is often misunderstood despite his pure intentions. Overall critical reception for Arno has been mixed. Kimberley Wallace from Game Informer said Arno's personality is a "no-nonsense type with
8188-458: Is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alternate history stories propose What if? scenarios about crucial events in human history, and present outcomes very different from the historical record. Some alternate histories are considered a subgenre of science fiction , or historical fiction . Since
8366-405: Is a story of incest that takes place within an alternate North America settled in part by Czarist Russia and that borrows from Dick's idea of "alternate-alternate" history (the world of Nabokov's hero is wracked by rumors of a "counter-earth" that apparently is ours). Some critics believe that the references to a counter-earth suggest that the world portrayed in Ada is a delusion in the mind of
8544-464: Is almost nothing but passing references in the military historian Vegetius (fl. + 386) to 'manuballistae' and 'arcuballistae' which he said he must decline to describe as they were so well known. His decision was highly regrettable, as no other author of the time makes any mention of them at all. Perhaps the best supposition is that the crossbow was primarily known in late European antiquity as a hunting weapon, and received only local use in certain units of
8722-446: Is also used. The lock refers to the release mechanism, including the string, sears, trigger lever, and housing. A crossbow is essentially a bow mounted on an elongated frame (called a tiller or stock) with a built-in mechanism that holds the drawn bow string , as well as a trigger mechanism, which is used to release the string. The Chinese trigger was a mechanism typically composed of three cast bronze pieces housed inside
8900-493: Is and what they're trying to accomplish." Arno's fighting style involves the smooth executions of his targets. He is capable of swiftly running up to an enemy, kick their legs out from underneath them, and puncturing their chest with the Assassins' signature Hidden Blade. Arno also has new weapons at his disposal like the Phantom Blade, a crossbow -like attachment which adds a projectile mechanism for his Hidden Blade, and
9078-517: Is another attempt to portray a Utopian society. In Aristopia , the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America . In 1905, H. G. Wells published A Modern Utopia . As explicitly noted in the book itself, Wells's main aim in writing it was to set out his social and political ideas, the plot serving mainly as
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#17327909506999256-635: Is arrested and sent to the Bastille , where he befriends a fellow prisoner, Pierre Bellec. Having personally known Charles Dorian and recognizing Arno's potential, Bellec teaches him how to sword fight and invites him to join the Assassin Brotherhood after they both escape during the Storming of the Bastille . After being rejected by Élise for failing to deliver a message which could have prevented her father's death, Arno contemplates Bellec's offer and joins
9434-411: Is called a crossbowman , an arbalister or an arbalist (after the arbalest , a European crossbow variant used during the 12th century). Crossbows and bows use the same elastic launch principles, but differ in that an archer using a bow must draw-and-shoot in a quick and smooth motion with limited or no time for aiming, while a crossbow's design allows it to be spanned and cocked ready for use at
9612-545: Is clear from surviving inventory lists in Gansu and Xinjiang that the crossbow was greatly favored by the Han dynasty. For example, in one batch of slips there are only two mentions of bows, but thirty mentions of crossbows. Crossbows were mass-produced in state armories with designs improving as time went on, such as the use of a mulberry wood stock and brass. Such crossbows during the Song Dynasty in 1068 AD could pierce
9790-404: Is commonplace in cinematic depictions of foreign language settings in the English medium. Jeannotte estimated that the script for the main storyline of Unity to be between 350 and 400 pages, which excluded dialogue for optional side missions; by comparison, a typical film script would usually come to about 120 pages at the most. The script for sound effects, such as one-liner quips or grunts when
9968-526: Is contradicted by crossbow locks found in ancient Chinese Zhou dynasty tombs dating to the 600s BC. In 315 AD, Nu Wen taught the Chams how to build fortifications and use crossbows. The Chams would later give the Chinese crossbows as presents on at least one occasion. Crossbow technology for crossbows with more than one prod was transferred from the Chinese to Champa , which Champa used in its invasion of
10146-481: Is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh is elected, leading to a US that features increasing fascism and anti-Semitism. Michael Chabon , occasionally an author of speculative fiction, contributed to the genre with his novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007), which explores a world in which the State of Israel was destroyed in its infancy and many of
10324-539: Is easier using lighter draw-weight hunting bows. As such, their accurate and sustained use in warfare takes a lot of practice. Crossbows avoid these potential problems by having trigger-released cocking mechanisms to maintain the tension on the string once it has been spanned – drawn – into its ready-to-shoot position, allowing these weapons to be carried cocked and ready and affording their users time to aim them. This also allows them to be readied by someone assisting their users, so multiple crossbows can be used one after
10502-562: Is found in Livy 's Ab Urbe Condita Libri (book IX, sections 17–19). Livy contemplated an alternative 4th century BC in which Alexander the Great had survived to attack Europe as he had planned; asking, "What would have been the results for Rome if she had been engaged in a war with Alexander?" Livy concluded that the Romans would likely have defeated Alexander. An even earlier possibility
10680-531: Is ideal for stealthy or long-range kills. The Dead Kings downloadable content pack also introduces the Guillotine Gun, an axe that also functions like a grenade launcher or blunderbuss with a long-range attack that strikes multiple enemies at once. Dan Jeannotte provides the motion-capture and voice performance for Arno Dorian in Unity . Jeannotte praised the script and writer of Unity for telling
10858-526: Is necessary in a video game where there's a necessary amount of suspension of disbelief for the plot to make sense. Although Unity is set in Paris with many French characters, their lines in English are not delivered with French accents . Like other characters in Unity , Jeannotte used a British accent for Arno, with comparatively few dialogue or words being delivered in French. Jeannotte explained that while
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#173279095069911036-491: Is no longer interested in being an Assassin, refusing to act when he learns Napoleon plans to retrieve a powerful Piece of Eden from the catacombs of Saint-Denis . However, with encouragement from a young boy named Léon, he comes to terms with his past and regains his resolve, finding something else to fight for besides Élise. With Léon's help, Arno retrieves the Piece of Eden before Napoleon's traitorous captain can, and sends it to
