Ubisoft has activated the Animus once more, this time to take us back to Japan’s Sengoku Period. Assassin’s Creed Shadows features a number of historical figures from 1579, including Fujibayashi Nagato, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Yasuke – the African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga. As with the previous games in the series, these figures are woven into a story that combines fact with fiction to tell a tale of revenge, betrayal, and murder – including that time Yasuke had to kill everyone to gather enough XP to use a gold-tier weapon.
Yes, Assassin’s Creed is historical fiction, and its whole MO has been finding gaps in the past that can be used to tell a science fiction conspiracy tale about a secret society that’s looking to take over the world using the magic powers of a pre-human civilization. While the open-world playgrounds Ubisoft creates are genuinely rooted in history and based on a lot of meticulous research, it’s important to remember they are not actual history lessons – the developers have changed dozens and dozens of historical facts to better suit the story being told.
There are far too many “historical inaccuracies” to include in a single article, but here are ten of our favourite times Assassin’s Creed completely rewrote the past.
The Assassins vs Templars War
Let’s get this one out the way first: there is absolutely no historical evidence that the Order of Assassins was ever at war with the Knights Templar. The conflict between the Assassins and Templars is completely fictional, partly inspired by the (also fictional) conspiracy theories that emerged around the Knights Templar.
The Assassins were founded in 1090 AD, and the Templars were established shortly after in 1118. Both orders operated for around 200 years, and by 1312 both had been disbanded. The idea that these groups have been backstabbing each other through the centuries is absolute nonsense. In fact, the only conflict both orders were involved with was the Crusades, and so there’s only the first Assassin’s Creed game that’s even set in the right time period. While there is evidence they may have brushed against each other, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that either group was ideologically opposed to the other.
The Borgias and their Superpowered Pope
Assassin’s Creed 2 and its follow-up, Brotherhood, focuses on Ezio’s conflict with the Borgia family. Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia is discovered to be the Grand Master of the Templar Order, which is pretty bad news for the Assassins, since Rodrigo – both in the game and in history – is elected as Pope, becoming Alexander VI. However, as we’ve already established, the Templars weren’t around in the late 1400s, so naturally there was no Borgia plot to obtain the magical Apple of Eden and install a pope who could control humanity with god-like powers. Sadly, that also means that Ezio’s brawl with Pope Alexander VI under the Vatican is also pure fiction.
That much was, of course, pretty obvious. But perhaps less obvious is that Assassin’s Creed’s general depiction of the Borgias is pretty mixed as far as historical accuracy goes. While the family’s legacy is steeped in enough sin for them to be easily positioned as villains, the Borgias were not the moustache-twirling Renaissance-era gangsters that Ubisoft paints them as. Rodrigo’s son, Cesare, is reinvented as something of an incestuous, psychopathic leader, despite there being no historical evidence of this, just rumour – in reality, he may not have been all that bad, if you believe Machiavelli, that is…
Machiavelli, Enemy of the Borgias
Speaking of…In Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood, famed political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli is depicted as Ezio’s right-hand-man. At one point he leads the Italian Assassin’s Bureau, and generally aids Ezio’s crusade against the evil Borgias. The problem with all this is that Machiavelli almost certainly wouldn’t have been an Assassin at all – his philosophies around strong authority simply don’t gel with the Creed’s fight against authority.
Furthermore, Machiavelli’s own actions and writings suggest he did not find the Borgia family all that repulsive. He recognised Rodrigo Borgia as a con man, but one who was successful in all his deceptions. As for Rodrigo’s son, Machiavelli actually served as a diplomat in Cesare’s court and considered him a model ruler. Simply put, Machiavelli’s opinions and relationships with Assassin’s Creed’s Italian big bads don’t line up with the real history.
