Cheng Zhang/Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Philosophy, East China Normal University
The Assassin's Creed series is one of the most successful IPs in the gaming industry, with a large number of works released and well-sold, accompanied by a wealth of spin-off novels, comics, and movies. In particular, its unique worldview shaping has attracted a large number of commentators and scholars to think and discuss. Religious scholar Lars De Wildt summarized three major themes from the Assassin's Creed series: utopia, religion, and conspiracy theories. This article aims to analyze the game's worldview construction based on the utopian elements of the Assassin's Creed series, supplemented by the latter two.
The two rival forces in the Assassin's Creed series, the Brotherhood of Assassins and the Templars, are both organizations dedicated to building a utopian world. The so-called "utopia", originally from the work of Thomas More, the protagonist of the game with the theme of utopia often strives to establish his ideal hometown (such as "The Sims"). And its opposite dystopia, which means fleeing, escaping from an established society (Portal, Half-Life), is not constructive and usually means destruction. On this level, it seems that the actions of the Assassin's Creed protagonists would be mistaken for dystopian escapees, especially the Frye siblings in The Owl. This misreading is largely due to the lack of penmanship of some screenwriters, which leads to the loss of character modeling and gives the wrong impression that the assassins "only kill and leave it alone". In fact, the Brotherhood itself, like its enemies, the Templars, believed in directing human society toward ideals through "reason." The Templars demanded an orderly system through reason, and the Assassins hoped that the majority would be able to live freely through reason. They are two sides of the same coin, seemingly mutually exclusive and intrinsically but both "rational" of Enlightenment thought, except that the Temple appeals to authoritarianism and the Assassins believe in individualism. Ubisoft uses conspiracy theories to portray human history as a process in which two organizations representing "order" and "freedom" struggle against each other. Every coup and every war in history is the result of these two organizations seeking and competing for the legacy of the Islamic civilization.
The evolution of the idea of order and freedom
So I realized that as long as the Templars existed, they would try to distort the facts as they wished. They also discovered that there is no absolute truth in the world—and even if there were, we could not understand it, and could only sigh. So the Templars tried to create their own interpretations to replace the position of absolute truth. This is their guiding ideology, the so-called "New World Order," which uses the picture they paint to cover things for what they are. It has nothing to do with artifacts, it has nothing to do with humans. These are just tools. They are so cunning that they can wage war with a single idea.
It's a perfect weapon, with no material form, but capable of changing the world frequently, even in violent ways. You can never destroy the creed, even if you kill all its adherents and burn all the literature—this is at best a pause. There will always be a day, there will always be someone who will rediscover it, recreate it. I believe that even we, the Assassins, have merely rediscovered the Creed, from an earlier age than Al Maureen...
—Altaïr's Codex
In Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft created a group of creatures that once lived on Earth, the "Isso people", who had a well-developed technological civilization. Just as human beings wanted to replace human labor with robots after the development of science and technology, the Yi people also imitated their own appearance to make slaves with slightly inferior intelligence and physique - humans. The Isu civilization was destroyed by the outbreak of solar flares, but the temple they left behind and the Eden Hall, the device that was once used to enslave humanity, sparked an endless struggle between humans who survived the catastrophe. In the ancient storyline, the "Templars", who were jokingly called "Templar" by players, actually underwent a long evolution to form an organization that finally converted to the worship of order, and game critic John Quake aptly summarized the Templars as "a mysterious sect of powerful individuals whose goal is quite anastical sect of powerful individuals whose goal is quite anastical conquest of the world." ...... They don't believe in individual freedom, they think people are too stupid and dangerous to have freedom." Its evolution can be summed up in the path of "Order theocratics – The Order of the Ancients – Knights Templar", which continually dialectically abandoned the former and eventually developed into the current Abstergo multinational entertainment company.
If the Brotherhood's purpose is human-centered, the order's central question has always revolved around "how to treat the Isso", whose attitude towards the Isso/Gods oscillates between "using their technology" and "worshipping their divinity". In the Odyssey DLC, the Elder Orderer's appeal is to use artifacts left behind by the Issei to control humanity in order to end the war and achieve a suppressed peace. In the story, Kassandra/Alexius is called the "Bloodstained" by Amokis, one of the Orderers, and is hunted down, because the EvoDNA in her/his body can help him resist the control of the Eden Hallow, and for the ruler, the uncontrollable person is a potential threat to peace. After that, it is likely that due to the absorption of the remnants of the Order Cult, the doctrine of the Ancient Order has deteriorated, and the ideal of uniting the members has changed from "using the Artifact of the Isu people to rule mankind" to despising "crippled human beings", dreaming of letting the "perfect god" and "master of mankind" walk on the earth again. In The Temple of Heroes, in the face of the vengeful Aver, Fkay falls to her knees in front of the illusion of Sideg, who awakens the memories of Theiel, and "sacrifices herself for the awakening of God" supports her to give her life without remorse, despite the paranoid and crazy behavior of others.
