The Assassin's Creed series makes a point of bringing players to real-world locations during interesting times in history. Assassin's Creed Mirage has taken the series almost full circle because while the soft reboot Origins goes back to Roman times and Odyssey goes back even further to the Peloponnesian Wars, Mirage jumps forward to the ninth century and the early years of the Abbasid Caliphate.
History buffs will know immediately where locations like Baghdad and Alamut Castle are on the world map, but not every gamer is a fan of world history (or Paradox map games). For players who may not know where these cities and towns are, this guide will help explain the where and the when behind Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Alamut Castle
Once the protagonist Basim joins the Hidden Ones, they take him away to a remote castle called Alamut, deep within a snowy mountain range. Alamut is also where the first Assassin's Creed game begins because it was once the chief stronghold of the historical Order of Assassins.
These days, Alamut is the name of a small region in northwest Iran. It's within the mountain ranges just south of the Caspian Sea, and these mountains are so hard to cross that the whole region has hosted a number of castles and strongholds throughout human history. The region takes its name from Alamut Castle, with "Alamut" meaning "Eagle's Nest" in Persian.
Alamut Castle did, in fact, exist during the ninth century, long before the Assassin leader Hassan-i Sabbah made it his capital. However, the Hidden Ones weren't its builders. The real person responsible was Wahsudan ibn Marzuban, an independent ruler whose dynasty held the Alamut region at the time. It would stay with the dynasty until 1090, the year Hassan and the Assassins took over.
Baghdad
Many people are familiar with the name Baghdad since it's the capital of the modern country Iraq. But Baghdad has been a capital before, particularly during the years of the Abbasid Caliphate. While the previous Umayyad Caliphate had its capital in the ancient city of Damascus (now the capital of Syria), the Abbasids built a new capital on the left bank of the Tigris River. However, the name "Baghdad" is even older than the Abbasid capital, and it may date back to some of the oldest written languages on Earth.
Players may notice that Assassin's Creed Mirage has many references to The Epic of Gilgamesh: Basim's first companion compares him to the ancient hero, and his eagle companion is named Enkidu, who is Gilgamesh's best friend in the story. This is because Baghdad is in the region called Mesopotamia, the area that sits between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Mesopotamia is where the first ever written language appeared, and Gilgamesh is the oldest written story historians have ever found.
Gilgamesh himself likely ruled the city of Uruk, far to the southeast of Baghdad, and the Epic of Gilgamesh was probably written over 2000 years before Mirage takes place. Still, it's possible that some version of the story survived among the people of Mesopotamia even after the Caliphate period began.
Part of the story also takes place in Anbar, a town where the Abbasids have a winter palace during the game's timeline. Anbar is another historical location, and it was the first capital of the Abbasid Caliphate before Caliph al-Mansur built Baghdad in 762. Anbar is the nearest town to Baghdad in Mirage, and it's fairly close in real life as well. Its ruins are around three miles away from the modern city of Fallujah, and Fallujah is just 43 miles from Baghdad. That being said, both Anbar and Fallujah are on the Euphrates River rather than the Tigris.
Assassin's Creed Mirage is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
