Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the latest game from the long-running and highly successful Assassin's Creed franchise. This particular Assassin's Creed title took the series' Isu storyline and pushed it further, with the introduction of the Aesir Isu.
The Aesir Isu, known in the real world as the Norse Gods, is a different branch of Isu who sought to find a different method of survival from the Great Catastrophe. The result of this yearning was their reincarnations, various characters the players encounter in the game. One of these reincarnations is Eivor, the game's main protagonist. These reincarnations and their Isu counterparts make the story of Assassin's Creed Valhalla so much more engaging than it already is, but players will most likely have more questions than answers regarding them after they've beaten the game.
Warning: This list contains major spoilers for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.
Updated on July 29th, 2021 by Hodey Johns: The plot of the Assassin's Creed series is undoubtedly at its messiest at the moment, with more questions being delivered than answers. Assassin's Creed Infinity looks set to be the next entry in the series; while there is currently little information on the upcoming game's setting, goal, or structure, the title does grant it a sense of finality. With the future of the franchise possibly steering toward multiplayer elements and away from story-driven gameplay, it's worth reviewing this final note that the Aesir Isu left players on.Â
13 Kicking Out The Old Spirit
The Isu made some amazing strides in technology, but even they can't do everything. The spiritual ride to the realm of the humans seems like an ingenious way to escape death, but even this was not guaranteed.
Horrifyingly, these vessels are not empty. Eivor is an individual entity. Odin conversing with Eivor might seem random, but it's actually a desperate plea to abandon the body as Loki has clearly done with Basim. Whoever Basim was is dead from the beginning of the game and Eivor is flirting with a similar fate.
12 A Very Risky Gamble
The Isu in Assassin's Creed Valhalla might sound very certain, but they are actually involved in a nasty gambit. It's uncertain if they can gain control of their designated bodies at all. It appears that most of the Norse gods actually fail on that step.
The next step is plugging back into the machine at the Isu temple during this short lifespan. As evidenced by Eivor and Sigurd, staying plugged in isn't a guarantee either. The Isu don't live forever, but they live long enough that trading the rest of their lives for a human lifespan is seriously risky business.
11 Can Ragnarok Be Evaded?
Almost the entirety of Eivor's time viewing the events of Odin is spent trying to evade Ragnarok. While this struggler is fascinating to see, the real question is if this tricky way around the prophecy succeeds or merely postpones the inevitable.
Indeed, Odin's vessel, Eivor, rejects him and dies, as foretold. Loki appears to be in the driver's seat for success, but even this came with many hiccups. This fatal prediction may indeed come true sooner rather than later.
10 The Marks On Their Necks
One clear commonality between all the Isu reincarnations in the game is that they all have is a distinct mark on their necks. During one of the game's rarest encounters, Basim pins Eivor down and demands to expose their neck. Basim is making sure whether or not Eivor is a reincarnation.
The reason for this is unsure, but the reincarnations can connect to the machine in the vault attaches to a person's neck, allowing them to live their lives in Valhalla as Isu.
9 A Reincarnation Can Be The Other Sex
One thing that's apparent with Isu reincarnations is that a reincarnation doesn't need to be of the same sex as their previous life. Eivor is the most evident example of this. Odin was male and his reincarnation, Eivor, is believed to be canonically female, despite the game allowing the players to play as a male Eivor.
It is, however, more common for a reincarnation to have the same sex, even the same face as their previous counterparts. Most seem to retain their godlike powers in the game to boot.
8 Halfdan Is Thor's Reincarnation
In the game, the cut clear Isu reincarnations are the following: Eivor for Odin, Sigurd for Tyr, Basim for Loki, and Svala for Freyja. One other major character in the game not that many people may know is also a reincarnation is Halfdan.
Halfdan Ragnarsson, one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and the Conqueror of the North. He is also the reincarnation of Thor, the Norse god of thunder. The game was very direct with how it introduced the character. Halfdan and Thor also have the same face model and voice actor.
7 Faravid May Be An Isu Reincarnation
One of the less obvious Isu reincarnations is Faravid. It is yet unknown exactly who Faravid's Isu counterpart is. A lot of people seem to believe that, due to his relationship with Halfdan, Faravid may be the Isu reincarnation of Jormundgandr.
Jormundgandr, or the World Serpent, may simply be another Isu character instead of being a literal World Serpent. In the game, Halfdan is always paranoid that Faravid may be poisoning him, which may stem from the fact that, in the mythology, Thor dies from the World Serpent's poison.
6 King Harald Is An Isu Reincarnation
As established, one of the distinctive features of Isu reincarnations is a specific mark on their necks. One character almost everyone will miss has this said mark is King Harald, a real character from history that is also in the game.
It is close to impossible to spot King Harald's neck mark, mainly because he only appears so briefly within the game. However, the players can absolutely check for themselves by utilizing the game's Photo Mode, should they wish. In regards to who King Harald's Isu counterpart is, it is believed that he is the reincarnation of the Isu Sif.
5 There Are A Total Of Nine Reincarnations
Based on the True ending, which the players can attain after completing the anomalies mystery in the game, there were eight Isu who plugged themselves into the life tree to be reincarnated, with Loki sneaking in afterward, which makes nine.
The Isu that are known to have been reincarnated are Odin, Tyr, Loki, Freyja, and Thor. It is also already known who their reincarnations are. Another Isu who was also reincarnated was Heimdall, and his reincarnation is a man named Rig.
4 Rig Reidarasson
Rig Reidarasson was a Viking warrior who settled in England before Eivor and the Raven Clan even set foot on the land. As a child, he often boasted how he has "drunk the mead of Odin" and that he has sat at the great table with the Aesir gods and they all know his name.
As an adult, Rig would be haunted by voices in his head. He heard commands such as "ready your queen," among others. After successfully obliging the commands of the voice in his head, he was told that he was "Odin's perfect son, Heimdall."
3 The Seventh Solution
When the Isu detected the coming of the event later known as the Great Catastrophe, it was already too late for them. Around this time, the Isu was engaged in a war with the humans, which is why they were so preoccupied to prepare for the impending threat.
When they discovered the threat, however, the Isu formulated six different methods for their survival. However, they would prove to be ineffective or it would take too long to complete. The Aesir Isu, however, formulated a different solution. They would upload their consciousness into the Yggdrasil, an Isu supercomputer, so they would be reincarnated later.
2 Svala Discovered Valhalla Using Freyja's Memories
Svala was the reincarnation of the Isu Freyja and the mother of Valka. She was a seeress who lived with the Raven Clan before they moved to England. As Svala grew older, she began to inherit the memories of her old life.
When Freyja knew she was going to meet her end, she made use of Freyja's memories to gain access to the Yggdrasil, which she successfully managed to do. Before she died, she reached the Isu Temple underneath Hordafylke and uploaded her consciousness to the Life Tree, allowing her to live as Freyja in Valhalla forever.
1 By Fate Or By Design
One glaring thing about the Isu reincarnations that may seem like plot holes is the fact that they're born so close by one another, both in location and time. One might think that at least one of them would be born in a later century, but that's not the case here at all.
However, there's one very simple explanation for this. Their reincarnation wasn't done using random magic, it was done using Isu technology beyond human comprehension. It can be reasoned that when the Isu uploaded their consciousness into the life tree, they intended to be reborn around the same era.