The History Behind Assassins Creed

Recently, I've been pretty jacked up in preparation for the release of Assassin's Creed - a new blockbuster video game title from Ubisoft. The game was released on Wednesday, and thanks in large part to the sacrifice of a significant amount of sleep and a very patient girlfriend, I finished up the game friday night.

Initially, I was thinking that I would hop on the old blog after finishing Creed and writeup a review of the gameplay since I've never really done that and most reviews I read irritate me =) But after playing the game, I decided I'd go a little different route, and instead do a writeup on an aspect of the game that pleasantly surprised me - the historical accuracy.

Warning: This post will contain spoilers. So I'd stop reading here if you don't want any of the games plot ruined for you.

For those who don't know the scoop with this game, we'll start with the basics. Assassin's Creed is set during the Third Crusade, more specifically in 1191. The game world is enormous, spanning the middle eastern cities of Jerusalem, Damascus, Acre, and Masyaf, as well as "the kingdom" - the non city environment which connect the cities. Your play the part of Altair, and in case the game's title doesnt make it obvious, you are an assassin. The story follows Altair as he ends the lives of 9 individuals in the interest of bringing peace to the region . Wholesome family entertainment at its finest ;-)

But as I mentioned, AC's Studio Ubisoft spent quite a lot of time recreating the game world with historical accuracy. Like what? Lets talk turkey.

• Altair is a member of the Hashshashin - an organized group responsible for multiple assassinations during the Crusades period. A little tidbit for you - the word "assassin" comes from Hashshashin.
• Nearly all of the assassin controlled buildings in the game contain one or more small smoking bowls, which I would bet is a somewhat PC way of referring to the ancient tradition of the Hashshashins consuming hashish (a drug) prior to carrying out their missions. The fact that the word Hashshashins looks strikingly similar to the word hashish is not a coincidence.
• Part of the game based creed of the Assassin is never to harm innocents, and your health will actually drop should you let your blade slip against the wrong people. This corresponds with the Hashshashin's vow not to harm the innocent. The real assassin sect did not believe in the use of "less personal" weapons such as poisons, and Altair's disgust is made clear when a character in game does just that.
• The Hashshashin also believed in making a spectacle of their targets to instill a fear of their order - your missions with Altair respect this tradition. No matter who you kill, you always kill them in public with plenty of bystanders and of course, armed guards, nearby.
• As you "partake in altercations" with guards in the various cities of Assassins Creed, you'll hear many different languages yelling at you - English, French, German, and Arabic that I could hear. This diversity in language matches the diversity in the armies of the 3rd Crusade.
• The uniforms of your foes are also historically accurate, from the signature Red Cross of the Knights Templar to the black and white of the Holy Roman Empire, to the red garb and gold lions of King Richard.
• At various spots throughout each of the major cities, you'll come across activists who hold small crowds as they shout various war propaganda specific to whatever side controls said city. I sat on a rooftop edge at one point and listened to to the entire message of one of the Muslim speakers in Damascus. Not only did he curse Richard the Christian King, and praise Saladin (the leader of the Muslim armies) multiple times, but he also got a little more specific. Check out this line:
  "I stand before you to deliver a warning! Should Richard take Jaffa, there will be no stopping him! He will march on Jerusalem next. We must end this before it has a chance to begin.". Interestingly enough, following the Battle of Arsuf, Richard did lead the Christian armies to capture Jaffa, though a truce between Richard and Saladin came to pass before an all out assault on Jerusalem. Regardless, this foreshadowing on the part of a random towns person and seeing a crowd gather around him and murmur adds an interesting dynamic to the game, and adds depth to the historical experience.