The emergence of the Assassin Brotherhood came from a reaction to the order and a reaction to the measures of domination. From Darius, the designer of the first Hidden Blade in the Odyssey DLC, to Bayek, the protagonist of Origins, the fighters who symbolize freedom are all scattered warriors who fight separately, protecting individuals under the oppression of power. The fate of Bayek and Aya is the epitome of the lives of all individuals, and in the face of ever-expanding power, they are wrapped up in the tide of history and lose their homes and relatives. The Brotherhood they founded, the Hidden One, was the result of these individuals organizing themselves against the power that engulfed themselves.
The original intention of Bayek and the Invisible was to hide in the darkness to protect the weak. The "invisible" at this time remains a dystopian force, without a unified doctrine or purpose, motivated by the protection of oppressed individuals. In other words, what motivates the invisible to act is flesh and blood life. Specific to Bayek's motives, the story begins with his son's revenge, followed by the exploited civilians of Siwa, and finally the Egyptian populace under the iron heel of the invaders. Bayek's journey began for concrete, living life, not an abstract dogma of his own beliefs. But once an organization is formed, rules, doctrines, and hierarchies inevitably follow. The initiation ceremony of "removing the ring finger" is a metaphor for the ideologicalization of this dystopian force, through self-harm as a proof of courage and loyalty, contrary to the original intention of the Invisible, Bayek, who originally did not need the loyalty of his members, but simply protected and helped the weak.
The Invisible evolved into the Brotherhood in the Levant, marking the radical ideologicalization of "freedom." The Crusades are of great significance in real history because they were the first large-scale ideological war in the history of human records, a collision of two grand narratives. Ubisoft demon changed this history, but retained its core "ideology", which had become the "Brotherhood" of Assassins and the freedom it represented, no longer a dystopian resistance force, and like the Templars, had planned an ideal state that conformed to its own ideology, from caring for specific individuals to caring for an abstract group. "Freedom" itself becomes a grand narrative.
Figure 1 At the end of "Origins", Bayek dropped the emblem of his dead son, leaving traces on the beach that became the symbol of the Later Assassin Brotherhood. This also heralded the development of the Assassin Order's programme of action from concrete (avenging the dead) to abstract (creed).
Altaïr's refinement of the Hidden Blade and the abolition of the broken finger ritual echo his attempts to neutralize the Brotherhood's ideology: "Not to cut off the ring finger, nor to make a false promise to heaven." We are responsible to the people, not to customs. Altaïr was aware of the shortcomings of ideology, and his reflections on the Brotherhood system were recorded in his codex:
Three of the Rules of the Assassin Order are ironic: we seek peace by means of assassination; we advocate the lifting of the inhibitions of thought but demand complete obedience to the Teacher and the Rules; and we expose the dangers of blind faith, but we ourselves are believers.
But his efforts did not yield the desired results. It is not difficult to see from the plot of Arnold joining the Brotherhood in "Revolution" that the Assassin Order's pursuit of ritualization has not decreased but has increased.
Figure 2 The Assassin Brotherhood stronghold in the Revolution is set in the Holy Chapelle, with its pompous décor, the four towering Assassin mentors reciting creeds, watching Arnold take hallucinogenic medicinal liquor, and completing the initiation ceremony As for the Templars, its doctrine has developed into the embodiment of enlightenment in modern times. The enlightened people, who deeply felt the stupidity of the people, tried to use science and reason to open up the people's wisdom and unite the scattered people. Implicit in the Templar doctrine was the "end of history": the wheel of history rolled forward, crushing the old and pedantic, moving toward a new society, and one day reaching the ideal end. The end of history is a perfect world, operating according to a set of universal values, in which rational and intelligent voters voluntarily join the ideal state, while the ignorant masses, if they cannot understand this perfect universal value, directly use the Golden Apple (Eden Hallows) to control.
Through the appropriation of the original texts, the assassin's creed series constructs a world that fades the mystique of the "gods" of religion and mythology, and replaces them with the higher life of prehistoric civilizations. With the concept of "Islamic People", Ubisoft has successfully disenchanted the creators of real-life myths and religions, and there is no longer a true "god" in the Assassin's Creed worldview. Ubisoft's adaptations diverge from two directions, recreating the real-world monotheistic beliefs and folklore.
The appropriation of religious elements in the early Assassin's Creed was very simple, and the religious elements of "Brotherhood/Islam" and "Templar/Crusades" in a special historical context were downplayed in favor of the demand for "order and freedom" as the main contradiction between the two sides. After the work became a popular series, Ubisoft deliberately constructed a unique worldview, and the presence of "First Civilization" and "Isso" increased sharply in later works. The subsequent release of the Ezio trilogy, the Izzarant as a dark line outside the modern and ancient plot, can be said to have harmed Ezio's life.
