Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Assassin’s Creed: Mirage and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
Going into Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, fans knew there would be a direct link to Ubisoft’s previous title, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, with the main clue being Mirage’s protagonist was the returning character Basim.
Serving as both a prequel to Valhalla, revealing the origin of Basim, and a sequel to the original Assassin’s Creed game, including the Hidden Ones’ base in Alamut, we explain the connections between Mirage and Valhalla that culminate in the ending of the current title.
Basim Is Loki From Valhalla
The good thing about Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is that it’s accessible to both newcomers and returning fans of the franchise. It delivers a conclusion that serves as a standalone story and one that connects to the overarching Assassin’s Creed plot—particularly the narrative of the previous game, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.
Basim spends the majority of the game hunting down the Order of the Ancients on behalf of the Hidden Ones, whom he’s sworn an oath to. After encountering the Order’s leader, Qabiha, Basim is told that the secret to unlocking his true past is located within a hidden Isu temple under Alamut. The Hidden Ones’ leader, Roshan, contests Basim and vows to stop him from pursuing the truth. Basim reunites with his friend, Nehal, to locate the temple anyway.
During Mirage’s conclusion, it’s revealed that Basim and Nehal are the same person. Nehal is the reincarnated consciousness of the God Loki. In Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Basim was revealed to be the reincarnation of the God of Mischief. Eivor, another main protagonist, was the reincarnation of Odin. In order for Loki to complete his reincarnation in Mirage, Basim had to accept his past and merge his physical body with the consciousness of Nehal, which he eventually did.
The Isu Pod Links To Yggdrasill
Upon entering the Isu temple under Alamut, Basim and Nehal were greeted by an Isu pod, which actually contained Nehal. Valhalla explained that these pods were a direct link to Yggdrasil, described as a system where the Isu race could upload their consciousness in order to be reborn at a different time.
Yggdrasil was created during a time when the Isu were threatened by the Great Catastrophe that was sure to bring about their extinction. Yggdrasil allowed the race to preserve their essence and effectively bypass the apocalypse in order to be reborn in a different place and time. The Secret Isu Ending of Valhalla revealed that the Norse Gods were all variants of the alien race after the Isu uploaded their DNA. Odin deemed Loki unworthy of the process and forbade him from uploading, but the God disobeyed him and killed one of the Isu in order to be reborn as Basim.
The Modern Day Ending of Valhalla featured the returning character Layla, who managed to locate the Yggdrasil Chamber in Norway after unlocking Eivor’s memories. Within the chamber, Basim spoke to Layla and convinced her to touch the Fragment of Eden. However, it was a trick orchestrated by Basim to get the pair to switch places. Layla was then trapped in Yggdrasil with The Reader, and the pair continued to find a way to save the world from Ragnarok.
Odin Tortures Loki In The Hologram
The main artifact from Mirage is a mysterious, ancient disc hunted by the Order of the Ancients and the Hidden Ones. It’s clearly of great importance. In order to prove to the brotherhood and Roshan that he is worthy of joining the creed, Basim takes it upon himself to steal the artifact. However, when he comes into contact with it, a hologram appears of two people.
We don’t find out until the end of the game what this hologram means, and Basim didn’t have time to dwell on it prior. He was too busy escaping the guards after stealing the item. The disc’s hologram showed two people, one being beaten and tortured by the other. Until the game’s conclusion, these figures are a mystery.
It turns out that the man being tortured in the hologram is Basim in another life as Loki, following the Norse mythology tale of when Loki was imprisoned in a cave for poisoning the son of Odin. It is therefore implied that the second figure doing the beating is in fact Odin, and players of Valhalla will remember that the protagonist Eivor was the reincarnation of Odin.
Basim’s Vengeance Tees Up Valhalla
The final scene of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage shows Basim merging with Nehal to combine the reincarnated consciousness of Loki with the physical body of Basim. However, when Basim calls his eagle Enkidu, the bird scratches the protagonist in the face instead of perching on his arm, which suggests the bird is rejecting Basim now that he has become the full reincarnation of Loki.
Basim then declares a vow of vengeance to whoever tortured him in a past life. This is a substantial link to Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, where we know Basim and Eivor meet and are later revealed to be Loki and Odin. Basim eventually infiltrates Eivor’s clan and later confronts him in Yggdrasil. In addition to the memory of being tortured by Odin, Basim also remembered that Odin imprisoned Loki and Aletheia’s son, Fenrir, and banished his siblings Jörmungandr and Hel, which added more fuel to Basim’s revenge mission.
Mirage Introduces A Young Hytham
A side detail and Valhalla Easter egg in Mirage involves the Hidden One Hytham. He also has an origin in Ubisoft’s current game. The acolyte is known for his work with Basim within Valhalla and for stopping the assassination of Byzantine co-Emperor Leo VI, whom he developed a bond with. Basim also became the mentor of Hytham.
In Mirage, players are able to witness the first time Hytham meets Basim. He’s a young boy at the time. While Basim is synchronizing in Karkh, he encounters a boy named Young Eagle (which is Hytham in Arabic), who is trying to perform the Leap of Faith. Hytham explains that the Hidden Ones were avenging his mother and that he wanted to be a part of the brotherhood one day.
At the end of their interaction, Basim instructs the boy to find him when he’s older, which foreshadows his appearance in Valhalla. After the events of Mirage, we know that at some point Basim took Hytham on as his apprentice, who would then accompany him on his travels and weave his way into the Valhalla story.