On April 29, Ubisoft officially announced Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a new license game that will take players exploring the world alongside the Scandinavians.
Obviously the players will be part of the caste of explorers, commonly known as the Vikings, and will explore the Norway, England, as well as other kingdoms. They will take command of Eivor, a warrior, equipped with the famous secret blade. But, as with all the other episodes of the license, Ubisoft has surrounded itself with specialists to give consistency to Assassin's Creed Valhalla. To transcribe the ninth century, Ubisoft notably called on the historian Thierry Noël, who is part of the editorial research unit, and who gave a long interview on the editor's blog. To begin, he was asked to clarify what we mean by "Vikings".
(…) We know that in the West, this evokes the image of bullies and looters who destroyed monasteries throughout Western Europe, but in reality, it is a little more complicated than that. The term Vikings actually refers to an elite class of Nordic society. It was a certain group of people from the Nordic culture who were traders, explorers, excellent sailors, settlers and, yes, sometimes invaders and looters. (…) They left (from Norway) because they wanted to discover a new land and find resources. In the 9th century, the Scandinavians had recently discovered the use of sails and had acquired absolute control over them. This helped them to travel all over the world. (…)
On the question of relevance of the period for an Assassin's Creed game, which has made history buffs talk a lot, Thierry Noël answers:
It's a fascinating time. It has been called "obscure centuries" (literally "age of darkness" in English) because we do not have as much information as on ancient Egypt or Greece. (…) The Roman world has disappeared and the medieval era is not yet fully launched. It is a really interesting period of rebuilding the Western world, rebuilding values, states and nations, and mixing cultures that were previously isolated. It is not only a period of conflict, it is a period of intensive cultural exchanges between people, and the Vikings played an essential role in this reconstruction of the world through exchanges.
At that time, England was a multi-ethnic society. It was dominated by the Anglo-Saxons, but there were also Britons, descendants of the Romans, and many others. It was rich land, but it was divided land, especially between rival Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. All this was very attractive to the Vikings, who took advantage of the situation of a divided England. King Aelfred is a very important figure in the history of England. When the Vikings began to invade and colonize England, all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell one after the other. The only one who survived was Wessex. (…) He managed to repel the Viking invasion and even managed to rebuild modern England. He is a very important character for us.
If you followed the various announcements and the first elements of the game having been revealed, you know that players will be able to develop and maintain a colony. An important feature of the game, it is based on what we know about the various installations of the Vikings. Archaeological traces have thus made it possible to demonstrate that these colonies formed the basis of their local development. The extension of these archaeological considerations is the sources that we have at present. Thierry Noël goes around and explains that the Scandinavians have left very little writing
The gap between the reality of Nordic society and the image we have of the reckless Viking was really interesting for me. They were a fascinating society in terms of culture and fairly fair in the way they treated women, who had important rights at the time. It was certainly at odds with the common image we had of the Vikings. Archaeological sources are much debated on this specific issue. But the fact is, and I think what is really important is that it was part of their worldview. The sagas and myths of northern society are full of female characters and tough warriors. It was part of their idea of the world, that women and men are equally great in combat, and that is something that Assassin's Creed Valhalla will reflect.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Trailer
Assassin's Creed Valhalla will release PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later this year. On Xbox, the title will benefit from smart delivery, which allows you to buy the game only once to enjoy it on Xbox One and Xbox Series.
By MalloDelic, Journalist igamesnews.com
MP