Assassin’s Creed has in-depth lore and most of it is adapted from real-life history. The Assassin’s Creed series tries to follow the actual events quite closely, but there are bound to be some speculations.
The largest-selling series from Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed owes much of the success to its historical setting as players such as myself felt right in the shoes of these historical characters.
This made me embark on a journey to find out about the accuracy of these games.
To tell you the truth, I was expecting that Ubisoft made these assassin organizations, and the only thing that the series got from actual history books was the location, but that did not turn out to be the case.
The ancient Hashashins did exist, upon which the Creed is loosely based, and they have their legacy based on Bayek’s journey through Egypt. Even the Assassin’s Order is based on real-life groups of spies and assassins and spies in Ubisoft’s universe.
Much to my surprise, was the fact that not only the real-life locations that were part of the universe but the sheer amount of actual prominent figures that appear throughout the game. Some of these moguls I missed even when I replayed the series.
1. The Real-Life Legacy
Not to get into too many technical details, but the book called Alamut inspired the Creed.
The novel features the origins of the Assassins, their base fort, and the ultimate leader. Like the first Assassin’s Creed title, no Alien shenanigans are going on in the book, probably to keep some resemblance of actual history.
The group called Hashashins was the name of the assassin order in the middle east.
After settling at Alamut, the Hashashins (also referred to as Nizari Ismailis) began using spies and assassins to gain a stronger hold. This is what ultimately paved their way for expansion.
2. The Original Assassins
Nizari Ismailis or Hashashins was the actual name of the Assassins. These Nizari Ismailis were an Islamic order living in different spots beginning during the 1000s.
Make note, not the entirety of the Ismailis were professional killers. However, the whole Order was marked in that capacity because of the activities of a couple.
The Hashashins began in 1094 in Syria (currently northern Iran) under Hassan-I Sabbah, a mainstream Shia Muslim, to bring down his foes amid the severe and political agitation in the Holy Lands.
Looking for a spot to set up a base camp for his Order, Sabbah picked Alamut’s fortification, an excellent location. Because of his high status, Sabbah had minor issues garnering a large following.
In contrast to the Assassins in the games, these professional killers would go through years picking up their objectives’ trust. You could more precisely call them spies.
They truly would penetrate many spots with nobody knowing. However, what truly earned them their notoriety was murdering people out in the open to send the message to their foes.
This didn’t mean that the group rampaged randomly but instead, they followed a more calculated approach by only targeting people in key power-wielding positions.
This is where the game tried to follow the books as closely as possible, but it was still left to the player’s discretion if he wanted to execute a “stealth” mission in the middle of a bazaar.
3. Templars In Real Life
The Templars group formed during the Crusades, as a militia, to sort the conflict about the ownership of the Holy Land. The Templars initially protected the pilgrims who visited their sacred land.
As time passed, though, the templars came into conflict with the assassins. Even though the whole Assassin’s Creed series built up the Templars as fierce rivals, in reality, none of the sides took their stance to such extremes.
4. Myths from Marco Polo
As is the tradition with most legends, most of it is hyped up due to myths, and the assassin’s Order is not any different.
People were spreading rumors about the crusade left, right, and center. Thanks to his vast travel log, Marco Polo went to many places, which included some areas with assassins.
When Marco wrote about the assassins, most of the things he wrote were far from reality. The most famous of these myths is that the assassins’ group got their name derived from “hashish.”
The cherry on top was the myth that it was from weed that the assassins derived their powers. None of this was true in reality, and the fact that the Creed and templars eventually faded out was not related to Polo’s myths at all.
5. The downfall of The Assassins and Templars
While the Hashashins continued their success following the passing of their leader, this was only temporary. The Mongol Empire started endeavouring to attack Syria during the 1240s, and these assaults kept annihilating the Order.
Even though they held their ground for the central part, the entirety of their posts (counting their base camp at Alamut) were sacked.
6. Real-Life Places Throughout The Titles
- Assassin’s Creed I
The first title takes the player through Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem. In these cities, the player is tasked to go through the third crusade.
The main focus point was the Dome of Iraq in Jerusalem, the convergence of three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
Ubisoft portrayed the city as a meeting place of various cultures. In Acre, the crusades were keen on taking over this port city, which happened in real life in the 10th century.
Damascus, the capital of Syria, was of little use to the Crusaders; maybe this was why the Islamic architecture was left untouched. The most prominent landmark, the ‘Great Mosque of Damascus,’ is well-known among the other city buildings.
- Assassin’s Creed II
Assassin’s Creed Creed II is set in Italy at the hour of the Renaissance in the fourteenth century. Here we discover the professional killer Ezio going head to head against the Templars, driven by the degenerate Pope Rodrigo Borgia.