The mythological trilogy of Origins, Odyssey, and The Temple of Valkyrie, introduced in recent years, depicts the ecology of first civilizations in more detail. In addition to the characters who appeared in previous games, such as Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno, the "gods" of Greek mythology and Norse mythology folklore appear as Issei people. Ubisoft constructs a worldview different from real myths and legends: the "gods" in myths and stories are all higher beings who once lived on Earth.
Figure 3 Above shows the "Twilight of the Gods" seen in a dream after ivory drinking a potion hypnosis in the Temple of Heroes, with a strong Norse mythological filter due to her previous knowledge. The following figure shows the real is the experience of the Ilyo people who appear after unlocking the hidden plot
In the face of true religion, Ubisoft turned its attention elsewhere after the first generation made a superficial adaptation. Although the Ezio trilogy explicitly mentions "Adam and Eve" when it introduces the history of the Etijins, even Jesus was demonized into "Aita the Sage". Ubisoft still consciously or unconsciously circumvents the phrase "which is God who is the Accuser?". In a series of subsequent works released by the Assassin Brotherhood and the Knights Templar, they also gradually broke away from their original Islamic/Catholic ties and degenerated into de-regional transnational organizations.
It wasn't until The Temple of Heroes set the backstory as the Invasion of Britain by the Vikings in the Dark Ages that the question of christian versus viking faith became acute. Ubisoft rarely speaks of unitarian beliefs themselves as objects, introducing reflection on "how human beings should face their creators" by portraying the character of Alfred the Great. Alfred is set in the game as the leader of the Order of the Ancients, inheriting the title of "Lord of Knowledge" from his departing father and brother. He was well aware of the true origin of humanity, the slaves made by the Isso people, and he faced the "truth" with a different attitude than other congregations. He had no intention of the order of the order, rejecting the dogma of bringing the perfect "God" back to earth to reign over mankind again.
Figure 4 After anonymously assisting Evel in hunting down all the members of the Order of the Ancients, Alfred confessed to her that he was the leader of the "Lord of Knowledge" and promised to establish a "Holy Ecumenical Order" with the Christian faith to "guide everyone to become better people." The Universal Order, as Alfred envisioned, was later the prototype of the Knights Templar
Alfred was both the last Of the Ancient Order and the embryo of the Templars. He dominated the transformation of the Order, and was a metaphor for the transformation of humanity's quest for order: slave owners above themselves became a thing of the past, and abstract beliefs were accepted by the masses. He fully promoted Christian doctrine as a devout Christian, and the artificial God "God" abandoned the "human" side of the Isu people and led mankind with the pure divinity of "omniscience, omnipotence, and all goodness". "God" is no longer a concrete individual, but an abstract absolute spirit and idea. Alfred's title of "Lord of Learning" also implies this platonic metaphor for the ideal state—the "philosophical king" in an ideal society who becomes the ruler and the people who are guided by "ideas" to become better people.
On this level, Ubisoft portrays Alfred as both pious and most anti-religious, because religion relies on faith, and faith is irrational. From the controversy between Evol and the Queen of France in the DLC of The Valiant, it can be seen that the blind believer's faith in God needs no doubt: Evol tells the queen that he saved her from the virgin, while the queen is convinced that Evol's appearance is God's will, and God's will only needs to be obeyed beyond doubt. Alfred replaced the "true God" with a "false god" who knew all the power and all goodness, he kept reason to himself, ruled the majority with irrational religious beliefs, and established man as the subject. This not only echoed the discovery of man in the post-Dark Age, but also laid the foundation for the purpose of the subsequent Templars: is the use of isu technology to serve the rule, and man to use rather than allegiance to is to isoved to civilization. In a way, this is a return of the Templar order to the early Order, the difference being that the Persian Order is attached to the kingship and lacks a unified abstract belief.
The decline of freedom
No matter how the idea of the Order evolves, it has always been closely related to the First Civilization, and everything serves the "order", or the indoctrination and control of the people, which determines the elitist position of the Order and the need for grand narratives. Specific to some of the individual members of the Order, they all seem to shine with the goodness called reason. Alfred's ideals of universal education, Hayson Kenway's efforts to build a new government, Alice's sacrifice to clean up the extremists... And the orders organized as groups have always represented strong rule, whether through power, religion, or contemporary multinational corporations.
