#The Golden City

[higheverweave]

Just some Veilguard Theories dont mind me

[warden-enchantress]

"And so is the Golden City blackened With each step you take in my Hall. Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting. You have brought Sin to Heaven And doom upon all the world."

[seffie-jade]

I listened to Vows and Vengence again and went down a rabbit hole of theorising about the Eye of Kethisca.

I think I need help?

[zorthania]

Fear stems from a lack of control, and this man just confessed to finding comfort in letting the world do with him as it pleases.

Do you understand just how incredible Hytham really is? Basim sure does.

[lilycat23]

As an anime only watcher of dungeon meshi (I started reading the manga today and I'm a few chapters in) I have been shaken to my core by the newest episode. This episode felt like all of the characters we have met so far were transported to a different show the shift in mood became so serious.

Let's talk about the second half which was my favourite part (though the entire episode was amazing) The twist that the golden country continues to exist was not something I even considered. That on its own was something else and though I figured out the gist of what was going on farely quickly the set up for the reveal was so well built up in that second half.

The reality of the people of the golden cities lives gradually becoming more clear in such a sombering way. It has and atmosphere of things being "perfect" with something clearly being very wrong. How that was handled, Laios reaction to the prophecy and the introduction of the elves were my favourite parts of this episode.

Regarding Laios' reaction, I loved it, it felt very realistic, subverted common tropes and also felt in character for Laios. Laios says he was nervous but honestly he looked absolutely horrified at the boys request that he takes down the magician and become king it was like it was the first time he had ever truly considered that that could happen and the weight of the people's hopes weighed on him like a ton of bricks. He felt so incredibly human.

I just can't believe how perfectly both those episode parts were pulled off at least from the perspective of someone seeing it for the first time.

[transistoradio]

1. Johfra Bosschart, “The Golden City” (1963), oil on panel, 31 x 42 cm.

2. Bruce Pennington, “Forest Temple” (1985). Private work.

[illusivesoul]

"And so is the Golden City blackened With each step you take in my Hall. Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting. You have brought Sin to Heaven And doom upon all the world"

[project-zorthania]

so what do you think are hytham and basims ages?

I hope you'll forgive the amount of snark and sass that I'm about to use to answer your question anon, because if I had the time and energy to spend making an hour long video essay to reply to this, I would.

You’d think tying in all your games around real historical events would mean creating a consistent timeline for your characters, but no! Ubisoft’s canonical timeline continues to be an absolute disaster, which makes this ask both a blessing and a curse as I’m left with a plethora of information to source for my answer.

I want this to make sense for everyone reading along so bear with me, I’ll try my best to keep this as short and sweet as possible.

A fair warning that this post will be riddled with spoilers for the following:

AC Valhalla

AC Mirage

The Golden City

Sword of the White Horse

Giermund's Saga.

Now without further ado, let’s break it down.

By the time we first see them in Valhalla, I estimate Basim to be in his late 30s and Hytham to be in his early 30s with no bigger than a 6 year age gap between them.

Here is what we know.

AC Valhalla starts with Sigurd meeting Basim and Hytham in Constantinople just a few months prior to their long trek up to Norway together in 872 CE.

We also know that the book 'The Golden City' takes place in 867 CE, during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Basil I in Constantinople. That’s exactly 5 years before the events of Valhalla.

And exactly 6 years before the start of 'The Golden City' was the era of extreme instability in Baghdad after the assassination of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil in 861 CE.

Here’s a visual of the timeline surrounding these events:

The following clip is from the official Ubisoft Developer Trailer Breakdown, the rest of the video is available to watch on youtube here.

According to the Narrative Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux, Mirage takes place 20 years before Valhalla, which...

*confused whale noises*

One could argue that Sarah Beaulieu meant 20 years before Basim’s betrayal in Norway, which takes place in 877 CE, (that’s still only 16 years) but if all of this were true, then the entire timeline for 'The Golden City' starts to get very messy.

If you haven't already read the novel, the story follows Basim and Hytham and their mutual struggle with fatherhood. The author, Jaleigh Johnson, seamlessly manages to tie in the AC universe with the reign of Emperor Basil and the very real assassination attempts on his child, Leo. It is the origin story to their inseparable companionship and elaborates on how Hytham develops a striking degree of loyalty and trust towards his partner/mentor.

