Ubisoft Have Released The Facts Behind Assassin's Creed's Fiction
Where did they come from? Where did they go? These places.
Over the years, Ubisoft have transported players to gorgeous, detailed recreations of some of the most iconic locations in time, and plopped them down there during some of the most significant events throughout history...and then let them shank a bunch of people, both historical and fictional, often innocent. Shank 'em up real good.
Of course, none of these things actually happened. Well, some of them did, obviously, Assassin's Creed is based in reality to some degree, but Ubisoft took an awful lot of artistic license with these historical events - you're not going to be passing any history tests if you're using Assassin's Creed as your Cliff Notes. As Youssef Maguid notes:
"...as much as we’d like to believe it, Ezio Auditore never fought against Rodrigo and Cesare Borgia, Edward Kenway never unlocked The Observatory, and the Frye twins never fought the Templars for London’s liberation."
Unfortunate news for all of us who have been erroneously claiming down the pub that an Italian assassin invented the latte and that he may or may not have had a romantic tryst with Leonardo Da Vinci, before using our fanart as a secondary source that causes an extremely awkward silence amongst our philistine friends who don't understand true art.
Luckily for us though, the good people over at Ubisoft have found it in their hearts to put together a series on YouTube entitled Real History that aims to teach you - you guessed it - the real history behind the Assassin's Creed series. Maguid states on the Ubisoft site:
"Each entry takes a look at the city, people, architecture, and culture of a particular Assassin’s Creed game. You’ll learn about the origins of the Colosseum, why the Third Crusade was fought, who Machiavelli’s “The Prince” was really about, why the Florence Cathedral went without its famous dome for more than 100 years, and so much more. New videos are still being added to the series, but in the meantime, brush up on your history with our looks at Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations."
So far the series consists of four videos covering Florence, Rome, Constantinople and the history of The Third Crusade, but the series is ongoing with more to come! So join us as we learn ourselves some knowledge so as to never make an arse out of ourselves in the pub again...about history at least.
You can find a link to the Third Crusade video down below and, gamer or not, this stuff is fascinating, so get some learning done, son!