  The Major Players
  

• Your principle nemesis in Assassins Creed is Robert de Sable, the leader of the Knights Templar. As it were, Robert de Sable was actually a real person, a real crusader, and the real Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1191-1193.
• Assassins Creed features several appearances by King Richard the Lionhearted. Most know him from Robin Hood fame, but Richard was a very major player in the 3rd Crusade. In July of 1191, the English King lead the Crusader armies to a successful siege of Acre - the exact city where you first see him and the only city you deal with that is under Crusader control. You then encounter Richard again towards the end of the game at the Battle of Arsuf - a real battle in which he lead the Crusader armies to victory over Saladin en route to Jaffa. After this battle, in a conversation between Altair and Richard, there are allusions to peace between Richard and Saladin. Though the game doesnt last long enough to see it, that peace came in the form of a truce and the end of the 3rd Crusade in 1192.
• Speaking of Richard, if you listen to him speak in Assassin's Creed, you'll notice he doesnt sound quite English, but rather has the twinge of a French accent. As first, I had chalked this up to a poor choice in voice actors on Ubisoft's part given that Richard is, after all, the English King. But I decided to do a little homework... and would you believe that I was pwned. As it turns out, King Richard 's mother (Eleanor of Aquitane) was French, and he lived with her native country for quite some time. Essentially, he was raised French. Its a subtle detail but indicative of Ubisoft's attention to the little things.
• One of your early targets is Garnier de Naplouse, who according to the game is a sadistic doctor that has been experimenting on patients within his hospital in Acre. Garnier, like Richard and Robert, was also a real person and was present in the Holy Land during the 3rd Crusade. Whats more, he was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, an order created to supervise hospitals and provide care for Christians who traveled to the region. It appears that the real Garnier was more a military leader than a doctor, as he lead the Knights Hospitaller during the battle of Arsuf. I've been unable to find any record of him having experimented on patients in his care, so his tie to the hospital is a clever dramatization on the part of Ubisoft. The word Hospitaller is used several times during the Garnier mission, a clear reference to his real life origins.
• William de Montferrat is another one of your in game targets that is based on a real person, however there is a less historically accurate tie than some of the other figures mentioned. William was indeed a noble of influence who participated in the Crusades, and he did die in 1191, but, that I've found, he never served in any sort of leadership capacity in Acre.
• In the game, William's son, Conrad, is mentioned several times. He too was a real person, though he never appears in the game beyond references. It is curious that Ubisoft chose to use William rather than Conrad as one of your targets, seeing as Conrad was assassinated by the Hashshashin in real life in 1192.
• One of your later targets in the game is Sibrand. Though it was not disclosed in game, Sibrand was a Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from 1190-1192. In life he resided in Acre, and Acre is in fact where you kill him. His accent in AC is appropriately German.

Landmarks
In addition to the references Assassins's Creed makes to historical people and events, the cities you play in were also constructed with an eye towards historical accuracy.

• In the game, your home base is the city of Masyaf, which should come as no surprise given that Masyaf is the historical base of the Hashshashin. I'm far from a Crusader scholar, but from the images I've seen, the city appears to have been recreated with a reasonable degree of accuracy on its virtual Syrian mountainside.
• I mentioned earlier that Richard's in game presence in Acre is tied to his real involvement in the siege of the city. Well sieging a city does not occur without a little collateral damage, and the Assassin's Creed version of Acre has just that. As you approach the cities outer gate, small palisade (wooden spike) walls, numerous corpses, and smoking ruins greet you. Within the city, the walls show signs of damage and buildings around the city lie in ruin.
• Acre is a port city which feeds into Haifa Bay and the greater Mediterranean Sea. The digital recreation captures the port beautifully.
• Jerusalem comes complete with several key religious landmarks, including the underground ruins of Soloman's temple, the Dome of the Rock, the al-Aqsa Mosque (I believe), and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Soloman's temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are both referenced by name during various missions. According to IGN, the Tower of David is also visible from within Jerusalem, but I havent't confirmed that one myself yet.
• In Damascus, there is a recreation of what I believe to be the Omayyad mosque
• In general, the architectural design of the cities, from the houses, to the markets, to the citadels is impressive, with an eye toward accurately representing the buildings of the time.

More than likely, if you're not a student of the Crusades or a gamer with a curious cat nature, all of this will have been more boring than watching paint dry. But the details are the small (though delicious) potatoes. There is a much bigger picture in all this.

When I talk about the opportunity for video games to support learning, Assassins Creed has provided one of the best examples I've ever seen. Yes it is a game about killing people. No its not historically accurate to the letter. But it is a game that gives you an opportunity to see, and feel, and experience so many of the things that a history class can only give you in words, and to play through some very real historical events during the 3rd Crusade. Its fun. Its incredibly immersive. And it can teach you something (lots of things if you are paying attention) in the process.

I'm not suggesting that Assassins Creed could serve as the primary means of teaching a history class. Thats a bit ridiculous even for me =). But it is the perfect example of a game that could serve as a learning supplement to more traditional mediums - one that can bring educational materials to life in a way that textbooks and lectures can only dream of. It might be a game about death and violence, but Assassins Creed has a huge educational upside with both direct and incidental learning opportunities around every corner. I highly advise checking it out, if even briefly. I'll try and update this post with any additional historical references I can find and maybe even post some screen shots that I didnt pilfer from other gaming sites =)

Images taken from Wikipedia.com, pcworld.com, and ign.com
Not that this is a research paper, but a lot of my background checks game from "The Crusades" by Hans Eberhard Mayer, notes from my Penn State Hist 108 class, Wikipedia and various referencing sites.