The main story arc of the series revolves around a bartender named Desmond Miles as he is captured by mega corporation Abstergo Industries (a front for the Knights Templar). Using a machine known as the Animus, Desmond is forced to relive his ancestors’ memories, who were all assassins, in order to recover artifacts, called the “Pieces of Eden”, for Abstergo. While the original assassin ancestor of Desmond is Altair, the most recent games feature another assassin from Renaissance Italy named Ezio. Assassination targets are mostly actual historical figures, although the timelines for their lives and causes of death have been changed to suit the games’ plot (in-game these inaccuracies are attributed to the Templars rewriting history to cover up their actions, as well as honest mistakes on the part of historians).