Before we bid 2020 a final farewell, we share some of our favorite writing from the past year. We wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year, with the hope for brighter days in 2021.
Hard to believe, but it’s been roughly a month since Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was released, and two of the staff’s biggest AC fans — Isu Codices columnist Greg Ellner, and news manager Christopher Chiu-Tabet — have come together after (mostly) finishing it to discuss their thoughts on the game, its big reveals, and their implications for the future of the franchise. Major spoilers after the jump.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is wild, revealing its core cast of characters — the Viking Eivor, her adoptive brother Sigurd, and the Hidden One Basim — were reincarnations of certain Isu, the ancient, advanced beings who became worshipped as gods. Eivor was Odin, Sigurd was Tyr, and Basim was Loki — and after being awakened from centuries in suspended animation, Basim/Loki is back, searching for a way to bring his “family” back together with the help of his lover, Aletheia, who he had put into the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus in the first place.
Chris: To begin, I really enjoyed Valhalla, though not as much as Origins and Odyssey — everytime the story got going, my experience got bogged down by needlessly complicated nearby puzzles that I thought I would “just” clear out to earn some loot and XP. I kept shaming myself thinking they would ever get easier: I think I’ve used YouTube to find the solutions to a sidequest more times than any other Assassin’s Creed game. That said, Eivor and Sigurd’s story had a lot more emotional weight to it than that of Kassandra and Alexios, and the way Norse mythology opened up the universe gave us the best present day storyline since Assassin’s Creed III.
Greg: The main story of Valhalla seems to be at once quite long (for good or ill) and in-depth. There is a lot more emotional weight to the interactions between Eivor and Sigurd than Kassandra and Alexios, yes, though I do think that Eivor isn’t as well-acted as the Eagle Bearer (at least the canonical [female] options for both, anyway). However, one element that is much better handled in this game versus Odyssey is the use of the Isu, the pre-human humanoids that went extinct thousands of years ago in the Toba catastrophe of roughly 75000 years ago, also known as “Those Who Came Before” or the “First Civilization.”
The downloadable content of Odyssey went too closely to what “actually” happened, but sadly lost itself in the process by making the Isu, who are at best long-lived people with amazing technology, to appear as though they were actual gods in spite of all previous stories. By contrast, most of what is learned in Valhalla about the Isu in Valhalla is through the distinct lens of a drug-fueled stupor by a Norse warrior in the 870s, and so is far more stylized, with only a rare few elements that are out of place and clearly from another time. Taking in some additional moments and parallels from what is viewed outside of said dreams, it is clear that they are merely perceived as divine by unknowledgeable peoples.
Chris: I’ve mixed feelings about the presentation of the pantheons in the past two games: as much I enjoyed exploring Elysium and Atlantis (Asgard less so, it’s too small), it pales in comparison to what you imagine about these worlds in real life, and chasing after a “cat’s footfall” turned something clever into something quickly frustrating. On the other hand, I think it’s great how the storyline in Asgard and Jotunheim let them have their cake and eat it, giving us a Norse mythology game within a Viking one, and preserved the mystique of the Aesir.
See, I had the opposite problem with the Atlantis DLC; I think it turned the Isu into merely very tall people with magic armor and weapons, and it felt so silly. I think the compromise Valhalla gave, by showing us what things “actually” looked like in the Hidden Truth video, while giving us a more mystical appearance in gameplay, was intriguing: it was a prime case of less being more — the less I see of the Isu civilization, the more I become curious about it.
Continued belowIt makes me wonder if we could have a comic depicting the events involving the Asgardians and Jotnar/Olympians as they actually were, especially as we now have a protagonist who actually remembers those events!
Greg: That possibility is one of the most interesting parts of the combined story, for sure. The clear-in-hindsight combinations of deities with Jotnar, including Jupiter as Suttungr, Minerva as Gunlodr, Juno as Hyrrokin, and by extrapolation Aletheia as Angrboda, make the idea of the two stories interweaving very enticing. Given that Loki is, in myth, half-Jotun, the idea of him being a bridge between two different pantheons is all the more interesting, especially if his son Fenrir, if not an actual wolf (unlikely) was a victim/subject of Aita’s Olympos Project. Furthermore, the fact that two mythical weapons, along with a very interesting interpretation of one of Norse mythological concepts, is present in the Hordaland sector of modern-day Norway makes identifying how exactly those elements came to be very interesting.
