 Written by: Markuz, May 16, 2021 We continue our analysis ofthe context and story of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with a look at the repercussions of the use of the Seventh Method by the Asgardian Isu on the human history and more specifically in the 9th Century AD, with some of the events surrounding the main Asgardian sages, that is Eivor, Sigurd and Basim. In the article we are going to show how and why all the Asgardian Sages were reborn almost at the same time and in a contained area of the world and then we are going to focus on the Oxenefordscire Arc, the Cent Arc and the Suthsexe arc in order to analyze what really happened to our main characters, and especially the hints and hidden meanings that are not easy to get during the first playthrough of the game, and finally we’re going to discuss the early stages of the game’s ending, with Sigurd’s behaviour before leaving for Norway! As usual we have a lot to discuss so let’s dive right in and have a look at the complex story surrounding Eivor, Sigurd and Basim. We finished our latest analysis with a look at Odin’s and Loki’s final memories in the Isu Era and showcasing the 8 Asgardian Isu and Loki using the Seventh Method in order to be reborn in the future as Sages and in this video we are going to have a look at the consequences of that, with a keen focus on the narrative of Valhalla’s main game. Before doing that though, what we need to know now is that it is *not* by chance that almost all of them were born right at the same time and in a contained area of the world, and this is shown in a tiny little reference in a document in the game. In fact, page 9 of the Rigsogur document, shows that at some point Rig Reidarasson, the reincarnation of Heimdall who lived in the very
This already shows that he, as in, Heimdall, had run calculations knowing that Loki would have been re-born as Basim Ibn Ishaq (the man with the mark - on his neck that is) and would have operated as a Hidden One (that’s where the House of Shadow reference comes from) in Constantinople in the 9th century AD. In his re-incarnation, then, Heimdall / Rig was very likely looking for Basim / Loki in order to kill him, much as he was killed by him during the Isu Era. But alas, even though Rig killed some of the local Hidden Ones and emerged from their hideout, he couldn’t find Basim, and he did not because, quote and quote “I have come before my time. I was born too early and I am alone, without my father, without my friends”. This, even if hidden amidst an obscure document, clearly shows that the Asgardian Isu *did* plan when and where they would have been re-born, at least approximately, of course through their calculations. It does make sense that, as the process took place over more than 75.000 years across the development of humanity, not everything went according to plan and Heimdall was re-born too early while his father Odin and his other Asgardian Isu friends – and Loki too – still had to walk the Earth. Imagine how he could have felt. But that’s a story for another time. Another issue that the Seventh Method process had, if time and the fragility of the Human DNA weren’t enough, is that most of the Asgardian Isu did not take over their human host by 872 A.D., when Valhalla starts with adult Eivor in Norway, apart from Loki / Basim and Svala in her later years, and that’s one of the key elements behind the main narrative of the game. So, the first and most important reincarnation we are going to look at is of course that of Odin. Named Eivor Varinsdottir, she was born the daughter of Varin and Rosta, in the village of Heillboer, a village where many of the characters which will end up in Fornburg and then Ravensthorpe can be seen during their young age, even Svala.
Of course as we know the village is raided by Kjotve’s Clan, which leads to Rosta and Varin being killed, but the important element surrounding our re-born sage happens right after that. In fact, it is when kid Eivor fights the wolf on that frozen lake that she gets bitten in the neck and not only earns her Wolf-kissed nickname but especially that’s the moment where the sign of her neck that is typical of all the Asgardian sages gets removed. This, along with the fact that Odin reincarnated as a woman and not a man, was key as it delayed Basim / Loki from understanding who she really was. The next important moment in Eivor’s life is when she brandishes her father’s axe for the first time since she saw him die. This is the event that triggers Eivor’s visions in general and especially the visions of Odin in his cape, which we believe are a representation of Odin’s mind trying to take control of Eivor’s body.
All of Eivor’s visions, be they her own or triggered by Valka, are one way or another taken from Odin’s memories during the Isu Era but the most interesting thing, as mentioned by former Narrative Director Darby McDevitt, is that these visions are interpreted throughout the entire game by Eivor and Valka as prophecies about the future while they are actually elements from events that already happened 75.000 years prior to that.