The Brotherhood advocates the freedom of individual life, and "all things are virtual, all things are allowed" is a slogan that breaks the unity of faith, and it is also in line with the spirit of postmodernism to resist authority. But the struggle with the Order necessitated the Brotherhood to unite as well, and the birth of the mass organization inevitably created a new oppression of the individual. Within the anarchist Brotherhood, however, there was a hierarchical organization, and the anti-dogmatic ideals themselves were dogmaticized. The transformation from the "Invisible" to the "Brotherhood" confirms the deterioration of "freedom", Bayek and Aya's original intentions are gradually forgotten, and the Assassin Brotherhood becomes a representative of a force actively involved in history.
After the mythological trilogy, the fate of mankind seems to be more and more pessimistic, the Isso people are the unattainable great others for mankind, the protagonists who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of freedom or peace, and involuntarily become the tools of the Isu people to achieve their own rejuvenation, in the face of the grand narrative with devouring power, people are the means rather than the end. During the First Civilization, the Izu were divided into pro-human and servile factions, but even the pro-human Izu did not really respect human freedom—Althea could turn against her compatriot Juno for the sake of humanity, but it did not prevent her from using Layla's life to revive her lover Loki. The love of the pro-human Izu people for human beings is not the love of equal respect, but the condescending pampering of "I like people, just like dogs".
Figure 5 In the modern plot of The Temple of Valkyrie, The Ethray is used by Layla to "send a staff" to revive Loki and allow Layla to die on the World Tree. For the Isso, Layla is just a "bearer of memories who fulfills her duties", a tool to use and put down at any time
The struggle between "order" and "freedom" is a paradox, with the former leading to control and the latter causing chaos. The demand for order, control, is also changing masks with the times. The world of Assassin's Creed's modern plot is alternate, but it is generally based on today's real world. To today's human beings, we seem to live in a most "free" era: convenient networks, developed logistics, intelligent Internet of Things, diversified entertainment... Religions that suppress tyrants of the people by force and dominate believers by faith have become, if not completely gone, the target of condemnation, or an option in many ways of life. Humanity has experienced a frenzy of attempts to break all shackles, and race, ethnicity, gender, and beliefs are no longer an excuse to limit what a person should do, what he cannot do, and what he must do—the era of "all things are virtual, all things are allowed" seems to have really arrived. In this new era of flowers and almost a group of demons dancing, the Assassin Brotherhood in the modern plot is almost collapsed.
As Han Bingzhe said, "Power in the digital age is no longer oppressive." In today's life, it is difficult to feel the suffocating oppression of the Inquisition, where the spokesmen of order are no longer monarchs and popes, and even order itself has been dissolved, but human beings have not been able to obtain the freedom they envisioned. Power, or control, has taken on an incarnation. The Templar Order of the New Age became the multinational entertainment company Abstergo, which released games that used players to search for the Eden Hallows and locate sages with the blood of the Forerunners from players. The Assassin Brotherhood could maneuver against powerful monarchies, religions, and exploitative factory owners, only to retreat in front of entertainment companies, in keeping with Rousseau's prediction that the more civilized humanity became, the less free it became.
Institutional religions are retreating. Even in regional countries where Christianity is practised, the proportion of collective religious activities such as baptism and worship in people's daily lives is decreasing year by year. Religion (including politics) is entertained, turned into symbols and fragments, and becomes the object of mass entertainment and cultural consumption. It is in this atmosphere of entertainment to the death that religion is reborn in mass entertainment in this way of "transforming into a cultural symbol". This is accompanied by the voluntary surrender of privacy by the masses in exchange for the convenience of the information society, "even free will itself is manipulated."
At the end of the Revolution, Arnold reflects deeply on the meaning of "freedom", in which he says in a monologue:
The dogma of the Brotherhood of Assassins teaches us that we can do all things, and I thought it meant that we were free to do what we wanted, at any cost in pursuit of our ideals. Now I understand that not all actions are permitted, but that the dogma itself is a warning. Ideals are too easy to compromise with doctrine, and dogma makes people fanatical. No power is higher than our own judgment. Nor is there a Sovereign Lord watching over and punishing our sins. In the end, only we can avoid excessive attachment, and only we can decide whether the way forward will be too costly.
Freedom is not self-serving in the superficial sense, and freedom also means choosing and bearing the consequences that come with it. In this way, "freedom" becomes a heavy burden, and surrender is much easier. After all, making "your own judgment" and "deciding whether to pay too much for the way forward" is too heavy for ordinary sentient beings. Just as the people in Persona 5 voluntarily give up thinking and follow the Holy Grail in the space of impressions, everything is so convenient in today's information age that it is so easy to follow the control of big data than to judge for oneself. Modern man voluntarily renounces freedom.
The spirit of the Assassin Brotherhood was originally questioned. Question authority, question everything that is taken for granted, think for yourself, judge for yourself, bear the burden of reason on your own. This is a kind of painful freedom, and pain is avoided by modern people. So people went to Abstergo/Ubisoft games and volunteered to join the entertainment wave.
Editor-in-Charge: Fan Zhu
Proofreader: Luan Meng