In fact, this game is not even the first time that the Norse pantheon has come up in Assassin’s Creed. Of note, we have two different “glyphs” from Assassin’s Creed II by Clay Kaczemarek, better known as “Subject 16,” which depict elements from those stories. One is of Odin plunging the sword Gram into the tree Barnstokkr, only to be retrieved by the hero Sigmund in a time period roughly four hundred years before the main story of Valhalla. Gram, according to Kaczemarek, was a Sword of Eden, much like Excalibur in the game itself. On another note, we have the Apples of Idun, which were known in myth to be the source of the Aesir’s youth, but in his glyphs were known to be Apples of Eden, possibly made to give the appearance of youth rather than its actual existence. Either of these stories could be rebuilt into how those events or concepts truly took place, even if inserted into the Olympian/Aesir conflicts.
Speaking of the Aesir, there is also the idea of the Vanir. While they do appear in-game in the form of Freyja and Njordr, we do not know how they function in the grand scheme of things. If the “Jotnar” are merely from another pantheon, what if the supposed “Vanir” were also immigrants from another area? However, that is more in the realm of speculation and likely wouldn’t be enough for a comic series on its own.
Chris: Maybe Spring’s Wrath of the Druids DLC (set in Ireland) will shed some light on them. We’re told in the database by Shaun that the Isu barracks beneath Stonehenge (where you retrieve Excalibur) belonged to the Celtic pantheon (eg. Cú Chulainn, the Morrigan), so we know there’s something tangible to those legends, and so perhaps the Vanir are the Celtic gods under a different name. There’s also the question of the Elves, or Huldufólk, as their armor sets and cosmetics are known in-game.
I must say, after Odyssey and Valhalla fleshed out the Greco-Roman and Norse gods’ history in the Assassin’s Creed universe, I felt disappointed Origins didn’t do the same for the Egyptian pantheon. Are we just to assume the myths of Osiris, Isis, Set, Horus et al. were also based on the Greco-Roman Isu we’ve met in previous games? They’re getting greedy y’know, bad enough they’re two different pantheons and the Jotnar from Norse mythology! You’re all white for goodness’ sake! (Though granted, from what we knew in previous games, they could’ve been all the gods.)
Greg: The Elves and the Dwarves, even! Hard to see what kind of pantheon would be entirely made up of smiths, though. The Celtic pantheon definitely has a presence, and there are even quotes from Lug (Lugh) and Mórrígan on a slab near those barracks, along with potentially others.
I was also disappointed by the lack of focus on the Egyptian pantheon, especially considering earlier comics (before things were settled for a cohesive story on that end) showed the use of the Ankh as a Piece of Eden capable of temporary resurrection beyond even the Shrouds. But eh, it will be what it will be at this point. We’d like it, but the time is sadly passed, barring the messages to Layla in the vaults. Unless ones like Durga (brought up in “Brahman”) took the role of the likes of the other Isu there, it would be, at best, problematic.
Continued belowThere does seem to be a limit to how much the Greco-Roman pantheon takes up, as of now. According to the translation of Fulke’s “Saga Stone” taken from the wall above a certain Isu structure in Hordaland, the orders to create humanity were put in during 2161 Isu Era (IE), 34 years before Juno was ever born according to her own recollection in Syndicate. The people who were in charge of the order were apparently known as the “Father” Yaldabaoth, the “Mother” Saklas, and the “Voice” Samael, all figures from Gnosticism. Those very roles, Father of Understanding, Mother of Wisdom, and Sacred Voice (titles that were also co-opted by the Order of the Ancients as their deities), are the same ones identified by Juno when speaking to Odin at Mimir’s Well. If they are singular across all pantheons, then we have a progression from one to another, even with Hephaestus having made the Swords of Eden long beforehand and the seemingly centuries-long lifespans of these beings.
Given that, we could potentially see some “crossover” between the stories of Valhalla and other games in how exactly society developed and continued forward, both before and after the dawn of humanity. Odyssey even told us about Phanes, the original creator of humankind and the father of Eve, which could be a closing to such a series under the rule of the Gnostics.
Chris: I think if we ever see the Egyptian pantheon woven in, it’d have to be a game set across a whole empire, like the Roman or Persian ones, that’s the only way Ubisoft would ever justify revisiting these countries in the near future.