There are a couple instances within the book that allude to Hytham's age.

The Golden City - Chapter 6: Hytham's first encounter with Justin, Leo's former personal guard.

The Golden City - Chapter 15: Justin defines his relationship with Leo.

The Golden City - Chapter 25: Basim's call-out.

A couple things to note here:

Hytham considers Justin, a man in his early 20s, young.

Justin considers Leo, a very small child no older than 10, a little brother.

Hytham is old enough to consider this same child his son.

If Hytham considers a man in his early 20s young, and said 20 year old considers a child his little brother, what on earth does that make Hytham? The book is telling us that Hytham must be between his mid to late 20s in order to think this way. His struggle with his paternal instincts and numerous conversations regarding the topic with Basim are a testament to that.

And if you're still not convinced:

Hytham is explicitly telling us that they're not far apart in age. This isn't speculation, he's telling us that he knows just how old Basim is. Granted, he doesn't know that Basim has merged with an Isu reincarnation, but right here, standing before all of us, Basim is still Basim residing in a human body that has lived through very human years.

Now if we go back to Mirage's canon of their ages and compare what we know from the book (and bear in mind, the book was released prior to the release of Mirage with intention to setup for it, so this really should've been something deeply considered by Ubisoft before Mirage released)

My god, it's like Ubisoft didn't even TRY.

Muhammad Ibn Tahir even makes a passing comment about Basim looking to be in his 20s. Granted, the man's definitely guessing here, but he's likely not far off given that the game starts with Basim being 17. If we go by what Muhammad says, this tells us that 3 years has passed since Basim killed Al-Mutawakkil in Anbar at the start of the game.

This is the same 20 year old bearded Basim that we see meet Hytham atop a minaret in Karkh (approximately... we really have no idea what the timeline of events are within Mirage, which is another thing that irks me to no end).

I'm reluctant to entertain the idea that Hytham is any younger than 14 here because 'The Golden City' is dependent on portraying both Basim and Hytham as older men with relatively similar ages, and since the novel relies heavily on historical events, that leaves us with little to no wiggle room in moving the story's timeline around.

It must take place during the reign of Emperor Basil between the years of 867 to 886, and they're already in Norway by 872.

I want to honor the author’s dedication and research into making a cohesive timeline between all the main line games and their novel, especially when its story expands on the characters in question.

Because if we even attempt to go by Mirage's canon, we're going to run into all sorts of problems trying to make sense of a 22 year old Basim running around Constantinople with his acolyte, who is apparently... also a child.

The part that really breaks my heart? That scene between them atop the minaret is such a touching moment. I was beyond conflicted when I finally happened upon Hytham in Mirage, and now I'm being forced to contend with its canonimity :/

Hilariously, if Ubisoft truly intended for Basim to be 20 years older in Valhalla, it only further solidifies that they wanted to canonize an older Basim in his late 30s. The bad math could've been an oversight... even if it is a big one.

Let's delve into Valhalla next.

Thanks to Eivor's AC Rebellion bio, we know that her age ranges between 25-30 years old throughout Valhalla. This is further supported by Kjotve's comment about 17-18 winter's passing since the death of her parents near the beginning of the game, and further cemented when she's talking to Basim by the campfire, stating that she lost her parents at the tender age of 9.

This is important to note when observing the way Basim interacts with Eivor throughout the story, especially since Mirage's canon insists that they are only 2-3 years apart.

Early in the game Eivor teases Basim about jumping the gun to find a new apprentice to tutor, and his response is to lend her guidance.

In Cent, when completing the quest 'The Instrument of the Ancient's, a dialogue triggers when Eivor and Basim are on their way to infiltrate Canterbury's Cathedral to rescue Sigurd:

This is not how friends talk to each other in their late 20s. This is a man with years of experience, eager to impart his knowledge to one much younger. He's not using a condescending tone here, he genuinely believes he can guide her.

Also, have you SEEN the man?

Does that look like a 30 year old to you?

Better yet, have you seen Hytham?

Because this man looks like he's in his 30s, but according to Mirage he's supposed to be barely 20 here?

