Assassin's Creed Mirage: Who Exactly Is Basim & What Does He Want?

Fans struggling to get a handle on Assassin's Creed Mirage's protagonist aren't alone, as Basim's story is strange, complex and incredibly confusing.

Assassin's Creed Mirage has promised to take Ubisoft's long-running series back to its humble origins. Admittedly, many AC games have purported to fulfill this lofty charge (Origins itself springs to mind), but it is the tone, style and mechanics of 2023's adventure that will hopefully bring things full circle. Rather fittingly for a series that happily bounces back and forth between the present-day and ninth-century Baghdad, Mirage promises to reintroduce Basim Ibn Ishaq story as a seamless blend of the old and the new.

Mirage may appear to be the game that finally goes back to the beginning and streamlines an overarching story so complex and strange it is becoming almost impossible to adequately synopsize, but 2023's upcoming release is actually deeply intertwined with the games immediately preceding it. To understand how, it's important to delve deeper into Assassin's Creed: Mirage's Basim.

Basim Appeared in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

Mirage will not be the mysterious assassin's first appearance in Assassin's Creed. Basim played a supporting role in Valhalla when he arrives as a stranger from the Holy Land with his companion Hytham and the Viking Sigurd Styrbjornsson, the latter of whom introduces his new friends to Eivor and reveals him to be a member of the Hidden Ones, the ancient cult operating as a precursor to the Assassins Order. Cryptic and not entirely trustworthy, Basim seems a little too keen to help Sigurd and Eivor in their quest to expand their operations in Norway and England, even gifting the latter a hidden blade despite Eivor having no affiliation with the Hidden Ones or their creed. Basim might want to be trusted a little too much.

Sigurd is clearly enamored of his new friend, and Eivor buries any misgivings in favor of keeping Sigurd happy. What's more, Basim reveals to Eivor that he has come to European shores on the tail of the Order of the Ancients, the precursors to the Templars and the nefarious foes the player is challenged with tracking down and killing. This continues as Eivor continues to have prophetic visions of becoming the Norse God Odin, playing out the events preceding Ragnarök in which the All-father is desperate to stop the fall of the Aesir and his own demise at the hands of Fenrir, Loki's giant wolf of a son. Loki, strangely enough, has more than a passing resemblance to Basim, whereas the god of war Týr seems eerily similar to Sigurd. Eivor and Odin, meanwhile, are practically one and the same.

Is Basim Loki?

Loki and Basim are indeed the same person. Loki is a member of the Isu, the order of ancient gods who have overseen humanity throughout history and who existed long before even the first human civilizations sprouted from the dirt. When a Great Catastrophe all but wipes out the Isu, the likes of Odin, Týr and Loki survive by uploading themselves into the supercomputer Yggdrasil. Basim is the reincarnation of Loki, furious at Odin (now Eivor) and Týr (now Sigurd) for binding his son Fenrir and desperate to be reunited with his lover Aletheia (who is really Angrboda, Loki's partner in Norse myth). During Valhalla's climax, Basim confronts the pair at Yggdrasil, revealing that they are all reincarnations of the gods, and attempts to gain revenge for Fenrir's mistreatment. Before he can do so, Sigurd and Eivor Loki in Yggdrasil and seemingly incapacitate him for eternity.

This, of course, doesn't quite transpire thanks to Layla Hassan and the continuation of the present-day narrative. Because of continued magnetic disruption having potentially disastrous global consequences, Layla travels to the Norwegian temple where Basim fought Eivor and Sigurd and enters the computer, trapping Layla while freeing Basim from his 1000-year stasis. Basim also obtains the Staff of Hermes used by Kassandra/Alexios in AC Odyssey because it contains the consciousness of his lover Angrboda.

Basim travels to meet with the modern-day assassins Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane to ingratiate himself with what he considers to be the contemporary iteration of the Hidden Ones and, more importantly, gain access to the Animus. From here, it is Loki's desire that will drive Basim's actions, as the god of mischief seeks to be reunited with his children: Fenrir, the World Serpent Jörmungandr and Hel, goddess of the underworld.

Mirage Combines Elements From the Ancient Trilogy

So how does this fit into the narrative of Mirage, and how exactly is this all going to work with a game that will take the story back to before the events of Valhalla? The obvious answer is that present-day Basim will use the Animus (likely in conjunction with the Staff of Hermes) to relive his memories, track down his children and be reunited with his former lover, but there are a number of hurdles the slippery Isu must first overcome. For a start, Mirage promises to look at Loki/Basim's life as a human street thief learning to become a Hidden One. Presumably, these are memories Loki already has, so why is he reliving a past life to find the children he lost thousands of years before he even became human?

More importantly, we don't know exactly where Loki's loved one are, but the likelihood is that they aren't in the Middle East at that time, hence why Basim eventually has to travel with Sigurd to Norway to chase down the Ancient Order and pursue his old rivals. What Mirage should do is fill in the narrative gap that links the end of Valhalla to its beginning, explaining how Loki came to inhabit the body of Basim in the first place and what precisely he was doing before meeting with Sigurd and Eivor to exact his revenge on the reincarnated Aesir gods.

Unanswered Questions About Basim

We also don't know how Basim has come to realize that he's Loki when Sigurd and Eivor aren't yet fully aware of their former selves, or why Loki's consciousness chose ninth-Century Baghdad as a landing spot after the Great Catastrophe that saw the god of mischief and the rest of the Aesir transported into the future. We know very little of Loki's other children and the forms they have taken, as is the case with the rest of the Aesir who couldn't be transported into the present. Are Odin and Tyr truly dead, or did they simply shed their temporary forms as Eivor and Sigurd, respectively?

Whatever the reasons, Mirage will hopefully lift the lid on many of the questions left unanswered at the end of Valhalla. The next narrative chapter in the Assassin's Creed saga is currently available for preorder ahead of the Oct. 12, 2023 release date, and -- with so many questions unanswered -- it's worth being reminded of the core tenant of the original Order of Assassins: nothing is true, everything is permitted.