Greg: One element that is particularly useful for a comic series is one you mentioned up above: Excalibur. That Sword of Eden not only was found in the Celtic Isu barracks, but the method by which it was found was through going into an area near Stonehenge known as “Myrddin’s Cave.” Myrddin Wyllt (Myrddin of the Wilds) is the name of the prophet and/or madman of Welsh legend who was translated into the more famous identity of Merlin the wizard by 11th century British cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth.
With Kaczmarek’s glyphs mentioning King Arthur (who seemingly lived in roughly the fifth or sixth century CE) drawing the sword (or rather Caliburn, but that’s irrelevant to this) from the stone, it seems as though in some way, the stories of the Matter of Britain actually happened in-world. Taking into account the aforementioned Celtic pantheon, along with the bizarre happenings of the era and the myriad uses of magic, the story of Arthur and his knights, translated through the lens of Isu technology rather than overt magic, would be rather intriguing to look into. For example, the Green Knight may have been a rusted Isu construct.
On top of that, how and why did Myrddin bring the sword all the way to this cave? How would he have known about it, and how to lock it away? These pieces could even bring in the possibility of Myrddin, along with others of his like, even being Sages of these “gods,” a concept that has definitely been expanded beyond Aita in Valhalla, though likely nowhere near as expansive a proliferation across humanity.
Chris: Two things: a comic would be a great place for an AC version for King Arthur’s story, as Dark Ages Britain would be difficult to make into an exciting game: Valhalla had to advance the appearance of some parts of Anglo-Saxon England ie. the castles to keep it diverse and varied, and add in a Norse mythology game into the Viking/Medieval England mix to keep it interesting. (I am personally very concerned by rumors that next year’s game will be about the Black Plague.)
The second thing is, what do you reckon are the fates of the Aesir’s reincarnations? I personally believe that’s it for them, otherwise the game would’ve killed off Basim and introduced a new version of Loki — however, considering how random some of these reincarnations were, like Odin being reborn as the female Eivor, or Loki becoming the Middle Eastern Basim, it would be impossible to know if they’ve been reincarnated again or not.
Continued belowGreg: Such a story would also be in keeping with how the Titan Comics historical perspectives were, for the most part, in areas and/or times not seen in the games. (Though let’s hope that isn’t the next one; it’s a bit… badly timed, to say the least, and even this game mentioned the ongoing pandemic in real life.)
According to a letter from Alcuin of Eoforwic to Charlamagne that can be found in Aelfred of Wessex’s secret room in Wincestre, Sages can either be reborn numerous times across history, or once and never again. The implication of that letter seems to be that the Aesir, Vanir, and Loki who used the Seventh Solution were opting for a one-time reincarnation, rather than numerous ones across the ages like Aita.
However, there still remains some wiggle room. While we have definitely seen the Sages of Odin, Loki, Tyr, and Thor (the latter being more difficult to figure out), we have not seen all of those present in the room during the Hidden Truth video. There were eight people amongst the pantheon who were watching the video of the carnage outside, and seven of those seemed to be able to upload themselves to the solution by using Odin’s serum that he had obtained from Juno (and whatever Mimir actually was), with the last one killed and replaced by Loki. If we extrapolate from myth, the dead one is Heimdall. If Odin, Thor, Tyr, Freyja, and Loki take up five of the spots, having lived and (with exception of one) died in the mid to late ninth century CE, that leaves three open, one of which was taken up by Faravid (though we do not know which one he is). If the aforementioned Njordr and Idun are two of those others, that solves it, but if not, there are two unaccounted for.
Given that Loki/Basim is searching for a way to bring his “family” back together with his lover, there is a probability that either we will find the others (though the probability is likely low given how many reincarnated into that one era) or he has means of bringing back his own children in some other way. Even if not Fenrir, who he already achieved vengeance for by poisoning Baldur fatally, there are still Hel and Jormungandr, and that is supposing he doesn’t mean the other side of the family in the possibility of the “Jotnar” to bring back the Isu Era in full.
The reincarnations are not even wholly limited to the Aesir, Vanir, or Jotnar/Olympians. The Yggdrasil supercomputer that was used to upload the consciousnesses of the Isu seems capable of uploading from more than one area, as shown by a collection of orbs containing children above a distant table a bit off from the one used by the eight around the Aesir’s main table. We have no idea how many tables there actually were, just that the only cranes accessible by the time of Eivor Varinsdottir and Sigurd Styrbjornson were in a single area that was preserved until 2020. As such, there could even be ones for multiple other pantheons as well. Some are likely off limits, such as Juno, Aletheia, Minerva, and Aita, but various others are still within the realm of possibility.