I'm sorry, I know this sounds like I'm harping on Mirage a lot, but you have to understand that all this frustration comes from a place of deep affection for a franchise I practically grew up with. Part of what makes Assassin's Creed so incredible is it's ability to immerse a player in a historical setting and create impactful stories within those settings, but so much of that has been lost overtime due to corporate greed, it's become disheartening.

Why on earth would Ubisoft create such an expansive and incredible recreation of 9th century Baghdad only to spend little to no effort on it's story? So little effort in fact, that they couldn't even tie in the story with their main line series properly. Imagine having a team of historians and architects dedicated to bringing an accurate depiction of old Arab/Persian/Levantine culture to life, only to drown it out with a lukewarm story and poorly constructed timelines?

The point I'm trying to make is that I'm being forced to pick and choose my canons because of inconsistency's like this. Will the canons I choose to abide by for the sake of world-building be the same as everyone else's? No! And I don't expect it to either. This is my opinion based on the research I conducted, and this is how I'm choosing to make sense of everything to provide myself with an ounce of sanity when creating fanworks.

Which is also the reason why I haven't included 'Giermund's Saga' or 'Sword of the White Horse' in this response, as I personally found their depictions of Hytham and some supporting characters a little ooc for my taste.

And before I get into why, I want to make a disclaimer that my intent in dissecting the stories told in these novels isn’t to undermine the work that the author has poured into these works. These writers have my utmost respect and admiration for dedicating so much time and effort in expanding the AC universe and bringing to life their own interpretations of these characters, and I feel it’s important to acknowledge that my opinions here are my own and not a reflection of the entire fanbase. This is not an invitation to dunk on any of the works that they’ve so clearly poured their passion into. I only mean to dissect it for the sake of analysis and I want to be honest for the sake of this ask.

Here's an excerpt from Giermund's Saga as Giermund meets Hytham for the first time.

Giermund observes that Hytham looks to be in his 20s. This observation is given from the perspective of an outsider. He is an unreliable narrator guessing the age of a man he has just met. I could easily do the same thing- guess the age of a stranger I see down the street and for all I know, I could be woefully wrong.

Additionally, Hytham appears to have pierced ears. Do I have a thing against pierced ears? Absolutely not 😂 and I'd be over the moon to see fanart of this, but has Hytham ever been depicted with them in Valhalla before? No! What an odd addition that contributes nothing to his character for this brief appearance.

In Sword of the White Horse, Hytham is described to having brown eyes:

Which again, I don't have a single problem with brown eyes, it's just not what canon Valhalla has depicted him with.

There's also mention of him sustaining a lasting leg injury from his assault on Kjotve. You know... the one where he's swatted away like a fly on the wall. This is supposedly the same injury that confined him to his bureau for the entirety of Valhalla, but it couldn't be farther from the truth because in actuality he sustained a punctured lung, likely from a cracked rib that never properly healed. This change almost feels like it's understating the severity of his inflicted injuries. A punctured lung would've been infinitely harder to tend to than a leg that long ago, especially since the fall of Rome in the 5th century ended the advancement of surgical knowledge in Europe (not that it was that advanced at the time to begin with).

However, the biggest deal breaker for me is Hytham and Eivor's reluctance to return an artifact belonging to it's indigenous ancestors.

The premise of the book revolves around the retrieval of a sacred weapon to the protagonists people, Excalibur. But Eivor's reluctance to do so is in direct conflict with her character in Vinland, as she quite literally comes across an apple of Eden and returns it to the indigenous population of the land without a second thought. Given Hytham's overall generous nature, and the fact that he's played an advisory role within Ravensthorpe for some time now, it would make just as much sense for him to respond similarly and give back to the people what is rightfully theirs.

Furthermore, neither of these novels follow historical events with impact to the Valhalla story line. With a bit of research, I was able to find that Giermund was a real viking but very little else is known about him.

I cannot reiterate enough that these works are fantastic and should be enjoyed and appreciated in their own breath, but for the sake of breaking down canons and making sense of their ages, I'm opting to keep them out of timeline discussions, along with any other material with depictions of Hytham and Basim that have little to no impact on their speculated ages.

