Is assassins creed historically accurate?

[nomotog_v1legacy]

This has always bugged me, but how historically accurate is assassin's creed? It seems accurate for the most part, but I am not a history professor. Dose anyone know? Anyone ever do a AC lets play with a historian?

Edit: Lets add a follow up. Should the games be historically accurate? Would you want to play a version that was 99% accurate to the time it's set?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Oh man... that was good laugh.

To answer your question, no, not even close. There are aliens, DNA based memory, events don't line up properly with the real years they happened in, about 20 conspiracies that didn't happen in real life, questionable (Though I suppose not entirely unrealistic) levels of tech, non-existent people, people who did exist and would have been important in the time frame and setting are often strangely absent...

It goes on, of course. AC should not be considered historically relevant. That isn't necessarily a bad thing game wise though.

 

[BarryMcCociner]

No.

More details than that? Alright. I'll limit myself to the most glaring examples.

In the first game, the Assassins? They were an actual thing. In the game Altair reforms them into an atheistic order, this would have never happened to the actual Assassin's (The Fidai) would never have done that as they were a religious order from their founding. Specifically, a Shiite Islamic order whose primary targets were Sunni Muslim leaders. Who have been going at it for well over a thousand years. So the Assassin's Order, the fundamental center of the game, was misrepresented from the word go. Sure, we saw middle eastern blokes leading it but very rarely did we see them acting like a religious order.

Also, guns on the sail deck in 3 and Black Flag. Typically you don't want to do that, they get in the way and make the ship more top-heavy than it should be if you want to keep it from turning upside down. Typically, long guns go on the gun deck.

And I know the Templar's are a convenient target for historical conspiracy theories, but AC takes it over the top. 9/11 truthers look tame in comparison. We have stories of Knights Templar kissing eachother on the ass (which are probably fictitious) and they still don't match up to their inane portrayal in AC. The cold, hard, reality of the Knights Templar was that they were an organization that accrued far too much wealth far too quickly and upset the church in doing so. Therefore a lot of vicious rumors were spread and the Templars were "convinced" (read: tortured) into confessing their crimes.


Oh yeah, also the Animus. DNA doesn't work that way. In any capacity. By any stretch of the imagination. By any interpretation of the science. This is high school stuff and I dropped out of high school.

But does historical and scientific inaccuracy disqualify it from being a good game? Fuck no, Ubisoft's insistence on micro-transactions and Uplay and watering down already simplistic mechanics does that.

 

[EternallyBored]

Like the previous posters have said, AC mostly just pays lip service to history, they are quite comfortable changing things to suit the setting, like adding historical buildings that had already been destroyed or not built yet in the time period the game takes place in, that and the whole assassin/templar thing where a massive number of famous historical figures were apparently involved with and all knew each other.

Where AC does cling to historical accuracy fairly well is usually in the aesthetics, except for the over the top assassin cloaks and templar armor, people are dressed pretty historically. The architecture is also pretty historically accurate in how it looks, and many items in the game world that aren't fantasy assassin tools are based on real world weapon designs and types, the description text on a lot of the realistic weapons is also usually pretty in depth and accurate. The game also touches on a lot of historical events in contexts that aren't usually as well known, although it tends to mix in the assassin/templar stuff, but the games indexes usually does a fair job at telling you the history of its famous figures while leaving out the embellishments of the conspiracy organizations and ancient aliens.

The index text is in itself good for basic historical facts on places and people, giving build dates, basic biographical blurbs, and historical events.

The games build a good semi-realistic historical foundation and then slap all their silly Da Vinci tanks, world spanning conspiracies, and alien artifacts on top of it. You can get some good historical information out of the series, but its mostly just aesthetics, the series is not afraid to change stuff around to suit gameplay and story. Its most accurate historical information is likely in portraying how old buildings probably looked in their heyday, weeeell, except when you then go inside them to unlock secret rooms to find maps to ancient items like in AC2, that part probably isn't historically accurate.

 

[Neverhoodian]

The series is as historically accurate as most Hollywood films "based on a true story," a.k.a. "everything except the names is bullshit."

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I couldn't say, really? I've only done Ass Creed 1 and Ass Creed Actually fun because Pirates.

