The upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage has piqued the curiosity of many within the franchise's community, with the game marketing itself as a return to the classic gameplay formula of the older installments. The title will reportedly achieve this by doing away with a lot of the grandiose RPG elements of more recent franchise titles, instead offering a much more intimate and narratively-driven experience.
It is also known that Assassin's Creed Mirage will feature Basim Ibn Ishaq as its protagonist, who was also a central character in the recent AC Valhalla. With this in mind, there is a central aspect of Basim's character that needs to be explored in detail within the upcoming title which is directly linked to Basim's shared personality with the Isu God Loki.
Basim Ibn Ishaq's Identity As a Sage
One of the most fascinating reveals within the twisting story of Assassin's Creed Valhalla concerned the true identity of Basim Ibn Ishaq as the ancient Norse Isu God Loki. Sages have long been a tenet of Assassin's Creed lore, being humans who are genetically imbued with the memories of certain individuals from the ancient Isu race.
In the wider Assassin's Creed narrative, the Isu were a race of highly advanced humanoid beings that existed millennia ago. Credited with the creation of the human race, most of the conflicts portrayed within the AC franchise can be attributed to ancient Isu artifacts or a desire to return humanity to its subservient state under Isu rule. Upon the collapse of the Isu civilization, some of the most influential Isu submitted their genetic code into the human gene pool to be reborn at a later date.
When these genetic memories are reborn into humans, these individuals are known as Sages. Sages slowly remember their past Isu memories over the course of their early lives, which often leads to conflicts and confusion as Sages come to terms with essentially having to live two simultaneous lives. Basim is a Sage for the Norse Isu Loki and has fully come to terms with this factor of his life during the events of Valhalla.
How Basim and Loki Need To Be Portrayed in AC Mirage
Assassin's Creed Mirage will be set before the events of Valhalla and will tell a story of a younger Basim who is first coming to terms with his repressed memories of his past Isu life. In addition to this, it seems that fans will also experience Basim's training and initiation for the Assassin Brotherhood, offering a compelling level of mental and physical strain that the character will likely endure.
However, when portraying Basim in Mirage, Ubisoft would do well to hone in on one aspect of his personality in particular, given how it was a core tenet of Loki's moral purpose in the events of Valhalla. Loki, above all else, had a deep love for his children, Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel. Basim's primary motivation in Valhalla is to enact vengeance against Eivor, with Eivor being the Sage of Odin, who treated Loki's children with intense prejudice.
With how much this influenced the older version of Basim that fans have already seen, the love that Loki has for his children needs to be conveyed perhaps above all else in Assassin's Creed Mirage. Not only does this contextualize Loki's motivations, but it also adds an important human element to a character that can otherwise be easily categorized as malicious or invasive. While it will undoubtedly be confusing for Basim to come to terms with, Mirage needs to portray the interlinked feelings of love and even grief that Basim will share with Loki, perhaps more so than any other element of the two characters.
Assassin's Creed Mirage is currently in development.