With all of that out of the way, here's a side by side comparison of the timeline Mirage has setup vs what I'm proposing based on all the canon information we've dissected.

I sincerely think that the mess of Mirage's timeline could've easily been solved if Ubisoft had simply aged the boys up a little.

As much as I adore tiny Hytham being shown how to do a leap of faith, I would've equally settled for Basim being introduced to Hytham training under Rayhan in Alamut as a young man instead.

There's even a cleverly placed letter making mention of Norse warriors in Constantinople that can be found in Fuladh's office just beside Enkidu's perch.

A subtle nod to the plot of 'The Golden City' soon to come:

Which means that the writers fully intended to tie Mirage in with 'The Golden City,' making it impossible to ignore.

I will leave you here before I ramble any further. I promise I'm not always this exasperated with my replies _(: 」 ∠)_

I sincerely hope this wasn't too convoluted to follow. Please do with this information what you will anon, but this is how I've chosen to make sense of everything and I hope you can track my logic.

To those of you who managed to get this far, I send you all my love and many kisses. Thank you for reading, and please do feel free to send me any other questions you may have!

I'll try my best to keep my response shorter than this one ;)

PS: I am aware that Hytham's wiki states that he was born in the 850s, but this wiki entry infuriates me to no end because there is NO SOURCE. Never has Hytham's birthday been explicitly stated anywhere, and someone just decided to randomly give him one. Please be VIGILANT in your research when you look up stuff about your favourite blorbos, as wikipedia can be edited by literally anyone.

k, end rant, thank you for coming to my ted talk. That's all i wanted to add 😂

[umbralaether]

[thekingofwinterblog]

The Black City WAS Golden Once - The Final Mystery

So in the Veilguard, we learn seemingly ALL the secrets of the black city, and all mysteries are uncovered.

They were done so in stupid, badly written ways, but all the answers were seemingly given, and all made logical sense.

The black city was the prison for the evanuris, it was the origin of the blight already in the world which we already knew, but we learned that the blight was caused by the titans being mentally castrated and the madness and eldrich fallout turned into the taint that blighted everything it touched, solas used the city speciffically as the prison for said taint, then later his fellow gods, and because he used it as the prison for the taint, that's why it was blackened when cory got there.

All of it is logical in it's own way, and demystifies pretty much everything we have learned about it, and conclusively separates it from the maker... At least that was my original thoughts on the matter, before i suddenly recalled one, very specific bit of bioware Questions and Answers.

I dont recall exactly who said what, but after Inquistion, some Bioware story writer was asked something along the lines of "Was the black city always black? and the golden part was just an illusion?"

And the answer actually completely contradicts what we seemingly learn in Veilguard.

No, the city WAS Golden in the distant past. It was not JUST an illusion on the outside. It wasn't always the black city as we know it.

That... is interesting. because that suggests it WAS important BEFORE solas imprisoned the blight there.

Now the obvious conclusion if we accept this theory, is that the city was indeed the maker's citadel(as according to the chantry, he was the original god of mankind, and we now know mankind did indeed predate the elves), but it's not the only possibility, just the most logical one with what information we have.

What i will say though, is that the Black city does not in any way SEEM to have been an elven structure judging by the architecture.

And this architecture seems to have been a point of importance for the creating team, because it has remained relatively consistent since origins, when we only got to look at it up close by breaking the camera and zooming in on it.

It has a very blocky architecture, like someone carved it directly out of the mountains, with one of the roofs having a sorta factory like plating, and there being clear palaces/temples on the top.

And we see it again inquistion, though since we cant see the top(and it probably wasnt added in since we werent meant to get to go there) we cant see the temples/palaces where whoever once lived here probably used for their base.

And we know this throne exists, because Cory flat out tells us it exists, and it was empty, NOT occupied by the Evenris who presumably wandered across it's streets.

So with all of this in mind, we can draw some conclusions.

Whatever this place was, it was probably not made by the elves, given nothing in it's architecture matches the elves(Nor anythign else we have seen in the franchise for that matter).

2. The city was important before the war between titans and elves, and was probably chosen as the prison for a reason, not that it became important because it was the prison. the fact it has a royal throne tells us that SOMEONE used to rule here.

