Nothing is true; Everything is permitted.

adeolucror

At first glance, Ezio Auditore is a headstrong, cock-sure young man with a passion for wine, women, and a good time. While not expressly quick to anger, his pride can often be his downfall and he takes insults very seriously, especially when they’re directed at his family or friends. In his youth, Ezio was an adventurous boy, easily seduced by the thrill of the flight, by challenge, and by the risks that made the reward so much more enjoyable. His sexual escapades were well-known and even his mother made them the subject of ridicule directly to him. The injustices his family has suffered have done little to kill his adventurous spirit at least so far and while he's made his life's goal putting an end to the conspiracy that stole his brothers and father from him and stole his mother's voice, he hasn't let that pursuit of vengeance consume him.

Ezio isn't blind to the plight of those around him, is willing to accept help where it's offered, and shows his gratitude by repaying any favors that are given to him. In short, he would say his mother taught him proper manners and he's more than willing to give credit where credit is due. Risks are always worth the reward to Ezio, even if they're at the potential price of his life, he shows no fear when faced with obstacles (this can even include using an experimental glider several hundred feet above the wickedly jagged spires of Venice if it means infiltrating a place to prevent an assassination), and is willing to take almost insane risks to achieve his goals. He's also interested in furthering his knowledge to better himself, learning from those he meets in order to pull off more stunts and better entry into sometimes seemingly inaccessible places.

He also prefers the direct approach to most problems that present themselves, be it a boyfriend who's cheating on his little sister or his latest mark. He isn't incapable of subtlety and stealth by any means, but if given the choice, Ezio will choose just storming the castle almost every time. He is direct, flirtatious, charismatic, and charming, easily making friends wherever he may find himself and wherever his goals may take him. He's far from single-minded in his ambition, though, and while he does have a great degree of focus on his goals, he's able to aid others in their own pursuits, and is more than willing to scratch someone's back, even if it doesn't always result in a scratch of his own in return.

Though a noble, persecution, even of the lower class, doesn't sit well with him, and he's forced to act to free them from whatever oppression might be the case at the time. He's learned from his uncle this is actually what the Brotherhood fights for. He does his best to uphold that tenant, to work in the dark to serve the light, but his headstrong nature sometimes gets the best of him and his quest for revenge for the deaths of his family members sometimes clouds his judgment. His own tendency to just rush in without properly evaluating a situation can get him thrust in way above his head, too, but while he curses his own indiscretion, he gets a sick sort of pleasure out of the thrill of it all.

His family is the focal point of his life, and he would and does attempt to lay down his life for their protection, for their honor, and for the vengeance deserved in their name. He considers it a deep honor to continue his father's legacy and pick up the task of collecting the forgotten lore of the Brotherhood on his behalf. More than a responsibility as his father's only living heir, it is a great honor to him to have the responsibility left to him. He respects his mother and accepts her chiding without complaint, and after the tragedy that took his mother's voice away, he treats her with a quiet reverence. His sister, Claudia, he treats with fondness and a deep love, though they aren't above their sibling squabbles. Claudia is as headstrong and cocky as he is, and he can't help but love her for that.

Though Ezio and his boisterous uncle Mario but heads a lot because of their shared stubbornness and Mario's focus on what Ezio describes as fairy tales, he deeply respects the teachings of his quirky uncle, taking to heart the swordplay lessons, the business sense gleaned from his father's brother, and the education on the Creed. While the idea of a century’s old feud between the Templars and the Assassins still seems a bit far-fetched to the young Ezio, the beliefs and practices of the Brotherhood strike a strong chord with him, and he does his best to adhere to those tenets.

• Eagle-Vision: An inheritor of the blood of the First Race, Ezio has a sort of…sixth sense that, when activated, allows him to see things for what they truly are. In game, he can use it to find places to hide people wouldn't think to look, can differentiate between people who would mean him harm and those who wouldn't, who is wearing a disguise to hide from him, and to see things that would normally be hidden (secret doors/hiding places, hidden maps)
  
• Free-running: Very similar to Parkour or city-running, Ezio is capable of finding hand/footholds on just about any surface and scaling it quickly, he can also tumble and jump from two-four stories without injuring himself. He’s a very skilled acrobat both in and out of combat.
  
• Weaponsmaster: Already skilled with daggers and swords, his uncle has honed his skills and added a few more. He is highly skilled at the use of throwing daggers, assassinations and hand-to-hand combat with his dual hidden blades, sword-fighting, hammer fighting, and unarmed combat.

