Desmond Miles experiences ancestral memories in the original Assassin's Creed.
Desmond is a descendant of several important Assassins, including Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze. The Abstergo company captures him and uses the Animus to access memories encoded in his genetic ancestry.
The player controls Altaïr for most of the historical gameplay, but Desmond provides the modern-day framework. His sections reveal the continuing conflict between Abstergo and the Assassins and connect separate historical periods across the series.
Desmond is sometimes confused with William Miles, his father and a senior Assassin, or with Clay Kaczmarek, another Animus subject. Desmond remains the main modern-day viewpoint character through Assassin's Creed III, where his story reaches its conclusion.