3. The city used to be golden, and it was Solas imprisoning the Blight there that turned it black.

4. The city is THE center of the fade, the de-facto gravitational center of all magic in the world... but is this because it always was so even before the veil(hence why it was chosen as the prison), or did it become so only AFTER Solas used it as an ancher stone when he separated the fade and the physical world with the veil. Both are equally possible.

Regardless of wheter one assumes it was made by some civlization that predates the Elves and known history, or was made by Maker, it's original origins remains one, final unanswered mystery that Veilguard did not give an answer to.

[angelicsnowlily]

They make me sick I wanna put them in a snow globe and shake it aggressively

[wrose-writes]

Greetings and salutations!

You can call me Rose, pleasure to meet you (probably)

My main blog's @theroseempress, I mostly live over there but I decided to make a side-blog for writing stuff in order to make it easier to find.

Also I have a Wordpress: carolinaauthor, if you want to read actual writing pieces that's where I put them.

oh yeah here's my Big WIP Intro Post go check that out! (this is currently outdated but it's still somewhat accurate ahaha)

anyway time for 'current list of my main projects with Quick Descriptions'! If any of these catch your interest feel free to ask about them or ask to be taglisted for the rare occurence of me talking about my writing on my writing blog!

current list of my main projects* with Quick Descriptions-

WishWIP- Currently my 'main' project, which really needs a proper name with how much focus I've given it by now, this is just the main character's name with WIP after it. Anyway I want to make this one into a comic because I apparently don't have enough to do already. The plot is currently going through scripting in a libreoffice doc . Also this is the second fall in a row where I have become suddenly interested in this project so that's. odd. Basic Quick Description- Wish is just trying to find Someone for perfectly innocent reasons when she runs into an evil magic eating Creature, Song, who is a Very Normal and Not Being Chased By Assassins At All Girl, and the plot, in rapid succession. 'hey what if we went to the Library and you were my bodyguard?' Song suggests. 'no reason for that last part really just Girlish Worries.' she says, normally and casually. Wish looks very suspiciously at her but agrees nonetheless. You can find stuff for this one in #wishwip. Main Cast**- Wish, Song, Lyric, Rhythm, also a whole bunch more people who only show up in the second arc and might kind of be spoilers IDK so they're not here.

Libraries- Probably my other main WIP! Born from me thinking intensely about libraries for no apparent reason. In case you couldn't guess, there are libraries in this project. Except they're called Libraries. Capital L. Also all of the Librarians (capital L) have magical abilities and are very badass. As well as being libraries, the Libraries double-function as how churches used to. I have a whole note doc of worldbuilding on the Libraries can you tell. You can find stuff for this one in #libraries. Basic Quick Description- Sori is a Librarian and quite content with her life as such. And then Firefly shows up, followed somewhat laggingly by the plot. This... has consequences! Anyway now Sori, Mikka, and Firefly are going on a quest oh my. The inciting incident happens surprisingly far into this book, so I have to be unfortunately vague about the plot as to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say I like this one ;). Main Cast**- Sori, Mikka, Firefly, Tai and Nin, Ashe, Caro, another guy I've forgotten the name of and don't feel like looking up atm, and Renna.

fallenstars- Another more recent WIP of mine. I really like a lot of the worldbuilding and plot in this one, it's one of my more recent projects and I rotate the main four guys in my head pretty frequently with varying velocity. (Fun fact a fair amount of the main four for this WIP's characterization was born of me playing with the incorrect quotes generator, which should give you a pretty good idea of what they're like.) You can find stuff for this one in #fallenstars. Basic Quick Description- A long, long time ago, the stars fell from the heavens. A slightly less long time after that, Rekha and Ven found them. Or at leas they think they did. That's what the ~expedition~ is for! Featuring; most of the cast being a little (or a lot) unhinged, most of the cast being a little (or a lot) traumatized, and certain members of the cast being very badass. Also magic. (hard magic systems my beloved). Also names. Names are important. Main Cast**- Vivian, Arielle, Jai, Mirren, Rekha, Ven, Sapphire/Saph, Auburn, and various other people also.