Interestingly enough, Eivor herself says that holding Varin’s Axe triggered in her a feeling she felt when she was bitten by the wolf when she was a kid, which again *may* represent Odin’s memories trickling in Eivor’s mind. This prompts her to see Valka, which is where we see Svala in her older years for the first time. Interestingly enough, Valka says that Svala is speaking to spirits, a reference to how the memories and conscience of the Isu Freyja have emerged in her. Valka interprets Eivor’s first vision as Odin calling to her, maybe wanting to speak her – which isn’t entirely untrue - and interestingly enough the camera shifts to Svala, who very likely already knows what’s happening to Eivor. As we know Valka prepares a concoction that should unwind Eivor’s thoughts and indeed it triggers the second vision, featuring some more of Odin’s memories. In this vision we can find several elements that in the first playthrough might have not meant that much but that are way more familiar now that we have analyzed the mythological arcs of the game. For example we see the figure of a man, who represents the Isu Tyr, but in the shape of Sigurd; we see the name Havi being called by the Nornir, a reference to Odin creating the calculations during the Isu era; a wolf which might represents Fenrir, and of course, its final scene, where Eivor sees Sigurd without his right arm but is actually experiencing Odin’s memories about Tyr after he lost his arm during their final encounter with Fenrir. Sigurd even calls Eivor “Havi” and pronounces the same sentences that Tyr tells Odin at the end of the Asgard Arc, and of course we can see the final appearance of Fenrir, that obviously looms in Odin’s memories. As she obviously doesn’t know about Odin’s memories, Valka reads pretty wrongly in what Eivor tells her about her second vision, which sets Eivor and the player on the path of betraying Sigurd – or trying to avoid it. Valka stays behind in Norway, in order to take care of her mother and when she also moves to Ravensthorpe she says that her mother has found her peace, walking through a world seen only in dreams and will forevermore, which is pretty much what she does through the
The following visions take place in Ravensthorpe after Valka joins the Raven Clan and creates two dedicated elixirs that trigger Odin’s memories once again, butwe’re not going to go into them as we have analyzed them already in the earlier episodes of this series. The other two most important characters throughout the game, who also happen to be Asgardian Sages are of course Sigurd and Basim, and once again everything about them changes after knowing who they really are, how much their original Isu self has taken over them and what their purpose is. The first bit of story we know about them actually takes place two years before the events shown in the game, when Basim is still working in Constantinople, very likely in the same Hidden Ones bureau that had been stormed some decades prior by Rig Reidarasson. As a result of the events taking place in the comic, he gets to know that a Dane with a mark on his neck has been spotted in the Dniester Pass and says that “It is time”, and that he has to meet him. It’s pretty clear that by this time Loki’s conscience had already taken over Basim’s and that meant it was time for his revenge plan against Odin and possibly the other Asgardian Isu to be carried out. So he made it so that he could meet Sigurd in Constantinople to test his theory and very likely recognized he indeed was another Asgardian sage who still didn’t remember who he really was.
Thus what Basim did was trying to nurture Sigurd’s trust, supposedly sharing secrets about the Hidden Ones and manipulating him in order to find the other Sages and more specifically Odin, all the while under the cover of the Hidden Ones trying to eradicate the Order of the Ancients from Norway and then England. Don’t get us wrong, it does feel like Basim also believes in the Hidden Ones’s cause but nonetheless, of course, his main focus was something else. It was likely Basim that planted in Sigurd’s mind the idea of leaving for England and sure enough he was overprotecting him and siding with him in every dialogue of the Oxenefordscire arc. The Oxenefordscire arc specifically is where Basim starts to convince Sigurd that he’s destined for something greater, obviously leveraging what he knows about him and prophesizing him to be the future lord of England. It’s also Basim who tells Sigurd about Fulke, prompting him to find her and especially the Saga Stone, as it might have revealed his true nature as descendant of the gods. Interestingly enough Sigurd said he wanted to read the text written upon it, which is possibly the first moment which got Fulke interested in his potential, and maybe even in Eivor. Fulke is another important character that Basim tried to use to his advantage as she was interested or shall we say obsessed with the First Civilization and their artifacts. She was also a member of the Order of the Ancients, which made for a perfect cover but also made
Fulke was supposedly Christian, but very much knew about the First Civilization and considered them a pantheon of lesser or negative gods. In fact she frequently mentioned Yaldabaoth, Samael and Saklas, the very same Isu that were behind the design and creation of the humans, as mentioned in the Canterbury document written in the Isu language that Fulke herself had tried to translate. Nonetheless, even if she saw them in a bad light, she had studied them enough to know about the actual potential of their technology and the truth about the origins of the humans. In the Oxenefordscire arc Sigurd already states that he has had dreams about his true being, that is, he has already seen glimpses of Tyr’s memories during the Isu era, another element that Basim / Loki exploits in order to push Sigurd to gain his memories back. Later Sigurd even acknowledges that those are not really dreams but visions and interestingly enough, he says he will make sacrifices to Tyr – a direct reference to his Isu counterpart, in case fans had not noticed yet. Upon finding the Saga Stone Sigurd roughly recognizes it and the words written over it, which also trigger memories about the Yggdrasill device and its technological branches… but Eivor does have a vision of her own, even remembering it was placed atop of a door, which we now know to be the actual gate to the Yggdrasil Vault.
