Desmond Miles is the Animus user who serves as Assassin's Creed's modern-day protagonist through the first five main games.
Desmond is a descendant of several important Assassin figures, including Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore, and Ratonhnhaké:ton. Abstergo Industries captures him and uses the Animus to access his genetic memories. The resulting historical sequences allow players to experience earlier Assassin lives while Desmond's modern-day story develops alongside them.
His central role spans Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, Revelations, and Assassin's Creed III. He is not the same person as William Miles, his father and a senior member of the modern Assassin movement. Clay Kaczmarek and Daniel Cross are also modern-era characters, but neither is the series' primary Animus user across that run.
Desmond's storyline reaches a major conclusion in Assassin's Creed III. Later games shift their modern-day perspective to unnamed or differently framed protagonists, although Desmond's memories and legacy remain important to the series' mythology.