What company serves as the modern-day front for the Templars in Assassin's Creed?

Abstergo Industries serves as the modern-day front for the Templars in Assassin's Creed.

Within the series' fiction, Abstergo presents itself as a powerful multinational corporation while secretly advancing the interests of the modern Templar Order. Its research into genetic memory leads to the development and use of the Animus, a machine that allows people to relive ancestral experiences.

The first game places Desmond Miles in an Abstergo facility, where he is forced to access the memories of his ancestor Altaïr. Later games show that the company operates across pharmaceuticals, technology, entertainment, and other industries as part of a broad plan to influence society.

Abstergo is not the same as the historical Templar Order. It is the fictional modern organization that carries the Templars' ideology into the present day. Its name comes from the Latin verb meaning roughly “I cleanse” or “I purify,” reinforcing the company's public image.