11214-465: Is only one known depiction of it. The 11th century Chinese military text Wujing Zongyao mentions types of crossbows using winch mechanisms, but it is not known if these were actually handheld crossbows or mounted crossbows. Another drawing method involved the shooters sitting on the ground, and using the combined strength of leg, waist, back and arm muscles to help span much heavier crossbows, which were aptly called "waist-spun crossbows" (腰張弩). During
11392-446: Is purely driven by revenge for the murder of her father, Arno strives for redemption and attempts to find out why it occurred in the first place. Amancio said the development team wanted to highlight the bond between Élise and Arno, and that a serious and mature love story is something Ubisoft had been wanting to portray in a video game for a long time. Amancio claimed that the developmental team saw an opportunity to develop this plot for
11570-585: Is set in Europe following the Nazi victory. The novel Dominion by C.J. Sansom (2012) is similar in concept but is set in England, with Churchill the leader of an anti-German Resistance and other historic persons in various fictional roles. In the Mecha Samurai Empire series (2016), Peter Tieryas focuses on the Asian-American side of the alternate history, exploring an America ruled by
11748-439: Is so called because it spreads abroad an aura of rage [ nù ] ( 怒 ). Its stock is like the arm of a man, therefore it is called bi ( 臂 ). That which hooks the bowstring is called ya ( 牙 ), for indeed it is like teeth. The part round about the teeth [i.e. the housing box] is called the guo ( 郭 ) ["city wall"], since it surrounds the gui ( 規 ) [lug] of the teeth [i.e. the locking nut]. Within [and below] there
11926-490: Is solidly written and he has clear goals and motivations for his actions. Chris Carter from Destructoid found Arno to be "not quite as memorable as Ezio or as dashing as Edward ", but nevertheless a likable and believable character in terms of how he is tied into the narrative. Writing for The New York Times , Stephen Totilo noted that players of Unity no longer have the moral certitude which justifies their player character's efforts as in many other video games, and that
12104-494: Is suggested that, had Gordon Banks been fit to play in the 1970 FIFA World Cup quarter-final, there would have been no Thatcherism and the post-war consensus would have continued indefinitely. Kim Stanley Robinson 's novel, The Years of Rice and Salt (2002), starts at the point of divergence with Timur turning his army away from Europe, and the Black Death has killed 99% of Europe's population, instead of only
12282-410: Is the xuan dao ( 懸刀 ) ["hanging knife", i.e. the trigger blade] so called because it looks like one. The whole assembly is called ji ( 機 )["machine" or "mechanism"], for it is just as ingenious as the loom . The earliest European designs featured a transverse slot in the top surface of the frame, down into which the string was placed. To shoot this design, a vertical rod is thrust up through
12460-583: Is the Grand Master of the French Rite of the Templar Order, but out of respect for Charles Dorian's memory, he never lets Arno know about his father's true affiliations or the circumstances of his death. Arno grows close to his new kin, in particular with Élise, with whom he falls in love later in life, but has to face death once again when François is killed in 1789. Framed for the murder, Arno
12638-508: Is to obtain something and it's really what each of them willing to do to reach that goal." Amancio describes the dilemma Arno faces when it comes to choosing between love and duty as an "impossible choice". Amancio explained that Arno does not get very involved politically in the French Revolution, with the ideals and extremism of the historical period merely provide a compelling backdrop for his personal struggles. Arno's goals with
12816-618: The gastraphetes , an ancient Greek crossbow, appeared. The name means "belly-bow"; the concave withdrawal rest at one end of the stock was placed against the belly of the operator, and he could press it to withdraw the slider before attaching a string to the trigger and loading the bolt; this could store more energy than Greek bows . The device was described by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria in his Belopoeica ("On Catapult-making"), which draws on an earlier account of his compatriot engineer Ctesibius ( fl. 285–222 BC). According to Heron,
12994-703: The Battle of Maling in 342 BC. The Book of Han , finished 111 AD, lists two military treatises on crossbows. Handheld crossbows with complex bronze trigger mechanisms have also been found with the Terracotta Army in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC) that are similar to specimens from the subsequent Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), while crossbowmen described in the Qin and Han dynasty learned drill formations, some were even mounted as charioteers and cavalry units , and Han dynasty writers attributed
13172-663: The Crosstime Traffic series for teenagers featuring a variant of H. Beam Piper's paratime trading empire. The concept of a cross-time version of a world war, involving rival paratime empires, was developed in Fritz Leiber 's Change War series, starting with the Hugo Award winning The Big Time (1958); followed by Richard C. Meredith 's Timeliner trilogy in the 1970s, Michael McCollum 's A Greater Infinity (1982) and John Barnes' Timeline Wars trilogy in
13350-523: The Dead Kings DLC. Conversely, other reviewers considered Arno's storyline and romance with Élise to be forgettable. In his review of Unity for Kotaku , Totilo found Arno himself to be a dull character, "whose sole interesting personality trait is that he is in love with a woman who is a Templar". Andrew Webster from The Verge found him to be an "incredibly unlikable lead" and compared him to Watch Dogs protagonist Aiden Pearce. He criticized
13528-857: The Egyptian Brotherhood of Assassins for safe keeping. Arno appears in the novelization of Unity as its co-protagonist along with Élise. A young Arno appears in the Palace of Versailles during the ending sequence of Assassin's Creed Rogue , in which players control Charles Dorian's killer, the Assassin-turned-Templar Shay Patrick Cormac . Arno's Assassin outfit is unlockable to wear in Rogue . The remastered version of Assassin's Creed III also features an outfit themed after Arno, though it does not resemble its final design seen in Unity . Arno makes
13706-472: The Empire of Japan and the Germans (and doing almost as much harm as good in spite of its advanced weapons). The series also explores the cultural impacts of people with 2021 ideals interacting with 1940s culture. Similarly, Robert Charles Wilson 's Mysterium depicts a failed US government experiment which transports a small American town into an alternative version of the US run by Gnostics , who are engaged in
