Details You Didn't Know About Basim In Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
The recently-debuted Assassin's Creed: Valhalla takes players to 9th century England and recreates the conflict between the Scandinavian Vikings and the local Anglo-Saxons. But one of the most important characters in the game is Basim, a Middle Eastern assassin who starts out as the mentor to the game's protagonist, Eivor. But things are a bit more complicated.
Beware of spoilers for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.
Towards the end of the game, several characters are revealed to be reincarnations of Norse gods, and Basim reveals himself to be the reincarnation of Loki. Since Eivor is herself the reincarnation of Odin, and since Odin once killed Loki's wolf son Fenrir, Basim/Loki now wants revenge. Eivor/Odin defeats Basim/Loki, but he manages to survive to the present inside an ancient Isu computer. The game ends with Basim/Loki escaping the computer and venturing out into the modern world.
Based on his actions throughout the game, and especially the ending, it's likely that Ubisoft has big plans for Basim in subsequent games. Here's what we know.
He strongly resembles a previous Assassin's Creed protagonist
Basim has several connections to Ezio Auditore, the protagonist of several games in the series: Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations. Basim and Ezio have a strong physical resemblance to each other. They both wear grey assassin robes that are tinted blue, and Basim hails from Constantinople, which Ezio visited in Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
Ezio is the ancestor of the original game's modern-day protagonist Desmond Miles. Basim and Ezio's close physical resemblance means Basim is likely also one of Desmond's ancestors. It's unlikely that Ezio is a direct descendant of Basim, since Ezio hails from Italy and Basim is from the Middle East. It seems more possible Basim is related to another of Desmond's ancestors, Altair.
This would also rule out the possibility that Basim is related to Ezio, since Ubisoft scriptwriter Darby McDevitt previously confirmed that while Ezio and Altair are related to Desmond, they aren't related to each other. How Basim ties into the overall Desmond Miles genealogy is still unclear, but there are lots of tantalizing possibilities.
He might bring about the end of the world
Valhalla doesn't fully explain Basim's motivations, but most likely they aren't good. When the game ends, modern-day protagonist Layla Hassan becomes the prophesied Heir of Memories in order to help Desmond Miles, a.k.a. The Reader, to investigate the disturbances in the magnetic field that threaten the world. It also ends with Basim returning to the modern world and setting out to find his two other children, Jörmungand, and Hel, and also to possibly resurrect his lover, the goddess Aletheia. In his possession is the Staff of Hermes, a powerful Isu artifact that allows the owner to become immortal.
According to Norse mythology, Loki causes Ragnarok, or the apocalypse, after breaking free from the underworld. Since Basim is established as Loki, and since the world is already experiencing worrisome disruptions in the magnetic field, it's very possible that Basim/Loki will be fulfilling his destiny in the modern world. Fans will have to wait for future games to find out.
His wife Aletheia's intentions may not be so pure
Ubisoft's choice of a romantic partner for Basim/Loki is a bit curious. Basim/Loki's lover was Aletheia, an Isu leader who would later become the personification of truth. The idea that a Norse god like Loki would fall in love with a god from a completely different culture itself isn't that strange in context, because within the world of Assassin's Creed, all deities are revealed to be members of the same Isu race. You might mistake this for historical inaccuracy.
However, the individual known as Aletheia also existed in Norse culture, and that's where things get interesting. In Norse mythology, Aletheia is actually "Angrboda." Historically, Angrboda was the mate of Loki, which is why Basim/Loki and Aletheia/Angrboda are together. But in Norse mythology, Angrboda didn't represent truth. Her name literally means "Distress Bringer."
In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Aletheia was guiding Kassandra and Layla in order to eventually save the world. But if Aletheia is also Angrboda, and she also helps orchestrate Basim/Loki's escape from digital purgatory, her actions could well lead to the end of the world. For all her talk about wanting to save humanity, her moves suggest otherwise.