FACTS & RUMORS
Since Ubisoft refused to comment on the modern day segment of the games, little is known regarding what it’ll look like, how it might return and in what formula. The only official comment prior to the announcement of Origins was that Ubisoft is working on making a more “robust” modern day experience. Another unrelated comment was that Bayek is the “primary” protagonist and playable character but they also look forward to introducing other playable characters.
In addition to that, we know that among the new features in Assassin’s Creed: Origins is the Animus Pulse, which operates similarly to the the Eagle Vision and it helps scanning the environment and highlighting objects that Bayek can interact with. The title is definitely interesting because it mentions the Animus rather than the Helix. In addition to that, Ubisoft mentioned the Animus in the Game Informer cover story about Assassin’s Creed: Origins. On the other hand, one of the pre-order items of Assassin’s Creed: Origins listed by Supergamer.cz lists a scarf to be given away with some editions of AC:Origins. The scarf partially shows the word HELIX written in the same font as it is in Unity and Syndicate. However, since both devices are mentioned, it remains ambiguous as to if, which and how each of the two devices will be portrayed in the game.
On the other hand, prior to the official announcement of Origins, numerous rumors and supposed leaks have surfaced, some of which focused on two major points, the presence of a modern day protagonist, a modern day segment that is similar to Assassin’s Creed III but with bigger and more detailed missions and another point which is the presence of Time Loops, which were present in Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Syndicate where the game would switch to a whole new time period in the same location and showcase different key moments in history. There were also rumors which mentioned the existence of playable female character, as well as the presence of an upgraded version of the Animus.
The multiple rumors mentioned different time which are Time Loops in Assassin’s Creed: Origins. “game has smaller segments that take place in different times”. Among those time periods were during the times of Moses and that the conflict has to with the Piece of Eden responsible for the parting of the Red Sea, The Staff of Eden, others reported Napoleonic Wars as well as sometime around the year 2400 BCE. However, in an interview with Eurogamer, director Ashraf Ismail stated that there won’t be any time anomalies, but there will be “exotic moments” without offering any further explanation as to how they will differ from Time Anomalies and what they’ll offer.
THE IDENTITY OF OUR NEW HERO
While the only connection between these characters and Origins is the fact that they’re in Egypt, what makes their lineage interesting is the speculation of Origins featuring multiple Time Loops that will show various eras of Egypt’s history and the official word of “multiple playable characters” in the game, in addition to Bayek who is the primary one. It must also be noted that there’s a modern day Abstergo employee named Leila Marino who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2007 and she was reported dead with her death being classified by Abstergo. Lucy Stillman tried to reach her, but to no avail. She was later informed by Warren Vidic that she committed suicide due to her partner whom he called “Neumann”. Yet Lucy was later told not to “dip her pen in company ink”. The similarities between the names Leila and Numa and Leila Marino and Neumann makes them interesting as Assassin’s Creed is known to repeat names or the faces of related characters throughout its games, such as Eve, for example who is mentioned multiple times since ACII, Brotherhood, Liberation, Unity DLC – Dead Kings in addition to the comics.
This leaves us with more questions. The first question is: If Assassin’s Creed: Origins is to feature a modern day segment, where exactly will it take place? could it be modern day Egypt? we must remember that both Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood featured an Italian Assassin in Italy with the modern day taking place in modern day Monteriggioni, while Assassin’s Creed III featured a Native American Assassin in America, with the modern day taking place in modern day United States of America. While both Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Syndicate lacked any form of playable modern day, Bishop in Unity, which takes place in Revolutionary France, reported the destruction of an Abstergo facility by the Assassins, in Paris, France while Syndicate had the modern day Assassins search for the Shroud of Eden in London, UK in parallel with the historical segments explored in the game which take place in Industrial London.
The second question is: if we presume that the modern day is in modern day Egypt, we can also expect that either an modern day Assassin we know could be the protagonist of the modern day segment, or it could be someone entirely new which could most likely be an modern day Egyptian Assassin or Templar. If the rumors about the playable female character are true, then we could be playing as an modern day Egyptian female character, who can both of an Assassin or a Templar searching for something in ancient history.
