Back in 2014, Assassin’s Creed Unity launched. While its launch was far from ideal, Ubisoft’s continued support of the game rather quickly brought it up to scale. In it, players find some of the best parkour to date and an interesting love story between the assassin Arno and the templar Elise. Eagle-eyed fans also noticed a lot in terms of Assassin’s Creed lore, including the Hidden Twelve.
This was some lore hidden in the game where Juno states that Desmond and Clay won’t leave her world, that she intends to revive her race and to remake her world, and that her Hidden Twelve must collect samples and provide data—or something along those lines. In a recent Axios interview, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Narrative Director Darby McDevitt shed some more light on these Hidden Twelve.
In short, this Assassin’s Creed Unity lore was inserted as a tease for Assassin’s Creed Origins. McDevitt originally had the idea that Bayek would hunt down 12 templars throughout the game, who had been possessed by the “souls of the 12 Egyptian gods.” These gods of sorts would have been equivalent to Juno’s apostles and would have likely tied her to the ongoing story. However, as many know, Juno’s fate was resigned to the comic, Assassin’s Creed Uprising, which was also released in 2017.
According to this interview, McDevitt and his team abandoned this idea for Origins shortly after Unity’s launch. So, despite Origins having been released already, as well as two major games since in the form of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, this Unity lore hasn’t gone anywhere. But, that doesn’t mean it won’t someday.
As McDevitt says, “One day, perhaps I may be able to rehabilitate this story into something else, but for now, it’s a bit of vestigial lore.” It would be interesting to see this eventually realized, if disconnected from Juno for obvious reasons. This doesn’t mean it’ll happen in Assassin’s Creed Rift, the currently reported-to-be-in-development small-scale AC game featuring Basim; AC Infinity, the upcoming live-service game based on the franchise; or the presumably next open-world RPG. But it could happen one day.
In the meantime, fans have a few games on the horizon to look out for. Assassin’s Creed Rift, set in Baghdad, is believed to be a more classic action-adventure stealth-focused game. This obviously appeals to those who miss the classic stealth and parkour. At the same time, it seems Ubisoft has a new live-service vision for AC Infinity—though next to nothing is known about it except it would explore multiple settings.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Axios