I realize this topic is a bit old, and I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned because I didn't read through all of the posts, but Mr. Smith may be referring to a Mr. Joseph Smith Jr.

He was a Mormon leader, also leader of the Freemasons at one point.

It fits to a T with all the information.

Another thing that just popped into mind, perhaps by follow the money they mean the US dollar bill?

It does have the eye on it, above the pyramid, perhaps it's some kind of hint to a location?

Or just another hint... To a bunch of mumbo jumbo that we're supposed to believe haha. Either way, I hope that's semi useful to someone.

Hey everyone. I just finished AC2 after not having played AC1 since 2008. First I wanted to say thanks to everyone who contributed to this awesome thread. I don't know if anyone out there is still really looking at this thread, but I thought I'd weigh in just for fun because it seems like some people are getting a little confused about things that (I think) shouldn't be confusing. Get ready because this is going to be long….

First, everyone should remember this is a video game for our enjoyment. Ubisoft didn't put this stuff in just to use up some extra time. The players are supposed to be able to figure these out without having history degrees—that's the point of games: content FOR the players! If there's an obvious connection that fits well with whatever story, then it's probably a correct assumption. If there isn't an obvious connection, a quick Google search will probably yield one.

On that note, some people seemed to suggest that this stuff is supposed to be real. I'm hoping you guys are just trolling around, but, in case you aren't, Ubisoft isn't some super secret organization with a video game company façade. This is all fictional. If, for some reason, they were some magic organization that knew the truth about this, they wouldn't try to inform the masses in a video game, and they certainly wouldn't make such easily broken codes if they were encoding messages. At the end when Minerva looks at the camera, it's supposed to send a chill down the gamer's spine to make it feel a little more real, but it's not supposed to suggest that this all actually is real.

So regarding the whole storyline of the Gods (the pre-humans that created humans) and the humans: they made humans (I assume) as a slave race type of thing for manual labor-type work. Eventually, the humans realize that sucks and rebel. Then it's a classic mass army of grunts vs. small force of super people. During this fighting, the sun does something that cooks the Earth (or maybe aliens come and destroy everything? (My roommate seemed to think that was what happened)) and kills everyone. The Gods and humans unite against the common enemy of aliens/global warming and either kill the aliens or find a way to stop the heating. It's also possible that it just takes its natural course and goes away. Afterward, the Gods and humans let bygones be bygones and unite to rebuild. I'm not sure what happened to the Gods after this. It may be that there were only a handful of Gods left alive (such as the 12 Olympians), and they died out because it wasn't enough to sustain a population, or the Gods began to interbreed with humans and their powers were slowly diluted into the gene pool until they were virtually gone. I'm not sure where Adam and Eve fit into this story. I assume that Eden was a God city, and Adam and Eve stole the Apple from them and used it to start the war. It's also possible that they stole the Apple from the Gods after the rebuilding and use it to eradicate them (and that's why they're not alive today?).

Okay, so regarding Mr. Smith: it's referring to Joseph Smith. Remember this is supposed to be easy connections for the player to make to enhance the realism of the narrative. First, Ubisoft spends a LOT of time researching various historical events and figures and writing them into AC. They would not decide to randomly add in an encoded scrap of information about a random Templar that they've simply made up and never made any references to in the actual main storyline. Also, Subject 16 wasn't a spy hacking into the Templar's database or something like that either. He was a prisoner just like Desmond. Their use of the Animus on him gave him some kind of temporal sickness that gave him past (and future?) sight without the use of a machine. He wasn't reading Templar documents; he was seeing past events, so it's not like he wouldn't be able to figure out some guy's name—he was watching the actual guy do everything. Also, the fact that he translated Templar texts is supposed to be an obvious referral to Joseph Smith translating divine texts from the golden plates. My guess is that Joseph Smith found the Templar texts, which were perhaps documenting ancient knowledge of the Gods, and saw a chance to gain some awesome power and took it. From the message, I'm inferring that Joseph Smith was not himself a Templar—at least not initially—since he's translating their texts (if he were a Templar he wouldn't need to translate them, right?). Either that or he was translating them FOR the Templars, which I suppose would be a reasonable interpretation of the message.

Regarding Tesla, he was using a PoE (the Apple, I believe) to gain knowledge and understanding of electricity. From what I can tell, this is the chief use of the PoE—using it for understanding the universe (such as Altair speaking of using it to discover how it could be destroyed). Tesla wanted to use the PoE to create unlimited energy for the world which could also be used to transmit information. This way, people would be free via their knowledge and understanding. Edison and the Templars obviously don't like the idea of people being free or having power. They want to impose power. I don't recall the letters about this very well, so I'm not sure what happened to Tesla afterwards. It was my understanding that Edison and the Templars were able to get the PoE back from Tesla, and that's what they send to Ford. I remember a letter telling Tesla to destroy the PoE, and someone mentioned that they said that's what the Tunguska event was. This is possible, I simply don't recall. Maybe someone can correct me or clear it up. What's interesting is that Edison actually lost the AC power battle because it was cheaper to use AC than DC. That's why your wall socket uses AC power, and most of your electronics have some kind of power brick the converts from AC to DC.

