Want to know more about bringing 9th Century Baghdad to life? Listen to this interview with Sarah Beaulieu about creating the game and honoring history.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has taken players across the globe over thousands of years of history since it began over 15 years ago and now. With Assassin’s Creed Mirage the location hasn’t just switched time periods, but location too. The latest entry in the franchise, players everywhere might be wondering when exactly the game takes place in history and where it places in the series’ timeline. Thankfully, we’re here to answer all of those questions.
When Does Assassin’s Creed Mirage Take Place?
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The story begins in the year 861, the beginning of a turbulent time for the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, which is modern Iraq. A new location for Assassin’s Creed to tackle, the city was the capital of the third Islamic dynasty after the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632, founded by Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, who was an uncle of Muhammad. By 861, Caliph al-Mutawakkil brought the Caliphate to the heights of its power. But, like every Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes place in a time and location of great political and social upheaval. Outside Turkish influences and internal power struggles brought about a ten-year period of political strife known as the Anarchy at Summara, culminating in a massive rebellion. This is the time period in which Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes place.
But the time period of Assassin’s Creed Mirage is so much more than its political and military violence. It was also a time of great scientific and artistic advancement. As you play through the main story, or even just as you explore the open world, astronomy, poetry, art, and magnificent architecture abound throughout every corner of Baghdad. International trade and emigration are also apparent throughout the city.
Is This Game A Prequel?
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is headlined by Basim Ibn Ishaq, who players might recognize from the most recent game in the franchise, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. In Valhalla, we saw master Assissin Basim and his apprentice Hytham arrive in England from their far-off home in Baghdad on a quest to root out their eternal enemies, the Order of the Ancients. Basim’s adventures with the Vikings Sigurd and Eivor began in the year 672, more than a decade after the start of Mirage.
Mirage isn’t necessarily a prequel to Valhallah. Players can jump into the latest game in this more than 15-year-old franchise without any prior experience with Basim or any of the Assassins and Hidden Ones who have become favorites to players over the years. But for those especially interested in the longstanding and deep lore of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, this is a great glimpse into the life of one of the series’ most interesting and mysterious characters beginings at a time before he was a Hidden One and leading up to the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Where Does Assassin’s Creed Mirage Fit With The Rest Of The Series?
There have been a lot of games in the Assassin’s Creed series thus far, taking place over thousands of years of history. Mirage is one of the earliest games in the series, beginning in the middle of the 9th century. This is more than 300 years before the events of the original Assassin’s Creed game, which took place about 600 miles away in the 12th-century Levant. Assassin’s Creed saw the height of the ancient battle between Assassins and Templars, the successors to the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Valhalla, and the games taking place earlier in the franchise. We don’t quite know when the two groups became the Assassins and Templars we know them as today.
We do know, however, that the Hidden Ones began more than 900 years earlier in the first century BCE, as seen in Assassin’s Creed Origins. Origins takes place in ancient Egypt during the late Ptolemaic period when figures like Cleopatra and Julius Caesar reigned and Alexander the Great was a figure of legend. The game’s main characters Bayek and Aya were among the first to take up the fight against the Order of the Ancients and formed the Hidden Ones as a means to train future generations to walk the shadows in order to serve the light.
However, Origins is still not the earliest game in the Assassin’s Creed timeline. Players can experience an even earlier age, 5th century BCE, by way of Alexios and Kassandra in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. In Greece during the heat of conflict between Sparta and Athens, many of the dominos began to fall that set the next 2000 years of Assassin’s Creed history in motion.
Whether you began your journey in 9th Century Baghdad or England, ancient Greece or Egypt, the 11th Century Levant, or any of the games in between, the Assassin’s Creed franchise is rich and full of history, real and fantasy.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available now for PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