But I know there weren't secret Assassin and Templar orders fighting a shadowy silent war in the shadowy shadows of history. and I can't speak to the future world either, but somehow I doubt we will be able to find genetic memories of our ancestors. Neat idea, but Dr. Who level of silly sci-fi.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I couldn't say, really? I've only done Ass Creed 1 and Ass Creed Actually fun because Pirates.

But I know there weren't secret Assassin and Templar orders fighting a shadowy silent war in the shadowy shadows of history. and I can't speak to the future world either, but somehow I doubt we will be able to find genetic memories of our ancestors. Neat idea, but Dr. Who level of silly sci-fi.

Well I did mean accurate if we take out the sci-fi stuff. I think everyone knows that there wasn't really a secret assassin war involving alien DNA and sci-fi magic.

 

[Albino Boo]

Well in reality the templars were the feudal overlords of the assassins. There is a strong circumstantial case that the templars used the assassins to get rid off more than frankish baron in the fractious politics of the outremer.

 

[The Jovian]

Short answer: no. Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

It's about as historically accurate as Ancient Aliens. It's a historical self-insert fanfic for the player, nothing more.

 

[kitsunefather]

To add to the people screaming "No" at the tops of their lungs, I'll include an example.

The Knights Templar are a religious order formed as the "Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon" and their original conception was that they were non-nobility who were consecrated as knights by the Church in order to escort pilgrims and missionaries into the Holy Land. They became a favorite charity for many nobility, and grew extraordinarily wealthy. They were "disbanded" when the French King Phillip, in the 14th Century, placed a puppet pope in the Church and had them declared heretics. His soldiers raided their holdings and executed many leaders in the ensuing raid on Friday the 13th, in October of 1307. The reason behind this was that he had bankrupted his nation in war, and wanted their resources.

Much of the Templar's semi-Gnostic teachings and materials found themselves being absorbed into secular secret societies that were founded over the next several hundred years, including the Freemasons and the Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, though many of the Templars themselves seemed to maintain the order in secret themselves.

 

[DoPo]

Well, the games are set in what looks like the past. There are some historical figures and events mentioned and/or appearing. Most of these are a...more liberal interpretation of the actual historical figures/events.

That's about as accurate as they are.

It's an alternative history that bears surface resemblance to real world history.

 

[kitsunefather]

I couldn't say, really? I've only done Ass Creed 1 and Ass Creed Actually fun because Pirates.

But I know there weren't secret Assassin and Templar orders fighting a shadowy silent war in the shadowy shadows of history. and I can't speak to the future world either, but somehow I doubt we will be able to find genetic memories of our ancestors. Neat idea, but Dr. Who level of silly sci-fi.

Well I did mean accurate if we take out the sci-fi stuff. I think everyone knows that there wasn't really a secret assassin war involving alien DNA and sci-fi magic.

Alien DNA, not really, but a lot of this series works off the premise of Genetic Memory, which was a very popular theory even through the 70s and 80s. The notion behind it is that if animals don't have the ability to reason, then they obviously do not teach their skills to their young, meaning the young must know it through a kind of genetic recollection. This must mean that we could tap into our own DNA, given enough science/mumbo jumbo, and use our own ancestors as resources for both information and skills.

It actually factors heavily into Dune and the Bene Gesserit Order, and is the basis of the Kwisatz Haderach's abilities: that access to the full weight of your genetic memory would give you the ability to reliably predict the future.

Alien DNA is likely inspired by the "research" of Zecharia Sitchin, and his "13th Planet" theory of human creation. In that, a planet rotating perpendicular to Earth has vastly advanced life on it, and that life crashed on Earth. Unable to return home without repairs, they genetically engineered a slave race (us) to mine gold to repair their ships. This is the explanation why most myth-cycles send the dead underground, and why we place such a high value on gold in spite of its uselessness before the modern age. When we discovered the ability to reproduce (the fruit of knowledge), the aliens cast us out of their ships (Eden). He makes more allusions to biblical legends throughout, and ties them heavily to the Babylonian Gods, even calling their world Marduk and suggesting it destroyed a world (Tiamat) whose remnants formed the asteroid belt.

 

[Something Amyss]

Imagine you said you liked ice cream. Imagine I said I had some ice cream. Imagine then that I gave you a box with "ice cream" written on it. Imagine that box was empty.