Chris: I was so weirded out by those babies in tanks, I didn’t get how the Aesir injected their memories into the human gene pool if those babies weren’t part of the human gene pool. So you think they came off an assembly line and joined the human gene pool ala the humans in Horizon Zero Dawn? Hmmm.
Loki definitely must’ve had a back-up plan, his wife did become an AI in the Staff of Eden after all. Man, what is this franchise honestly? If you told me when I played Assassin’s Creed II a decade ago that one day I’d be playing as the God of Mischief, I’d have given you a funny look.
If we’re talking about unaccounted Sages, I’ve got to bring up something I’ve been thinking about since I saw that Eivor was a reincarnated Odin: do you think Jesus of Nazareth was a Sage for the Hebrew god?
Continued belowGreg: That wouldn’t even be the weirdest thing to happen in terms of spirits in this franchise (that honor might go to William Robert Woodman). [I hate that I know you’re talking about – Chris.] It seems very possible, though for obvious reasons they likely would never go into that, even in a comic series. What we do know is that someone called “the Wanderer” (possibly the Wandering Jew) was identified as a possible Sage by Abstergo, who claims to have seen Jesus on his way to Golgotha, so it isn’t out of the question. However, the idea of him rising after the Shroud is already confirmed as incorrect, as they did say it didn’t work. So it’s possible, but not entirely likely.
Chris: They’d have to be very careful about it; they’d have to exclusively refer to him as Yeshua for a start — Yeshua, random 1st century Judean prophet. Gosh, have we deduced a storyline from the inevitable Roman Empire game? Anyway, if there’s a series of new Sages that’ll be introduced, I imagine it’ll probably be the Avatars of Vishnu, should we ever get a 3D game in India. [N.B: India was the setting of an installment in the 2D platform series Assassin’s Creed Chronicles.]
Greg: Given we have seen Durga, it wouldn’t be too out there. Might even involve the Koh-i-Noor being relevant again since “Uprising.” However, given Basim is pretty much out of his mind (Loki is no better and in some ways is much worse), I am not sure he would allow others to be reborn until his family were brought back.
Altogether, I think we’re going to be running into a very different kind of story going forward. If it’s going to be the “rise of the Sages” so to speak, we still have Elijah unaccounted for since he ran away with the aforementioned Koh-i-Noor back in “Uprising.” Given his grandfather is in charge of the Assassins, and he has in mind to keep humanity away from the Isu in a way that Aletheia claimed, such a conflict, if not in the games, seems prime material for an interquel comic book series.
Chris: Thank you for bringing up Elijah, because I completely forgot the revelation that Desmond is still alive in the Grey, and is now a nudist the Reader. I think there’s a strong chance Layla and Desmond could be reborn in new bodies at some point, and Desmond will meet his son in-game. If any players aren’t familiar with the character, they can be introduced to him via Desmond learning he has a son.
Greg: If that is Desmond (and it seems all but certain that it is), that would be a perfect way to reintroduce him. If they could get a way to remove him from the Grey, not to mention find what little is left of his corpse in North America. Layla is… a bit more difficult, considering they would need the strongest hazmat suit around just to get close. However, given that Basim seems intent on bringing the fight to Abstergo (assuming he isn’t lying), they could possibly take the resources necessary, including a Shroud if they have it.
I do admit that I was not a fan of Layla’s presentation in some of the games (namely her complete change in personality and connection to the Assassins between Origins and Odyssey, along with developing close relationships with all of the major figures entirely offscreen), but in this one she shaped up in a big way. I would welcome her back, as well as Desmond, and perhaps doing so with a more “old and wise” attitude would help to distinguish them from the pack so far, as well as put them up against Basim and whatever it is he is planning.
Chris: I completely forgot about the radiation leaking from Yggdrasil, there could be other nodes around the world though, where their minds could be transferred to newly grown bodies without much danger. I don’t feel like we got to know Layla near enough, I mean Desmond had five games, and some solid moments with his dad, to really help him grow on us — I feel sad her family will have no idea what happened to her. There’s an Arabic phrase for resignation to that sad fact, but I sadly can’t write it.