His endurance and agility are at peak human condition. He can easily blend in to crowds and pick pockets. He’s also a very good swimmer. He’s adaptable, and doesn't let surprising circumstances hinder his efforts.

Before the start of the game, Ezio was apprenticed under a banker, and thus is capable of reading, writing, math, and economics.

[Accidental Video]

[The video cuts on approximately half-way through the tablet's tumble to the wooden dock, coming to a halt askance, wedged between two weathered planks, and finally the feed shows a man clad in Renaissance clothing of white, dark breeches, high boots, brocade bracers of fine make, and a sword hanging at his hip, approaching the dock heatedly. The anger in his expression is pretty apparent as he pushes the hood of his tunic back from his young face. He's focused on something else, something from the water.

Everyone who's ever shown up here before knows who he's shouting after, even if they don't understand the Italian.]

Tua madre fa sesso con i cavalli! [It's followed by a frustrated expression and sound as he throws his hands up in the air, then places them on his hips and stomps away, not unlike a disgruntled teenager. The tablet barely picks up what he mutters under his breath.]

Ezio, what mess have you landed yourself in this time? [His pacing is accompanied by more muttered Italian, but it’s too distorted to be understood.]

[When he turns back again, the light cast by the tablet must catch his eye because he stops, looking at the tablet, intelligent dark eyes scanning the surface curiously, though a shade of his former anger is still visible in the furrow of his brow.

Or maybe he’s just confused. Regardless, he approaches slowly.] And what is this we have here? [He stops, looking thoughtful. He’d only been half listening when the Stygian ferryman had told him to use this…piece of glowing glass to…ah ha!] How is it this… [He reaches out, picking up the device from where he’s thrown it.] …whatever this is, is supposed to help me talk to others? Leonardo would know. [He turns the device this way and that.] And how would they speak to me? Magic? [Why not? He’d hit his head on a post or something on the way down, so it could be magic if he dreamt it, right?] Let it be magic. [And if this is all a dream…] And let me be the Sultan of Persia while we’re at it. [He heaves a sigh. So, it’d been worth a try. Either his imagination is failing or something else is going on here. He turns the glass part, the one emitting light, back to his face and plasters on a smile. Can the others see him? He was seeing nothing but a strange glow from inside…at length he decides it doesn't matter, though. He’ll try, and then he will go over that far rise and see what this dismal place has to offer as far as explanations.] Ciao, strange light. If there are others, as the skeleton-man has said, buonjiorno. I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and Charon has dumped me unceremoniously on your dock, telling me only to speak with you all. It is a strange thing, though. None of you are here.

[And look, his curious prodding must have pushed the off button, because it stops.]

Coat-tails flying, Ezio fled, out a window off the balcony of the Palazzo, scrambling up the battlements, and was greeted by the star-filled night sky spread wide over Venezia. Venice, a city as full of scoundrels and hooligans and truly as Florence had ever been, and yet, surrounded by his new friends, Antonio and Rosa, accompanied by his long-standing friend Leonardo, it felt like a second home. The bonfires spread across rooftops marked a blazing path through the night, leading to safety and to the warmth of his adopted family in his alien city. It was a path he couldn't follow if the shouts of the guards below were any indication.

He’d been too late. All their work, Leonardo’s ingenuity, their research, and that bastard Carlo had still won the day. The guards below were quickly gaining and the young assassin was off, charging toward the next roof, launching, landing in a roll across the roof tiles and coming up in a run and he continued on. The canal was just on the other side of the building, their ferries still running at this hour. He only needed to get back to the packing district, regroup with Antonio and Leonardo, and make some sense out of what had happened.

If Carlo had his way, Ezio would be the most hunted man in Venice and a Templar would sit as the Doge of the city. The future was dark indeed, but even more importantly, or at least more of a focus in the young Florentine’s mind, was the idea that, with Carlo slipping through his fingers, he was no closer to the answers he’d so doggedly sought for four years. Four years and he was no closer to knowing why his father and brothers had to die; no closer to knowing why he and his young sister were left to care for their damaged mother; no closer to knowing to whom he owed just punishment. So far from home and yet no closer to the truth.

He cursed the empty night around him even as the shining glint of the ferry’s lantern played along the walls of the building as he approached the edge. The candle’s firelight sparkled across the surface of the canal and he didn't slow as dove from the roof, aiming to land in the boat and slip the ferryman a few florins for his surprise. His vision swam as he fellow, his eyes slid closed…

…and when he opened them again, the sounds of Venice at night, the stars twinkling in the dome of sky above, had given way to the stillness of cavern walls and the mist-covered waters surrounding the ferry seemed to stretch away into the blackness. Where had he landed?