The AC series is written in such a way as to have the thinnest pretense of historical accuracy, slapped on over a conspiracy thriller/ancient aliens story. In other words:

In the first game, the Assassins? They were an actual thing.

And that's about the only accurate thing about the game. Someone or something existed. You do get a very slight amount of history on some of the characters and concepts, and the info files you pick up often contradict the story. So it's not like they don't know the history. Or, at least, someone knew it (or Wikipedia'd it, since most of the stuff is basic enough for Wiki).

 

[Beliyal]

It's difficult to answer that question seeing as the series has so many games.

Others have already said that it is, in fact, not historically accurate and that's correct for the most part.

The historical periods, recreation of cities and some of the more vague and general information are often pretty close to reality. For example, I loved playing Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood and pointing at the screen every minute, saying "I've been here, I remember this church/square!" When I played Revelations, I was attending a class where some of the topics were about Constantinople and I had a pretty good time, being able to recognize the city plan, where everything is and the names of buildings. Because I've seen them in the game.

However, other than that superficial accuracy (architecture is easy to recreate; we know where stuff was mostly because it's still there), the events and people fall into three categories: 1. Existed, but changed completely; 2. Loosely based on something that existed; 3. Didn't exist

A lot of events that happen in Assassin's Creed are based on something real, but are thoroughly changed to fit the fantastical narrative of the games. The games also used some general events, places, objects, myths, legends and individuals, and gave them totally different roles that fit the game's narrative. Someone up there mentioned Da Vinci's tank for example; Da Vinci truly designed something like that, but of course, nothing of the sort has been made (in the past at least).

Basically, you'd have to inspect every detail of every game on its own to see how accurate it is. In most cases, you won't be able to learn actual history from these games, but they might spark an interest and prompt further reading about a historical period or a historical individual. I'm an archaeologist (not exactly the same as a historian, but still) and I always found Assassin's Creed appealing because it deals with history, no matter how changed. I've heard from many people that they became interested in history after playing the games and that's great. However, I definitely recommend not taking anything history-related from the games at face value. The series is entertainment primarily and takes many liberties when it comes to portrayal of historical periods, events and people.

 

[Erttheking]

NOPE! Not even close! Just off of the top of my head, the Boston Tea Party was done in silence without anyone noticing, it wasn't a riot like it was in game. That's without getting into how it oversimplifies the character portrayals of certain historical figures, like making the Borgia pure evil and the Medici pure good.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Not particularly. There have, however, been certain RULES the AC games worked with. Using real historical figures that definitely did die on that particular date, and changing their actual cause of death to DEATH BY STABBING. Also, they have traditionally put a lot of work into trying to recreate the historical "look" of the cities.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm going to be the guy: yes and no.

The games' biggest conceit is that history has been a tug o' war between two factions, the Assassins and the Templars, and that every armed conflict and every political intrigue has been somehow related to them. There's also an ongoing subplot involving gods, or god-like creatures, which I never fully understood or cared for, explanations welcome.

Having said that, most of the actual historical cues are usually played more or less straight. Yes, it's amazing how you always play The Guy Who Was At The Right Time In The Right Place, All Of The Time, In All Of The Places. But the stuff you partake in really did happen in that actual place, on that actual date and in that actual order. The writers just have their fun with loopholes (because sources are unclear, authors are unknown and otherwise there's just room for speculation) and give all of the credit to this one guy.

Historically True: Juan Borgia disappeared one night after leaving a feast and he was found dead the following morning, his throat slit.
Not True: He was killed by Ezio.

Historically True: Cesare Borgia was killed in the Battle of Vianna in 1507.
Not True: He was killed by Ezio.

Historically True: Caterina Sforza defended Forli from Borgia attacks and she was later imprisoned at the Castel Sant'Angelo.
Not True: She had sex with Ezio.

Historically True: Rodrigo Borgia was poisoned by his son, probably.
Not True: Ezio was watching.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Historically True: Rodrigo Borgia was poisoned by his son, probably.
Not True: Ezio was watching.

Ezio is watching. ALWAYS WATCHING. He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake.

 

[asdfen]

that made me laugh. thank you