Continued belowGreg: Yeah, that is really sad, especially with the frustrated last conversation she had with her brother via email. The main reason I wasn’t happy with her in Odyssey was that she went full 180 from “I’ll work with you but I won’t be one of you” to “here, have your own cell filled with known veterans who probably know better than you” in a few months, when Desmond never was in charge of his own cell despite being born into the Brotherhood, along with establishing a friendship with Charlotte de la Cruz of the Titan Comics offscreen, and having that justify her sudden hatred of Juhani Otso Berg (who may or may not even be alive anymore, let alone out of Atlantis). The presentation in Valhalla went a long way toward solving things, helped by her working with people who were seemingly more in charge than she was whom players already had met many times, along with emphasizing her lack of information with how she wasn’t aware of what really happened in 2012.
On the subject of death, the idea of Yggdrasil and its ability to create Valhalla for Sigurd, Eivor and Svala gives rise to an idea of how afterlife myths may have risen, along with how the simulations of “the Underworld” and “Elysium” actually worked instead of having actual people going to an afterlife. In addition to proposing that the powers used by certain Isu were from manipulating an energy field they knew about, it would help Valhalla to do away with the “magic” that felt weird in Odyssey altogether. But more importantly, it could be a reason for other “bring the dying to another place” myths, such as, to bring back Arthur and Merlin, Avalon. If one of the other nodes were in England or Wales, that could have been the reason behind the idea of Avalon in the first place, as well as other nodes in other areas for other afterlife simulations, within reason.
Chris: I would absolutely love for Valhalla to have a second season pass, with DLC delving further into the Arthurian history of England, and why Eivor was ultimately buried in America Vinland. (That’s a very long Viking funeral, to say the least.) I’m thrilled at the prospect of visiting Ireland, which I never believed would happen, as well as the Siege of Paris. I would say Eivor could easily star in another game, but that’s always been true for me with most of the protagonists — I’m still looking forward to the day we get an old playable character as an NPC in someone else’s game, eg. Arno in someone else’s Napoleonic Wars game or…
Look, I honestly expected Randvi to turn out to be Kassandra: that hair is hell of a red herring. Yes, they look different, but when has that ever been an issue for the franchise?
Greg: I’m right there with you. Aside from Shay Cormac implicitly showing up in the opening of Unity and Adéwalé as a boss in Rogue, the only time we had a returning player character as a pure NPC was a few seconds of Aya being identified as a far descendant of Kassandra of Sparta herself. [Chris is disappointed in himself for forgetting]
I know that they want to preserve the “your gender choice matters” in these games, but it’s about set genetic links, and you don’t just randomly switch between when looking up a historical figure’s genetics unless in a circumstance like what happened between Alexios and Kassandra (both hurt by the Spear of Leonidas) or Eivor (having male Isu DNA sometimes override hers). If it’s supposed to be “how it really happened,” shouldn’t we be able to see the character again?
I mean, she has two thousand and four hundred years to work with, and all we’ve seen is the beginning and end. There’s a ton of space, and on top of that, Melissanthi Mahut was nominated for best performer [at the BAFTAs and the Game Awards] due to this role for a reason.
Also, if they did go in that direction, it would also help with representation by giving us a full homosexual relationship for a player character (Hel, two).
Continued belowChris: Any last thoughts before we wrap up?
Greg: Not really all that much. I’m looking forward to upcoming projects such as the “Hall of Valor” manhua (if translated to English), along with if there are other elements to come in the form of comics, but other than that, all we can really do is hope we’ll get more going forward.
After all, none of these speculations are necessarily true, but all of them are supposedly permitted.
Chris: Totally, and I’m definitely keen on all these Chinese projects they’re doing — hope it bodes well for a game in 2023.
I think the wildest thing for me is we had a video game where Jupiter attacks Odin for shacking up with Minerva? (Neil Gaiman, eat your heart out.) Oh, and the fact Reda is still alive, eight centuries after Origins.
Greg: He makes no sense. I don’t think he needs much in the way of explanation. He talks about Bayek like he is his personal friend despite being roughly 900 years after his life. He seems to be just a “live missions and online rewards” vendor with no way to expand on. Honestly his every sentence took me out of the story. I do my best to avoid him from a lore perspective, since it’s pretty difficult, if not impossible, to insert him accurately.
Chris: I see your point, but I think he’s sweet, and I look forward to seeing if they ever reveal what the deal with him is.