13884-655: The Khmer Empire 's Angkor in 1177. When the Chams sacked Angkor they used the Chinese siege crossbow. The Chinese taught the Chams how to use crossbows and mounted archery Crossbows and archery in 1171. The Khmer also had double-bow crossbows mounted on elephants, which Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h suggests were elements of Cham mercenaries in Jayavarman VII 's army. The native Montagnards of Vietnam's Central Highlands were also known to have used crossbows, as both
14062-787: The Worldwar series , in which aliens invaded Earth during World War II . Other stories by Turtledove include A Different Flesh , in which the Americas were not populated from Asia during the last ice age ; In the Presence of Mine Enemies , in which the Nazis won World War II; and Ruled Britannia , in which the Spanish Armada succeeded in conquering England in the Elizabethan era , with William Shakespeare being given
14240-487: The arquebus (which proliferated in the mid to late 15th century) matched crossbows' rate of fire while being far more powerful. The Battle of Cerignola in 1503 was won by Spain largely through the use of matchlock arquebuses, marking the first time a major battle had been won through the use of hand-held firearms. Later, similar competing tactics would feature harquebusiers or musketeers in formation with pikemen, pitted against cavalry firing pistols or carbines . While
14418-411: The eighth generation of video game consoles . Amancio noted that love stories "are always a hard thing in video games because ultimately they can very easily become a tangent," and that by concepting Élise as a Templar and making that a core part of her identity, it forms part of the character's actual struggle and prevents it from becoming a "B-plot or a tangent". Inspiration was found in video games from
14596-463: The execution of Louis XVI and the arrest of Maximilien Robespierre , as well as befriending Napoleon Bonaparte . After Arno lets Germain escape during a confrontation in order to rescue Élise, the latter rejects him again and abandons him to pursue vengeance on her own. Furthermore, the Council become aware of his activities and expel him for insubordination. Arno falls into a drunken depression as
14774-548: The gastraphetes was the forerunner of the later catapult , which places its invention some unknown time prior to 399 BC. The gastraphetes was a crossbow mounted on a stock divided into a lower and upper section. The lower was a case fixed to the bow, and the upper was a slider which had the same dimensions as the case. It was used in the Siege of Motya in 397 BC. This was a key Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily , as described in
14952-447: The longbow was more popular. Later crossbows (sometimes referred to as arbalests ), utilizing all-steel prods, were able to achieve power close (and sometime superior) to longbows but were more expensive to produce and slower to reload because they required the aid of mechanical devices such as the cranequin or windlass to draw back their extremely heavy bows. Usually these could shoot only two bolts per minute versus twelve or more with
15130-469: The medieval era , both Chinese and European crossbows used stirrups as well as belt hooks . In the 13th century, European crossbows started using winches, and from the 14th century an assortment of spanning mechanisms such as winch pulleys, cord pulleys, gaffles (such as gaffe levers, goat's foot levers, and rarer internal lever-action mechanisms), cranequins, and even screws. The smallest crossbows are pistol crossbows. Others are simple long stocks with
15308-586: The time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp in which an American academic travels to Italy at the time of the Byzantine invasion of the Ostrogoths . De Camp's time traveler, Martin Padway, is depicted as making permanent historical changes and implicitly forming a new time branch, thereby making the work an alternate history. In William Tenn 's short story Brooklyn Project (1948),
15486-529: The "fair world" parallels our history, about fifty years out of step, there is functional magic in the fair world. Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labelled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night". In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. The writer might allude to
15664-476: The 14th century, steel prods came into use. Traditionally, the prod was often lashed to the stock with rope, whipcord , or other strong cording. This is called the bridle . The Chinese used winches for large crossbows mounted on fortifications or wagons , known as "bedded crossbows" (床弩). Winches may have been used for handheld crossbows during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), but there
15842-551: The 1920s. In Jo Walton 's "Small Change" series, the United Kingdom made peace with Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II, and slowly collapses due to severe economic depression. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have written a novel, 1945 , in which the US defeated Japan but not Germany in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than
16020-414: The 1950s, as a subgenre of science fiction, some alternative history stories have featured the tropes of time travel between histories, the psychic awareness of the existence of an alternative universe by the inhabitants of a given universe, and time travel that divides history into various timestreams . Often described as a subgenre of science fiction , alternative history is a genre of fiction wherein
16198-484: The 1980s; Chalker's G.O.D. Inc trilogy (1987–89), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Kurland's Perchance (1988), the first volume of the never-completed "Chronicles of Elsewhen", presents a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies that utilize a variety of means for cross-time travel, ranging from high-tech capsules to mutant powers. Harry Turtledove has launched
16376-472: The 1990s. Such "paratime" stories may include speculation that the laws of nature can vary from one universe to the next, providing a science fictional explanation—or veneer—for what is normally fantasy. Aaron Allston 's Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil take place between our world, the "grim world" and an alternate "fair world" where the Sidhe retreated to. Although technology is clearly present in both worlds, and
16554-776: The 1st century AD by Heron of Alexandria in his book Belopoeica . A crossbow machine, the oxybeles was in use from 375 BC to around 340 BC, when the torsion principle replaced the tension crossbow mechanism. Other arrow-shooting machines such as the larger ballista and smaller scorpio from around 338 BC are torsion catapults and are not considered crossbows. Arrow-shooting machines ( katapeltai ) are briefly mentioned by Aeneas Tacticus in his treatise on siegecraft written around 350 BC. An Athenian inventory from 330 to 329 BC includes catapults bolts with heads and flights. Arrow-shooting machines in action are reported from Philip II's siege of Perinthos in Thrace in 340 BC. At
16732-438: The 2000s like Ico and Passage which also depict nuanced love stories within their narratives. Amancio noted that both are bound by the laws of their respective organizations, who are mortal enemies of each other, and the narrative explores their divergent ways of approaching a situation, and that "the closer Arno gets to Élise and her methods, the more he will stray from the Assassins and their methods. Ultimately, their goal
