Assassin's Creed Valhalla set a new precedent for mainline releases of the longstanding franchise in the sheer amount of content that it offered, with the title only recently concluding its post-launch content roadmap. Considering how the game was originally released in 2020, the title has essentially received three years of post-launch content that has significantly bolstered the already comprehensive gameplay experience of the base game.
Due to the huge amount of content within Assassin's Creed Valhalla, it is no wonder that the release has a huge amount of narrative threads and involved characters. With this in mind, it is clear that Valhalla will exist far beyond the confines of the title, and will influence subsequent franchise installments in quite a consistent and important manner.
The Links Between Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Assassin's Creed Mirage
One of the most direct and prominent ways in which the legacy of Assassin's Creed Valhalla will live on within the franchise is present in the upcoming and highly anticipated Assassin's Creed Mirage. A more intimate experience more akin to the non-RPG titles of the series, Mirage will be set in the Middle East prior to the events of Valhalla, and will crucially feature Valhalla's Basim Ibn Ishaq as its protagonist.
With this in mind, Mirage can be regarded as a form of soft prequel to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, as the game is entirely predicated around contextualizing the events of Valhalla and how Basim joined the Hidden Ones, a precursor group to the eponymous Assassin Brotherhood. As well as this, Mirage will focus on how Basim became aware of his status as a Sage for the Norse Isu God Loki, with Basim's memories of Loki's life driving the large majority of his actions in Valhalla's main story.
In some of the title's last DLC, Valhalla even featured the character of Roshan, who will be a central figure in the upcoming Mirage as Basim's mentor and close friend. These pre-existing tangible links between the two titles are only going to significantly expand upon Mirage's eventual release, conveying how the narrative threads of Valhalla are nowhere close to being finished.
Eivor's Unexplored Narrative Threads in Assassin's Creed Valhalla
While many of the secondary characters featured in Assassin's Creed Valhalla may go on to appear in subsequent franchise titles, there is also plenty of room for the title's protagonist to still appear in some capacity. The life of Eivor was extensively documented and portrayed throughout Valhalla's lengthy story, but the latter years of the character's life are largely implied and not explored in any real detail.
The final Last Chapter DLC for Valhalla attempted to tie up the plot of the title by having Eivor say goodbye to some pertinent characters from the game's main story, and then by showcasing Eivor's travels to Vinland. With the knowledge that Eivor would go on to die in Vinland, it remains that a huge portion of Eivor's later life is completely up to conjecture, and could easily be portrayed within the franchise somewhere down the line.
For example, with the rumored Assassin's Creed Infinity potentially providing a live-service platform for more intimate storylines to be told within the franchise, it is easy to see how a narrative experience detailing Eivor's later life could be released at some point in the future. Despite how extensive the narrative of Assassin's Creed Valhalla already is when confined to the title itself, it is clear that the influence and legacy of the game's story will hold significant influence within the franchise's immediate future and beyond.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
