The storyline of Assassin's Creed gets pretty dull during the middle part
of the game, where the protagonist (if you can call an assassin a
protagonist...) is forced to run seemingly endless repetitive quests
against various targets in the same cities over and over again. However,
it's worth it if you stay to the ending, because the story picks up at
that point, even if it is for an unfortunately short span of time.

One of the highlights is the final battle (a trial by combat) with Robert
de Sable, Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, while King Richard the
Lionhearted looks on...

You've got to love the medieval times. You and some other guy have an
argument and want to take the issue to court, and the courts tell you to
just fight it out and let God decide. Sure, it doesn't sound like a great
time period in which to live, but it makes for a fantastic story. I really
wish they'd make more games set in realistic medieval settings...

Altair: "You know, I thought I was going to be dueling with De Sable here,
not all of his lackeys at once!"

Richard: "Actually, I'm not sure why I'm allowing this myself. Eh, I guess
it would have been a pretty anti-climactic fight if we'd only set one guy
against you, who can single-handedly take on whole groups of people with a
tiny little knife. You are the main character in a video game, after all."

NOTE: I'm aware that the diorama I built here might not be 100% accurate
to the game... but I wasn't really trying to be. I didn't feel like
looking it up and I seemed to recall it being pretty generic, so I just
got creative. I do seem to recall there being a precipice nearby though...

I'm not really a big fan of the immersion-breaking chats with dead people
in the la-la land of limbo. Isn't it kind of strange how all of your
enemies suddenly stop fighting in order to give Altair time to have a nice
long talk with the guy he just killed? Whatever.

Richard: "Well, so much for that little army. See, I figured you could
take them."

Altair: "Yeah, but see, I killed all these guys in the name of peace. So
can you, like, stop your whole crusade thing now, since I'm asking
nicely?"

Richard: "You are one odd fellow."

Templar: "Seigneur! Can someone help me up?"

King Richard Coeur de Lion... the coolest character in Assassin's
Creed. He may not have been all that great of a king of England, but hey,
he was still awesome. I just had to make a minifig of him. It's a
shame you never got to meet Saladin in the game too...

Here are all my LEGO Knights Templar, along with Robert de Sable.

And finally, another shot of Altair with his new decals, which are
slightly improved from the ones used in my previous vignette.

The character minifigs shown on this page were made using custom decals
(or "stickers" or "labels" if you prefer) that I designed myself.

If you would like to make your own minifigs, I now provide a
printing service for my decals on my website!