Once more, when we consider the historical backdrop of the time, a Pope considered Rodrigo Borgia, whose papacy started in 1492. History reveals to us that the genuine Rodrigo was similarly as terrible as his in-game partner.
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
The players are now in Renaissance Rome to overtake the bourgeois, and 16th century Rome is filled with numerous landmarks to take your breath away. The most prominent being The Colosseum.
The Pantheon is another sight that you can not miss in AC: brotherhood, and it has the patronage to its founder atop its architecture too!
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Welcome to Constantinople, the crossroads of the world. Before the Ottomans arrived, the Byzantine Empire was a major power player. The city has architecture and landmarks from all three periods, namely: Pagan, Christian, and Muslim elements.
The Hagia Sophia in AC Revelations underwent massive iterations, and the interior transitions from square to circular elements quite often.
- Assassin’s Creed III
In Assassin’s Creed Creed III, we move to America to liberate the territory from the Templars’ oppression. Connor is half Mohawk and offers his legacy with a clan of Native Americans opposing the British provincial powers and supporting George Washington, the American chief.
To incorporate such a solid, authentic figure in George Washington was an intense yet coherent decision for Ubisoft. He who graphed the United States’ destiny has a natural history similarly energizing as the in-game character.
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag guarantees us adventures in the eighteenth-century the Caribbean Sea.
Ubisoft has again attacked history to present to us the in-game counterpart of Blackbeard, or Edward Teach, as he was known as an English pirate who, as indicated by records, threatened ships over the Caribbean from 1716 to 1718. His boat, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was outfitted with forty firearms, a sight that put dread in any sailor that crossed his way.
- Assassin’s Creed Unity
In Unity, a great deal of the game revolves around the French Revolution in Paris in 1789, and Napoleon had demonstrated his help for the Jacobin legislative issues. Strikingly the game’s DLC Dead Kings sees a more significant amount of Napoleon but finishes with him under house capture as the progressives throughout the tumble from power.
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
In Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the action moves to London around Queen Victoria on the seat. The game encounters many acclaimed characters of the period, yet it is one of the game’s more shady characters, Jack the Ripper, who steals the show.
Jack was a serial killer, killing prostitutes in the Whitechapel region of London in 1888; his name was given to him by the press from a supposed letter he sent them gloating about his reign of dread.
- Assassin’s Creed Origins
Assassin’s Creed Origins is set in what is known as Ptolemaic Egypt and a game with an Egyptian setting ought to unquestionably incorporate Pyramids and Origins is no particular case.
Pyramids have existed in Egypt since 2630 BC, the most popular, those at Giza, home of what is known as The Great Pyramid, is positively included in the game.
It’s just fitting that the last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the World is in a game arrangement that expertly blends history and dream.
7. Prominent Real Life Characters in The AC Universe
- Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin is the chronicled character who appears in the most non-spin-off Assassin’s Creed games.
He’s a conspicuous figure in III, has his plotline in Rogue, and springs up for Unity’s appearance. His appearance over each of the three games addresses Franklin’s noticeable quality on the world stage during the 1700s as a researcher and a negotiator.
- Leonardo da Vinci
AC II and Brotherhood utilized Leonardo da Vinci’s splendor and inheritance to make a genuinely outstanding character.
He’s a weapon-planning, codex-unraveling, ride or die homeboy for the Assassins, and his steadfastness to Ezio makes their long term relationship the core of Ezio’s series.
- Blackbeard
Edward Thatch, otherwise known as Blackbeard, contributed powerfully to its significance.
Since Black Flag covers numerous years in the life of pirate-turned-Assassin Edward Kenway, the player gets the chance to watch Blackbeard’s legend develop close by Edward’s experiences, including an extraordinary record-breaking scene where Captain Thatch uncovers the inspiration driving his unbelievable ensemble.
- Cleopatra
Cleopatra is a recorded figure and character presented initially in Assassin’s Creed II in the Glyph puzzles through artworks. She later showed up in Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
An individual from the Greek-Macedonian Ptolemaic tradition, Cleopatra initially ruled together with her dad, and later with her brother Ptolemy XIII, whom she wedded according to Egyptian custom.
- Charles Dickens
AC: Syndicate has its fill of Victorian Era characters and Charles Dickens in such great characters. His side missions are arguably some of the most fun elements in the entire title.
One of his missions is a scene-long Easter egg highlighting Dickens’ last and broadly incomplete book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
8. About Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed is the action-adventure series developed and published by Ubisoft that began with the release of Assassin’s Creed on November 13, 2007.
The initial release focused on Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360, but the titles since then have expanded their grasp onto current-gen as well as next-gen platforms and consoles.
Since then, Ubisoft has released 12 main titles in the series with the latest AC: Valhalla focussing on the nordic expansion into the European region.
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