Summary
On paper, theAssassin’s Creedfranchise has a pretty straightforward premise. In the present day, a company named Abstergo has created a device called an Animus that lets people access and live out their ancestors' memories. The player then takes control of an Assassin at some point in history, and each new mainline entry delivers a new character in a different time setting, essentially cleaning the slate every time. But in reality, that’s just scratching the surface of what theAssassin’s Creedstory has to offer.
Along with each individual Assassin’s lifelong story,theAssassin’s Creedfranchisealso has an overarching narrative that revolves around an ancient species known as the Isu who lived over 75,000 years ago. Before being wiped out by a solar flare, the Isu managed to scatter various parts of their civilization across the world, and those pieces of technology are known as Pieces of Eden. But that’s still only scratching the surface ofAssassin’s Creed’s story. Introduced inAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, Sages are a whole other wrinkle to the overarchingACstory, but thankfully, Ubisoft might not be diving into them much more in the future.
Why Assassin’s Creed Shouldn’t Introduce Any More Sage Types
The Different Types of Assassin’s Creed Sages Explained
TheAssassin’s Creeduniverse currently has two different types of Sages. For those unaware, a Sage is an ancient Isu being that’s managed to remain alive all these years by inserting their consciousness into the very fabric of the human gene pool. Just before the solar flare - known asThe Great Catastrophe- hit the Earth 75,000 years ago, the Isu scientist Juno attempted to save her husband Aita by transferring his mind to human DNA. Over the years, Aita’s DNA would find itself present in a number of human vessels, which became known as Sages. While these humans had lives and thoughts of their own, Aita was often able to take over their body and mind, with his own memories breaking through.
The vast majority of Aita and Juno’s story is left to theAssassin’s Creed Uprisingcomic book, where Desmond Miles' son Elijah becomes a Sage and has to fend off Aita’s memories to retain his own identity.
As if that wasn’t complicated enough,Assassin’s Creed Valhallathen introduced a whole new type of Sage to the franchise, along with a new variation of the Isu. Before the Great Catastrophe, there was a band of Isu ruling over much of Scandinavia and Europe. These Isu were named the Aesir, and ended up being viewed by humanity as the Norse gods. Seeing no other way to survive the Great Catastrophe,the Aesir Isustole Juno’s research and passed down their own consciousness through the human gene pool, just as Aita did.
This ends up resulting inAssassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Eivorbecoming a Sage for Odin, the leader of the Aesir Isu. Eivor is confronted by Basim, a fellow Assassin that reveals himself to be the Sage of Loki, an Aesir who was imprisoned and left behind to die in the Great Catastrophe but who managed to escape last-minute. As the Sage of Loki, Basim now finds himself in the present day, having tricked Layla and her crew of modern-day Assassins.
Why More Sage Variations Likely Won’t Be Revealed
One of the biggest highlights of theAssassin’s Creedfranchise, at least back in the day, was that each entry provided a brand-new character and story, allowing the vast majority of games to be the perfect jumping-on point for new fans. But whenAssassin’s Creed’s overarching storystarted to dive deeper into the Isu and this concept of Sages, it quickly alienated a lot of fans. Adding the Aesir only continued to push away even the most die-hard fans, and while there’s nothing wrong with retroactively fleshing out the universe, it’s being done in such an obtuse and confusing way. While the Isu will always be a part of theAssassin’s Creedfranchise, it’s likely that Ubisoft won’t introduce any more Sage variations, as there are already way too many for fans to keep track of as it is.
