Assassin's Creed is a historical action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Ubisoft and developed primarily by its Ubisoft Montreal studio using the Anvil game engine and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond, and Corey May, the Assassin's Creed series of games depicts a fictional millennia-long struggle between the Assassin Order, who strive for peace and free will, and the Knights Templar, who desire peace through order and control. The series features historical fiction, science fiction, and fictional characters intertwined with real historical events and historical figures. In most games, players control a historical Assassin while also playing as an Assassin Initiate or someone involved in the Assassin–Templar conflict in the present-day framing story. Considered a spiritual successor to the Prince of Persia series, Assassin's Creed was inspired by the novel Alamut by Slovenian author Vladimir Bartol, based on the historical Hashashin sect of medieval Iran (Persia).