15: Assassin’s Creed: Disassociating religion from religious war

Ryan Stacey, @ryansta76963187, Royal Holloway, University of London

Assassin’s Creed, a gaming franchise that has been sensational with the gaming community since its 2007 debut, excitingly explores a vast array of historical eras, from the Peloponnesian War to Victorian London. The first instalment, Assassin’s Creed, was centred around the controversial, turbulent Third Crusade, set in the Holy Land in 1191. The game was developed by a Canadian branch of the French gaming company Ubisoft, called Ubisoft Montreal, and was spearheaded by lead developer Jade Raymond. The geo-political locale of being developed on the American continent however brought the game to a crossroads with the aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror. Academics have argued the resulting Islamophobia from this was still prevalent in 2007 around the game’s release.35 This led Ubisoft Montreal to be very cautious in its presentation of religion, particularly with their protagonist, Altair ibn La’Ahad – an assassin based upon the real-life Shia Muslim sect, the Ismaili Nizaris. Alongside the geo-political atmosphere, other games at the time were increasingly aligning themselves with a Western-driven narrative linked to current events. One example of this is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), where the player is an American soldier killing Islamic terrorists. Consequently, Ubisoft Montreal decided to disassociate the game from religion. This was revealed as their objective when Raymond participated in an interview at a 2007 gaming conference in Paris where she stated, “There are no political statements… We don’t have a political agenda”.36 Additionally, all Assassin’s Creed games have an opening disclaimer – “Inspired by historical events and characters, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities”. So, did Ubisoft disassociate from religion in Assassin’s Creed and how?

For the most part, the answer is yes, Ubisoft was successful in disassociating religion from the protagonist Altair. They did this through presenting Altair as a blank canvas.37 They achieved this through mystifying the character’s identity – the theme of mystery and secrecy Raymond revealed was a major component to the franchise and Altair.38 In the game, they achieve this as Altair wears a hood obscuring most of his face,39 and there is next to no information on his background (as far as the first game is concerned). Instead, Raymond stated they chose to focus the little information surrounding his identity on that of an eagle.40 Such indicators to this include: his hood being shaped like a beak, perching on walls and buildings, and Raymond stated they chose his name because of its Arabic meaning ‘Flying One’ or ‘Flying Eagle’.41

35 Oana-Alexandra Chirila, ‘Freedom and Oppression in Assassin’s Creed’, in, Playing the Crusades, (ed.) Robert E. Houghton, Engaging the Crusades 5, (London: Routledge, 2011), 65 36 Gamereactor, Assassin’s Creed Interview with Jade Raymond in Paris, YouTube, uploaded 12/06/2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aaMPXDXrK4 , accessed 04/01/2022 37 Gamereactor, Jade Raymond on Altair and Assassin’s Creed Interview Part 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h5dNE2mwGs , uploaded 6/11/2007 38 Gamereactor, Assassin’s Creed 39 Though Ubisoft does not go to the same extent as CAPCOM does with Ethan Winters in the most recent instalments of Resident Evil. 40 Gamereactor, Jade Raymond 41 Ibid

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Furthermore, Ubisoft continues to disassociate with Altair through how they characterise his actions. They do this in several ways. Firstly, they designed the villains to be genuinely bad people: slave traders, arms dealers etc. This shows Altair to be acting out of moral good and justice, not hatred for the character’s religious beliefs. Secondly, after each kill, Altair shows a degree of respect for his targets, demonstrating his actions are not out of malice.42 Therefore, Raymond’s team achieved what they consider the “modern mentality” through the Assassins – the idea that they transcend religious boundaries and act on behalf of the people for the greater good.43 The Assassins acting on behalf of the people is also explicitly demonstrated should the player decide to kill any non-combatant NPCs (Non-Playable Character). This is because killing innocents in the game results in desynchronisation, the game’s equivalence of death. Therefore, there are repercussions in-game if the player decides to go against Ubisoft’s objectives. However, there are two further things to consider. Firstly, disassociating religion from the Muslim protagonist is not purely apolitical as Raymond’s statement suggests. Instead, occupying the neutral middle ground is a political agenda itself. A reason for Raymond’s choice of words may be that she was suggesting the game agrees with neither extreme of the political spectrum, that the game is neither pro-Christian or pro-Muslim.

Secondly is that Ubisoft’s policy of disassociating from religion is only applicable to the two main groups in the game, the Assassins and Templars. Though the remaining NPCs ultimately play lesser roles, they are characterised by their attachment to their respective faiths. This is shown in the case of Richard the Lionheart. In his first onscreen appearance, Richard rebukes William de Montserrat stating, “You swore an oath to uphold the work of God William! But that is not what I see here! No, I see a man who has trampled it!”44 This is because William had executed 3000 Saracen prisoners which Richard saw as impeding his ultimate goal of recapturing Jerusalem from Saladin as those prisoners were intended as bargaining chips. Therefore, Richard is portrayed as both an actual Medieval crusader and a religiously orientated character.

In conclusion, Ubisoft is successful at disassociating religion from the main characters by modernising and mystifying them. Simultaneously, they do not disassociate religion from the lesser NPCs. This may be because said characters have limited screen time and are portrayed as the legitimate Medieval characters that they are. Furthermore, Richard is a less controversial historical figure to have stayed true to. Had Ubisoft included Saladin in their game, they may have needed to tread more cautiously in how they portrayed him. Overall, Ubisoft managed to steer their game through the political minefield through an adoption of relative neutrality and high consistency of religious disassociation with the main characters.

42 Ibid 43 Gamereactor, Assassin’s Creed 44 RJ Gaming, Assassin’s Creed Walkthrough part 18 – Assassinating William, YouTube, uploaded 20/10/2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ms5Q68QZE&list=PL3q8dpaxzT3vzDT3fbOcydn7t1-2xiLRO&index=18 , accessed 11/01/2022

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