The Armor of Ares is an extremely powerful Piece of Eden which was worn and used by the Isu Ares. Those who wielded the pieces of the armor individually were granted great power, however when combined it was said to grant the power of gods.
When combined, the Armor was capable of memory manipulation on a global scale - making it one of the most powerful Pieces of Eden in existence. It was this fact alone which brought the Assassins, Templars, and the Preservers of Humanity of the 16th and 17th century into conflict with each group's attempts to reclaim it for their respective organisations.
History[]
The Armor was wielded by Ares but each individual piece was sealed away, following Ares' death prior to the beginning of the Human-Isu War. By the late 16th century, its existence had fallen into legend and came into the interest of the British Rite of the Templar - and secretly the Preservers of Humanity by 1581.
The Templars planned to utilise its memory manipulation capabilities to exploit the human population into becoming subservient to the Templar Order. Meanwhile, the Preservers aimed to use the Armor's memory manipulation properties to erase the memory of the Assassins and Templars, erasing them from existence.
The British Brotherhood of Assassins learned of its existence when the Assassin Arthur Kavanagh discovered the Shield in an Isu vault in Hampshire. Despite this, the Preservers recovered it from both the Assassins and Templars, shipping it to members of the Preservers in Japan for safekeeping.
By 1614, the Shield had been seized from the Preservers by the Japanese Rite and hidden within Osaka Castle. Arthur Kavanagh and his son, Lonan, discovered this and with the aid of the Japanese Brotherhood they were able to retrieve it during the Siege of Osaka. However, the Preserver Ito Ichiro who had infilitrated the Japanese Brotherhood framed Lonan for the murder of both his father and the then Mentor Hashimoto Mashashi.
Forced to flee for his life, Lonan took the Shield in order to keep it out of Ichiro's hands and sought refuge within the Templar Order. Lonan would then spend the next four years trying to prevent Ichiro, who was now leading for the Assassins and using their resources to actively search for the other pieces of the Armor.
In 1618, Ichiro recovered Ares' Sword in an Isu temple located beneath the Baegyangsa in South Korea, and then began searching for Ares' Chestplate. However, both the Sword and Shield were recovered by the Templars in 1619 and the Japanese Brotherhood was subsequently destroyed. Lonan would then depart Japan in order to locate the final piece of the Armor, the Chestplate.
Lonan would locate and recover the Chestplate by 1635, however, he was attacked and it was seized by the Preservers of Humanity upon his return to Japan. Lonan would assume the role of Grand Master in 1638, using his status Lonan focused all efforts on locating the Chestplate. In 1641, Lonan's son, the Assassin Takao Hayato would also begin hunting for the Chestplate in order to prevent the Templars' of accomplishing their New World Order. Hayato and Lonan would track the Chestplate to China in which it would come into the possession of the Ming general Sun Chuanting, to guarantee his loyalty to the Preserver cause and aid in the war against the Shun rebels led by Li Zicheng.
The Assassin and Templar would spend the next three years in China, aiding in the Ming empire's downfall and searching for the Chestplate. The father and son would eventually encounter one another and form a temporary partnership. The pair would assassinate Sun in 1643, learning that the Chestplate had since been left in the possession of the Ming emperor Zhu Youjan whom they would also assassinate in 1644 before learning of the Chestplate's location. Hayato and Lonan would eventually recover the Chestplate and their truce would then end, Hayato managed to escape back to Japan with the Chestplate.
After the death of his mentor, Hashimoto Kenshin, Hayato would embark on one last stand against the Templars. Assassinating their high ranking members for the next two years, Lonan would send his second-in-command Kinoshita Nobuyoshi into hiding with both the Sword and Shield in order to continue the Templars' work. Hayato would track down Lonan and kill him before locating Nobuyoshi a year later, having one last confrontation with him in an Isu shrine in Bungo. Killing Hayato, the Assassin recovered the remaining two pieces of the Armor.
In 1648, deeming the Armor to be too dangerous to fall into the hands of either the Templars of Preservers, Hayato elected to separate and hide them away. Subsequently, the Assassin hid the three pieces at the Hashimoto estate and what would become modern day Tokyo and Kyoto. For the next four centuries, neither the Assassins, Templars or Preservers knew of the Armor's whereabouts.
However, in 2022, through the Animus technology the three groups managed to locate the Armor's locations through Jin Chen, who relived the genetic memories of the Kavanagh family. Despite this, the Assassins were able to beat both the Templars and Preservers to the three pieces and recover them - further keeping them out of the hands of the two groups.
Powers and capabilities[]
Chestplate[]
The Chestplate has similar capabilities to the Shrouds of Eden. The Chestplate is capable of immense regenerative properties, healing wounds of varying types of severity almost instantaneously. The wielder is near-immortal when wearing the Chestplate, however these abilities are lost immediately once the Chestplate is removed.
Similarly to the Shroud, the Chestplate could also induce spells of the Bleeding Effect.
Sword[]
The Sword functions similar to a Sword of Eden - capable of empower their wielders with incredible charisma, which would make humans who are disloyal, obedient and loyal as well as render their wielders immune to the illusion casting effects of certain Pieces of Eden.
As well as this, Ares' Sword can also cast a sonar-like echolocation which can detect the presence of enemies within the wielders' vicinity. The Sword can also project energy blasts which can instantly knock out even the strongest of foes.
Shield[]
The Shield, acting similarly to a Ring of Eden but on a broader scale, is able to protect its wielder from a variety of effects from various Pieces of Eden - this included energy blasts from Swords of Eden, hiding the wielder from both Eagle Vision and the Sword of Eden's echolocation abilities.
In addition to this, the Shield is also capable of protecting its wielder from the illusory effects of illusions casted by Pieces of Eden and defend its user from mind-control effects as well.
Combined[]
When all the pieces are being worn by the wielder, they are granted all the abilities of the Armor pieces but to a greater extent. As well as this, the unique abilities from each Armor piece allowed the wielder to manipulate the memories of humanity on a global scale.