16910-477: The 7th century BC in ancient China and as early as the 1st century AD in Greece (as the gastraphetes ). Crossbows brought about a major shift in the role of projectile weaponry in wars, such as during Qin's unification wars and later Han campaigns against northern nomads and western states . The medieval European crossbow was called by many names, including "crossbow" itself; most of these names derived from
17088-521: The American Civil War (named the "War of Southron Independence" in this timeline). The protagonist, the autodidact Hodgins Backmaker, travels back to the aforementioned battle and inadvertently changes history, which results in the emergence of our own timeline and the consequent victory of the Union instead. The American humorist author James Thurber parodied alternate history stories about
17266-412: The American Civil War in his 1930 story "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox", which he accompanied with this very brief introduction: " Scribner's magazine is publishing a series of three articles: 'If Booth Had Missed Lincoln', 'If Lee Had Won the Battle of Gettysburg', and 'If Napoleon Had Escaped to America'. This is the fourth". Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably
17444-486: The Assassins align in that they are trying to prevent needless or senseless death; as explained by Amancio, the French Assassins are "trying to prevent the power from exploding, but they're trying to get the least involved as possible, because they also believe people have to go through their mistakes again. However, they are worried that somebody might be pulling the strings, so they're trying to find out who that
17622-553: The Australian television program Good Game produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) had a similar reaction, and drew attention the fact that Ubisoft is a French company and that another series protagonist Ezio Auditore speaks with an Italian accent in previous instalments of the video game series. The panelists formed a view that while Jeannotte did a fine job as Arno's actor,
17800-745: The Austrians forsake trench warfare and adopt blitzkrieg twenty years in advance. Kingsley Amis set his novel, The Alteration (1976), in the 20th century, but major events in the Reformation did not take place, and Protestantism is limited to the breakaway Republic of New England. Martin Luther was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and later became Pope Germanian I. In Nick Hancock and Chris England 's 1997 book What Didn't Happen Next: An Alternative History of Football it
17978-532: The Brotherhood to avenge François' death. The following five years see Arno going on a quest for redemption as he assassinates various Templars involved in the conspiracy that got his adoptive father killed. However, his methods often go against the Assassin Council's orders, who begin to question his loyalty to their cause. Through his investigation, Arno eventually uncovers the identity of the Templar at
18156-453: The Dorian family history, explaining that Arno's family "is a very old one and they've been Assassins for a very long time so we wanted to give him a slightly more antiquated name". In an interview with Game Informer , Unity creative director Alex Amancio explains the conflict between Arno's character arc and Élise's goal for vengeance. Amancio emphasized that Arno joins the Assassins with
18334-543: The Greek and Chinese crossbow but it is not clear what kind of release mechanism they used. Archaeological evidence suggests they were similar to the rolling nut mechanism of medieval Europe. There are essentially no references to the crossbow in Europe from the 5th until the 10th century. There is however a depiction of a crossbow as a hunting weapon on four Pictish stones from early medieval Scotland (6th to 9th centuries): St. Vigeans no. 1 , Glenferness , Shandwick , and Meigle . The crossbow reappeared again in 947 as
18512-637: The Hawaiian Islands. Perhaps the most incessantly explored theme in popular alternate history focuses on the aftermath of an Axis victory in World War II . In some versions, the Nazis and/or Axis Powers win; or in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege; while in others, there is a Nazi/Japanese Cold War comparable to the US/Soviet equivalent in 'our' timeline. Fatherland (1992), by Robert Harris ,
18690-621: The Imperium is one of the earliest alternate history novels; it was published by Fantastic Stories of the Imagination in 1961, in magazine form, and reprinted by Ace Books in 1962 as one half of an Ace Double . Besides our world, Laumer describes a world ruled by an Imperial aristocracy formed by the merger of European empires, in which the American Revolution never happened, and a third world in post-war chaos ruled by
18868-515: The Japanese Empire while integrating elements of Asian pop culture like mechas and videogames. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future. For instance James P. Hogan 's The Proteus Operation . Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing from Europe to North America in
19046-464: The Jews and Israel, Chabon also plays with other common tropes of alternate history fiction; in the book, Germany actually loses the war even harder than they did in reality, getting hit with a nuclear bomb instead of just simply losing a ground war (subverting the common "what if Germany won WWII?" trope). The late 1980s and the 1990s saw a boom in popular-fiction versions of alternate history, fueled by
19224-586: The Moors in Spain Had Won" and "If Louis XVI Had Had an Atom of Firmness". The essays range from serious scholarly efforts to Hendrik Willem van Loon 's fanciful and satiric portrayal of an independent 20th-century New Amsterdam , a Dutch city-state on the island of Manhattan . Among the authors included were Hilaire Belloc , André Maurois , and Winston Churchill . One of the entries in Squire's volume
19402-480: The Myriad Ways , where the reality of all possible universes leads to an epidemic of suicide and crime because people conclude their choices have no moral import. In any case, even if it is true that every possible outcome occurs in some world, it can still be argued that traits such as bravery and intelligence might still affect the relative frequency of worlds in which better or worse outcomes occurred (even if
19580-565: The Song dynasty, stirrups were added for ease of drawing and to mitigate damage to the bow. Alternatively, the bow could also be drawn by a belt claw attached to the waist, but this was done lying down, as was the case for all large crossbows. Winch-drawing was used for the large mounted crossbows as seen below, but evidence for its use in Chinese hand-crossbows is scant. Around the third century BC, King An Dương of Âu Lạc (modern-day northern Vietnam ) and (modern-day southern China ) commissioned
19758-720: The Soviet Union. Gingrich and Forstchen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War , in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg - however, after Lincoln responds by bringing Grant and his forces to the eastern theater, the Army of Northern Virginia is soon trapped and destroyed in Maryland, and
