10 Things Assassin's Creed Got Mythically Right And Wrong
The Giant Snake
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Right While hunting down the Lizard, Bayek embarks on a hallucinatory journey to kill a giant snake with a golden, bow of light. This is all a very accurate interpretation of the myth of Apep and Ra in Egyptian mythology. In the myth, Ra does battle each night with the snake, Apep, a chaos deity, and when Ra triumphs the sun will rise again the next day. Bayek isn’t Ra and his battle won’t ensure the sun will rise, but it’s a fun encounter that was really the series’ first foray into big set pieces in legendary boss fights. It’s just a shame you can’t take Ra’s bow with you when Bayek wakes up.
The Dragon
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Wrong Predictably, with the release of “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla”, Ubisoft also released a quest following the story of “Beowulf” – but it was DLC available through the season pass, of course. In the quest, Eivor will be asked by the nun Wulfhilda to help solve some violent murders. Eivor finds out that a man called Grendel is the perpetrator, and kills him and then his mother, hiding in an underground cavern. However, the poem doesn’t end there, as Beowulf then goes on to fight a dragon, dying in the process. But not only were the fights with Grendel and his mother simple mini-bosses, the dragon was gone entirely, making this entire quest very underwhelming. Surely, Ubisoft could’ve explained the dragon as another Isu experiment gone awry and let you fight it.
Spring-Heeled Jack
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Right You may have played the Spring-Heeled Jack side mission in “Syndicate” and thought that it was too ridiculous to have ever happened, or that perhaps it was a strange interpretation of Jack the Ripper. But that’s not the case; Spring-Heeled Jack was a real urban myth who terrorized the UK for decades in the 19th century. He wasn’t just sighted in London, either, but across the whole country, leaping over rooftops and staring into people’s bedroom windows at night. In “Syndicate”, Jack is explained as the creation of a strange, secret club using costumes and stagecraft, though in real life, the perpetrators were never found – if they existed at all.
Medusa
Wrong The boss fight against Medusa is easily one of the greatest moments in the whole franchise. It’s a well-designed quest and combat encounter that will test even the most high-level players. However, it’s not the most faithful to Greek myth. In the mythology, Perseus is able to defeat Medusa with a godly arsenal, most importantly, a mirrored shield given to him by Athena, which allows him to use Medusa’s petrifying gaze against her. This would have certainly been an interesting combat mechanic if you had a mirrored shield to reflect attacks back at her, as opposed to the usual boss fight fare.
The Minotaur
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Right From one Greek monster to another, the Minotaur is possibly the most accurate of the four foes Kassandra is sent to slay in “Odyssey” so that she can access Atlantis. You find the Minotaur hiding in a deep Labyrinth underneath Knossos palace in Crete, which is precisely where the story is said to take place. The Labyrinth is, of course, an Isu ruin, and it’s still illuminated by the piece of string Theseus was given by Ariadne to find his way through. And upon defeating the Minotaur, you get his Labrys, a two-headed axe that was the symbol of the ancient Minoan civilization that built Knossos in the first place.
Crystal Skulls
Wrong Though they had a lot of people fooled for a long time, we know today that every single crystal skull ever produced is a fake. But that’s not exactly what we’re talking about. The real issue is that the legend of the crystal skulls being so prevalent in “Black Flag” is a little anachronistic, since stories of crystal skulls – and those notorious fakes – didn’t exist at all until the 19th century, over a hundred years after the events of the game. The skulls are iconic, yes, but this could be seen as a missed opportunity for Ubisoft to dig into genuine Central American culture and mythology, since crystal skulls don’t factor into Maya or Aztec myths whatsoever. Other Isu artifacts are firmly rooted in myth and religion, so why not these?
The Ark of the Covenant
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Right Like the crystal skulls, the Ark of the Covenant is also arguably best known today for being the MacGuffin in an “Indiana Jones” movie. But it’s a key part of Hebrew theology, the sacred, golden box the Israelites used to transport the original Ten Commandments. If the Ark ever existed, it’s now lost, but it was supposedly last kept in Solomon’s Temple. Today, the ruins of the First Temple are in Temple Mount, Jerusalem, the birthplace of the real-life Knights Templar. At the beginning of the first game, Altaïr finds the Ark exactly where he expects: being excavated by the Templars in what remains of Solomon’s Temple. Though, here it contains an Apple of Eden.
The Daughters of Lerion
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Wrong It was very interesting to see this old myth of a pagan, British king recreated here. The story of Leir is much older than the various Elizabethan plays – Shakespeare’s wasn’t the first – but the plays are possibly more true to the legend than “Valhalla”. The main issue is that, in “Valhalla”, you fight all three of Leir’s daughters, who want revenge for their father’s execution. But in the legend, Leir is actually betrayed by two of them, Regan and Goneril. Only Cordelia remains loyal to him, though the tragedy of the story is that Leir believes the opposite and punishes her. So, it would arguably make more sense in the game if you only fight Cordelia, as opposed to all three.
The Asgard Sequence
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Right There’s a long questline in “Valhalla” that sees Eivor drink various potions to travel, through dream, to the various realms of Norse mythology, namely Asgard and Jotunheim. The stories detail the downfall of the Æsir and the events leading up to Ragnarok, and how Odin’s fear of a prophecy involving Loki’s son, Fenrir, ultimately brings that prophecy to pass. To actually play through Ragnarok you’ll need to get the DLC, but the Asgard sections included in the base game hue extremely close to the Norse myths. The only differences are the times the Isu lore takes precedence, like Juno’s sneaky appearance as the Jotunn Hyrrokin. Though, there’s no reference to the Jotnar being blue in the legends.
Juno & Aita
Wrong The closest thing we’ve ever had to a primary antagonist in “Assassin’s Creed”, Juno is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Hera. In myth, Juno is the wife of Jupiter – or Zeus – and also, of course, his sister. But in “Assassin’s Creed”, Juno is devoted to her husband Aita. However, there’s only one ancient deity called “Aita”, a lesser-known figure in Etruscan mythology who stands in for Hades. Considering Hades himself turns up in “Odyssey’s” Atlantis DLC and certainly isn’t Juno’s husband, it looks like Aita is an invention of Ubisoft. It’s all well and good to make up fictional characters, obviously, but it does stick out since the rest of the Isu are famous gods and goddesses. Let us know in the comments if you like “Assassin’s Creed’s” forays into mythology, or if you wish Ubisoft would ditch it.