sky pirates- *faux grumbling* I read ONE TWENTY PAGE PAMPHLET about pirates... Anyway yeah this one's pretty self explanatory. Sky pirates. That combined with another idea I've had for a year or two, where people hunt through dangerous ruins of skyscrapers for useful stuff to sell (that one never went anywhere because I had no plot) (now I have a plot) You can find stuff for this one in #sky pirates. Basic Quick Description- Lute (who is Completely Normal) and his crew are just going about their normal scrapper life and doing normal scrapper things (supposedly), when suddenly a girl runs away from the army and runs into them. (they help. they're polite like that. also they (for good reason) don't like the army). And then they discover she can manipulate the Mist. And then they discover a bunch of people want to steal her. And then she explains she needs to get to an old ruin for Magic Reasons. And now they're going on a quest. Main Cast**- I didn't remember naming anyone in this, but apparently the crew (Lute, Vanya, Blake, Robin, and Chess) all have names. Nobody else though. I should really get on that.

Mercy City- Was my main WIP for a while, I haven't worked on it for a longer while though. I still like it though. it's nice. I want to put Caden in a salad spinner desperately (smug little bastard) and I regularly make angsty head AMVs for Kiseki. Felice my beloved. You can find stuff for this one in #mercy city. Basic Quick Description- The world is made up of Resonance and we can manipulate that. Everyone is born with an affinity (can manipulate a certain bit of Resonance without needing to know the formula for it) except sometimes they aren't and even more sometimes they're born with Too Much Affinity. Too Much Affinity is bad because you blow up. Kiseki has so far avoided blowing up, and his sister Felice (who has No Affinity) would like to keep it that way. And then the plot happens. whoopsies. Main Cast**- Felice, Kiseki, Caden, Sophie, and a lot of other characters but I'm trying to keep it more to the main cast so probably just these four? idk. there's more guys tho.

mecha project- A project born of me smushing my appreciation for mechs, space, and academy settings into one place! I'm less 'actively working' on this one and more 'actively imagining it as a TV show'. We'll see if that ever happens to it! (probably not) (but you never know) You can find stuff for this one in #mecha project. Basic Quick Description- space. mechs. people go to mech academy. fights in space. bad guy wants to take over universe. different visually appealing species. the main character is part dragon. one of the antagonists wants to dissect him (For Science). this is partially inspired by my dislike of the voltron reboot thingie that i watched like six seasons of and then bailed on. also that one time i wrote out a whole rewrite concept for high guardian spice. anyway mechs in space. Main Cast**- there's people but none of them have names. yet. ahaha. did i mention the main character is part dragon.

The Golden City- The oldest project on this list! I recently discovered the plot to this thing is a lot longer than I'd previously thought, so right now all I'm doing with this WIP is rotating it at high speed in my head while trying to figure out what the next two thirds of the story is about. You can find stuff for this one in #the golden city or #tgc. Basic Quick Description- Felix is just going about his normal life and definitely not being a criminal, except oops, he's been arrested now, oh dear, and how he has to go on a quest to Not Be In Jail >:(. Also people are blackmailing him to essentially cause a civil war. He's doing his best, guys, be nice to him. Main Cast**- Felix, Helen, Shannon, Florian, Tay (Taylor), Bricriu, Nikolai, Nerium, Iris, Raz.

keyWIP- a concept that was born entirely of me thinking about keys for too long. I'm not really actively working on/thinking about this one at the moment, but I like the idea (and Melody) so I'm keeping it here in the event I get more interested in it. You can find stuff for this one in #keyWIP. Basic Quick Description- There are keys that can open any door to any other door and also shapeshift! Conor gets harassed by the Scholars' Council into inviting all the people who have keys to come tell the Council that because [SECRET PLOT POINT]. To the surprise of both Conor and some other people, this actually works somehow. Things proceed to escalate rapidly from that point. Main Cast**- Melody, Kit, Conor, Shalom, Hope, Adora, Varian, Jasmin [redacted] (so yeah this cast list is just all the people with keys (excluding Conor)).

If any of these project descriptions catch your interest, please feel free to ask to be on the taglist, which will mean I'll tag you in the rare posts I make about my WIPs!

Or just send an ask about something you're curious about, I don't bite and I love talking about my little fictional guys :)

(*what I'm currently working on changes very suddenly and frequently so I can't really tell you that, but this should at least give you an idea of what I'm doing).