19936-692: The Universal Monarchy: Napoleon and the Conquest of the World) (1836), which imagines Napoleon 's First French Empire emerging victorious in the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and in an invasion of England in 1814, later unifying the world under Bonaparte's rule. The Book of Mormon (published 1830) is described as an "alternative history" by Richard Lyman Bushman , a biographer of Joseph Smith . Smith claimed to have translated
20114-647: The alliance, leading to Arno confronting and killing Bellec atop the Sainte-Chapelle . During the later part of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Reign of Terror , Arno works with Élise behind the Assassin Council's back to hunt down Germain and his remaining co-conspirators. Unity 's alternative presentation of historical events sees Arno being personally involved with several notable events that occurred during this time period, such as
20292-414: The arcuballista was a crossbow is due to Vegetius referring separately to it and the manuballista , which was torsion powered. Therefore, if the arcuballista was not like the manuballista, it may have been a crossbow. According to Vegetius these were well-known devices and hence he did not describe them in depth. Joseph Needham argues against the existence of Roman crossbowmen: On the textual side, there
20470-550: The armies of Theodosius I, with which Vegetius happened to be acquainted. On the other hand Arrian 's earlier Ars Tactica , from about 136 AD, also mentions 'missiles shot not from a bow but from a machine' and that this machine was used on horseback while in full gallop. It is presumed that this was a crossbow. The only pictorial evidence of Roman arcuballistas comes from sculptural reliefs in Roman Gaul depicting them in hunting scenes. These are aesthetically similar to both
20648-569: The author speculates upon how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical event had an outcome different from the real life outcome. An alternate history requires three conditions: (i) A point of divergence from the historical record, before the time in which the author is writing; (ii) A change that would alter known history; and (iii) An examination of the ramifications of that alteration to history. Occasionally, some types of genre fiction are misidentified as alternative history , specifically science fiction stories set in
20826-424: The ban on certain types of crossbows, the weapon experienced an upsurge in civilian usage as both a hunting weapon and pastime. The "romantic young people from rich families, and others who had nothing particular to do" formed crossbow-shooting clubs as a way to pass time. Military crossbows were armed by treading, or basically placing the feet on the bow stave and drawing it using one's arms and back muscles. During
21004-429: The battlefield. Medieval crossbows were also very inefficient, with short shot stroke lengths from the string lock to the release point of their bolts, along with the slower speeds of their steel prods and heavy strings, despite their massive draw weights compared to bows, though modern materials and crossbow designs overcome these shortcomings. The earliest known crossbows were made in the first millennium BC, as early as
21182-605: The capital of Lu , and date to the 6th century BC. Bronze crossbow bolts dating from the mid-5th century BC have been found at a Chu burial site in Yutaishan, Jiangling County , Hubei Province. Other early finds of crossbows were discovered in Tomb 138 at Saobatang, Hunan Province, and date to the mid-4th century BC. It is possible that these early crossbows used spherical pellets for ammunition. A Western Han mathematician and music theorist, Jing Fang (78–37 BC), compared
21360-486: The cause of a point of divergence (POD), which can denote either the bifurcation of a historical timeline or a simple replacement of the future that existed before the time-travelling event, has continued to be a popular theme. In Ward Moore 's Bring the Jubilee (1953), the protagonist lives in an alternate history in which the Confederacy has won the American Civil War. He travels backward through time and brings about
21538-482: The character for having "basically no memorable personality traits, aside from the fact that he's a sociopathic killer". Webster drew attention to a scene where he went on a killing spree just so Arno could "steal some wine and have a drink", with no indication afterwards that he has expressed remorse, other than being angry that his watch was stolen while he passed out from drinking. Both Elise Favis from The Washington Post and Marty Sliva from IGN criticized Arno as
21716-490: The characteristics and use of crossbows in chapters 5 and 12 respectively, and compares a drawn crossbow to "might". The Huainanzi advises its readers not to use crossbows in marshland where the surface is soft and it is hard to arm the crossbow with the foot. The Records of the Grand Historian , completed in 94 BC, mentions that Sun Bin defeated Pang Juan by ambushing him with a battalion of crossbowmen at
21894-399: The conceit of a freethinking Assassin who occasionally crosses the flawed order that he joined in the first place for the Templar he loves is "a fitting plot for a game set in Paris at the time of the French Revolution, itself a drama of faltering ideals". Tom Phillips from Eurogamer further praised Arno's continued character development from the aftermath of the main storyline as presented in
22072-435: The copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen." This view is perhaps somewhat too abstract to be explored directly in science fiction stories, but a few writers have tried, such as Greg Egan in his short story The Infinite Assassin , where an agent is trying to contain reality-scrambling "whirlpools" that form around users of
22250-452: The crossbow mounted on them. These could be shot from under the arm. The next step in development was stocks of the shape that would later be used for firearms , which allowed better aiming. The arbalest was a heavy crossbow that required special systems for pulling the sinew via windlasses. For siege warfare , the size of crossbows was further increased to hurl large projectiles, such as rocks, at fortifications. The required crossbows needed
22428-402: The developmental team had considered French accents during discussions, the final decision was made "using the cinematic conceit of having historical British accents like you would in something like the movie Gladiator ". Jeannotte felt that it was appropriate as he personally did not believe that English spoken in a French accent comes across as "cool" as a British accent, and claimed that it
22606-678: The disintegration of the US Federal Government after Albert Gallatin joins the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 and eventually leads to the creation of a libertarian utopia. In the 2022 novel Poutine and Gin by Steve Rhinelander, the point of divergence is the Battle of the Plains of Abraham of the French and Indian War. That novel is a mystery set in 1940 of that time line. A recent time traveling splitter variant involves entire communities being shifted elsewhere to become