The Incredible Leonardo da Vinci and his Flying Machine
Just as famous as Assassin’s Creed 2’s pope battle is its bromance between Ezio and Leonardo da Vinci. Ubisoft’s depiction of the Italian polymath is actually pretty strong; historical records state he was a witty, charismatic man and that’s exactly what we get. However, his movements through Italy simply don’t match up to da Vinci’s real-life travels. In 1482, Leonardo left Florence and moved to Milan, where he stayed for over a decade. The game sees him move from Florence to Venice in 1481, ostensibly to paint portraits for a noble, but essentially to ensure da Vinci is in the same place as Ezio. This may seem like a small thing, but Assassin’s Creed is generally pretty good at tracking the movements of historical figures and aligning its story with them, so this is actually a pretty substantial change.
Of course, that’s not the fun stuff. The real da Vinci was an outstanding engineer and crafted multiple designs that were far ahead of their time. Across Assassin’s Creed 2 and its sequel, Brotherhood, we see many of da Vinci’s designs made manifest, including a machine gun and a tank. There’s little historical evidence for these having actually been built, but the real flight of fancy is the flying machine that Ezio uses to soar across the rooftops of Venice. While da Vinci was indeed fascinated by the idea of human flight, and the glider-like machine used in-game is very close to the designs he drew, there is no historical account that suggests any of Leonardo’s machines ever took to the skies.
The Bloody Boston Tea Party
One of the most famous events of the American Revolution, the Boston Tea Party saw dozens of men – many dressed as Mohawks to disguise their identities – board three boats in Boston Harbour and dump boxes of tea into the water. While plenty of tea was destroyed, not a single person died – it was a non-violent protest against the recently implemented Tea Act.
In Assassin’s Creed 3, things go pretty differently. Protagonist Connor is the only person among the protesters to wear Native American clothing, and he slaughters at least 15 British guards while his allies prepare to dump the tea. Two of the protesters also get involved in the killing as more guards turn up, resulting in casualties on both sides. Basically, it’s a bloodbath that significantly rewrites the actual events – peaceful protestors are turned into an aggressive mob, presumably because throwing boxes of tea isn’t considered dramatic enough for a video game.
Furthermore, during the mission’s set-up, it’s revealed that the protest was masterminded by Samuel Adams, one of the Founding Fathers. In reality, historians have conflicting opinions on Adam’s exact level of involvement in the protest itself – it’s a good example of Ubisoft using inconclusive evidence to write its own version of history.
The Lone Mohawk
Talking of Connor and his crusade against the British, Assassin’s Creed 3’s whole approach to Connor’s allegiances doesn’t align with the history books. Connor is a Mohawk, and the Mohawk people were actually allied with the British, not the Patriots, during the Revolutionary War. They had enjoyed a good trade relationship with the British, and hoped the Crown would protect their lands from American colonists.
At the time of Assassin’s Creed 3’s launch, Connor’s depiction was debated by a number of historians, who found the whole scenario incredibly unlikely. If Connor were to fight alongside the Patriots, he’d be considered something of a traitor among his own people.
That’s not to say such a thing never happened, though. Akiatonharónkwen, also known by his English name, Louis Cook, is one very rare example of a Mohawk fighting against the British. He became the highest-ranking Native American officer in the Continental Army, and it’s possible that his story inspired Connor’s creation. But, like we said, this kind of occurrence was incredibly unlikely, and so Connor represents the kind of “what if?” question that Assassin’s Creed thrives on. “what if a Mohawk allied with the Patriots?” is pretty fertile ground for a story full of conflict and soul-searching. As to if Assassin’s Creed 3 actually lives up to that premise… well, the game certainly does have its defenders.
The Templar Revolution
While Ubisoft’s take on the American Revolution has plenty of inaccuracies, its issues pale in comparison to Assassin’s Creed Unity’s quite frankly bizarre take on the French Revolution. It reads almost like a counter-revolutionary manifesto; by pinning the blame on the Templars, it practically suggests that the French monarchy and aristocracy were victims of a conspiracy, rather than the corrupt cause of the people’s revolt.
