minimal knowledge of the Assassin's Creed lore. But does Assassin's Creed Valhalla still have those scenes set in the future?
Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
For nearly the entire campaign, Assassin's Creed Valhalla players control the warrior Eivor. This being a Viking tale, the story is set at the dawn of the Viking Age in the 9th century A.D., when the infamous Norse raiders establish a foothold in Anglo-Saxon England. But Eivor is special. Unbeknownst to Eivor, they are not alone in their own body. A prehistoric spirit Eivor believes to be the god Odin inhabits them. At the same time, Eivor's every deed is being lived out via a simulation by Layla Hassan, a modern-day former Abstergo researcher introduced in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
This science- fiction setup is typical to Assassin’s Creed. Stories in the series are usually set in three different timelines. Like a time-travelling, Inception-like saga, the timelines interact with one another until, climactically, they converge. In the modern day, two secret societies duke it out over powerful prehistoric artifacts. In the distant past, a precursor civilization called Isu predicts their future downfall at the hands of humanity and a mysterious cataclysm seen in previous Assassin's Creed titles. And in the middle, the ancient human sects of the Templar and Assassins are formed to fight over the Isu’s relics. So, while there are not generally scenes set in the distant future relative to modern-day people, the present timeline is considered the future by characters of the prehistoric and ancient timelines, who do indeed see glimpses of their destinies.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Eivor And Layla's Visions Of The Future
Both modern and ancient player characters see into the future in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. In several scenes, Eivor receives prophetic guidance - often with the help of holy hallucinogens. Importantly, though, the magical mead they imbibe appears to have actual powers derived from the Isu. In Assassin's Creed Valhalla's visions of Valhalla, Eivor peers into their own destiny to try, in vain, to change it.
Additionally, Eivor scries the fate of the Isu "gods" in a cataclysm they interpret to be the Norse apocalypse Ragnarok. This doomsday is bound to repeat; the last one was postponed by the first Assassin’s Creed protagonist, Desmond Miles. The revelation of the Isu’s apocalypse and its impending arrival is also a vision of the future for Layla in the modern day, as the next cataclysm has yet to strike in her modern world. At the end of the game, Layla herself looks into alternate futures in an attempt to stop the coming Armageddon, though these possible outcomes are not shown.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is primarily set in the Viking Age. However, the player characters of Eivor and Layla both see into their futures to try to avert their fates.
