Summary
InAssassin’s Creed Mirage, you’ll find connections to many of the past games in the series, maybe even more than any other game. It’s surprising because it is a smaller-scale world and story, but since it’s set afterOriginsand right beforeValhalla, and centuries before the first game, references to past and future time periods are bound to seep in.
Sometimes, it can be a specific character mentioned, a story connection, or a plot point that will be developed in a later game. It can even be a familiar design choice, but you may have missed these things if you didn’t play previous Asassasin’s Creed games.
12Mirage’s Canal Sections Are Inspired By Venice In AC 2
Some may find Assassin’s Creed Mirage dated, while others may justify some aspects as nostalgia. This might be one of those cases.Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Origins, and Valhalla gave you the vast open bodies of water, such as the North Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Nile River.
To accommodate its more compressed map, Mirage gives you canal waterways winding around the architecture in a style not seen since Assassin’s Creed 2. Boats in Mirage have a new design that’s certainly not the Viking longship from Valhalla, nor the sailboats seen in Origins, but more like gondolas in the canals of Venice in Assassin’s Creed 2 based on their design and how you operate them.Doing the Boat Heist contractand parkouring in these areas also capture that classic feeling.
11The Zanj Uprising Outfit And Hidden One Outfit Have Bayek In Mind
This isn’t the only Origins reference you’ll come across in AC Mirage, but it should land spot-on. It’s clear that the design of two particular outfits,the Zanj Uprising and Hidden One, was influenced by the design and color palettes of the attire worn by Medjay Bayek of Siwa.
The Zanj Uprising sees the same red and yellow cloths wrapped around the waist and split, the leather strap around a partially exposed chest, and a separate head covering that’s not yet converted as one full assassin suit. The Hidden One Outfit has an Egyptian Usekh collar with the same green-blue color and brown edge as Bayek’s.
10The Zanj Uprising Dagger’s Second Wind Perk Was A Warrior Ability In AC Odyssey
Here’s an unexpected easter egg from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It seems there’s a duplicate name given to a dagger perk in Mirage. Called ‘Second Wind’ in Odyssey, it’s a pretty helpful ability that sees Alexios or Kassandra get their fire and poison afflictions removed and can regenerate 50 percent of their health.
Well, the name for the perk attached to the Zanj Uprising Dagger is also called ‘Second Wind,’ with a wind-blowing icon next to its name. This skill also has amazing benefits in Mirage and makes thisone of the best daggers you can own, allowing you to refill stamina in combat by dodging.
9The Double Hidden Blade Note From Constantinople
Assassin’s Creed Mirage definitely likes to poke fun atitsancestors, particularly Assassin’s Creed 2. When you’ve made it to the Hidden Ones bureau in Karkh, you’ll find a note addressed to Rebekah talking about a fellow Hidden One in Constantinople coming up with the idea of dual-wielding hidden blades.
It states the person who proposed the idea “didn’t seem to mind losing a second finger,” which is a jab at Ezio for getting a second blade from Leonardo da Vincithat wouldn’t result in him losing another finger. Also significant is that it now makes it official in the lore that the original idea for a double blade was indeed before Altaïr’s time.
8Fuladh Recreating Ezio Auditore’s Exact Arm Gesture
Did you also think Fuladh’s arm gesture during his conversation with Basim at Alamut might’ve been a little too peculiar? Well, it’s another way the game pokes some fun at Ezio Auditore because this arm motion with the bent elbow and thumb-on-finger placement, almost like a chef’s kiss gesture, was one of the quirky animations Ezio had throughout his trilogy.
As Fuladh talks to Basim about patience, his arm immediately goes right into this exact position as the words come out of him, much like the random ways it would happen to Ezio mid-conversation. It’s likely a silly homage, or maybe it’s a trait assassins are born with.
7The Feather Dipped In Blood, Ma’at, And The Lord Of Duat Reference
Perhaps the biggest callback to Assassin’s Creed Origins is Basim dipping heron feathers in blood after an assassination. As Fuladh explains around the campfire in the early part of the game, it was a tradition carried over from Egypt, symbolic of the Goddess Ma’at’s white feather weighed against a soul’s heart as judgment into the afterlife.
The afterlife is also called Duat, and the lord of Duat makes the final judgment, a phrase delivered by Bayek in Origins after the enemy dissipates into the afterlife and is reiterated here by Fuladh. It’s good continuity to see this tradition is still followed, and Origins also lets you complete a Stone Circle called ‘The Scales’ that forms a constellation of the judgment and mentions Ma’at.
6Young Eagle Is Future Assassin Hytham In AC Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a prequel to Valhalla, so some characters from the previous game are bound to show up, but there’s one you might not have expected. Mirage shows the first time Basim meets Hytham as a young boy eager to perform a Leap of Faith like a true Hidden One.And Basim is strangely okay with it.
It happens in quite a random encounter as you go to synchronize a viewpoint in Karkh, which also ends up beinga Tale of Baghdad side mission. You’ll interact with a boy named Young Eagle (Hytham in Arabic), who’s already up there and frightened of coming down. He shares information about the Hidden Ones avenging his mom and wanting to be one himself. Basim tells him to seek him out when his voice breaks, foreshadowing his journey in AC Valhalla.
5Enkidu Continues The Tradition Of Eagles Being Named After Mythological Figures
Basim’s eagle Enkidu has yet another notable name because it comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem. The last eagle to be named after a mythological character was, of course, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Ikaros, who’s named after the young boy Icarus, son of Daedalus, who flew too close to the sun on his father’s flying machine.
Enkidu is the main character of the Epic of Gilgamesh, created as an ugly outsider to humanity to eventually replace the tyrant Gilgamesh, only for the duo to become friends who kill the creature Humbaba and trigger the wrath of the gods. He’s quite a tragic hero, but luckily, Basim’s Enkidu doesn’t face such consequences.
4A Note About Darius' Blade At Alamut
If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Legacy of the First Blade DLC, you’ll immediately know who this letter refers to. It’s addressed to Roshan from a Hidden One based out of Greece named Itamos and says a schematic of the very first hidden blade ever crafted is enclosed, “the weapon of Darius.”
Darius was mentioned in Assassin’s Creed 2, but his history is finally told in Odyssey’s DLC nine years later. He’s the inventor and first assassin ever to use a hidden blade to assassinate Persia’s King Xerxes, earning the weapon its name – “Xerxe’s Bane.” It’s a fun connection that shows how the various bureaus pass on ideas, and Bayek also uses Darius' blade in Origins to lose his finger in the process and start the tradition.
3A Letter Foreshadowing The Assassin Stronghold Of Maysaf
Another crucial letter you can find lying around Alamut is titled “A New Home for the Hidden Ones,” penned by the lead assassin Mentor himself, Rayhan. It reveals that Rayhan is aware of Jerusalem getting a powerful artifact sought by the Order of the Ancients and recommends that they begin branching out North to establish a stronghold while continuing to set up bureaus in Baghdad.
This is, of course, a tease to the future 12th-century castle fortress of Maysaf built by assassins of Alamut and where Altaïr will find his new home among the Levanthine Brotherhood and their leader Al Mualim during the events of the first game. The artifact in Jerusalem also most likely relates to the Apple of Eden that will be found beneath Solomon’s Temple.
