Lucrezia Borgia (Assassin's Creed)



"My birthplace, my family, have been taken from me. You think Ferrara loves me? I am a stranger, a castaway. An orphan."

- Lucrezia Borgia.

Lucrezia Borgia is the secondary antagonist of the video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. She is the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and brother of Cesare Borgia. Like much of her family, she is a member of the Templar Order and also serves as the Duchess of Ferrara after the death of her father and exile of her brother.

Biography
Prior to her early life she had been used as a pawn in political marriages, before finally falling in love with an assassin infilitrator named Perotto Calderon. Calderon got her pregnant, and ultimately died saving her son from death when he was murdered by his brothers for breaking the creed. She was unable to even hold her son and was forced to pretend to be his aunt In January of 1500, Lucrezia accompanied Cesare in his siege of Monteriggioni. During the battle, the Borgia were able to capture Caterina Sforza and Mario Auditore. Afterwards, she returned to Rome with her brother and his generals, holding the Apple of Eden as their prize.

In 1501, she escorted the captive Caterina Sforza to prison cells within the Castel Sant'Angelo. There, Cesare briefly visited Lucrezia, and the two exchanged an intimate moment. After they kissed, Cesare promised Lucrezia that when he ruled all of Italy, she would be his queen.

Soon afterwards, Lucrezia confronted Caterina in her cell, where she jealously demanded to know of Caterina's trip to Rome with Cesare. Caterina only spat an insult in reply, and Lucrezia struck her violently with a metal bar, injuring her in the hip. However, after Lucrezia had taken the cell's key from the prison guard and left, the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze arrived to rescue Caterina. He sought Lucrezia out in the castello garden to retrieve the key, where she recognized and greeted him, before calling for the guards. Though Lucrezia ran from him, the Assassin eventually caught her and brought her back to the prison chamber, where she was knocked unconscious and left within a cell.

On August 18, 1503, Lucrezia found out her father had taken possession of her supply of cantarella poison from the Castel Sant'Angelo. When she subsequently heard that Cesare was also meeting with her father that day, she immediately realized Rodrigo's intentions. Hurrying to the Papal apartments, Lucrezia entered just in time to discover Cesare eating an apple that Rodrigo had left out for him, and was able to warn him of the poison within it before he had eaten too much. Enraged at the attempt on his life, Cesare forced the rest of the apple down Rodrigo's throat, all the while demanding the Pope to tell him the location of the Apple of Eden. Lucrezia, in an attempt to save her father, yelled to Cesare that she knew where it was hidden.

Cesare went on to threaten her instead, seizing her by the throat and rebuking any of her attempts to calm him. Tearfully, she asked him if he had ever loved her, but Cesare only answered that he saw her as his sister and nothing more. At this, she spat in his face, and was only slapped and further choked as he continued to interrogate her.

Ezio, who had watched the scene unfold from outside a window, rushed to Lucrezia's aid, but reached her only moments after she had given in to Cesare's demands. Lucrezia watched as Ezio paid Rodrigo his last respects and closed his eyes, before deciding to inform him of the Apple's location as well.

After Cesare's fall from grace in Rome, Lucrezia would go on to become the Duchess of Ferrara. One day, she was visited by Ezio at her estate in Ferrara; he was searching for several of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings that were recovered during the Siege at Monterriggioni. She had her men bring the paintings outside for Ezio.

Later in her life, she would repent for her sins and focus on raising her children.