If we go back to the Assassin’s Creed: Origins E3 demo, there’s a girl named Shadya, which is an Arabic name that is quite common in Egypt today. When user Assassin_M asked director Ashraf Ismail on Twitter about the presence of an Arabic name in Ancient Egypt, his response was: “all the names are from the area or derived from names that we have info on existing during this time”. It must also be noted that the name Leila is an Arabic name as well, and is also common in modern day Egypt. Of course, there are countless names that can be used for an Egyptian character, male or female, but since Assassin’s Creed is known for repeating names throughout history and games, and if the rumors and assumptions are true, the protagonist could be called Shadya or Leila. If it’s the latter, it could either be a new character or even the very same Leila Marino who was reportedly dead in 2007. She might have been alive but Abstergo covered that for some reason, such as getting involved with Neumann who can possibly be an Assassin. It must also be noted that there’s an Arabic male name “Nu’maan” and since Arabic uses different alphabet, it could be written in different ways in English, such as Numan, Noman or even Neumann, creating a parallel with the historical counterparts Leila and Numa, an Egyptian Templar agent and an Assassin.
EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMUS
Now regarding the Animus and the Helix. We could be dealing with an upgraded version of each device. The Animus is a device where the subject has to be present to relive the genetic memories of a specific subject. In the earlier version of the Animus, the subject had to be present for the Animus to work and read his/her genetic memories. Later, the Animus evolved to require only a sample of the genetic material of the subject. Eventually, with Animus Omega and Brahman V.R., the Animus is now able to explore the genetic memories of a specific subject that have already been recorded into the Abstergo Cloud, without the need for a subject or their DNA to be present during memory viewing sessions.
As for the Helix, it’s a gaming console that uses pre-recorded genetic memories without the need for a sample or a subject to be present and it’s produced by Abstergo as an entertainment device with propaganda based narration of Assassin and Templar stories. It evolved from the Data Dump Scanner, which works in a very similar manner and relies on pre-recorded genetic memories, as well as the Animus interface.
As we can see, the Helix evolved from the Animus as a commercial product, while the Animus remains the most raw and efficient method of genetic memory extraction. In a Q&A on Reddit, Assassin’s Creed Head of Content, Aymar Azaïzia stated the following regarding the differences between each Animus type: “The “chair version”, are safest, and if you want the full lenght theory on Animus, brace yourself.When you are getting into an Animus machine, the way the time goes depends on how close you are to your ancestor. If you are using Helix and someone else memory, the timescale is 1:1.
So if you want to dig and information but have no idea when it happened, it could take you months or years in the Animus, that’s why Abstergo is usually using Helix with masses, to process tons of data at once.If you are in direct line, time could flies and a couple of hours in the simulation could allow you to process weeks of memories.
The chair vs. standing versions are about allowing you, or even forcing you (with the arm), to sync and remain on sync with your ancestor. A way to guarantee that the subject will be efficient quickly, but the chances of triggering a bleeding effect, and hurting the psyche of a subject increases accordingly. Therefore seeing Abstergo pushing people because they are rushed, not caring about frying their brain, and having a post trauma process in place seemed to work well for us.”
Based on that, now we have a clear idea about how each type of Animus works and that the use of an Animus that could still require genetic memory and even a subject with a direct link the lineage is still needed despite the evolution of a more advanced kind that relies on pre-recorded memories or mere samples of a subject’s DNA.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins could feature any type of Animus depending on the modern day protagonist and their allegiance or by what means they’re able to relive the memories and also for what purpose, a game? research for Abstergo? the Assassins?
The protagonist could be an Assassin or a Templar in a race against time to reach a specific Piece of Eden, which is likely the Staff, the Ankh or the Scepter of Aset, since those are the closest POEs to Egyptian history and mythology. So the protagonist might be setting up camp inside one of the Egyptian temples or Pyramids similarly to how Monteriggioni was a hideout for the Assassins in AC:Brotherhood, or perhaps even a newly discovered Templar or historical sight where they use the Animus whether it’s a chair version, a standing version, a VR device (similar to Brahman) or a new version which can be bring the best features of all kinds and they could possibly even utilize genetic material from samples found underground in mummified corpses.
In conclusion, while the over-arching narrative of Assassin’s Creed: Origins remains shrouded in mystery and the modern day story is rarely explored in any of the promotional campaigns prior to the game’s launch, we can still attempt to make educated guess from numerous loose ends left here and there in the franchise’s numerous forms, which is a huge part of the fun with analyzing the Assassin’s Creed lore.