22784-526: The document from golden plates, which told the story of a Jewish group who migrated from Israel to the Americas and inhabited the region from about 600 B.C. to 400 A.D., becoming the ancestors of Native Americans . In the 2005 biography Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling , Bushman wrote that the Book of Mormon "turned American history upside down [and] works on the premise that a history—a book—can reconstitute
22962-567: The emergence of the prolific alternate history author Harry Turtledove , as well as the development of the steampunk genre and two series of anthologies—the What Might Have Been series edited by Gregory Benford and the Alternate ... series edited by Mike Resnick . This period also saw alternate history works by S. M. Stirling , Kim Stanley Robinson, Harry Harrison , Howard Waldrop , Peter Tieryas , and others. In 1986,
23140-411: The facial capture helmet took time to get used to, and he had to learn what actions are possible or impossible within the framework of the device. For a romantic scene with involved kissing between his character and another, he would rehearse it once with his scene partner without their helmets on so they could understand what the scene was like and grasp the right emotional tone for it. They would re-enact
23318-522: The first that explicitly posited cross-time travel from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. Wells ' Men Like Gods (1923) in which the London -based journalist Mr. Barnstable, along with two cars and their passengers, is mysteriously teleported into "another world", which the "Earthlings" call Utopia. Being far more advanced than Earth, Utopia is some 3000 years ahead of humanity in its development. Wells describes
23496-513: The game" prior to its launch in November 2014, and observed that since his world is full of "shades of gray", it forces him to question everything, from his allies to the woman he loves. Brenna Hillier praised the narrative in Unity as a genuine story due its focus on the characters' personal journey, as opposed to nonsensical content framed by the game's writers to fit an existing set of missions and side-content. She noted that Arno's character arc
23674-548: The head of the conspiracy: François-Thomas Germain , the leader of a radical faction within the Order who intend to continue the work of Jacques de Molay . Learning that Germain intends to kill Élise, Arno protects her and persuades her to seek an alliance with the Brotherhood. Bellec, who opposes the idea due to his intense hatred of the Templars, murders the Assassins' Mentor, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau , to prevent
23852-402: The hero (another favorite theme of Dick's novels ). Strikingly, the characters in Ada seem to acknowledge their own world as the copy or negative version, calling it "Anti-Terra", while its mythical twin is the real "Terra". Like history, science has followed a divergent path on Anti-Terra: it boasts all the same technology as our world, but all based on water instead of electricity ; e.g., when
24030-454: The infantry to be armed with crossbows. During the Song dynasty , the crossbow received a huge upsurge in military usage, and often overshadowed the bow 2 to 1 in numbers. During this time period, a stirrup was added for ease of loading. The Song government attempted to restrict the public use of crossbows and sought ways to keep both body armor and crossbows out of civilian ownership. Despite
24208-503: The military crossbow had largely been supplanted by firearms on the battlefield by 1525, the sporting crossbow in various forms remained a popular hunting weapon in Europe until the eighteenth century. The accuracy of late 15th century crossbows compares well with modern handguns, based on records of shooting competitions in German cities. Crossbows saw irregular use throughout the rest of the 16th century; for example, Maria Pita 's husband
24386-476: The moon to the shape of a round crossbow bullet . The Zhuangzi also mentions crossbow bullets. The earliest Chinese documents mentioning a crossbow were texts from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC attributed to the followers of Mozi . This source refers to the use of a giant crossbow between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, corresponding to the late Spring and Autumn period . Sun Tzu 's The Art of War (first appearance dated between 500 BC to 300 BC ) refers to
24564-496: The mortal enemies of the Assassins, in turn inspired by the Knights Templar military order. The romantic relationship between Arno and his childhood friend Élise de la Serre is central to the story of Unity , the events of which are set in motion when Élise's father is killed. Arno resolves to investigate the reason behind the murder and join the Assassins at the onset of the French Revolution . The character has received
24742-490: The novel's anachronisms, the latter was not published until 1932. By contrast, the novel's timeline ends in 1871. Crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow -like assembly called a prod , mounted horizontally on a main frame called a tiller , which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long gun . Crossbows shoot arrow -like projectiles called bolts or quarrels . A person who shoots crossbow
24920-427: The other while others reload and ready them. Crossbows are spanned into their cocked positions using a number of techniques and devices, some of which are mechanical and employ gear and pulley arrangements – levers, belt hooks, pulleys, windlasses and cranequins – to overcome very high draw weight. These potentially achieve better precision and enable their effective use by less familiarised and trained personnel, whereas
25098-701: The past, for example, bringing about that Rome was never founded: I see I must respond finally to what many people, on the basis of your holiness's [own] judgment, raise as an objection on the topic of this dispute. For they say: If, as you assert, God is omnipotent in all things, can he manage this, that things that have been made were not made? He can certainly destroy all things that have been made, so that they do not exist now. But it cannot be seen how he can bring it about that things that have been made were not made. To be sure, it can come about that from now on and hereafter Rome does not exist; for it can be destroyed. But no opinion can grasp how it can come about that it
25276-471: The player character gets hit, would come to about 60 pages. Jeannotte said there was not much opportunity for on-the-spot improvisation in the form of creating new or improvised lines, though he grew to understand the character quite well and would have his own interpretations of how the character would react under specific conditions. He noted that the producers are open to collaborating with voice actors, and readily take in feedback proposing potential changes to
25454-410: The poets Robert Burns , Lord Byron , Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats , the actor Edmund Kean , the British politician George Canning , and Napoleon Bonaparte , are still alive. The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford 's Aristopia (1895). While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroy 's Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812–1823 , Aristopia
