Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants is a YA book trilogy written by Matthew Kirby and published by Scholastic. As the title suggests, the trilogy is about the last living descendants of Assassins and Templars in the present day.
The trilogy includes:
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants (August 30, 2016)
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Tomb of the Khan (December 27, 2016)
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Fate of the Gods (December 26, 2017)
This series contains examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation: While the Assassins' Animus is what we’re more familiar with, the Animus at the Aerie is different from any Abstergo Animus we've seen up till now.
- Been There, Shaped History: As is franchise-typical, the Assassins and Templars have been responsible or involved in historical events and the Animus reveals that.
- Badass Family: Combined with Heroic Lineage, or the inversion for those with Templar ancestry. These six kids are chosen because of their relation to Assassins or Templars, or both in some kids' cases.
- Big Bad:
- Isaiah and the Instruments of the First Will. The Templars take a back seat as the big bad for a change.
- The historical segments of the novels have the Templars as the antagonists. William "Boss" Tweed in the first book, Mongke Khan in Tomb of the Khan, Styrbjörn the Strong and Harald Bluetooth in Fate of the Gods.
- The Cameo: Rebecca Crane gets one in the first book.
- Chosen One: The six are essentially the Chosen Group for the Ascendance Event.
- Death of a Child: Subverted. Assassin's Creed games tend to play it fast and loose with child death, but no child dies on or off screen in Last Descendants. They do go through the wringer though.
- Everyone Has Standards: The reason Victoria, a Templar, has a truce with Griffin, an Assassin, to defeat Isaiah.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The series is about the last living descendants of Assassins and Templars in the modern-day.
- Historical Domain Character: Per Assassin's Creed tradition, each novel in the series has historical figures aligned with the Assassins or Templars.
- Kid Hero: Most of the young child protagonists have Assassin ancestry.
- Lighter and Softer: Played With. The Assassin's Creed games tend to be aimed at older teenagers and adults with every game carrying an "M" rating due to some of the violence, language, and occasional sexual content. The Last Descendants trilogy on the other hand is aimed at a younger teenage audience since it was published by Scholartistic and thus isn't nearly as adult as the games themselves but nevertheless the series does contain some dark themes.
- Le Parkour: It's Assassin’s Creed after all so naturally the Assassins will leap from building to building.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: None of the kids kill anyone (minus Javier killing Isaiah at the end), with the kids instead knocking out guards.
- Research, Inc.: While Abstergo Entertainment is often the focus in the mainline games, the science branch of Abstergo takes the front seat during Last Descendants.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Between Victoria and Griffin, since she's a Templar and he's an Assassin. Could also apply to Natalya and either side.
- Translation Convention: All non-English dialogue is written in English, but the strangeness of speaking another language is noted by the characters.
- Troubled Teen: All six are dealing with some significant internal struggle which Isaiah brings out with use of the Spear of Fear.
- Villain Has a Point: The Templars take a backseat from being the Big Bad since the Instruments of the First Will are the Big Bad this time. The Assassins and Templars even hold a temporary truce, though not to the knowledge of any other Assassin or Templar other than Griffin and Victoria.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Reappears from the main series with various characters, primarily Monroe, Victoria, and Isaiah, while the kids are in the Animus.