Okay, so the Templars give a PoE (possibly Tesla's) to Ford. Ford uses it to build a huge fortune and financial empire because, as we all know, money is power. This is likely a precursor to Abstergo—maybe it was directly morphed into Abstergo later on. So once he has sufficient wealth to continue on without the use of the PoE, he sends it to Germany to H. H. here is Hitler. Remember again that these connections are supposed to be obvious—that's why they add the next sentence saying (paraphrased) 'He can start his war once he takes control, and it will end with a bang as planned.' The player is supposed to quickly recall some general history and apply it. This is kind of like Star Wars with Palpatine becoming leader of the Republic, and starting a war with the Republic as leader of the Separatists. The war gives him the opportunity to make himself Emperor and totally seize control. The Templars started a war, then ended it just as Palpatine started a war and then ended it by sending Vader to kill the leaders of the Separatists once he was Emperor. Ford sent the PoE to Hitler. Hitler uses it to enthrall and gain the love of his people—as everyone knows, he was almost eerily charismatic. So Hitler starts WWII using his newfound PoE powers. The war is contrived by the Templars to make a kind of reset of the world and create a totally new one. I assume their goal was for America to become a superpower, so they could consolidate power into one nation. Ending the war with a bang is supposed to refer the gamer to nuclear bombs. There was another group of Templars working on a doomsday weapon—either studying the nuclear PoE and reverse engineering it or using another PoE to gain understanding as Tesla did of unknown science. Once the war ends, Hitler, with his purpose having been served, is supposed to kill a body double in a bunker and flee back to the Templars with the PoE, but the Assassins intercept him and take the PoE—hence the letter saying that H. was supposed to come back but it's been weeks. O. referred to is Oppenheimer. Remember that this stuff is supposed to be obvious. If this were real, they wouldn't use their actual first letters for codenames. These are intentionally obvious connections to be made. Oppenheimer is considered the father of the nuclear bomb. What's interesting is that Germany lost the war without the need for nuclear weapons. It's possible that the Allied forces accidentally ended up being too strong for Hitler, and they had to change their plans and only bomb Japan instead.

So then Kennedy has a PoE—perhaps the one the Assassins took from Hitler. It's unclear (to me) whether Kennedy is an Assassin or not. He may have just been some chump war veteran/senator who stumbled upon it and used it. In the letter regarding Kennedy's assassination, it's called Operation: New Frontier. In Kennedy's speech at the 1960 Democratic Convention, he used the term "new frontier" which became rather famous. I assume that F. being referred to here is Kennedy (JFK). They say he can't be reasoned with and plans to give the vote to everyone. The best I can infer from this is that Kennedy was neither an Assassin nor Templar, and the Templars were trying to recruit him, but Kennedy wouldn't budge. It's also possible that the Templars chose Kennedy to be their front-man and gave him a PoE. With his new power, Kennedy decides he has his own agenda and goes rogue, so the Templars have to kill him and get their PoE back. I assume the voting part refers to Kennedy's pro-civil rights stances. If so, it seems odd that the Templars would not also kill LBJ who was a big civil rights advocate. Maybe the Vietnam War was somehow their plan to oust him from office? (LBJ did not run for re-election because he felt he failed the country with Vietnam). So they train Kennedy's driver to use a PoE (I assume so he can manipulate people into not realizing he's running off with another PoE). They have Lee Harvey Oswald and Z. ready to kill Kennedy. I believe Z. here is referring to Abraham Zapruder. He filmed the assassination from a perfect location that gave full view of the entire event. So once Kennedy is killed, a Templar uses a PoE to make a shadowy figure on the grassy knoll while the driver takes Kennedy's PoE.

Regarding the message about Johnson—I'm assuming it's referring to LBJ. I'm not really sure about this though. As I said earlier, it seems odd that Johnson was a Templar because of his civil rights legislation (assuming that's what the letter about Kennedy had been referring to). I don't know of any other really famous/powerful Johnsons though other than Andrew Johnson. If anyone knows more about this then that would be awesome. My assumption is that "Follow the money" is saying that if you follow the money trail it leads to Johnson ordering the assassination of Kennedy (an already well-known conspiracy theory).

One last thing, someone mentioned animas in Spanish. You're correct but not directly so. Animus is the Latin word for spirit or breath of life. The Animus machine is named for this word, not the Spanish. The Spanish word, animas, however is derived from the Latin; that's why they're similar.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this discussion! This entire thread is really awesome!