25632-402: The point of view of an alternate history is variously known as " recursive alternate history ", a "double-blind what-if", or an "alternate-alternate history". Churchill's essay was one of the influences behind Ward Moore 's alternate history novel Bring the Jubilee in which General Robert E. Lee won the Battle of Gettysburg and paved the way for the eventual victory of the Confederacy in
25810-553: The protagonist's doppelganger. Philip K. Dick 's novel, The Man in the High Castle (1962), is an alternate history in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan won World War II. This book contains an example of "alternate-alternate" history, in that one of its characters authored a book depicting a reality in which the Allies won the war, itself divergent from real-world history in several aspects. The several characters live within
25988-415: The reality that is most suitable for him or her. Some of the worlds they visit are mundane, some are very odd, and others follow science fiction or fantasy conventions. World War II produced alternate history for propaganda : both British and American authors wrote works depicting Nazi invasions of their respective countries as cautionary tales. The period around World War II also saw the publication of
26166-442: The recorded historical outcome. Alternative history also is thematically related to, but distinct from, counterfactual history , which is a form of historiography that explores historical events in an extrapolated timeline in which key historical events either did not occur or had an outcome different from the historical record, in order to understand what did happen. The earliest example of alternate (or counterfactual) history
26344-468: The same storyline as Unity . Like other protagonists in the series, Arno Dorian has been subject to merchandise. A 16 inch tall figurine of Arno is bundled with the Collector's Edition of Unity . Arno's likeness, along with five other series protagonists, was used for a line of character-themed wine labels as part of a joint collaboration between Ubisoft and winemaker Lot18 ; the full name of his label
26522-488: The same time, Greek fortifications began to feature high towers with shuttered windows in the top, presumably to house anti-personnel arrow shooters, as in Aigosthena . The late 4th century author Vegetius , in his De Re Militari , describes arcubalistarii (crossbowmen) working together with archers and artillerymen. However it is disputed whether arcuballistas were crossbows or torsion-powered weapons. The idea that
26700-535: The scene with their helmets on, but with a foot far from each other. Jeannotte concluded it was "such a treat" to be able to wear a motion capture suit as a means to "embody the character physically", which helped him perform his lines better. Arno is the protagonist of the 2014 video game Assassin's Creed Unity . Within series lore, he was born in Versailles , the Kingdom of France , in 1768, to Charles Dorian,
26878-442: The second piece, which is shaped like a flattened "C" and acts as the sear . The sear cannot move as it is trapped by the third piece, i.e. the actual trigger blade, which hangs vertically below the enclosure and catches the sear via a notch. The two bearing surfaces between the three trigger pieces each offers a mechanical advantage , which allow for handling significant draw weights with a much smaller pull weight. During shooting,
27056-444: The simple and composite warbows of, for example, the English and the steppe nomads require years of training, practice and familiarisation. These advantages for the crossbow are somewhat offset by the longer time needed to reload a crossbow for further shots, with the crossbows with high draw weights requiring sophisticated systems of gears and pulleys to overcome their huge draw weights that are very slow and rather awkward to employ on
27234-459: The slaughter of the innocent thus entailed, remaining solely in the timeline where the country is saved. The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Piper's politically more sophisticated variant was adopted and adapted by Michael Kurland and Jack Chalker in
27412-550: The sound of shooting a crossbow is vibration of various components. Crossbow silencers are multiple components placed on high vibration parts, such as the string and limbs, to dampen vibration and suppress the sound of loosing the bolt. In terms of archaeological evidence, crossbow locks dated c. 650 BC made of cast bronze have been found in China . They have also been found in Tombs 3 and 12 at Qufu , Shandong, previously
27590-536: The start. European crossbows from the 10th to 12th centuries used wood for the bow, also called the prod or lath , which tended to be ash or yew . Composite bows started appearing in Europe during the 13th century and could be made from layers of different material, often wood, horn, and sinew glued together and bound with animal tendon. These composite bows made of several layers are much stronger and more efficient in releasing energy than simple wooden bows. As steel became more widely available in Europe around
27768-462: The stock, tied in with a binding of sinew or other strong cording; or mounted on a metal axle or pins. Removable or integral plates of wood, ivory, or metal on the sides of the stock kept the nut in place laterally. Nuts were made of antler, bone, or metal. Bows could be kept taut and ready to shoot for some time with little physical straining, allowing crossbowmen to aim better without fatiguing. Chinese crossbow bows were made of composite material from
27946-544: The success of numerous battles against the Xiongnu and Western Regions city-states to massed crossbow volleys. The bronze triggers were designed in such a way that they were able to store a large amount of energy within the bow when drawn but was easily shot with little resistance and recoil when the trigger was pulled. The trigger nut also had a long vertical spine that could be used like a primitive rear sight for elevation adjustment, which allowed precision shooting over longer distances. The Qin and Han dynasty-era crossbow
28124-418: The task of writing the play that will motivate the Britons to rise up against their Spanish conquerors. He also co-authored a book with actor Richard Dreyfuss , The Two Georges , in which the United Kingdom retained the American colonies, with George Washington and King George III making peace. He did a two-volume series in which the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbor but also invaded and occupied
28302-423: The title "Master of Alternate History" by some. His books include those of Timeline 191 (a.k.a. Southern Victory, also known as TL-191), in which, while the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War , the Union and Imperial Germany defeat the Entente Powers in the two "Great War"s of the 1910s and 1940s (with a Nazi-esque Confederate government attempting to exterminate its black population), and
28480-445: The total number of worlds with each type of outcome is infinite, it is still possible to assign a different measure to different infinite sets). The physicist David Deutsch , a strong advocate of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, has argued along these lines, saying that "By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives. When you succeed, all