After this, of course, Sigurd, Eivor and Basim meet Aelfred of Wessex for a parlay, with Basim once again literally speaking in Sigurd’s ear and suggesting to give Eivor to Aelfred in exchange for his best warrior, but Fulke finally reveals herself, shifting sides and eventually obtaining Sigurd as her slave and… test subject, even directly stating in a letter that she knows Sigurd is a god in man’s flesh, and that she is going have painful experiments on him. Basim eventually caught wind of Fulke’s whereabouts in the Cent arc and this arc, called “The Instrument of the Ancients”, is where Eivor and Basim get closer to each other, despite her not trusting him at all in the beginning. Of course, this leads to the famous fireplace scene, where Eivor opens up to him, and the two discuss the Creed and more significantly how important family is to each other and how it generates the only unbreakable bond. Basim mentions how vital children can be and especially that he had a son that was taken away from him. Here, in front of Eivor, whom we believe Basim has already recognized as Odin, or at least has a reason to believe that, here Basim tells her about his son, but he’s
So the scene has a double meaning in our opinion. Basim is telling Eivor about his son both to get closer and to have her trust him much more, and also possibly to see if this triggers in Eivor any memory, which it seems it does not. Eventually the two find Fulke, or better, it’s the other way around. Once again she confirms that she realized that Sigurd has be quote and quote “deified”, stating that gods talk through him, a reference to how he’s been able to have visions about the Isu era. This ends up just as a word confrontation, with Fulke even mentioning the whereabouts of her hideout, like a proper villain. When they reach her sanctum underneath the Canterbury Cathedral, they find out a document, Fulke’s Journal, stating that she was tasked by Louis II, the king of East Francia, to translate a whole text of Isu language, the one we know as the Canterbury document. In the journal Fulke alsodescribed herself acquiring Sigurd and mentioning she recognized the mark of the Ancient Ones, the Isu, on his neck, immediately thinking he could be a rebornIsu, and comparing him to the stories she heard about another Isu, Aita, being reborn as what we know as a Sage. Thus, from this file we get to know one secret purpose as to why Fulke kidnapped Sigurd. Of course, she wanted to extract every info and secret about the First Civilization out of him, no matter the cost,but she also wanted to do so in order to understand the Isu language. And to a degree, she even managed to do so, as she was able to have Sigurd read and pronounce the Isu text on the Saga Stone. Lastly, in the deepest chamber of Fulke’s sanctum, Eivor finds Sigurd’s arm, left there for her by Fulkeand in a moment we’ll see why Fulke severed it.
Another interesting document found in the sanctum contains Fulke’s notes on her experiments on Sigurd. She isolated him, depriving him of most of his senses. Fed him only with water and bread. Cut him repeatedly to make him bleed. All of this across several weeks in order to trigger the Isu essence deeply hidden inside of him. And yet, Fulke’s experiments worked, with him having several visions and at some point screaming “I am the Lord of Justice! You will answer to me or die!”. This was a turning point for Fulke’s experiments as she recognized that he was a reincarnation of the Isu Tyr, as confirmed by Former Narrative Director Darby McDevitt in his Ending Interview, and *that* was why she decided to cut his arm off. In fact, making him feel even more like his Isu ancestor would have triggered even more visions and memories, prompting him to reveal even more secrets. Eventually Basim and Eivor found that the uhm… princess was in another castle, specifically that of Portcestre in Suthsexe, which Eivor attacked mustering all her friends and allies and their army, which led her to find another room where Sigurd had been tortured. Finally Basim and Eivor found their target along with Sigurd and of course Basim decided to stay with him while Eivor chased and then fought Fulke. This specific fight is interesting as Fulke once again says that Eivor, while being mostly ignorant about the First Civilization has what she calls “potential”, just like Sigurd, whom she directly calls an Isu reborn, if the player even needed to be plainly told – and nonetheless Eivor keeps being none the wiser. Eventually Eivor killed Fulke but the paladin still had her victory as she had opened Sigurd’s mind to the truth about his own origins. Her memory corridor killroom even shows her literally opening Sigurd’s mind and unlocking his potential, although this leads to her own demise.
And of course, this also led Sigurd to be pretty nasty in every single comment since he was brought back to the settlement, even though, in his own and very complicated, very Isu-like way, he opened up to Eivor, saying he felt to be greater than before after seeing several visionsabout his original life as Tyr. In the dialogue at the Settlement’s cemetery, Sigurd even exhorted Eivor to look harder and deeper in him to see what Basim and Fulke saw in him – possibly in an attempt to make her realize that she herself was a reincarnation. Eventually, after some more time, Sigurd decided it was finally time to go back home, to finally fulfill what he believed to be his destiny, that is, as we know, reaching the Yggdrasil Device and entering the Valhalla simulation. As usual, his Isu-like way of speaking made it tough to understand for Eivor, but now that we know the ending of the game, the reference to his life on Earth ending soon, the idea of seeing the hall of his ancestors and him seeking life and glory everlasting, all of those make sense as they are actual references to the Yggdrasil Device and what it can do. So the two embarked on their supposed final journey but…. That’s it for this article as from now on, after so much time analyzing the context of the game, we are finally able to have a look at its ending. Join us, then, in our next analysis where we’ll follow Eivor and Sigurd as they reach the final Vault, having a look at what the Yggdrasil Device is capable of and of course analyzing Basim as he reveals his true colors! Go to the TENTH CHAPTER of this series, go back to the EIGHTH CHAPTER of the series or go back to the HUB.
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