Staves of Eden

The Staves of Eden were Pieces of Eden that embodied sovereignty and dominion.[1]

Known throughout history by names such as the Papal Staff or the Russian Imperial Sceptre, the Staves were used by various Egyptian Pharaohs and Priests, Israelite Prophets and Scholars, Roman Catholic Popes, and Russian Tsars.

Powers
Designed to control men's minds and bodies, the Papal Staff held a cradle in its headpiece where an Apple of Eden could be placed, in order to enhance its mind control effects. This combination of two Pieces of Eden could also be used to open the door to the Vatican Vault.

The Staves' bottom end were usually sharpened, and could be wielded as a spear in combat. The artifact also granted the possessor the ability to conceal their presence entirely, and the ability of levitation; though whether these were physical effects or simply manipulations of the viewers' perceptions remains unknown.

When Nikolai Orelov approached one Staff in 1908, he heard several voices of the past emanating from it, playing almost like recordings, and projecting things such as "Always the fighter," "Adam, I have it," "Just like your father," and "Eve."

Papal Staff
A Staff passed into the hands of the first disciple of Jesus, Saint Peter, who established Christianity and became the first Pope. It is assumed that the Staff circulated through the hands of the Roman Catholic Popes until it was used by Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI in 1492 so that he could use the Staff to gain access to the Vatican Vault.

On the 28 December 1499, the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze infiltrated the Sistine Chapel to confront Rodrigo, and a fight ensued, during which Rodrigo wielded the Staff as a spear against Ezio. Eventually, Ezio defeated Rodrigo and used the Staff (combined with his Apple of Eden) to enter the Vault.

When leaving the Vault, Ezio tried to remove the Staff from the center of the room where it was secured within the Vault's antechamber floor. Upon doing so, Ezio activated machinery that made the Staff descend underground, despite Ezio's efforts to retrieve it.

Imperial Staff
By 1888, a Staff had been recovered by Tsar Alexander III, and was used as the Imperial Sceptre to maintain the monarch's power over the Russian Empire. This particular Staff was named "Piece of Eden 34" by Abstergo.

On October 29 of that year, while returning home to Petrograd, the Tsar was attacked by the Assassin Nikolai Orelov. After the Russian Imperial Train was derailed, Alexander threw the Staff to Nikolai, challenging his assailant to attack him with it.

The Tsar subsequently repelled the assassination attempt, leaving with the Piece of Eden still in his possession. After his death, it was passed on to his son Tsarevich Nicholas II.

However, the Staff was secretly stolen and replaced with a replica by Grigori Rasputin, who had infiltrated the Russian Royal House, and brought the Staff to a Templar research station in Tunguska.

In the summer of 1908, members of the Assassin Order contacted Nikola Tesla and offered him a chance for retribution on the Templars, for his dis-accreditation by the Templar Thomas Edison. Using his mastery of electricity and the Wardenclyffe Tower, Tesla broadcast destruction into the facility, creating one of the largest explosions in history, which was estimated to have a force of more than 30 megatons of TNT, and flattened more than 2,000 kilometers of forest. The explosion also obliterated the research facility and the Staff within.

The event was a complete Assassin victory, though Nikolai Orelov was the only one to survive the event. Nikolai later returned to his partner Anna, bloodied and barely alive, muttering that the Staff had finally been destroyed.

However, Nikolai's statement proved to be untrue, as there was at least one shard that remained. This shard somehow came into the possession of Rasputin, who used it to manipulate Nicholas' wife Alexandra Feodorovna and psychologically scar one of his disciples, a woman named Khioniya Guseva, after her failed attempt to kill him.

In 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by the Assassin Brotherhood, and he took the shard with him to his grave. In 1917, Nikolai, having learned of the shard's existence from the Tsarevich and concluding that even a fragment of the Staff would be a threat, exhumed Rasputin's body and retrieved the shard from his corpse. As of October 2002, the shard was in possession of Nadya Orelov.

Alexander's Staff
During the 4th century BCE, the Templars somehow managed to acquire a Staff of Eden. They entrusted their ally Alexander the Great with it, who used it to create one of the largest empires in history. After Alexander's death, the staff was buried along with him in a tomb in Alexandria, the city he founded. It would remain there for almost 200 years until it was discovered in 48 BCE by Bayek and Aya.

In 47 BCE, the Order of the Ancients recovered the staff along with an Apple of Eden from Apollodorus in the tomb and brought it a vault in Siwa, where they unlocked the secrets within it. Shorty afterwards, Lucius Septimius left Egypt and brought the staff with him, where he gave it to the Order based in Rome.

Alsaerher Ibn-La'Ahad's Staves
Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Descendant, Alsaerher Ibn-La'Ahad, possessed at least Seven Staves of Eden, Three of which he claimed to have belonged to Boudicca, Brutus, and Apollo, with the others belonging to Various Kings. Though it was well known that he possessed several Pieces of Eden, no one could ever Find them due to his use of The Staves Combined Powers.