One of Unity’s alt-history sparks for the revolution is a Templar scheme to create a food crisis. Famine was a significant part of the French Revolution, but it was the result of multiple years of food shortages, caused by drought, floods, and bad harvests – natural causes that simply couldn’t be manufactured by a group of Jacobin Templars skulking around Paris. Furthermore, Unity seems to suggest that the Reign of Terror – the historic name for all the street riots and head-chopping – is the whole revolution, rather than just one part of it. In reality, the French Revolution unfolded over many years and was the result of multiple issues – in short, even the smartest Templars would be completely incapable of manufacturing it.
The Controversial Killing of King Louis 16
The most well-known aspect of the French Revolution is the monarchy ducking their heads beneath the guillotine, and the execution of King Louis 16 is naturally a prominent part of Assassin’s Creed Unity. The game depicts the vote on his punishment as being neck-and-neck (so to speak) with the ballot being swung by a single vote from a Templar conspiracist. Such a result suggests that killing the King was something of a controversial, divisive issue among the assembly, but this couldn’t be further from the truth; the real result was 394 to 321 in favour of execution – an easy majority.
Unity is remarkably soft on the French aristocracy, who were the target of widespread anger across the population. In reality, The King was accused of treason in part due to his attempt to flee France to Austria, from where he could plot a counter-revolution. This naturally made him look even worse than his already tanked reputation, but this is barely addressed in Unity. It’s just one symptom of the game’s overall neglect to explain the true causes of the revolution.
Jack the Assassin
Among the wildest, most borderline-offensive warpings of history committed by Assassin’s Creed is its version of Jack the Ripper. In reality, he was one of London’s most brutal serial killers, having murdered a number of prostitutes in the Whitechapel area in 1888. According to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, though, he was a rogue Assassin attempting to take over the London Brotherhood.
As Syndicate’s story goes, Jack trained under Jacob Frye, but over the years became disillusioned with the Brotherhood’s Creed. He eventually wrestled control of the organisation away from Jacob, turning it into a ruthless gang that dominated the criminal underworld in London’s East End. In an attempt to stop his reign of terror, Jacob assigned a group of initiates disguised as prostitutes to kill Jack. They all failed, gruesomely murdered by Jack before they could complete their mission. Thankfully, Jacob’s sister, Evie, was able to step in and kill him before he could do any further damage.
This is all a pretty classic example of Assassin’s Creed’s “you don’t know the real story” shtick. Much of the police work surrounding the real Jack the Ripper was inconclusive, and to this day his identity and the true tally of his victims are unknown.
The Assassination of the Tyrant Julius Caesar
The killing of Julius Caesar is not only one of the most important political assassinations in the entirety of human history, it’s also one of the most well-documented. He was stabbed 23 times by a group of conspirators who believed his dictatorship was a threat to the values of the Roman Republic. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Assassin’s Creed Origins ignores many of the facts in order to paint its own picture of the events – one in which Caesar is a proto-Templar who must be killed to prevent global terror.
There are a multitude of issues with Origin’s depiction of Caesar’s assassination, including the design of the Roman Forum and the order of events that brings Caesar to the Senate. However, the strangest element of it all is the game’s depiction of Caesar. His opponents in the game are depicted as fighting for land for the people, not just the privileged – which, funnily enough, was exactly what the real Caesar stood for. In fact, his many political reforms included the redistribution of land to the poor and retired soldiers. Maybe his in-game adversaries should have checked his political record…
When Aya confronts Ceasar’s grieving widow, Cleopatra, after having led the assassination plot, she says that “The people call you a dead tyrant’s whore.” In reality, while by no means a clear-cut hero, Caesar was an incredibly popular leader among the Roman people. Origins frames his death as a victory over a tyrannical pre-Templar leader, but historically, Ceasar’s assassination triggered the Liberators’ Civil War, which led to the collapse of the Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. It’s not exactly the victory Origins would like you to believe it is and, paradoxically, the assassination only creates a domino effect towards the exact kind of world the conspirators were aiming to avoid.
The teams working on the Assassin’s Creed games go to great lengths to create games that are packed with truly authentic historical elements, but as you can see, that authenticity is often far from accurate. And that’s okay! After all, this is historical fiction, not historical documentary. It is just a video game, after all. What are your favourite examples of Assassin’s Creed bending the truth? Let us know in the comments.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
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