Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Dragon Age: Inquisition may not strike many fans of either franchise as similar games. However, their stories share one huge and plot-central similarity. In both games, players find out that one of their closest allies is in fact a being believed to be a god who has been manipulating them to their own ends. Not only that, but in both cases, that being isn’t really a god at all—they were only interpreted as such by an ancient culture due to their immense power. SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES AHEAD.
There is one aspect of Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s plot which made this reveal all the more painful for some players, however. With Assassin’s Creed Valhalla introducing even more RPG elements to the once purely action-adventure series, it could have stood to make its reveal even more powerful by “stealing” this one element from the story of Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Dragon Age: Inquisition and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla essentially end with the same twist, in terms of story structure if not specific details. Towards the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition, it is revealed that one of the player’s companions, Solas the Elf apostate, is in fact an ancient being known as “the Dread Wolf.”
The Dread Wolf was part of a group of powerful Elven mages who became considered gods during the dominance of the Elven empire on Thedas. However, when the other Elven “gods” began taking slaves and killed one of their own, Mythal, the Dread Wolf led a revolution against them. This revolution ended when Solas created the Veil to separate the magical world of the Fade from Thedas, trapping the other Elven gods in the Fade but also cutting the Elves off from the main source of their magic and longevity.
This would eventually lead to the downfall of the Elven empire, while Solas had fallen into a deep slumber after creating the Veil. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, it is revealed that Solas now plans to tear down the Veil he created, bringing chaotic magic back into the world with the hope of liberating the Elves and restoring their dominance on the continent.
In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the player’s ally Basim fulfills an extremely similar role in the plot. Basim is revealed to be a reincarnation of Loki, the Norse god of mischief. Like all of the gods of various historical pantheons in Assassin’s Creed, Loki is actually a member of an ancient precursor species known as the Isu or the First Civilization. The Isu created humans as slaves and Neanderthals as soldiers before the Great Catastrophe wiped them out.
To survive, the Norse Isu found a way to seed their memories into the DNA of certain humans, including Loki who stole another Isu’s place. Loki had always existed within Basim, but by the events of Valhalla, the two had essentially become one. When the player discovers Yggdrasil, revealed to be a super computer, Basim turns on them. They’re able to trap Basim/Loki’s mind in the computer, however, where he is able to escape during Assassin’s Creed‘s modern day plotline.
The concept of the Dread Wolf is even partly based on Loki, with Solas fulfilling a similar role. He inadvertently allowed the destruction of the Elven Empire when humans arrived on Thedas. For players who chose to play as a female Elf Inquisitor, however, the story of Dragon Age: Inquisition allowed the player and Solas to engage in a romance which made his betrayal all the more shocking.
This romance opened up otherwise hidden dialogue about the history of the Elves in Dragon Age. Female Elven Inquisitors who had facial tattoos could even learn that those markings actually used to denote enslavement by, not devotion to, one of the ancient Elven gods. Solas would then offer to remove their tattoos using magic, which he used to do to the slaves he freed during his revolution.
While Dragon Age: Inquisition has a lot of great romances, the Solas romance plotline felt far more closely tied into the main story than the others. It also helped add an additional level of tragedy to the Dread Wolf’s already tragic story, while revealing more about the lore of Dragon Age.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla already had romance options, and the last few Assassin’s Creed games have increasingly integrated RPG elements. It would have been great to see Basim as a romance option in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, however. A romantic subplot with the character, like Solas, might have helped create a sense of conflict between the Basim and Loki parts of the character’s psyche, perhaps giving players more insight into the upcoming twist before the reveal. While it would have likely still had to end with Basim’s betrayal of Eivor, it could also have made that moment carry more emotional weight.
There are some reasons a romanceable Basim might not have worked, ranging from any particularly scene issues to the fact that Basim isn’t around that much. Ultimately, the potential for romance and even greater betrayal in Dragon Age: Inquisition is what helps the game’s similar story get a leg-up on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s plot.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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