28658-474: The ulterior motive to resolve the mystery behind the death of Élise's father. Arno eventually develops a belief in the Assassins' cause and what they stand for, he is still constantly questioning their methods and refuses to follow their values blindly, especially since the man who raised him and the father of his love interest is a Templar. Amancio explained that both characters have the same goal though their starting point are based on different reasons: while Élise
28836-429: The unwitting creators of new time branches. These communities are transported from the present (or the near-future) to the past or to another timeline via a natural disaster, the action of technologically advanced aliens, or a human experiment gone wrong. S. M. Stirling wrote the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy, in which Nantucket Island and all its modern inhabitants are transported to Bronze Age times to become
29014-413: The user will hold the crossbow at eye level by a vertical handle and aim along the arrow using the sighting spine for elevation , similar to how a modern rifleman shoots with iron sights . When the trigger blade is pulled, its notch disengages from the sear and allows the latter to drop downwards, which in turn frees up the nuts to pivot forward and release the bowstring. The nu ( 弩 ) [crossbow]
29192-417: The usual grizzled tough guys spouting one-liners that gamers are used to seeing in action games and movies". He addressed the particular spelling of the character's first name, and explained that besides the fact that the phonetic spelling makes it easier to pronounce, it is in fact an older French/Germanic variation which is less common than the more conventionally French Arnaud . Stout grounds this naming in
29370-449: The war ends within weeks. While World War II has been a common point of divergence in alternate history literature, several works have been based on other points of divergence. For example, Martin Cruz Smith , in his first novel, posited an independent American Indian nation following the defeat of Custer in The Indians Won (1970). Beginning with The Probability Broach in 1980, L. Neil Smith wrote several novels that postulated
29548-505: The word ballista , an ancient Greek torsion siege engine similar in appearance but different in design principle. In modern times, firearms have largely supplanted bows and crossbows as weapons of war, but crossbows remain widely used for competitive shooting sports and hunting, and for relatively silent shooting. A crossbowman is sometimes called an arbalist , or historically an arbalister . Arrow , bolt and quarrel are all suitable terms for crossbow projectiles, as
29726-421: The world's Jews instead live in a small strip of Alaska set aside by the US government for Jewish settlement. The story follows a Jewish detective solving a murder case in the Yiddish-speaking semi-autonomous city state of Sitka . Stylistically, Chabon borrows heavily from the noir and detective fiction genres, while exploring social issues related to Jewish history and culture. Apart from the alternate history of
29904-404: The world's first superpower. In Eric Flint 's 1632 series , a small town in West Virginia is transported to 17th century central Europe and drastically changes the course of the Thirty Years' War , which was then underway. John Birmingham 's Axis of Time trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against
30082-408: The world, without people being aware of it. Poul Anderson 's Time Patrol stories feature conflicts between forces intent on changing history and the Patrol who work to preserve it. One story, Delenda Est , describes a world in which Carthage triumphed over the Roman Republic. The Big Time , by Fritz Leiber , describes a Change War ranging across all of history. Keith Laumer's Worlds of
30260-451: The writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc.; few writers focus on this idea, although it has been explored in stories such as Larry Niven 's story All
30438-435: The writer uses human decisions, every decision that could be made differently would result in a different timeline. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch , Terry Pratchett depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When
30616-404: Was vire historically. The lath , also called the prod , is the bow of the crossbow. According to W. F. Peterson, prod came into usage in the 19th century as a result of mistranslating rodd in a 16th-century list of crossbow effects. The stock (a modern term derived from the equivalent concept in firearms ) is the wooden body on which the bow is mounted, although the medieval tiller
30794-442: Was Churchill's "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg", written from the viewpoint of a historian in a world in which the Confederacy had won the American Civil War . The entry considers what would have happened if the North had been victorious (in other words, a character from an alternate world imagines a world more like the real one we live in, although it is not identical in every detail). Speculative work that narrates from
30972-474: Was also an early example of a modular design , as the bronze trigger components were also mass-produced with relative precise tolerances so that the parts were interchangeable between different crossbows. The trigger mechanism from one crossbow can be installed into another simply by dropping into a tiller slot of the same specifications and secured with dowel pins . Some crossbow designs were also found to be fitted with bronze buttplates and trigger guard . It
31150-446: Was claimed that a few elite troops were capable of arming crossbows with a draw-weight in excess of 340 kg (750 lb) by the hands-and-feet method. After the Han dynasty, the crossbow lost favor during the Six Dynasties , until it experienced a mild resurgence during the Tang dynasty , under which the ideal expeditionary army of 20,000 included 2,200 archers and 2,000 crossbowmen. Li Jing and Li Quan prescribed 20 percent of
31328-408: Was killed by a crossbowman of the English Armada in 1589. There are no references to crossbows in Islamic texts earlier than the 14th century. Arabs in general were averse to the crossbow and considered it a foreign weapon. They called it qaus al-rijl (foot-drawn bow), qaus al-zanbūrak (bolt bow) and qaus al-faranjīyah (Frankish bow). Although Muslims did have crossbows, there seems to be
31506-425: Was not founded long ago... One early work of fiction detailing an alternate history is Joanot Martorell 's 1490 epic romance Tirant lo Blanch , which was written when the fall of Constantinople to the Turks was still a recent and traumatic memory for Christian Europe . It tells the story of the knight Tirant the White from Brittany who travels to the embattled remnants of the Byzantine Empire . He becomes
31684-450: Was quickly followed by Murray Leinster 's " Sidewise in Time " (1934). While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably-straightforward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "World gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from a fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogues of worlds that followed
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