(**trust me, there's very probably more, I just listed the main people)

[theroseempress]

the Ultimate WIPs Intro!!*

here it is!!! here's this stupid big slideshow!! i still have other concepts did you know that did you know that this isn't even all of them someone help me /j

@ettawritesnstudies look it's your idea @enne-uni look it's writing

(*kind of)

[wesslesprout]

Reading through The Golden City now I'm done with the main plot of Valhalla and I rlly do wish we got more time to spend with Basim and Hytham especially like he's so cute and soft with kids even though he swore he could never be a dad aaaa

[zorthania]

"You were everything I might have wanted as a child."

[firerwolf]

I’m about half way through The Golden City and I’m enjoying the book so far. It’s certainly a good book if you’re a fan of Hytham or political plots. There are a few things that I’ve noticed which the book established that seem pretty important. Assuming the book is fully canon and approved of by Ubisoft then it is very informative.

First thing is that the book still doesn’t really tell you anything about Hytham’s history. Who he was before the Hidden Ones has been completely absent in the book meaning that I don’t think Ubisoft had any actual history for him. It’s sad to think his codex entry was really as little as it feels they cared about him.

Second is that his and Basim’s relationship was very different. In the book Basim is not the completely absent man he is in Valhalla. He is in the shadows but he is always there, he does teach Hytham, and he seems to genuinely care if Hytham feels offended or questioned by him. I’d say that Basim feels a little Loki like but as though having not found Sigurd that there is still some of the man who we’d meet in Mirage. It does give a good explanation of why it is that Hytham would have had some faith in Basim and been accepting of his absence.

Third, Hytham would be a fantastic father. In the book he states that after his first kill he gave up on being a father despite wanting to be one. He basically claims that he doesn’t feel like he can bring a child into the violent world he lives in. I wonder if living with the vikings and age would change that. The vikings exist in a world of violence and they still can have children and take care of them. Because in the book Hytham has to take care of a child and he is just good with the kid. He’s kind and caring and the kid really likes him.

Fourth, Hytham was a very skilled fighter and assassin who was likely to make Master. The book makes it very clear that Hytham is a skilled fighter, starting off the book with a sparring match between him and Basim where he can hold his own. Hytham is also smart, being skilled with words, memory, and is very observant. He is shown to not be as good as Basim but that simply means he’s not a master, not that he isn’t skilled. It represents exactly how bad the injury he received was and how frustrating it must be for him to be unable to fight as he did before. He had a future as a master and in an instance it was taken away. It also sort of makes the moment in Vahalla make less sense because it seems like a sloppy assassination attempt but Hytham is skilled. It does highlight the fact that the actual action is never addressed in the game or Hytham giving an end to his arc and makes it more annoying to me in retrospect.

Fifth, Hytham’s big weakness is that he gets emotionally involved. With several characters and the boy the main cause of fault for Hytham is that he lets his emotions take part in his decisions and it can sometimes be a fault. This makes it make a little more sense that Hytham is suspicious of Eivor who he feels Basim is making the same mistakes he was. Basim is being chummy with vikings and it seems like he’s blinded by his friendship with them and it makes Hytham’s attitude make more sense. And their blades are hidden making his objectives on that matter also make more sense. So far the book has done well in making the Hytham and Basim we meet at the start of Valhalla make more sense. Also the show of his abilities coupled with Sword of the White Horse which showed that people easily become loyal and protective of him they do lead to a good basis for assuming that Hytham was the first Mentor of the English brotherhood.

Sixth, it really makes me again wish that they weren’t making a game about Basim but instead were making one about Hytham. You could get the exactly same stealth heavy and limited story but you have more reason with Hytham. Basim is Loki, which means that him being limited doesn’t really make sense when we’ve seen what he should be able to do. Hytham is just a man. An injured man who is limited in what he can physically do. Him learning to be an effective assassin with his limitations would have allowed for player progression and skills, would have forced more reliance on stealth as Hytham couldn’t be in prolonged combat, and building a brand new branch to the brotherhood is an interesting story. It also would have worked better to actually give a Hidden One story to England and Valhalla.